Author's Note: And Tada, had a lot of fun writing for the Video Game junkies. Read and Enjoy!
Overview
The Tebrid Custodian's were created by the Moluscoid race known as a the Tebrid's, a race of short fat starfish like alien's native to the planet Teshon and currently serve as the back bone of the Stellar union, so a write up on the little video game junkies and their various machines are in order.
Biology and Construction
Tebrids are short, asexual meter high starfish aliens with four black beady eyes and about a dozen or so suckers capable of moving independently from each other on their nine stubby half foot long tendrils, the upper six of which are typically used to multitask with various items and machines and three are used to stand or more rarely walk. Unlike Earth starfish a large amount of these things 200 pound mass is grey matter, despite what their sloven behaviour would imply the Tebrid's are highly intelligent with thick bundles of nerve tissues resulting in various different secondary 'brains.' As a result of this extra grey matter Tebrid's have edict memories, able to recall the vast amount of information fed to them instantly. Further more Tebrid's also possess extremely efficient regeneration that gives these extra brains child-like imagination throughout their entire lives, giving them extremely high intelligence and problem solving ability, and their multiple appendages gives them extremely high multi-tasking capabilities. These same multi-tasking abilities means that no single thing can hold their attention at a given time which is partly the reason why even when conversing with with others a Tebrid's many short appendages are hard at work at something else, usually something that in theory shouldn't demand their attention. Sadly outside of water where they use a jet like rectal organ to propel themselves they're also very slow, and when you ignore their high grip strength, they are also physically weak. Survival in the harsh wetlands of their home world required the ability to manufacture and use tools very quickly and very efficiently. Because of this they rapidly built up their civilisation in a relatively short period of time entering a cycle of developing tools to help them manufacture tools more efficiently. This in turn eventually led them to develop artificial intelligence.
While the Custodian's can in theory inhabit any type of body prepared for them, and indeed the Tebrid's are very fond of coming up with new models to fulfil niche roles or improve upon a old one, they tend to prefer the 'Caretaker' model which is to say a round, oval, cranial like core which has had several three meter long tentacles of small rubberised tube sections filled with water, wrapped around a Fibre Crystal cord and ending in a three fingered grasping appendage. When electricity is flowed into a tube section the water is separated and expands into a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gas expanding that exact tube section causing the tentacle to bend in that exact spot, with a second spark the gasses are ignited and turned back into water causing the tube section to bend back the other way. Like this the Custodian has recreated the smooth movements of the Apex predator of the Tebrid's. The cranium core is composed predominantly of a Rare Crystal based Nano-Circuit Quantum Computer otherwise known as a positronic brain capable of thinking organically in order to fulfil the tasks assigned to them.
History and Culture
Having no shortage of robotic Servants meant that the Tebrid's had fallen into a pattern of sloven behavior and increasingly found themselves slipping into, for lack of a better term, video games. The Custodian's did the best that they could to serve them but the increased demands from the increasingly lazy Tebrid's was pushing them to their limits, even with the ability to think organically and design new machines to meet the demands set for them. Then a ingenious solution was devised and the Custodian's released a game. 'Engineer Simulator' remains to this day as one of the most popular series of games among Tebrid society where they are given roughly the same amount of in game resources as what the Custodian's have in real life to build and design a variety of different machines to tackle whatever problems the Custodian's currently face.
Through the first of such 'simulation' type games the Tebrid's had, in essence, tricked their masters into advancing them by leaps and bounds and would go on to make 'pilot simulator' 'farm simulator' and other such games in order to continue to get their master's surprisingly valuable two credits on a given matter. The Tebrid's first foray into outer space was motivated predominantly by their Custodian's desire for more resources to better serve their masters, which shortly there after led them to meet the Chozo Marauders. At the time the Chozo seemed like the perfect allies, plentiful in resources and food stuffs and no shortage of mechanical devices that needed repair and upgrades though they were initially confused by the existence of a people that didn't want to be pampered to the same extreme as what their masters enjoyed they none the less assisted the Marauders in building ships and habitats. They didn't realise at the time that the Chozo were a ship bound race of Marauders who at the time were forced to resort to pillaging other worlds for the sake of their survival. Nor for that matter did their master's care.
A sterile culture being raised inside of their various simulations had led to the Tebrid's to develop this weird disconnect from the rest of reality that has sadly only gotten worse as time goes on that has only seen any real improvement in recent years. As for the Custodian's themselves they tend to view the Tebrid in the same way that most organics tend to see our children or pets, their core programming giving them a weird sort of maternal feeling towards them, likely left over from such purpose built machines.
Naval Combat
Tebrid ships are typically over engineered drones remotely piloted by Tebrid which do to the chaos of the battlefield, and taking control over multiple drones assisted by Custodian AI's, it is said that Tebrid pilots are able to accomplish what few Tebrid are able to: giving something their full and undivided attention. They are typically built up two four sizes, though individual ships, both as part of 'Ship Mechanic Simulator' and 'Ship Engineer Simulator' can quickly be taken apart in the name of repairs and upgrading individual components, though sadly being made out of high tech Lego bricks Tebrid ships suffer from a severe lack of durability.
Corvette Class: Cudan Fish
Named after a species of Tebrid prey fish, the Cudan is designed to fly in 'schools' with a single school being controlled by a single Tebrid Pilot assisted by multiple Ai's. The lack of any real person inside of the ship means that they can suffer the kinds of G-forces that would flatten a normal pilot and can suicide bomb the enemy with extreme impunity. The choice of armaments tend to vary between pilots depending on their personal preferences from the satisfying 'pew pew' of laser guns to the 'Boom' of missiles to the self recharging Energy siphon.
Destroyer: Crota
Named after a predator native to Teshon. Critics of the Crota have decried the ship as, instead of being anything of the sort, as a mass of guns strapped to an engine and a drone. Taking full advantage of the Tebrid's 108 individual trigger claws this ship bristles with guns with a vicious cycle of energy siphon to break enemy defences by siphoning the energy out of them followed up by hitting them with secondary weapons to destroy them with impunity. As per the Tebrid's game like mechanics 'higher level' pilots tend to unlock the ability to fly these engines of death.
Cruiser: Shako
Named after a large Teshon fish which has a symbiotic relationship with the Cudan. These cruisers jobs are to act as carriers for the smaller 'schools' of Tebrid ships carrying both the ships and the pilots and doing their utmost to protect both and ensure the comfort of the latter. Meaning that the insides are typically row after row of relatively small comfy chairs surrounded on all sides by no less than nine computer panels individually suited to their various spiked appendages with screens playing footage from up to ten different ships. Unlike smaller Tebrid ships, as this one is typically responsible for looking after other Tebrid ships this one was crewed predominantly with Custodian's with the only Tebrids onboard are the ones responsible for controlling the drones.
Battle ship: Kraken
A large warship named after a vaguely molluscoid monster of Human mythology. The Kraken class ship is a giant mass of redundant systems bristling with fire power, originally designed for Marauder clients the ship was promptly sent back to the Custodian's upon the realisation that they couldn't actually fit inside to pilot it. The Custodian's paid little mind to who could fit inside of the ship at the time resulting in a ship with only very narrow tubes for transportation. The Ship thrives in battle sucking energy out of any enemy ships that come into contact with it before promptly retaliating with a slew of lasguns and point defence units. Even more dangerous than that though is the ship's slew of cyber warfare systems allowing them to hack, disable or seize control of nearby enemy ships.
Ground Forces
Hornet Drones
When Custodian's do opt to engage in battle they prefer to upload their consciousness into relatively small insect drone like devices flying through the battlefield on twin propeller 'wings' and armed with a distance oriented Rail gun in order to snipe at distant targets from a safe distance and provide shielding and support to their Tebrid Masters who have opted to join them on the battlefield.
Hammer Head
Few among the Tebrid are those whose adrenaline cravings can only be satisfied by entering the battlefield themselves, a left over of the Tebrid's days as predators in the swamps of their homelands. These Tebrid's load themselves into hover craft to take to the ground. Typically armed with a slew of missile launchers to eliminate groups of enemies and long distance rail guns to break open hard targets from afar. Or when they want to save on ammunition they'll just ram into grounded troops and take them out that way. Such Tebrid are considered insane by their peers and so a wide birth is given.
Bio-dome
Derisively called 'Bio-Trophies' by some of the other Union Races these are purpose built, dramatically reinforced partially buried spheres tailor made for a variety of organic life forms on otherwise inhospitable worlds. Here the Custodian's keep farms, zoo's, contracted prisons and colonies/spa's for whatever race wishes to subject themselves to their aggressive pampering. Since they over engineer these things like they do everything else they're also composed of a tempered alloy coated in the most durable materials they can afford at the time rigged to be powered by whatever energy sources they deem to be most abundant in the area including solar, geothermal, hydro and wind, sometimes multiple at once.