The Children of the Vault seek to destroy both mutant and human kinds so that their own race can rule the Earth, as only one race can rule supreme, in their thought. The Conquistador was only supposed to open after global catastrophe had finally erased all traces of humanity from Earth, but, unfortunately, the energies released by M-Day prematurely released the Children of the Vault. Thus, they've now got to simply wipe out the mutants and the humans in order to inherit the Earth as it was proclaimed to be their destiny six thousand years ago.

Though they've sought to frame the X-Men for their wave of destruction, to turn humanity against mutants, they've stated over and over again while killing people that there is no malice in what they do. They're simply fulfilling their destiny as the inheritors of the Earth, as they've always been taught, for generations of their people, since the very start.

The Children of the Vault are neither homo superior nor homo sapiens sapiens, but an entirely new race of human beings who, when they were in the Vault with all of their advanced technology at least, reproduce asexually. Their story begins in 1970, when a group of biologists and one temporal physicist named Bella Pagan began working together. Most of their work was declared fraudulent or simply ignored, but two years later they managed to persuade the Chilean government to lease them a ship called The Conquistador (translates to the Conqueror), which they proceeded to re-fit to suit their desires, including building a time accelerator.

The coup of 1973 conveniently destroyed most records of the transaction and, until Serafina accidently alerted the X-Men to their presence, they had been isolated for thirty or so years.

In those thirty years, due to the time accelerator, six thousand years had actually passed aboard the Conquistador, allowing the human beings onboard to evolve, due to genetic drift, into a completely separate human species. Because of their six thousand years of development, they have extremely advanced technology that allows them superhuman abilities that almost seem to be mutant powers.

Although only five figured prominently in the attack on the X-Men (after Sangre discovered the X-Men now knew about the Children of the Vault) and sought to destroy Xavier's Institute, there are approximately 3,000 members, according to X-Men #193.

The five that figured prominently are:

Sangre (leader)

Serafina

Perro

Aguja

Fuego

They lost their advanced flying ship known as the Conquistador when they attacked Xavier's school, having filled it with three thousand gene-swapped animal corpses made to look like human beings just in case they lost the battle, and have fled to Ecuador, to an abandoned Sentinel facility once used by Cassandra Nova, where they will continue to plan, vowing that the X-Men wouldn't even see them coming next time.

Following Sangre's death, the female Cadena leads The Children of the Vault.