| The Borg Collective |
It was finally that advancements in communications began the networking of individuals. Slowly but surely, individuality became nonexistent, as the opinions of one person were lost, and the opinion of the group became dominant.
It was in the late 23rd century that the Borg nearly wiped out the El-Aurian race. Starfleet rescued the last survivors, unaware of the enemy the El-Aurians had faced. Over 50 years later, the USS Enterprise-D made first known Federation contact with the Borg when the omnipotent being "Q" hurled the ship several thousand lightyears off course into the outer parts of the Delta Quadrant. A Borg vessel, detecting the ship's prescence, attacked the Enterprise in hopes of learning where it was from. The attack was successful in retrieving the neccessary information from the Enterprise's computer core, and the Borg became aware of the Federation. Q transported the ship back to Federation space, but the Borg were on their way..
For several years the Borg as a whole remained out of the way of the events in the Alpha Quadrant, before in 2373 the Borg again launched an offensive on the Federation with a single cube. The cube was destroyed while in orbit over Earth, but a sphere was launched from the ship and then proceeded to travel back in time to the year 2063 to interfere with Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight. The Enterprise destroyed the sphere while it was still in orbit, but the drones onboard beamed aboard the Enterprise and began assimilating it and it's crew. Cochrane's flight was nearly stopped, but again thanks to Commander Data, the flight proceeded, initiating humanity's first contact with the Vulcans.
In the Delta Quadrant, merely a year or so later, Captain Janeway of the U.S.S. Voyager uncovered the existence of an alien race capable of destroying even the Borg, and most definitely the Federation. Working with the Borg, she is able to develop a bio weapon that could destroy this alien group, known only to the Borg as Species 8472. In exchange, Voyager was granted safe passage out of Borg space. Species 8472 is believed to still conduct operations within our space, while the majority remain in fluidic space.
Currently the Borg are still as dangerous as ever, if not more due to the recent wars within the Alpha Quadrant. The Borg at any time, without warning, could launch yet again another attack on the Federation, or even the entire Alpha Quadrant. As of recently the Borg have been in increased interraction with Voyager, including the assimilation of several crewmembers.
What is currently believed to have been several million years ago, a society existed within the Delta Quadrant that was much like the Federation, for example, is today. Only as time continued to pass, they became more and more dependent on technology, to the point they incorporated it so much into their everyday lives they would simply die without it, quite literally. They evolved into cyborgs. Organic life melded with that of robotic technology. It is believed that the change was so gradual no one saw it. The very first stages simply being artifical organs or limbs. Their society continued, uninterrupted, but simply aided by the technology that was part of them.
This new society struck out on their mission: Assimilate all life into their collective. This early form of the Borg possessed technology that was not extraordinary, however, unlike any of their neighboring races, the Borg had the ability to adapt. At almost every level possible, the Borg could adapt to any sign of resistance to assimilation. Whether it be alien technology, or even personality and fighting style. Methodically, their space and numbers grew for millenia. Fleets of Borg ships, usually in the shape of a cube, would enter orbit around a planet, broadcasting their message of accepting the collective, before proceeding to brutally assimilate the entire planet and any ships that stood in their way. Those assimilated had the implants of the collective placed throughout their body, allowing them to perform specific tasks. This continued until they controlled a gigantic portion of the Delta Quadrant. Estimates conclude it would take 10 years at warp to cross the distance.
Starfleet began a rigurous program to prepare for the oncoming Borg assault. New ship and weapon designs were developed at hurried rates, however, the Borg assault came earlier than anyone expected for them to be able to travel in the amount of time they did. In late 2366, a Borg cube was responsible for the dissappearance of an entire federation colony from the surface of a planet. The Enterprise-D was again dispatched to investigate and determined indeed the Borg were launching an offensive. The Enterprise was ordered to hold off the Borg until a fleet could be assembled to attack. It was then that the Borg first demonstrated their ability to assimilate to the Federation, when they kidnapped Captain Jean-Luc Picard and assimilated him as the speaker of the Borg, named: Locutus. Eventually Picard was rescued and the Borg attack was repelled, but Borg activity continues.
