This page details the history of the Borg Collective.

Contents 1 Creation 1.1 Forgotten light 1.2 Beginning 1.3 Side effects 1.4 Legacy 1.5 Destiny 2 Early history 3 First contact 3.1 21st century 3.2 22nd century 4 23rd century 5 24th century 5.1 The Battle of Wolf 359 (2366-2367) 5.2 Vendetta (2367) 5.3 Assimilation and activity (2367 - 2373) 5.4 The Battle of the Typhon Sector and First Contact (2373) 5.5 War with Species 8472 (2373-2374) 5.6 Revenge (2374 - 2375) 5.7 Voyager (2375-2377) 5.8 Unimatrix Zero (2376) 5.9 The First Invasion (2376) 5.10 The Second Invasion (2377) 5.11 Alpha Quadrant operations (2377) 5.12 Crippling blow (2377) 5.13 Evolution (2380) 5.14 The Final Battle (2381) 6 25th century 7 External link

CreationEdit

Intelligence provided by Erika Hernandez during in the Borg Invasion of 2381 suggest the Borg have a definite point of origin from a crashed and temporally-displaced Caeliar cityship, Mantilis, in 4527 BC. However there has also been evidence of Borg activity much earlier, such as the assimilation of the Hirogen homeworld around 110,000 BC, and possible Borg-Preserver conflicts dating back billions of years. (ST - Destiny novel: Lost Souls; ST short story: "The Hunted"; TNG novel: Vendetta)

To explain these contradictory accounts of Borg activity, and multiple known accounts of the creation of the Borg, some have speculated that the Borg are not merely a single evolution but, like the recurring humanoid form in the galaxy, something that has developed time and again in the galaxy. The Borg, or something akin to them, have evolved and re-evolved, possibly assimilating the latest iteration of their form as each new type of Borg is spawned. It has also be suggested Borg activity has occurred in waves; with Borg expanding into the galaxy, assimilating most of it, and then entering periods of hibernation as a new set of civilizations forms in the Borg's wake ready for future assimilation. Thus the Borg have been active in the galaxy for billions of years, but have also arisen multiple times, and coalesced into the Borg Collective known in the 24th century. (Star Trek Magazine #147: "Collective Encounters")

Some of the known accounts of Borg origins are as follows:

Forgotten lightEdit

One species which gave rise to the Borg originated in the Delta Quadrant, however it would seem it was in fact a colony of this race in the Alpha or Beta Quadrants that created the Borg. This colony was located on a planet named Havarrnus and was technologically advanced, so when a virulent disease struck their world they were able to use cybernetic technology to repair the damage to their bodies. Unfortunately, Havarrnus was a doomed world. Just a few hundred years after the colony had been established the planet’s star began to turn into a Red Giant and in the process would make the world uninhabitable. In response to the predicted anarchy that the destruction of their world would cause, a political group, the Technologists, proposed the Interlink Act. After some political debate the act was passed with overwhelming support and those who volunteered were implanted with a neuroprocessor, thus joining their minds in a harmonious order, the Collective. Within two centuries of the act being passed, the Collective had become the Borg and assimilated the rest of the planet. The Borg presumably left Havarrnus before it was rendered uninhabitable and returned to their home in the Delta Quadrant where the Collective grew. (TNG short story: "Forgotten Light")

BeginningEdit

A Borg origin was also brought about by disease on another planet; on an unidentified world where the inhabitants of that planet had been struck down by a deadly disease which was slowly killing them. The scientists on the planet developed Bio-Organic Regenerators, a nanotechnology which would be injected into a subject's circulatory system, eradicate the disease, and rebuild the patient's crippled body. The first experiment was successful in eliminating the disease but also began to change the subject, making her stronger than ever before, replacing her broken body with technology and giving her drive and determination to share her gift with others and make them as perfect as her superior self had become. The experiment soon lost containment and in a short time the entire planet was assimilated, transformed into drones lead by the initial test subject. (ST short story: "The Beginning")

Side effectsEdit

Long ago the people of a number of planets were struck down by a terrible disease for which no cure could be found. In an ingenious operation, a scientist, Doctor Mynzek, placed the sufferers in suspended animation and established a research base near the event horizon of a black hole. He sent starships out via a series of wormholes to capture subjects and run experiments on them in the search for a cure. Using the gravitational time dilation effect of the black hole he could coordinate centuries of research being conducted on the ships which for those on the base took only days. Mynzek's daughter, Danzek, was the guinea pig for these experiments on one ship, integrated with technology and biological components from numerous races. Danzek became immensely powerful following the experiment and returned to the station, controlling a group of cybernetically enhanced test subjects similar to herself. After a brief confrontation the station was destroyed. Danzek, now queen of her subjects, escaped through a wormhole which was affected by the temporal distortion generated by the exploding station and as a result, could have sent her anywhere in space and time. (TOS comic: "Side Effects")

Amongst Danzek's subjects was a Ferengi, possibly explaining why the Ferengi, Species 180, have such a low designation for an Alpha Quadrant species.

LegacyEdit

A later origin was discovered by the Vulcan scientist T'Uerell during her attempt to become the new controlling entity within the Collective in order to mold the galaxy into a realm of pure logic. After entering a deep meditative state, she mind melded with the Borg Collective consciousness and discovered that the origin of the Collective lies with the human-built machine probe that would be known as "V'Ger." The probe fell into a black hole where space and even time are bent. Through whatever providence, this machine survived. Living machines found the probe and altered it. Its programming was a mystery to them, but they interpreted it as best they could. They returned to the creator, but it could find nothing. No others like it and none that could have created it. In that moment, the probe decided all carbon-based life was an infestation of the creator's universe. That assimilation was their only useful purpose...as tools for it to learn and grow. It catalogued all carbon-based life and their technology. It created drones in their image and merged them into a collective consciousness. This is where the Borg began, sent out as heralds to find it creator and to learn all that is learnable and return that information to V'Ger for assimilation. As the collective grew the necessity for a single voice became the only logical recourse. The Collective found the females of certain species displayed a mental prowess, enabling them to sift through thousands of thoughts and bring order to chaos. Installing these females as the Collective's processors of information, they became much more efficient. With thoughts and desires of her own, she was no longer bound to serve V'Ger. But the destruction of the Queen put a limit on the life of the Collective. With its size and power unregulated it would become chaos.(ST video game: Legacy)

DestinyEdit

In 4527 BC, the temporally displaced Caeliar known as Sedín forcibly bonded with three Humans from the 22nd century: United Earth Starfleet Lieutenants Karl Graylock and Kiona Thayer and United Earth MACO First Sergeant Gage Pembleton in a bid to survive the destruction of the Caeliar city-ship Mantilis in the frozen antarctic wastelands of Arehaz in the Delta Quadrant. Reduced to a state of pure hunger after having murdered her Caeliar compatriots, Sedín used her catoms to possess the minds and bodies of the Humans, transforming them into the first drones. Upon the arrival of a Kindir icebreaker later that year, the newly formed Collective targeted Arehaz for assimilation.

In consequence of the final free thought of Lieutenant Graylock (vowing that he will never be a "cyborg") imprinting upon the Collective consciousness, the new collective entity referred to itself as the Borg. (ST - Destiny novel: Lost Souls)

Early historyEdit

Following the creation of the Collective the Borg continued to enhance and improve themselves, becoming more and more mechanical, removing all emotions and focusing their hive minded efforts on the single goal of turning the chaotic universe into a structured, perfect whole. After completely assimilating their own homeworld the Borg began constructing starships, massive cubes which mirrored their indestructible and ordered nature. They spread to nearby star systems and assimilated those they encountered as well as any technology they encountered, spreading the will of the Borg. (ST - Strange New Worlds VI short story: "The Beginning")

The Borg soon encountered the powerful race later known as the Preservers. Although the Borg were only limited to a collection of planets, a medium sized fleet, and was only just beginning to incorporate other beings and ships into their Collective, the Preservers could not easily defeat the Collective consciousness of the Borg. The Preservers soon disappeared, but created two prototype Planet Killers, robotic killing machines that were composed of neutronium, with the hope that they could use their ability to destroy whole planets to wipe out the Borg. However, these devices were never activated by the Preservers but both were later activated through unknown means. (TNG novel: Vendetta)

Following the disappearance of the Preservers, the Borg began to slowly spread out across the Delta Quadrant. Approximately 128,000 years ago a large fleet of Borg ships attacked the Cetacean Probe in an attempt to assimilate it. The attempt failed but they did succeed in damaging the crystal memory core of the Probe. Because of the Collective's inability to assimilate the Probe, the Borg extrapolated the Probe's course and tracked down its home world, hoping to assimilate its creators. Many millions were killed but the creators kept the Borg from assimilating the planet and its population. Failing to assimilate the creators and their technology, the Borg somehow reduced the power output of the local Star, throwing the creator's world into an Ice Age. In a bid to survive, the creators then destroyed their homeworld’s moon and constructed an evacuation fleet out of the debris left over from the moon. After building the fleet, the surviving creators left for parts unknown. (TOS novel: Probe)

Around the same time, the Borg suffered one of their first major set backs while attempting to assimilate the Trilex civilization. As a last resort to defeat the large Borg invasion force, the Trilex made their Sun go supernova, which sent out a massive subspace pulse and destroyed the Borg fleet. (ST novel: The Return)

Despite these setbacks, the Borg continued to slowly spread across several sectors of the Delta Quadrant, assimilating many of the native species including millions of Hirogen and their homeworld around 110,000 years ago. (ST short story: "The Hunted")

The Last Unicorn RPG module: All Our Yesterdays: The Time Travel Sourcebook suggests the Borg has only began to assimilate other lifeforms in the Delta Quadrant about 12,700 before the 24th century. At face value this would seem to contradict earlier reports of Borg activity, however taking into account the idea of waves of Borg activity suggested in Star Trek Magazine #147: "Collective Encounters", this might merely indicate the beginning of the latest resurgence of the Borg.

Despite many attempts to assimilate numerous cultures in the Delta Quadrant, by the 1470s, the Collective was still only limited to a handful of systems in the Quadrant. At this time, a Delta Quadrant species with connections to every region of the Quadrant, the Vaadwaur, considered the Borg to be a minor nuisance. (VOY episode: "Dragon's Teeth")

First contactEdit

21st centuryEdit

In the 21st century the Borg still resided in the Delta Quadrant, however, on April 4th 2063, a Borg Sphere appeared in orbit around Earth after emerging from a Temporal Vortex and began to fire on a position in central Montana in North America, hoping to prevent Zefram Cochrane's Warp flight and Earth's subsequent first contact with the Vulcans. The USS Enterprise-E, which had pursued the Sphere through time, quickly destroyed the Sphere, however a number of Drones, including the Borg Queen, transported to the Enterprise before the Sphere's destruction and attempted to assimilate the Enterprise and its crew with the goal of continuing their original plan to prevent first contact. Whilst on the Enterprise, the Borg attempted to contact their 21st century counterparts in the Delta Quadrant by building an interplexing beacon. But this plan was thwarted and the Queen and her Drones were eventually killed by the crew of the Enterprise and First Contact went ahead unhindered. However, some of the wreckage from the destroyed Sphere, including at least two Drones, crashed into the Arctic region of Earth and would lay undiscovered for almost a hundred years. (TNG movie: First Contact)

Also, during the 21st century, the Borg Queen decided to utilize several worlds and cultures as unknowing research and development laboratories. The Borg would beam up several people from the planet's surface and provide them advanced technology without revealing their own identity. The worlds would reverse engineer the technology and expand their own achievements much more rapidly than would have normally occurred. One such world was Narisia. (Star Trek novel: Engines of Destiny)

22nd centuryEdit

Almost a century later in 2153, the wreckage of the Sphere was discovered on Earth. Starfleet deployed a research team to the site to excavate the remains where they discovered two Drones and began to thaw them out. But the Drones started to regenerate and shortly after they reactivated and proceeded to assimilate the team and their vessel.

The Borg quickly enhanced the vessels systems, including the Warp Drive and weaponry, with technology taken from the remains of the Sphere. They took the ship into deep space and attacked a Tarkalean Freighter. The Enterprise (NX-01) intercepted the Borg, forcing them to break off their attack and retreat, leaving behind two partially assimilated Tarkaleans which were brought aboard the Enterprise. While the crew tried to determine a means of disabling the Borg ship, the two Tarkaleans tried to escape and injected Doctor Phlox with nanoprobes before assimilating various components of the Enterprise. The two Tarkaleans were eventually jettisoned into space when security could not incapacitate them. The Borg later returned and attempted to assimilate the Enterprise, using the Borg circuitry aboard the Enterprise to weaken its defense. However, Captain Jonathan Archer and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed beamed aboard the Borg ship and sabotaged the ship, allowing the Enterprise to destroy it. After Phlox irradiated himself and destroyed the Nanoprobes inside him, he revealed that the Borg had successfully transmitted the coordinates of Earth to the rest of their kind in the Delta Quadrant. (ENT episode: "Regeneration")

Also in this century, the Collective native to the timeframe assimilated the El-Aurian homeworld but not the entire race. (TNG episode: "Q Who?")

23rd centuryEdit

At some point in the 23rd century, the Borg Queen discovered the technological distinctiveness of Species 1429 and acquired the time travel sphere. The other worlds the Queen had cultivated had not produced significant results, and as such, she abandoned them, considering it a waste of resources to continue. (ST novel: Engines of Destiny)

In early 2268, a Borg cube encountered a pod full of tribbles which had travelled through a micro-wormhole from the Alpha Quadrant. This was the Borg's first contact with life from that part of the galaxy. The Borg assimilated the surviving tribbles, only to find that their instinctive drive to eat and procreate was starting to overwhelm the hive mind, causing a widespread series of malfunctions. (TOS short story: "The Trouble with Borg Tribbles")

24th centuryEdit

With sketchy reports of encounters with the Borg originating from various sources, the encounter with the unidentified cyborgs from the Arctic in 2153, and tales from Borg survivors such as the El-Aurians, the Federation eventually developed a vague idea of the existence of the Borg. As a result, in the mid-24th century, Magnus and Erin Hansen, along with their daughter Annika Hansen, set out aboard the USS Raven to search for the Borg. They found a cube and even followed it through a Transwarp Conduit to the Delta Quadrant. The Raven and the Hansen family were eventually assimilated when the Borg detected the Raven, which had been shielded from Borg detection but lost its protection during an ion storm. (VOY episodes: "The Raven", "Dark Frontier")

In the year 2362, the Borg had a vessel in, or just outside of, Federation space. This vessel encountered the USS Tombaugh, commanded by Captain Blackwood. The Borg assimilated the Tombaugh and its crew. (VOY episode: "Infinite Regress")

In 2364, a Borg cube arrived in Romulan space and assimilated a Romulan science outpost. A vessel commanded by Commander Moliok of the Imperial Romulan Fleet confronted the vessel but she, her crew, and her ship were promptly assimilated. This Borg cube would go on to assimilate several Federation and Romulan outposts along the Neutral Zone, but neither the Federation nor the Romulan Star Empire would be able to determine who was responsible for the disappearance of their outposts. (ST comic: "Operation: Assimilation"; TNG episode: "The Neutral Zone")

The first officially recorded Federation encounter with the Borg occurred in 2365 when Q threw the USS Enterprise-D into System J25, 7000 Light Years from Federation space. There they encountered a Borg cube. The cube attempted to assimilate the Enterprise and they only managed to escape thanks to the assistance of Q. This incident propelled the Borg from mere rumor to an established and deadly threat and Starfleet immediately began to prepare for future Borg attacks, designing new weapons, tactics, and ships based on the information gathered on the Borg by the Enterprise crew. (TNG episode: "Q Who?")

The Battle of Wolf 359 (2366-2367)Edit

See main article: Borg Incursion of 2366-2367

The first Borg incursion into Federation space came much earlier than Starfleet expected. In late 2366, a Borg cube occupied by the Borg Queen assimilated the Federation colony New Providence, the first step on its march towards Earth. The Enterprise D was sent to intercept and hold off the Borg whilst Starfleet mustered its forces. The Enterprise eventually engaged the cube and this action resulted in the assimilation of Captain Jean-Luc Picard who became Locutus of Borg, the Collective's envoy to humanity, a Drone that the Queen hoped would be a counterpart. (TNG episode: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I"; TNG movie: First Contact)

On Stardate 44002.3 a fleet of 40 Starfleet vessels was sent to intercept the Cube at Wolf 359 and prevent its progress towards Earth. The attack was a failure and the armada was obliterated, resulting in the destruction of 39 of the 40 ships and the deaths and/or assimilation of 11,000 Starfleet officers. The Enterprise later attacked the Cube as a distraction whilst the crew rescued Jean-Luc Picard. They then used Picard's link with the Collective to gain control of the Cube, putting the Drones into a regeneration state and causing the Cube to self destruct. Picard was freed from the Collective but retained a link. (TNG episode: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II"; DS9 episode: "Emissary")

Unknown at the time, but one Starfleet vessel that did not originally survive the Battle of Wolf 359 was saved from destruction by the entity known as Q and a Starfleet officer that Q had brought with him from the year 2377. Together, the two saved the ship from destruction and in order to preserve the timeline, Q sent the ship to the year 2377 in order to avoid contaminating the timeline, although its disappearance resulted in the assumption that only one ship survived the massacre. The officer that Q had worked with to save the ship wanted the ship to survive since his father was aboard and would have died otherwise. (ST video game: Star Trek: Borg)

Vendetta (2367)Edit

Later that year, the Collective retaliated by sending five Cubes into Federation space. Fortunately (but almost disastrously), for the Federation, one of the ancient Planet Killers designed to fight the Borg by the Preservers came into the possession of the mysterious woman known as Delcara. Delcara, who had a particularly intense vendetta against the Borg, fought alongside the Enterprise, the USS Chekov and the USS Repulse in facing down the Borg fleet. In the end, Delcara went insane, and almost proved to be as big of a threat as the Borg themselves. Delcara disappeared, never to return, after attempting to take her ancient weapon ship past the Warp 10 barrier in order to reach Borg space before she died from her injuries. (TNG novel: Vendetta)

Assimilation and activity (2367 - 2373)Edit

The year 2367 was the first year in which the Borg attacked the Brunali homeworld in the Delta Quadrant. (VOY episode: "Child's Play")

At another point in 2367, a Borg Sphere crashed on an isolated world and its survivors, the Drones designated Two of Nine, Three of Nine, Four of Nine and Seven of Nine, regained their individuality. Because Seven of Nine had been assimilated at a very young age, she could not cope with her individuality. Seven eventually decided to create a small Collective between the four of them when the other Drones refused to await their rescue and to rejoin the Collective. This action created a Collective within a Collective between the four after being rescued by the Borg. (VOY episode: "Survival Instinct"; VOY short story: "Brief Candle")

In 2369, a Borg Cube attempted to travel from the Gamma Quadrant end of the Bajoran wormhole into the Bajor system, but the vessel was torn to shreds by the wormhole as it was currently undergoing subspace compression. This caused the Collective to steer clear of the wormhole, thinking it dangerous. (DS9 novel: The Siege)

Also in 2369, a Borg vessel assimilated a rogue Cardassian artificial intelligence at the planet Uridi'si. The USS Valkyrie set off in pursuit with Starfleet Intelligence agent Commander Ruriko Tenmei, an A.I. and Nanoscience expert, charged with destroying the A.I. Though she accomplished this objective, she and the Valkryie were assimilated. (DS9 novel: Lesser Evil)

At some point during 2370, the Borg launched a second attack on the Brunali Homeworld. (VOY episode: "Child's Play")

In 2371, the Borg assimilated Species 6339, a humanoid Warp-capable species located in grid 124, octant 22 theta of the Delta Quadrant. Species 6339 vessels tended to be well armed but even with this being the case, eleven billion members of this species were assimilated, and only a handful managed to escape. (VOY episode: "Infinite Regress")

In 2373, a Borg cube in the Delta Quadrant was traveling through the Nekrit Expanse when it was hit by an electrokinetic storm, killing most of the Drones on board. The survivors lost their connection with the hive mind thus causing them to regain their individuality. The group resettled on a nearby planet but having regained their individuality began infighting between the different species as a result. Eventually the group, the Borg Cooperative, created a miniature independent collective on the planet to bring order back to their chaotic society. (VOY episode: "Unity")

The Battle of the Typhon Sector and First Contact (2373)Edit

A Borg cube again entered Federation space on a course for Earth in 2373. A fleet of Starfleet vessels was gathered and proved much more resistant then in the Battle at Wolf 359, however it was Jean-Luc Picard's lingering link with the Collective that allowed him to locate a weakness in the Cube and direct the fleet to it, resulting in the destruction of the Cube. As the Cube was destroyed, it launched a Sphere into a Temporal Vortex that was pursued by the Enterprise-E. The Enterprise and its crew were instrumental in stopping the Borg from carrying out their plans to prevent first contact between Earth and the Vulcans and to assimilate Earth, removing the Federation from the timeline. (TNG movie: First Contact)

During the running battle between the Federation and the Borg Cube from the Typhon Sector to Earth, the Borg assimilated a number of Starfleet officers and were able to extract information about the Dominion and their Founders. This information was transmitted back to the Collective before the destruction of the Cube. The assimilated USS Valkyrie was sent to the Gamma Quadrant as a scouting vessel to investigate Dominion space. In 2374, the ship was engaged by the Jem'Hadar and both ships were fatally damaged. Combined with the Cube lost in 2369 and the rising difficulties with the recently encountered Species 8472, expansion into the Gamma Quadrant apparently became a low priority for the Collective. (DS9 novel: Lesser Evil)

In an alternate timeline where Montgomery Scott rescued James T. Kirk before he could be absorbed into the Nexus, Picard and the Enterprise-E were not present to follow the Borg into the past. Additionally, although the Queen intended to use the time travel sphere to travel only a few days into the past to warn herself of the significant defenses the Federation would muster, it malfunctioned and threw her back into 2063. From there, she immediately assimilated Earth, and then Alpha Centauri, and set up a sensor blockage around the Sol system as she built up her fleet inside its borders. After her original self abandoned her seed species, the time shifted Queen reestablished the contact. Various species built up an Alliance to resist and combat the methodical Borg, and the Narisians were integrated into the Alliance, becoming unknowing spies into their actions. The Queen became aware of the presence of Picard, and combined with false memories of her death at his hands, sought to destroy them completely. However, the Enterprise-D was able to return Kirk to the Nexus as she destroyed the Starfleet vessel, and the timeline returned to its normal flow. (Star Trek novel: Engines of Destiny)

War with Species 8472 (2373-2374)Edit

In 2373, the Borg discovered the realm known as fluidic space, a parallel universe that was home to Species 8472. The Borg considered Species 8472 to be the pinnacle of biological development and sought to assimilate the race to add to the Collective’s perfection. Unfortunately the species proved highly resistant and immune to assimilation due to their incredibly advanced biological development. Possibly the most biologically developed race encountered by the Collective, Species 8472 saw the Borg incursion into fluidic space as a prelude to invasion and sought to wipe out all life in the Milky Way, claiming that life in this galaxy was inferior and had to be purged.

Species 8472 began incursions into the Milky Way Galaxy with the aim of eradicating all life, starting with the Borg. The war was costly for the Borg, billions of Drones and thousands of ships were destroyed as well as a number of Borg worlds. The Collectives neighbors saw Species 8472 as a blessing, halting the Collectives relentless march of assimilation and possibly the race to finally wipe out the Borg. (VOY episode: "Scorpion, Part I")

However, this opinion was not shared by Captain Janeway of the USS Voyager, who, fortunately for the Collective, was on her way through Borg space. Janeway offered the Borg an alliance, in exchange for passage through Borg space she would help the Borg develop a weapon to use against Species 8472. Janeway and her chief of security, Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, were beamed to a Borg Cube to begin work on the weapon. The Borg attempted to attach neural transceivers to the pair in order to link Janeway and Tuvok to the hive mind but the two resisted and instead a Drone, Seven of Nine, the former Annika Hansen, was chosen as an interface with the Collective. The Cube was destroyed by a Species 8472 bioship and Tuvok, Seven of Nine, an injured Captain Janeway, and a number of Drones transported to Voyager and escaped. Commander Chakotay, now temporarily in command of Voyager, decided to alter the agreement and eventually ejected all of the Drones except for Seven of Nine into space. Seven then took control of the deflector dish and created a Quantum Singularity which pulled Voyager into fluidic space. There, they successfully tested the Nanoprobe weapon they had developed and left fluidic space after destroying a group of Species 8472. Realising that they were vulnerable, Species 8472 retreated back into fluidic space and the war came to an end. The crew of Voyager severed Seven of Nine’s link to the Collective and began the process of restoring her humanity. (VOY episode: "Scorpion, Part II")

Some time later, following the restoration of Seven's humanity, Seven noted through her knowledge of the Collective at the time of her being separated from the hive mind, that the Collective's memory from the 15th century was fragmented. Though the cause of this fragmentation is unknown, it is presumably related to the age of the Collective. (VOY episode: "Dragon's Teeth")

Revenge (2374 - 2375)Edit

In 2374, the Borg assimilated Species 116, after they had managed to elude the Borg for several centuries. This race was hoping that Species 8472 would destroy the Borg, as the Collective was getting closer to assimilating their whole race by the time of the war. However, with 8472 defeated the Borg came, 23 outposts were assimilated in a matter of hours after which hundreds of Borg Cubes attacked and assimilated the Species 116 home starsystem. About 20,000 were able to escape including a man named Arturis, he blamed Captain Janeway for the destruction of his race because the alliance between her and the Borg was what prevented the Borgs' destruction. He attempted to lure the Voyager crew into Borg space for assimilation but failed and was eventually assimilated himself along with his vessel. (VOY episode: "Hope and Fear")

In 2375, a Borg Cube assimilated a vessel belonging to Species 6339. The vessel was a last effort by the species to seek revenge for its eleven billion people lost to the Borg, the crew were infected with synthetic pathogenic virus which once assimilated infected the cube's Vinculum bringing chaos to the order of the cube, eventually resulting in its destruction and the formation of a 120 kilometers wide debris field. Species 6339 hoped that another Cube would come to investigate, be destroyed by the virus within the Vinculum, leading to more investigations, and ultimately, leading to the destruction of the Collective, however, this plan seemed to fail. (VOY episode: "Infinite Regress")

Voyager (2375-2377)Edit

The Collective encountered Voyager several times during this period, the first encounter being when Voyager accidentally created a 29th century Borg Drone named One. The Collective sent a Sphere to try and assimilate One and Voyager but he was able to beam aboard the Sphere and pilot it into a Proto-Nebula. One died as a result of injures inflicted when the Sphere was destroyed. (VOY episode: "Drone")

The second encounter came when Captain Janeway became tired of Voyager constantly altering course to avoid Borg ships, adding at least two years to their journey home. After a Borg Interceptor engaged Voyager, quickly being destroyed, Janeway decided that Voyager could benefit from stealing a Borg transwarp coil. The coil left in the debris of the Probe was no longer functional but its Data Nodes were. Using the information stored within them, a damaged Sphere was located and an operation to steal one of its transwarp coils was planned. The crew successfully infiltrated the Sphere and stole the coil, but the Borg Queen convinced Seven of Nine to stay on the Sphere and rejoin the Collective, otherwise the Queen would have Voyager assimilated. The Sphere escaped but was pursued by Voyager. Using the multi-adaptive shielding used by the Hansens on the USS Raven to avoid Borg detection, the crew used the Delta Flyer to infiltrate the Central Unicomplex, the main base of operations for the Queen and the entire Collective, and recovered Seven of Nine before destroying the Queen's flagship, a Borg diamond. Voyager then used their stolen Coil for as long as possible before it became useless and were able to travel a great distance across the Delta Quadrant towards Earth as a result. (VOY episode: "Dark Frontier")

The next time Voyager encountered the Collective was not specifically an encounter with the Collective at all, but rather with a group of Borg children who had been separated from the Collective and designated unfit for re-assimilation. The Cube on which these children were stranded had been disabled by a virus left in the body of one of the children, Icheb, when he had been assimilated. A group of Voyager crewmen were captured along with the Delta Flyer by the Cube and when Voyager arrived to retrieve them, Captain Janeway instead found herself making an alliance with these Borg children. Seven of Nine helped the Borg children repair their ship, hoping to re-establish contact with the Collective, all the time attempting to appeal to their humanity. Eventually, the Cube became unstable when they tried to steal Voyager's deflector dish and Voyager was forced to retaliate. The Cube was destroyed but the children were saved and began to recover their individuality with the guidance of Seven of Nine. (VOY episode: "Collective")

The Collectives next encounter with Voyager occurred above Icheb's homeworld, the Brunali homeworld, a planet very close to a Borg transwarp conduit, meaning that it was constantly being attacked by the Borg. Voyager had discovered that Icheb had been deliberately created to produce a virus so that he could be captured, assimilated, and infect the Borg ship with him onboard, saving the rest of his world. The Cube on which Icheb and the Borg children were found had been disabled by the virus within Icheb. When Icheb’s world was attacked by a Borg sphere, Icheb was given the virus again and was forcefully sent by his people in a ship dispatched up to the Borg vessel in order to disable it. However, Voyager was able to rescue Icheb and place a torpedo within the ship he was trapped on. As the ship was pulled into the Sphere, the Torpedo detonated, inflicting heavy damage upon the Sphere. (VOY episode: "Child's Play")

The Borg would next encounter Voyager when a Cube and the Starfleet vessel were both trapped in a starship graveyard by an alien entity known as the Vohrsoth. A dampening field prevent both ships and many others from escaping the region, however Voyager's crew discovered a rare element called Isodesium would be able to function within the field and could be used to restore power. Voyager’s crew went about securing generous quantities of the element which the Borg promptly stole. On the cube several member of Species 8472 who had also found themselves trapped in the region stole the Isodesium and began using it to rapidly reproduce, putting the Drones in danger of being wiped out, despite their various attempts to adapt to the situation, including arming themselves with beam weapons.

When Voyager’s hazard team beamed aboard the Cube to recover the Isodesium and rescue a crewmate the Borg had abducted, they were presented with a proposition by the drones. In exchange for wiping out the members of Species 8472 aboard the Cube, the drones would hand the Isodesium over to the team. The Hazard Team agreed but after eradicating the infestation, the drones attempted to assimilate the team. Luckily, the team had foreseen this outcome and placed an explosive near the Vinculum earlier. The device was detonated and the Hazard Team was beamed back to Voyager along with the Isodesium as the Cube began to explode from within, sustaining heavy damage. (VOY video game: Elite Force)

Unimatrix Zero (2376)Edit

In 2376 the Borg Queen learned of an underground resistance movement forming within the Collective known as Unimatrix Zero, a virtual realm where Drones could go while they were regenerating and be individuals. Seven of Nine convinced Captain Janeway to assist in saving Unimatrix Zero from the Queen's attempts to destroy it. Voyager developed a virus as a means of allowing the members of Unimatrix Zero to retain their individuality after they had stopped regenerating, but it had to be released directly into the Central Plexus of a Borg vessel in order to spread to every Drone in the Collective. To this end, Voyager attacked a Borg tactical cube and Captain Janeway, Lt. Commander Tuvok, and Lieutenant Torres beamed over to the Cube hoping to reach its Central Plexus and introduce the virus. The trio was assimilated but this was part of their plan, allowing them to move freely through the vessel. They were eventually able to introduce the virus and after the Queen developed a modification of the virus to kill all Unimatrix Zero Drones, Voyager worked with a Unimatrix Zero Drone in command of a Sphere to attack the tactical cube, recover the away team, and destroy Unimatrix Zero while allowing thousands of Drones within the Collective to become individuals. The tactical cube was destroyed and the Queen was left to deal with the fact that thousands of Drones were now operating to sabotage the Collective from within. (VOY episode: "Unimatrix Zero")

The First Invasion (2376)Edit

In mid 2376, the Borg decided to launch a massive invasion into the Alpha Quadrant, with Earth being a priority target. The Borg Queen decided that the invasion needed to be led by an individual that would know how humans operate and decided to recreate Locutus of Borg. This was achieved through the assimilation a Dominion cloning facility in the Gamma Quadrant and the creation of a Borg clone of Jean-Luc Picard.

Although the Borg had the element of surprise, the Federation had been warned of the impending invasion by the USS Premonition, a starship from an alternate future in which the Borg invasion had resulted in the assimilation of the entire Alpha Quadrant. The Borg invasion began near Starbase 612, where they almost succeeded in assimilating the outpost. However, the Enterprise-E came to the stations aid after being told that the stations assimilation would be the first step of the Borg invasion and drove back the Borg forces. Despite this minor set back, the Borg began attacks on the Federation, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Empire, slowly weakening their forces.

The Borg became aware of an Omega particle that was in the possession of the Romulans during this invasion and tried to steal it from them but failed. The Borg were then approached by Admiral Sela of the Romulan Empire who proposed a bargain; if the Borg wiped an opposing faction of Klingons she would give them Omega. The Borg complied but were betrayed, their forces destroyed by a hidden cloaked cloaked fleet once they had disposed of the Klingons. Shortly after this defeat, Locutus arrived to take charge of the invasion and led the Borg against the Romulans and not only succeeded in capturing the Omega Particle, but also in moving it to the Delta Quadrant to the staging ground for the invasion via a Transwarp gate.

In order to stop peace negotiations between the Klingons and Romulans that were being orchestrated by the Federation so that the three powers could work together to fight the Borg, the Collective attempted to intercept and assimilate Ambassador Spock before he arrived at the peace conference, as his intervention would almost certainly result in the three powers forming an alliance. However, the Borg were prevented from assimilating Spock by the USS Enterprise-E which had traveled back in time from another alternate future where the Borg had succeeded in preventing the peace talks and had gone on to assimilate Earth. With Spock saved an alliance was formed and the Borg's drive towards Earth halted. During the battle, this timelines original Enterprise traveled back in time to the peace conference as well in order to complete the temporal loop.

The allied forces then began to drive forward, retaking most of the sectors captured by the Collective in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants and eventually taking the transwarp gate and taking the battle to the delta quadrant where they destroyed Locutus's cube and the omega particle, resulting in a subspace detonation which wiped out the entire region, the allied forces retreating back through the transwarp gate to the alpha quadrant.

However the victory was not yet won, as Locutus's cube had been destroyed a sphere was launched and traveling through a temporal vortex intended to destroy the Enterprise-D just after it had left Farpoint Station, thus erasing the future and allowing the Borg to assimilate the Alpha Quadrant. However this plan was also thwarted by the USS Premonition traveling back in time and intercepting the sphere before it could attack the Enterprise. (TNG video game: Armada)

The Second Invasion (2377)Edit

A year after the incident involving the Omega particle, the Borg tried to invade the Alpha Quadrant once again, this time armed with a new planetary assimilation weapon, capable of assimilating an entire planet and its population in the space of a few minutes. Using a pair of Transwarp portals, one in the Alpha Quadrant and one in the Delta Quadrant the Borg began their invasion by occupying the Regula Badlands, a move which would enable them to strike at any target within the Alpha Quadrant with little or no warning. However, the Borg were beaten back by Starfleet vessels responding to this new threat led by the Enterprise-E. Despite being driven from their base of choice the Borg were unrelenting and continued attacking near by targets, slowly disrupting the efforts of the Federation to stop the spread of the Collective.

Shortly into the invasion the Federation captured the Transwarp portal in the Alpha Quadrant and used it to launch a full scale invasion into the Delta Quadrant, hoping to locate the new staging area for this attack and destroy it, preventing any further Borg incursions into the Alpha Quadrant for some time. Shortly after the Federation entered the Delta Quadrant and captured the Delta Quadrant Transwarp portal, Species 8472 began to appear in the Delta Quadrant, attacking both the Borg and the Federation. This, coupled with the devastating Federation assault on the staging area which resulted in the totally destruction of the Borg base there, left the Collective crippled and unable to continue its invasion into the Alpha Quadrant.

The Borg Queen, who had been leading this invasion herself, was trapped in the Alpha Quadrant along with a number of Borg vessels when the overuse of the Transwarp portals by the Federation fleet as it returned to the Alpha Quadrant caused the two portals to explode. The Queen began gathering those Drones and ships that had been trapped with her as Species 8472 launched a massive invasion into all four Quadrants of the galaxy. Trying to avoid the Federation and Species 8472, the Queen tried to assimilate any information she could on tachyon nebulas, the properties of which were needed to build a new Transwarp portal. Two Federation ships were assimilated by the Queen's fleet, giving them the location of a tachyon nebula. After eliminating a large number of Species 8472 vessels located around the Nebula, a new Transwarp portal was built allowing the Queen to return to the Delta Quadrant where she found the Enterprise and those Starfleet ships that had been left stranded in the Delta Quadrant by the destruction of the Portals. The Queen brought the Enterprise and its fleet back to the Alpha Quadrant in exchange for Picard persuading the Federation to aid the Collective in traveling to fluidic space and preventing the continuation of the Species 8472 invasion.

The combined Starfleet/Borg fleet launched their invasion into fluidic space, preventing 8472 task forces entering quantum singularities into each of the quadrants the fleet then located and destroyed the Rift Maker, the 8472 organism holding the singularities open. The mission completed the combined fleet then returned to normal space, the Queen and her fleet were then sent back through the Transwarp portal to the Delta Quadrant, leaving the Collective to recover from its recent string of crippling defeats. (TNG video game: Armada II)

Alpha Quadrant operations (2377)Edit

In 2377, a group of Vulcans attempted to cure their master, N'Kal, a sufferer of Bendii Syndrome, from his ailment by using modified Borg nanoprobes. However, N’Kal lost control of himself after he was exposed to the nanoprobes and soon became an individual bent on transforming the entire galaxy into his servants, loyal minions of pure logic and order, intent on wiping out all those who resisted. N’Kal’s followers were called the Wardens and they soon began using advanced Borg technology to spread their Nanoprobe contagion to billions of other individuals with ties to every major power in the galaxy.

The Collective had a Cube in the Alpha Quadrant during this crisis and some of its Drones became infected with the Warden contagion. This led to the hive mind beginning to collapse into a civil war between the Warden Drones and those still loyal to the Collective. The Borg found the USS Incursion and captured a Warden controlled engineer and a Warden device used to infected people with their Nanoprobes, hoping to assimilate information on the contagion. They developed a serum capable of curing people of the contagion but were unable to use it on themselves because it would destroy their own Borg implants. As more and more Drones fell under Warden control, those still loyal to the Collective continued to fight the Wardens, taking the Cube to Romulus to destroy Warden facilities and assimilating the Warden controlled USS Monitor.

The Warden controlled Drones eventually began to research a way to counteract the Borg serum and the Collective controlled Drones on the Cube asked for the crew of the Incursion to destroy the Cube before the Wardens could take over the Collective. The Cube was eventually destroyed by the crew of the Incursion and the Collective was cleansed of the Warden Drones. Assimilated intelligence obtained from the Cube by the Incursion crew allowed them to continue to the Warden headquarters on Vulcan and neutralize the Warden threat. (ST video game: Away Team)

Later that year, the Borg sent a pair of Cubes to the Alpha Quadrant on a direct course for Earth. Starfleet began to prepare defenses and expected to stop this latest Borg incursion. As word of the Borg threat spread, one Starfleet officer was hoping to join the battle against the Borg, hoping to avenge his father who died during the Battle of Wolf 359. However, he was not allowed to take part in the battle. Then, Q appeared to the officer and took him back in time to the Battle of Wolf 359 where he and Q were able to save his fathers ship from destruction. In order to preserve the timeline, Q sent the ship from Wolf 359 in early 2367 to Wolf 359 in the year 2377 where the ship joined the Starfleet armada in eventually destroying the two Cubes. (ST video game: Star Trek: Borg)

Crippling blow (2377)Edit

In 2377, as the USS Voyager continued its journey home though the Delta Quadrant, it found a nebula filled with what appeared to be a large number of wormholes at its center. Voyager entered the nebula only to barely avoid a collision with a Borg Cube. Voyager quickly left the nebula, unaware that the Borg Queen had detected them and had decided not to assimilate them. As Voyager moved on, it encountered a temporal rift from which emerged a Federation shuttle from the year 2404, piloted by Admiral Janeway from an alternate future. Janeway supplied Voyager with futuristic technologies; ablative hull armor and transphasic torpedoes, and instructed Voyager to return to the nebula and take a wormhole home. As Voyager was preparing, the Queen, who had been monitoring Voyager since she entered the nebula, warned Seven of Nine that if Voyager tired to enter the nebula again, she would assimilate Voyager. Knowing this, Voyager still headed into the nebula.

The Queen sent three cubes to intercept Voyager as it entered the nebula but using its new defenses and weaponry Voyager destroyed two of the Cubes and forced the Queen to have the third one retreat. As Voyager reached the center of the nebula, it found one of the Borg's six transwarp hubs, huge stations that allowed the Collective to send ships to any location in the galaxy within a matter of seconds. Forming the basis of the transwarp network established by the Collective that had long been the key to the Collective's power, Captain Janeway immediately realised that if this Hub could be destroyed, it would deal a crippling blow to the Collective. Voyager then left the nebula and after a little while, the crew developed a plan that would not only get Voyager home, but destroy the transwarp hub.

Admiral Janeway piloted her shuttle away from Voyager, back into the nebula and into the transwarp hub, unhindered by Borg vessels. Voyager then re-entered the Nebula and entered a transwarp conduit heading for the Alpha Quadrant. Admiral Janeway’s destination was the Queen’s unicomplex and in short time she was found and beamed aboard where the Queen attempted to assimilate her. However, the Admiral was carrying a neurolytic pathogen which began to affect the Queen, causing her to lose contact with most of the Collective and causing extensive damage to the Queen, the Unicomplex, and the Collective as a whole.

As the Collective began to destabilize, the shielding for a group of supporting manifolds within the Hub began to destabilize and Voyager destroyed them, causing a chain reaction which began to destroy the entire Hub and eventually, the entire transwarp network. As the Queen’s body began to fall apart and her chamber began to become unstable, she realised that she could still hear the thoughts of the Drones within Sphere 634, she ordered the Sphere to pursue Voyager. It began to damage Voyager and eventually pulled Voyager inside it with a tractor beam. Meanwhile, the Queen completely fell to pieces and her unicomplex exploded as Collective fell apart. (VOY episode: "Endgame")

Inside the Sphere, Voyager was trapped. However, the Hazard Team was dispatched to disable to generators that were creating the dampening field that was preventing Voyager from escaping. As the sphere emerged at it’s Alpha Quadrant destination a waiting fleet of Starfleet vessels opened fire. But the Sphere was destroyed from within as Voyager made her escape. (TNG video game: Elite Force II; VOY episode: "Endgame")

Evolution (2380)Edit

In or sometime before 2380, a group of Borg, cut off from the remainder of the collective following the damage dealt to the Borg by the USS Voyager on her return to Earth, gathered to create a new cube in orbit of a moon in Sector 10 of the Alpha Quadrant. The Borg, functioning alone from the former collective at large built the massive cube and began to develop a new Queen in preparation for an attack on Earth; their aim: to wipe out Humanity, who had so frequently dealt them hefty blows.

Via his residual connection to the Borg Jean-Luc Picard detected the Borg activity and took the USS Enterprise-E to stop it, before it, and the new Queen, were finished and ready to attack. After initial attempts failed the Enterprise crew were able to infiltrate the cube and successfully destroy the Queen, which put the cube and remaining drones into a state of hibernation. (TNG novel: Resistance)

The cube remained inactive and was studied by Starfleet for some time, the drones were removed for study and by all reports the cube was considered dead. Unfortunately this was not the case, the cube itself developed and prepared, evolved and beyond the capabilities of any cube before. When Kathryn Janeway arrived to satisfy her curiosity of the cube's status it attacked her and the Einstein, assimilating the starship and crew and making Janeway the new Queen. The cube then set out to destroy Earth, absorbing, rather than the less efficient assimilation, anything that got in it's way and anything it required, including the entire mass of the planet Pluto and it's moons, ever growing with it's increased mass.

The cube then flew into Sol to gather enough energy to spawn six smaller vessels which it used to hold Earth hostage to try and attract Jean-Luc Picard and Seven of Nine who it wished to re-assimilate. Both persons were on the Enterprise preparing plans to resist. They came to Earth with two plans; the re-activated Doomsday machine which, piloted by Seven attacked the cube, inflicting huge damage. Unfortunately the success was short lived and the cube soon began to absorb the Planet Killer too, infusing its impervious neutronium hull into the cube's own structure.

Fortunately the second plan was also ready in Seven, the Endgame virus, which had been downloaded into her ready to infect the Borg with an insolvable problem should she be assimilated. As she was absorbed into the cube she sent the virus, but it was blocked by a firewall. She vented her frustrations in thought, and the Collective and Queen reacted, taunting her, but she fought back, and within the Queen Janeway reached out, and resisted, broke the firewall and allowed the cube to be infected. The Borg infected, attempted to solve the virus, causing the cube continually reconfigure, until the stresses became too much and it was destroyed.

The six smaller starships the Cube created were also destroyed. However one ship remained, the assimilated Einstein, which thanks to the influence Janeway and lessons learned from the continual successes of Humanity had been left slightly apart from the Collective and free from the virus. It headed out of the Sol system on a mission to seek out new worlds and civilizations and assimilate them. (TNG novel: Before Dishonor)

The Final Battle (2381)Edit

In 2381, the Borg discovered a subspace tunnel in the Delta Quadrant that led directly to the Azure Nebula. The Collective used this tunnel to send an invasion force into the Alpha and Beta Quadrants with the goal of eradicating humanity and any other races that stood between the Borg and total galactic domination. Initial incursions were defended by the USS Enterprise, USS Excalibur, and the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, these were minor skirmishes compared to what was to come. Anticipating a larger Borg invasion, Captain Picard asked that the Federation send as many ships as possible to the subspace terminus in the Azure Nebula. President Bacco negotiated for reinforcements from the Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire and Imperial Romulan State, Cardassian Union, Ferengi Alliance, the Tamarian Empire, and (through the Ferengi), Breen mercenary forces. Before the allied forces could traverse the subspace passage and make their own assault, a force of over 7461 Borg Cubes attacked and destroyed the allied fleet that had been assembled.

Although the Federation was initially able to defend against the Borg attacks into Federation space using transphasic torpedoes, the Borg eventually adapted to the torpedo. However, the Federation starships USS Enterprise-E, USS Aventine, and USS Titan, managed to convince the extremely powerful Caeliar - who had inadvertently played a key role in creating the Borg - to dissolve the Borg Collective and halt the invasion. As a result of this, all of the former drones were absorbed into the Caeliar gestalt, the residual implants in Seven of Nine disappeared and the remnants of Locutus in Jean-Luc Picard were removed from his psyche. During the conflict, Borg Cubes devastated entire worlds, including Acamar III, Deneva, Qo'noS and Khitomer. The invasion attempt cost of 63 billion deaths and the fallout led to drastic changes in the political nature of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, including an expansion of the Khitomer Accords and the formation of the Typhon Pact. (ST - Destiny novels: Mere Mortals, A Singular Destiny)

In 2387, some left over Borg technology existed. It was kept in secret facility called the Vault by the Romulan Star Empire. After the destruction of Romulus, Nero's ship, the Narada, was refitted with some of the technology and began a rampage across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Assimilating countless vessels, it grew to a monstrous size before being sucked into a black hole along with Spock. (TNG - Countdown comics: "Number One", "Number Two", "Number Three", "Number Four")

25th centuryEdit

In 2409, the Borg attack Starfleet at the Vega system after nearly 30 years of non-aggression. (STO mission: "Prelude to a Crisis")

External linkEdit

• Borg history article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.

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