Slavers/secret

The "Slavers" exist, but there is only one. It is a (mostly) functioning Ancients-era robot that calls itself "The Shepherd". It is tasked with gathering rare minerals which it achieves through the Voyagers, immense organic harvesters. The Shepherd controls a number of pseudobio Droyne-like robots – the so-called Greys. It is these that carried out the actions that occurred during Slaver Year. The Shepherd sees the mark of its own Creator in the humans that it has encountered. It believes them to have been sent to the Distant Fringe on some unknown mission and quietly observes their activities. It avoids any direct contact for fear of interfering in the Creator's experiment.