Would Starfleet still be Starfleet if they had marines?

[bilateralrope]

The Federation came closest to actually honoring it, but in alot of ways just got more creative "No, no you see we stopped making "Cruisers", this ship is an "Explorer". No, that's not a "Battleship" it's an "Escort". See, Starfleet totally is just science and exploration, not a military! They kept damn near all of their infrascture actually intact, they just... PR'd the hell out of all of it, changing their uniforms, styling their phasers differently. Same stuff, just "nicer" looking.

Well, that and their tech advantage is big enough that their exploration vessels with lots of scientific equipment can hold their own against similar sized warships of other factions in a stand up fight. Unless someone pulls some technobabble.

[Lord Revan]

Also to be fair for Starfleet there's navy's in real life that do that switching of terms to sound less like a military, like the Japanese Self-Defense Force.

[Evilchumlee]

Well, that and their tech advantage is big enough that their exploration vessels with lots of scientific equipment can hold their own against similar sized warships of other factions in a stand up fight. Unless someone pulls some technobabble.

I've always maintained that while most think of the Oberth-Class as a joke, I think it might be one of the most dangerous ships out there. I don't think there's anything much more dangerous than a weaponized Starfleet science crew.

[Batman]

We never see the Oberth do anything except plod along on impulse, be destroyed, or having fallen to weird technobabble. What do you base their dangerousness on?

[Evilchumlee]

We never see the Oberth do anything except plod along on impulse, be destroyed, or having fallen to weird technobabble. What do you base their dangerousness on?

The idea of a "Science Build" in Star Trek: Online made me think about it, colloquially known as "Space Magic".

The Oberth, being an outright dedicated science ship, may not have much in the way of conventional weapons... but I don't think that's all that big a deal of in Star Trek.

It's a more outside-the-box approach. Rather than coming upon an enemy and firing Quantum Torpedoes at it... with a powerful enough science suite and enough brainpower, Star Trek has all manner of things that can be weaponized.

This one I admit is not anything direct from canon, it's more of an observation as to how dangerous non-weapons can be in Trek. Something like Genesis... absolutely not a weapon, and yet, one of the most destructive things. They can open rifts, tear subspace, create all manner of exotic energies, etc.

[Batman]

Given the science facilities on a Galaxy likely outmass the entire fucking Oberth and she has massively more power, warp shield deflector and weapons capability to play with, shouldn't the same ability to use 5 dimensional space wedgies to fuck up your opponent make the Galaxy massively MORE capable of doing so?

[Solauren]

We never see the Oberth do anything except plod along on impulse, be destroyed, or having fallen to weird technobabble. What do you base their dangerousness on?

The idea of a "Science Build" in Star Trek: Online made me think about it, colloquially known as "Space Magic".

The Oberth, being an outright dedicated science ship, may not have much in the way of conventional weapons... but I don't think that's all that big a deal of in Star Trek.

It's a more outside-the-box approach. Rather than coming upon an enemy and firing Quantum Torpedoes at it... with a powerful enough science suite and enough brainpower, Star Trek has all manner of things that can be weaponized.

This one I admit is not anything direct from canon, it's more of an observation as to how dangerous non-weapons can be in Trek. Something like Genesis... absolutely not a weapon, and yet, one of the most destructive things. They can open rifts, tear subspace, create all manner of exotic energies, etc.

Oberth classes are science vessels. They have sensors, computer power, and material labs. The more exotic stuff that the bigger ships can do sometimes? That's due to the all the subspace shields and weapons and the like.

Oberth classes are actually unarmed, and with minimal shields. That way, no one sees them as a threat.

[Ralin]

Given the science facilities on a Galaxy likely outmass the entire fucking Oberth and she has massively more power, warp shield deflector and weapons capability to play with, shouldn't the same ability to use 5 dimensional space wedgies to fuck up your opponent make the Galaxy massively MORE capable of doing so?

It's called a joke.

[Batman]

Batman. Officially no sense of humour.