The Argentelle-Silica Collective, or the ASC, is a collectivist intergalactic superstate with tens of thousands of worlds and species. The collective was founded by two races, the Argentelles, a race of beings with silver exoskeletons, and the Silica, a race of silicon-based beings with biological computers as their internals. The two races created a process to "argentoform" other races, and turn them into silvery immortal living machines. They believe in a hedonist and utilitarian philosophy, aiming to maximize happiness. Their form of conquest explicity forbids killing, but rather incapacitating enemies and transforming them into one of their own. Their society features high material conditions of living, and has a nonexistient crime and civil strife rate, as "defective" beings will have their brains rewrited to remove the "problematic" components.