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So, I was watching "The Expanse" a few days ago (background research on the MACOs), and couldn't help but wonder some things.

As they fly to Vulcan (the abortive trip to drop off T'Pol), the Klingons swoop in and attack. Archer, for whatever reason, fires his brand spanking new torps at the lowest setting. Then increases and fires, then cranks it up to 50% finally for a third volley. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but seems like a total waste of ammunition, and putting the crew needlessly in danger. In fact, its putting humanity in danger. He's trying to pull his punches with the Klingons, while he's setting out on a mission to save humanity from the Xindi. What happens if Enterprise is destroyed by Duras? Starfleet has no other warp 5 ships at that point, and the smaller, slower ones wouldn't even be able to make the trip before it was over. He tells Trip they'll do what they have to, and even steals parts from an innocent ship, to complete their mission, but not apparently, destroy an enemy vessel thats attacking without provocation.

Also, I wonder what the torpedo complement of an NX class is, and if they can somehow replenish torps they've used. Because, Archer seems not to worry very much about wasting ammo.

I never thought about that. Good point. My guess is that torpedo complement per launcher could be anywhere between twenty to thirty.

He's still in the mindset of this being a normal mission under normal rules, something he would gradually lose over the course of the season.

Still though....with "the weight of the world" as he put it riding on his shoulders, you'd think he'd have made sure he'd be able to get Enterprise to the expanse to start her mission. He had a clear and decisive advantage, and all he did was knock the Klingon ship offline for about three hours (T'Pols best guess), before changing course to the Expanse. Then, because of his lack of common sense, the ends up with three ships on his tail.

Just seems like Archer didn't really have the mindset to be a Captain in that situation.

Simple, Archer is an idiot. When someone attacks you with lethal intent, you don't poke them a few times before fighting back.

As to the torp complement, I think the official number was "whatever the hell we need for the plot."

Archer was a dreamer of sorts. He went to space with much the 19th early 20th British attitude of "we're better then everyone". The problem is that he didn't have a quarter of a planet's population as a slave labor force to back him up or the massive military might that came with that.

To be honest... the whole crew minus the MAKOs were just not meant for the missions they were running.

A small ship just over four decks big, with a total combined crew of just over a hundred, traipsing about at Warp 5? Yup...I'll agree with you there.

Warp 5, except when a months-long warp 5 journey took them 4 days.

Mikey wrote:Warp 5, except when a months-long warp 5 journey took them 4 days.

See, the real warp scale is Warp Factor N = C^{(speed of the plot)}

Lol