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In defense of sector 001, the Sol system
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Timo: [QB] [IMG]http://flare.solareclipse.net/smile.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://flare.solareclipse.net/smile.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://flare.solareclipse.net/smile.gif[/IMG] I don't even attempt to sound funny today... I'll just argue with a droning voice that I don't think Earth was ever very poorly defended. When we saw invasions of Earth, the parties responsible were superpowerful. V'Ger was said to have shut down Earth's planetary defence systems, so we never got to see what those systems were. The Whale Probe did the same. The Borg silenced a Jupiter Outpost with a high double-digit number, so perhaps there were a hundred or more such outposts to be silenced; it blasted apart three defence vessels, so perhaps there were dozens to be blasted. Most of the Borg blasting was done off screen, and when the Enterprise arrived, it is possible that significant amounts of defence hardware had already been destroyed (although we didn't see the flotsam when we zoomed in on the Cube in orbit - perhaps it had burned up in the atmosphere already, in the vicinity of the volume we saw?). When the Lakota fought the Defiant, there was no clear indication that this was anywhere near Earth. In fact, Leyton would probably have wanted to stop the intruder as far away from Earth as possible, and since the Defiant wasn't running under cloak (treaty forbidding, plus high warp and cloaks don't mix), a distant intercept was relatively simple to set up. As for what Earth could have in its protection, I just learned that "Whom Gods Destroy" dialogue confirms the existence of planet-covering shields (thanks, Graham!). So that's one "must" item. Then perhaps orbital weapon platforms (the things we see blinking out on the tactical display in TMP when V'Ger makes its move), armed with phasers and torpedoes. Probably swarms of very small local defence ships, but these wouldn't be deployed in battles where they wouldn't make any difference (for example, sending a "Peregrine" interceptor against a Borg Cube, even in swarms, would be futile). Surface-mounted torpedo launchers seem possible as well (perhaps these would be considered "missile" launchers in this case), as do surface-mounted high-power beam weapons. We already know there are stockpiles of infantry weapons to counter an invasion ("Homefront"); there might be heavier surface-fighting gear as well, and local shields, and possibly transporter-based weapons using the hardwired, unjammable commercial transporter nets that probably cover the planet. Starships might not be available in great numbers in low orbit - more probably, these would mostly flock around Mars (and in the Whale Probe attack be paralyzed there, in the Borg one be already sent to Wolf 359 - only in TMP was it explicitly stated that there were no other starships present in the Sol system). There might even be a treaty prohibiting Starfleet from deploying starship permanently near Earth, like a Roman general was forbidden from taking his legions to Rome proper... Also, I suspect this "Mars defence perimeter" was only intended to protect Mars, not the system in general. The Cube simply took a scenic route, visiting ALL the outer military installations in the system (Jupiter was mentioned, Saturn and Mars were shown) and blasting to bits their local defence perimeters before proceeding to Earth. That way, the Cube could protect its rear during the actual assimilation process, by preemptively eliminating even the futilest pieces of resistance remaining in the system. Timo Saloniemi [/QB][/QUOTE]
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