Editing Quest:Hive Queen Quest (section)

===Scavengers===


{| class="wikitable"
|-
| '''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====
:''Capital: The Hunger, Broodmother class World Ship currently in orbit of Harvest, Matron Star system''

=====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.

=====Nomadic Spacers=====
The ships composing the Migrant Armada of the Scavengers come in all shapes and sizes, with no constant regarding classification or design. A ship class may last only a few runs before some newly looted technological advancement renders is obsolete, or an enemy strategy demands a firm counter in the form of a new ship design, as such the Armada holds countless ship classifications, with each ship a special work of art incorporating looted technology, experimental systems, and strange, jerry rigged merging of alien and Scavenger equipment. In most cases, looted equipment is seen in higher regard than newly made equipment, as in Scavenger society it is considered a mark of skill to have taken the weapons, armor, or gear of a fallen enemy. In a way such looting serves as a kind of practical trophy, as it allows the Scavengers to rapidly equip their forces with technology better adapted to the local terrain and often more suitable for fighting the local enemy. Once looted Scavenger scientists, if they could be called that, do their best to incorporate any useful new technology into the general manufacturing process, but such new equipment is received with a stigma, as it was issued, not earned, and thus does not denote any skill upon the user in the wider Scavenger society. The only true exception to this is one of the few truly unique developments of the Scavengers, one of the few things they did not loot from others, the World-ships. Each one is work of art, devoted to one of the great Matrons of the fleet, it is believed that there is a World-ship made for every world that has been looted by their species, however their records are not reliable enough to verify the claim, what is certain is that the vast majority of raw resources stripmined from their victim worlds are used in their construction, and they hold the vast majority of the Scavengers' infrastructure. These ships, more akin to mobile space cities, are never deployed deliberately in battle, but instead tend to be parked in an uninhabited system containing resources used to fuel the fleet's war effort, and used to establish a staging area. Each such world-ship contains only a single broodmother, a Matron of the fleet who has proved her worth and ascended to the inner circle of the Scavenger's leadership class.

=====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. During this frenzied time of conquest, subjugation, and inevitable extermination, the Scavenger population swells to match the demand for manpower, but the Armada can only hold so many on its long journey, and competition for a place among the fleet is truly cutthroat, often literally. As the local resistance decreases, infighting increases, and the population rapidly drops as new broodmothers fight for the right to ascend to the Armada as members of the new ruling class. All others are either left behind on a barren world stripped of all means of sustaining life, or die fighting for a place in the fleet.