In any persistent universe where stuff can be created garbage inevitably becomes an issue. It is therefor useful to have a force, or entity which eats garbage. From theoretical Cap-ships, or player ran stations, to scrap metal and jettisoned ore, what oh what could this mysterious force be?

The Hive can be responsible for eating up unmanned vehicles and debris. Otherwise one day far far in the future, every sector will be filled with derelict ships and stations.

(This is aimed at the cryptic VO v2.0, to which I think I heard someone whispering rumors they heard from a friend about when widgets will be permanent.)

That rumor doesn't make any sense from a game performance standpoint.

We all know that its the sneaky Space Cows that eat junk and dropped lewts.

Space cow farming. I would still favour that addition to the game.

Hive queen wrangling. Ya' catch one up, and milk her for... hive bots?

I think that the hive wouldnt fit in that role very as much as space hobos would. its another good reason to implement the famous space hobos and their cardboard box fleet. either that or they would fight over the junk with the hive.