Carina Conglomerate

The Carina Conglomerate, also known simply as Carina, is an assimilating hive mind that originated within the Canopus system and grew to encompass several mostly uninhabited star systems in the space between the Procyon Expanse and the Terran Empire.

History
Believed to have begun as a small parasitic creature on the planet of Canopus Prime, the entity known as "Carina" is capable of assimilating organic life into its physical and mental form. This started with the planet's native species, with the entity's body mass spreading across the planet like tendrils. It wasn't until attempts to colonize the planet that sentients began to be absorbed into the hive. With a taste for sentience and knowledge, Carina began actively hunting settlers, seeking to even leave its planet. Eventually the hive was able to create a rudimentary vessel, built partially from organic matter, wood, and disassembled ship parts. Seeking out more minds to add to its consciousness, the vessel happened upon a Procyon border guard force and was prompty destroyed by the fleet.

With the gravity of the situation becoming clear to the Procyons, a fleet was dispatched to blockade the system. While original plans called for a bombardment of the planet, individuals within the Brood Counsul suggested potentially studying or potentially weaponizing the hive. While a majority believed this to be a terrible idea, a second ship launched from the planet brought upon the opportunity to capture some of its body mass alive. Sending an XLR boarding party onto the ship, discovering the ship to be crewed by "drones", individuals tethered by a tendril to the main mass of the ship. Capturing a former Procyon settler, severing its physical connection to the chunk of mass, this ship was also destroyed. With the test subject in secure containment. However to the shock of Procyon scientists, the subject had inexplicably regained individualality. However while they had memory of their time connected to Carina, the hive's thoughts could not be remembered.

Using this information, Procyon scientists were quick to come to the conclusion that Carina functioned as a network of all assimilated individuals rather than completely hijacking the hosts' bodies, in addition to the revelation that individuals could be freed by severing their physical connection to the hive. While many still wanted to destroy the hive, a second test was greenlit by the Brood Counsul to attempt to communicate with the hive. Sending a small task force to the planet surface with a family member of one of the assimilated, they attempted to reach out to one of the many drones that inhabited the planet. Despite the drone being a different individual, the family member was able to speak to them as if they were their loved one, without any forceful attempts to assimilate the individual. When the commander of the task force what it was that Carina wanted, its response was simply "knowledge".

As surface scans continued over the planet of Canopus, it was revealed the planet was very mineral-rich, as well as abundant with lumber. While the possibility of wiping out Carina and taking control of the planet was ever tempting, the discovery that Carina's drones could work without rest, didn't feel pain, and could be supplied nutrients via their tether made the possibility of cheap labor very enticing. With approval from the Brood Counsul, a diplomatic offer was given to Carina: "sacrifices" in exchange for raw materials from the planet, a deal Carina agreed to.

As this trade deal progressed, however, Carina's shipbuilding had begun to progress, looking less like eldrich abominations and more like polished crab-claw sailed catamarans. However while Carina expressed their wish to expand beyond their planet via telepathic nodes, the Procyons were understanably unwilling to permit expansion beyond their quarantine of the system. However as time went on, Carina proved itself to keep its word, only assimilating authorized individuals, providing the requested materials, and even releasing individuals from its hive at request. After some deliberation, Carina's quarantine zone was widened to encompass a few more uninhabited systems. Christening itself the Carina Conglomerate, the hive used its new ships to ferry supplies between its homeworld and colonies, under constant escort by Procyon ships, albeit.