Assimilating the Breen?

Ok, I just got the 'Aliens' book and I'm working on the next adventure for my group. The idea is this. The crew discovers a crashed Borg cube, very much incapacitated, and begin to investigate the wreck. At the same time, an El-Aurian is raiding the crash, trying to find a way into the collective. He has issues. Anyway, he's using Breen rouges to do his dirty work, because their protective suits will easily protect them from the toxic fumes that the wreck had been burning off. Of course, the Borg aren't down for the count.

Now, reading up on the Breen, it turns out they're basically walking medical gel packs. Do you think it would be possible for the Borg to assimilate them, or more importantly, would the Borg even want them assimilated?

"Now, reading up on the Breen, it turns out they're basically walking medical gel packs. Do you think it would be possible for the Borg to assimilate them, or more importantly, would the Borg even want them assimilated?"

Huh? Whence comes this info? Certainly not from the DS9 TV show... "Walking medical gel packs?" What does that even mean?

A few things were established on the show - Breen are rarely ever encountered without their encounter suits, but they are sufficiently humanoid that Humans, Bajorans and Cardassians can easily wear their suits. The suits are supposedly refrigeration units, and the Breen maintain a myth that they come from an arctic environment which reqquires them to wear the suits; but there is no truth to the myth, according to Weyoun. Breen have no blood. They are considered especially devious. That's the sum total of the official info.

Sounds more like a description of the natural state of the Founders rather than the Breen.

I personally feel free to ignore information from novels and even game books if it doesn't fit in with my campaign. If you want the Breen to be assilimilatable, do it - it's your game.

Well, if I may quote from the book, the Breen are "...walking sacs of ammonia and gelatin." They have no blood, and few organs, so what I'm really looking for is opinions on HOW the Borg could assimilate them.

Assimilation is a fairly undefined process. Basically, you'd have to decide if the Borg had ever encountered the Breen before. If they had, then there would be an assimilation plan for them, and the process would be as rapid as any other species. If not, they would have to spend time analyzing the Breen to develop such a plan.

To be intelligent, the Breen must have a brain, or something that does the same job. Borg nanoprobes would infiltrate this structure and establish control (presumably through nanocortical fibers.

It's very likely that the Breen brain is some type of physical structure; if the Breen were non-corporeal intelligence, then they would probably have no need of bodies at all. However, you could rule that their intelligence is, in fact, non-corporeal -- but for some reason does require a body. That would mean that the body provides something the mind requires -- perhaps energy. Because the mind is always close to the body, it would be possible for the Borg to study it, and eventually learn to control it. It might be the work of years, though.

You could also easily rule that the Breen are so different from anything the Borg have ever encountered, that the Borg have great difficulties assimiliating them. However, this would also serve to motivate the collective to try really hard, since it seeks distinctiveness in its quest for perfection. Anything they haven't already seen might well be the key to Nirvana.

Even if the biological elements of the Breen couldn't be assimilated I think the Borg would still go after their technology.Q did state in "Q Who" that the Borg were only interested in The (Ent-D) technology.Of course we found out later that they were going after flesh also.

Hmmm, I had never thought about assimilation process's outside of the injection of Nanoprobes into the blood stream. Ok, I see how it could be possible now, and how it could really spell some trouble out for the crew. Thanks.

Actually, I kind of like the idea that the Borg COULDN'T assimilate the Breen, due to their distinctive body structure. It would make for an interesting scene where a reanimated Borg Drone grabs a Breen merc for assimilation, injects the nanoprobes, which promptly turn one small patch of Breen into Borg, before being rejected by the Breen's body in a nasty whooshing, spilly mess that stinks of ammonia.
From the description in the ALIENS book, I'd lean toward the notion that the Breen are not compatible with the Borg ideal and so would not rate assimilation. But their technology is a very different issue. "Biotechnology"? Hmm. Maybe the Breen can't be assimilated, but wouldn't it be a hoot if their SHIPS could?
Picture the smug, assimilation-proof Breen having to turn to the PC's for help in rescuing them from their own Borgified ship!
Now that's entertainment!

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Originally posted by Sheliak Bob
Actually, I kind of like the idea that the Borg COULDN'T assimilate the Breen, due to their distinctive body structure. It would make for an interesting scene where a reanimated Borg Drone grabs a Breen merc for assimilation, injects the nanoprobes, which promptly turn one small patch of Breen into Borg, before being rejected by the Breen's body in a nasty whooshing, spilly mess that stinks of ammonia.
From the description in the ALIENS book, I'd lean toward the notion that the Breen are not compatible with the Borg ideal and so would not rate assimilation. But their technology is a very different issue. "Biotechnology"? Hmm. Maybe the Breen can't be assimilated, but wouldn't it be a hoot if their SHIPS could?
Picture the smug, assimilation-proof Breen having to turn to the PC's for help in rescuing them from their own Borgified ship!
Now that's entertainment!

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Indeed that would be great. Another thing one has to take into consideration are those Environmental Suits the Breen wear. To assimilate a Breen, the Borg would have to make a path through the suit, eventually stripping it off the Breen to put into place all those nasty implants. It would more than likely prove fatal.

Borg can assimilate someone through an environment suit - we've seen them do it. Since the refrigeration suits are really uneccesary for the Breen's survival (as explictly stated on screen), and given the fact that a Borg can walk around in hard vacuum without ill effect, removing the suit during assimilation wouldn't be a problem.

Personally, I don't see the Borg having a problem assimilating anything with a central nervous system, and even this decidedly off interpretation of the Breen doesn't seem to rule that out.

In the final analysis, though, go with whatever works for you in the context of your game. If you want to have the Breen immune to Borg assimilation, make their bodily fluids something which is corrosive to Borg nanoprobes. This has the added convenience that if you later decide to have the Borg capable of assimilating Breen in a later scenario, they can adapt their nanoprobes to Breen biochemistry.

Ah. But the problem is, according to the ALIENS write-up, the Breen cannot survive in regular temperatures without their suits.
Now even the "canonical" on screen references aren't conclusive one way or another. The "They don't need the suits" part comes from one comment from Weyoun that the Breen homeworld was actually "quite pleasant". He may have been lying. The Breen may have been deceptive about where their "homeworld" actually was during negotiations with the Dominion (a damned good idea--considering the possibility that the Dominion might not be a reliable partner-- and one I tend to favor), or the Breen homeworld may have been suffering an ecological disaster (from Breen viewpoint) which led to serious climatic warming.
Hey, we've been down this road before!
Ultimately, the GM has to decide which version of the Breen he/she wishes to depict. For better or for worse, CODA has chosen a particular take on the Breen. It's actually fairly interesting. It's not "canon" though. At the moment, nothing really is, except that the Breen are warlike, tricky and nasty types in funky ships.

Owen's right concerning Weyoun's statement about the Breen homeworld being a tropical world.The Aliens explanation does fit and I thought it was pretty cool.Are we being fed the myth floating around the Federation or is Weyoun just a lying little Vorta?The omission of a Canon reference from the Breen description is something i can't figure out .What's the story?

I haven't done much with the physical makeup of the Breen, but I did figure out what the suits are about... at least in my opinion.

I was reading another RPG book, GURPS Space Atlas 2 I think, and one of the planets has a very ellipical orbit... To the point that it leaves its star's bio sphere area (area where water can be liquid) for a long period of time. My theory is that the Breen come from a similar world and evolved during the cold era. During the first generations, they went to the polar regions to survive the heat... and worked on biotechnology to combat the problem.

The suits? They are refrigation units. They do cool the Breen, used when the Breen homeworld is in the warmer times of its (however long) year. Thus supporting both the suits and WEyoun's comment.

I'll get back to your about the Borg issues... when I have more time to think about it.