Zyzarda apologizes to Captain, but he growls. "Dammit, Redshirt, shut the hell up."
Cheddarius, always the pragmatic, opens the door a sliver and sprays the hallway with bullets. You hear a few rounds THUNK into a few Xorg.
After Cheddarius exhausts a whole clip (and everyone presses medwax into their ears to fix the damage), Zyzarda peeks out into the not-a-room-anymore. There are two walls and a pillar standing where there used to be five walls. There's also a very large pile of Xorg outside.
While not very successful for a stealth mission, you seem to have single handedly destroyed the entire base. Nice job. It takes a few hours, but you get a positive I.D on the politician you were meant to assassinate. His death will sow chaos in the Xorg ranks, and make winning this war easier.
But you're a stealth team. You won't fight any direct missions. It's time to head back to base and let your hair down.
OSMARTA
Sapient race and dominant force in the galaxy. While generally lauded as peace-loving hippies and generally happy folk, the Osmarta are less famed but still very good at stealth. The wonderful Osmartan sense of smell can scent a target from several hundred meters away, and the Osmarta are at the head of the galaxy, trading goods and services for advanced tech from Scientific races.
Osmarta are most commonly described as dogs, walking on their hind legs. However, the front paws have adapted opposible thumbs, and the cranium is much larger and thinner to accommadate the large brain of the Osmarta. The eyes are generally held wide open, only shutting for sleeping or to blink, likely an adaptation to the harsh, ever changing environment of their homeworld. Osmarta are strict carnivores, only able to eat small amounts of plant matter. Accordingly, Osmarta food is spiced sparingly, and the unique flavors stem from the mixes of different animal fats which are melted and poured over the dish. Osmarta food is often served as a main course to other races, usually with a salad to off balance the relatively large amount of meat. Osmarta like their food cooked rare, as blood adds flavor and bolsters their immune systems.
The Osmartan homeworld of Jahla is mostly grassland, dominated by the thick, twisted grass native to the world. Jahlan trees compensate for the agressive grass by growing quickly and widely, cutting off sunlight and leaving dead patches in their shadows. Most animal life can be found inside these tree shadows, waiting for a chance to pounce on the herbivorous Dunt cattle or an unsuspecting Osmarta. Most species disbelive documentation on the violence of Jahla until they see it, but Osmarta have learned to value peace and promote it across the galaxy.
Osmartan government is strictly republic, with all voting done electronically. The people vote directly for senators from their own worlds once per Jahlan year, and the senator is housed and cared for on the homeworld until their term is up. If the Osmarta feel the senator is behaving incorrectly, they feel no qualms about voting him out and replacing him with another better suited for their needs. The society has no party system, with alliances discouraged by law, and the fluid nature of their government means that the entire senate changes year by year, and laws are quickly made and repealed. The Osmarta are very politically active, and though protests are outlawed, government officials are allowed to be challenged to duels. To date, 9289 Officials have been killed in duels with Osmartan citizens, who are required to pay reparations to the family and serve as governor during the remaining election year.
The Osmartan economy is run in "perfect trifecta" an Osmartan idea resembling communism or socialism. The state owns and controls every resource, but the people own and control the government, and the resources control the citizens. Since its inception in 2318, the Perfect Trifecta has had attempted coups, uprisings, and political takeovers attempted 36.4 times, however each time the populace has reasserted its authority. The Osmarta do not shy from rebellion, with relatives that died thusly being seen as heroes regardless of success. The result is a Communistic state as conceived, held together by cultural glue. The Osmartan government began tallies of dead from the rebellions, but still require 20 or more years to read the list in its entirety.
The Osmarta reproduce in litters of up to ten "kits". "kitmates" are seen not unlike brothers and sisters, and held as one unit. What one kitmate does can ruin his siblings chances of doing something worthwhile. Kitmates establish strong familial bonds at a young age, and while infighting is common, easily group up against a larger foe. This family dynamic has passed on to their military, with each soldier being trained to see his squadmates as his kitmates.
The Osmartan military is a small affiliation of semi-automonous teams. Each team is led by a captain, which is in turn led by one of three admirals, who report directly to the republic's spokesman. The most famed of these teams, Beta Shock 9, is a high-risk outfit of specially trained soldiers and raw recruits of great natural talent. While they wear no special uniform, the members of Beta Shock 9 are regarded as almost admiralty themselves, even if they have just graduated Boot Camp. However, one usually learns that they met a Beta Shock member after the fact, as the team is so secretive that only missions at least 2 years out of date are released.
Xorg
The Xorg are a reptilian race from the planet Calnax, a small and violent world in the red light of a dwarf star. They are a bane and scourge upon the galaxy, conquering and exterminating minor races. Lately, the Xorg have attacked several major empires, including the Osmarta. They have proved well prepared, with heavily armored ships and powerful weapondry. The main Xorg advantage however is their numbers, with a hundred or more being considered a small group.
The Xorg homeworld of Calnax is just inside the greenzone for a inhabitable world, and is hot. The world is lush and filled with plantlife, and a booming population of herbivores has led to a lush and fertile, if hot, environment. The Xorg are major predators, stalking and killing prey and eating the meat raw, even today. The Xorg do not have any natural predators.
The body of a Xorg is insectoid and reptilian at the same time. A thick skin and chitinous exoskeleton surround a resilient mass of organs and redundant endoskeleton. The legs and arms of a Xorg have no skin at all, with the muscles simply repairing faster than infection can spread. A Xorg can only be disabled via body shot, as wounds in the arms and legs have been seen to heal within the timeframe of a battle, albiet with heavy scarring. The Xorg have a main weakness in their lack of eyes; armor can cut off the smell of a person and confuse them, while a cloak does nothing. Their hearing and smell are superb, however, and in normal activities one can hardly tell they do not have eyes. Large jaws can wrap around enemy combatants, and indeed the Xorg do this often, savoring sentient meat. The race seems emotionless otherwise, ignoring non-threats and consuming other empires.
Not much is known about the Xorg political system. It appears to be autocratic and tribal, with the strong leading the rest of the "hive" with an iron hand. Xorg politicians are seasoned veterans, no longer in frontline duty but still capable of fighting. The leader of the Xorg would thus be the most dangerous opponent not fighting an open war, and is also likely surrounded by cronies.
The Xorg do not have a religion, do not have a recognizable culture, and are isolationist to an extreme. Civilians are not advised to investigate Xorg space, and military leaders are cautioned that the act of entering will be seen as a threat by the Xorg and lead to open war.
The Xorg do not keep POWs. The Xorg do not allow immigration. The Xorg do not take slaves, prisoners, "entertainers", or trained howler monkeys. The Xorg exterminate.
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Topic: Beta Shock 9 (Read 3504 times)