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Hey, coming back with a new species, had been stuck on them for a good long while now but iv finally concreted their idea and drew them, so now introducing the Rhetas with a good ol Lore Dump
Biology
The Rhetas are a eusocial species of techno-organic organisms which resemble snakes created by the Estav and are native to the moon of the planet — in the system of —. While individuals vary in size, the common features of the different variants are a soft metallic grey body with black bellies and red highlights. Worker drones lay at 19'8” long and despite their techno-organic nature are relatively light weight. More specialized individuals however tend to either be shorter or longer depending on their roles in a group, with the one in charge of repopulation and growth of a group, simply called “factories”, being 30ft long.
Like organics, the Rhetas' exterior is a soft metallic shell designed to help protect their internals from damage from physical impacts as well as solar radiation, with their skin being several centimeters thick in spots. Similarly to organics they have rather similar functioning organs despite them being partially mechanical but on their heads is a high strength polycarbonate visor protecting their eyes from a variety of dangers and can be popped open to be cleaned inside if needed. To help protect against bright light emitted by a variety of animals and plants in their tunnels and large cave networks, along with unfiltered sunlight, they are able to deploy a reflective film to massively lessen damage done to their eyes. To help track things in pitch black tunnels the Rhetas have a set of heat sensing pits as well as long tongues to help smell for any potential threats with a Jacobson's organ. To further aid in traversing in pitch darkness, the standard worker drone has a pair of headlamps on their heads.
To move around the Rhetas use their serpentine body, however to move quickly to pounce on something or move quickly across a flat area the Rhetas have a pair of thrusters in their waist and a smaller pair on their backs. To fuel the thrusters the Rhetas have several bladders which store fuel and an oxidizer, which is used in low oxygen environments where the intakes are unable to deliver air to the thrusters. To aid in movement the Rhetas have multiple pairs of arms, with standard individuals and “factory” only having 4 arms, while specialized workers can have 6 arms.
While all individuals have reproductive organs, to reproduce the Rhetas are limited to a single individual in a group to reproduce thanks to the rest having underdeveloped organs and requiring the reproductive individuals to consume a large quantity of both biological and inorganic material. When sufficiently fed they are able to produce up to 20 offspring which are live-birthed and handed off to several caretaker individuals who care for them while the “factory” individual begins preparation for the next group of offspring.
Unlike other eusocial species, the Rhetas are able to modify themselves to different roles if the need arises, often growing an entirely new pair of arms or losing them, and changing the size of their waist thrusters. To make any changes however takes a considerable time, such as with growing a pair of arms an individual has to consume enough material to modify their skeletal structure as well as create the new limbs which can take several weeks to do. To change their thrusters the previous pair have to be completely reabsorbed into their body and broken down for their material and like growing a new pair of arms resources have to be consumed to help fuel the creation of the new thrusters. By the 2200's however the Rhetas developed a quicker method to modify themselves with systems that can be plugged in or exchanged like entire tail units. A simpler modification they can do to themselves is changing the color of their external shell, which is often done to differentiate different groups of Rhetas.
The Rhetas are able to consume most organic and inorganic material, and have extremely powerful jaws in order to crush up rocks and metals to easier swallow. Their digestive system works on a similar multi stage system to other organics but necessary metallic and other inorganic substances undergo significant mechanical processing after being sorted out for use throughout the body Rhetas are able to safely consume hydrocarbons, which are similarly broken down and turned into fuel for their thrusters, or stored as fuel directly
Using their wireless communication systems and an extendable antenna on their backs, Rhetas are able to communicate with each other over larger distances and communicate with each other in places they are unable to breath due to lack of breathable air, however to communicate very long distances they require larger relay stations to boost their communication signals. In the event a group's “factory” is unable to reproduce, whether by age or death, they send a signal out to nearby members of their group to allow an individual to replace them and develop their reproductive organs. In some modern nations of theirs with an over abundance of resources however individuals are allowed to develop their reproductive organs if they want to.
History
The Rhetas were created through a program by the Estav to populate Local Space with species under their direct influence due to inconveniences in crossing the Great FTL Barrier. In particular the Rhetas were created by a group of Estav who were attempting to create a race of techno-organic cyborgs to populate hazardous worlds and stellar bodies, using an isolated system to seed a moon which unusually had its own ecosystem under its rocky surface, introducing simpler techno-organic organisms to the ecosystem before deploying the Rhetas. Before they could be deployed however, the Estav disappeared without a trace leaving the Rhetas in suspended animation until the 1500s when the tiny handful were finally let out into the network of caves and tunnels. While rather primitive still, the Rhetas were able to very quickly mentally and technologically develop, expanding their presence through most of the tunnels and settling the surface of their moon thanks in part to the leftover surface elevator left by their creators, and in the mid 2100s were able to conduct the relatively easy task of reaching space from the surface of their small home moon and started colonisation of the rest of the moon system. By 2290 the Rhetas had expanded to a significant portion of their solar system, however they were soon met by a small Pelvfastero Collective fleet who were under the impression that they would be an easy target to take over, and while the fleet was able to take over several small celestial bodies and remove entire population groups into captivity, the small fleet was ultimately repelled as the Rhetas were now completely united against a common foe and turned their fleets against them. Unfortunately however they were unable to rescue the Rhetas that were captured and after a year had passed the groups of Rhetas that were kidnapped by the Pelvfastero Collective were scattered about across its worlds, and with the collapse of the Pelvfastero Collective most of the groups ended up in the hands of the Urvalet and one ended up with the SSA, who both initially mistook them for Macalo due to their similarities, as well as poorly conducted census documentation from the Collective listing them as such. While the groups were moved to safer places away from the larger former Collective population a search for information about where they had come from began, with the SSA and Urvalet assisting each other in the manner. Despite this however, it appeared that there were very few surviving records on where the Rhetas had come from due to many records from the Collective military having been destroyed and disappearing. While the two searched the Rhetas back in their home system had finished picking apart the Collective ships they had destroyed and were in the process of developing a faster than light drive.
After 20 years passed they successfully produced their own FTL drive and began to explore nearby star systems and slowly began to settle them over the next 15 years before eventually encountering a system with an Urvalet military space station, which caused the Rhetas to become very wary and retreat to the edge of the system. Their arrival however did not go unnoticed as the Urvalet detected their arrival and began an attempt to communicate with the unknown vessels, sending a pair of ships to investigate. This however prompted the Rhetas to begin shooting at the Urvalet ships as they came closer, forcing the Urvalet ships to take evasive actions and return fire to disable the ships. After disabling the ships the Urvalet continued trying to make contact with the ships, and eventually the Rhetas ships submitted to the Urvalet and started to communicate with them, allowing them to be towed back to the space station while they translated each other's languages. Eventually the Urvalet learned that the Rhetas were attacked several decades ago by a group of aliens, and had assumed that the Urvalet were part of them, but the Urvalet assured them that they were responsible for dismantling the Pelvfastero Collective. With the situation cleared up, the Rhetas were notified that they had found several groups of Rhetas in the territory they had acquired after dismantling the Collective who had stated they had been kidnapped from their home system. After telling the kidnapped groups their home system had been located, they were eager to return home and after the SSA, now the IOA, was notified of the development the vast majority of individuals in their group left for their home system, however a small number of individuals stayed behind.
if you wanna see more of my art that I dont post here you can check out my discord server here: https://discord.gg/E8DZqP8JbY
Biology
The Rhetas are a eusocial species of techno-organic organisms which resemble snakes created by the Estav and are native to the moon of the planet — in the system of —. While individuals vary in size, the common features of the different variants are a soft metallic grey body with black bellies and red highlights. Worker drones lay at 19'8” long and despite their techno-organic nature are relatively light weight. More specialized individuals however tend to either be shorter or longer depending on their roles in a group, with the one in charge of repopulation and growth of a group, simply called “factories”, being 30ft long.
Like organics, the Rhetas' exterior is a soft metallic shell designed to help protect their internals from damage from physical impacts as well as solar radiation, with their skin being several centimeters thick in spots. Similarly to organics they have rather similar functioning organs despite them being partially mechanical but on their heads is a high strength polycarbonate visor protecting their eyes from a variety of dangers and can be popped open to be cleaned inside if needed. To help protect against bright light emitted by a variety of animals and plants in their tunnels and large cave networks, along with unfiltered sunlight, they are able to deploy a reflective film to massively lessen damage done to their eyes. To help track things in pitch black tunnels the Rhetas have a set of heat sensing pits as well as long tongues to help smell for any potential threats with a Jacobson's organ. To further aid in traversing in pitch darkness, the standard worker drone has a pair of headlamps on their heads.
To move around the Rhetas use their serpentine body, however to move quickly to pounce on something or move quickly across a flat area the Rhetas have a pair of thrusters in their waist and a smaller pair on their backs. To fuel the thrusters the Rhetas have several bladders which store fuel and an oxidizer, which is used in low oxygen environments where the intakes are unable to deliver air to the thrusters. To aid in movement the Rhetas have multiple pairs of arms, with standard individuals and “factory” only having 4 arms, while specialized workers can have 6 arms.
While all individuals have reproductive organs, to reproduce the Rhetas are limited to a single individual in a group to reproduce thanks to the rest having underdeveloped organs and requiring the reproductive individuals to consume a large quantity of both biological and inorganic material. When sufficiently fed they are able to produce up to 20 offspring which are live-birthed and handed off to several caretaker individuals who care for them while the “factory” individual begins preparation for the next group of offspring.
Unlike other eusocial species, the Rhetas are able to modify themselves to different roles if the need arises, often growing an entirely new pair of arms or losing them, and changing the size of their waist thrusters. To make any changes however takes a considerable time, such as with growing a pair of arms an individual has to consume enough material to modify their skeletal structure as well as create the new limbs which can take several weeks to do. To change their thrusters the previous pair have to be completely reabsorbed into their body and broken down for their material and like growing a new pair of arms resources have to be consumed to help fuel the creation of the new thrusters. By the 2200's however the Rhetas developed a quicker method to modify themselves with systems that can be plugged in or exchanged like entire tail units. A simpler modification they can do to themselves is changing the color of their external shell, which is often done to differentiate different groups of Rhetas.
The Rhetas are able to consume most organic and inorganic material, and have extremely powerful jaws in order to crush up rocks and metals to easier swallow. Their digestive system works on a similar multi stage system to other organics but necessary metallic and other inorganic substances undergo significant mechanical processing after being sorted out for use throughout the body Rhetas are able to safely consume hydrocarbons, which are similarly broken down and turned into fuel for their thrusters, or stored as fuel directly
Using their wireless communication systems and an extendable antenna on their backs, Rhetas are able to communicate with each other over larger distances and communicate with each other in places they are unable to breath due to lack of breathable air, however to communicate very long distances they require larger relay stations to boost their communication signals. In the event a group's “factory” is unable to reproduce, whether by age or death, they send a signal out to nearby members of their group to allow an individual to replace them and develop their reproductive organs. In some modern nations of theirs with an over abundance of resources however individuals are allowed to develop their reproductive organs if they want to.
History
The Rhetas were created through a program by the Estav to populate Local Space with species under their direct influence due to inconveniences in crossing the Great FTL Barrier. In particular the Rhetas were created by a group of Estav who were attempting to create a race of techno-organic cyborgs to populate hazardous worlds and stellar bodies, using an isolated system to seed a moon which unusually had its own ecosystem under its rocky surface, introducing simpler techno-organic organisms to the ecosystem before deploying the Rhetas. Before they could be deployed however, the Estav disappeared without a trace leaving the Rhetas in suspended animation until the 1500s when the tiny handful were finally let out into the network of caves and tunnels. While rather primitive still, the Rhetas were able to very quickly mentally and technologically develop, expanding their presence through most of the tunnels and settling the surface of their moon thanks in part to the leftover surface elevator left by their creators, and in the mid 2100s were able to conduct the relatively easy task of reaching space from the surface of their small home moon and started colonisation of the rest of the moon system. By 2290 the Rhetas had expanded to a significant portion of their solar system, however they were soon met by a small Pelvfastero Collective fleet who were under the impression that they would be an easy target to take over, and while the fleet was able to take over several small celestial bodies and remove entire population groups into captivity, the small fleet was ultimately repelled as the Rhetas were now completely united against a common foe and turned their fleets against them. Unfortunately however they were unable to rescue the Rhetas that were captured and after a year had passed the groups of Rhetas that were kidnapped by the Pelvfastero Collective were scattered about across its worlds, and with the collapse of the Pelvfastero Collective most of the groups ended up in the hands of the Urvalet and one ended up with the SSA, who both initially mistook them for Macalo due to their similarities, as well as poorly conducted census documentation from the Collective listing them as such. While the groups were moved to safer places away from the larger former Collective population a search for information about where they had come from began, with the SSA and Urvalet assisting each other in the manner. Despite this however, it appeared that there were very few surviving records on where the Rhetas had come from due to many records from the Collective military having been destroyed and disappearing. While the two searched the Rhetas back in their home system had finished picking apart the Collective ships they had destroyed and were in the process of developing a faster than light drive.
After 20 years passed they successfully produced their own FTL drive and began to explore nearby star systems and slowly began to settle them over the next 15 years before eventually encountering a system with an Urvalet military space station, which caused the Rhetas to become very wary and retreat to the edge of the system. Their arrival however did not go unnoticed as the Urvalet detected their arrival and began an attempt to communicate with the unknown vessels, sending a pair of ships to investigate. This however prompted the Rhetas to begin shooting at the Urvalet ships as they came closer, forcing the Urvalet ships to take evasive actions and return fire to disable the ships. After disabling the ships the Urvalet continued trying to make contact with the ships, and eventually the Rhetas ships submitted to the Urvalet and started to communicate with them, allowing them to be towed back to the space station while they translated each other's languages. Eventually the Urvalet learned that the Rhetas were attacked several decades ago by a group of aliens, and had assumed that the Urvalet were part of them, but the Urvalet assured them that they were responsible for dismantling the Pelvfastero Collective. With the situation cleared up, the Rhetas were notified that they had found several groups of Rhetas in the territory they had acquired after dismantling the Collective who had stated they had been kidnapped from their home system. After telling the kidnapped groups their home system had been located, they were eager to return home and after the SSA, now the IOA, was notified of the development the vast majority of individuals in their group left for their home system, however a small number of individuals stayed behind.
if you wanna see more of my art that I dont post here you can check out my discord server here: https://discord.gg/E8DZqP8JbY
Category All / All
Species Snake / Serpent
Size 1585 x 1192px
File Size 204.7 kB
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