A possible way for the UFP to be a problem to the Empire

[Enola Straight]

If I wanted to cause the Empire problems, I would use the the signature technology of the Federation; The Transporter.

Create a new class of tactical Cap ship cpable of mass transport capable of thousands of SOLDIERS and tons of cargo at a shot.

Warp up to a relatively undefended planet at the periphery of Imperial control, beam up the cannon fodder and beam them out into space...energy only, widest dispersal...then beam up the officers for interrogation by Vulcans and Betazoids.

Beam down soldiers to secure the planet and slicers to hack into the computers and sappers to salvage interesting hardware.

Beat it outta there and repeat at the next planet until they BDZ your ass.

[NecronLord]

If I wanted to cause the Empire problems, I would use the the signature technology of the Federation; The Transporter.

Create a new class of tactical Cap ship cpable of mass transport capable of thousands of SOLDIERS and tons of cargo at a shot.

Warp up to a relatively undefended planet at the periphery of Imperial control, beam up the cannon fodder and beam them out into space...energy only, widest dispersal...then beam up the officers for interrogation by Vulcans and Betazoids.

Beam down soldiers to secure the planet and slicers to hack into the computers and sappers to salvage interesting hardware.

Beat it outta there and repeat at the next planet until they BDZ your ass.

Theatre Shields. SW grade jamming

[Ted C]

If I wanted to cause the Empire problems, I would use the the signature technology of the Federation; The Transporter.

Create a new class of tactical Cap ship cpable of mass transport capable of thousands of SOLDIERS and tons of cargo at a shot.

What are the limits? What's the cost? The Enterprise-D was capable of carrying a thousand or so people, but it took years to design and years to build each unit. Even then, it took about a minute for the Enterprise to transport about 50 people (ref. "Descent"): how quickly could even a dedicated transport ship move troops?

Warp up to a relatively undefended planet at the periphery of Imperial control, beam up the cannon fodder and beam them out into space...energy only, widest dispersal...then beam up the officers for interrogation by Vulcans and Betazoids.

Is it really feasible to beam up tens or hundreds of thousands of defenders? Even if it was just thousands, such an operation would require 40 transports of the size the Enterprise could manage. A dedicated ship might cut that number down, but a dedicated ship is years of development away. Even thing, how much faster is the dedicated ship going to be able to transport? What is it going to sacrifice for that extra transporter capacity?

Is even a backwater Imperial world going to sit still while a Federation ship attacks? We know that they can build weapons capable of hitting a starship from a planet surface.

Beam down soldiers to secure the planet and slicers to hack into the computers and sappers to salvage interesting hardware.

How many soldiers will it take to secure even a planet the size of Tatooine? Mos Eisley and Mos Espa were both full of people, and civilian firearms were commonplace. Could the complement of one Federation troopship pacify even one city on an obscure Imperial world quickly?

Beat it outta there and repeat at the next planet until they BDZ your ass.

The defenses of Naboo could put up a decent fight against a Federation starship, and reinforcements are just hours away from any Imperial planet. Can the Federation realistically expect to be able to jam all planetary communications and interdict all government and civilian starships that might go for help?

Not to mention, how is a Federation ship supposed to reach an Imperial world in time to do any good? The Imperial end of a wormhole might be hours from an Imperial system at hyperdrive speed, but years from the same system at warp speed.

If you want to annoy the Empire, you're going to have to think of some way to do it in occupied Federation territory; it's going to be a long time before you have the resources to take your insurgency campaign into the Empire itself.

[Beowulf]

To follow up CJvR, you can beam photon torpedoes over anywhere inside the target and they'll work fine. If it materializes inside a bulkhead, the containment system around the anti-matter charge will fail and the device will detonate anyway.

It may exploded, however, it won't explode efficiently. It's relatively easy to get a nuclear bomb to explode. It rather difficult to make it do a fission chain reaction (assuming an Implosion design).

[Ted C]

It may exploded, however, it won't explode efficiently. It's relatively easy to get a nuclear bomb to explode. It rather difficult to make it do a fission chain reaction (assuming an Implosion design).

It may be less efficient, but it will still release the bulk of it's energy inside the target. Even if it's less than 50% efficient, it should still be more than sufficient to cripple an ISD if it goes off inside.

This is a minor consideration anyway. The Federation has to research the Rutian technology (even though they already understand the principles, they will still want to study a working model), develop a system compatible with their own ship systems, design a prototype, test, fix bugs, test some more, develop a production model, set up a production site, ramp up production, recall ships to be refitted with the new technology, run those through a test cycle, fix their bugs, and then get the refitted starships to the front lines. All this before the Empire rolls over them or gets wind of what they're doing.

It's a pretty hopeless scenario. I've considered such bad plans myself in the past, but I've been working on a major systems upgrade project lately, and I can see exactly what a pain in the ass it would be to get this thing from the drawing board to the battlefield. The Federation simply won't have the time.

[Solauren]

Actually, you have to wonder how far along the Federations's research into the technology was. After all, they found it to be inaccurate. That's what Data sad. he never mentioned them not making it, and he even stated that using it would be dangerous (I fail to recall if he mentioned biological damage of any kind) and he said whoever was using it was probably desperate or ilrational

This would seem to imply that they had built a working model for field testing. Otherwise, how would they know it was dangerous?

[LMSx]

I find an immediate problem with your theory based on the use of a game to support the idea a nuclear weapon will destroy the Star Destroyer.

Not saying it won't, just that I personally would like to see a more reputable source used.

[Kazuaki Shimazaki]

Now, let's not dismiss thermonuclear weapons without at least hearing what yield they are. Performance, not class of tech, remember?

[Solauren]

I have no idea what the warhead yield was. According to the mission briefing, it was a 'massive nuclear weapon'. IMHO that puts it in the 300 megaton range. Also, this was a cut-scence, not game play. Cut-scences are pretty good for maintaning accuracy and realism, provided there is no combat.
Besides that, they republished it in the Farlander Papers, so now it's literary EU.

Anyway, the point is, Star Wars defensive advantage is it's massivly powerful armor and shield technology. This might be an option to bypass it. We know it worked the way I'm suggesting against Star Trek ships, the question gets down to, would it work vs the Empire.

And like I said, the idea is to get it inside the unarmored interior of the Star Destroyer. Using a modern comparison, bullets do shit against tank armor, but get that gun inside the tank....

Or better yet, a grenade doesn't do much against a building with a 1 foot concreate wall (I think, if not, replace it with one foot of steel), but if you get the grenade inside the building, you could kill alot of people and do alot of damage.

[NecronLord]

I have no idea what the warhead yield was. According to the mission briefing, it was a 'massive nuclear weapon'. IMHO that puts it in the 300 megaton range.

Massive in SW terms may mean multi TT. (Nuclear doesn't always mean fission/fusion BTW)

[Sea Skimmer]

I have no idea what the warhead yield was. According to the mission briefing, it was a 'massive nuclear weapon'. IMHO that puts it in the 300 megaton range.

Massive in SW terms may mean multi TT. (Nuclear doesn't always mean fission/fusion BTW)

Indeed. The ships construction is sufficiently strong to take recoils from dozens turbolasers which are at the minimal 200 gigaton weapons and it can take hits form the same guns on its hull without being skewered. That level of construction wouldn't give a fuck about a 300 megaton bomb.

[Master of Ossus]

I agree, this is a pretty 'iffy' tactic. IF it works, it would be devastating. If it just uses subspace, Imperial shields can block it (thanks on that by the way).

The Rutian device was stated onscreen to use subspace. And even without shields, it's doubtful that they can transport through the hull of an ISD, given the uselessness of subspace sensors and comms through heavy metals.

But do sensors really matter? All that counts is getting the warhead inside the ISD. It would still be difficult in though because I think that shields would block them inverter. So if shields can be taken down(even partially) by some other means then this could work

Of course sensors matter. You have to be able to get a clear scan of the target in order to beam into something.

Moreover, as has just been pointed out, the weapon used in the X-Wing computer game was probably VASTLY more powerful than anything in the UFP arsenal, and similar devices using UFP technology would have to be MUCH bigger and MUCH more expensive.

[NecronLord]

Indeed. The ships construction is sufficiently strong to take recoils from dozens turbolasers which are at the minimal 200 gigaton weapons and it can take hits form the same guns on its hull without being skewered. That level of construction wouldn't give a fuck about a 300 megaton bomb.

To be fair, a UFP grade device in the bay would damage the bay and anyone in it. This happens in my long deserted fanfic (Invasion, see my website, OSF> Fiction.) but all that's really going to achieve is pissing the ISD off.

[Sea Skimmer]

Well yes whatever compartment it goes off in will suffer. However the hanger area is ringed and subdivided by armor anyway and the basic structure of the ship would stop a 300-megaton blast.

[consequences]

Hell, the shuttle itself self-destructing would probably be more than three hundred megatons.

[TurboPhaser]

An interesting idea Solauren. I have no doubt that a torpedo exploding next to the ISD's main reactor would destroy it. But I really don't think there is enough info to say for sure whether the Inverter transport could get through Imperial shielding.

And correct if i'm wrong, but the computer games you mentioned in the first post, they are not canon?

[YT300000]

An interesting idea Solauren. I have no doubt that a torpedo exploding next to the ISD's main reactor would destroy it. But I really don't think there is enough info to say for sure whether the Inverter transport could get through Imperial shielding.

And correct if i'm wrong, but the computer games you mentioned in the first post, they are not canon?

They are, just really low on the canon scale.

[Ghost Rider]

An interesting idea Solauren. I have no doubt that a torpedo exploding next to the ISD's main reactor would destroy it. But I really don't think there is enough info to say for sure whether the Inverter transport could get through Imperial shielding.

And correct if i'm wrong, but the computer games you mentioned in the first post, they are not canon?

They are, just really low on the canon scale.

Closer to apocrypha.

Only the games stories even exist within the official thought.

Game mechanics don't.

[consequences]

But the story has a bomb carriable within a Lambda shuttle detonating in an ISD hangar bay, instantly causing an explosion several hundred meters across, so it counts. However, this tells us nothing about whether the Feds could match that.

[Ghost Rider]

But the story has a bomb carriable within a Lambda shuttle detonating in an ISD hangar bay, instantly causing an explosion several hundred meters across, so it counts. However, this tells us nothing about whether the Feds could match that.

Not discounting it...just saying Game Mechanics don't apply.

We only know the Rebels got a bomb...who knows how powerful but like X-Wing showed enough to destroy an ISD.

[consequences]

An unshielded Isd anyway. Although this does present new possibilities for the Thrawn in an A-wing, Daala in an Executor fight.

[YT300000]

An unshielded Isd anyway. Although this does present new possibilities for the Thrawn in an A-wing, Daala in an Executor fight.

Not really. Thrawn's not much of a pilot.

I think.

[Solauren]

Hehehe... yeah, for the most part, video game mechanics are suspect.

(at least in Capital Ship vs Fighter's. I'd have to say Fighter vs Fighter is probably dead on)

Anyway, it was a thought. okay, so instead of a photon torp, what about 300 kilograms of antimatter?

[Master of Ossus]

But the story has a bomb carriable within a Lambda shuttle detonating in an ISD hangar bay, instantly causing an explosion several hundred meters across, so it counts. However, this tells us nothing about whether the Feds could match that.

That's true, but we already know how incredibly powerful explosive devices are in SW. Lando Calrissian carried a thermal detonator that could take out a structure several hundred stories tall in Shadows of the Empire. The device the Rebels used was somewhat larger, and the hangar deck of an Imperator class ship is loaded with (or, at least, has access to) starfighter ordnance and fuel for smaller starships.

[Traceroute]

Going to a different aspect of the problem, if the Fed can field a ship with this specialized transporter and assuming it punches through SW shields, wouldn't using pure antimatter work best? You needn't worry about precise targeting; as long as it gets inside, it's going to cause some damage. Maybe you get lucky and damage one of the turbolaser supports. It's not going to destroy an ISD, but it might help.

That still leaves a lot of variables for the Fed to resolve in a very short amount of time though.