Vagaari hives

The Vagaari hives was the collective name for a number of nests which came under the sway of  fugitives and began a campaign of conquest throughout the, eventually sparking the Second Swarm War.

History
At the end of the Vagaari War, Rin Sakaros, Queen of the Golden Empire, ordered a campaign of speciecide against the Vagaari. After the Vagaari homeworld of was devastated, many Vagaari dashed themselves against the Prime Fleet in a desperate attempt at survival. Others, however, realizing there was no hope of victory, attempted to flee beyond Rin's reach instead.

Some of the survivors found their way to the, bringing their battle group to Roq in 143 ABY. The nest had made its home on Roq, and the Vagaari saw the potential for a powerful slave force in the physically strong Killiks. The Vagaari and the Mollom clashed for months, with the Vagaari carving themselves out a portion of Mollom's primary landmass as a forward base. In time, however, the Vagaari became affected by the Killik pheromones and became s of the Mollom.

Joined in such large numbers, the Vagaari mentality bled into the nest's hive mind even as the Vagaari themselves lost their sense of individuality. The Mollom acquired a desire for conquest and a willingness to enslave others for profit. The new Vagaari-influenced Mollom nest first spread over Roq, conquering other nests and holdout Mollom. Then, using the extant Vagaari ships, the nest spread out throughout the Utegetu Nebula. Early conquests took time, particularly the acquisition of the small, lethal and the colossal s.  The remnants of the age-old  nest, by contrast, joined relatively willingly.

By 154 ABY, eight of the Utegetu's fifteen inhabited worlds were under the Vagaari hives' sway. In that year, a Golden Empire task force under the command of Eskol Kaartinen came to the aid of the nest on Berassam and repelled an attempted Vagaari invasion. In what became known as the Second Swarm War, the Vagaari hives faced off against an alliance of Royal forces and the remaining Killik nests, which eventually merged into a Nest of Nests of their own, called the Imperium.

The Second Swarm War was savage in its violence. The Imperium had absorbed hatred of slavers in general and the Vagaari in particular from its Royal Joiners, Massassi troops and the Centurions Eskol Kaartinen and Chindal. The Vagaari hives were tainted by the lingering Vagaari memories of both Massassi and Centurions, leading to fear and loathing spread throughout their affected nests. As a result, neither side was willing to accept anything less than the decimation of the other; the only thing which kept the war from become an all-out slaughter was the Vagaari hives' desire for living captives and the Imperium's goal of liberating (and acquiring) enslaved nests.

Despite their relatively equal number of worlds, the Imperium seized the initiative over the Vagaari hives by capturing worlds outside the Utegetu and allowing mass reproduction of Killiks and construction of warships on worlds untainted by the. The Imperium also fought two battles at the to prevent the Vagaari hives from adopting the same strategy. The presence of the Centurions also helped give the Imperium an edge in battle; both Kaartinen and Te`net Organi were seasoned warriors, and Chindal's diplomatic nature helped coordination and cooperation throughout the Imperium's unified nests.

By 157 ABY, the Imperium was able to both bury the Vagaari hives in bodies and employ greater coordination. "Liberated" Killik nests were Joined to the Imperium, providing both knowledge and ever-greater resources, and the Imperium's soldiers made a point of killing off all the surviving Vagaari in the hopes of breaking their influence on the Killiks. The Vagaari hives were finally broken once and for all in the mid-157 Battle of Roq. The three Centurions united to lead the Killiks to finally conquer the nest and slay the last remaining Vagaari fugitives. With the vast majority of Killiks formerly in the hives integrating into the Imperium and the Vagaari all dead, the Vagaari hive splintered and dissolved.