Chloes Borg Dragons
22-01-2004, 16:53
This is a short summary of some borg tech I was asked about, more to follow, but I need to go to work now.
Doberman Combat Boomer Drone Version 5.2:
After the Doberman Mk1 was developed by GENOM the design plans where stolen a couple of years later by a dimensional traveler and improved upon with technologies that just weren't available to GENOM. Then the design was again refined, by the holy empire of mordor, this time not with technology but with magic. Then the Borg came and the Doberman Combat Boomer Drone Version 4.0 was developed, most of the magic removed to make them easier and cheaper to manufacture. Version 5.0 was a far less radical upgrade to version 4 than previous versions had been, slight upgrades in the weapon systems, and even more whittling down of various systems to make this one of the cheapest drone types to manufacture.
The name Doberman comes from their intelligence, which matches about that of a dog. The upgrade process has focused this intelligence more to one suited for swarm fighting it has not made them any smarter.
Height: 2m
width (shoulder to shoulder):1.5m
Depth: 1m
overal shape humanoid.
Armament: Mouth mounted Particle beam
2x arm mounted phased quantum particle rays
2x light saber claws.
Propulsion: back mounted plamsa jets, top 700m/s^2 acceleration (70g)
legs, op running speed, 50km/hour
Power Source: 3x light fusion power cores.
With their armor, and above average shield strength as well as the multiple redundancies and regenerative capabilities these drones keep on fighting for a very long time, and their weapon systems can inflict a heavy amount of damage. However their operational time and range is very limited and if subspace communications with the Borg are disrupted they tend not to have much of a strategy, besides rushing an enemy weapon systems blazing.
Borg Main Battle Cube type 3
Shape: a cube with a side of 11983 m
With the exception of some of the very specialized systems each cube face is roughly equivalent, so I'll be focusing on a generic face of the cube, and general cube systems.
Each face has a surface are of 143'592'289 square meters which gives it plenty of space to mount sensors, weapons, engines, and shield projectors and still leave room for other stuff. It's also a very big target to hit, so usually the cube won't even try evasive maneuvers. Regeneration and Adaptation are two of the biggest strengths of the Borg, this is also true of the battle class cubes. Less than 5% of the cube needs to be intact for it to be able to regenerate itself fully.
Regeneration works through a combination of nanite, replicators and transporters. Replicators generate the necessary materials and transporters bring it (and nanite, if there isn't sufficient nanite in the area) to the appropriate location, while the nanoprobes do the fine detail work. However regeneration is very energy consuming and drones working to repair big chunks of damage manually can save a significant amount of energy.
Adaptation works together with regeneration, new systems are constantly being designed and regeneration systems are used to replace old designs with new stuff. This also means that the Borg can alter their loadout in the middle of a battle to be more effective against an enemy, and that if involved in a war all their ships will be optimized against that enemy. Armor is also changed to better resist enemy weapons, and shields are added and changed as needed.
The cube is extremely resistant to damage, and it has few specialized systems making it hard to disable the borg ship with a lucky shot. There is no such thing as a bridge or engine room, and while weapons, most sensors, and the thickest armor can only be found at the sides of the cube facing space there aren't that many specialized systems in the cube.
While, as noted before, the thickest armor is on the outside, there are layers of armor spread throughout the cube, insulating systems and limiting potential damage. Combining that with regeneration and extensive redundancy of critical systems it is almost impossible to destroy a borg cube, even before defensive systems are taken into account.
Defenisve Systems:
Shields: A variety of shields are usually in existence though usually there is a relatively small amount compared to the size and power of the cube, as the Borg tend to rely more on regeneration of the armor, and precise adaption of the shields and armor to the weapons used, with two significant exceptions.
Navigational Deflectors: These deflectors are for when the cube runs into things at warp speed, like dust, small rocks, large rocks, etc... They are easily bypassed by either using something massive enough or having it go slow enough. While mainly for deflecting non-weapon drebis it is very effective against railguns and similar things that rely on small, vast moving objects to do damage. The battle class mounts the second strongest Navigational Deflectors, only outmatched by the exploration class. They are capable of deflecting a minivan sized object of solid iron going at speeds near c. As the speed goes down so does the size of the object the deflectors can effect.
EMPshield: This is considered a critical priority system by the Borg, it takes precedence over pretty much anything. EMP pulses are the one thing that troubles Borg most, each individual drone has an EMPshield, all systems are hardened against EMP, as well as EMPshields and hardening throughout the cube. Still EMP is the weapon that does the most damage to the Borg if it's delivery system can bypass the outer layer of the shield. The Borg know this and their defenses against this sort of thing have a distinct edge of paranoia.
Propulsion systems:
Warp nacelles: There are three rows of three of those mounted under each cube face (about 100 m inwards) even though only a single pair is needed for warp speed. This allows the Borg to stress their engines to speeds where they would rapidly overheat and then start switching between them, allowing the stressed engines to cool and regenerate. This allows the Borg to sustain incredible speeds for prolonged periods of time making the Borg cubes among the fastest ships in existence.
Warp Core(s): The esoteric type of energy used by warp, transwarp and hypertranswarp must be generated in a warp core, and various warp core alignments with the nacelles can cause all kinds of weird effects. The primary warp core is absolutely essential for transwarp and hypertranswarp, and it is located in the center, directly combined with the transwarp and hypertranswarp drive. For hypertranswarp the 26 secondary warp cores must also be in perfect alignment and operating, for transwarp the primary core and two opposed warp cores must be in alignment, while for regular warp and of the warp cores will suffice.
Transwarp & Hypertranswarp: This drive is located in the exact center of the cube for technical reasons, these drives are what the Borg usually use for the long haul, although hypertranswarp is only used if speed is critical and the cube is in perfect condition since it's a significant strain on the engines, shields, and structural integrity of the cube.
Impulse: Powerful engines that allow the Borg to do quick real space travel and maneuvers even with their massive cubes. Constantly being tweaked for ever better performance the limits of this engine desing are not known.
Thrusters: Ah yes, good old reliable thrusters, not the most efficient but a useful backup and they don't leave the distinctive powertrail of an impulse engine. These engines are most often used when inside an impulse suppresion field (not very hard to generate, but most races have not figured out the trick behind it.).
Replication & Power Systems:
The Borg primarily rely on direct matter to energy conversion, in particular the replicator gel the Borg use as a raw material for almost anything. Replication occurs in two main steps, first there are those replicators that specialize in making the replicator gel which is a very dense and viscous liquid, and then there are those replicators who convert the gel into either objects or power. The reason for the inbetween step of Replicator gel instead of direct conversion is because replicatror gel is very easy to store and the Borg cube is essentially self sufficient as long as every so often it cuts up an asteroid or something and converts it into replicator gel for later use. For backup power there are also some fusion engines scattered about.
Doberman Combat Boomer Drone Version 5.2:
After the Doberman Mk1 was developed by GENOM the design plans where stolen a couple of years later by a dimensional traveler and improved upon with technologies that just weren't available to GENOM. Then the design was again refined, by the holy empire of mordor, this time not with technology but with magic. Then the Borg came and the Doberman Combat Boomer Drone Version 4.0 was developed, most of the magic removed to make them easier and cheaper to manufacture. Version 5.0 was a far less radical upgrade to version 4 than previous versions had been, slight upgrades in the weapon systems, and even more whittling down of various systems to make this one of the cheapest drone types to manufacture.
The name Doberman comes from their intelligence, which matches about that of a dog. The upgrade process has focused this intelligence more to one suited for swarm fighting it has not made them any smarter.
Height: 2m
width (shoulder to shoulder):1.5m
Depth: 1m
overal shape humanoid.
Armament: Mouth mounted Particle beam
2x arm mounted phased quantum particle rays
2x light saber claws.
Propulsion: back mounted plamsa jets, top 700m/s^2 acceleration (70g)
legs, op running speed, 50km/hour
Power Source: 3x light fusion power cores.
With their armor, and above average shield strength as well as the multiple redundancies and regenerative capabilities these drones keep on fighting for a very long time, and their weapon systems can inflict a heavy amount of damage. However their operational time and range is very limited and if subspace communications with the Borg are disrupted they tend not to have much of a strategy, besides rushing an enemy weapon systems blazing.
Borg Main Battle Cube type 3
Shape: a cube with a side of 11983 m
With the exception of some of the very specialized systems each cube face is roughly equivalent, so I'll be focusing on a generic face of the cube, and general cube systems.
Each face has a surface are of 143'592'289 square meters which gives it plenty of space to mount sensors, weapons, engines, and shield projectors and still leave room for other stuff. It's also a very big target to hit, so usually the cube won't even try evasive maneuvers. Regeneration and Adaptation are two of the biggest strengths of the Borg, this is also true of the battle class cubes. Less than 5% of the cube needs to be intact for it to be able to regenerate itself fully.
Regeneration works through a combination of nanite, replicators and transporters. Replicators generate the necessary materials and transporters bring it (and nanite, if there isn't sufficient nanite in the area) to the appropriate location, while the nanoprobes do the fine detail work. However regeneration is very energy consuming and drones working to repair big chunks of damage manually can save a significant amount of energy.
Adaptation works together with regeneration, new systems are constantly being designed and regeneration systems are used to replace old designs with new stuff. This also means that the Borg can alter their loadout in the middle of a battle to be more effective against an enemy, and that if involved in a war all their ships will be optimized against that enemy. Armor is also changed to better resist enemy weapons, and shields are added and changed as needed.
The cube is extremely resistant to damage, and it has few specialized systems making it hard to disable the borg ship with a lucky shot. There is no such thing as a bridge or engine room, and while weapons, most sensors, and the thickest armor can only be found at the sides of the cube facing space there aren't that many specialized systems in the cube.
While, as noted before, the thickest armor is on the outside, there are layers of armor spread throughout the cube, insulating systems and limiting potential damage. Combining that with regeneration and extensive redundancy of critical systems it is almost impossible to destroy a borg cube, even before defensive systems are taken into account.
Defenisve Systems:
Shields: A variety of shields are usually in existence though usually there is a relatively small amount compared to the size and power of the cube, as the Borg tend to rely more on regeneration of the armor, and precise adaption of the shields and armor to the weapons used, with two significant exceptions.
Navigational Deflectors: These deflectors are for when the cube runs into things at warp speed, like dust, small rocks, large rocks, etc... They are easily bypassed by either using something massive enough or having it go slow enough. While mainly for deflecting non-weapon drebis it is very effective against railguns and similar things that rely on small, vast moving objects to do damage. The battle class mounts the second strongest Navigational Deflectors, only outmatched by the exploration class. They are capable of deflecting a minivan sized object of solid iron going at speeds near c. As the speed goes down so does the size of the object the deflectors can effect.
EMPshield: This is considered a critical priority system by the Borg, it takes precedence over pretty much anything. EMP pulses are the one thing that troubles Borg most, each individual drone has an EMPshield, all systems are hardened against EMP, as well as EMPshields and hardening throughout the cube. Still EMP is the weapon that does the most damage to the Borg if it's delivery system can bypass the outer layer of the shield. The Borg know this and their defenses against this sort of thing have a distinct edge of paranoia.
Propulsion systems:
Warp nacelles: There are three rows of three of those mounted under each cube face (about 100 m inwards) even though only a single pair is needed for warp speed. This allows the Borg to stress their engines to speeds where they would rapidly overheat and then start switching between them, allowing the stressed engines to cool and regenerate. This allows the Borg to sustain incredible speeds for prolonged periods of time making the Borg cubes among the fastest ships in existence.
Warp Core(s): The esoteric type of energy used by warp, transwarp and hypertranswarp must be generated in a warp core, and various warp core alignments with the nacelles can cause all kinds of weird effects. The primary warp core is absolutely essential for transwarp and hypertranswarp, and it is located in the center, directly combined with the transwarp and hypertranswarp drive. For hypertranswarp the 26 secondary warp cores must also be in perfect alignment and operating, for transwarp the primary core and two opposed warp cores must be in alignment, while for regular warp and of the warp cores will suffice.
Transwarp & Hypertranswarp: This drive is located in the exact center of the cube for technical reasons, these drives are what the Borg usually use for the long haul, although hypertranswarp is only used if speed is critical and the cube is in perfect condition since it's a significant strain on the engines, shields, and structural integrity of the cube.
Impulse: Powerful engines that allow the Borg to do quick real space travel and maneuvers even with their massive cubes. Constantly being tweaked for ever better performance the limits of this engine desing are not known.
Thrusters: Ah yes, good old reliable thrusters, not the most efficient but a useful backup and they don't leave the distinctive powertrail of an impulse engine. These engines are most often used when inside an impulse suppresion field (not very hard to generate, but most races have not figured out the trick behind it.).
Replication & Power Systems:
The Borg primarily rely on direct matter to energy conversion, in particular the replicator gel the Borg use as a raw material for almost anything. Replication occurs in two main steps, first there are those replicators that specialize in making the replicator gel which is a very dense and viscous liquid, and then there are those replicators who convert the gel into either objects or power. The reason for the inbetween step of Replicator gel instead of direct conversion is because replicatror gel is very easy to store and the Borg cube is essentially self sufficient as long as every so often it cuts up an asteroid or something and converts it into replicator gel for later use. For backup power there are also some fusion engines scattered about.