SpaceBattles.Com Babies

Other Societies

Written: 2000.06.13

A box of Federation photon grenades. They look curiously like snooker balls. Although the Federation has extremely limited ground weapons, other societies in their galaxy seem to have developed a somewhat wider variety of weaponry. The Gorns and the Klingons both use mortar-launched photon grenades heavily in ground combat, but the Federation has apparently removed these weapons from its armoury since the TOS era. Photon grenades are not very powerful. Both the Gorn and Klingon photon grenades were seen to explode within 6 feet of human targets who not only survived but were not even seriously injured. The Gorn are not likely to intervene in our war against the Federation, but we project a very high probability that the Klingons will become involved.

(Alyeska here) I have already discussed about the klingon photon grenades, and given the firepower of other items it is within reason that the mortars can be given larger warheads

Another leap in logic. The Federation has some big torpedoes and bombs, but although they might be able to make slightly more powerful grenades for their mortars, that is no reason to refute my original claims about mortar power (which, if you recall, merely dealt with the fact that they aren't capable of taking out huge armoured vehicles such as AT-AT's).

Sure, they have matter/antimatter warheads on their big torpedoes. But can a matter/antimatter warhead can be safely miniaturized to the size of a grenade and then safely fired out of a mortar? The safe containment of antimatter requires distance between the antimatter charge and the containment casing, and there isn't a lot of space in a grenade. Furthermore, the grenade would require a power source to maintain containment, and if the containment system in a single grenade failed, it might set off a chain reaction and destroy the entire armoury (or more). In a starship, torpedoes get an antimatter charge from the ship's main fuel supply just before they're launched. A complex antimatter transport mechanism is required, because anything else would be dangerous. Does this sound like something that you would have in a box of hand grenades? Not to me. Similarly, nuclear weapons have their own drawbacks, not least of which is the presence of radioactive materials.

I grow tired of repeating this, but it's still true: you cannot arbitrarily assume things which you haven't seen. You must provide a lot of strong evidence for any extrapolation, and a lot of sound reasoning, and our Trekkie friend here has failed to do either. He simply states that they've got some big weapons somewhere in their inventory (although he hasn't provided any evidence for handheld examples, so the only examples would be on starships), and he jumps from that statement to the conclusion that they have ultra high-yield hand grenades capable of destroying large armoured vehicles.

The Dominion uses an interesting technology which our tacticians have dubbed the "chameleon net". It appears to be a personal cloaking device which their soldiers can use to infiltrate enemy installations, and unlike the Federation cloak, it is known to be effective against soldiers equipped with sophisticated sensor systems. Our scientists have repeatedly claimed that such technology would be dangerous to life forms, but apparently the Gem Haddar have very short life-spans and little or no concern for their own lives. This makes them potentially quite dangerous, but luckily they can be killed simply by initiating a planetary blockade. They rely on a substance known as "white" which appears to be an addictive narcotic- without it, they become irrational and will actually begin killing one another. The Dominion is not likely to intervene in our war against the Federation; almost all of their forces are trapped in their galaxy's "gamma quadrant" by the closure of a wormhole, and they use the same primitive propulsion technology as the Federation.

(Alyeska here) It is impossible to heal injurries taken from Dominion weapons without a Bacta tank in quick access. Another interesting item is the ability of Dominion ships to beam through shields.

Does this look like a red herring to you? It does to me. I argued that the Jem'Hadar can be neutralized by simply shutting down their supply of white with blockades and other logistical attacks. He retorted that injuries from Dominion hand weapons don't heal easily. What the hell does that have to do with my argument?

Not to beat up excessively on one brain-damaged argument, but you may notice that it's also an unsupported claim. How does he know it's "impossible" to heal injuries from Dominion weapons without a Bacta tank? And how does he know the Dominion ships will be able to beam their men through Imperial shields? The fact that they were able to beam through Federation shields for a little while? What makes him think that Imperial starships use shielding which is identical to Federation shielding of a particular vintage?

(E1701 here) Uhh... it is called Ketracel-White, as explained in every single episode featuring the Jem'Haddar. Simple fact there...

Is that the best he can do? How pathetic. It barely qualifies as a nit-pick. The short-form name is just "white", and that's how it is often described on the show. The fact that I didn't use the long form of the name has nothing whatsoever to do with the points made in my argument.

Click here to return to the main Hate Mail page.