The Boxer is adapted to heavy labor and hand-to-hand combat.
The Brain is adapted for high intelligence and memory.
The Centaur is adapted to industrial work and carrying heavy burdens.
The Cielioid Grey is adapted to sanitation and waste collection.
The Philosopher is adapted to mindfulness and logic.
The Pilot is adapted to the operation of spacecraft.
The Poet is adapted to make leaps of intuition.
Long ago, before the 1,000 Years War, the Greys split off genetically from the Cielioid Grey Subspecies. The Cielioid Greys are specialized trash collectors and scavengers, and as such tend to work at night. As a result of this, they lost their photosynthetic pigmentation, and took on fungal characteristics. They also developed specialized organs for communicating non-verbally using radio waves. Greys lack the dual-metabolism of Cielioids, and as a result are pure oxygen breathers, like humans.
When the Greys split from the Cielioid Greys, they lost their beaks. They speak rarely, using only simple language. As a replacement for speech, their brain-to-brain radio linking ability took over to the point that they freely form hive minds among themselves. Individual Greys have only vestigial personalities. Because of this, they are sensitive to radio interference, as it disrupts their ability to think.
Sensitivity to radio interference drives Greys to seek out isolated parts of space, far from other technological civilizations. Greys tend to take a hostile view toward civilizations that produce a lot of radio noise, but this hostility tends to be expressed passive-aggressively in the form of information and psychological warfare tactics.
Grey cuisine tends to be in the form of mushes and soups made of scavenged and recycled organic waste.
Greys reproduce asexually, through spores, and have lost the outward manifestations of their reproductive organs. The spores are released through small pores located near the center of the abdomen. These spores are deposited in communal nurseries, where they form a mycelium-like structure, and are tended by designated caretakers. In time, the mycelium develops a fruiting body that grows into a new Grey.
Some Greys still live in the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns, but the majority of them left to form The Convergence, one of the first of the Breakaway States, well before the 1,000 Years War.
The Brute is a subspecies of Grey engineered for physical strength.
The Convergence Node is a subspecies developed within the Convergence that acts as a communications hub.
The Spring-heeled Jack is a subspecies of Grey engineered to hunt down the enemies of the Convergence.
Cielioid Greys are the sanitation workers in Cielioid society. They generally work at night, and because of this have lost their photosynthetic cells, and have taken on fungal characteristics. Also, the Ceilioid Greys have developed the ability to communicate non-verbally using radio frequencies generated by a special organ connected to their brains. Cielioid Greys are short, have smaller reproductive organs and beaks, and take longer to fully mature compared to other Cielioids.
While Cielioid Greys are still a subspecies of Cielioid, they usually mate with other Cielioid Greys, and a faction of them have split off entirely to become a new species, the Greys. Since Cielioid Greys work at night and have the ability to communicate directly via radio, they don't speak much.
The average lifespan of a Cielioid Grey is 80 years.
To the extent possible under law,
Matt Ahlschwede
has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to
Beyond the Spozak.
This work is published from:
United States.