Race Name: L.O.C.U.S.T
Name of Faction: L.O.C.U.S.T Conglomerate
Government Structure: Autocracy.
Race Biology: The appearance of any Locust varies wildly, but the standard template for a Construction Drone is a mechanical torso with arms and a wheel instead of legs that attaches to rails that go along and inside Locust constructions. The Construction Drone is by far the most common form of the Locust.
Cultural History: In a binary star system, where stars much like ours orbited eachother, there were two races. There was a carnivorous race of warmongers who lived on a lush jungle world, and there was a race of scholars that lived on a moon that barely supported life orbiting a gas giant. Over competition of resources, these races came into conflict. The carnivores made the L.O.C.U.S.T swarm, and they were able to defeat their foes. The scientists wiped out the carnivores with a great manufactured plague. Eventually, both sides AIs eliminated all sentient organic life in the star-system. Soon afterwards, the Locusts prevailed over the AI of the scavengers. With it's primary directive complete, the Coordinator began to pursue his secondary objectives which were related to the expansion of the Locust war machine. They devoured the cities for scrap material, leaving no trace of their existence. They harvested all of the plants on the surface of planets for biofuel. They extracted tons of minerals from the planets, moons, and even the asteroids of the system. For the next fifty years, the Locusts produced nothing but ships for their fleet, and the infrastructure to support it. They had produced an incredibly large fleet. But, in that fifty years they also had almost depleted all of the resources in their system. The coordinator realized this, and shut down production. Now the LOCUST prepare to travel to distant stars, to increase production for a war long past.
Social Structure: The coordinator has absolute say in any decision, but delegates tasks to multiple managers. The managers are AI's in charge of at least one ship, and obey the coordinator unquestioningly. Each manager will be loyal to the coordinator, but may become self-autonomous due extraneous circumstances. Soldier-Drones and Targeting AIs are gifted sentience, but they follow their duties without question. Worker drones, are also blessed with self-awareness, but they are not nearly as intelligent as the others. There is no class mobility. If a L.O.C.U.S.T is built a soldier, then it will remain so the rest of their lives.
Reaction to Aliens: In all honesty it depends on the manager that is encountered, but most managers will interpret the Coordinator's directive of 'expand' as don't let anything get in your way. So often the response to Aliens is open fire. However there is a chance that the LOCUST will negotiate first, which will likely consist of "leave or be destroyed". But it is only a chance.
Military:
Locusts for the most part rely on a fleet of small ships without any sort of energy shielding that are packed to the teeth with interplanetary nuclear missiles. Each missile can do serious damage compared to its size, and the Locust have little concern of the radiation and environmental damage done by nuclear weapons. They like to stay far away, to avoid enemy arms fire because it is more efficient, not because it is less dangerous. They were used for the dangerous missions in their war, so their designers decided not to program that instinct. Therefore Locusts can engage in tactics that most would find appalling as they have no sense of self preservation. The priority of the LOCUST is to eliminate their enemy, as they are war machines and that is what they are programmed to do.
Technology (A note on the Locust's tech. As self-replicating military and construction drones, they will never research any new tech, ever!):
Locust computers are so advanced, the computing power of a 21st century supercomputer would fit into one Locust computer chip. Because of this, almost all Locust tech is fitted with at least a few computer chips. Doors, guns, welders, you name it. Every single piece of Locust tech has blueprints for all generic Locust designs of ships, mining equipment, guns, and etc. Anything that was designed by a particular Locust manager (which never uses any new tech, think of different kinds of swords, although a Katana is different than a European broadsword, they are constructed very similarly and have a similar purpose. In this analogy, no manager would ever invent a gun to replace these weapons), will be downloaded on all Locust tech that the manager owns and all Locust tech that has contact with that manager's drones. By contact, I mean within the same star-system. In short, Locusts treat computers like we treat electricity. A pervasive source in the walls that we always expect to be there that helps us with daily tasks.
Locusts move their ships through nuclear drives, with no concern as to the radiation produced by said drive. Nuclear drives are more efficient, and it is more likely one finds uranium than fossil fuels among the stars. However, To reach orbit from the planet surface, they use Orion drives, which is a fancy way of saying they ride a nuclear explosion into orbit. They don't care about the environmental damage, and they can survive the extreme g-forces that would entail.
The Locusts use AI-guided nuclear missiles to destroy their enemies. The Locusts also use AI-guided missiles to shoot down enemy missiles. Locusts expect to be able to detect enemies before they get too close. 100 km is considered the optimal range for engagement. Lasers are a secondary weapon used by the Locusts, used to supplement missiles. They are far weaker than Missiles, even those without a nuclear payload. But they can assist the fleet in getting the job done. Missiles however are expensive, as you are effectively throwing away a spaceship for each one sent at the enemy. However Locusts are very good at harvesting resources, so they can afford to.
Most Locust computers are self-aware, and can reason through problems. Since Locust computers are so ubiquitous, almost all Locust tech are self-aware. Albeit, the AI in a door for instance may only be the equivalent of a 5 year old's intelligence and will attempt to kill intruders. Weaponry ripped from a Locust ship will attempt to kill any non-Locust who tries to use it. Locust equipment in the hands of an outsider will deliberately fail at best, and attempt to kill the outsider at worst. Locusts are absolutely rigid in their directives, however how they accomplish their directives is not so rigid. A Locust that fails a task attempting one approach will attempt another. However, disobeying their prime directives is unthinkable. Obeying the coordinator is as natural to Locusts as eating and sleeping is to humans. This is of course extremely inefficient, like all Locust technology.
Locusts are very very good at harvesting resources, so good in fact that they can throw expensive missiles at the enemy without much thought. However this comes with the downside of depleting a star systems resources very rapidly. They were able to deplete all of their star systems resources in 50 years. However this has led to the side effect that all Locust technology is incredibly inefficient by most civilization's standards. They don't really care about the cost of their technology, as they are simply war machines, they weren't programmed to give it much thought.
Locusts build three classes of orbital structures: space-elevators, solar farms, and factory complexes. Space elevators efficiently carry cargo from and to the surface without expending nearly as much fuel as a rocket. Solar-Farms provide the bulk of Locust Energy needs. Nuclear power provides a good alternative whenever solar power isn't practical, as the Locust don't have to worry about radiation shielding. While a Dyson Sphere is more efficient, the creators of the Locusts put in a directive preventing them from building them, because they would rather have their suns still shine thank you very much. Factory complexes produce everything that is required to build space-craft. Anything that is used planetside is usually produced there. These factories often orbit mineral rich objects within a solar system, and move whenever that object is depleted to a new one.
Last but not least, the LOCUST have a warp technology. They can use it to transport their entire civilization across star systems, but like all Locust technology, it is incredibly inefficient. It requires 10 trillion kilowatts to create a worm-hole, meaning that they have to harvest energy for at least a year before they can move their fleet to another star system.
A quick note: The LOCUST at the time of the RP will only occupy one star system. However I plan the LOCUST to be a powerful villain, so I hope to expand to nearby star systems. I don't want to make them overpowered, so I gave them drawbacks such as their technological sterility, their slow speed of interstellar travel, and suicidal overconfidence. If you find anything wrong with the LOCUST just tell me. Thanks.
. Let me know what you think