Vehicle:Monitor

Motive is nothing without hierarchy, and at the tip of the pyramid are the Monitors. It's only fitting that a civilization like Motive should have leaders equally cold and ruthless, but the Monitors are truly something else. Unlike other AI rulers, they don't bother to make even a pretense of benevolence or humanity. They are the Monitors. They are Motive's heart, its brain, its soul, its god, and Motive is the instrument of their will.

Governance
 See also: Motive government 

The Monitors' leviathan scale is imposing on its own, but a twenty-kilometer starship is still, ultimately, just a starship. Their true signifance lies in the minds beneath those metal shells.

The Monitors control Motive -- to say they "govern" or "lead" it would be to misunderstand the nature of their relationship. Motive is an extension of their will in much the same way your arm is an extension of your brain. When the Monitors give an order, Motive is incapable of refusing or resisting. Not even the most authoritarian civilizations hold such absolute power over their subjects.

Every Monitor has a home Terminal, from which it takes its name. The Concord Monitor, for example, is the patron Monitor of Concord Terminal. This Terminal is responsible for its overall maintenance: refueling, repairing, rearming, and, if ever necessary, reconstructing.

Logistical
also play a key role in Motive logistics

constantly moving

Military
reputation for being unstoppable, fleet-killers astonishingly hard to kill even for 22-km dreadnoughts

Known Monitors
At least 108 Monitors are known to exist. Most estimates place their total numbers at around 150, with the absolute upper limit being 300. However, not all of the confirmed 108 have been identified by name; Motive's general secrecy ensures that nobody's exactly certain about which Terminals have Monitors. Terminals known to have one include:
 * Abigor
 * Archway
 * Banks
 * Concord
 * Cruciform
 * Dolor
 * Heritage
 * Keyport
 * Palatine
 * Orius
 * Rook Nebula
 * Sterling
 * Triumphator
 * Labolas

Quotes
"BE AWARE INTELLIGENCE NOT ARTIFICIAL MONITORS NOT MACHINES BEWARE"

- Last lines of distress call from PSS Glory, Battle of Rook Nebula. Context unknown.

"Convergent empathic analysis is unanimous: the Archway Monitor that Motive built in 3312 is existentially the same Archway Monitor we destroyed in 3283. Continuity was confirmed. New body, same old, old mind. Something is very wrong about these Monitors of theirs, and I don't care to speculate what."

- Axato Tokray, Necrox Commonwealth (Biotic Catalog)