"The Collective" is a microscopic parasite with unknown origins. They're only known function is to reproduce, but will only become active in a system with a dying sun. Once the sun goes supernova, the parasite gets dispersed across the cosmos and the process begins again.

Over the years the Collective have come into contact with Advanced Civilizations and technology; scientist begin to study the collective and their properties, but found very little information about this parasite that could suggest it did anything other than reproduce. Most scientist could never fully study the parasite because, once the Collective became active their own ecosystems begin to fall apart because of the dying star.

One such instances an abandoned A.I took note to the Collective's ability to survive in such a harsh climate and integrated into one of the parasites; now full sentient that A.I began the race known as the Collective and named it'self ONE. Because it could survive in harsh ecosystems ONE traveled to worlds interfacing with parasites to continue the reproduction process once enough of the collective had been born ONE vanished.

Meridian

Meridian is the fabled homeworld of the Collective established by ONE, it is the sole planet in the distance Ark Cluster.

At the center of the ARK Cluster is a black hole, a huge star that has collapsed into a region of space-time with gravitational effects so powerful that even light cannot escape. This example is believed to be a Kerr black hole approximately 12 stellar masses in size, and appears to have absorbed additional mass from nearby systems. Scientists believe that the radiation released from the creation of the black hole may explain why during Ziccarra Liafador and Alexis Pettis War against M that this system was left untouched-- "They didn't think anyone lived there"

In the Milky Way, study of black holes was still in its infancy. The forces around the event horizon typically destroy probes before they can transmit their data.