Replicators vs Borg

[Gurgeh]

Since this debate does not end very well what would happen if a Replicator Cruiser somehow made it to the Star Trek Universe and was in Borg space? The Replicator ship happens to be near the Borg transwarp hub that Voyager escaped through. How would a invasion between Replicators vs the Borg go down? The timeline for the ST universe is 30 years after Voyager and the Borg rebuilt the transwarp conduit after "Endgame".

[Zor]

Extinction for the Borg and basically everything else in the milky way. Replicators are quicker, able to assemble themselves into space capable forms or adapt stargate spacecraft to intergalactic voyages in hours. The Borg take months to cross short distances. Stargate Spacecraft have weapons considerably more powerful than those of the federation. And biggest of all, you have to kill EVERY SINGLE REPLICATOR. If even a single spider the size of a Yorkshire Terrier surives, that can give rise to a new galaxy threating replicator menace in a matter of months.

Zor

[Gurgeh]

This fight would also just come down to who could adapt the fastest and who's nanites are better.

[Batman]

No it wouldn't. The Borg have never adapted to anything but AQ frequency shenanigans, and the replicators never adapted to anything but Ancient technobabble weapons. They were the threat they were because they bred like mad and could make the technology they took over perform noticeably better than the people who originally used it could, nothing more. They remained brute force killable to the end of the series provided you could find the means to apply it.
That being said, the Borg are screwed. Replicators arrive with technology hopelessly in advance of anything anybody but the quasiomnipotents have on the Trek side (the Borg cube in FC was in trouble even before the Big E got there, and there's a serious firepower advantage for the SG side here even before we get into how the replicators can apparently oomph ship systems).

[Metahive]

Replicators with or without 1000 years of Asgard-induced accelerated evolution? Is the "replicator cruiser" a "legohip" or is it a vessel they captured from another race?

[Themightytom]

. The Borg take months to cross short distances.

Zor

Not really, they have their transwarp network, which when Voyager used itended the series got them across the galaxy in a couple minutes. the Borg do have a homefield advantage here. Characteristically the borg would approach the replicator ship with one cube to probe it's capabilities.

If the Replicators annihilate it outright, the borg assume hostility and technological advance, and swarm it with cubes. if the replicator attempts to break it apart for raw materials, the Borg can transport replicator blocks away pretty easily. We may have seen replicators absorb Asgard ships, but we never saw them use beaming technology, even when it would have been pretty handy, they have just chucked replicators across space at their target. if the borg survive their first encounter, and retaliate en masse, they might have a chance, even though there is a horrific disparity in weapons firepower, depending on how well armed the replicator ship is, and again, how immediately the borg react.

I would think borg nanoprobes would have trouble assimilating the replicator blocks that are connected by some kind of subatomic attraction just because they are smaller so I'm not sure the borg would be able to assimilate replicators. They would have to either destroy them, or learn from them fast enough to adapt, which is asking a lot, considering the replicators would probably be assembling reinforcements from wrecked or damaged cubes. if the replicators nullify the transport advantage, by generating a stiff breeze of some kind, the borg would be in trouble again.

[Eternal_Freedom]

actually, they do use beaming technology. Witness season 8's "New Order" and "Reckoning" where they beam away Sam Carter and Daniel Jackson respectively.

There is a bigger problem the Borg will face. Apart from the magic disruptor weapon, they have never been seen to be harmed by small arms energy fire, only bullets and shells. Of course, in "New Order" one of the legoships is blown apart by Asgard vessels, but htey needed 6 top-of-the-line ships, AND they had to wait until just after the legoship came out of hyperspace when it's shields were down.

I do not see how the Borg can carry this one.

[StarSword]

I agree with EF: if the Federation isn't smart enough to issue use KEWs to fight the Borg, I'm certain the Borg won't be smart enough to use them against the Replicators.

[VarrusTheEthical]

So basically it will be up to the Klingons bashing replicators with bat'leths to save the universe. AWESOME!

[Eternal_Freedom]

More precisely, it will end with the Replicator ships swatting BOP's aside with impossible ease, and then beaming away important Klingons for torture/interrogation/mind probing.

Besides, even SG-1 can't hold off the replicators forever, and they've got machine guns and automatic shotguns. How effective do you think a bunch of hairy idiots waving knives is going to be?

[Lord Baal]

I give you a clue, start with "Z" and ends with "ero".

I would be, however, very pleased of seen such fight.

[Eternal_Freedom]

"Songs will be sung about this glorious day and..." SPLAT

Yup, songs of glory sung entirely in Binary.

[Lord Baal]

Come my children's, I will told you the great song about our quickest, lest glorious victory, it comes like this:

Spoiler

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[VarrusTheEthical]

Perhaps not the most effective, but I'll take hairy idiots over watching FOP trying to technobabble the replicators away.

[Lord Baal]

Oh that I would not discuss. The physical weapons would be far more effective, however I think they lack the numbers. And if even the Kull warriors had trouble fighting replicators is a dark future four our rubberforefront friends indeed.

[Gurgeh]

Replicators with or without 1000 years of Asgard-induced accelerated evolution? Is the "replicator cruiser" a "legohip" or is it a vessel they captured from another race?

This is a Legoship that has come along to invade the Borg Collective. Although it would be interesting to include Species 8472 in the fight. How would they stand a chance against them?

[Eternal_Freedom]

They'd be roughly as screwed as the Borg methinks. They'd have an advantage in ground combat (or boarding actions) being much faster, but in space I don't think they have much chance.

An interesting thought springs to mind about this though. We know replicators make new blocks from materials around them, neutronium being preferred. What if some replicator blocks foudn their way into Fluidic space and started consuming the matter there? They'd be way weaker than the original bunch, but still, that would make for MASSIVE numbers.

[avatarxprime]

actually, they do use beaming technology. Witness season 8's "New Order" and "Reckoning" where they beam away Sam Carter and Daniel Jackson respectively.

I'd also add that beams don't work through shields and the first thing Replicators do when boarding Asgard vessels is to disable the internal sensors that can actually detect them so beaming can't be used on them.

They'd be roughly as screwed as the Borg methinks. They'd have an advantage in ground combat (or boarding actions) being much faster, but in space I don't think they have much chance.

An interesting thought springs to mind about this though. We know replicators make new blocks from materials around them, neutronium being preferred. What if some replicator blocks foudn their way into Fluidic space and started consuming the matter there? They'd be way weaker than the original bunch, but still, that would make for MASSIVE numbers.

Well they don't care for neutronium, they only need that for the Human forms. Also, I'm not so sure they'd be weaker when made out of matter from Fluidic space, at least not in-universe since 8472 biomatter is considered one of the more durable substances in Trek.