No ship in the history of the Federation, in the history of the Alpha Quadrant has inspired
more terror in the eyes of its beholders than the Borg Cube.
The Primary multirole warship of the Borg Collective, Borg Cubes make up the grand majority
of the Borg Armada, and are the primary means by which the Borg spread across the galaxy
and assimilate new races.
A single cube was more than capable of assimilating all elements of civilisation on a planet,
and more often than not defeating a civilisations defences and fleets singlehandedly.
The standard 24th century Borg Cube is exactly 3040m in both length, width and height.
The Borg feel no need for aesthetics or style in their designs, and their mastery of transwarp
travel eliminates the need for warp nacelles.
The Borg instead prefer simple geometric shapes for all their ships, maximising internal space
to house countless Borg drones.
Borg Cubes are impressively well armed, boasting 46 adaptive weapon arrays, 12 focused neutron
beam banks, 24 tractor beam emitters and a pulse cannon designed to deplete a targets
shields.
In battle the Borg are direct and relentless, they will approach a target vessel, hold it
in place with tractor beams and begin to surgically extract useful technology and personnel with
cutting beams and transporters.
The Borg’s primary goal is the assimilation of technology and organic life, to this end
the standard Borg Cube carries up to 130,000 drones, many of which would be deployed onto
a hostile ship once disabled to begin harvesting and converting it.
Borg Cubes are also incredibly resilient, carrying powerful regenerative shields and
heavy hull Armor.
It was estimated by Commander Elizabeth Shelby that a Cube could remain functional even if
78% of it were rendered inoperable.
Borg ships are capable of both warp and transwarp speeds, a Borg Cube can project its own transwarp
aperture to travel faster than the limitations of warp drive, or travel faster still by making
use of one of the collectives network of transwarp corridors and hubs.
The Interior of a Borg Cube is laid out very differently to that of most Starships, they
have no specific bridge, living quarters or engineering section, with all vital systems
instead being spread thought the ship, this meant that it was very difficult to inflict
critical damage on a Borg Cube in combat, as it lacked any one vital area that could
be targeted to disable the ship.
The hallways of Borg Cubes were lined with alcoves where Borg Drones can regenerate when
not needed for immediate tasks, and at the centre of the cube was the Vinculum, a large
crystalline processor which interconnected the minds of all the ships drones, purging
all individuality and disseminating information relevant to the collective.
The officially publicized first contact between the Federation and the Borg Collective came
in 2365 when the USS Enterprise D encountered a Borg Cube in System J-25.
One year later came the darkest day of the United Federation of Planets, the Battle of
Wolf 359.
In response to attacks by the Borg on outlying Federation colonies, and in an attempt to
halt a Borg advance toward Earth, a fleet of 40 Federation Starships, supported by elements
of the Klingon Defence Force engaged a single Borg Cube in the Wolf 359 system.
The battle was a bloodbath, the Borg Cube effortlessly carved through the Federation
fleet destroying or assimilating everything in its path, ultimately 39 Starships were
destroyed or assimilated with over 11,000 lives lost including that of Vice Admiral
J.P. Hanson.
Only a handful of races have ever been able to seriously defend themselves against a Borg
Cube, and they remain one of the most formidable spacecraft in the known galaxy.