Suppose we upgrade the Sovereign class Enterprise with future technology from Voyager from the episode “Endgame”: super-duper torpedoes, Batmobile armor, and perhaps even quantum slipstream and/or transwarp drive.
Also use similarly upgraded Delta Fliers as tactical fighters.
Would E-E be tough enough to take on an Imperial Star Destroyer and TIE fighters?
Yes. At least, until Sauron comes and enslaves them all.
" … One X wing to rule them all … "
One clarification on the thread title… I don’t think this is another one <grin>. Before, it was always the Enterprise D vs. the ISD.
My opinion is that the Enterprise E would single-handedly break an ISD down into its component atoms within a few minutes of battle. Future technology not even needed. In the recent “Federation Warships” thread, I laid out a series of arguments, the last of which were never responded to. Therefore I’ll post a few now and wait for Spoofe to come along and fight for the ISD <grin>.
As a side note, cites are available upon request, but I’m not going to try and cite every single thing I state <grin>. In general, I pull almost all Trek information from the “Daystrom Institute Technical Library.”
ISD shields, and shields of Imperial ships in general are weak. For example, in SW episode IV, the fighters tend to explode upon the first major hit. No sign of shields at all. The Death Star surface takes damage directly… again, there appear to be no shields at all. Star Trek shields are clearly visible and designed to take a beating.
ISDs tend not to have large arsenals of missile weapons. Their primary launch system is on the bow of the ship. Now admittedly my “X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter” game isn’t true canon, but ISDs appear to be fairly weak in the missile department once you take out their single launcher. Now on the Enterprise E, for example, torpedoes are a large complement of the arms with great explosive power.
ISDs tend to use lasers that work slower than light. Need I say more? Star Trek phasers actually hit their target with instantaneous accuracy (Exception: When searching for a cloaked ship, like in Nemesis).
ISDs have relatively weak armor. For example, a single A-Wing ramming the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer Executer (in “Jedi”) blasted through the entire bridge tower. The Enterprise E, ramming the Scimitar in “Nemesis” tore of slight portions of the saucer. (In space, the physics could argue that the Scimitar rammed the Enterprise, it amounts to the same thing). Remember that it had significantly more kinetic energy behind it than did the A-Wing.
ISDs can travel faster in their “hyperspace” than in ST Warp Drive, yes… but they don’t have sensor capacity. The Enterprise can tell whether a planet is still there from lightyears away, vs the total surprise of the Falcon in SWIV when they emerged near (the wreakage) of Aldaraan. The ISD might jump to get close to the Enterprise, but the E can fly warp circles around it with full sensor operability.
On that note, TIE fighters don’t mean squat. They’d be bouncing off the shields like flies on a windshield. On the off chance they would mean something… the E would merely have to warp around to the other side of the ISD and resume the pounding.
Boarding teams. Shields appear to go down easily on ISDs, especially since they are sectionalized. Beam a boarding party to bridge as soon as the shields go down and you have one slightly damaged ISD captured.
I wait for the ripostes of the Star Wars promoters!
-Fleet Admiral Psi Cop, flag on the Enterprise
Of course the E would win. But then Skeletor would show up and blow Picard to atoms, then Megatron would kill Skeletor, only to be thwarted by Kirk, who then falls before Godzilla. Nothing can kill Godzilla.
I’ll bet Thor (the one from Marvel Comics, not the one from standard Norse mythology) could beat up Godzilla.
With a Cylon Base Ship?
It is traditional for me to point out, at this point, that the Macross could take out either or both of them without even resorting to its main cannon.
The Vogons would bore them all to death with bad poetry.
Kirk can kick anybody’s ass Greenie, Gorn, Godzilla or Warhoon, shirt or no.
Since when does the SDF-1 have a “main cannon”? I thought that was only Space Cruiser Yamato.
Oh, wait – the SDF-1’s “main cannon” is what happens when its flight decks move into position a few dozen meters apart, electricity arcs through them, and then a great big super-zorch blast comes out. I’d forgotten about that.
<Emily Latella>
Never mind!
</Emily Latella>
Of course, if we brought B5 into the discussion, we’d an interesting, albeit short fight. Assuming that the B5 ships didn’t simply create an accurate physics singularity, leaving the Enterprise stranded and malfunctioning a la * A Fire upon the Deep *, the fight last until Susan rammed the bridge of the E with a White Star.
And, one point I always like to rub SPOOFE’s nose in, the Enterprise has weapons that travel at faster-than-light speeds, which it can fire while travelling at faster-than-light speeds.
If Picard flew the Enterprise E in a wide, erratic circle around the ISD aw Warp 1.1, and lobbed torpedoes at it the whole time, eventually the IDS would be reduced to rubble. Even if the ISD did a few hyperspace microjumps to get out of the line of fire, the Enterprise E could chase after it and re-engage it. The only way for the ISD to survive the encounter is for it to high-tail it out of there in hyperdrive, i.e. run away. (The last time I brought up this possibility, SPOOFE countered that Picard wouldn’t do this because he’s never been shown pulling a similar maneuver on Star Trek. I say, that’s only because he’s never encountered an ISD before. If, before meeting the ISD, Picard knew everything about its technology, Picard could make mincemeat out of the ISD in no time.)
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention:
When the Enterprise E flies around the ISD at Warp 1.1 and lobs torpedoes at it, the ISD’s sensors will not be able to detect it since it’s flying faster-than-light and the ISD’s sensors can only detect sublight objects. The Enterprise E will be, for all intents and purposes, invisible. Therefore, all it has to do is follow a slightly erratic path and the ISD’s turbolasers won’t be able to touch it, for lack of a targeting solution.
Dammit, Tracer, I don’t want to like you.
I like countering the “Picard’s never done it” arguments with counter examples in Star Wars, as well. We’ve never seen an ISD make a Micro-Jump (and, of course, we’ve never seen them have decent weapons accuracy, but we can ignore that for the moment). The problem with arguing that “They wouldn’t do it that way,” is, of course, the fundamental problem with movies. Obviously, the Enterprise never loses, and Star Destroyers don’t win. Therefore, we have to keep the discussion sort of theoretical.
The other solution is not to bother flying in warp cirlces at all. Instead, the Enterprise could just plant itself in the engine wash of the ISD. As best as I can tell, they have no firing arcs there.
…still waiting for Spoofe… <grin>.
-Fleet Admiral Psi Cop
Shucks, just beam over some mutant Borg nanoprobes programmed to eat ISD drive systems. Since Star Wars has no transporter technology, they wouldn’t have built any defences against it.
The E and the ISD would be duking it out in a battle of epic proportions… The sort that would have authors writing for years of the heroic struggles of all involved on both sides. Neither side would have gained a significant advantage over the other, however, when, suddenly and without warning, the starship Heart of Gold would appear in a cloud of improbablity, then vanish leaving two steaming hot cups of not very good tea and one large sperm whale, who thinks to itself “Not Again” before plummeting to the surface of a large asteroid to be swallowed by a large and, up to now undetected, life form living in the vacuum of space.
Psi Cop is my hero.