The people of Ce-Cika have always lived peaceful lives, their little world far removed from the political factions that struggle for control over the galaxy. They were considered by the Vong as insignificant in their conquest, overlooked by the Old Empire due to their sheer remoteness. In fact their little world was virtually unknown to all other races of the galaxy, in part due to their planet being in a region of unexplored space and the fact the ancients of old had decided to keep that way, even when their people developed the ability to fly in space. Instead they keep completely to themselves, choosing to remain oblivious to the struggles for power in the galaxy, for they were content with what they had.

It was those factors, those choices that worked against them when they came...

It began seemingly innocent enough, when a handful of residents in one of the smaller villages witnessed a meteor flash brightly through a cloudless night sky. They had seen many meteors make such passes into their atmosphere, a common occurrence really, and though they knew from this ones size it would survive the entry to make landfall it was not a concern. It would only serve as a temporary curiosity when the youngsters went out the next morning in a race to find it and show it off to their peers, maybe give it to one of the few of their people that took an interest in such items.

When one such youngster did find the crash site the following morning, he discovered to his excitement that it was a meteor unlike any seen before. The pieces were smooth, black and shiny, like glass, and slightly curved, but seemed to fit together like shingles on a house. Another curiosity was that there seemed to be organic residue on the inside curvature. Beaming with pride and excitement, he started putting the pieces into his pack.

A low hiss got his attention. There on a rock not far away was a creature he never knew lived on his world before. It was only about a foot long, it's snake-like body covered with large, shiny black scales. The head resembled a birds somewhat, with it's lower 'beak' longer then the upper. It had no eyes he could see, though it's cranium was quite large, and many pairs of insect-like legs. He watched with excitement as it crawled over to him, seemingly as curious about him as he was about it.

When it 'looked' up at him he suddenly felt an overwhelming need to take it home with him, to guard and feed it. Carefully he picked up the creature and put it in his pack. Then with an eagerness he had never felt before ran home as fast as he could, not realizing that his current desires were not of his making....

It had grown a lot bigger since when he first found it: to big to keep safely hidden from his parents. However by then his parents had also fallen for it and helped him care for it.

Bigger it bigger it grew over the months, it’s appearance changing slightly with each skin shed, until it was too big to keep in the house. With the help of the rest of the village, whom had now also fallen under the beasts spell, they found a large cave for it to reside in and the whole village now helped to feed it, thus it continued to grow to monstrous size.

One in the village, the eldest and wisest of the Clan, hadn’t fallen under the sway of the beast. It was he that realized that his fellow villagers were not acting under their own will. But being of a peaceful race, he wanted to free his people in a diplomatic matter. So he went to the beasts cave and for a moment was overwhelmed by the shear size of the thing: it was over a hundred feet long with a girth of over ten feet in diameter at it’s thickest point.

It looked much different now then when the kid found it. It’s body was still covered with shiny black scales, but it’s underside had become pale and only had three pairs of legs left: this did not impede it’s movement, for it now moved much like how a snake would. It’s head while still had the large domed cranium it was crowned with a set of horns. Also it now had two sets of jaws: one set perpendicular to the other, the inner edges lined with razor sharp hooks.

When the creature noticed him it turned it’s massive head his way, ‘looking’ at him with jaws slightly quivering. A low rumble could be heard echo through the cavern it had made it’s home, one he could feel in his own bones. He could also feel ‘something’ try to enter his mind, to influence him and he set his mind against it. It screamed with frustration, the heat of it’s breath washing over him.

“Release my people!” The Elder demanded. “They are not your slaves!”

He watched as it screamed again, rising it’s head nearly fifty feet off the ground. For a moment there was silence, then not one, not two, but three hisses could be heard, from different directions. The Elder looked around and found to his horror there were more of them.

These were different from the first however. They were much smaller, no taller then ten feet tall when their heads were raised and twenty five feet long. Each had four pairs of insect like legs and a pair of large pincers on the front. Behind that swung menacingly a long tail over ten feet long that was tipped with a crown of four stingers: stingers he knew they had to be due to the oozing green liquid that dripped from their tips. The only things that connected these new creatures with the first was their shiny black carapaces and their heads, which looked just like how the first one’s did when it was first found.

They advanced on him, tails swinging, pincers clapping with excitement. Realizing he was seriously out matched, he turned to run, only for a forth to suddenly appear, blocking his escape route: it seemed to materialize out of thin air.

He called out to his people, a group of which had just arrived with the large dead caress of a local animal, hoping they would come to his rescue. But they didn’t even acknowledge his presence, their eyes dull and focused on feeding on the massive creature. The Elder knew he was doomed and could only slump his shoulders in defeat as the Skrakion warriors pounced.

This one will be food for the new brood…

With no one strong willed enough to resist them now they could continue to grow in number unchecked. The Queen’s powerful mind kept the new slaves obedient and loyal, having them provide anything the growing colony needed. If one became too old or sick to work, they simply ate them.

The Queen, now her maximum size of 150 feet long and fifteen feet in girth at her thickest, knew it was now time to strengthen their hold on this planet. The newest clutch of worms were all juvenile queens like herself and the clutch before that consisted of carriers.

The carriers resembled pill bugs, their carapace shaped and layered as such so that they could roll into a perfect, air tight ball. These were smaller versions of the one that carried the mature Queen and not as resilient, for they will only need to travel across the planet and not in space. For the past couple of weeks both clutches had been feed generous amounts of food to fatten them up for the journey.

Then, one moonless dark night the warriors flipped the carriers onto their backs. The new queens, no bigger then their mother when she first arrived here, each crawled onto the belly of one of the carriers, which then rolled into a ball, enclosing them in. The warriors then carefully picked up the five foot diameter balls with their pincers and carried them outside the nest. Once outside they put them down again, ten in all and the carriers, using the mental powers their species is known for, took off. Some rolled, some actually flew, but the method didn’t matter as long as the goal was achieved.

A few days later the Queen, now the Queen Matriarch, received the first of many reports from her daughters that the spread had been successful….

Jaws quivered slightly as the Queen Matriarch searched mentally for her sisters, trying to see if any other planets in his galaxy have been successfully taken over. Their method of spreading across the void and through galaxies was haphazard at best and many queens died in route. Carriers had little to no directional control once in motion, meaning many of them end up smashing into asteroids or plunging into stars. Even when one did successfully land on a planet there was always the risk the planet wasn’t habitable: Skrakions were very adaptive creatures, but even they had limits.

The Queen Matriarch found the presence of only one other queen in this galaxy and her carrier had unceremoniously smashed into the hull of the Trandoshan destroyer Bloodfang. She was alone. No matter, from what she learned from her slaves, the people of this planet had purposely avoided contact with other races in the galaxy. This meant that it will be a long time before any other race noticed their presence in the galaxy.

Perfect.

She put out the mental call to her daughters and warriors to increase productivity in the slaves. It was time to build up resources to prepare for a Spread.

It’s been five long years since the Queen Matriarch landed on Ce-Cika and directed the take over of this planet. Now it was time to spread their kind to other planets and the eleven colonies have each produced dozens upon dozens of carriers and juvenile queens, all fattened up and ready for their journey. The carriers this time were bigger, about 8 feet in diameter and just big enough to keep the warriors from carrying them when rolled up, the new queens safely concealed within. So instead the warriors rolled them outside, arranging them into one circular group.

When all colonies were set, every one of the carriers suddenly shot up straight into the sky. Then each carrier took a slightly different direction, resembling a blooming flower of sorts. This ensured they had the greatest possible chance of a carrier landing on another habitable planet, but it will be likely years before word of a new successful establishment reached the Queen Matriarch. But the Queen Matriarch had a plan. As the only true free thinking Skrakion in this galaxy, she could find other ways to spread their kind.

The people they had enslaved had ships capable of space flight and from what she had learned from them, fully capable of reaching other habitable planets if they wanted to, but had yet to develop a desire or reason to. She was going to give them a reason.

She had her daughters select the most experienced and healthiest pilots out of the slaves, ten in all, and had five carriers with queens loaded onto their ships. The baby queens would keep the enslaved pilots enthralled during the journey, directing them to the nearest habitable planet and unloading a single carrier at each one.

The chance of failure she realized was about as high as their normal spreading tactics, the enslaved natives of this planet own choice to hide themselves from all others would no doubt work against her. But to accomplish the greater goal she was willing to take the risk.