Borg tactical cube

Class-4 tactical cube
Affiliation:	Borg Collective; Borg Cooperative, Delta Alliance
Type:	Borg cube; dreadnought
Service period	2373-2410s; 2880s (alternate timeline)
Dimensions
Length:	3040 meters
Width:	3040 meters
Height:	3040 meters
Specifications
Crew:	hundred thousand+ Borg drones
Speed:	warp factor 9.99 and transwarp velocities
Armaments:	100s of weapon emplacements (energy beams, torpedoes, etc)
Defences:	deflector shield

The Class-4 tactical cube was a powerful combat vessel utilized by the Borg Collective in the late-24th century. The tactical cube was a variety of the standard Borg cube featuring significantly enhanced firepower and improved defenses. (VOY episode: "Unimatrix Zero")

Service history

Tactical cubes were developed by the Borg in response to increasingly complex and powerful defences developed by the races the Collective targeted for assimilation in the 2370s decade, in particular Species 8472 and the Federation. (Fact Files Issue 205: "File 38 Card 7: Class-4 Tactical Cube")

The first tactical cube observed by Starfleet was encountered by the USS Voyager in the year 2376. The cube was targeted by Voyager in their attempts to assist the people of Unimatrix Zero and was later issued a self destruct command by the Borg Queen in her attempt to counteract the efforts of Voyager's crew. (VOY episode: "Unimatrix Zero")

Tactical cubes were later deployed by the Collective in their invasion of the Alpha Quadrant in 2377 (TNG video game: Armada II)

At least one tactical cube was present in a nebula within Grid 986 of the Delta Quadrant in 2377 where the USS Voyager discovered one of the Collective's transwarp hubs. This vessel was one of several Borg ships to attack Voyager as she made her second intrusion into the nebula to try and get home to Earth using the hub. (ST reference: Ships of the Line; VOY episode: "Endgame")

The tactical cube did not actually appear in the episode but was present in an image representing the events in the 2005 Ships of the Line calendar.

In 2380, an assimilated Vulcan named T'Uerell attempted to assimilate the Alpha Quadrant. After being defeated in the Bajor system by a Federation/Klingon/Romulan Alliance, T'Uerell retreated to a Polaric Ion Energy string where she brought a tactical cube from the Delta Quadrant through a transwarp conduit to fight the Federation Alliance forces. After suffering heavy casualties, the Federation Alliance forces managed to destroy the tactical cube, and, later, T'Uerell. (ST video game: Legacy)

Features

Tactical cubes differed from the standard Borg cube in several ways, the most notable being the extensive hull armor that covered a large portion of the exterior hull of the ship. It was ablative armor that in some places exceeded a 100 meters. The ship itself was protected by multilayered regenerative force fields. The interior was also slightly altered from what is known of Borg architecture. These ships were described as being extremely well armored and very destructive. (VOY episode: "Unimatrix Zero", ST video game: Legacy)

The vessels were armed with hundreds of weapon emplacements, cutting beams, and torpedo weapons systems. Each cube possessed enough firepower to rival entire fleets. To assist in the assimilation of starships, the cubes were equipped with a holding beam to restrict the movement of said vessel and transfer drones aboard. The cubes were equipped with photon torpedoes the size of starships and could also deploy starship-sized autonomous weapon platforms, which upon detonation destroy entire solar systems. Some vessels of the class were also fitted with technology assimilation beams which allowed the vessels to assimilate unique technologies they encountered in use by target species.

By 2377, the Collective had developed a way to join eight tactical cubes together to form a single large vehicle called a tactical fusion cube. (TNG video game: Armada II)

Appendices

External link

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