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Originally Posted by Steven Lake
Yeah, wondered about that myself, because Picard machine gunned that one borg to death in the holodeck. So why couldn't starfleet switch everyone to hard ammo? My only guess is that these are 24th century people and they just don't think like that anymore.
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Well, because firearms and explosives have too high a chance of rupturing the hull. Never mind that the anti-decompression deflector shields ought to be able to re-seal it before any meaningful damage is done, considering they can trap someone in a six foot diameter bubble if the ship can be tricked into thinking they're on fire.
Quote:
Originally Posted by andyh2000
C J Cherryh wrote about this sort of space combat in her SF novels (Heavy Time, Hellburner, Downbelow Station etc.) Your longscan starts off showing the enemy way over the other side of a solar system and you plot your tactics accordingly, but they jumped in-system at near the speed of light so before you know it they're on top of you raking you with laser fire. It's one of the best depictions of space battle I've ever read. That and the climactic battle in Footfall.
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Depends on how your FTL systems work; if you have one based on wormholes or folded space then you might get only five minutes' warning before they're monkeystomping you.