Expand or Perish

[Sskiss]

Expand or Perish or.... "The Ancient Struggle"

The star cluster had existed for as long as the Sskiss could remember - A vast roughly spherical halo of stars some 150 light years across, some 500 or so light years away and almost directly galactic rimward from crecheworlds. Within its approximate center of the cluster was an ancient swollen red giant, its death throws had long since extinguished any life that might have once orbited it. For the Sskiss the cluster would have not been particularly exceptional if it were but for one thing - The vast majority of the stars around it were stable life giving K and G class main sequence stars. A cosmic rarity considering that most stars within the galaxy (or the "Great Crèche" as the Sskiss often called it) were of the dim M class variety that the Sskiss generally ignored since such stars were unlikely at best to harbor the worlds that the Sskiss needed for their species.

Because of this one important reality, the Sskiss had named the star cluster "The Ancient/Aged Brood Mother and its Crèche". The Brood Mother was long passed its prime, but her crèche held the promise of life.....

....A promise of life that the Sskiss could no longer ignore. On three seperate occasions spanning almost four centuries they had attempted to explore and colonize the cluster - all three attempts failed. The journey then was too dangerous, barred by a cold empty viod filled with deadly ion storms and black holes. The Sskiss had attempted to circumnavigate the viod but the journey had been equally deadly for other reasons - Namely the sheer amount of time it took to do so. Too much time in fact.... Sskiss crews went mad with starvation and an increasingly heightened territorial instinct....

....Which for the Sskiss was both a lethal and volatile combination. Because of all this it was rumoured that other more cautious Sskiss called the cluster a different name, "Deadly Herd/Prey" which had already claimed the lives of three Sskiss packs.....

Whatever the name, this time the Sskiss were ready - FTL and food production technologies were now up to the task. Once again they eyed the cluster with an increasing hunger. And for the Sskiss, like a starved predator searching for prey, was a hunger they could no longer ignore or resist. The Sskiss collectively - and blindly obeyed their equally collective primordial instincts. "Eat or be eaten" - it was the Sskiss way. It was the same instinct that told them to get food into their jaws. The Sskiss had to obey it; they had to expand, for living space, for sustenance, for progeny....

....and ultimately, for the survival of their race.....