I think most posters here underestimate how difficult it can be to retrofit a ship for combat. Especialy a vessel so small and highly specialised as the Tempest.
Weapons take up space. Not just for the guns themselfes (remember the guns seen aboard the Kett flagship? They were huge!).
Just making room for some meaningfull guns allone would be next to impossible on a tiny ship like the Tempest. And that's not even thinking about magazines for disruptor torpedoes. Those would be pretty much out of the question.
It's not like WW1, where you could just bolt a few small guns and machineguns to the deck of a merchantman or cruise ship and call it a naval auxillary or Q-ship.
You also need room for the powerlines and targeting systems. And off course the capacitors to feed the guns, as the ship's powerplant was most likely never designed for the aditional power draw of anti-ship weaponry.
And don't forget: Anti-Ship weapons in ME are mostly railguns and particle cannons. So they do have recoil. If the ship's structural members aren't designed for taking that recoil, just firing the guns could - over time - literaly shake it appart.
@BirdDog021 wrote:It's not like WW1, where you could just bolt a few small guns and machineguns to the deck of a merchantman or cruise ship and call it a naval auxillary or Q-ship.
Actually, at this point this seems the way to go, at least until the Tempest gets external hardpoints mounted. Plus, if Kallo is anywhere as good as Joker you'll hit what you are aiming at.
Do any of our vessels have guns? I don't remember seeing any on the Arks or on the Nexus.
