Additional notes, mostly taken from the old thread:
As said earlier, the Kai are basically psychic space wasps that operate with a hivemind. Compared to humans on an individual level, the Kai have a HUGE advantage. They breed faster, have better discipline, near-instantaneous communication, are way tougher/faster/stronger, mildly venomous, and don’t need “morale”, to say nothing about the relative tech level disparity - we have fusion reactors, atomic separators, intergalactic space ships, advanced optics, pure fusion bombs…
A Drone could eventually bite anything short of a tank or a reinforced building. Many Drones make it faster. A Soldier could fight through a city by smashing through and a spacecraft by going through bulkheads. A Predator will virtually shred a tank and can breach an armored spacecraft from the outside. War Queen can use vehicles as weapons, and in a Combat Suit, can use medium tanks as clubs. Drones are about the size of medium dogs, and grow or shrink when they are adapted to a new purpose. Warriors are roughly the size of horses, although the flying ones are half that size. The Nurse and Predator drones are about the size of an average SUV, while the Queens are about two feet longer and more slender, with a swollen abdomen.
The Kai are ravenous, capable of eating anything for nutrition. However, without regular consumption of the Flowers, the Kai will grow weak. It is estimated that the Kai require, at minimum, the following amount of Units of Food per day to remain at their current Hunger levels.
Drones - 1/10 of a Unit of Food
Soldiers - 5/10 of a Unit of Food
Levels 1-4 - A Unit of Food
Predator / Nurse / Commander - 1.5 Units Of Food
Queen - 2 Units of Food / Reabsorb 20 Eggs
Level 5 - 3 Units of Food
The Kai feeding cycle is as followed:
Full
Sated
Not Hungry
Hungry
Extremely Hungry
Starving
Near-Death
Levels below "Not Hungry" impair control and function; Starving and Near-Death Kai are nigh impossible to control, incredibly sluggish, and will eat anything and everything in sensory range unless specifically ordered not to and constantly monitored.
There are three castes - Body, Mind, and Soul, representing biological adaptation, technological invention , and efficient destruction respectively. Within these castes, there are several different forms, which is determined by time and certain environmental factors. The forms that exist follow.
Tech Queen:
Drone (Worker unit)
Flying Drone
Soldier (Light Infantry)
Flying Soldier
Predator (Light tank-equivalent)
Nurse
Tech Commander
Offspring of Tech Queens are generally more intelligent and show greater sense of autonomy than others, as well as having additional dexterous but fragile limbs.
War Queen:
Armored Drone
Scout (equivalent to T-caste Soldier, flight-capable)
Soldier (Heavy Infantry)
Flying Soldier (Drops bio-bombs)
Hunter (Moderately weaker than T-caste Predator, but pretty much invisible and smart)
Predator (Medium tank-equivalent)
Nurse
War Commander
Body Queen:
Grubs: (They exist only to consume everything)
Pollinator: Involved with the Flowers of Life, kind of “fuzzy”
Drone
Scout
Spined Soldier (Exactly what it sounds like!)
Armored Soldier (Medium Infantry)
Predator (Heavy tank-equivalent)
Nurse
Commander
Each of these general forms can be specialized/improved up to five times by the use of Royal Jelly, as well as made Fertile.
In addition, the Kai have a symbiotic relationship with what are called the Flowers of Life. Food is made from leaves and flower petals, and some stems and pollen. There are bacterial influences to this, several of which are important to the Kai digestive system. Synthetic Food can sustain the Kai, but they grow weaker and more susceptible to toxins, diseases, radiation, etc over time. In addition, the pollen can be used for crude fuel, and refined in a manner akin to petroleum for fuel, plastic, fertilizers, etc. Lastly, through the Queen’s attention and care, the “Queen Flowers” assist in the production of Royal Jelly, used to elevate Queens, activate the sexual potential of drones/soldiers/etc, further the specialization and adaptation of drones and soldiers, etc, etc. Without the Flowers, there are no Kai. It is theorized that before their symbiosis, the Kai had individual hives lead by Commanders and only a primitive proto-mind.
The Flowers also have a psychic presence, but it is mostly unexplored. The Flowers love water, (hydrogen, too), carbon, heat, and acidic soil. They appear to require very little nitrogen, but plenty of phosphorus and potassium. They can survive on more or less anything organic that is broken down and introduced into the soil which it lives in, and can be grown in water. Given enough time, they will adapt to their situation and breed for the environment in which they are placed. There is a surprisingly large amount of lithium, boron, deuterium, and helium-3 in the plant (and especially the seed!); the best guess based on the elements and structures in the plant is that it has a form of organic cold fusion.
The Flowers have a life cycle of two days of immaturity, followed by two days of flowering (a thick stalk with 40 large blue flowers on it), during which point it can be pollinated or harvested for food. If it is pollinated, it loses its flowers and begins to create a fruit, which generally drops within 2 to 6 days. A Fruit of Life is equivalent to Two Units of Food. When the tough seed within is planted, it germinates into a sporifer; within 1-4 days of its growth, the sporifer releases exactly 80 spores, which grow into the Flowers.
The previously mentioned Queen’s Flowers are special, growing much larger than the usual ones. These flowers are personally tended to by the Queen, and the fruit they develop is extremely poisonous to anyone but higher-order Kai. When ingesting the nectar from the larger white blossoms from specialized proboscis-organs, a Queen begins to produce Royal Jelly; one unit generally takes about 4 days to create. There can only be one Queen’s Flower in any given area, and it appears that there can only be one Queen’s Flower per Queen.
Evidence suggests the Flowers can parasitize xenoflora, allowing for rapid expansion and genetic diversity.