Editing Quest:Hive Queen Quest (section)

== Characters ==

=== Dr. Elizabeth Vaughn ===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| '''Race'''
| Human- Uplifted Psion
|-
| '''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. Elizabeth is arguably the most important human in the Hive's employ and, through time and a series of events causing her DNA to genetically alter itself, has come to regard herself as no longer human, empathizing largely with the Hive's endeavors, and possibly considering herself a member of the Hive outright.

=== Lyle Rogers ===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| '''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, who considers him a 'wayward son'.

=== Ryan Lee ===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| '''Race'''
| Human- Uplifted
|-
| '''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 ===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| '''Race'''
| Human- Uplifted Void Crafter
|-
| '''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. The archived memories and thought patterns were put to good use when they were downloaded into a spare human clone in order to assist in the recovery of an advanced memory crystal of Hive design. Contact with the crystal has altered his biochemistry significantly, but unlike Elizabeth, the alterations are designed to utilize the inherent psionic resistance of the human mind in order to expand his consciousness beyond the normal human limitations while minimizing the dangers of interacting with the Void.

=== Conrad Killinger ===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| '''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 ===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| '''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 ===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| '''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 ===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| '''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.

=== David Richardson ===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| '''Race'''
| Human
|-
| '''Age'''
| Unknown
|-
| '''Place of Birth'''
| Unknown, Talgo, Virgo system
|}

A rising political power in Union affairs. Direct opponent to Conrad Killinger who recently moved to take an independent position and start a new party. Ties to many members of the United Cyclicist Church and Lees immediate family. (Stub more data required)