The Conglomerate

"Interesting. It is a bit ironic that we respect a creature that is only the height of a human child."

- Gruda Scholar, Unknown

Overview
Your average, big headed, big eyed, grey skinned, short alien. Many of the things have high intelligence and a knack for learning new languages. They have been credited with the unification of most, if not all space-faring civilizations of the Milky Way Galaxy. They come from the planet of Conglosis.

Intelligence and Culture
A huge amount of intelligence gifted through eons of genetic manipulation and evolution, having over 275 IQ points. This incredible intelligence allows for a Conglomerate to be an excellent scientist/soldier. It isn't unheard of when a soldier has created his own trademark weapon. Doing this in some platoons can be regarded as a way to move up in military ranks. The Conglomerate culture is not unlike an Earth business, as moving up in society always depends on skills, intelligence, quality of work, and quantity of work. Even though the Conglomerate live rigorous lives of knowledge, work, and duty, they still know how to have fun. They enjoy dancing and classical Human music, usually from producers such as Beethoven, Bach, Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka, New Order, Coldplay, A Flock of Seagulls, Journey, Piotr llich Tchaikovsky, and Conway Twitty. Other 1980's bands are a personal favorite to the Conglomerate, as the beat is like a "massage" on their organs they use to hear.

History
According to Conglomerate historians, they might be descended from porpoise-like animals with many human-like traits. Originally, they were very small and easy prey for the Dunmanians, flying bat-like creatures with a habit of swooping down and eating the Conglmerate. Surprisingly, the Conglomerate rose to sapience very quickly through using weapons against the Dunmanians through the use of throwing hard packed snow balls, which would wound the creatures. Eventually, the Dunmanians were tamed and even used as transports for the Conglomerate. This marked their first step to sapience.

After 2 million years of this, the first cities developed. Technology advanced quickly and without much warfare between other nations on the planet. It was 500 years later when the Conglomerate national leaders proposed converting the planet into an ecumenopolis. Most countries either agreed to the unification of Conglosis or were eager to get started. However, only one nation despised this was the conservative UCW. They split away from the main body of nations and declared all-out war on the rest of Conglosis. Today, this is called the CWW, or Conglomerate World War.

The war was long and bitter, with casualty rates in huge amounts for both sides and a large amount of infrastructure damage to both sides in the war. It was 4 years later when UCW and the rest of the Conglomerate nations agreed upon a truce and Conglosis was united. A new government was created in which a single individual controlled the populace, called a "Manager." However, disaster struck less than a quarter of a year later. A neutron star had wandered into the Conglomerate's home system causing many new mountains to develop on the surface, the destruction of many civilian and military districts, and even shifting the planet's orbit so it was now a captured moon of the Jovian Planet called Conglora. Most importantly, the radiation from the neutron star had mutated every Conglomerate's DNA, making it so they were all sterile. Naturally riots, protests, and crime rates skyrocketed. It wasn't proposed until a year later that cloning could be used to stop the Conglomerate from going extinct. Novices at it, Conglomerate scientists discovered they had a knack for it and even constructed massive buildings dedicated to cloning across the planet, particularly in the Capitol Plaza. Now, the only thing the Conglomerate wanted to do next was to explore the final frontier: Space.

At the time, Conglomerate vehicles were extremely advanced, using hover technology for movement. However, space travel was in it's infancy, using propulsion systems similar to that of human spaceships today. It was only a few years later when scientists discovered a way to break the light barrier through the use of specialized equipment built in Quetzuike, the science district of Conglosis. When the equipment was fitted on all Conglomerate spaceships, the she ships had their appearances changed to resemble "flying saucers." When the ships exited the atmosphere, they received a distress call from a neighboring system less than a parsec away. This proved to Conglomerate astronomers that intelligent life existed in the Universe. When the pilots ID'd the source of the signal, it turned out to be a human military colony calling for help about a Bropuda attack.. The ships, armed of course, moved to the colony and destroyed the Bropuda invaders woth no casualties on the Conglomerate's side. An alliance was struck with humanity and The Conglomerate, with a trade condition of weapons, technology, medicine, vehicles, colonization equipment, food, and galactic maps. It took a century, but the Conglomerate had struck an alliance with every race in the galaxy. Phase 1 of their plan had been completed, Phase 2 began a year later. Phase 2 involved the unification of all spaient life forms in the Milky Way Galaxy. Fortunately, it worked, the Galactic Governing Body of Civilizations had been formed, with Conglosis as the capital world.

Biology
The Conglomerate used to reproduce asexually through budding before they were sterilized when a neutron star wandered into their home system. Now, they reproduce through cloning in enormous facilities on Conglosis and all 1000 colonies. So far, they are able to pump out 1 billion clones per Earth Year. They have tight, grey skin with huge brains. Their organ structure doesn't differ from that of a human except they have 2 hearts, 2 stomachs, no large intestine or appendix, and only 1 kidney. They also don't process waste the same way a human would, and "sweat" out the toxins. Conglomerate vision is similar to a human, other than they see the universe with a very subtle bluish tint. Due to a slow metabolism and genetic engineering, a Conglomerate's lifespan can range up to 100,000 years. Also, unlike humans, the Conglomerate possess a neon-green blood coloration, caused by the color and accelerated mitosis of their "O2 Cells."

Cloning
As said, the Coglomerate have lost the ability to reproduce through natural means and lack any kind of genitalia. To remedy this, they have created cloning facilities on almost every colony they have under their possession. The only type of colonies that lack these facilities are military training planets. It takes about 10 Earth years for a Conglomerate to grow to full size and have a functioning brain. When scientists created the first clone, they did some alterations. A Conglomerate's digestive system could now process meat as well as fruit, eyesight was improved upon, the amount of brain activity and usage was tripled from 15% to 45%, bone structure was thickened with cartilage and other bone cells, enhanced circulatory/respiratory integrity, and the complete and utter removal defective genitalia/reproductive cells.

Behind the Scenes

 * Many nicknames for the Conglomerate are the Greys, Big-Heads, Black-Eyes, No Toes, and Brain-Swelled.
 * Most Conglmerate have an impressive IQ range, being from 285 to 300.
 * The Conglomerate often create clones for the purpose of dying for science, meaning they could be used for disease testing, genetic engineering, weapons fire testers, and organ transplant.
 * A few individuals have procedures done on them to simulate genders through reproductive organ implantation, hair follicle additions, and voice box alterations.

Trivia

 * The Conglomerate are obviously inspired from the "Greys," an alien concept featured in many science fiction movies, TV shows, and/or books.
 * It was thought that they could be the creators of the Squogg, but scrapped because the look of the Squogg didn't match the building style of the Conglomerate. So instead, they commissioned the project.
 * Many often enjoy partaking in immature "sports," which include belching contests, scaring each other, and hitting on other species with friends keeping scores.
 * Their names are often altered words from Greek or Roman languages. One prime example is that all cloners have a similar name structure using "Klon-" at the beginning of their name.

Quotes
"Why should we have to respect these grey heretics? They should be our slaves!"

-Wicknenan Priest

"The last hope for Humanity, if we lose them, we lose all!"

-Trilon Doctor, Dr. Anthes

"Wake up, work, party, sleep. My cloner must be SO proud."

Conglomerate Citizen, Gerontus