chenr@tilt.FUN (Ray Chen) (05/10/85)
A few points that people haven't made. First, there's the matter of tracking and fire-control systems. The Enterprise has very good tracking and fire control systems as it can regularly hit scout-ship size objects travelling at fairly high speeds at a distance of planetary diameters. (As in close range == < 75000 km) Going up against a Battlejunk, I mean, star, wouldn't even be interesting. The Enterprise has so much more going for it, it isn't even funny. More powerful weaponry with a longer range, better fire-control systems, more manueverability and speed, and MUCH better shields. Poof. Instant space-junk. The Death Star, now, could be interesting. It's shields are weird. They're designed mainly to keep capital ships from getting too close which makes me believe that it couldn't really stop a photon torpedo or a phaser blast too well. It has a very powerful offensive weapon in the way of its main laser, but it has a low rate of fire and a firing arc of no more than 120 degrees or so (certainly less than 180). This means it has a large blind spot. Plus, as this thing was designed for killing slow ships (remember how slow Star Wars ships went at sublight speeds) and planets, I don't think the Death Star's fire-control systems are up to hitting a starship dodging around at .8c at a range of 150,000 km. I have this feeling that if the Enterprise were to stay out at long range where it would be harder for the Death Star to score a solid hit, it could slowly cut the Death Star to pieces. Or, if someone could figure out that the DS has a low firing rate, after one shot, the Enterprise could close before the Death Star had a chance to fire again, and stay on it's blind side. This would be bad strategy in an Imperial Star Destroyer but good for the Enterprise. A Star Destroyer doesn't mount the heavy weaponry required to destroy a Death Star and it doesn't have the manueverability to STAY in the blind spot once it got there. The Enterprise is capable of doing both. Ray Chen princeton!tilt!chenr