By Grant Ramsay

Little is known about the Borg prior to the first encounter in 2365 by the USS Enterprise, (except for several colonies which
were destroyed in 2364 along the Federation / Romulan Neutral Zone, their destruction later being attributed to the Borg). It is
a fact that their home was originally in the Delta Quadrant, but they roam the galaxy looking for new technology to assimilate
into their collective. Their ability to adapt instantly to counter any new threat makes them probably the greatest threat to the
Federation ever. It is important to note that the Federation would not have encountered the Borg quite so soon had the being
known as 'Q' not brought both species together by throwing the Enterprise light years off course to System J-25. The
Enterprise was only saved from destruction by the intervention of 'Q' who sent them back to the Alpha Quadrant. At this point,
Starfleet began planning for the expected invasion of the Federation, now that the Borg were aware of our existence. The Borg
are an immensely powerful race of enhanced humanoids, who implant themselves with cybernetic devices which give them great
technological and combat advantages over simple 'biological' humanoids. It is known that the Borg are born as totally biological
beings, but have their first implants inserted shortly after birth and are then 'updated' as they grow to finally take their designated
place in the Collective.

In the Collective, different Borgs are equipped with different hardware for specific tasks, and are tied into a sophisticated
subspace network. This links each Borg with all of the other Borg, forming in effect one mind - The Collective. Due to this
combined intelligence and adaptability, most succesfull weapons against the Borg only work once - they quickly adapt and
generate an effective counter. This is evident with the Phaser - one Borg can be killed, but after that all the other Borg can
generate a shield to totally nullify this weapon. The crew of the Enterprise partially got around this by designing a chip to fit in
the hand phasers which randomly changed the phaser frequency after every shot. This stopped the Borg from being able to
adapt. Larger versions were installed in the ships phasers also. 

The Borg finally invaded the Federation in 2366, when the USS Enterprise (again) encountered a Borg ship entering Federation
space, on route to the Terran Starsystem. The Enterprise had been investigating the disappearance of the New Providence
colony on Jouret IV. The Federation, true to form, was not prepared for an invasion. The Borg captured captain Jean-Luc
Picard from the Enterprise with the intention of using a human voice to co-ordinate their assimilation of the Federation. They
then however altered Picard by inserting bio-mechanical implants, in effect making Picard himself a Borg - Locutus of Borg. All
of Picard's Knowledge then was avaliable to the Borg, who easily defeated any of the Enterprise plans to destroy them.
Locutus then led the Borg to destroy 39 ships of the 40 which Starfleet had emassed at Wolf 359. Eventually, the crew of the
Enterprise managed rescue Picard/Locutus from the Borg ship. Data then used the Borg susbpace link with Locutus to implant
a 'sleep' command into the Collective. This then caused the Borg ship to self destruct, and Picard was released from the
Colective. Dr Crusher was then able to remove the Borg implants and Picard was human again.

The next time the Federation encountered the Borg was when a crashed Borg scoutship was discovered on a moon in the
Argolis Cluster by the Enterprise. A single survivor, whose Borg designation was 'Third of Five' was rescued. The Enterprise
crew nursed this Borg back to health, and gave him a name : 'Hugh'. The crew developed a 'virus' which they could introduce
into the Borg Collective Consciousness, through Hugh, and was designed to cause a fatal overload, hence destroying all the
Borg at once. However, the crew then realised that Hugh was becoming more 'self' aware and hence this weapon was
effectively murder. Hugh was returned to the crash site and later picked up by another Borg scout ship. Incidentally, Picard was
later given a severe reprimand by Starfleet for alowing the Borg to leave without attempting to use it to destroy the Collective.

The decision Picard made to return Hugh to the Collective had a profound effect on the Borg. Hugh's new-found sense of
individuality began to be transferred throughout the ship he was on - deprived of their group identity, individual Borg were
unable to function as a unit. All were confused and some even starved to death as a result. They were unable to navigate or
indeed perform any function properly. This was changed with the arrival of the android Lore, brother of Starfleet android
commander Data. Lore appointed himself leader of these Borg, and promised that he would help them towards their goal - to
become totaly artificial life-forms free from any dependance on biological or organic bodies. In 2369 Lore led the Borg on a
new offensive against the Federation. Using Transwarp conduits they were able to travel many times faster than the top speed
of Starfleet's best ships. They first atacked a Federation outpost on Ohniaka III, killing all lifeforms present, and then managed
to enlist the help of Commander Data himself who vowed to help his brother Lore. Lore however was controlling Data (and the
Borg) by re-transmitting some of the emotions from his emotion-chip to Data and by-passing his programming. The Enterprise
crew one again managed to save the day by destroying the Borg ship, and enlisting the help of Hugh and some renegade Borg
to thwart Lore's plans. Data then dismantled Lore, and took the emotion chip so that he would some day be able to use it
himself. The surviving Borg rallied under Hugh and are attempting to make a new life, as individuals. 

The Borg will continue in their single-minded purpose : the assimilation of cultures and technology, until they are destroyed.
There have been no recent contacts with the Borg for some time, though the usual pessimists believe that this will not last. They
talk about a new invasion and the personal involvment of the (mythical) Borg Queen. Time will tell.