Effective Anti-Borg Weapon

[Deks]

The Borg were not seen as especially vulnerable to hand-to-hand tactics or projectile weapons.
Picard got away with it because he used it for the first time ever on 2 lone drones.
We don't know if the Tommy gun would have the same effect on the third or fourth drone (same goes for Worf's knife).

Furthermore, if Federation make-shift personal shield can deflect projectile weapons and stop people from going through them, then it's likely Borg personal shields can as well.

If you recall, the Borg hadn't adapted their shields for hand-to hand combat because in numerous situations, our heroes were overpowered by sheer numbers or were limited with time (examples include First Contact, and Voyager: Unimatrix Zero).

Furthermore, for those who say that there must be a limit to their adaptation:
Borg tech is much more advanced compared to the Federation, let alone early 21st century Earth.
It's very likely the Borg were able to find ways to absorb ridiculous amounts of power/blows/whatever, before their defenses would fail.

 

[Mr Silver]

Or perhaps the Borg cannot adapt when they are in a hand to hand combat situation? Perhaps the Borg's personal shields are only good for energy weapons and that their exoskeleton is strong enough to deflect most projectiles. This would explain why Starfleet aren't walking around with chambered rifles that fire lead based bullets!

 

[T'Girl]

What do you do in classic Trek episode?

If the Borg invaded during classic trek? Kirk would have seduced the Borg queen and all would have been well. Never under estimate the awe and power of James Kirk's penis.

sever most of them, if not all from the collective mind

Converting the drones back into individuals would have rendered the Queen powerless and alone, the Borg ship would be left adrift.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Furthermore, for those who say that there must be a limit to their adaptation:
Borg tech is much more advanced compared to the Federation, let alone early 21st century Earth.
It's very likely the Borg were able to find ways to absorb ridiculous amounts of power/blows/whatever, before their defenses would fail.

The Federation aren't going to be the first people to think of flinging antimatter at bad guys. SOMEONE had to have tried it on the Borg, out of the thousands of technologically-advanced species they've assimilated. The fact that torpedoes of any kind continue to have an affect on the Borg, despite them laughing off a standard photorp in the past is rather telling.

The more I look at it, the more it seems unlikely that Borg shields provide their ship with total immunity. Otherwise, the Starfleet zerg rush at Earth would have been shooting nothing but blanks prior to the Enterprise-E's arrival.

 

[Spot261]

I've always taken the variation in effectiveness of sf weapons against the Borg as being the outcome of an ongoing arms race, with sf finding ways round Borg adaptations with varying degrees of success and permanence.

The fact of the FCC fleet managing any damage at all implies either that sf had managed some anti Borg capabilities for both torps and phasers or that sheer massed firepower does in fact work to some extent.

Note that the phasers used by the fleet were inflicting minimal damage compared to those used in q who, implying that an unadapted Borg vessel is quite vulnerable to capital ship weapons and that IN THIS CASE the damage was down to sf overwhelming the cubes defences rather than bypassing them.

 

[Melakon]

Invasion of the Zombie Threads!

 

[T'Girl]

The fact of the FCC fleet managing ...

FCC?

 

[Spot261]

Yeah, err, FCC too

 

[Spot261]

Damn auto spell thingy

 

[Silvercrest]

BRAINS!!! BRAINS!!!

My wife thinks that the best way to defeat the Borg is to get them to assimilate a cat. Once they do, the hive mind will become so proud and self-satisfied that it will think it's achieved perfection. They'll never bother anyone again.

 

[Lieut. Arex]

troops hopped up on kironide or give a few ESPers a ride through the galactic barrier put in stasis once they show any sign of amplified powers turn lose on Borg

 

[137th Gebirg]

IIRC, there was a novel many years ago, "Vendetta" (set in the TNG era), that explained how the Doomsday Machine planet killer was actually an automaton built by Guinan's people to be a Borg Cube crusher. Its neutronium hull made it impossible for the Borg cutting beams to penetrate its inner workings, and the beam that it used to break up planets for fuel would have made short work for cubes. The only reason it didn't vaporize the Enterprise or Constellation was because its energy reserves were close to drained from making its long journey from wherever and it needed to eat some planets to regain power. The one that Enterprise ran into was the "baby prototype". There was one apparently much bigger (the production model) with little spikes and spires all over its hull, that would have laid waste to literally everything in the galaxy. I remember it to be a really good book which gave an excellent origin story to one of Trek's greatest non-living adversaries.

However, if someone could get control over its guidance system, no matter what era, it would be a near-infallible Borg killer of the highest order, so long as it was operating at optimal power usage. Just need to send it into the core of a star once it was done cutting up Unimatrix One.

 

[DonIago]

"Vendetta" was an awesome read. The sequel-of-sorts, "Before Dishonor", has proven rather controversial though.

 

[Edit_XYZ]

Effective anti-borg weapon?
Weapons technology on par with the borg's.
8472 had it - and then some.
Starfleet didn't.

BTW, projectile weapons are definitely effective against the drones' force-filed technology (at the very least, far more effective than energy weapons): the drones adapt to energy weapons after 2-3 shots; but you can kill a ship-full of drones with projectile weapons (as per trek lit) without the drones adapting.

 

[jpv2000]

BTW, projectile weapons are definitely effective against the drones' force-filed technology (at the very least, far more effective than energy weapons): the drones adapt to energy weapons after 2-3 shots; but you can kill a ship-full of drones with projectile weapons (as per trek lit) without the drones adapting.

Very true, but in the story I read they were so effective because the projectile weapons were used in conjunction with energy dampeners which, I assume, rendered the Borg unable to use their personal shields.

 

[Edit_XYZ]

BTW, projectile weapons are definitely effective against the drones' force-filed technology (at the very least, far more effective than energy weapons): the drones adapt to energy weapons after 2-3 shots; but you can kill a ship-full of drones with projectile weapons (as per trek lit) without the drones adapting.

Very true, but in the story I read they were so effective because the projectile weapons were used in conjunction with energy dampeners which, I assume, rendered the Borg unable to use their personal shields.

In canon, physical attacks worked every single time against borg drones (with no sign of them adapting). In trek lit too.

If - as per trek lit - energy dampeners delay or cancel the drones' defensive force fields, then they are highly effective against drones. And, then, starfleet used projectile weapons, not phasers (effectiveness against drones being, no doubt, the reason).

Against borg cubes, starfleet has transphasic torpedos. What starfleet needs is a way to cut off a cube's subspace connection to the collective for a few seconds/minutes (much like what Laforge did to Hugh in 'I, borg' or the crew considered doing to Locutus in BOBW - AKA it's possible), during which the borg cube is attacked/destroyed.
No information going to the collective = no adapting for the borg.


Of course, such measures would only work against a limited number of cubes attacking.
If the borg attacks the federation with full might (it has MILLIONS of cubes, as per 'Scorpion'), the federation is squished like a little bug.
No creative tactics can get around so great a difference in power; plus, starfleet's creativity during the dominion war (and the trek lit destiny trilogy) was lacking.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Hmmm...I guess what they need would amount to a massive subspace distortion field - much like what standard warp engines do to the fabric of space/time over extended use, but in a more focused and fast-acting way. It would not only prevent communication to the collective, but likely also prevent them from engaging their warp engines.

I could see another organization doing this. Not Starfleet, with the fear of permanent subspace damage being instilled in them during that one TNG episode (forget which one) which was a thinly-veiled allegory for environmental protection.

 

[Nine of Four]

The Borg can only adapt to a weapon after they have been hit by it. Therefore, if Starfleet was to use current weaponry, i.e., guns, knives, swords, etc., they would have to kill the Borg before they adapt, meaning in one shot, throw or stab.

This would mean Starfleet would need to expertly train all of their anti-Borg officers to be experts in what, to them, is archaic weaponry that no one has used for centuries.

This all assuming anyone in the 24th century evens knows how to operate said weaponry.

 

[Edit_XYZ]

The borg adaptation technology works by evolutionary means:
Variations are tried, the most successful is selected; its variations are tried, the most successful being selected, etc.

One way to delay this adaptation tech would be by introducing false positives:
Essentially, you program your weapon to not be effective against the attacked borg - when it should be. The borg will interpret this as its defences becoming effective and will keep the actually useless variation it was trying; this should throw the borg evolutionary process on blind alleys, heavily delaying it.

Plus, this tactic should work with all energy trek weapons.

 

[DonIago]

That might work if the Borg weren't using their own weapons at the same time... Did we ever see a situation where Our Heroes had time to waste with "fake" weaponry?