It was a few Decades before present when a planet, later renamed 'Vilous' once the local's name for it was learned, was found, it consisted of not just one sapient species but many [which I'm not going to burn my brain by describing!]. There was a strange balance of medieval and space-faring levels of technology, like a preference for standard hard armor and melee weaponry without being merely ceremonial, yet there was no lack of technology fitting for a space age, even if they never actually crafted such technology into a way to 'leave' the planet... Alls the better, There had been a great war in the wind when the humans and their space faring companions had discovered it.

Many species existed on this planet, strange little bird things, unusual quadrupedal creatures that seemed to be 'born' a mix of cybernetics and flesh, And Tall fluffy creatures almost as varied as humans in their cultural foci, if more divided. These fluffy ones, later known as 'Sergals', were the key-players in this world, Divided into great southern and Northern Empires that faced little challenge outside of eachother.

The Northern empire, or rather 'tribe' as it consisted of hundreds of smaller tribes dragged under heel by one particularly brutal supreme general who called herself 'Rein', was populated primarily by Sergals who, as with most who grew up in the north, were among the tallest sapient species, had a taste for meat, and a remarkably deep warrior culture that had... problems, with cooperation. That's not to say they were 'all' like the general, most weren't, but followed tradition or family, or sometimes hostages, into a war to subvert their smaller counter-parts. As a pretty thoroughly 'warrior' culture, the better warrior you were and the more accomplishments you had the higher your status, and in contrast those who pursued less aggressive life-styles were beneath the warrior class, while those who were born 'mystics' were even lower, often kept as 'healing slaves' to repair the warriors in battle until they expended themselves.

In contrast, the southern empire was comprised of many species, though again primarily Sergals who were most able to combat their counter-parts, though these were smaller in comparison, more omnivorous, they valued intellectual pursuits equally to physical pursuits as well as mystical, and treasured a strong mind as much as a strong body. It was no wonder really that some Northerners were more than happy to defect to another culture that saw them as more than weapons to throw at an enemy, or worse.

Of course, this is primarily ancient history at this point, the Northern Conquest was halted and the 'empire' status shattered when their General was killed and her closer followers tore eachother apart trying to claim the position... Effectively there was no chance of pulling it all back together fast enough to hold their territory.

To this day there's no known evidence of human intervention in the war... though, it would have been terribly easy to assassinate such a flimsy link in the chain from miles out with the right technology.

Though Vilous remains only 'moderately' safe for extraterestrial species even today, due to fringe elements of the Rein Empire looking to spite their enemies any way they can imagine, The contact with new life was welcomed by the new Vilous Empire, and though they were quite comfortable with keeping to their own world or nearby planets once over-population might become a threat, there were many who jumped at the chance to join these space faring species as they traveled the stars, for all manner of personal reasons...

One of the largest of these groups however, Ironically, Were the warriors... With no 'great' threat on their home-world and apparent 'allies' in the stars there was little for them to do but practice tradition and train the next generation, So many of them sought a life-style that welcomed warriors more readily, Many being soldiers primarily, or hunters... Mercenary or 'private security' work is culturally frowned upon, but not exactly a point of aggression between groups.

Many of those who ventured to the stars with their New allies tended to return and raise their own family's on Vilous... 'many', not all.

Rose was one of the relatively few Sergals to be born and raised in space, predictably to a pair of warriors traveling with a Mercenary band that tended to wander and hunt pirates or take escort jobs through dangerous territory... One might ask, why would they be needed in such missions where it was more likely to destroy the enemy ship than to experience boarding action?

[Note: Most below this is just me trying to scientifically recreate certain supernatural seeming things associated with them, while ensuring their limited to things that aren't 'out-rageous' nor OP, and technically ties in every combat choice with a risk for the warrior >3> If preffered, I can easily scrap this 'mystic' portion and 'un-replace' it's effect with an actual environmental suit XD]


Part of the excitement was the terror one felt while walking literally surrounded by something that could kill them near instantly, which for many was the literal existence of 'nothing' around them. Luckily, Rose's parents were highly accomplished Hull runner's, and had a great deal to teach him as he grew up, training among mercenaries, with his parents, and once he was grown enough to stand a chance, against anyone foolish enough to try boarding whatever Ship he and the others were protecting.

Alas... Rose found himself feeling disenchanted with the life as he passed into adult-hood. That's not to say it wasn't exciting, but he was of a new generation, carrying out relatively similar forms of combat over and over again didn't satisfy him, yet he would not abandon his current life without something he 'knew' was a more fitting alternative...

As it would happen, a chance encounter with a ship of GAHL Hunters on their way to an unexplored world, not as enemies mind you, seeded his mind with all the ideas he'd need to know exactly what he wanted to do... Now, his parents had already spat on 'tradition' enough to join mercenaries rather than a dedicated force of warriors, so they understood his choices well enough when he elected to seek out the GAHL to sign up so that he could explore these new worlds as well... So that he could live a life of facing brand new threats, new environments, new hazards, new 'monsters' that he could face down.

Some warrior's might have griped about the idea of working with a 'team' and 'sharing' their glory, but it just gave him even wilder ideas of what creatures might require a whole 'team' of people to take down.

Micro-jet Propulsion hammer - Most sergal's favor 'sharp' pole-arms, harlberds, spears, pole-axes... While they have their uses, Rose's choice in this strange amalgamation of engine and hammer was born of combating the one true 'fear' he had while Hull-running... Helplessness, specifically during a time when he'd slipped off the hull while younger. Often times a Warrior's greatest fear is never their enemy, but suffering a pitiful death, of which few are worse than floating off into space with no control... hence, a weapon with built in propulsion.

It was actually a gift from the crew he grew up with, His parents and several of the engineer's on the ship built it, and of course he was coached on maintaining it despite being a terrible mechanic.

The design utilizes a micro-fusion engine jurry-rigged to use the charge of loaded pulse-clips, highly common ammunition for obvious reasons, to instigate short-term jump-starts of micro-rocket engines embedded into the rear of the hammer. As one could imagine, this magnifies the velocity of a hammer swing, causing much more devastating effect... As if that wasn't enough though, the cobbled together thing has a bit of an efficiency 'problem', quote unquote, as the poorly matched energy sources create a volatile by-product fluid that gathers behind the head of the hammer while the engines are running, while the prongs on the head of the hammer, when meeting pressure, are pushed into the hammer, causing the collection tubes to eject their load through the opened holes. This may cause it to just splash the target if there is no impact, yet when the hammer strikes directly the impact causes a small localized explosion, further piling onto the hammer's impact force.

Sergals are tall, slim, and flexible, with an increased muscle density when compared to humans, with claws, teeth, powerful jaws, strong tails, and even flexible foot-claws, it makes them terrifying predators in their own right.

That said, this puts them on the heavy side of thing, easily weighing nearly twice as much as humans even when they 'are' the same height, and meaning that surfaces or objects capable of holding said human's weight, might give way under a Sergal. Their bone's also do not benefit from the increased density, though they are adapted to handling the species' mobility without hurting themselves, it's a bit easier to break them.

this aside, their eye-sight is relatively similar to a human's in quality, though more adjustable to dark places, while their scent and hearing are considerably heightened.

Throughout the galaxy there will inevitably be those worlds that defy reality, that bend the rules of nature, and, of course, those that bear only the leftovers of a seemingly abandoned civilization.

A world that was later dubbed 'Vespis Prime' was one such world, something of a wonder once Human probes had passed by it's system, but one they couldn't rush into exploring as there were many worlds on the way, and risky it would be to blindly charge through what may be another species territory that might take them for hostiles... Luckily, this was not the case.

What was so 'special' about Vespis Prime one might ask?

Geo-centricity... Indeed, the sun orbited the planet itself as much as the moon, much in the way that ancient humans once believed was the case around 'their' world, such was a fact with this one. Something, somehow, and at some point long lost to history made it possible for a miniaturized sun and moon to orbit this world, presumably with some method to control it, allowing for finer control of this world's Environmental factors, and even some unfamiliar energy readings being emitted from the planet and strongest between the orbiting bodies... Of course, this left a dozen other more distant planets and planetoids to float relatively lifeless in space at various distances, somehow not reacting to the Sun's gravity, nor whatever force made Vespis geo-centric.

Granted, a few were close enough to have 'some' effect from the distance of the small sun, unlikely to be enough to sustain life, but really who knows? 'avoiding' these dark planets and reaching the marvel at the center was a greater goal.

Orbital scans showed signs of civilization, hamlets, towns, cities, castles, Skyscrapers, wooden huts, a railroad system... It looked like someone had taken a dozen different technological levels out of history and stuck them all on the same planet to see what happened. One had to wonder if this had been some hyper advanced alien species genetic playground at some point in the long distant past... One that must have been abandoned, for there didn't appear to be any signs of sapient species living in these signs of civilization, many of which showed signs of being over-grown unless they were placed in a mountainous area, in which case 'frozen' over.

Of course, this didn't stop anyone from diving headlong into exploring this reality defying world around which the sun and moon still circled inexplicably, even if they could find only a 'hint' of the existence of some type of device that kept them stable and orbiting it would be a scientific break-through beyond even the fabled Dyson spheres... Imagine, controlling a 'sun', reliably, without risking blowing the whole damn system to dust?

They didn't find any sapient species, but they 'did' find all manner of wild-life ranging from disturbing to impossible... Strange chicken-lizards that spat some kind of petrifying venom, Chimeric creatures of a variety of patterns, Giant lizards with too many heads, animals that behaved more intelligently than they should have, without being sapient, though perhaps more disturbing was their similarities to earth's animals... This place 'had' to have been sculpted, the chances of finding a world similar in environmental quality to earth with familiar animals and structures, and a geo-centric orbit that made it look like someone 'made' the planet this way?

Unfortunately, The signs were showing that this world was 'dying', all these terrifying monsters were... only that, terrifying, intimidating, but many seemed weakened, starving, 'easy'. The hunter teams protecting researchers on the planet had no trouble with the vast majority of them, but it wasn't very long before those researchers discerned that the planet seemed to be deteriorating and 'life' in general on it was weakening.

That said, they setup to spend what time they 'could' studying and learning about it, spending nearly a year at work there, recording and tracking the effects that time showed on this world... Oddly, after the first month this deterioration slowed, as if their own presence on the planet had somehow affected it, and along with this there were occasional reports of someone seeing another person in one place, then seeing them in a different place entirely, or finding someone behaving oddly, or 'very' thoroughly examining things they were expected to already know inside and out... Some assumed it was an effect of the planet, perhaps the dwindling energy signatures coming from Vespis were affecting them, the atmosphere slowly thinning perhaps?

It was eventually deemed time to leave, as these events seemed to get frequent enough to hint at an unprepared threat to the researchers and the hunter's guarding them.

Alas, Twas not to be! While they were packing up to return to their transport shuttle that would return to the main research ship in orbit... The ground exploded beneath it, producing A giant worm-thing, large enough to lift the ship off the ground in it's mouth, though it couldn't bite it properly, it's teeth did tear into the metal, for the bare moment before it slammed the shuttle into the ground near the suddenly retreating people.

The explosion was pretty devastating, though really this wasn't anything the Hunter's shouldn't have been ready for, and in-fact it seemed the thing was just as weakened as everything else, even small arms penetrated it's hide just fine, it was just so big that even with no durability to it the thing was hard to take down. Ultimately, the ambush cost a good number of lives, though most of the hunters survived and maybe half of the other staff... maybe, it was difficult to tell considering that many of the combat unprepared civilian's, injured or not, had fled into the nearby forest which was well known to be full of the starving monsters.

A standard extraction turned into a rescue mission in mere minutes, yet another thing that should've been somewhere in the handbook most likely... And yet, despite following the obvious trails, whethere it was blood, scraps of cloth, or obviously disturbed turf, They could only find a few of the civilian's, only those closest to the site... The rest of the trails seemed to just cut off suddenly... They spent several days investigating to try and retrieve those lives that were potentially 'lost' out there.

Inevitably, they were assumed eaten by some other big creature and it was time to cut their losses and return to the ship... Except...

They showed up suddenly, dozens of those who'd not been found just kindof ran out of nowhere as their protectors were getting back on a shuttle, only now they weren't alone... Some strange insectoid creatures accompanied them, some quadrupedal, others bi-pedal, some 'octo-pedal' even, like spiders. It was a worrisome sight to be sure, it 'looked' like a bunch of the monsters were practically holding them hostage, but the stories being shared immediately upon encounter painted a different picture, implying that whatever they were they had saved the one's that ran off into the forest to get eaten... Granted, there were any number of possibilities as to what some innocuous 'truth' might be behind these creatures, but there was something undeniable there.

They were sapient, whatever they were, they had been in hiding while the researchers and hunters wandered their world, why?... They learned quickly enough.

They were afraid, heavily armed creatures from beyond their world showing up, full of aggression, boundless curiosity, displaying habits of attacking other creatures on sight when they looked aggressive or dangerous... They 'had' to know about these creatures before they considered communicating with them.

It turned out they were desperate, starving, deteriorating, part of their horrific appearance was in-fact a direct result of their starvation as their bodies deteriorate without sufficient feeding... That feeding? Emotional energy, though the concept was as alien to their visitors as the creatures appearances, it was relatively easy to explain, if not so easy to research. Other sapient creatures had various natural energy fields around them, animals to a far lesser extent as well, bio-electricity, bio-magnetic, any number of theories exist. Apparently the emotions these other sapient's feel color their natural energy and it tends to leak off around them, and that off-shoot is what these creatures feed on for survival.

They were quick to clarify that this is harmless to them, though they were also 'technically' the reason that other sapient species were no longer present...

again, quick to clarify that it was because they 'left', not that they killed them all... The previous species' that lived there were subjected to an old leader of their's who had attacked them and would not accept that they could be trustworthy and harmless, leading to them being starved out or poisoned until they 'had' to resort to desperate measures to survive, and ultimately when they were winning the other's simply 'left' to spite them... or so they assumed, they never actually 'saw' them leave, they just knew that they vanished one day, no corpses, no 'ships from the sky', no mysterious portals, every other sapient species was just 'gone', and they had survived this long by draining the animals as much as they could without 'breaking' them, hence their weakness.

Who could know if it was the truth? What if this was just a twisted race of monsters trapped on a dying world after committing genocide and now trying to escape the consequences? Then again, what if the story was true, and they really were just a starving species that had been left behind because they seemed monstrous in appearance?

Whether it was a sob story, a tricky lie, or whatever, These people were more used to encountering strange and questionable species, and they 'had' returned their lost researchers, even fixed them up in the process... If nothing else they deserved a chance.

It seemed also that they could be used to 'save' this dying world as well, it hadn't taken long to connect the presence of a new source of feeding with the reduction in the energy loss around Vespis... It seemed that as a native species they were directly connected to 'feeding the planet that sustains them', so to speak, something about storing their sustenance and energy en masse deep under-ground where they build their hives, implying that simply 'more people' will quite literally save the planet... supposedly.

Fast forward roughly a decade and this was proven to be the case, 'something' deep inside of Vespid was operating off of some kind of bioelectric energy that the 'Vespids' put out when sufficiently fed, it seemed as it they were directly linked to the function that powered this planet and it's geo-centricity, though 'finding' the source of this effect, nevermind 'studying' it, was extremely slow going, as nobody wanted to risk damaging it... that didn't stop a number of Vespids from heading for the stars to learn about other species, perhaps find ways to 'collect and ship' some of that needed energy back home.

This was a considerably more acceptable direction to go as the species stabilized in the face of healthy feeding and began to appear more 'complete' rather than nearly zombie-like deterioration... Granted, they still looked like freaky bug monsters, just with a lot less holes, exposed flesh, or drooling hunger in their eyes, and the fact that they could shape shift to blend in worked wonders for making that an easier transition.

Click's history is a relatively short one by most standards, His 'child-hood' comprised of a couple of years of accelerated growth and rapid teachings through the hive-mind, which was comprised of a great volume of information, a vast ammount of which is kindof just 'there' in his head waiting for him to wonder about a certain subject.. Far from a complete knowledge, and colored by the interpretations of a species that was new to interaction with the variety of space faring races... By human standards it a terribly short near non-existent child-hood, but by vespid standards it was just another neccesary modification of one generation's development to prepare them for the next challenge ahead.

His challenge was meant ot be a grand one at that, as a member of the new generation of 'Void-borne Royal Scouts' his future tasks were sure to be immense, and he, like the rest of his generation of Vespids, had to be specially prepared to face it.

'As' a Void-borne Royal Scout, he was expected to traveerse 'the void', meaning space, where these other creatures all lived, learn about them in depth, as well as the creatures that existed on countless other worlds, and broadcast information and experiences back to the hive. It was kind of like an infiltrator's job, except a scout wasn't supposed to be subverting their targets or 'taking' from them, but gathering information.. Of course, they had to be prepared for a greater number of threats than were present in their past, and thus expected to be capable in a fight.

Naturally, they also had to be attractive for others to want to have around as well, though this didn't exactly mean aesthetically so much as practically. Every scout recieved in-depth training in a number of basic fields, those required for a Vespid's survival of course, and a thorough screening for individual skills... These other races seemed to value individuals especially high, so this generation would be the most self sufficient of the Hive's offspring to date, and by extension this meant that each one would be wholely unique, with preferences both natural and psychological for certain skill sets.

Click turned out to be both a ravenous engineer and a deeply fascinated 'gun-nut'. He showed a love of all things mechanical in nature, a near obsession with taking things apart to learn how they worked, and of course put them back together, preferably better than before. combine this with his intense fascinating with the 'weaponry' that other races have devised, and you've got a nasty recipe for some wild cobbled together master pieces... or... accidents waiting to happen, it's a 50/50...

About Five more years was spent filling his head with additional information, gaining experiences and training, and of course cultivating his specialization until they percieved he could attract any number of party's with an interest in his skills... At least, by 'their' reckoning, though by this point he technically qualified as something of a young savant, rather than a literal expert in engineering...

Still, after spending a year out amongst the stars with the other races his unique 'natural' abilities, along with his varied skills, caught the eye of a certain extremely popular and profitable hunting organization that thought to nap those skills for one of their crews... Having low maintenance considerably skilled labor along could always be a benefit... His generalized combat training would certainly be a bonus, every member that wasn't helpless in a fight was another bonus on a hunting trip.

Granted, one wishes to make a good first impression, so it's only polite to blend in and befriend someone before revealing that your a freaky bug monster under the disguise... right?... wait, what do you mean that's not how it works?

Click's human disguise, is exactly that, human. Granted, it's a bit stronger than an average human, compared to skilled hunter's it might not amount to all that much. It does however maintain much of his intangible senses, fangs, tongue, freaky eyes, wall crawling, it's all too obvious he's 'not' human, while trying to be more appealing to humans... A point he's not shy about sharing either, afterall, he doesn't want to seem like he's 'infiltrating' or anything!

Vespids are a strange emotivorous species, though also have omnivorous needs to mix with this, using the energy gathered through this unique feeding to keep themselves alive, fuel seemingly impossible biological modifications, and to fuel the basic telekinesis they all have, which was explained as a relatively common feature of species from Vespis.

This telekeinesis is rather limited however, generally with a range of barely arms reach, it's used for fine-manipulation of things that their claws can't properly handle.

The shape shifting, though it certainly 'looks' magical, is anything but, as the 'magical fire' that pours out of them while changing something is just the great heat put off by the energy being burned to trigger chemical and biological reactions within their bodies. Thing is, It doesn't change them on too much of a fundamental level, 'creating new mass' is extremely costly, so it's difficult to change into anything heavier than they are, if even possible. 'inside' they are also still the same, an amalgamation of highly malleable flesh that can continue to function while squeezed into a variety of different body shapes, all with an exo-skeleton and muscle layer that tries to keep all of their insides 'inside'. It's important to note the limits of course, expending this energy entirely will kill them, and how much they can afford to do depends on the intake.

Aside from these, there's a variety of simpler features, such as empathic senses, wall/ceiling climbing/clinging, freakishly long tongues, strange bug eyes and fangs, and that such.