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Definitely. I'd just love to know why the hell they hate each other so much...

I have a hard time believing that the loss of one planet would be so completely crippling to a union of over 150. Besides the fact that the fleet would be intact, there are still four other founding member planets that people would look too - Vulcan jumps out to me as a likely source of guidance and order. Also, there would have to be at least a few high-ranking officials away from Earth at the time of the Probe's arrival at Earth.

It would certainly crush morale, and it would have a measurable effect for sure, because the highest-ranking governing bodies would have vanished. But why can't there be some sort of chain-of-command to prevent the government from collapsing altogether?

Really, we'd have to know what happens to this probe after it kills earth. Would it just stay in orbit indefinitely?

But why can't there be some sort of chain-of-command to prevent the government from collapsing altogether?

Because such an idea exhibits far too much common sense for either Starfleet or the UFP proper.

What's all this about?

Probe comes in, leaving a path of destruction, wastes Earth, then leaves, trailing more destruction.

How does this destroy the Federation? Sure, there's a big path of destruction that goes past earth, and Earth itself is wiped of life, but Why does that destroy the Federation? Does the probe disable every starship? Is Earth the only place the Federation can be run from?

I'd say that they'd simple set up a temporary government on vulcan or something, redeploy the majority of the fleet (which would have survived) to fill in the gaps in the federation's defences, and then set to work repairing the damage done to earth. rebuilding cities, rescuing survivors, aid missions etc.

The Federation is huge. The loss of Earth just wouldn't cause that much damage.

The loss of Earth itself would't cause the downfall of the UFP; rather, the way the UFP is (poorly) organized means that the loss of Earth would be an invitation to every possible hostile in the A or B quadrants with the UFP unable to properly organize a defense.

Personally, I think it would be quite a calamity for the UFP, though I'm pretty positive the Federation would survive it.

Basically, the destruction of Earth means the destruction of the Federation Council, and the President...in other words, of most of the civilian leadership of the UFP. The HQ of Starfleet also seems to be on Earth, but Starfleet's likely got so many Admirals and officials spread throughout their territory that it wouldn't be that big of a blow to them.

Keeping that in mind, I'd think that in the immediate aftermath, what was left of the Starfleet hierarchy would fill the power vacuum pretty quickly; in effect, what would result at least in the short term would basically be a military dictatorship. Once in control, Starfleet would seal their borders, scrape up every starship available to guard the borders. Even with Earth gone, I can't see Starfleet being weakened enough for a major offensive by another power; doubtless the Romulans would try some backhanded power, but if Starfleet played its cards right, I think they'd make it through the crisis pretty well. Maybe a few mercenary groups or small powers might pick the time to start trouble, but beyond that, the Federation would survive. All that remains to be done, once everything calms down a bit, is to elect a new civilian government, and return control to them...that is, if Starfleet decides to. Remember Section 31?



Oh, and check out my new sig quote; is that not the greatest song ever?

Hmmm... a military junta? Very DS9-ish.

And your new sig reminds of an old song:

"In heaven, there is no beer
That's why we're drinking here
'Cause when we are gone from here
Our friends will be drinking all the beer!"

The biggest problem will be manpower. Starfleet is mostly human. in 20 years, we would see a major problem for the fleet.

Deepcrush wrote:The biggest problem will be manpower. Starfleet is mostly human. in 20 years, we would see a major problem for the fleet.

There are ships that have only Vulcan crew, Andorians need lower temperatures so it would also make sense to put them together on a ship.

I would think that that is only a felling that we get. I'm not sure but I think that e-d had a prety high alien crew count.

True that we may not have seen a very diverse fleet but also it would seem that humans are also more willing to enlist in Starfleet. The homosapians only club as it were. The other races would have to pick up where the humans would leave off. Not that they couldn't but it would still cause trouble for a while. The loss of earth would mean that humanity would need time to repopulate and settle a new home world. Mars most likely.

And don't forget how many wacky aliens we saw in the hearings in STIV.

All this talk about decapitating the UFP makes me think it would make a great plot (if done right).

Hmmm... a military junta? Very DS9-ish.

Well, taking over would be the best thing for the UFP, at least in the short term. With the UFP's leadership effectively wiped out, Starfleet is pretty much the only organization with the manpower and authority to pull everyone together and hold back all the oppurtunistic powers and mercenary groups trying to capitalize on the Federation's weakness. Like I said, at that point, a show of strength really would be essential to the Federation's survival at that point, and Starfleet is really the only organization with a command structure that would actually control of all of the Federation anyway.

That being said, though, there's always the oppurtunity for abuse, especially once the immediate crisis is over; but with good ol' moralizing Picard at the helm, I wouldn't be too worried.

But, really, I'd agree with schizo-hal that it could make for a really cool episode (or movie), if done right; plenty of action, intrigue, and Trek-style moral dilemmas.

The biggest problem will be manpower. Starfleet is mostly human. in 20 years, we would see a major problem for the fleet.

Well, you have to remember all of the dozens of TOS and TNG races that look exactly like humans...they could easily account for quite a few of the supposedly 'human' Starfleet officers. And that's not to mention the dozens of human colonies, and humans in other places; pretty much every major planet visited seems to have at least a substantial human population. So I wouldn't be so sure about Earth's destruction having that drastic an effect on human population levels; from what we're seen they're spread pretty well all across the Galaxy. At the same time, though, practically all of the Human Starfleet officers we've ever met in the course of all of the series are all from Earth...oh, well. You can't account for bad writing...

Bad writing or not, its still the cannon which means we have to go by it. If 9 billion humans die, I would say that counts as a sharp blow to the race.

Didn't Earth also had a big alien population.

That would make sense, given that it's the capital.