Well, this is actually an attempt at explaining the Borg cube's flight path through Sol system, why it went sightseeing at Mars and other planets, and the performance of the Mars Defense Parimeter.
Here are a few assumptions I'm making for my argument: - the MDP is a series of unmanned attack drones with large warheads designed to ram its target (they sure didn't fire anything) - the MDP covers the entire Mars orbital shell, and is meant to intradict any hostile ships attempting to reach Earth, rather than protect Mars (kinda stupid to have only to defend a core system without a multi-layered defense, really stupid to assume your enemy would always attack you when the planets are in alignement) - Mars possesses its own planetary defenses independent of the MDP (defense in depth)
OK, here it goes, the reason why the Borg cube took scenic route was because there's a gap between the Mars Defense Parimeter and the Mars Planetary Defense Network. They would have known this through Picard.
The area around Mars contains a large amount of orbital facilities and space traffic, so naturally they'd want any thing like a MDP drone, heavily laiden with explosives, as far away as possible. Even an accidental explosion couple of thousand km away could produce enough radiation to fry every workbee and EVAed personnel in line of sight, not to mention the fact that many of those shipyard facilities probably don't have shields. So protecting Mars herself would goto a dedicated planetary defense network, one that's safe to have close to you. And the MDP would be kept a good distance away.
Of course, Mars would not have been the only gateway through the MDP. There are probably several corridors in the MDP clear of drones. However, when the planetary emergency was declared, all traffic in Sol was probably cleared. Those corridor would have been closed by moving a "door" of drones into position. By sneaking through the gap at Mars, the Borg minimized their contact with the MDP, and conserved energy and resources in the long run.
One of the reasons why Starfleet would not have tried to find a way around such a gap would probably be something like "it's very unlikely that an enemy attack Earth while Mars was directly in their path of advance (space is 3D), and if they get that close to Mars, they'd probably attack it (no sense in leaving an enemy on their flank), so the MPDN would take care of them while help arrives."
The above argument could be applied to any of the planets Borg flew past, although no other defense parimeters were mentioned. The Breen, being a lot less god-like than the Borg, probably tried to run the parimeter to save time.
Posted by MrNeutron (Member # 524) on :
Interesting theory. Then again, we only saw a quick few seconds of the Borg ship passing Mars, so we have no idea if this represented their entire encounter with the MDP.
And, not to be overly picky, but it's "perimeter", not "parimeter". Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Yes, that's an interesting idea.
The only question would be why we didn't see any more than just those three missiles. The Mars Planetary Defense should have had its own equipment that could reach as far out as the Borg cube -- which practically passed through planetary orbit, it was so close. (We saw the missiles flying around the limb of the planet to attack the cube.) Weren't there planetary phaser arrays, orbital platforms that could take potshots, or anything?
Or else Starfleet had pretty much given up hope at that point, which doesn't make sense. Maybe some defenses were trying to lay low so the Borg wouldn't take out the shipyards, or worse, some of the planetside outposts.
But the flaw there is that the cube was heading for EARTH. Why would anyone just let the cube slip past?
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
There could well have been a more significant engagement around Mars itself, those 3 drones may have only been the first wave, a scouting party or a probing attack to test the cube's defences.
However I dout the cube would have bothered to stick around and have a go at the shipyards, considering that a much more interesting target was only half an AU away.
Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :
Not all-that-far off topic...
Has anyone drawn up schematics of those defense perimeter drones? Anyone willing to take a shot?
-MMoM Posted by David Templar (Member # 580) on :
quote:Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: The only question would be why we didn't see any more than just those three missiles. The Mars Planetary Defense should have had its own equipment that could reach as far out as the Borg cube -- which practically passed through planetary orbit, it was so close.
Well, my idea was that this is a flaw in their defense. A small gap between the coverage of the MDP and the MPDN, just big enough for a few ships to pass through, but not big enough to allow enough ships to pass through to make a difference. Of course, the MDP wasn't setup with the Borg in mind, so Starfleet didn't exactly worry about a few ships slipping through such a gap. There would be no fire from Mars if the Borg didn't get close enough, planets are big objects so they often appear closer than they actually are. There was only three MDP drones because the Borg skimmed the edge of the net, and only three could reach it in time.
Posted by Woodside Kid (Member # 699) on :
quote: Originally posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim: Has anyone drawn up schematics of those defense perimeter drones? Anyone willing to take a shot?
Shouldn't be too hard; I read somewhere they were just modified "Red October" submarine models.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)