©

To the Borg, individual thought and action are considered imperfect and weak. They travel through the universe in their cubicles or spheres seeking new civilizations to assimilate into their own consciousness, or in their words, "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own."  They don't simply assimilate individuals, they strip cultures, races, entire worlds of their identity. New species encountered are classified with numbers and referred to as such, further eliminating the distinctiveness of the species. Some species are rejected by the Borg if it is determined that they will detract from the Borg goal of perfection. The emptied shells of assimilated individuals are integrated into the hive while their understanding and technology are added into the Collective. If a Borg drone dies or is beyond repair, his memory will still be retained by the Collective. So in a sense all Borg are immortal. "As a Borg I was responsible for the destruction of countless millions and I felt nothing..."

Assimilation is the Borg's means of adding or replacing drones, as well as their sole purpose of existence. Assimilation is achieved by injecting nano-probes below the the victim's subcutaneous layer into the bloodstream, whose blood cells are then attacked and subjugated by the probes to work together and lay the groundwork for connection to the Collective. Thousands of such probes can be injected within seconds, making the effects of initial assimilation immediate. Bio-technological interface with Borg cybernetic implants and attachments are also created by the nano-probes in preparation for surgical procedures that may include modified extremities for specific tasks, or optical and aural implants. Constant to all assimilated drones is the neural implant that is unremovable once installed. It is the actual connection the drone has to the rest of the collective, relaying all orders while maintaining records, coordinates, and other information about the drone's activities. The integration of biological and mechanical in the Borg is so complete a Borg cannot survive with all of its implants removed. The assimilation process includes surgery ranging from the insertion of cortical implants, neural subprocessors etc. to the amputation of at least one arm which is replaced by a prosthetic arm comprising electronic and mechanical devices such as a medical servo-arm. Many or even most drones start life as members of other species and are turned into Borg, usually forcibly, through the process of assimilation. There is no age too young for assimilation.

The Borg will assimilate anyone they consider worthy of assimilation, hence for example no attempt was made to assimilate the Kazon (Borg designation "Species 329") when they encountered a Kazon colony in the Gan Sector, grid 6920. The Kazon's biological and technological distinctiveness was unremarkable and unworthy of assimilation. The Borg will assimilate one individual or a few, and they regularly attack and assimilate whole races. Drones also assimilate technology, by injecting tubules into the item(s) to be acquired and transferring knowledge of the data into the mind of the Collective. Anything with a warp signature is of interest to the Borg and liable to be attacked and assimilated. Apart from drones possessing injection tubules to assimilate a lifeform, the Borg possess an extensive arsenal which is presumably being improved and added to continually as the Collective acquires more and more data on weapons systems from species it assimilates. A drone has exo-plating which is vulnerable to Federation phaser fire, but if you open fire on a drone you will be lucky to get more than one or two shots in because drones adapt to your technology and become invulnerable to it. In this way a drone can usually walk right up to an enemy to seize them physically and assimilate them. This is also true of Borg vessels.

 
The Borg collective appears to operate on a group-mind principle, with many individuals linked through a type of subspace communications network.. But the individual, as a unique person, is not acknowledged or permitted and all Borg form a Collective, in which all thoughts are one. When the voice of the Collective is heard by other lifeforms, it comprises a number of voices all speaking at once and without inflection. The individual units of the Borg are cybernetically enhanced biological lifeforms, and are technologically differentiated for various functions. Command structure is known to be divided into three major subcommands, Communication, Navigation and Defense, which cover the range of necessary actions. A high degree of redundancy has been observed in the Borg command structure, eliminating dependency on any individual, so that even if significant percentages of the collective are damaged or destroyed,it will not effect overall performance. "As a Borg my time was spent working at a specific task. When it was completed I was assigned another..."

While humans were still tottering along in feeble warp ships, attempting to draw together their miserable little Federation,the Borg had already developed their warp and assimilation technology to the point that they were able to manage a sprawling interstellar collection of assimilated worlds (their transwarp drive still remains far superior to the Federation's puny speeds) and that while human society was still dithering over such basic issues as inter-species and gender equality, the Borg had already evolved into an advanced civilization which was far beyond concerning itself with such trifling matters.

They possess the ability to travel through vast distances at speeds appreciably faster than our practical warp limits. The mains means of travel appears to be the Transwarp Hub. The transwarp hub is  a junction point of numerous transwarp conduits with thousands of endpoints in all four quadrants. The structure is supported by a series of interspatial mainifolds. At last count there were 5 of these hubs scattered through out the galaxy. The 6th hub, located in the Delta Quadrant at Grid 986, was destroyed by the USS Voyager during her dramatic journey back to the Alpha Quadrant.  Of their vessels, the most common is the cube-shaped vessel, believed to be their archetypal design. The renegade Borg group encountered in 2370 utilized a very different design, asymmetrical and highly unusual, and not possessing the typical outward attributes of Borg technology. It is not known whether or not this vessel was of Borg origin.

Their weaponry is highly advanced and very powerful. Their defensive capabilities adapt quickly to all forms of weaponry we have used, including adaptation to weapons whose operating parameters are changed constantly, e.g. automatic phaser retuning has had some limited effect, but they have been able to adapt their defenses against it before cumulative damage becomes significant.  The personal technology resident in each Borg unit seems similarly advanced, allowing them, for instance, to function as both fighting units and computer terminals virtually simultaneously.
The Borg have a singular goal, namely the consumption of technology, rather than wealth or political expansion as most species seek. According to their spokesman, in the form of an assimilated Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the Borg only want to "raise the quality of life" of the species they "assimilate." Androids, for example, they view as primitive and obsolete. Born humanoid, they are almost immediately implanted with bio-chips that link their brains to a collective consciousness via a unique subspace frequency emitted by each drone. Some drones are biologically grown from various early stages, including the foetal stage, in "maturation chambers". Assimilated children are placed in these chambers for 17 cycles.

The Borg ingest only energy to drive their technological system via an energy conduit alcove. Their bio-chips synthesize any organic nutrients needed. Among the many advantages their collective consciousness affords them, the Borg hive-mind allows for instantaneous adaptations to shield and phaser frequency modulations in combat; they are also able to regenerate and repair their massive cube ship with the power of their collective thoughts alone. The hive-mind drones do not register as individual life-signs when scanned, only as a mass reading and then at a bare minimum. The sick and injured are not healed but "reabsorbed" by the removal of the receiver piece, which leads to self-destructive dissolve. When shipboard during dormancy in their regenerative mode, power is minimal and the vessel's EM field cuts off. While drones do retain and acquire knowledge useful to the specific tasks they are assigned to perform for the Collective, individual thoughts are considered irrelevant and chaotic and are therefore purged by a device known as a vinculum. Dead drones can be re-animated up to 73 hours after death using special Borg nanoprobes to reverse cellular necrosis; the technology to achieve this was obtained on assimilating Species 149.
 
This collective consciousness is experienced by the Borg as "thousands" of voices--they are collectively aware, but not aware of themselves as separate individuals.Each drone's experiences are processed by the Collective. Only useful information is retained.  Consequently, they never speak in singular pronouns, referring to themselves when required as merely "Three of Seven," for instance.  When activated, drones serve the Collective. When not required they "regenerate" in a specifically designed alcove. Drones stand in their alcove. I am still required to regenerate in this way, even though severed from the Collective. Borg do not need to sit down.
 

 
Drones separated from the Collective are normally retrieved and if they have the equipment available can set up a homing beacon.  Drones damaged to the extent that they are no longer considered capable of functioning fully are de-activated and their parts re-used. And the normal Borg protocol for drones which learn they are irrelevant is for them to de-activate themselves.
 
 

 
 However, by remodulating shields to "random harmonics" USS Voyager was able to stave off various Borg attacks.  Phaser fire is useless as the Borg drones adapt and keep advancing. Drones have no individual initiative. The Borg have a weakness which makes them vulnerable to attack. It is possible to move around a Borg vessel and be ignored so long as no drone perceives a threat. It was thanks to this vulnerability that Captain Janeway successfully led an away team inside a damaged Borg sphere and stole a transwarp coil. Another weakness discovered by Captain Janeway is that humans can become carriers of a neurolytic pathogen.  This pathogen protects humans against being assimilated, and yet it infects the Borg hive mind with fatal consequences, if the attempt to be assimilated is made. Other new technology such as Transphasic torpedoes and Ablative Armor were also used by the Voyager to destroy the Transwarp Hub.