Federation (Star Trek) vs. Empire (Star Wars)
Let’s say the Federation and the Empire were to go to war. In this scenario, we’re assuming the Alpha Quadrant exists in some unexplored corner of the GFFA. I do it this way because a portal would create a chokepoint you could camp and prevent invasion forever, and Q transporting the Alpha Quadrant to the Star Wars universe for shits and giggles would destroy utterly any chance the Empire has of winning (hyperdrive is more powerful than warp, but also fickle--rearranging all the stars in a portion of the galaxy would make it impossible for the Empire to transverse). The other AQ powers remain neutral.
The first thing we have to address is the fact that the Federation has access to, like, eight different forms of time travel. For some reason they almost never use it, and we’re going to have to assume they have some very good reason for not, just, exploiting the shit out of it all the time forever. After all, if the Federation can literally erase from time any battle they don’t win, this is going to be a very short scenario.
With that out of the way, let’s discuss ships. We’ve all heard “Enterprise vs. Star Destroyer” debates, and in them people fall into two broad camps: those who think the Enterprise would win, and those who are wrong.
Primarily this boils down to the Federation’s second “Fuck you; I win” button in this fight: the transporter. Yes, shields can block transporters; it’s a little-appreciated fact, however, that they do not do so by default. There have been any number of times in the Star Trek canon when someone or something managed to bypass shields and teleport onto the Enterprise’s bridge, which implies that their shields have to be specifically calibrated to block transporters.
Of course, “Enterprise v. Star Destroyer” assumes a one-off encounter. If we assume shields in the ST and SW franchises work the same way (and we will), that means it’s entirely possible that the Empire will eventually figure out the trick of blocking transporters. So if we assume the trick of using your transporters to strip the enemy ship of its weapons and engines with contemptuous ease is off the table, does the Enterprise still win a one v. one fight?
Let’s start with defense. Imperial ships don’t appear to utilize shields in any major way, which is surprising when you consider that they are frighteningly fragile--the SD that chased the Millennium Falcon into that asteroid thicket got clobbered. Shields are clearly useful in SW canon--it’s a major plot point in Return of the Jedi--so why do they have a shield station on Endor and nowhere else? There must be some reason they don’t kit their ships out with shields the way the Federation does. (Of course, the real reason is that these are different universes with different rules, but we’re ignoring that.) Remember that if we chalk it up to them being stupid (which is not impossible, in a dictatorial regime), that’s going to effect how fast they figure out that shields can block transporters, as well. Imperial shields must have some cost to them that keep them from being utilized more.
Given that shielding their ships is the only way Imperial forces will ever hope to stand against Federation ones, however, one must assume that they’ll eventually decide to damn the cost, whatever it may be, and do it anyway (and not even for the sake of the scenario--just based on the assumption that they’re not complete idiots and do want to win). Say, I have an evil idea: let’s say SW shields bake the ships they’re shielding in carcinogenic radiation. It explains perfectly why they don’t generally do it and no one else takes advantage of this flaw, yet doesn’t force me to come up with some way to nerf the SD in exchange for this boon. (Sucks to be the crew of this Star Destroyer, but eh, the Empire has reserves. And it’s not like they’d live long enough to get cancer if they don’t.)
So that’s the two biggest advantages the Enterprise has, and they’ll both be going down the toilet at the same time.
ST ships appear to be more maneuverable and fight at greater ranges than SW ships. Ranges in SW fights are absurdly small and so that advantage should probably be negated in sacrifice to the Literary Agent Hypothesis, but maneuverability can be justified.
Star Trek ships use reactionless “impulse” drives to maneuver in realspace, and the power of these drives are reflected in their ships’ designs’ clear and utter contempt for every law of rocketry. What Star Wars ships use to travel at sublight is less clear; ships have something that glows and resembles a rocket nozzle on their rear end and tend to be at least vaguely rocket-shaped, but on the other hand, Han Solo didn’t exactly burn Mos Eisley to the ground with his unscheduled launch. They may have reactionless drives, but they appear to be less absurd in what they allow than what Impulse drives do.
The SD’s advantages are cheifly that they’re a dedicated warship--and therefore will be dedicating more space to weaponry and whatnot--and that in general SW throws around more power than ST does. The Death Star didn’t sterilize Alderaan (which is something a Constitution class ship could have done, BTW)--it obliterated it. Someone once calculated that as requiring four times the energy output of the sun to accomplish. The Death Star is a lot larger than a Star Destroyer, of course, but the thing is, the Death Star isn’t amazing because they’re using some new technology or whatever, it’s amazing as an act of political will--at best, whatever technology and science was involved in it has never been used on that scale before. And if we assume the Empire’s batteries scale linearly with ship mass and bring that down to SD proportion’s...that’s still a lot.
I’ma call it a wash, slight edge to the Star Destroyer. That may not be exactly right, but the exact figure doesn’t matter--the Federation could kill ten ships for every one they lose and still lose the war. The Empire has reserves, after all.
So can the Federation destroy the Empire before the Empire figures out how to fight them?
Here we must examine their respective FTL systems. There is simply no way we can pretend that warp and hyperdrive are the same thing (hence why I didn’t list the ability to fight in warp as one of Enterprise’s advantages). Warp drive is far, far slower than hyperdrive. Hell, subspace is slower than hyperdrive; the Empire can deliver a handwritten letter in less time than it takes the Federation to make a phone call.
As things stand at the beginning of the conflict (note exact words), the Federation is unable to strike at anything of importance in the Empire due to its ridiculous strategic depth and the Empire gets cut to ribbons every time it tries to intrude on Federation space. Stalemate.
Of course, if the Empire can figure out transporters, the Federation can figure out hyperdrive. And between the Federation’s greater focus on SCIENCE! (to the point that we’re not certain the average person in the GFFA can read) and them having more opportunity to study Imperial technology (what with all the ships they’re cutting up), it’s hard to imagine them not doing it first.
Should that be what happens, I suspect the Federation will seek to end the war quickly with a single decapitation strike. Even without their speed advantage, the Empire still has the advantages of strategic depth and reserves--if the Federation can cause the Empire to shatter, they naturally will want to, How convenient for them that the Empire was forged by the will of a single old man who has no obvious heirs.
The Federation can assassinate figures, can win pitched battles, but cannot occupy territory. It’s not going to conquer the Empire...but then, I sincerely doubt that was the Federation’s goal in the first place. It’s not really the Federation’s style; more likely, it was the Empire that tried to conquer the Federation, with the Federation seeking to neutralize the threat, so with that in mind, I think it’s safe to say the Federation wins. They don’t have to conquer the Empire, to occupy it, they just have to Balkanize it. Cut it into manageable portions, and if a Thrawn ever shows up to put it back together, assassinate his ass.
