Somaphage

Overview
The "Somaphage" are a fairly obscure species of insectoids, shrouded in rumors and horror stories passed on to stations and colonies from lone survivors or cargo haulers, near the same galactic quadrant Ardens Cor is situated in. Survivors of encounters with members of this insectoid race generally describe them as having deep amethyst or oil-slick colored carapaces with a pale cream color for softer portions of the body. They generally all have heads that appear to split open in four segment mandibles, usually accompanied by an array of sharp teeth and tentacles with smaller mouth parts equipping those. Survivors having said they physically came into contact with smaller, land-based phenotypes, generally appear twitchy and disoriented, as if they are trying to hear you over conversation in a crowded room. They usually state that they have no recollection of the event short of knowing they met one, and are usually in perfectly good health apart from mental quirks not formerly known to their normal psychiatric evaluations. These descriptions from "survivors" coupled with instances of ships vanishing and pilgrim colonies going missing in ventures to The Void has prompted the United Earth Syndicate to catalog these "Somaphage" or "Body Eaters" as hostile to Human civilization. Science vessels and private contractor scouting parties are paid considerable bounties for any sufficient data retrieved on these lifeforms, but the act of acquiring such data usually proves perilous...

Anatomical Details
Somaphage are a rather large-scale and diverse collective, with the greatest members of their species rivaling human battleships and skyscrapers in size.

Smaller phenotypes can be anywhere from mite to horse sized, and all appear generally the same, with purple oil-slick carapaces and softer cream colored segments. They have markedly bioluminescent features. Actual varieties of the species are impossible to classify other than through their broad purpose and function in the hive, as new phenotypes are purpose hatched for specific tasks, Somaphage appear to assimilate and replicate traits of devoured species, while also fabricating completely new varieties of Somaphage as needed.

If a Somaphage have not yet evolved the traits of a terrestrial Earth animal, they could eat such an individual and extract their phenotypical expressions, replicating them to some degree in a new brood.

Technology
Somaphage are strangely advanced despite their entire lack of conventional technology. Their "machines" are grown, special brood made into structures, hooked up to a hive's circulatory and sensory system like some giant living network of organs working to keep the hive's "body" operating. This organic process has given them some surprising abilities, such as launching individuals of their kind into space through kinetic means, telepathic communication over electromagnetic frequencies, or the ability to integrate minerals into matrices they grow from their body to create astoundingly strong body parts for applications that conventional meat and bone would not be able to withstand.

Hive Structure
Somaphage consist of multiple hives of genetically amorphous individuals, each individual is part of a classification, purpose-brooded for a particular task, no two hives are the same though they may have similar roles for similar sects of the hive. They have become a galactic pest in this way, conquering dozens of formerly inhabited planets by consuming and replicating survival traits of indigenous populations, pushing them out through numbers and brute force. Many of these natives are not fully eliminated and are instead kept in pens as a form of livestock or as a small slave-race.

Somaphage are a gestalt conscious apart from select few varieties brooded for very special missions, most individuals of the hive on a particular planet are governed telepathically by a "broodmother" who acts as a representative of the hive, who in turn remains in contact with one of two actual queens located on their origin homeplanet. They are unique in the fact that they have no real technology of their own, instead formulating phenotypical expressions in new batches of brood to grow and fulfill roles/occupations such as becoming actual living buildings, such is the case for their spacefaring fleets, who are grown to be immune to the vacuum of space, with keratinous armor plating thick enough to go up against conventional ship rail-cannons and equipped with organic bioreactor propulsion systems.