THE BORG

The Borg are an immensely powerful civilization of enhanced humanoids believed to originate from the Delta Quadrant of the Galaxy. Generally humanoid in appearance, the Borg implant themselves with cybernetic devices, or "implants", granting them superior technological and combat capabilities. Different Borg are equipped with different hardware to perform specific work tasks. Each Borg member, or "Drone" is tied to a sophisticated subspace communications network, forming what is termed "The Borg Collective". This is a shared consciousness in which the ideas of individuality, freedom and self-determination are nearly meaningless concepts. For example, Borg Drones do not refer to themselves in the first person (i.e. "I" or "me"), rather in the plural, such as "we are Borg". Individual Drones do not have names in the common sense, rather they are designated into numerical groups, such as "Third of Five" or "Seven of Nine" and so forth.

The Borg exhibit a high degree of intelligence, granting them vast adaptability in their tactics. Most means of defense or offense against them were found to work only once, almost immediately afterwhich the Borg developed a countermeasure. The Borg do not "seek out new life and new civilizations" in the ordinary sense. Rather than expending time to communicate diplomatically with alien races they encounter, the Borg operate by conquering entire worlds, through a process known as "assimilation", and civilizations and the technology thereon. It is important to note that the Borg select only those worlds which will augment their "perfection", simply destroying the inferior civilizations they encounter. Individual members of assimilated races are implanted with sophisticated cybernetic implants, permitting each individual to perform a specific task as required by the Collective. Thousands of species and thousands of worlds across the galaxy have been conquered in this fashion. The Borg were responsible for the near-extinction of the El-Aurian people in the late 23rd century.