Everything seemed to happen at once. The drone advancing towards him... The assimilation tubules digging into his neck... And blackness.
Heraclius awoke. He was laying in a dark room, with almost no noise. Suddenly he remembered where he was, and clasped a hand to his forehead. But instead of cold skin, he encountered metal, and, taking a glance at his arm, noticed that his skin had become grey and mottled, with dark veins showing through. As a surge of panic flowed over his body, Heraclius saw a drone come over to him. It was time for the second half of assimilation: the painful one.
A stab of pain shot through Heraclius' chest as a syringe of dark liquid pierced his flesh. The drone's arm, which was tipped with a small saw, removed Heraclius arm just below the elbow. Both his legs were then removed as well, before Heraclius realised something. "The Borg cannot breed, so the sexual glands would be useless to them. But they couldn't... Surely they can't remove my..."
A knife cut into Heraclius' penis, and severed it entirely, placing a strip of metal over the remains to hide the bleeding. Then cybernetic replacements were slotted into place over the severed limbs. A drill descended towards his eye. A small implant was placed over the mutilated eye, after which a drill-like eyepiece went over the top of that. Once the exoplating was grafted onto Heraclius skin, the assimilation was complete.