“Those whom we encounter sometimes ask who we are, why we do the things we do.
We are the Master Race.
We simply Are.
Lesser cultures who would pose a threat to us must be destroyed. So it has always been; so shall it always be. Those who are of no use to us must submit, or be destroyed. There are no alternatives.
We had dealt with the fat ones before. On a dozen worlds they fought us. They lost each in turn. For centuries we could not find their nest, the source of their contagion overtaking the surrounding stars. Then one of their own sold us a star chart, and we had them. A thousand ships fell upon the homeworld of the fat ones. We slaughtered them without remorse. All but one spaceship, a large freighter, laden with refugees. We pursued them here, to the New World, but the rest of our armada did not follow, and we could not reach out to them. We were stranded here, as were the fat ones.
We will use the creatures of this place against them.
We will render the fat ones harmless. Or extinct.
We will escape this dry, hostile world.
We will because it is our will to do so.
We are the Master Race.”
The Ute’wehi
The Ute’wehi, or as they prefer to call themselves, the Race, arrived on-planet 997 years ago, in pursuit of an escaping to’ok freighter. Where their counterparts crashed in the middle of the continent, the Ute’wehi enjoyed a more controlled landing and were able to choose a site better fitting to their needs. Atmospheric analysis told their ancestors that the planet was drier than their moist bodies required for breeding and general sustenance, so they picked an area immediately adjacent to both the sea and a large river delta. The abundance of water there helped ameliorate the dry atmosphere, and also provided adequate moisture for their successful reproduction. Ute’wehi breed as most colony insects do, with a single queen laying thousands of eggs. These eggs are then moved to specialized incubating chambers, where they are kept warm and damp until they hatch. Eggs remain viable for some time after the queen lays them, even if the conditions become too dry or too cold. The eggs are capable of a limited hibernation that allows them to survive for up to five years after being laid.
The Ute’wehi evolved long ago beyond simple colony-insect consciousness, but they strive to maintain that mindset through artificial means. The queen and leadership of any colony finds the day-to-day operation vastly simplified if most of the inhabitants are docile and compliant; to that end, their scientists have devised what they call ‘the Calmative’. This chemical is administered to most Ute’wehi workers and soldiers – collectively called ‘drones’ – after their final metamorphosis into their adult forms. It removes from the recipient most of their self-preservation instincts and higher-thought processes, but also substantially reduces their lifespan. Fortunately, the aliens breed and mature at a fantastic rate, so the average lifespan of a ‘calmed’ drone of three years is not a major setback. Guided by the ‘Autonomous’ and ‘Semi-autonomous’, the drones are dedicated, if not strictly intelligent, workers and soldiers. They require constant supervision and instruction in everything but the most mundane or repetitive tasks, but they are slow to tire and never complain.
