The Borg Based on Star Trek:TNG, Star Trek: Voyager, & Star Trek: First Contact (C) 1997 by Kevin Siembieda. (C) 1997 Palladium Books, All rights reserved world wide. No part of this work may be reproduced in part or whole, in any form or by any means, without permission from the publisher. All incidents, situations, institutions, governments and people are fictional and any similarity to characters or persons living or dead is strictly coincidental. Palladium Books (R), and RIFTS (R) are registered trademarks owned and licensed by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books, Inc. P.P.E. (TM), M.D.C. (TM), Megaverse (TM), and Ley Line (TM) are trademarks owned and licensed by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books, Inc. By Crow T. Robot "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological destinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile" The Borg are a species of cybernetic creatures, of varying races. They are unique in the fact that they have a collective hive mind, aside from speakers and 'queens' there are no individuals. Their goal is simple, to assimilate all life in the megaverse to their own. Contact with the Borg usually results in one of two things. If the offender is considered insignificant and harmless, they are ignored. Otherwise they will be assimilated by the Borg, their knowledge distributed among the collective. Borg Hirarchy "I am curious, do you control the Borg collective?" "You imply desparity where none exists. I am the collective." There are assumably 3 to 4 types of Borg, depending on which school of thought you use. The first school of thought is that the Queens are not the true leaders of the Borg, but simply generals of a central entity. A computer, or perhaps a borg creature, assumably on the homeworld. The Queens each control a section of the Borg, and they get thier orders directly from central HQ, this prevents a virus from infecting the entire collective. Next school of thought is that the Queens are the leaders, and that each of them shares a portion of the Borg, they collaborate on many things, but each have their own jobs and problems to deal with. Finally, the third school of thought is that the Queen is the ultimate leader, and that she controls the ENTIRE collective. (Author Note: The Events in First Contact seem to contradict this, seeing as in Voyager the Borg still exist). Which school of thought is true is a matter of heated debate. Borg Technology "The Borg have adapted to every modulation we have used" Borg technology is adaptive, which means you can't kill a Borg the same way twice, most of the time. Generally the Borg will examine an enemies attack patterns, usually taking heavy casulties, but eventually they will adapt to the enemies weapons, forcing them to change tactics. There are weaknesses in this, first of all, old adaptions dont always carry over, they cant adapt to everything, so reverting to older tactics MAY help, depending on which adaptions the borg have dropped. Borg are all equiped with personal force fields, and after several shots they will adapt to that ENERGY weapon, making it useless. Variable frequency weapons can last a bit longer, but eventually the Borg adapt. Mass produced weapons lines usually all have a standard frequency, but can be set differently if the holder has weapons engineering. Note that different brands will have different frequency. A wilks laser pistol and a triax laser pistol of equal damage, will each be set on different frequency, and the Borg would have to adapt to each sepratley. Borg are NOT immune to physical attack, and it is their greatest weakness, however if the attackers use railguns and MD fists enough, the Borg will increase their drones armor to adapt. How Borg's communication technology works is unknown, but it seems to reach any distance, dimension, or even time that the Borg appear in, and they are widespread. Shields can take 1d4 shots of any given energy weapon before adapting, 2d6 from rotating frequency weapons. Once adapted, the weapon does NO damage. They can also adapt to magic spells such as fireball, call lt., and even the fiery breath of a Dragon, but these take 3d4 attacks to adapt. Assimilation "Brave words, I have heard them before. From thousands of species across thousands of worlds since long before you were created, but now, they are all Borg." The Borg gain numbers by: A) reproducing (cloning techniques) and B) assimilating other beings into the Borg collective, usually as Drones. Assimilation is a process of bionic conversion much more advanced than anything on Rifts Earth, Phase World, or Star Trek. Almost any race, be it elf, human, gargoyle or broodkill can.. in theory.. be assimilated into the collective, the problem being that the first creature of any race must be brought to a Borg lab and generally dissected to discover the best way to assimilate. This can take from several hours for simple races to days, weeks, or even years for complex races such as creatures of magic. Once the creature is able to be assimilated, they will quickly develop nano-bots which will assimilate almost instantly. The limitations to assimilation are few, but the one thing that may never be assimilated into the collective are TRUE supernatural creatures such as Dragons, Gods, and alien intelligences. These creatures are simply magic energy and cannot be assimilated. Lesser creatures of magic can, however, be assimilated into the borg collective. The Borg can assimilate animals, however these will always be drones. They can also assimilate vehicles, power armor, and robots. These assimilated vehicles will, in essence, become drones controlled by the collective. They need no pilots. These nano-bots, when injected in the blood of a race previously examined by the borg, will attach to the bloodstream and spread Borg DNA, they replicate quickly and spread throughout the body, also creating mechanical periphials. (Complex bionics must be manually assembled). Within 1d6 melees the character will be linked with the Borg collective, and in essence, be a Borg. The Borg Queen "I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the borg" The Borg queen is, depending on who asks, a general or supreme leader of the Borg. Either way, they are in complete control of the Borg around them. How many they are is questioned. Some say 1, some say 80, some say 1000.. However many there are, they are immensly powerful, cunning, and independtly intelligent. All are completely loyal to the borg.. Unlike other Borg, the Queen is not slow and is quite agile, extremly strong and mostly bionic, the only Queen who has been viewed has the head and shoulders of a humanoid (greyish skin), and a bionic body. The organic part can seemingly be removed. Alignment: Abberent Stats: IQ: 4d6+6 ME: 4d6+6 MA: 4d6+6 PS: 30 (Bionic) PP: 20 PE: 30 PB: 2d6, 4d6 to other sentient Borg (I.E. Voices) Spd: 24 MDC: 250 (Repairs 1d4x10 MD per minute) Body Force Field: 450 Cybernetic Implants: Any and All are at her disposal, different Body configurations have different implants. Skills of Note: All skills collected by the collective. Unless it is a new hive with few Borg, the queen usually has any given skill at 98% Life Span: Effectivly Immortal Power Source: 100 Years+ In the Body, Spinal Column has a backup that will last for 20 Years The Borg Voice "Your arcane society is authority driven. In order to facilitate our introduction into your society, a voice will be chosen to speak for us" A Borg Voice is created in any society that is able to resist the borg for any period of time, these creatures are sentient, yet completly loyal to the Borg. They are used to properly communicate with that society, and to gain information. After their usefulness, most become drones, although some are kept sentient, after all, life as a Borg Queen could become lonely.. (This may be where some 'Queens' come from, it is speculated that if needed a voice can become a Queen) IQ: 3d6 ME: 4d6 MA: 4d6 (Inspires fear :) PS: 24 (Bionic) PP: 15 PE: 20 PB: 2d6, 3d6 to Other Borg Voices/Queens Spd: 3d6 MDC: 100 (Regnerates 2d6 every minute) Force Field: 150 Cybernetic Implants: Varies, usually optics piece, translator, and 1d6 other implants. Skills of Note: Can access any skill needed from the collective Life Span: Effectively Immortal Power Source: 50 Years The Borg Drone "Those bionic zombies you told me about?" "The Borg" "Borg...sound sweedish" The Borg Drone makes up the bulk of the Borg collective, and they are, as the name implies, unsientient drones. They will relentlessly work at the job given until given a new purpose. Many are unique in their combinations of implants, but all are multi purpose.. They can be of any race, and are often a mix, yet all appear pale skinned and hairless. IQ: N/A, not free thinking ME: N/A MA: 2d6, they talk in unison, it is intimidating PS: 5d6+4, Bionic PP: 2d6 (Conversion causes a type of atrophy in the muscles) PE: 4d6 PB: 1d6 MDC: 2d4x10+20 (40-100), varies upon armor size, etc. Standard Cybernetics: 1) Any Cybernetics from the main book are avaliable, pick 2d4 2) Force Field Generator, only good against energy attacks. 3) Asimmilation Needle: This double needle injects into the victims skin (Optional vibro field to peirce MD Skin or armor) and injects nanobots that begin the assimilation process. See above for more details. 4) Memory Chip: Inside the chest is the memory chip, which records instructions from the collective for the past 2 weeks. Skills: They download skills as needed for certain task, any given 10 are known at 98% by the particular Borg. Life Span: 100 Years Power Supply: 16 Hours, 4 Days, 1 month, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years depending on type, is recharged in Borg ship/base/planet. Recharging takes (Respectivley), 1 hour, 4 hours, 8 hours, 16 hours, 30 hours, 60 hours, 100 hours. Notes on Borg All Borg are immune to mind control, psionics, etc. Cannot be made into Vampires. Impervious to drugs and toxins, and can survive the vaccum of space. Does not need to eat/breath/etc. Mind Linking or Telemechanics will cause the psychic to link with the collective and become a Borg for the duration.