There is a theory that has done the rounds a lot elsewhere on the Internet about the Borg's true motivations being a lot cleverer than simply attacking for attack's sake - they attack with single cubes, knowing they will fail, because the Borg want the Federation to be on a war footing afterwards and develop new technologies which they can assimilate later.
So what the Borg are actually doing with the single cube attacks is scaring the Federation stupid with what boils down to 'shock and awe' attacks to essentially farm them for new technologies and strategies. Perhaps they do this with all large, advanced civilisations they meet - the collective is, after all, patient and timeless. Why not see what new innovations (e.g. transphasic torpedoes) your target species comes up with before you finally decide they've become worthless of further innovation and just useful as meat to assimilate, just as Arturis says in Hope and Fear:
"My people managed to elude the Borg for centuries. Outwitting them, always one step ahead. But in recent years, the Borg began to weaken our defences. The outer colonies were the first to fall. Twenty three in a matter of hours. Our sentry vessels tossed aside, no defence against the storm. By the time they'd surrounded our star system, hundreds of Cubes, we had already surrendered to our own terror."
That presumably got them quantum slipstream drive, among other technologies we saw on the Dauntless.
We also see Borg activity nearly bring the Federation and Romulans in to a war when they assimilated several colonies along the Neutral Zone in 2364, and New Providence Colony in 2366. I believe this to be a strongly calculated move by the Borg to cause a war which would again, develop new and interesting technologies to get at later. More evidence for the farming theory.
So what of First Contact, what of the time travel attempt? It's hard to understand the motivations of a trilion-strong collective of minds, but my guess is that they felt the Federation destroyed their cube far too easily, and pivoted their strategy from 'standard farming' to 'quick assimilation attempt' at the end of the Battle of Sector 01.
Either that or somewhere in the Borg's grand calculation of strategy and permutation, they decided the Federation would be more interesting to them if it had formed without Earth. Imagine Vulcan and Andor, coming together with the Romulans, and forming a militaristic collective state because they discover there's a Borg hive world on their doorstep? May well have produced some pretty nifty kit.
So what the Borg are actually doing with the single cube attacks is scaring the Federation stupid with what boils down to 'shock and awe' attacks to essentially farm them for new technologies and strategies. Perhaps they do this with all large, advanced civilisations they meet - the collective is, after all, patient and timeless. Why not see what new innovations (e.g. transphasic torpedoes) your target species comes up with before you finally decide they've become worthless of further innovation and just useful as meat to assimilate, just as Arturis says in Hope and Fear:
"My people managed to elude the Borg for centuries. Outwitting them, always one step ahead. But in recent years, the Borg began to weaken our defences. The outer colonies were the first to fall. Twenty three in a matter of hours. Our sentry vessels tossed aside, no defence against the storm. By the time they'd surrounded our star system, hundreds of Cubes, we had already surrendered to our own terror."
That presumably got them quantum slipstream drive, among other technologies we saw on the Dauntless.
We also see Borg activity nearly bring the Federation and Romulans in to a war when they assimilated several colonies along the Neutral Zone in 2364, and New Providence Colony in 2366. I believe this to be a strongly calculated move by the Borg to cause a war which would again, develop new and interesting technologies to get at later. More evidence for the farming theory.
So what of First Contact, what of the time travel attempt? It's hard to understand the motivations of a trilion-strong collective of minds, but my guess is that they felt the Federation destroyed their cube far too easily, and pivoted their strategy from 'standard farming' to 'quick assimilation attempt' at the end of the Battle of Sector 01.
Either that or somewhere in the Borg's grand calculation of strategy and permutation, they decided the Federation would be more interesting to them if it had formed without Earth. Imagine Vulcan and Andor, coming together with the Romulans, and forming a militaristic collective state because they discover there's a Borg hive world on their doorstep? May well have produced some pretty nifty kit.
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