Borg Information Node Alpha 374

The Borg are an immensely powerful civilisation of enhanced humanoids from the Delta Quadrant. The Borg implant themselves with cybernetic devices, giving them great technological and combat capabilities. Different Borg are equiped with different hardware for specific tasks. Each Borg drone is linked to a sophisticated subspace communications network, forming the Borg-Collective. This is a shared conciousness in which the individual is nearly a meaningless concept.

Techical Knowledge:

The Borg exhibit a high degree of intelligence and an adaptive tactical response. Most means of attack or defence taken against them are only known to work once or twice before the Borg have adapted to this method or pattern and are now ready for it.

The Borg operate by conquering worlds and adding the sentient lifeforms found into their Collective as either drones or energy. All technological knowledge is stripped and added to their own, greatly increasing their overall power.

A Borg vessel is a simple construction, with no bridge, engine room or living quarters. The Borg drone are assigned to the various sections to carry out maintainence, repairs and information gathering. The central power core is located in the absolute centre of the vessel. Data and Borg communications are dispatched through Distribution Nodes, which link the Collective together. A Borg ship would still be able to operate if a theoretical 78% percent of it were destroyed or inoperable. However, this condition would only exist for a matter of minutes as the Borg drones would initiate a full scale repair program.

The theoretical speed limits of Borg ships have never been measured, however, it is known that the Borg are capable of a velocity of over Warp 9.99. It is believed that the Borg are not capable of passing the Warp Threshold into Warp 10, but they have assimilated technology which allows them to open Transwarp Conduits. These conduits, which use the same principles of the Transwarp Experiment (U.S.S. Excelsior NX-2000), allows the Borg vessel to bend space and travel between points in a far shorter time. This is how Federation Scientists believe the Borg managed to get to Federation Space from System J25 in the Delta Quadrant in under a year, a trip which would take a starship at maximum warp at least 7 years to cover the same distance.

History:

The Borgs first contact with humans occured in 2357 when a lone craft, flying through what is known as Botha Space attracted the attention of the Borg. The ship, a small research vessel called The Raven was assimilated, as were the three passengers, the Hansons and their daughter Onika. It was at this point that the Borg-Collective became aware of an advanced space dwelling people in the Alpha Quadrant. Borg ships were immediately dispatched.

In 2365, one of these ships encountered a unknown vessel, in system J25, after the Borg had already assimilated the system.. The vessel identified itself as the United Federation of Planets starship, U.S.S.
Enterprise, (NCC-1701-D) The commanding officer, Jean-Luc Picard sent a landing party over to the ship after a minor battle, but they soon withdrew. Somehow, through a method that the Borg are still unable to understand, the ship managed to escape.

The Borg finally arrived in Federation space in 2366, after destroying the outlying Federation colony of New Providence, on Planet Jouret IV. The Federation starship Enterprise was sent to prevent the Borg advancing further into Federation territory.

During this attack, The Borg abducted the captain of the Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard and assimilated him into the Collective. They used his extensive knowledge of Starfleet tactics and defences to assault a fleet of 40 Federation starships at Wolf 359. This would later be known as the "Massacre at Wolf 359", when 39 of the 40 ships were destroyed, with the loss of over 11,000 lives. The Borg pushed on to Earth.

For the first time in known Borg history, they were defeated, when the Enterprise managed to retake Picard, now known as Locutus of Borg and used his subspace link to trigger a malfunction in the Borg ship. It was destroyed in orbit of Earth.

There have been three further incursions into Federation space, as well as incursions into the fringe areas of both Klingon and Romulan space. The Borg were responsible for the destruction of outlying Romulan and Federation outpost along what is called the Neutral Zone.

The second incursion was by a Borg Scout vessel, which are smaller cube like ships that act as point vessels. It is their task to go in and survey the space before them before the main Borg vessel enters the area. Unfortunately, this vessel crashed on a desolate world, where we believe that only one member of the five crew, designated as Third of Five survived. When this drone was recovered, he contained a sense of individuality within himself, that spread to the other Borg aboard the Rescue Vessel. Realising this to be a threat, the Collective isolated itself from this small cell of Borg. The artifical lifeform known only as Lore discovered the Borg vessel drifting, and assured them that he could lead them toward a state of perfection, the prime directive of the Borg. Lore was defeated and deactivated by the Federation when he attempted to lead his group of Borg drones against the Federation. The current wherabouts of the disconnected Borg is still unknown.

The third and most recent incursion was in 2373, when a single Borg ship again penetrated its way deep into Federation space in an attempt to assimilate Earth. The attack failed when the ship was met with heavy resistance by the Federation fleet, led by the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-E)

Before the ship was destroyed, a single vessel managed to escape and go back through time to Earth time 2063, in an attempt to prevent Zefram Cochranes first Warp flight, thus preventing First Contact with the Vulcans. The Enterprise-E followed the ship back, and managed to help Cochrane make his Warp flight, but at the cost of over half the crew of the Enterprise being either killed or assimilated. The ship was heavily damaged internally while the Borg seized control of her vital systems.

Back in the Delta Quadrant, using technology assimilated from other races, the Collective attempted to assimilate a new biological species, designated as Species 8472. Species 8472 originated from outside the Milky Way galaxy. However, this species proved to be difficult to assimilate as their genetic sequencing could destroy the Borg nanoprobes. Once Species 8472 realised that they could also cross the divide and enter the Delta Quadrant, a systematic war began with the Collective. Having suffered heavy losses, such as entire solar systems and thousands of ships, the Borg started to fall back. It wasn't until they intercepted a Federation starship, designated U.S.S. Voyager (NCC-74656), that a weapon was created to stop Species 8472. They retreated back to their realm, giving the Borg a monumentous victory. However, one Borg drone, designation Seven of Nine was lost during the battle, as was the location of the Alpha Quadrant vessel Voyager.