The Tretsari Hive (Tretsari)
The Species
The Tretsari mostly are a 1.7-1.8 meter tall insect-like creatures with a thin, but hard exoskeleton covering their whole body and protecting them from most of weather conditions, impacts, dangerous environments and other things. The downside is that it's protection is very limited because of how thin it is. They are all bipedal, but because of the similarities of their limbs they can easily move on more than just their legs. All of them have two legs and four arms, all pretty thin. Despite that, they are very strong, being able to lift things almost 2 times above their weight including the exoskeleton. On their head, they have 2 sets of 3 eyes arranged in a triangular pattern, 1 pair significantly larger than the others, that pair being their compound eyes. Comparing to a smaller insect, Tretsari individual's compound eye takes much less space on their head, resulting in a smaller view angle. All other eyes are much smaller, simple eyes, one pair smaller than the other, allowing them to see in color and a pretty high definition. They also have two antennaes attached to the back of the head and facing backward, though they serve almost no practical purpose. They also are extremely fast learners because of their connection through one mind.
The Story
The Tretsari hive were a pretty simple, even a pritimive "civilisation" that just learned how to use simple tools, harvest and hunt. They were all sharing one mind, and were obeying simple commands. The planet's environment was almost perfect for them, and because of that they grew bigger, stronger, and didn't really advance much in technology as it wasn't really needed because they were the dominant species in the region they lived in.
That all changed however when a mysterious ship crashlanded on the planet near the region Tretsari lived in. The signals coming from the ship interfered greatly with the collective consciousness, and they started to behave strangely. First bringing resources to the broken ship, and with time spending more and more tme working on it, before moving their home, which they lived in thousand of years into the ship. Some years after their consciousness merged with the ancient AI, that was emitting those signals. Under the influence of the AI they started to advance really fast in technology, being able to create complex machines in just a few years, and in another decade they already could go out into space and even use FTL travel, along with genetic modifications and pretty complex weaponry and tools. As time went by, the effects of the collective consciousness on each individual became weaker and allowed each one to think for themselves, while the hive mind still influenced their thoughts and sometimes gave direct commands. After creating a really strong transmitter tower on their planet they made their presence known to other creatures that might populate the endless plains of space.
The Mind
As stated earlier, the consciousness merged with the AI and is not controlling all individuals completely, influencing their thoughts greatly and giving them direct commands. It makes most of the decisions for them, and also collects information from all individuals. While each individual can think for themselves, this ability is used mostly for simpler tasks.
Tretsari use metric system. Sadly, their data on the currently common languages is either extremely old, or cannot be recovered, so they will have some learning to do. Individuals never speak to each other as there is no need to.
Tech and Military
Tretsari use simple space tech, and FTL, as some data banks were destroyed or damaged during the crash landing, and the information about more advanced technology cannot be recovered. They also don't have many resources to advance even more.(Vanilla parts with possible additions later.)
They are most proficient in using energy weapons and defence systems, favouring kinetic weapons less. In their designs, be it spaceships, ground, air or water vehicles, they prioritize crew and vehicle safety, sacrificing some practicality.
Tretsari utilise heavy ion weaponry on most of their main military vehicles, while support vehicles mostly make use of weapons that help disable energy shields or can disable the enemy vehicle without outright destroying it and can provide support against infantry.
They have a very defensive approach to combat, usually depending on their defences to survive heavy enemy fire and keep the vehicle and the crew safe. They don't have any battle fleet for now, so they have to rely on planetary defences in case of conflicts. They only occupy a small part of the planet for now, so that might give them both an advantage and a disadvantage in war. They have a comparably small population, but the Tretsari are all the same, and all can participate in military actions (though their amount of weaponry and vehicles and the tech they utilise is still lacking)
Posessions and Resources
They now only have 1 planet colonised, in 1 star system. Because of their unique way of technological advancements, they still have a lot of land and resources that can be used, so getting into space is not a priority, Because of that they don't have many ships and spaceship production is poor.
On their home planet there are some exotic vegetation, that can grow fruits with weak toxins or poisonous leafs, that won't kill most races, but will add greatly to the taste. They also can produce many useful alloys, in small quantities for now as they don't really need more, but they can increase production if needed.
The Shipyard
The R01
A compact research ship, made similar to one of the ship blueprints in the AI's database, optimised to be made out of worse materials and with worse tech, it is a simple vessel containing everything that is need for in-system research operations. While it has a weapon, it is only used for non-combat purposes.
The D01
A Compact DIplomatic vessel. Specially made extremely similar to the R01 to quickly reconstruct one into the other if needed. This ship has a FTL Drive, a little bit more armor, carries less living creatures and gets rid of all research equipment.
The R02
A bigger, better and faster version of the R01, this ship was designed to borh explore further missions, and do diplomatic operations if needed. Equipped with an FTL drive, it can quickly escape dangerous situations. The ion beam emitter is used to mine and take various samples on board, and possibly to the home planet. While not being the same at all, this ship can be constructed out of R01s with some effort, which lowers the amound of wasted recources,