Loaded Rebel Alliance transport in Maquis hands

[Ronaldo]

Ignoring tech differences, and just going by size and power requirements (remember, I said if they can figure out how to get there systems to work with each other), the only consideration would be room.

Considering we are talking about transports, they are designed to have lots of room and cargo space.

Attach a bunch of Galaxy class phaser banks to the outer hull, and install a bunch of warhead launchers in the sides. Use the cargo hold to hold stolen torpedoes, and install a few transporters.

If you need spare parts, go find a non-Marquis starship, take out it's shields, beam it's crew into space or the cargo hold (Cardassians would probably end up in space), attach some tow cables, and hyperjump (you can tow ships via cables in hyperspace, shown in the Thrawn trilogy) to your base to either salvage parts, or assign a new crew.

Come to think of it, if used intelligently, you wouldn't need to give the Marqis a Rebel Assault Frigate, the transport's speed and shield advantage could let you capture a large number of enemy ships. Just stick your flag on the captured ships, and build yourself a nice fleet....

But do they have the people to crew all those captured starships?

I don't think it would be too difficult for them to find crew for those ships. The problem would be training the new crewmembers. The more successful the Maquis become, the more the colonists in the demilitarized zone will join them. The few Starfleet Officers that they have would be hard pressed to train all of the new recruits to operate the captured starships. They would be better off capturing smaller ships (i.e. the peregrine fighters or the Hideki-class cardassian fighters/shuttles) and just destroying the larger enemy ships.

[2000AD]

What would be the UFP's reaction to this?
Would they try and get the Maquis to rejoin?
Piggy back the maquis' success and attack the cardies?
Maybe join the cardies' in an attempt to combat this new and dangerous threat?

[Solauren]

Snip my reply

But do they have the people to crew all those captured starships?

I don't think it would be too difficult for them to find crew for those ships. The problem would be training the new crewmembers. The more successful the Maquis become, the more the colonists in the demilitarized zone will join them. The few Starfleet Officers that they have would be hard pressed to train all of the new recruits to operate the captured starships. They would be better off capturing smaller ships (i.e. the peregrine fighters or the Hideki-class cardassian fighters/shuttles) and just destroying the larger enemy ships.

Also, you have to remember, they could just stockpile excess ships somewhere as they train new recruits.

As the ships start disappearing (how fast could a Wars Medium Transport towing 4 captured and crewed Galor Class warships deal with a single or small pack of Galor class ships), the Cardassians would face a major, major problem. We know already that once the Obsidian order was out of the way, the miltiary government was toppled. Imagine the effect of lossing actual military asssets and not the Obsidian order.

If i was the Marqi, here's what i would do once I have the transport ready to go (without extra Trek weapons)

Note: During all this, no other Marqi operations. Make the Cardassians think it was a one time thing that the colonist gave up when it failed. You know 'typical soft federation citizens'

1- Pick a nice target, say a known patrol route of a Galor Class warship.
2- Have a Marqi raider pull a quick attack on a Cardassian target and take damage. Rig the raider so when it's hit, it looks like it engines are going to fail
3- Have the raider in the attack in #2 fail along the target from #1's route after warping that way.
(The Trap is set)
4- When the Galor Class warship shows up, the Raider sends a message to the waiting Marqii forces.
5- The new Marqii ships hyperjump from nearby and open fire on the Galor classwarship with weapon power set to just enough to take out the Cardassian ships shields. (if the transports weapons are powerful enough they could shred the cardi ship easily). Don't use the x-wings or speeders unless you need to.
6- The Marqi raiders beam the Cardi's out into space (explain the difference between that and simply blowing up the Cardis ship).
7- Attach a tow cable with all due speed
8- Hyperjump out of the system.
Side point: Imagine the reaction on the central commands face when they find the bodies from the Galor class crew, but not ship or debris.
(This would work best if the patrol route was for a group of 3 - 4 Galor class ships, saves getting more for the next stage)

9- Crew the Galor class warship with ex-Starfleet officers and former Rebellion troops.
10- Repeat quick capture and crewing as needed until you get 4 Galor classwarships. Also do this once or twice on a Romulan Warbird to get the cloaking device. Equip the Transport with Romulan weapons.
11- With the Galor Class ships in tow, start hyperjumping into Cardassian space and taking out and towing more Cardassian ships. The Galor ships you are towing will be equppied with the captured Romulan Cloaking devices. The idea is that if there is a limit to how much the Transport can safely tow, the Marqi crewed Galors will cloak and head back to the DMZ.
This will probably not be needed, as Medium Transports can haul alot of cargo.
12- Keep this up, and if possible, arm the Transport with Romulan weapons. Occasionally when you steal the Galors, use the Romulan weapons to blow one or two up and make it look like the Romulans are causing the ships to disappear. Or instead, bring the Romulan ships along and screw using Galor class ships. The Warbirds are more powerful anyway. (i.e Plasma Torpedoes)
13- Instead of stealing the Defiant, check out the secret-shipyard/base with a cloaked Galor.
Once the Marqii saw all those lovely Cardassian ships, get all the captured Galors with a skeleton crew to operate weapons and transporters and attached them via tow cables to the Transport. Hyperjump into the system, and beam all the crews into space. (Who are they going to send an SOS to? The operation was very illegal after all), either trash the shipyards and ships, or tow those into hyperspace (okay, towing the shipyard might be pushing it, but Star Trek shipyards are kinda punny looking)
By now, you should have done a lot of damage to the Cardassians just by stealing ships, from all over the empire. Plus, they should think it was the Romulans. They should be leaving the Marqi/DMZ alone by now, because they have bigger problems
(i.e ships disappearing left and right with dead crews found but no ships, looks like a Romulan invasion is coming using some new transporter that can ignore shields, etc)
This should give you more then enough time to train colonists to crew the captured ships.

This should cause the collapse of the Cardassians a little faster then it did in DS9, and when the Klingons hit them, they'll have less ships to fight back with and will probably fall to them. This would also give you lots of time to upgrade the Medium Transport into a heavily armed battleship. Armed out the ass end with Trek Warhead launchers and Energy weapons.

As a matter of fact, when the Klingons hit, you have a interesting opprotunity.
You could use your forces to help the Klingons.

I invision this
The Klingon fleet starts blasting it's way into Cardassian space.
Gowron's ships reach the border
The Marqi 'Wars Medium Transport' Battleship appears.

Marqi leader:
Hello Chanceller, I have a proposal for you. How would you like a bunch of mint-condition Cardassian warships? Oh, and a few captured Romulan ships two.
(Authors note: Have to wonder if the Romulan's were building ships in that system the Obsidian Order did)

Gowron:
(after the introductions and Gowron's surprise passes when his ships weapons have a negliable effect on the Transports shields. I mean, come on, if Amidaala's 20 year old YATCH has shields that can stand up to a Galaxy or a Sovereign, imagine what a dedicated military transport would have)
What do you want in exchange for these ships? I have an offensive to over-see.

Marqi:
Here's the offer Gowron. The Klingons promise to hand the Cardassian-Federation DMZ over to the Marqi, and the Marqi will become a independent nation state and ally of the Klingon empire. In exchange, we help to take out the Cardassian defense force in the way we have been for the past few (months or years?). You we keep 1/3 of the ships we help you take out, you keep the rest. You take over Cardassia and get most of the Cardassian fleet intact, we get ride of the Cardassians and get control of the DMZ, and gain a small defense force to boot. Were even willing to offer you some samples of this ships technology
(Note: The airspeeders).

Gowron: And if I refuse?

Marqi: Well, this is a warship. IF you though our shields were impressive, imagine the firepower this things guns pack. Lock target on the Chancellers vessel, stand by to fire.

(End of dialouge)

I think Gowron had the brains to accept.

And if the Defiant gets ahold of the Cardassian leadership, offer to have the Rebel-Transport-turned Marqi warship deal with Deep Space Nines shields for them...

[Ronaldo]

But do they have the people to crew all those captured starships?

I don't think it would be too difficult for them to find crew for those ships. The problem would be training the new crewmembers. The more successful the Maquis become, the more the colonists in the demilitarized zone will join them. The few Starfleet Officers that they have would be hard pressed to train all of the new recruits to operate the captured starships. They would be better off capturing smaller ships (i.e. the peregrine fighters or the Hideki-class cardassian fighters/shuttles) and just destroying the larger enemy ships.

Also, you have to remember, they could just stockpile excess ships somewhere as they train new recruits.

As the ships start disappearing (how fast could a Wars Medium Transport towing 4 captured and crewed Galor Class warships deal with a single or small pack of Galor class ships), the Cardassians would face a major, major problem. We know already that once the Obsidian order was out of the way, the miltiary government was toppled. Imagine the effect of lossing actual military asssets and not the Obsidian order.

If i was the Marqi, here's what i would do once I have the transport ready to go (without extra Trek weapons)

Note: During all this, no other Marqi operations. Make the Cardassians think it was a one time thing that the colonist gave up when it failed. You know 'typical soft federation citizens'

1- Pick a nice target, say a known patrol route of a Galor Class warship.
2- Have a Marqi raider pull a quick attack on a Cardassian target and take damage. Rig the raider so when it's hit, it looks like it engines are going to fail
3- Have the raider in the attack in #2 fail along the target from #1's route after warping that way.
(The Trap is set)
4- When the Galor Class warship shows up, the Raider sends a message to the waiting Marqii forces.
5- The new Marqii ships hyperjump from nearby and open fire on the Galor classwarship with weapon power set to just enough to take out the Cardassian ships shields. (if the transports weapons are powerful enough they could shred the cardi ship easily). Don't use the x-wings or speeders unless you need to.
6- The Marqi raiders beam the Cardi's out into space (explain the difference between that and simply blowing up the Cardis ship).
7- Attach a tow cable with all due speed
8- Hyperjump out of the system.
Side point: Imagine the reaction on the central commands face when they find the bodies from the Galor class crew, but not ship or debris.
(This would work best if the patrol route was for a group of 3 - 4 Galor class ships, saves getting more for the next stage)

This tactic would probably work, just due to the fact that the Medium Transport can engage a handful of Cardassian ships at one time. Unless you can jam the Cardies' communications though they will probably report the strange ship that is attacking them to the Central Command. If the Maquis raiders assist in the operations it will be clear to the Cardassians that the Maquis are involved. It would be difficult to then convince them that the Romulans are behind it.

9- Crew the Galor class warship with ex-Starfleet officers and former Rebellion troops.
10- Repeat quick capture and crewing as needed until you get 4 Galor classwarships. Also do this once or twice on a Romulan Warbird to get the cloaking device. Equip the Transport with Romulan weapons.
11- With the Galor Class ships in tow, start hyperjumping into Cardassian space and taking out and towing more Cardassian ships. The Galor ships you are towing will be equppied with the captured Romulan Cloaking devices. The idea is that if there is a limit to how much the Transport can safely tow, the Marqi crewed Galors will cloak and head back to the DMZ.
This will probably not be needed, as Medium Transports can haul alot of cargo.
12- Keep this up, and if possible, arm the Transport with Romulan weapons. Occasionally when you steal the Galors, use the Romulan weapons to blow one or two up and make it look like the Romulans are causing the ships to disappear. Or instead, bring the Romulan ships along and screw using Galor class ships. The Warbirds are more powerful anyway. (i.e Plasma Torpedoes)
13- Instead of stealing the Defiant, check out the secret-shipyard/base with a cloaked Galor.
Once the Marqii saw all those lovely Cardassian ships, get all the captured Galors with a skeleton crew to operate weapons and transporters and attached them via tow cables to the Transport. Hyperjump into the system, and beam all the crews into space. (Who are they going to send an SOS to? The operation was very illegal after all), either trash the shipyards and ships, or tow those into hyperspace (okay, towing the shipyard might be pushing it, but Star Trek shipyards are kinda punny looking)
By now, you should have done a lot of damage to the Cardassians just by stealing ships, from all over the empire. Plus, they should think it was the Romulans. They should be leaving the Marqi/DMZ alone by now, because they have bigger problems
(i.e ships disappearing left and right with dead crews found but no ships, looks like a Romulan invasion is coming using some new transporter that can ignore shields, etc)
This should give you more then enough time to train colonists to crew the captured ships.

Stealing dozens of Cardassian warships will hurt them significantly; however, It probably would not be a good idea to steal the Romulan ships though. That would just add another enemy to deal with later on. It would be more prudent to secure cloaking devices via the black market (for example through Quark or another arms dealer).

The Maquis could even establish their own academy for starship operations in order to effectively train new crewmembers. This would take a little time though, so the Maquis should not overplay their hand here.

This should cause the collapse of the Cardassians a little faster then it did in DS9, and when the Klingons hit them, they'll have less ships to fight back with and will probably fall to them. This would also give you lots of time to upgrade the Medium Transport into a heavily armed battleship. Armed out the ass end with Trek Warhead launchers and Energy weapons.

As a matter of fact, when the Klingons hit, you have a interesting opprotunity.
You could use your forces to help the Klingons.

I invision this
The Klingon fleet starts blasting it's way into Cardassian space.
Gowron's ships reach the border
The Marqi 'Wars Medium Transport' Battleship appears.

Marqi leader:
Hello Chanceller, I have a proposal for you. How would you like a bunch of mint-condition Cardassian warships? Oh, and a few captured Romulan ships two.
(Authors note: Have to wonder if the Romulan's were building ships in that system the Obsidian Order did)

Gowron:
(after the introductions and Gowron's surprise passes when his ships weapons have a negliable effect on the Transports shields. I mean, come on, if Amidaala's 20 year old YATCH has shields that can stand up to a Galaxy or a Sovereign, imagine what a dedicated military transport would have)
What do you want in exchange for these ships? I have an offensive to over-see.

Marqi:
Here's the offer Gowron. The Klingons promise to hand the Cardassian-Federation DMZ over to the Marqi, and the Marqi will become a independent nation state and ally of the Klingon empire. In exchange, we help to take out the Cardassian defense force in the way we have been for the past few (months or years?). You we keep 1/3 of the ships we help you take out, you keep the rest. You take over Cardassia and get most of the Cardassian fleet intact, we get ride of the Cardassians and get control of the DMZ, and gain a small defense force to boot. Were even willing to offer you some samples of this ships technology
(Note: The airspeeders).

Gowron: And if I refuse?

Marqi: Well, this is a warship. IF you though our shields were impressive, imagine the firepower this things guns pack. Lock target on the Chancellers vessel, stand by to fire.

(End of dialouge)

I think Gowron had the brains to accept.

And if the Defiant gets ahold of the Cardassian leadership, offer to have the Rebel-Transport-turned Marqi warship deal with Deep Space Nines shields for them...

I think the Maquis would be able to help the Klingons actually take the station with their ground troops. I'm sure that Edington and Cal Hudson would have the Rebel soldiers begin training Maquis personnel in ground combat. Armed with blasters and the other various Rebel equipment, they would make a decent fighting force.

As far as getting through DS9's shields is concerned; I'm sure that the Medium Transport (especially if it were armed with phasors, photon torpedoes, and concussion missiles could breach the shields and survive DS9's counterfire. I don't know for how long it could handle DS9's attacks though. DS9 was able to knock out multiple Jem'Hadar warships and I believe Klingon ships when they attacked the station. I know that the shields of the transport would be better than anything the Federation, Cardassians, and Klingons, etc... would have, but a sustained bombardment could overwhelm the transports defenses.

[Ronaldo]

What would be the UFP's reaction to this?
Would they try and get the Maquis to rejoin?
Piggy back the maquis' success and attack the cardies?
Maybe join the cardies' in an attempt to combat this new and dangerous threat?

I really doubt that the Federation would attack the Cardassians, even if the Maquis are incredibly successful. The Federation would continue to put pressure on the Maquis to disband. Section 31 or Starfleet Intelligence would probably attempt to commandeer the new Maquis "Flagship". They would work with the Cardassians in tracking down the Maquis, but I doubt that they would launch significant military operations against them.

[Solauren]

As far as getting through DS9's shields is concerned; I'm sure that the Medium Transport (especially if it were armed with phasors, photon torpedoes, and concussion missiles could breach the shields and survive DS9's counterfire. I don't know for how long it could handle DS9's attacks though. DS9 was able to knock out multiple Jem'Hadar warships and I believe Klingon ships when they attacked the station. I know that the shields of the transport would be better than anything the Federation, Cardassians, and Klingons, etc... would have, but a sustained bombardment could overwhelm the transports defenses.

Two Things
1- I never said remove the Star Wars weapons, did I?
2- Even if you use the Over-powered High end numbers from a site like DITL.ORG, a medium transport or even Amidaala's yacth has more shield power then Deep Space Nine does firepower

FYI, Amada's little royal yatch had a shield peak of 2 billion Gigawatts
ot 2 million Terrawatts. I would imagine the shields of a Military transport being signitigantly higher then a 20 - 30 year old civilian please cruiser
DITL lists the firepower of DS9 at 1.2 million terrawatts.
(IMHO, a Medium Transports shields would probably be about 7 trillion gigawatts, about 1/10 of a Accalamtor transport, but I have no proof of that, so ignore it)

Heck, even this board only rates Phasers at about 30,000TW (max, then against armor, they drop in effectiveness). That would be 66 shots from Deep Space nines most powerful phasers, while it was taking fire from a Klingon battle fleet (and they'd have to ignore the fleet) and the Medium Transport, and probably a any captured and now Marqi ships.

[Ronaldo]

As far as getting through DS9's shields is concerned; I'm sure that the Medium Transport (especially if it were armed with phasors, photon torpedoes, and concussion missiles could breach the shields and survive DS9's counterfire. I don't know for how long it could handle DS9's attacks though. DS9 was able to knock out multiple Jem'Hadar warships and I believe Klingon ships when they attacked the station. I know that the shields of the transport would be better than anything the Federation, Cardassians, and Klingons, etc... would have, but a sustained bombardment could overwhelm the transports defenses.

Two Things
1- I never said remove the Star Wars weapons, did I?
2- Even if you use the Over-powered High end numbers from a site like DITL.ORG, a medium transport or even Amidaala's yacth has more shield power then Deep Space Nine does firepower

FYI, Amada's little royal yatch had a shield peak of 2 billion Gigawatts
ot 2 million Terrawatts. I would imagine the shields of a Military transport being signitigantly higher then a 20 - 30 year old civilian please cruiser
DITL lists the firepower of DS9 at 1.2 million terrawatts.
(IMHO, a Medium Transports shields would probably be about 7 trillion gigawatts, about 1/10 of a Accalamtor transport, but I have no proof of that, so ignore it)

Heck, even this board only rates Phasers at about 30,000TW (max, then against armor, they drop in effectiveness). That would be 66 shots from Deep Space nines most powerful phasers, while it was taking fire from a Klingon battle fleet (and they'd have to ignore the fleet) and the Medium Transport, and probably a any captured and now Marqi ships.

In this case the medium transport would be quite capable of taking on DS9, especially if the Klingons were involved in the attack. The fortunes of the Maquis would change dramatically with just this one transport.

[Solauren]

Imagine if the rebels had refitted the transports with capital ship Turbolasers....

[Ronaldo]

Imagine if the rebels had refitted the transports with capital ship Turbolasers....

The Cardassian Empire/Union would be shaking in its boots if the Maquis had turbolasers.

I have another supposition for you. Okay, let's say that the Maquis utilize the strategy that you laid out and assist the Klingons conquer the Cardassian Empire. Deep Space 9 has been captured by the Dominion and Sisko along with the rest of the station's crew have been killed. This would undoubtedly spark a larger between the UFP and the Klingon Empire. The Dominion look at what is happening and decide that the time is right to launch an invasion of the Alpha Quadrant. The changling who is impersonating Martok has Gowron killed and takes over the Klingon Empire. He then signs an alliance with the Dominion (similar to what the Cardassians did) The Dominion then launches an invasion of the UFP and the Romulan Star Empire. The Maquis are right in the middle of the UFP and the Dominion. The Dominion intends on conquering the former DMZ.

What can the Maquis do to prevent the Dominion from winning?

[Solauren]

Problem with that scenario.

Prove to me that Rebel sensors couldn't pick up the changeling.


What could they do to prevent the conquest? Probably nothing, but they could give the DOminion one hell of a headache

[Ronaldo]

Problem with that scenario.

Prove to me that Rebel sensors couldn't pick up the changeling.


What could they do to prevent the conquest? Probably nothing, but they could give the DOminion one hell of a headache

I haven't seen or read anything that would let me know how effective Rebel scanners would be at detecting life forms, so I really couldn't say either way. The only possible solution for the Maquis to deal with the Dominion would be to make an alliance with the UFPand the RSE. They should then share the advanced Rebel Alliance technology with them. They might be able to significantly improve their weapons and shield technology with the larger industrial and research bases of the UFP and the RSE. That could help to even the odds against the Dominion.

I wouldn't even presume to suggest that the UFP and RSE could develop firepower or shields on the scale of Rebel Alliance capital ships; however, they might be able to improve what they do have by working with the Rebel Alliance technicians.

[Wicked Pilot]

I don't see the Rebels being much help to the Marquis. The transport and the X-Wings will run out of fuel eventually, and when that happens they are done. Without power their weapons are useless too, and the six warheads will be gone before you know it. The gound weaponary may be of some use, but you must remember that whoever controls the air, and the space above it, generally controls the surface. Handheld blasters won't do shit against orbital bombardment. While it may be possible for groups in the Star Trek universe to reverse engineer Star Wars fuel and weapons, it would take an industry wide effort, and lots of time, something the Marquis to my knowledge do not have. All and all, the Marquis could use their early Christmas present for a good schwack or two against the Cardies, but that is really the extent of it.

[Techno_Union]

Would it be possible to take the fighters/speeder's weapons and install them on the transport? This way you would only have to manage the one transport and not consentrate on the fighters/speeders. The transport's weapons would be upgraded to comething like 10 laser cannons (from the 5 speeders) and the already existing lasers not to mention the proton torps. Also you could use the pieces of the fighters/speders to fix the transport if it brakes down. Now eventually the ship will break down but since it would be in the ST galaxy, the trekkies would find some way to fill the gas back up.

Honestly this ship would be bad ass and would take down a lot of Cardies and Feds if needed. Also how long would the transport's shields last in a fight against ST ships?

[Trogdor]

Imagine if the rebels had refitted the transports with capital ship Turbolasers....

I'm not sure if the hull of a medium transport is strong enough for it to withstand the recoil of turbolasers.

Wicked pilot made a decent point that the ship and X-wings would run out of fuel eventually. I think it would be wise if the Marquis used it to set up their own little colony too far away for them to be reached by the Feds or Cardies. There, they could have any engineers onboard the transport, as well their own people, to work on making fuel and then upgrading their own stuff with SW tech. They couldn't turn the crappy ships they have into ISDs by an stretch, but they could probably manage to give everything quite the upgrade evntually. They steal Cardie ships with their supped up ragtag fleet and the transport, and work up the forces to liberATE BAJOR (KEyboard problems, arg! )

[Ronaldo]

Imagine if the rebels had refitted the transports with capital ship Turbolasers....

I'm not sure if the hull of a medium transport is strong enough for it to withstand the recoil of turbolasers.

Wicked pilot made a decent point that the ship and X-wings would run out of fuel eventually. I think it would be wise if the Marquis used it to set up their own little colony too far away for them to be reached by the Feds or Cardies. There, they could have any engineers onboard the transport, as well their own people, to work on making fuel and then upgrading their own stuff with SW tech. They couldn't turn the crappy ships they have into ISDs by an stretch, but they could probably manage to give everything quite the upgrade evntually. They steal Cardie ships with their supped up ragtag fleet and the transport, and work up the forces to liberATE BAJOR (KEyboard problems, arg! )

It would be a good idea to set up a base far out of reach from the Cardassians; however, the Maquis would need the transport to supply it and move equipment back and forth. That would limit their ability to use it for combat operations. They might be more interested in using the transport for combat operations. Besides, the Maquis had the chance to evacuate the DMZ, but they chose to stay and defend their homes. I doubt that they would flee. They might evacuate their vulnerable families though with the transport to a distant star system, which would prevent the Dominion from massacring all of them.

In either case, the Maquis would have to figure out how to refuel the transport.

[Wicked Pilot]

It would be a good idea to set up a base far out of reach from the Cardassians; however, the Maquis would need the transport to supply it and move equipment back and forth. That would limit their ability to use it for combat operations.

Also, if the Cardies manage to trap and destroy the transport, then that remote base is essentially lost, and all personnel and equipment assigned is practically stranded for a long period of time.

[Solauren]

Again, you do realise the shield power of the transport, right? and the speed advantage, and the fire power advantage?

Star Wars power generation technology is incredible efficient. I mean, a Star Destroyer has enough fuel to run for years at full capacity (ref Star Wars RPG D20). That means all weapons blazing, etc. And that's after ther room needed for the hyperdrive, crew (including food), shuttle bays, hanger bays, and weapon systems (not to mention maintanence shafts big enough to fly a Tie Fighter down)

I don't think fuel or capture by the enemy is a real issue for the Marqi