Cykrethadr

Known collquically as Tentacled Knots, their measurements vary depending on gender, of which they is only two.

Cykrethadr

'Tentacled Knots' A creature that while comprised on a main body and tentacles branching off of that body, are 'knotted' after birth to become 'masses' of writing tentacles. Massive brain capacity taking care of mortor functions, can unknot at will. There are two varities of this species because of the catastrophy that befel the Pelopenesian sector - the attack by the NotBorgOrReplicators who destoryed all civilization (except a few holdouts!) in the sector and the populations who survived initual bpmbardment on the various inhabitable worlds.

Spacenoids (softer skin, due to long life, they survived in a comatose state in a station that was able to be hidden. They have a majority of males, with only two females who are used as Brood Queens. However, they also use human females for th efirst few months of pregnancy with their young until the children are strong enough to be transplanted into exowombs that are imprefect, despite hurried reserach.)

Homeworlders. (Tougher skin evolving to deal with a ruined world. They have females, but are not able to breed with the Spacenoids due to genetic drift: Evolution was so flurried, it took away the ability to crossbreed with the Spacenoids due to a genetic flaw that is resistant to fixing.)

The species once had a empire, but were slow to spread across the galaxy, and there were the only species in the galaxy beside humans. Unknowingly, humanity surrounded their empire before the settlers of the Pelos Sector contacted them, which was the first direct sign then had somebody (or somerace) was colonizing the galaxy. Due to a dispersed yet roughly planned technique, the humans setteled the galaxy in under 15,000 years. (The entire thing. This is mostly a setting about various abhuman groups.)

The history of this species could be begun when they contacted humans at the galactic date of

~50,000ce Present -2300 Fleet from the Coreward Alliance arrives due to the waves of refugees fleeing into Alliance territory, find the NBOR and push them out of the sector, although are still fighting them towards the NBOR's territory. -1 When the (NotBorgOrReplicators) attaked the Pelos sector and ruined many a terraformed world, destroyed every world they could and ate some of them. -450 Revolution on Ancesteral Homeworld. A world that was a cyberpunk distopia ruled by the corporate overlords was overthrown by first a socialist revolution. Which was overthrown partly by a socialist feminist revolution. -350 The Alliance of Two Species. 'Knotted Tentacles' and the human worlds in the south of the sector, but also including groups representing 'races' that surrounded the territory of the Aliens.

-334 The start of hostilities between the Aliens and the humans that surrounded their space. while most human systems were peaceful, a group to the South actively claims worlds the Aliens claimed, and they were in coflict because neither could contact each other. (The human sphere has never been good at

Xenobiological studies because so little sentient Xenobiologicla Species exist in the Current Setting.)

-1.5 They begin the second expansion in earnest, although many scientists warn something is out there with alarm, and are unspirised when the expansion is stopped when robots begin entering human systems ahead of the planned oclonization of the systems. Humans begin to expand into the same worlds manned missions are expanding into and war is declared. They find a human FTL drive, smack their main rounded bodies, and come up with primitive FTL. (FTLI3-5.) Over a hundred years they will discover FTLII and begin warring in earnest with the fleshy drones (or this is what they believe) who are colonizing the various systems their drones are attempting to colonize.

~15,000 "Knotted Tentacles" as they would much later be called expanded into neighboring systems, but was restricted to light speed because they never found the Light Speed Trick. (A reality hack put into place by a time traveling effect caused at the hand of far future humanity dated ~1,000,000ce.) Because of this they take over 35,000 years to colonize just over 1000 systems. They make heavy use of robots, due to the lengths they have to go through to partially xenoform worlds, as well as the time it takes to do anything. This leads to a very high use of robots that lasts into the second expandion/war with humanity and beyond.

-150 KT Space program begins. Due to the weight of members of this species, they use a large amount of robots, and it's takes ten years to get the first astronaut up into orbit, althought leaving them up there to do serious work takes about thirty years after the first manned mission.

Now, keep in mind that humans only started expanding 5k years after the KT, and the KT has no FTL, so the only knowledge they would have of humans was via stellar flickering (or a unexpected nova via a theoritical Nova Bomb the humans in this setting do not have.) They literally could not see humanity coming even if humanity lit a thousand suns unexpectedly somehow because humans were for most of their history over 1000ly away. Also keep in mind this article and how hard it is to measure the light from stars and find relevant datum: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_distance_ladder#Standard_candles That said, they walked into humanity, and due to ennui, did not listen to the fears by various scientists who claimed something was out there because all the standard models did not tell them this. (Although it became almost undeniable, leaders still denied until they 'suprisingly' discovered humanity. Much like the Global Warming deniers!)

Their history was made up of: Sending a probe to a system. The probe if followed by a second series of probes that would construct materials onsite. (Early on this required a few dedicated individuals who would go ahead, observe via probes in the system, make plans to use a standarized bits of kit to make a system more inhabitable, and be woken up for months on end each time as they worked over decades/centuries to make a system more inhabitable. Then the colonists could come when the team was near finishign their work. (They sent signals several years before finishing based on: Time until finishing = Time to get signal to neighboring star with colonists ready on standby+time to transit colonists.) Colonists were put on 'standby' for much of the instellar history of this species, ready for a signal at a few months notice so they could go when called for in ships that would cryofreeze them until they got to the destination.