Why did the Vuduri fly all the way out to Tabit?

The whole premise of the story behind Rome's Revolution was that the Overmind finally realized that stars were disappearing. Originally there were far more stars but within the story, I boiled it down to just a few to get the point across.

In the original concept, there were gazillions of Stareaters and they were malevolent and based upon the findings of the starprobes, Rei eventually concludes that the pinwheel shape of the Milky Way was due to Stareaters encroaching upon our galaxy. Even with Rei's brilliant idea of the VIRUS units, it seemed like these were insurmountable odds and impractical that a race of gargantuan creatures like this would sweep through galaxies like cosmic locusts.

So I backed off. I had them eating just a few stars listed in a previous post. I had Rei kill off one so that OMCOM could develop the substrate to transfer his consciousness. The mutations are the mutations. You'll find out more about them in The Milk Run. But malevolent? I really, really thought they would be until I came up with the "people of Earth" scene where Rome addresses the planet and everybody passes out.

I realized at that point I had painted myself into a corner and everyone was going to die. So, taking my inspiration from Horton Hears a Who, I had the protagonists shout out. To my delight, the Stareater answered. I was as shocked as you were to find out they were urbane and noble creatures who followed a higher purpose.

So... This leads to the question who created them and set them upon their mission? After all, they are Species 3. Who was Species 1 and Species 2? And don't forget about Species Zero. All will be addressed in the next book.