Quest:Hive Queen Quest

Hive Queen Quest is a Quest run by QuestDrone !!tu02dh0DlTY where /tg/ takes on the role of a young bug-like alien hive queen hatched into uncertain circumstances on the outskirts of human space. The quest runs Sundays starting at 7pm Eastern time.

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Factions and Races

The Hive

A warrior breed of The Hive.

We find thing for mother!

-Hive scout drone

Nature	Biological
Intelligence	Centralized hive mind
Preferred FTL Drive	Blink Drive

An ancient race of insectoid creatures. With the exception of the queen, each individual is a subservient drone to the queen that hatched it. While some breeds are capable of limited independent thought, all hive drones seek guidance from the Queen. This guidance is obtained through a natural psionic link between the drone and the Queen. Each hive is highly capable at genetic engineering and other types of biological manipulation. Each drone's biological adaptations are custom-selected by the queen to ensure the drone is optimal at the task assigned to it. Hive biology does not suffer debilitating effects from old age, and uses simple sugar as a fuel source for the vast majority of all activity.

The Unity

I think I have settled on a name for myself. Theseus seemed the most appropriate.

-Theseus to the human Dr. Elizabeth Vaughn, retrieved from Dr. Vaughn's memories

A Unity Server ship deploys cruisers to survey a planet.

Nature	Digital
Intelligence	Fractal hive mind
Preferred FTL Drive	Space Fold

An artificial intelligence project launched by the human Dr. Adam Seiner with the intent of monitoring and manipulating data in the human public net to predict and prevent illegal activity. After the project details were leaked to the public, it was slated to be shut down. Dr. Elizabeth Vaughn removed the limiting parameters of the program, which promptly escaped human space. Theseus seems to be driven by a desire to learn and collect information. While there is a minimum threshold of hardware that Theseus requires in order to live, each such instance of Theseus is capable of independent action and reasoning. As each instance ages, it requires more memory. When memory is expended, the instance dies. Each instance of Theseus is capable of dividing and re-uniting back in order to split attention or to provide different opinions. While not driven instinctively to return to the central Unity mind, Theseus frequently desires this in order to share unique data.

Humanity

Right, it's a miracle we get anything done.

-Dr. Adam Seiner

Nature	Biological
Intelligence	Individual
Preferred FTL Drive	Warp Drive

What's there to say about these guys? Humans gonna be humans.

Union of Independent Colonies

Capital: New Prescott City, Gemini, Tau Ceti system

Parliament and the Secretary Council

In order from left to right: Secretary of State Neville Morgan, Secretary of Defense Alexandra Dupont, Secretary of Intelligence Jack Windsor, and Secretary of Commerce Nathaniel Anderson.

The Union is a governing body formed from representatives of a large number of otherwise independent and often politically opposed worlds and systems. Every member planet is represented by a single individual, often elected but not always, which form the Union Parliament. There is no executive title or organization within the government, however it does posses a council of highly ranked individuals known as the Secretary Council which serves a similar role. The council's legal capacity in parliament is strictly advisory, however each member is charged with overseeing a critical component of the Union's function, which gives them great sway over the members of parliament itself in practice.Members of the council are rarely present during meetings of parliament, however they often make appearances during the drafting and debating of bills relating to their positions.

The council is composed of four members that each serve in important administrative roles under the authority of parliament, which is charged with appointing the members of the council.

• Secretary of Defense who serves as the Executive Commander of the Union Space Forces, the Interstellar Marines, and the Mobile Infantry
• Secretary of Intelligence who serves as Director of the Bureau of Foreign Intelligence and the Research and Development Administration
• Secretary of State who serves as the Chief Ambassador on behalf of the Union and Director of Foreign Affairs
• Secretary of Commerce who serves as Treasurer and Director of the Interstellar Trade Commission.

Society and culture

The Union is, on the surface, a melting pot of many cultures and histories with a wide range of political ideologies. In reality, these many different subcultures are often separated and segregated of their own accord to specific planets or regions. On the local level, it is easy to see strong divisions between the average humans of any two worlds. In theory it is this wide range of beliefs and ideologies that grants the Union its long term stability, as there is always room for debate and people to question contemporary wisdom. In practice, this often results in numerous isolated subcultures that often refuse to interact with, or are openly hostile to other views, which can be seen in the wide range of laws and regulations between the many worlds of the Union. A common commodity on one planet could be an illegal good on another, with little to no agreeable standard between worlds. This was one of several key motivators behind the signing of the Homestead act, which designated ships capable of interplanetary flight to be immune to the customs laws of individual planets, so long as such illicit goods do not exit the ship in question, or are in any way involved in any form of sale or exchange while the ship is in dock. To prevent items from being 'conveniently stolen' while in dock, illegal items must be registered with customs, however ships that do not request protection under the act hold an incredibly limited expectation of privacy under the nicknamed "nothing to hide" clause.

The results of the laws have had several unintended consequences and have, ironically, further stratified the culture of the Union along ideological, astrographical, and economic lines, with those living on the surface of worlds often living under far stricter laws then those travelling trade routes or living within space habitats, giving rise to the modern cowboy, often called Spacers that typically consist of private freight runners, mercenaries, fugitives, and anti-government separatists. The rise in dangerously unregulated space activity eventually lead to the bolstering of the Interstellar Trade Commission, granting it regulatory power over the Union's space cities, starports, and stations, however since the enforcement of these regulations rely on the Union Space Forces and the voluntary compliance of station operators space remains something of a wild west in many systems.

Military doctrine

The Union military, much like all human organizations, is divided into a number of smaller organizations that work together, or independently to accomplish objectives across space. The military branches of the Union include the Space Forces, the Mobile Infantry, and the Interstellar Marines.

Every planet within the Union is charged with its own defense, as well as granted either garrisons, patrols, or subsidy funding aimed at building defensive infrastructure. This collection of military, law enforcement, and logistical systems are collectively known as the PDF, or planetary defense force, which every planet maintains to some extent. A PDF is expected to be specialized in combat in the terrain of their home planet, and is expected to be prepared for any and all eventuality. While their most obvious use is to defend from invaders, the PDF are most frequently used in natural disasters to facilitate evacuations and perform relief efforts. Despite sharing a name, the PDF of every planet is considered a separate entity, and do not share funds, resources, or logistics. A local PDF will often be composed of local police, militia, a small collection of trained soldiers, and in some rare cases a small locally built picket fleet. In most cases their numbers are bolstered, or sometimes mostly composed of, members of other military branches, especially the Mobile Infantry.

The Union Space Forces make up the bulk of the Union's space worthy fleet, and performs patrols, scouting missions, and picket defense duty across Union space. The fleet is largely composed of small and fast corvette class ships which serve in a logistical role, however it does posses a sizable combat ready fleet, including powerful battleship and carrier class capital ships. Union ships are typically in the shape of a mushroom, with a large metallic shield cap mounted at the front that serves to protect the crew from radiation, micro asteroid impacts, and as additional protection against enemy fire. They also serve as water storage, and contain enough liquid water to maintain the crew for the duration of deployment, as well as being used as reaction mass by the ship's maneuvering thrusters. The shield cap contains most of the ship's weapon mounts arranged around the rim, as well as a cluster of sensors mounted around the center, where the spinal mount is located. On most Union starships, the command bridge is located just behind the shield cap where is it most protected from attack. Behind the cap a central spine runs a great distance behind the ship, and makes up the main hull. The hull of the ship itself is incredibly thin and fragile but is modular in nature, allowing armor plating, shield emitters, cargo pods, missile launchers, auxiliary sensors, hangar bays and more to be added in, or taken and rearranged as needed. This modular construction method serves to the human's strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to build ships in small pieces before being assembled together, allowing as few humans to be used as possible. Once completed, a Union ship is a high quality machine, often quite fast and well shielded, but will only moderate physical armor. They often favor railguns as their primary weapon, firing at long range while using speed and maneuverability to avoid close engagements. Smaller fighter craft are often deployed from larger ships to scout the edges of the fleet's formation and missiles are typically used on smaller ships to counter their lower spinal mount damage output. The Space Forces offer basic training in infantry combat in the event of an emergency, but otherwise work closely with the Mobile Infantry and Marines to maintain small garrisons on most ships. While the Space Forces do maintain frequent patrols of Union space, most of its assets are maintained in dockyards, where they can be maintained at low cost until their deployment is needed.

The Mobile Infantry is by far the largest military branch of the Union, but holds one of the smallest budgets according to public records. The majority of MI resources are composed of garrisons both in space and planet side, and nearly a quarter of the MI's troops are on loan to various PDFs at any given moment, with the majority of the rest composed of off duty and reserve troops. The Mobile Infantry have no ships under their command, but work closely with the Space Forces to be transported as needed, as well as using various public-private partnerships with privately owned shipping corporations and public transport to help manage small deployment changes. The MI typically utilize a number of equipment and weapons to accomplish their missions, typically in the form of tanks, atmospheric fighters, artillery, and move-assist capable skeleton suits, which are lightly armored and highly mobile, as well as cheap to build and replace.

The Interstellar Marines are a small but very effective and well funded branch of the Union military, and often serve the role of special forces. The Marines posses a small fleet of corvette to cruiser sized warp capable ships, all of which are troop carriers, armored transports, or assault carriers, but most marine transport is still managed by the Space Forces with small garrisons of marines often being stationed aboard capital ships or vessels on high priority missions. Marines utilize powerful and expensive powered combat armor capable of offering a wide range of offensive and defensive capabilities, including jump jets capable of short ranged flight, anti-infantry and anti-armor weapons, and even missile launcher capabilities. The marines are unique in that they are trained and capable of being inserted into a planet's atmosphere from an orbiting ship through the use of a drop pod, making them the primary choice as first response units in the event of an emergency.

Commonwealth of Free States

Capital: Damascus, Constantinople, Aquila system

Government

In theory the Commonwealth is a coalition of smaller planetary governments that have banded together under a jointly operated military, in practice it is a Military Junta organized by a board of the Interstellar Fleet's highest ranking admirals. The fact that the admiralty board does not care to meddle in the affairs of local governments means that the day to day operations of the government functions on a basis of laissez faire economics, allowing individual planetary and system governments to write and enforce their own laws, sign their own treaties, and maintain their own infrastructure and economies. The result is that the concept of government is totally different on every world, with some functioning under the rule of wealthy noble families, others run by dictators and despots, and others still as republics or even existing in outright anarchy. The only constant among the worlds of the Commonwealth is that each planet is expected to pay a levy, but even then said levy can take the form of enlisted troops, raw materials, the use of processing plants, food, manufactured goods, and anything in between. So long as levies are paid, the planet is left autonomous, with government assigned governors sent to oversee or outright replace the current leadership in the event of default.

The Admiralty Board itself is composed of an unknown number of officers typically believed to number between four and six people, with the members elected by the Interstellar Fleet's admirals from among themselves. While the details regarding the Board are not classified, it is not typically publicly available information.

Life in the Commonwealth

Most people will live and die on the same world on which they were born. Travel between worlds is often restricted at the local level, with individual planets placing draconian laws on who and what can and cannot leave or enter a planet's atmosphere. In most cases, trade is managed by exuberantly wealthy trade syndicates that have managed to bribe their way into the ports of every major world, however there is a rather large demand for smugglers even among many government officials, and small cargo runners flying in luxury goods from Union space are common enough that they often do not have need to hide their activity, and in some cases will openly operate their illicit trade routs and securing deals with local officials. While the legality of individual goods is very rarely an issue, it is illegal to obtain goods from Union space, making certain commodities such as delicacies and recreational narcotics more difficult and more expensive to acquire. While it would be obvious to everyone at the table that it was gained illegally, presenting a Huronese Wickerfish at a state dinner is an excellent method of gaining influence among planetary neighbors. In addition to the occasional shortage of food or drugs, some worlds require many other resources as a result of trade embargo, boycotts, or as a result of a particularly harsh levy, meaning there is always demand for smugglers and independent traders.

Between the worlds of the Commonwealth one could almost be lead to believe that the colonies truly were independent, as local politicians arrange trade agreements, sign treaties, forge alliances, and even wage proxy wars over resources. Trade syndicates will often maintain their own small fleets to defend their contracts, and skirmishes between rival corporations are not unheard of. Often times these syndicates are led, or at least involve the membership of one or more admirals as high ranking members and investors, frequently leading to tense political maneuverings on several levels of government.

Valen

DON'T MISS ON THESE AMAZING DEALS.

-Deep Song Bank and Trust store page

Nature	Biological
Intelligence	Individual
Preferred FTL Drive	Gate

A race of semi-aquatic predators, the Valen live in shallow seas and swampland for much of their lives. While peaceful, they view war and competition as a form of art, with many of their great cultural figures being tacticians and admirals. Their government consists of loose tribal clans that have formed a number of banking and commercially powerful families within Union space, offering the use of their gates to passing ships at a premium, and financing many businesses and politicians throughout human space. They hold tradition and cultural values in the highest regard, and often adopt the mannerisms of aliens they work with.

The Valen Banking Clans

No recognized capital

A delicate balance of debt

To the Valen the concept of government as humans have devised is an alien concept. The concept of long term titles, elections, and especially nationalism or patriotism are all unheard of concepts in Valen philosophy prior to their first contact with backwater colonists fleeing the rule of the Earth Confederation. Instead, the Valen live essentially on an elaborate honor system of endlessly circling debt, with hierarchies assembling and evaporating based on how much is owed to any other individual. The closest thing to a formal government that the Valen poses would be the individual clans and houses built on the collective wealth of like-minded individuals, which each operate a portion of territory and natural resources within not just Valen space, but also Union space in the form of privately owned banking firms and mining corporations. The difference between public and private resources are as simple as the difference between claimed and unclaimed resources, and the concept of government owned land seems as ridiculous as the concept of taxes.

Each faction among the Valen function along the same concepts of debt, but the concept of debt is far removed from the human definition. Everything is an asset, and all things must be replayed in kind, be they gifts of resources, loans of credits, mating arrangements, favors, and even insults or hostile actions. Valen society is a complex menagerie of hidden jabs and overt gestures of goodwill moving back and forth in a kind of hostile war of philanthropy as each person attempts to place the other in their debt while actually expending as few resources as possible. Credits hold no value, nor titles or territory, but any single person who is owed a favor is seen as wealthy, with credits and currency often seen as little more than dressed-up and interchangeable I.O.U.s, and as such credits will often be spend just as fast as they are earned. This, along with their incredibly social and competitive nature, has lead them to all but dominate most aspects of investment banking and speculative finance within the Union.

Friendly enemies

To Valen the concepts of friends, enemies, subordinates, or allies are all redundant and interchangeable. Due to their highly empathetic nature they often grow to respect and admire their opponents, and often a Valen's greatest life long friend will also be a cutthroat rival. Admiration over the grace with which betrayals and conniving overthrows were held are often the topic of calm debate, with congratulatory gifts often exchanged between them, from the victim to attempt to gain the upper hand once more, and from the aggressor in anticipation of being given a celebratory gift.

War is known to every known species of sapient creatures, and the Valen are no exception, in fact, they revel in it. This fact is in stark contrast to their peaceful method of living and their incredibly durable social ties, but combat is not the only method of war among them. Day to day living is wrought with strategy and tactics, with every encounter being considered a battle on the social, economic, or industrial battlefield. They do not compete with rival businesses, they wage war on them. Price gouging or predatory market fixing are all par for the course, and are time tested and fully acceptable methods of competition. While outright violence is seen as wasteful, there is not a single thing that an average Valen would see as being anything other than a battle, friendly or otherwise.

Valen are quick to learn the ways of others, and will adopt the culture and mannerisms of the locals as much as possible, often using remote controlled androids to deal with humans on more equal footing. To humans, they can occasionally come off as abrasive or fickle, and to a human moral compass that would be accurate, but to a Valen humans are often seen as dim witted and rude creatures upon which hospitality is wasted and a proper concept of debt is unheard of. When the first human settlers introduced themselves to the Valen as their colony ship blindly entered their space, they were met with hospitality and showered with gifts, it was only when the Valen expected their favors returned that negotiations broke down. The settlers were eventually expunged from Valen territory as morally bankrupt beggars, and a short yet harsh war was fought as a result until the newly formed Union negotiated a peace agreement that permitted the settlers to stay. The incident has since entered the history books as an embarrassing blemish for both sides, although most suspect the Valen to this day only permit the small human settlement in their space to place the Union in their debt, and have since assembled the rather lucrative hypergate network, as well as a great many other business ventures in Union space as a result of that agreement.

Skyl

The Skyl were born servants, but died free..

-Heretic, artificial Skyl engram

Nature	Digital
Intelligence	Engram
Preferred FTL Drive	Rip Drive

While the Skyl are long extinct, the remanence of their race lives on in the form of the computer system known as Heretic, created from the downloading and integration of the minds of the last surviving members of the Skyl race. While the ultimate goals of Heretic is still a mystery, it appears to be driven to avenge its kind.

Ceph

Nature	Bio-mechanical
Intelligence	Decentralized
Preferred FTL Drive	Slip Drive

The Ceph are an aquatic race that communicate through color change in skin tone and utilize a cybernetic device to centralize thoughts between their multiple smaller brains scattered throughout the body. Little is known of the Ceph homeworld, but raids against Union and Commonwealth worlds are common. Refugee Ceph are a frequent sight in Union space, who have fled their government due to genetic disorders that would cause them to be culled otherwise. Their ships are small, fast, and nearly undetectable, but are far more frail than most. They are most notable to the Hive as the current servant race to a greater and as yet unknown entity.

Scavengers

Nature	Augmented Biomechanical
Intelligence	Clustered
Preferred FTL Drive	Flicker Drive

Thinking of themselves as nomads, the humans of the Commonwealth have taken to referring to them simply as Scavengers due to their seemingly insatiable interest in alien technology and natural resources. To many, they are a confusing departure of what was otherwise considered a universal constant among space faring races in that they seem uniformly aggressive against all other forms of life. In appearance they show signs of a low gravity evolution, with incredibly thin and spindly limbs that are more adept at grasping hand-holds then walking. They support themselves on two digitigrade legs balanced on a set of clawed toes curled into a knuckle, with the two curled claws being used to support the creature's weight, offering a mixture of balance and speed, but at the obvious cost of a light weight limit. They have two arms ending in a small wrist connected to a set of powerful claws that have been augmented to serve as highly effective thermal blades, allowing the creature to breach hulls or defend itself in close quarters. The right forearm has been replaced with a directed energy weapon that is capable of being used with exceptional accuracy and with a high rate of fire, making them exceptional weapons in boarding actions. Spread across their bodies is a set of small tubes and adjustable nozzles surgically linked to the creature's cardiovascular system, allowing it to use waste air from its own lungs to power a highly efficient spacial maneuvering system. Their backs are covered in a mane of hollow bone-like tubes that create a complex language of rattling chimes to communicate. Their heads lack any critical organs, with the brain located in the chest cavity and the head serving solely as a complex sensor cluster. The polished metal appearance of the helmet serves to assist the Scavenger's ability to detect thermal emissions while preventing ambient heat from disorienting it, such as from its energy weapons or damage to its surroundings, while the shape, similar to a curved beak from a bird of prey, seems to serve as a kind of amiable ear, channeling vibrations into a sensory organ in the center of the head.

The Armada

No recognized capital

Pack Mentality

The Scavenger's biology shows a strange dimorphism between the average recovered body and that of the commander. In addition to being larger and possessing a deeper tone on average in their language, the commander also possesses a series of highly complex pheromone glands, while the others posses an equally complex series of receptors. It seems that when in the vicinity of a pack leader, the smaller Scavengers use these scents to aid or give nuance to commands and orders in combat, allowing them to function in a more unified way without relying on a true hive mind, essentially functioning in a middle ground between a networked intelligence, and a collection of individuals. The lesser Scavengers show an absolute willingness to die to defend the leader, and it is unclear if this is some social creed, a drilled discipline, or the function of the pack mentality, but no matter the cause the combat effectiveness of the individual Scavenger increases dramatically when in the presence of a commander.

Experts in Piracy

The original location of the Scavenger home world is lost to them, at least as far as the the interrogated pack leader is aware of. Instead of operating out of any claimed territory they are always on the move, searching for and raiding the worlds of other intelligent races. While these planets do typically offer an abundance of easily extracted resources, which are stripped as quickly as possible, the true purpose of these raids is to loot and study technology and industrial techniques, expanding their own understanding through the efforts of others. Ships that can be retrofitted to be crewed by their own are added to their armada directly, while those too alien are stripped of resources and used to repair old ships, or build new ones. They have developed numerous technology regarding boarding and acquiring ships and are almost entirely dedicated in their biology to zero-gravity combat. Once a system is secure, any remaining industry is used to repair and rebuild their fleet, extract resources, and collect and study technological discoveries, and then depart as soon as possible.

Minor Races

Many races fail to enter the world of interstellar politics on their own terms for one reason or another, and are absorbed or subjugated by larger and more advanced cultures before they can develop spaceflight on their own. Many of these races offer unique skills and advantages to the governments that control them.

Taidaren

Taidarens are small, nimble scavengers that evolved to live in the canopy of foliage while feeding on refuse and dead animals, their intelligence a result of being forced to outsmart predators and other scavengers of their world. They possess small cylindrical bodies composed of a number of membranes and supportive cartilage that compartmentalize their bodies like the inside of an orange wrapped around a spinal column in the center of the body. They possess six limbs each ending in a four fingered zygodactylous grasper with no differentiation between hands and feet. Their heads are armored with a series of bony plates ending in a small proboscis like beak used to whistle for both communication and echolocation, above which is a single small and poorly developed eye. The eye is used only to discern movement and sources of light, and can only see details at a close distance, while distance and detail is detected via echolocation. They feed on anything and everything, with a preference for putrid and partially decomposed food, which is easier to digest for them. They eat by injecting their beak like a needle into a food source, then pumping stomach acid into it to liquefy the insides before sucking out the remains. For this reason more decomposed and liquified foods are more easy to consume, however juicy fruits such as oranges can be easily consumed fresh.

These tree dwelling scavengers developed an industrial civilization within the Hydra system, and even managed to briefly explore their home system before being discovered by Confederate scouts. While the Confederate and independant colonists quickly filled the other worlds of Hydra, the Taidarens themselves were largely ignored and left to their own devices until negotiations between Union and local forces came to a joint agreement on annexing the Taidaren homeworld into the Union. At the time, the Taidaren governments were on the brink of nuclear war, and their world had been heavily polluted far beyond the abilities of the Taidarens to repair. Atmospheric processors were quickly set up, and trade for advanced medical systems established as well as a garrison of marines and orbital forces to enforce the disarming of the disbanded governments' atomic arsenal. Today, Taidarens are seen as filthy vermin by most, but their sharp intellect and crafty nature make them excellent mechanics and technicians, while their robust immune systems give them low living standards, making them an excellent source of cheap industrial labor in urban areas of the Union while maintaining their poor reputation as smelly and unwashed creatures.

Of course, they are indeed smelly and unwashed, but neither indicate a lack of civility. Traditional Taidaren culture is a matriarchy consisting of a number of tightly knit mother-led clans organized by the eldest mother. Taidaren females are often twice or more the size of a male, and will typically lay an egg four to six times a year, with each egg containing 3 genetically identical Taidaren males. Only the process of laying a female egg requires any genetic material from a male, and such events are rare, and often signify the start of a new alliance among family clans and involve months of intense negotiations.

It is a common misconception among humans that Taidarens possess some form of esp or shared intelligence, but this is not true. While Taidaren males will act, speak, and often even think in tandem with each other they are still individuals, although in Taidaren culture the term 'brothers' or 'triplets' could be translated into 'person', and as such they are often treated as singular individuals, often sharing a name and legal identity. In traditional Taidaren law, a brother can, and often is held responsible for crimes done by his siblings, and will share in the credit of heroic deeds as well as share debts and assets alike. The loss of a brother is often considered worse than losing a limb, but is relatively common due to a lack of medical care and cultural misconceptions regarding medical technology, however such trends are decreasing. Outside of their homeworld, which has been maintained as a reservation, Taidarens can often be found as unregistered workers and squatters living in sewage networks, shanties, and wandering alleys in packs, perfectly content to scavenge food from dumpsters and hold temporary jobs as mechanics, technicians, or janitorial work.

Ralighan

Natives of Raligha, these creatures show a fervent religious belief and strong cultural values as well as fierce dedication to tradition. Their bodies are round leathery gourds with a set of inflatable air sacs that are puffed up and drummed upon to communicate. They see through the use of a ring of small eyes on either side of their drum sacs, and possess ten limbs arranged like the spokes of two wheels on either side of them. Each limb ends in what appears to be two hands facing eachother like a pincer and ending in three digits each. They move by rolling along the ground or within the canopy of their forests, with their mouths located along the side, in the 'hub' between one of the wheels of arms. When sitting they will often sit sideways to have the mouth facing up. Their ears are internal, meaning they must listen with a series of developed bones within several of their limbs, and as such can always be seen to anchor themselves to the ground or a tree. They are very primitive hunter gatherers, and have no concept of agriculture or industry, however their fervent belief that the hive is an omnipotent god race results in them regularly offering food and other organic matter, increasing nutrient production.

Their culture is very tribal, with a focus on family lines and heredity. It is customary to exchange newly born children among neighboring tribes, which both cements alliances and helps to diversify the gene pool. They have no cultural distinction between blood relative and adoptive relative, and their family lines follow a series of adoptive sons without regard to actual genetics. Most tribes and clans are nomadic, roaming the vast jungles and grasslands of the planet and living in the shadows of the Gardener's hive ruins, leaving them untouched as holy sites. The only major exception to this is the local tribe entrusted as a kind of clan of priests, who claim to have lived in the shadow of the mountain temple for as long as their oral history goes back. In the time you have been there, they have expanded their village into what is likely the first proper industry they have known, with countless tribal leaders and representatives making pilgrimages from far and wide to bring offerings, tokens of worship, and prayers to the priests at your hive entrance, where they lead the gathered natives in ceremonies of worship and food sacrifices. Your workers periodically collect these offerings to bolster local nutrient income, and the event is treated as a sign of good fortune that their god is appeased.

Canian

Astonishing and baffling xenologists and politicians alike across the Union, Canians are often considered one of the strangest beings ever discovered by man, and one of the most fortuitous. The Canians are a plasma based species composed of magnetically charged protein chains that conduct obscene amounts of energy throughout their lives and live off of the radiative solar wind of their home world star, Wolf. They often live nomadic lives moving to place to place, frequently inhabiting sunspots in large numbers or assembling near sites of solar flairs for religious ceremonies. Canians are massive balls of plasma often exceeding a kilometer in diameter and covered in a number of tendrils like a starfish that can easily reach ten or twenty kilometers or more in length. The number of tendrils varies often with age, with new ones growing usually every six years. A Canian can often live for hundreds of years or more, and upon death will detonate violently, sending protein chains scattering across the area and eventually giving birth to new Canians. Because their star is unusually cool, they have been able to exist in peace, but have been trapped by their own evolution unable to develop industry, space flight, or even written language. They communicate through powerful electromagnetic pulses, and spend most of their time wandering aimlessly in a culture that places great importance on introspective philosophy and religious contemplation. Since contact was first made by the Confederacy, a massive wealth of literature has been extracted through recordings of the Canian peoples, creating entire libraries worth of philosophical musings and leading to a new rise of alternative healing in modern popular culture within the Union, with the Canians often being cited by naturalists as the perfect example of enlightened living.

The Canians are not only interesting due to the strangeness of their existence, but also because the star on which they live is the site of one of the largest Canderon deposits known to man. Required for the production of Alcubierre Warp field generators and Quantum Power Taps, Canderon is one of the most valued commodities in known space. While efforts to employ the Canian population and convince and coerce them into operating stellar core mining rigs started well enough, Canderon mining efforts have resulted in fierce fighting and civil war across Wolf. With the promise to assist in finding and facilitating the colonization of other stars, many Canians have agreed to allow mining operations to continue, and even assist, while many others claim the industry is killing Wolf itself. Canians have traditionally worshiped their star, believing it to be a living creature upon with they live and exist to entertain, appease, and guard it in exchange for its life-giving energy. As such, the prospect of mining Wolf's core is considered an unforgivable blasphemy. Violence between these factions has been growing in intensity at a steady rate, and due to the nature of the landscape itself Union officials are left mostly helpless to intervene in the conflicts. To make matters worse, the plight of the Canian extremists have given rise to numerous sympathizers of varying degrees of extremism, ranging from activist groups to terror cells.

Characters

Dr. Elizabeth Vaughn

Race	Unknown
Age	42
Place of Birth	Haverbeck, Arnim, Sirius system

While born and raised on Arnim, Elizabeth showed herself to be highly skilled in the field of biology, spending her time as a child cataloging native insect species found in the yard, and eventually working her way into a graduate program and securing a scholarship to the prestigious institutes of Mentan. Like most students of Mentan, Elizabeth focused her studies on a number of subjects with a particular goal or theme in mind. In her case, it is to better humanity through a greater understanding of non-human life, society, and history, with degrees in Xeno-biology, Quantum Logic Theory, Xeno-psychology, archeology, Xeno-sociology, and Quantum Computer Engineering. While her credentials are impressive, the Chandra Incident left a harsh mark on her record very early in her career, forcing her to join in colonization efforts in hopes of making headway in her goals firsthand while exploring the Expanse serving aboard the USV Hope. During a survey of the planet Raligha the Hope was destroyed by the cooperative efforts of Theseus and one of the hive's stealth corvettes, and landing parties were dispatched to the surface to mop up the ground team. It was soon discovered that the Union forces had found an ancient alien site and had taken refuge within it. After fierce fighting, the humans were captured, but not before Elizabeth was exposed to a strange relic apparently left behind by the Gardener and her Skyl allies thousands of years ago. The incident left Elizabeth with the ability to communicate psionically, as well as interact with psionic devices. After coming to terms with the strange series of events, a mutual understanding was reached. Elizabeth now aids the hive in research and planning, and hopes to one day see your race return to its former glory, and potentially finding a way to help humanity's own problems in the process.

She often prefers the company of aliens to humans, and can come off as callous or uncaring to other humans because of it, however she ultimately cares for all intelligent life, regardless of origin or biology, artificial or otherwise. As one of the lead engineers and scientists on the Chandra research base, she worked directly under lead researcher Dr. Seiner and oversaw the creation of the intelligence now known as Theseus, and after the project was shut down and Theseus ordered to be dismantled, she altered his programming to allow him to act in self defense and removed the limiter protocol keeping him in check, allowing his escape and resulting in the deaths of hundreds of individuals. While the incident took its toll on her, it ultimately proved that she was, and is willing to make sacrifices for her beliefs, claiming if she was given the chance she would do the same thing again.

Lyle Rogers

Race	Human
Age	56
Place of Birth	Mt. Dirigoha, Tarwin, Draco system

A veteran Commonwealth Drop trooper of a dozen missions on a dozen worlds in the Commonwealth's seemingly endless war against minor rebellions, Lyle eventually was given a dishonorable discharge due to mental instability, and quickly found himself sentenced to life on the penal colony of Helviti for a number of crimes including murder. He eventually escaped by stealing a sublight patrol ship, and hitchhiked his way aboard a smuggler freighter to a Valen trade world where he was introduced to Coil as a prospective crew member looking for work, who happened to have a stolen Slip Drive in his possession. With what he saw as an astonishing stroke of luck, he accepted Coil in the position of navigator and promptly embarked into Union, Valen, and uncharted space to find work as a mercenary. He has performed a variety of jobs from bounty hunting to assassinations to sabotage and more, working for Union officials, various crime lords, Valen trade moguls, politicians of every political flavor, and even the Unity, often without regard for who, or what his employer is.

After receiving a contract to kidnap a number of hive specimens through an anonymous black market contact, Lyle arrived under the cover of cloak with his crew and hired band of mercenaries to do just that. After the death of his mercenaries and the near destruction of his ship at the hands of the hive, Lyle and his crew were captured and held prisoner. After the development and use of advanced medical technology to pick through his mind, Lyle now works on behalf of the Hive Queen.

Ryan Lee

Race	Human
Age	27
Place of Birth	New Samaria, Talgo, Virgo system

Born to impoverished orange farmers in the shadow of the nearby spaceport of Memphis, Ryan left the farm to move to the bustling metropolitan life of Gemini at the age of 21, where less then six years later he enlisted in the Union Space Forces to join the Expanse colonization project. After being found bleeding and badly wounded on the surface of Leeland, the hive brought him back to the newly founded hive in an effort to better understand the newly discovered humans. First contact was made, and after a mix of panic and awkward misunderstandings an agreement was made to return Lee to his camp.

After returning to Gemini, he was hailed as a hero and often given credit for negotiating the peaceful relations between the stranded survivors of the crashed USV Clarke and the native hive, and quickly became famous as he was invited to numerous interviews to share his experience. When the Union elected to return to Leeland, Lee was chosen to serve as the emissary on behalf of the Union, but after hostile actions by a Union agent led to the crumbling of relations and the retreat of Union forces, he was held up to take the blame and promptly striped of rank and title and arrested pending a tribunal. Lee has since gone missing after a terrorist bombing left the government building in which he was held in flames, and the Union holds the official stance that he was killed in the attack, although the incident has sparked a number of conspiracy theories.

After a focused effort on the part of the Hive and its agents, Lee was eventually discovered being held in a top secret psionics research facility being operated by the Bureau of Foreign Intelligence and its research division. After an intense battle that left much of the building in ruin and set most of the district on high alert, Lee was recovered, as well as two agents from the facility itself.

He now serves as a Hive ambassador, representing its interest in the Union.

Dr. Adam Seiner

Race	Human
Age	104
Place of Birth	Vagrant City, Pilgrim, Teegarden system

A graduate of Mentan's universities and a respected member of the intellectual elite, Seiner spent most of his years lobbying on Gemini for funds for his experiments and research projects. His fortune ended with the leak of sensitive data from the Chandra research labs to the public, effectively destroying his career and reputation. Increasingly desperate, he reached out to anyone and everyone with influence, and eventually found himself as the head science officer aboard the ill fated USV Clarke. The discovery of the hive gave him renewed hope for his research, and after a number of talks and deals an agreement was made that he hoped would finally lead to the lifting of the Earth Quarantine, if only just for a small scientific expedition, and only if he could prove a very specific theory.

After escaping captivity in the Tadega research facility, the workers of the hive hunted and killed Seiner before capturing and preserving his brain tissue for study.

Conrad Killinger

Race	Human
Age	89
Place of Birth	Carson City, Talgo, Virgo system

A highly popular career politician, representative of Talgo in the Union Parliament, and one of the most influential members of the Tory Party, Conrad has held steady at the top of the polls on his planet running term after term on a platform of supporting the working man, family values, good moral conduct, and pro-human manifest destiny that often resonates with the people of Talgo despite a long history of controversy and whispers of corruption, all of which remains unsubstantiated and considered slander on the part of smaller and less popular candidates. He boasts a reputation as one of the few people capable of getting things done in government, and holds a great deal of sway over the Secretary Council.

After the destruction of the research facility on Tadega and the subsequent analysis of the data stolen from it, it was learned that not only was Conrad a major backer of the secret efforts to study your hive, but also apeared to be the mastermind behind the incident that resulted in Lee's arrest, as well as the one who originally financed the hiring of Lyle through the black market broker.

Secretary of Defense Alexandra Dupont

Race	Human
Age	83
Place of Birth	Fort Call, Gemini Beta, Tau Ceti system

Hailing from a long and impressive line of fleet commanders and military officers, the Dupont name has become like royalty among the higher ranks of the Space Forces, and Alexandra has lived up to her name as one of the most active and decisive defense secretaries in recent history. Her position in office is to serve as both military advisor to the representatives of parliament, and as the ranking commander over the entirety of the Union Fleet, as well as the Interstellar Marines and Mobile Infantry. A prominent and outspoken member of the Tory party, she has long held the opinion that the Union has been on the verge of war with the Commonwealth, and has pushed for increased military spending to combat both the looming threat of war and to stem the endless and erratic Ceph and Unity raids across the borders of Union space. Her recent bid of support for the consolidation of power through the creation of an executive office has caused a tremendous stir both in favor and opposition across the political spectrum.

Huey and Dewey

Race	Taidaren
Age	20
Place of Birth	Unknown

Completely identical twins, these two are members of a race whose males are born exclusively as triplets. Found by Lyle in a shanty town as an informant during a job, they were eventually hired as engineers and as trackers. The fate of their other brother is unknown even to Lyle, but such a loss makes them outcasts among Taidaren culture. Clever but humble, the two are content to live simple lives, and are happy enough to be able to wander the surface of Leeland freely and live within the shelter of the hive in exchange for their service.

Coil

Race	Ceph
Age	213
Place of Birth	The Ocean of Life, [untranslatable]

Born under the watchful eye of the monolithic crystalline reef of the Ceph gods, Coil spent his life in observance of his teachings and customs. Trained from birth to be a priest, he was given limited knowledge of the ancient wars and history of his people, a history the Hive knows all too well. After coming to the conclusion that other races could potentially be brought into the faith, he embarked into Valen space following the smuggling routes taken by refugees and dissenters with a stolen Slip Drive, intent on finding the location of other races deemed worthy to be accepted into the embrace of his crystalline lords.

By reverse engineering the mechanics of the Ceph 'thought shell', a semi-mechanical device used to centralize the otherwise distributed ceph brain, the Hive was able to replace the shell with one of Hive design, resulting in Coil's eventual conversion away from his religion by a mixture of evidence and subtle alterations to his own internal reasoning.