Star Trek Stardate 49568.2:

Thousands of light years away from the planet Earth, a race of creatures known as the Boxters are acknowledged to be the most independantly minded race in the known universe. During a routine trading expedition to a neighboring solar system, a Boxter space ship was confronted by a perfect cube shaped craft, of the type that none of them had ever seen before. Hailing the craft resulted in silence for a few moments, until one single cold message came across the communication channels - "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

Having been fired upon immediately after that chilling message, the Boxters fought back with their defensive cannons. Their first shots blasted a hole in the cube, but after that the Borg seemed to adapt their shields, and no more cannon shots, no matter how accurate or sustained, were able to cause any danmage at all to the Borg cube. The Borg boarded the Boxters' damaged ship, and just as they had warned, assimilated both the crew and the ship. The ship's technology, weapons and material all became part of the borg cube, and Borg implants were given to the Boxter crew, making them Borg drones.

The Borg should have realised something was different with the Boxter's though. Unlike other races which took just 20 cycles or so to become truly assimilated into the collective as drones, the Boxter crew were still showing signs of individuality until ten times as long as would normally be expected. Finally though, it seemed they had become part of the collective mind, and no further signs of individual thought were evident.

However, some cycles later, unnoticed to the collective, the Boxter drones began to congregate together every now and then, even though they had been assigned to different work units. This unusual behaviour continued for over what we would call a solar year in human terms. Finally they had completed their secretive project. After regenerating in their alcoves one final time, the Boxter Borg assembled together at the place they had been meeting all this time. One of them unscrewed a hatch, and they all entered. Inside the hatch were seats and a command panel, all of which the Boxter Borg had put together piece by piece during their secretive liasons. After each had taken a place, one of them flipped a switch and a low rumble could be heard, followed by the disclocation of connecting bolts which had been holding their creation in place. Ripping itself from the Borg cube's internals, the Boxters' craft escaped into empty space and its form became clear. The Boxters had used the Borg's assimilation and cube building skills to create their own cube-shaped spacecraft in which to flee.

Sensing damage and the detachment of the Boxtes from the collective mind, the Borg cube fired upon the smaller cube. The Boxters had planned for this though, and the knowledge they had gained from the borg about adaptive shield technology and the Borg's own weapons had allowed them to ensure that their small cube's shields could fend off the Borg's laser fire. The Borg decided to go for the heavy-handed option and ram the Boxter's cube into oblivion...

This is where you come in to help the Boxters. Using their independence of mind, they have devised a special type of self-adapting variable phaser which the Borg are unable to defend themselves against. You'll see the Boxter spacecraft at the centre of the game screen. Controls are similar to the classic Asteroids game. Use your keyboard's left and right arrow keys to turn the ship in an anticlockwise or clockwise direction and your control key to fire your phasers. Your up key will give your spaceship impulse power to travel in the direction that the ship is pointing. At any time you can press P to pause, or, if the threat of being assimilated gets just too overwhelming, you can use Q to quit the game.

Can you help the Boxteroids defeat the Borg and retain their freedom as independant beings?