Squadron 42 Vanduul: The Enemy Race Explained

The Vanduul are the alien race that serves as the enemy in Squadron 42 — a warrior society of nomadic clans whose conflict with the United Empire of Earth defines the campaign's war. They are not a conventional military: they are a culture built around combat, status and the blade, and their ships, tactics and society all reflect it. This page explains who the Vanduul are, where they came from, and how they fight.

Who the Vanduul Are

The Vanduul are a bipedal, reptilian-descended species organized into nomadic clans rather than a central state. Their society is built on a warrior ethos: combat is ritual, status is earned in battle, and their entire culture — from ship design to social structure — treats conflict as the normal state of existence. They are physically formidable, capable of surviving in the vacuum of space for indeterminate periods, and during firefights with the UEE they have been observed pulling themselves along the surfaces of ships without protective gear and without signs of distress.

Their History With Humanity

Human contact with the Vanduul has been hostile for centuries. The conflict has included the Battle of Orion, the retreat from Virgil, the fall of Caliban, and — by 2945 — a war that reaches its breaking point with the attack on Vega II on October 5, 2945. That attack causes the UEE Senate to formally declare an interspecies war against the Vanduul on November 11, 2945, and drives the counteroffensive that Squadron 42's player joins. The war is the defining conflict of the era and the narrative foundation for the state of the galaxy in Star Citizen.

The Clans

Vanduul society is organized into clans, each with its own identity and leadership. In the campaign's story, Admiral Bishop's response to Vega II targets the clan leaders — including the clans led by figures such as Ukra and Thul, the latter played by Andy Serkis. The clan structure matters to the war's politics: the UEE is not fighting a single government but a culture whose units operate with their own motives and traditions.

How the Vanduul Fight

Vanduul tactics are aggressive and personal. Their fighters — the Scythe, the Blade, the elite Glaive — press attacks and use their ships' ramming spikes as weapons, treating combat as something to close with rather than fight at range. Their capital ships, up to the massive Kingship, bring that same philosophy to fleet scale. In Squadron 42, the Vanduul are performed characters, not just enemies: Andy Serkis's casting as Thul signals that the alien side of the war carries genuine dramatic weight, and the campaign's combat AI — new systems switched on across the game in 2023 — is built to make them feel dangerous rather than disposable.

The Vanduul in Star Citizen

The Vanduul's story extends beyond the campaign. In Star Citizen's persistent universe, the war's consequences are part of the setting's recent history — the systems the UEE lost, the military posture the Empire adopted, and the threat that shapes Navy deployments. Players who complete Squadron 42 will find the war's origins explained; players who know the persistent universe first will find the campaign answering questions about how the galaxy got that way. The two games are designed as one narrative foundation and one living world, and the Vanduul are the thread that connects them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the Vanduul?

They are the alien warrior race that serves as the enemy in Squadron 42 — nomadic clans at war with the UEE.

Why are the Vanduul attacking?

The campaign's story frames the war as the result of centuries of hostile contact, culminating in the attack on Vega II in 2945 that forces the Empire's response.

Who plays the Vanduul in Squadron 42?

Andy Serkis plays Thul'Oquray, a Vanduul character, using the game's full performance capture pipeline.