General overview description
The Borg probe is the smallest of the Borg vessels, designed purely as a long range scouting vessel with weaponry equal to that of an Intrepid class however lacking torpedo weaponry. It's function in the Collective is to scout low-resistance targets for assimilation and when possible assimilate them.
Vessel Design[]
General Operation[]
Due to their reduced size Probes demand significantly less power resources for systems such as: shielding. The probe maintains a rather more aerodynamic design which allows it to easily withstanding subspace stress and transwarp speed torrents. As a result the vessels structural integrity field also requires much less resources. Identically to all Borg vessels, Probes like all Borg vessels forego such irrelevencies as cantinas, personal quarters (sonic showers, food replicators, personal computers), holodecks, turbo-lifts, stairs, internal com system and an interactive voice-activated computer system.[1] In doing so the vessel saves a great deal of power which is re-routed in-to other more vital systems such as weapons and shields, sensors making it capable of utilizing its power systems to much greater efficiency and focus within comparison to that of the enormous Cube. Each drone which is no longer required, running low on power simply or damaged simply returns to its regeneration alcove and due to the massive crew compliment, drones are not required to leave their assigned deck - however may also do so using the ships transporters. The interior of a probe consist primarily of internal tightly-packed catwalks, walkways, pipes and conduits lined with Borg alcoves.[2] Probes possess a generalised interior design, there are no specific bridge, living areas or engineering sections[1] and due to all drones possessing equal technical knowledge and maintanence capabilities, simply the closest drones to a malfunctioning system are assigned. Disimillar to the design of all other races, Borg vessels typically possess no particular exit or entry hatches from the exterior to the interior of the vessel as the entire ship is essentially open to the vacuum of space. The interior pressure of the Probe is however maintained by high energy forcefields and structural integrity fields with multiple redundencies
Combat[]
During combat the probe possesses drastically limited combat capabilities primarily as a result of its significantly lower crew compliment, preventing the ship from adapting defenses, weapons and responding to threats at a fraction of the speed of the larger classes of Borg vessels. Equipped with only disruptors and a tractor pulse as its arsenal of weaponry[2] this prevents the probe from posing as great a threat as larger Borg ships. The probe however posseses higher maneuverability than other larger classes of Borg vessels.
Despite the unusual design of using symmetrical geometric shapes, there is also a great deal of logic and many advantages in doing so. Each side is identically armed and armored, denying enemy species the luxury of any directional weaknesses in defenses and blind spots in firing arcs. An additional benefit of the generalised interior design is the aspect of presenting no particularly beneficial and specifically vulnerable targets of which enemy vessels may focus attacks upon. As a result of the vessels highly decentralized design and endless redundencies the ships vital functions may be run from any part of the ship, resulting in a Borg Probe being capable of remaining operative even after taking substantial damage.
Interior Architecture[]
Generic Interior[]
Transwarp Chamber[]
Shield Matrix[]
onboard facilities , assimilation chamber
Power Systems[]
The Borg utilize a unique method of powering almost all their on-board systems, maintaining their highly decentralized interior design they do not rely upon a single warp core or such devices in order to solely generate power for the entire vessel. Each vessel generates its own power via power nodes - each device capable of generating an enormous amount of power. Borg vessels however possess hundreds, thousands perhaps even millions depending upon their size and class. These power nodes are spread throughout the vessel collectively producing a sufficient amount of power which the vessel requires at any given time. Only a fraction are active at any one time with additional redundant power sources located throughout the ship [3] which activate and begin generating power as another power node fails. As their power demands increase as a result of construct additional weapons and alcoves for newly assimilated drones the vessel may construct additional power nodes. Additionally, the method of dispersing their power ouput makes it almost impossible for intruders to sabotage the entire vessels power systems at once, in the event one power node is disabled only the small section which it powers and the devices in that section lose power for 4.8 minutes causing a manipulation effect in the vessels subspace field before another node activates and restores power [3],. The only system which does not rely upon power nodes are the transwarp drives which are powered by the transwarp coils themselves.[3]
Weapon Systems[]
High Energy Disruptor Beams[]
High Energy Tractor Pulse[]
Borg vessels utilize a High Energy Tractor Pulse (Tractor Beam) which places extreme gravitational stresses on all sides of the enemy vessel simultaniously. The magnitude of the force is tuned precisely to each ship class and vessel, once perfectly tuned the forces are insufficient to crush the vessel however sufficient to completely overwhelm the vessels impulse engines and maneuvering thrusters even if they are set to full-power they will be unable to compete against such forces. The beam also disrupts the vessels warp field, preventing it from escaping using a warp jump.
Defense Systems[]
Internal Defense Systems[]
Crew[]
- Due to the relatively low drone compliment of the probe, repairs require somewhat more time than typical Borg vessels which can possess thousands of drones. On-board roam a moderate number of drones (VOY - Dark Frontier) which carry out the assimilation of lifeforms inside the vessels assimilation chambers, maintain the vessel by repairing it, operating the vessel and repelling against invading threats.
Automated Regeneration Units[]
- Another relatively small however extremely effective defensive feature of Borg probe vessels are small spherical droids named Automated Regeneration Units, these droids speedily roam the sub-sections, shafts and conduits of Borg vessels, repairing all technology and imperfections in the tritanium infastructure within the ship adding additional response time and causing the ship to quite essentially maintain itself and its own systems.
External Defense Systems[]
External Borg ship design follows a pattern of foregoing shields as a primary defensive measure in favor of relying upon extremely strong, resistant and regenerative hull armour.
Regenerative Hull Armour and Ship Systems []
- The exterior hull armor of all Borg vessels and stations have the capability of regenerating quickly and constantly, granting an enormous boost to survivability in pro-longed battles. The exterior of the diamonds possesses numerous conduits conduits which act like blood vessels and capillaries transporting automated regeneration units to the damaged areas, healing much like a biological body would. The creation and distribution of the automated regeneration units are governed by the ships equivilent of a heart, the Automatic Regeneration Matrix.
Tritanium Shape Memory Alloy Hull
[]
- Borg vessels are constructed entirely out of tritanium shape memory alloy which when the regeneration process engages, re-aligns itself to its original configuration, playing a significant role in the regeneration process.
Shielding[]
- Unlike the majority of the other species in the Galaxy, the Borg do not shield their entire vessel inside of a single bubble extended around the vessels exterior, Instead, they cast their shielding across their hull, re-enforcing it. This is done by dividing the external surface area in-to grids, each grid possesses its own shielding known as shield grids (VOY - Unimarix Zero). This method possesses several benefits, firstly due to the shielding covering a much smaller area, its strength is far greater, this method also allows the drones in each grid to focus upon maintaining and repairing their own grid with greater efficiency than repairing the shielding across an entire vessel. When the shielding of one section is offline, the rest of the vessel may remain shielded and the drones within the damaged grid focus upon repairing their own shield grid as quickly as possible.
Adaptive Shield System[]
- Whilst the Borg do not use shielding as a primary means of defense, Borg vessels do possess shielding for the purposes of propulsion, internal security and as a second line of defense. Adaptive Shielding casts an extremely low power force-field around the exterior of the Borg vessel which samples each particle beam which passes through. This data is recorded by the Adaptive Shield Matrix which records and remodulates the vessels primary shield grid to the counter-frequency of the opponents weapons, allowing Borg vessels and stations to become immune to that particular weapon frequency.
High Level Structural Integrity Field[]
The high level structural integrity field further increases the durability and damage resistance throughout Borg vessels hull and bulkheads which add a further overall increase to the robustness of the vessel itself.
Propulsion Systems[]
Thrusters[]
Thrusters are positioned upon the top, bottom and 8 additional angles of the Spheres diamater. Movment is achieved by firing which-ever happens to be the "aft" thrusters in this particular engagement and rotation is achieved by firing one aft side thruster and one frontal thruster.
Warp Drive[]
The standard warp drive is capable of a maximum speed of 9.98, meaning newly developed Starfleet ship classes such as: Sovereign, Intrepid and Prometheus are able to slightly outmatch the vessel at warp speed.
Transwarp Drive[]
Within unison with the Transwarp Hub network maintaining the stability of the Transwarp conduit network, Borg vessels may engage their Transwarp Drive and accelerate to unimaginable speeds, approximated to be twenty times the speed of standard Federation warp speeds, this grants Borg vessels high maneuverabily and quick deployability across the galaxy.
Due to the aero-dynamicly perfect design of a Sphere the Borg may use a significantly less powerful structural integrity field around the external surface of the vessel strengthening the vessels structural integrity enough to withstand the extreme gravametric forces which the vessel encounters when travelling at transwarp velocity.
Theoretical Clarification[]
Power Usage[]
"the vessel saves a great deal of power which is re-routed in-to other more vital systems such as weapons and shields"Speculation based on observation, never seen a turbo lift or staircase in a borg ship so they obviously save power which allows them to put it in-to every other system and it's more efficient anyway which the Borg are all for however as the power source for a Borg vessel is a complete mystery the need to save power is questionable.
Have a better explaination? Submit a theory!
theory on the lack of turbolifts; It could be that the borg use other means of moving cargo and personnel from one deck to another, such as stairs and ladders, ramp-ways similar to a parking garage building, or in some cases, site-to-site transport.
Power Systems[]
All of the data was extrapolated based upon the figured given by Graham Kennedy's ditl.org without his figures I would have been completely at a loss. The explaination of how the systems work are no longer theoretcal due to evidence from best of both worlds.
Have a better explaination? Submit a theory! []
Holding Beam[]
"force is tuned precisely"
Logical deduction because otherwise if they used the same force for all vessels every shuttle would have been crushed like a tin can when they used it.
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Exterior conduits and pipes[]
" conduits which act like blood vessels and capillaries"
Assumption and speculation based upon the well-founded establishment that the Borg use elements of organic design in everything they do, makes perfect sense and explains why the strange conduits should be covering the outer surface instead of a smooth chrome armor like other races do.
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Thrusters[]
The way I explaned thrusters is once again not strictly proven or stated anywhere but it's the best guess to explain how a Sphere can both move forward and rotate simultaniously,