TFE
Species
Copyright 2007, masterfwiffo. All rights reserved.
Notable Mechanical Species
While the universe is filled primarily with organics, the few mechanical species, due to their high intelligence capacity, durability and long life-spans have risen to dominance in the universe. Species that are mechanical in nature are strange aberrations. Some are clearly the results of an older, sentient species that created them, while others have no clear origin. Some scientists have speculated their creation stems from naturally occurring gears and levers, while others believe that divine powers were involved.
Because of the vastness of the galaxy, the following list is by no means comprehensive. But these are perhaps the best known of the mechanical species.
Cybertronian - Until the Cybertronian civil war broke out, Cybertron was the single greatest power in the galaxy. Cybertronians live far longer then other species, and their resilience and resistance to death is legendary. The Quintessons were the first to discover their world, and after Cybertronians acquired space-flight from them, Cybertron quickly rose to prominence with the largest solar empire the universe had ever seen, called now the Second Golden Age of Cybertron (the first being from a mythical time long sense past). Benevolent for a long time, the Cybertronians were regarded as peaceful in nature, and rarely interfered with affairs not their own. The beginning of the downfall of the great Cybertron empire occurred when the Quintessons, seeking to quell the growing power, declared war. Cybertron fought back valiantly and defeated the Quintessons. Shortly afterwards, political turmoil engulfed Cybertron, caused by the appearance of the Decepticon faction. The Decepticons split Cybertron in two, and a civil war began that rages to this day, with the once mighty Cybertronian empire another victim of the raging war.
The Cybertronians are a species that have mystified Quintesson scientist for eons. No logical origin has ever been concocted for the mechanical species, nor the strange 'spark' that fuels them - something found only in Cybertronians. The spark is a strange energy reading that serves as both a power source, and a memory base - which is interesting, because Transformers have natural back-ups of both, but yet, Cybertronians cannot live without a spark. The spark also serves in a reproductive function through a process that Cybertronians keep highly secret. Most Cybertronians the innate ability to reconfigure their parts into another form, which leads to their commonly held nickname across the galaxy, 'Transformers'. Other space-faring species have adapted this ability as well. Cybertronians are typically bipedal, and one of the larger species to cross the sentience threshold. Their capacity for knowledge and learning far surpasses that of all other species, save the Quintessons. All of these factors contributed to the quick rise of Cybertron to prominence, but these same factors lead to the unending nature of the Cybertronian civil war.
Quintessons: Quintessons are one of the oldest races the galaxy knows. Legends (propagated solely by Quintessons) say that Quintessons were the orchestrators of the creation of the universe, and the creators of all life within. Seeing the Quintessonian penchant for creating sub-species, one may almost believe it. The Quintesson empire was unrivaled until Cybertrons rise to power, and still remains one of the largest and most influential groups in the galaxy.
Quintessonians originally hail from the planet Quintessa, a planet long lost to time. The current Quintessa is a strange artificial construct more resembling a piece of art then a planetoid. Quintessonians themselves are a strange mix of biological and mechanical components - and because of this, it is believed they were once fully organic, then eventually modified themselves to their current form. Physically, a Quintesson is a small egg-shaped body with several manipulating tentacles, and several faces along it's side, numbering anywhere from two to five. Only the most elite of the Quintessonians have 5 faces, and rumor has it there was once a Quintesson Emperor with 7. Quintessons typically hover on a small energy beam for movement, though a recent fad has been implanting themselves into deceased sharkticon carcasses and creating large fully-functional bodies.
The Quintesson capacity for knowledge is immense, and the Quintessons as a species believe in the expanse of knowledge above else. However, Quintessons are completely and fully amoral, and their furthering of knowledge is both cruel and painful. Quintessons seem to take a sadistic pleasure in the suffering of others. Slave markets are fueled almost entirely by Quintesson expansion and slave breeding, and the Quintessons have no qualms about conquering a species in its infancy, and making slaves out of an entire race. These factors make the Quintessons the most feared species in the galaxy, though lately, the Quintessonians have been not as concerned with the expanse of their empire as making themselves exceedingly wealthy.
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Decacons, Sharkticons, and Allicons - After Cybertrons discovery, the Quintessons, most intrigued by Cybertronian technology, attempted to create their own transforming species. The Decacons were the first, and perhaps the most successful. An artificial species designed to mimic a Cybertronians spark, they are slim and bipedal, with flat, toothy faces. Typically they walk with a bit of a hunch, though they are agile and quick They are sentient, intelligent and cunning, though thoroughly obedient. The Quintessons were pleased with the result, and now employ them throughout the galaxy as enforcers.
However, the Quintessons wanted desperately to emulate the transforming ability shown by Cybertronians. Their first successful attempt were the Sharkticons. Fat, slow, and full of teeth, the Sharkticons could transform - barely. The process was little more then a Sharkticon standing up, and it's mouth opening to reveal a head. While the Quintessons were pleased with the transformation, Sharkticons were quickly deemed a failure. Something about the Transforming process made it difficult for the false spark to keep the species intelligent. As a result, the Sharkticons are uniformly dumb. While they were considered a failure, the Quintessons became rather fond of the sub-sentient robots, and mass-produced them. Shortly thereafter, Sharkticons became the icon of the Quintesson empire.
A second attempt at a Transforming robot was made. The Allicons, skinny reptilian beings had a more complex transformation, better speed and endurance. However, the Quintessons were not able to significantly raise the intelligence quotient of the Allicons. Not as strong as the Sharkticons, Allicons were still created as secondary enforcers.
There are rumors that the Quintessons continue their experiments into transforming, sentient robots, but no proof has surfaced as of yet.
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Lithonians - The Lithonians are a peaceful mechanical species with organic properties. Like the Quintessons, it is believed they were once fully organic, and gradually converted themselves into mechanical beings, with the brain being the only remnant of their original nature. Powered by a crystal found only on Lithone, their home-world, the Lithonians are capable of limited psionics, flight and have a large intelligence capacity. For a long time the Lithonians remained an obscure species that rarely ventured outside the borders of its solar system. The Quintessons, however, changed that. Upon their discovery, the Quintessons attempted to capture the species for the slave market- Lithonian females were exotic, and their males strong. Fighting back with a ferocity the Quintessons did not expect, Lithone quickly established a reputation for being a sleeping beast to remained undisturbed. The Lithonians are now slowly expanding their borders, taking up a small space just outside the outer rim. Lithonians secretly hope to one day have a empire that rivals Cybertron's during it's Golden Age.
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Maysel - The Maysel are a species of sentient star ships that traverse the galaxy in one of four large 'packs'. They are believed to be a fleet of ships built as traveling habitats to rescue their creators from a dying star. It appears they failed their mission, but over time, the AI evolved into sentience, entirely forgetting their original purpose. The Maysel are large, ovular ships, typically over three miles long. THeir surface is smooth, often in a goldish color-scheme, and what was once a bridge has been changed into a visored head with limited mobility. Benevolent and kind, the Maysel wander the stars looking for uninhabited asteroids to consume in their interior factories, using many claw-like arms stored in their underbellies. Creating a new Maysel can take hundreds of years, and with the already limited numbers (it is believed less then 200 exist now), the Maysel species continued to grapple with facing extinction. Fortunately, one of the 'packs' has allied with the Lithonians, and lives in relative peace in their borders.
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Regulus VII - The giant planet Regulus VII is a curiosity among the science circles of the universe. While there are several sentient, mechanical species, Regulus VII is the only known world where there are non-sentient mechanical species. A fact more startling is that none of Regulus VII's thousands of species are sentient. Every thing that lives on Regulus VII is a mechanical creature, from the smallest digital virus to the massive Regulan Sky Whale. Perhaps the most legendary of the Regulan species is the Regulan Metal Monger. Slightly smaller then the sky whale, the Regulan Metal Monger is a four-legged monster well over 200 meters tall, and is essentially a living, mechanical juggernaut. A Metal Monger tusks are nearly 50 meters long, and are sharp enough to cleave through virtually anything. Quintessons once tried to domesticate the Metal Mongers as a war animal, but failed spectacularly with many gruesome casualties. Now Regulus VII sits in an area claimed by Autobot, Decepticon and Quintesson alike. Like all the planets in the Regulus system, it's valuable Energon deposits make it a highly sought-after planet, despite the danger from the Metal Mongers, among other dangerous species.
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Minicons - Minicons are believed to be an off-shoot of Cybertronians. Though they carry sparks identical to a Cybertronians and have the inherent transforming ability, Minicons are a fraction of the size of their Cybertronian brethren. Their origin is unknown, though Minicon legends speak of another world where they lived among larger brothers. Minicons first appeared during the Golden Age of Cybertron, when a colony was discovered on a small asteroid. Since then, several more of these colonies have been found - none of which could possibly the Minicons origin world.
Besides size, the other factor that differentiates Minicons from Cybertronians is the power-link port. Located typically on the chest, all Minicons have this port which allows them to connect directly to power-sources for refueling. This feature became of great importance during the Cybertronian Civil War when Decepticons found that connecting these ports into their internal power supply greatly increased a Transformers energy supply, effectively doubling speed, endurance, and greatly enhancing firepower. These caused a prolonged struggle with the unfortunate minicons trapped in the middle. However, the Minicon option was finally deemed unstable when side-effects began showing up in both the hosts and the attached Minicons, thus ending their place in the war.
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Junkions - The Planet of Junk is a strange planet. It was initially formed after a great space battle long since lost to time, when the wreckage of a thousand star-ships drifted together, eventually solidifying into a large, crescent-shaped mass. Since its rediscovery by the Quintessons early in their expansions, more space debris has been added to the planet, and it eventually became a dumping ground for all the junk by all known space-faring species, earning the 'planet' it's name. But far more curious are the Junkions who inhabit it.
No-one knows where the Junkions came from, or how they first arrived on the planet. Quintesson records insist that the planet of Junk was devoid of life when they arrived, but a thousand years later, the Junkions were found, acting as if they had lived on the planet for eons. Some believe the Junkions are survivors of the space battle that initially formed the Planet of Junk, while others believe them to be from a lost Lithonian or Cybertronian colony that found its way to the Planet, and still others thing they rapidly evolved from self-repairing Junk-Robots.
Whatever the case, the Junkions are there now. They resemble a strange cross of Cybertronian and Lithonian - but they lack the spark or the organics of either species. For energy they consume Energon, which by some unknown process is immediately and directly distributed to all points in their system. They are bipedal, and have the ability to Transform - haphazardly, but they can do it. More interesting is the Junkions extreme resilience. Unlike a Lithonians organic brain or a Cybertronians spark, as far as anyone can tell, a Junkion has no vulnerable point. Junkions have been witnessed being decapitated, torn limb from limb, sliced in half, blown up, diced into tiny pieces, and otherwise killed, only to be rebuilt and repaired later by their brethren, for all intents and purposes, good as new. For a Junkion to be truly killed, a complete vaporization is required. This has lead some to speculate that Junkions are not fully alive, though they are definitely sentient.
The Junkion culture is also of note. Junkions are incredibly imitative, and often parrot and adapt anything they come into contact with. However, Junkions are also very easily distracted, and often what they repeat is not exactly what was said to them. Junkions never forget anything they learn, and so their culture becomes a huge mishmash of whatever is popular throughout the galaxy now, and what has ever been popular beforehand - essentially making their culture a collection of the cultural 'junk' of the universe.
For the most part, Junkions stay on their planet, though a recent Junkion fad has sent many out as traders and scrap collectors, to return home with more for their planet. Junkions are fairly protective of their world, but otherwise friendly. They tend to be fiercely loyal to those they consider friends, and their fighting style (also haphazardly taken from the other cultures of the universe) is practically without equal. The Junkions are the only species ever to have successfully destroyed an entire Quintesson star-fleet, a testament to their strange fighting spirit.
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