Rhatai

Rhatai (Ratâ in Felinese) are the most common type of soldiers and enforcers on the planet Firrhna and its colony worlds, distinguished by the way they suit up.

History

Rhatai are a developmental offshoot of the ancient surutha, the "false-clothed killers". These were ninja-like bands of four to five people, known to infiltrate their target's location in disguise, thereby get close enough for the kill, and get back out again without being recognized. This more often than not involved one or more change of outfits, so some team members would cause a distraction while the others changed their outfits. Eventually, a way was developed to quickly change outfits via a back-mounted mechanism, but this still required the user to get out of sight for a believable amount of time and only worked on cloth. Any form of armor would have to be worn underneath the cloth disguises.

When the felin started receiving old Earth TV broadcasts from the 70s, obvious parallels were seen between the surutha quick-change devices and shows featuring superheroes with transformation sequences, but though some research effort was given, the devices couldn't work with anything sturdy enough to function as armor.

One day though, a young scientist who was known for regularly being bullied had quite enough of that and invented themself a Ride Driver out of pure spite and a thirst for payback.

Subdivisions

Though all members of a rhatai carry transformation belts inspired by Kamen Rider, not all of them look like Kamen Riders. In general, rhatai can be grouped as following:

• Rangers (rhatae, Ratæ): Generally helmeted with clear armored sections all over the body. Generally work in teams with similar outfits, each member in their own color. Directed by their local council and through them the whole chain of command up to entities like FELCOM. As a team, they actually form task forces, which are what is generally meant by the word rhatai. Most of the force fighting off the Desecrator were rangers.
• Riders (reni, reni): Also helmeted, but less obviously armored. Riders generally don't work in teams. If they do they may or may not have common outfit elements. Riders are not officially part of the chain of command but will generally take orders. What weren't rangers fighting the Desecrator were mostly riders joining in.
• Guardians (vrhastfhra, vRastFra): Generally have no head covering and only what seems to be light armor. Guardians often work in teams with similar outfits. They tend to look fancier than riders and generally stick to one specific place and/or task, to guard something or someone, usually the Crystal Heart . Despite the apparent relative lack of armor, guardians are not to be underestimated in battle.

Law enforcement personnel generally consists of rangers in a single, subdued color. Ride Driver technology is also used to quickly suit up into a khundam (Kundam) extra-vehicular space suit.