Pale Decantation

Pale Decantation is a designation, not a name. They were surplus warrior-spawn from a militarized decade sixty years ago. The war ended before the cohort's naming ceremony, and the hatchery distributed the unnamed ones to whichever fleets needed bodies. A quartermaster's manifest supplied the words they have used ever since.

Eleven fleets, six decades, a competent skirmisher, rarely the most interesting hull in the formation. No honor, no censure, no promotion. They sit at the exact middle of what the caste expects, and they have decided the middle is a kind of grave. The Hatchery Surplus is the ship they grew after transferring to the outer rings, where high broodmothers do not look closely. No Collective fleet has ever asked their preference. They are curious what it is like to be considered by name.