Alien

The Aliens (species name unknown), also known as space-locusts, Harvesters (although this actually refers to the gigantic mothership), and even them, are the principal antagonists in the Independence Day franchise.

They are a nameless race of highly intelligent and technologically advanced extraterrestrial beings, and were a hive-mind race (under the Alien Queen's control) with the intention of conquering and harvesting planets at the expense of driving the native population to extinction.

Name
The Aliens, interestingly, have no name. Even 20 years after the War of 1996, the closet the humans ever came to naming the Aliens was by calling the creatures "them". This could be because the Humans have named the Aliens, but refused to call them by their species's name because they see them as savage monsters, although there might be good Aliens around. The mysterious Aliens have yet to be named in the films, and little else is known about them other than the basic overview of their species. A popular fan nickname for the Aliens, however, is "space locusts", due to a quote president Thomas Whitmore said about them. The Aliens have also been named "Harvesters" following the release of Independence Day: Resurgence; however, the term "Harvester" actually refers to their mothership, and not the Aliens themselves.

Behavior/Personality
The Aliens are aggressive, in nature. Hostile and nomadic, they constructed a large, technologically-advanced spaceship capable of holding entire civilizations, and plan to exterminate the populations of countless, other inhabited worlds by harvesting their resources until the inhabitants have nothing left. Most of the Aliens (if there are any good Aliens, which is possible) make no attempt to coexist with the native populations, and instead prefer to wipe them out completely.

Physiology
Coming soon!

Technology
The technology of the Aliens are clearly far more advanced than those of humanity; however, this is unknown compared to other alien races. However, humans have adapted portions of Alien technology, thus partially eliminating this advantage. The Aliens, however, have mastered the construction and operation of direct energy weapons, deflector shields, and massive spacecraft.

Alien technology is both mechanical and biological in nature, hence their very organic appearance. In essence, their technology and material have "grown" rather than manufactured.

Military
Coming soon!

Beginnings
In an unspecific time in the past, the Aliens encountered a highly-advanced civilization of trans-sentient beings, which they later pushed to extinction. For thousands of years, the Aliens have been at war against a coalition of other alien races that lost their planets to an Alien Queen. Because of this, the Aliens attempt to hunt down an artificial intelligence which was invented by other alien races, known as the Sphere, for its vital information on their enemies. The remnants of the inventors' civilization escaped with technology that they stored at a sanctuary world, where they have actively prepared with necessary tools to combat the Aliens ever since. Recognizing the beings as a threat, the Aliens are determined to discover the sanctuary world and prevent the spread of the means that can defeat them.

First Contact with Humanity
The first recorded interaction between humanity and Aliens was in 1947, when an Attacker crashed on the Foster Ranch outside of Roswell, New Mexico. In the crash, two Aliens were killed, while the 3rd one was severely injured. The crashed ship, the two bodies, and the survivor were brought to the new Air Force installation outside of Rachel, Nevada, called Homey Airport, better known as Area 51. The survivor died within a matter of weeks. Over the next 49 years, scientists at Area 51 studied the Attacker, attempted to repair it, and studied the physiology of the three Alien corpses. However, none of the technology of the Attacker could be accessed, as there was no Alien mothership nearby.

Vietnam War veteran Russell Casse claimed to have been abducted by the Aliens in 1986, with the purpose of conducting horrific experiments upon him. However, the veracity of these claims was debatable, and as such, Casse was largely dismissed for suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

War of 1996
Coming soon!

War of 2016
Coming soon!

Behind the Scenes

 * Independence Day was created by Dean Delvin and Roland Emmerich, who also created Stargate, which is another movie about aliens. They wanted to create a different sort of alien invasion, since in most movies, alien invasions are started furtively.
 * The Aliens, while similar to the insecta class in the Animal Kingdom, are not insects; yet they still exist in eusociality. This complements to president Thomas Whitmore comparing the Aliens to locusts in the first film because the Aliens have a hive-mind (while being ruled by their tyrannical Queen), and structure with several castes, much like insects. Furthermore, they are led by the Alien Queen, who intimately controls the entire hive.