[center][b][color=a36209][h3]The Qit[/h3][/color][/b]
[b]The Dars System[/b][/center]

In the outer edges of the solar system, dozens of giant carcasses orbited Dars, the star of the Qit home-system. These were the first few of the Ziz prototypes, the faulty and inefficient ones. The truly grand ones had escaped Dars gravity well, and were drifting through space at incredible speeds - obviously dead, but it was progress. A Ziz is launched from Nesnora 25L and Tholla JW5 every few days - there were always several being produced at any given time, and most of the planets biomass was devoted to fueling them, so there was no problem in that regard. They were launched in random directions, a poor attempt of the Qit to try and find a suitable planet purely by chance. Of course, nothing was ever close enough to be reached before the Ziz inevitably died from the pressure of the vacuum, but there was no sense in not trying.

A Ziz launched one and a half months ago had just died, and several of the drop pods exploded from it, moving even faster than the Ziz itself. Five drop pods were inhabited - the many others were simply empty. Every queen was given an order - the entire journey, send out psionic signals as far and as much as possible. While doing what was essentially screaming for months on end may seem tiring, a queen is easily able to accomplish such a task if it is to support the Swarms - After all, attempting to contact foreign species was the greatest of honors! 

While this was underway, Several burrowers were exploring the oceans of Tholla JW5. The swarms did not view aquatic superiority as anything important, but perhaps there was a bacteria or fish in the sea that possessed a useful trait. All the queen needed was a taste, and it would be in the entire swarms mandibles...

Meanwhile, millions of queens were hard at work, attempting to form something useful from the available genetic material. Unfortunately, the swarms were starting to reach the ends of the usefulness with the native genes - if they had only a few alien hairs, then they could perhaps find a good use for the thousands of inefficient traits they had at their disposal. But, for the time being, they tried their hardest to support the Qit Swarms!

The dying screams of a queen on a particularly old Ziz could be heard within the constant chattering of the hive mind. For the briefest of instants, things were almost quiet, before immediately firing back up again in the typical discussion. It was hard to tell what caused the sudden silence - perhaps it was respect for the queen, having served the swarms so well and achieving the honor of being on a Ziz for her last few months of physical existence. Or maybe it was jealousy - out of the billions of queens, how come she was picked? It was unfortunate that something as ugly as jealousy was present in the glorious Qit swarms, but it was understandable. It was the greatest of honors to be on a Ziz, and even a Qit would grow envious that someone else got such an honor. There were launches ever few days, so there was always chances for a queen to be picked by the collective.

Hunting was still practiced, but solely for sport on Nesnora 25L. All native life of Nesnora 25L was wiped out by the Qit, and the only food source were the Feeders which dominated the surface and the underground. Meanwhile, Tholla JW5 only had small herbivores... At the prospect of being stuck with small game forever, the psionic screaming grew slightly louder. 

The plan for first contact had been recited and practiced dozens of times - meet with peace, attempt to forge friendship, gain access to a ship that could last a long period of time in space, and find more planets to infest. All they had to wait for was someone to come by and make the first contact with them. It was a very unlikely probability - and yet, despite the implausible nature, the Qit were incredibly incessant when it came to fulfilling this goal. They didn't even have evidence of alien life - by no means were they justified in their search for life outside of the two planets they colonized. And despite that, they continued, not questioning why they did the things they did.

Maybe it was instinct? The Qit don't really know why they search, and they don't really care. The psionic signalling continued, murmuring and symbols being communicated as screaming permeated the connection, all hours of the day, all days of the year.