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The Mekke are a psionic insectoid race distantly related to the Odarites. As a result of class differences, the two races living on Odari diverged into different species about 90,000 BCE. In 25,932 BCE, a civil uprising known as the War of the Broken Wing resulted in the lower-class Mekke establishing an independent society in the deep caves. The Mekke left their homeworld in 22,190 BCE to establish a colony on Ist'thol'mek. Despite this early civilization, both cultures subsequently suffered major setbacks to their technological development, leaving them no more advanced than other Orion Arm cultures.
In 1766 CE, the Mekke were rediscovered by and established trade relations with the Odarites. Their world was under Nall rule from 2256 until 2651, when they, Grimlahd, and Vollista rebelled. Ist'thol'mek was again conquered during the Kretonian Invasion and was abandoned completely in 2660, when the last of the Mekke there were either executed or herded offplanet for use as Interrogators. The occupation all but exterminated the Mekke in normalspace. The only known survivors of this race were those who traveled aboard the Sanctuary colony vessel.
The last queen (female), Hadrix, died aboard Sanctuary during the voyage in Hiverspace. The queen collapsed unexpectedly on April 28th during an apparent Human Purity attack on a memorial service held in New Ist'thol'mek. The Mekke, unlike their distant cousins the Odarites, had only one queen at a time. Thus, the event threatened to destroy the species. The homeworld, Ist'thol'mek, had been essentially abandoned for centuries since the rampage of the Kretonians.
Mekke returned to this universe with Sanctuary, but without their only surviving queen. Mekke scientists embarked on a quest to clone a new queen, setting up laboratories on their former homeworld. Overseer Abrix, leader of Ist'thol'mek after the death of the Queen, claimed that the scientists had been successful in creating such females and expressed a desire for Mekke to again become influential in the universe. The surviving people of Ist'thol'mek, however, decided to remain out of interstellar politics. They publicised no requests for outside assistance and subsequently disappeared from public view. The world presently appears to be uninhabited.
Considering how few survivors exist and the subsequent apparent vanishing of the Mekke, they are generally considered to be extinct.