Nation

A race of sentient, bipedal, humanoid beings. Their society is an isolationist, industrial-militaristic state of currently unknown size, estimated to be roughly on par with the Felin society.

Biology and Sociology

While the felin does not know a lot, from samples and corpses found that they are pale, somewhat weaker than the felin, with many organs showing signs of surgical modifications. All reproductive organs are removed. From scientific inquiries, the felin learnt that their biology is simplified due to "purpose-breeding systems". According to spywork, their reproduction is done in factories, a baby-making machine putting their newborn on conveyor belts.

Civility

While they are unwilling to cooperate with the felin, they are shown to be civil with proper diplomatic routes.

Technology

Space travel and energy production

Their hyperspace deployment is reliant on hypergates, a machine that moves the entire ship from one part of space to the other in an instant, at the cost of vast amounts of energy. Current MKI tests show this is an atom-by-atom displacement with 99% success rate. Their main energy production is atomic, with the spent rods being dropped on massive nuclear waste dumps on mined worlds. Fossil fuels are still utilised within the Nation where atomics are too cumbersome.

Military

Forward troops: Shi’thiel below regular army command. Means “dropped bomb”, alternate names: auxiliaries, loose cannon, flesh shell. Anyone who lacks higher cognitive function and refuses to be indoctrinated, shows excessive violence or pacifism, or even individual thought without accepted parameters is placed in such groups. They are ordered using bayonet runners, suicidal attacks, flamethrowers and machine guns, scorching whatever they find.

The army and air force: Ker’girra Massive standing armies with individuality reduced to minimum. Most are broken emotionally, behaving mostly on orders. Some barely function beyond this and are literally stored in pods until ready for deployment. Utterly pragmatic, trained to use anything as a weapon. No power armour, just improved tactical sense and nanofilament uniforms.

Ruling units: High Command. Haddre Girra Dangerously clever logisticians, strategists and politicians, ranging from High Major to High General.

Spaceships

Fighter - usually one ship with a brain loaded in, giving a faster reaction time than usual ships. Torpedo bomber - bigger military ships meant to be sent in waves. Stratobomber - planetary strategic bomber. Some are big enough to use a small hyperspace gate for the bombing bay, dropping a near infinite amount of ordinance. Dropship - ranging from soldier and tank deployers to being capable of landing water-based warships, including massive carriers. Flakship - ship meant to punch hulls and deliver a nuclear payload. Galleon - regular military ship for moving armies and defeat spaceships. Carrier - using a rotation based artificial gravity, these behemoths have three carrierlines built in a hexagonal base shape, each portion functioning in tandem. Dreadnought - top of the line military ships, pretty much a moving military complex with no known weak point. It is also slow but only requires vector changing if there are smaller satellites (e.g. the moons of Jupiter) in the way. Capital ship - a de facto military complex, meant to carry and deploy three galleons. Nigh-invulnerable, unless someone flings a moon at it. Comes with an internal hypergate. Most losses happen via crashing into a planet and becoming a permanent part of the landscape.

Culture

Not much is known, and what is known is from public broadcasts intercepted by felin relayers. It seems the only decypherable culture going on are public announcements, militaristic music and orders.

Intercepted propaganda

“The individual is weak and petty, nothing, barely even a blip. An individual never achieves anything alone, as their resources and possibilities are too few and narrow.” “Unity is our strength. We all are part of the nation machine, just as important as a gun - some of us are bullets, springs, loaders, triggers - we are specialised and in our duties, we work as one, united machine. This machine will wrangle and tear apart the individual, but make the unit stronger and more powerful, and even eternal.” “Individualism is forbidden under the order of the High Command. We are our duties, parts of the nation machine. Individualism makes following orders hard, as the individual questions itself more than following the orders. The individual is a broken part of a machine, and broken parts are forbidden, therefore, individualism is forbidden.” “We are all equal in our bodies. If our parts are weak, we strengthen them. If our bodies break down, we replace the broken parts. Everything that is broken will be broken down. Everything, down to the atom, will be polished until it is eternal and productive. Even the very flesh is to be polished.” “Our nation, our society, needs our duties to be done to the maximum of our capacities. Every part does their work, and thus, the nation machine will work for a better future. Remember - we are all parts of this machine. We shall all be doing our duties.” “Our army is the bayonet, the machine gun, the cannon on our nation machine. Our industry is the engine. Our blood is the oil, the lubricant, the uranium. Our duties are the fission. Our civilians are the pistons. Our unity is the hull. Our generals are the controls. Our High Command is the engineer.” “Soldiers of the Shi’tiel - you are the bullets in the gun of the High Command. You are the shells in the cannon of the army. The bayonet of progress and glory. You are our munitions, and we know what happens to munitions that fail to work properly.” “Every unit of functioning wombs and sperm production must report at the medical centers. Think of our nation, and give these needless parts up - they just stand in the way of action and progress. You will have better organs in their place. Civilians will receive a compensatory rights increase.” “What is the individual for the society? What is the atom for the stars?” “Civilians - your rights are the reward for your work well done. You will receive increased rights if the work is above our expectations.” “The High Command reminds everyone that the enemy may be among us. Any suspicious activities are to be reported immediately. If someone is moving wrong, shows an unusual interest in trivia or have questions regarding stamped orders, report immediately to the nearest Ker’girra soldiers.” “The atomic ashes strengthened us. We are now stronger that our ancestors ever were. Let this be in your thoughts, and thus, increase your productivity, knowing that our nation machine will grow stronger by it.”

Societal ranks

A closed community functioning with barely a way out, unless required. Every payment is considered in a specific credit that can only be cashed in at specific shops; right increases work as the main incentive. Rank I civilians have right to live, work and enjoy basic private properties. Rank II allowed to spend free time. Main bulk of society. Rank III allowed to be on leadership positions. Rank IIII allowed to be considered on par with the generals, and as such increased foodstocks and amenities are supported. Citizens committing crimes are trialed and reduced to Rank 0 units, whom are barely better than slaves. Second offense means forced conscription into shi'thiel deathsquads. These jobs are usually automated, so these units are essentially spending their time in a room making barely functional menial labour, for instance taking apart trash with their bare hands.

History

As recorded by Ili Akelen, a felin archeologist and sociologist, who gives no damns any more

Their homeworld is a massive pile of rubble and ashes with the occasional bunker entrance and rocket silos, not unlike a moon, except this moon got an atmosphere of oxygen, nitrogen, various poison gases and ashes. We know this by their own broadcasts.

These fuckers had been growing up on this all-forsaken land, guess started with caves and such, and then found out they can kill each other good with sticks and stones. They have a fast reproduction rate naturally, so I guess it was in the ancient past as well, so they go around, mating, killing each other, until it grows into a war between their tribes, tribes become nations, yadda yadda. They probably got to rifled guns before us felin did, because why they would have not, but forgot the idea of COMMERCE and failed to develop basic stuff like plush, rubber and even silk. Talk about crippling overspecialisation.

Anyway, their local recorded 5000and a bit years is essentially a big log on wars against forgotten nationstates, until they reached 4538 in their calendar, starting from the idea of writing; they called this conflict Great War. It apparently involved grusod-charges, machine guns, tanks, mustard gas and the earliest atom splitter bombs (rather small, portable nukes), but it not mentions any kind of trains or lasers or even bicycle sheds. So, this devastated a massive swath of their planet, the survivors came together, looked around, and said "yeah, that was cool, let's do it again!" In about two years of missing records (or peace), they were at it again, smaller wars until 4611, the so-called War of Attrition. It lasted until 4831, and reportedly was "decided by atom splitters, leaving only ten nation standing". In 4831, yes, same year, they started and ended the First Atomic War. Take one guess why.

So, now their entire species lives in bunkers by this, and were planning on starting to nuke the others from space. One nation got a spaceship out and built on the moon, while the others were irregularly bombing the other side. This caused four nations to band together and nuke the moonbase, then during the celebratory rounds, two nuked the other two, leaving them to dance around the irradiated ashes before one nuked the other. Or something like that, details got hazy. I mean, you try and rebuild ancient history from "48211955-won37472-lost3955672-needmorebombs" and other documents.

So, these fuckers got their planet and started expanding via spaceships until some race lasered their first ship apart. Their solution was to strap engines on an asteroid base, fill it with nukes and autocannons and drive straight towards their enemy ship's last location, ram it, marching across, killing everyone on board and looting the tech, then going until they found their homeworld and nuking that too. Then they realised that the universe is really, massively, horrifically huge, and they can not get enough engines and asteroids and whatnot, so they started something called Operation Mincemeat. Lovely name, isn't it? Not knowing a lot about it, I'm happy we could get these parts. So, yes, they go on with new warships and such, colonize, expand, stripmine worlds and all that. Some time they met a species which was so primitive someone grew a heart and declared it a protectorate - only to conscript them and bolster their ranks further. They started to incorporate some other species then and some other stuff, and before you knew it, they are a massive military power with a dozen or so colonies and a lot more protectorates. So they start incorporating more tech from them and twist it until the genetic healing becomes gene manipulation, big spaceships become massive behemoths that are like a floating colony and they start imposing these on their protectorates I guess, because only two revolts are recorded and each seem to have failed, unless one won and their new government is as awful as the old one.

Anyways, sidetrack: once saw a weird tale from a species in their protectorates or what they call it, which tells on how these dudes once dug too deep and summoned some ancient warrior god or something, then these shi'thiel soldiers get one, so the High Command sends in a High Colonel or something. The warrior demon goes into his head, and nobody is sure what happens, because these fuckers wear gas masks all the time, but soon he declares that this god was a false god, or "a placebo" or whatever, you see, and then he goes on his business! If it is true, it would mean these jerks can not just stop thinking of war and death and they REVEL in it! It is like if some ancient sex demon would come to Firrhna and it would go "felas, you have too much sex, stop it!"!

So, yes, these guys and their protectorates are living in this isolationist yet expanding hellhole in a way that seems like one step away from total social suicide, yet it functions. Guess there is something inside what I got no idea of. My hypothesis, if we can call a guess as that, is that the entire thing we see is just the border guard, and somewhere they got a functioning world where civilians live and can play ball and not be busy running around with bayonets. I don't know. I spent five years on this shit and I'm done.