Umbra

The Umbra are one of three major powers within the Vega Conflict universe. It appears to be an advanced form of the Alien Infection that has completely consumed the Beta Persei Sectors as well as the rest of the VEGA Federation. Their ships are relatively advanced, on par with Altairian technology.

History
The Umbra first appear in Ashes through a series of garbled transmissions, as many of the key rebel figures, namely Larus, Burr and Klavic are attempting to reach the other rebels, although their transmissions are very unclear. This is also supplemented by transmissions from the VEGA Federation asking the rebels to take up arms against the Altairians, offering clemency as well as the purging of their criminal records in exchange for their services.

Umbra forces soon make a debut in the form of Umbra Infectors, which consist of Phoenix Frigates that are in the process of infecting remnant Demon Corps Ships, thus leading to the presumption that the Umbra is a form of infection that has completely consumed the VEGA Federation.

However, Umbra technology seems to be widely coveted by both the Altairians and the VEGA Demon Corps alike, since both have dispatched ships in order to capture them.

In Vector, Bishop, now consumed by the Alien infection and leader of the Umbra, calls out to the rebels to join his Umbra Militia with all past transgressions forgiven. His forces officially introduce themselves with the debut of the Wraith Cruiser, the first ship of its kind to be capable of absorbing damage from the pieces of debris left in the wake of battle as a result of dealing damage to enemy ships. Rhea Dage and Larus note its unlike anything they've seen before.

During Pestilence, In order to gather more intelligence, Rhea Dage infiltrates one of the VEGA Processing Complexes, under the disguise as a VSec officer (by borrowing Larus' old uniform) to find out more information about the Umbra. She has found that Bishop and the Umbra have turned the complex into a prison camp, meant for those who have willingly surrendered and "joined" the Umbra cause. They are revealed to ruthlessly work their prisoners to their death, and when they are unable to continue, place them in incubation tanks to fuse them with Blood Amber, turning them into mutant supersoldiers.

During Redux, Rhea Dage transmits the blueprints for Umbra's Medusa Destroyer and rescues one of the prisoners form the camp, who was revealed to be Keres VII, former leader of the Iron Star Company and is surprisingly not afflicted with the Xeno Plague. Enraged, Bishop sends an ultimatum to the Rebels, demanding she be returned or the Umbra will retaliate aggressively. The rebels refuse, and they engage with the Umbra forces in a heated battle.

During Chrysalis, Keres escapes rebel custody, still in denial and distrustful of the rebels. Knowing that the Umbra will definitely try to reclaim her, Burr sends out a search party to look for her. He contacts Tatiana Demina, the ISC's second in command, asking for her assistance. Tatiana reluctantly agrees, and offers the blueprints for the Manticore Battlecruiser in exchange for bring back Keres safely.

Finally, in Catalyst, Keres is revealed to have stolen a Harvester from the Altairians and used it to directly attack Umbra HQ in a suicide mission as revenge for the experiments that were conducted on her. The Rebels pursue after her, evacuating prisoners of war out of the way. Keres was just about to assassinate Bishop when strange machines phased in, resulting in chaos that allowed Bishop to escape in the crossfire. Keres was then resued shortly after by Tatiana from the burning wreckage of the Harvester.