The Brauletter Combine is a mysterious race of aliens who inhabit several worlds in the Spica Sector.  It is generally assumed that the Brauletter are some sort of evolutionary offshoot of the Hivers, but neither the Brauletters or the Hivers will discuss the relationship, if any.  Relations with the Brauletter at the time of the Empires were few; surviving pre-war records all portray the Brauletters as a stoic, isolationist race (Similar to the Hivers) and preferred not to get involved with affairs outside it's borders.  After the Brauletter Liberation, the Brauletter provided a minimal presence in the now lawless expanses of the former Empire.  Once the Terek Federation was formed however, the Brauletter Combine approached the Federation to establish formal diplomatic ties between the two governments.

    In the years that followed, the Combine provided "Technical Advisors" to the Federation, and eventually to the Republic.  These advisors provided key equipment and instructions on the supression of Eristicon Relapses, a phenomenon that was far more common in the early days of the Republic than it is now.  The Brauletter Advisors as a rule have always declined inquiries and invitiations to explain Eristicon technology, or to set the record straight on their role in ending the Eristicon war.  For this reason, along with their alien appearance, the Brauletter race is often treated with suspicion and contempt by many within the Republic.  The slang term "Shifter" is a commonplace epithet used to describe Brauletters; it refers to their ability to change shape, but has mostly negative connotations.

    Physically, the Brauletter is a semi-transparent gelatinous cone, standing approximately four feet in height, and about three feet in diameter at the base.  Their amorphous bodies are capable of forming limbs and sensory organs at will.  The unspecialized nature of their cellular structures allows them to absorb massive amounts of damage, and although their movement rate is fairly slow under normal conditions, they are known to be very dexterous using their formed limbs when it comes to manipulating objects.

    Brauletter intelligence is considered by many to be superior to most human minds; their abilities in the areas of mathmatics and computer theory are not fully understood, much less matched.  Many encryption systems that are supposedly considered unbreakable can be decoded at will in real time by a Brauletter advisor.  For this reason, Brauletter contact with the average Republic citizen is kept to a minimum.  Actually seeing a Brauletter in person is an extreme rarity, although it is somewhat more common to see them within MultiStellar organizations, and as crew aboard military and larger commerical space vessels.

   Certain Brauletter are chosen to participate in a rite of passage known as "The Year of Trials". Very little is known about what is involved; most information comes from the expedition of Capt. Henry Tilton, a Free Trader who went on an expedition into the heart of the Brauletter Combine.   His expedition was detailed in a book, an excerpt of which appears below:

Excerpt from "Into the Combine", H. Tilton, c. 3099

[Ed. Note, this details the Authors attempts to make direct contact with the
Brauletter Combine as part of a speculative trade venture sponsored by the
Alliance of Commerce]

With the Solomani Home Guard escorts even more reluctant to venture beyond
Border, we were eventually forced to charter small independent traders
operating speculative routes in subsector J of Spica.  With some difficulty, we
employed the crew of a Suliman class Scout to take us the rest of the way to
Erest.  By now Hiver controlled starports were becoming commonplace, but once
the initial parameters of our trip had been conveyed to them, we found it
relatively easy to travel within their space.

Arriving at Erest, we finally made contact with our first Brauletter, John
Robins, during a tour of the orbital facilities there.  Robins informs us that
he is beginning his "Year of Trials", a period of time equalling five or so
standard Terekian years we were later to learn.  The Year of Trials, we
learned, was a special rite of passage offered only to individuals whom the
Combine felt warranted such a thing; the exact definition of what qualities
might entitle one to this rite, but we were left with the impression that it
was an honor to be chosen.

Individuals chosen for the Trials are apparently given some monumental task to
accomplish. Specifics were never discussed, but the themes seemed to be
allegorical; recovery of some long lost item, righting of some great wrong,
return of order to some place law has abandoned, the restoration of some
important indivduals or families reputation, etc.  Many of the inductees in the
 rite seem to be assigned to deeds far beyond the borders of their own worlds
and space.  How the Brauletter even create the list of possible tasks was never
  explained, only deepening the mystery.

Further questioning on the topic with John seemed, in our opinion, to evoke a
bad reaction, for he would no longer respond to our queries on the matter.  We
were told, later, by a Hiver attendant monitoring the interview that the
Braulletter do not allow inductees to the Trials to ask for direct assistance,
or to divulge the nature of their quests.  They apparently can hire help or
otherwise use their own resources to buy goods and services to aid them,
because Robins was later found to have chartered the Free Trader vessel we came
over in for the beginning of his journey.

[note - the rest of the book goes on to describe the unsuccessful attempt to
attain landing rites and trade ties with the Brauletter on Erest.  Titon comes
down with an unknown disease which forces his return to Solomani space, where
he dies a few months later. "Into the Combine" is published posthumously within
the Solomani Rim but widely banned by SolSec.  Copies however make it into
circulation within the Terekian Federation. ]