Could Humanity take on the Romulans?
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 11:48 pm
Here's a question. We know that the Earth-Romulan war takes place at most a few years after Enterprise finished. So how realistic is it that the Humans could come close to winning this war?
On the Romulan side... we don't know much. We know they had warbirds in service, we know they had cloaking technology (I want to yell about it, but the fact is that they shouldn't but they do). That cloaking technology was good enough that it could cloak small things like mines, six feet or so across.
Ship numbers are unknown; all we know is that they had two ships together in that one system.
They were able to build drone ships that were small, fast, agile, and packed a punch as well as some exotic tech.
They clearly have a decent knowledge of the major species out there; they know way more about the space around Earth than Humans do.
On the Human side... there's also things we don't know. We have no idea how many Intrepid and Neptune classes there are around, nor do we really know what their capabilities are. They seemed to be fitted with phase cannon, for sure. Their usefulness in a war would depend critically on how good a warp drive they have, and they don't seem to have a warp 5 engine. Certainly in The Expanse Archer neither took reinforcements with him nor expected any to show up.
If the NX class remain the big dogs of Starfleet... then it's worrying. The time between Enterprise and Columbia launching was three years! And Columbia only got into space because they brought Trip aboard; at this point Starfleet doesn't seem to have another engineer capable of reliably running a Warp 5 engine. Even Kelby, who worked alongside Trip for years on the NX-01, seemed incapable of any but routine operations.
In short, Starfleet would be lucky to have three NX ships in service by the time of the war with the Romulans.
Of course, Humans DO win the war... or at least achieve a draw. To me, this says that the Earth-Romulan war must have been a far smaller, shorter, less impressive event than people have generally assumed.
The model I have in mind is something like the Falklands or first Gulf war; the Romulans invade some Earth colony and fortify it. In response Earth sends three NX class ships, perhaps with a two or three newly upgraded Neptune and Intrepid classes. One or two battles actual, along the lines of what we saw in Balance of Terror; the Earth forces find some way of beating the Romulan cloaking devices. Maybe T'Pol helped out with some Vulcan sensor magic? Anyway, realising they can't compete with Earth ships the Romulans are forced back... and whatever ground forces are left on the planet are pummeled into oblivion from orbit.
End of war.
I'm kinda disappointed, actually. In the early days of Enterprise they seemed to be implying that many more NX class ships were on the way; I was hoping we'd see the NX-02 and 03 within the year, and a couple more each year after that. I think they decided they wanted the 01 to keep it's "hero" status for longer though. But it pretty much relegates the Romulan war to a pretty dismal affair.
Thoughts?
On the Romulan side... we don't know much. We know they had warbirds in service, we know they had cloaking technology (I want to yell about it, but the fact is that they shouldn't but they do). That cloaking technology was good enough that it could cloak small things like mines, six feet or so across.
Ship numbers are unknown; all we know is that they had two ships together in that one system.
They were able to build drone ships that were small, fast, agile, and packed a punch as well as some exotic tech.
They clearly have a decent knowledge of the major species out there; they know way more about the space around Earth than Humans do.
On the Human side... there's also things we don't know. We have no idea how many Intrepid and Neptune classes there are around, nor do we really know what their capabilities are. They seemed to be fitted with phase cannon, for sure. Their usefulness in a war would depend critically on how good a warp drive they have, and they don't seem to have a warp 5 engine. Certainly in The Expanse Archer neither took reinforcements with him nor expected any to show up.
If the NX class remain the big dogs of Starfleet... then it's worrying. The time between Enterprise and Columbia launching was three years! And Columbia only got into space because they brought Trip aboard; at this point Starfleet doesn't seem to have another engineer capable of reliably running a Warp 5 engine. Even Kelby, who worked alongside Trip for years on the NX-01, seemed incapable of any but routine operations.
In short, Starfleet would be lucky to have three NX ships in service by the time of the war with the Romulans.
Of course, Humans DO win the war... or at least achieve a draw. To me, this says that the Earth-Romulan war must have been a far smaller, shorter, less impressive event than people have generally assumed.
The model I have in mind is something like the Falklands or first Gulf war; the Romulans invade some Earth colony and fortify it. In response Earth sends three NX class ships, perhaps with a two or three newly upgraded Neptune and Intrepid classes. One or two battles actual, along the lines of what we saw in Balance of Terror; the Earth forces find some way of beating the Romulan cloaking devices. Maybe T'Pol helped out with some Vulcan sensor magic? Anyway, realising they can't compete with Earth ships the Romulans are forced back... and whatever ground forces are left on the planet are pummeled into oblivion from orbit.
End of war.
I'm kinda disappointed, actually. In the early days of Enterprise they seemed to be implying that many more NX class ships were on the way; I was hoping we'd see the NX-02 and 03 within the year, and a couple more each year after that. I think they decided they wanted the 01 to keep it's "hero" status for longer though. But it pretty much relegates the Romulan war to a pretty dismal affair.
Thoughts?
