'The Chimeras of Triganavia', 'The Children of Aylv', 'The Lost Boys', 'Space Rats'...
Roughly ten years ago, these names surfaced on the news following reports of acclaim regarding the successes of the Triganavia corporation. Their 'new-man' project, this creature that could survive hostile conditions and trauma, all based on the exposure of their pharmaceutical end. Making human clones wasn't enough, it was about the 99.5% accuracy in their treatments. After pushs from military backers to produce something more substantial than a morally questionable ration supplement, strides were taken to enhance and test the intelligence of their specimens to serve on front lines in measures to rival simple artificial intelligence. This challenge was taken farther than expected as the specimens were edged on with no actual goal, mostly to see how far beyond human limitations technology and science could reach without the chains of limitation.
It only took Triganavia three years before their security couldn't keep up with the creations who had learned to 'play dumb' and even 'play defective' after trial and error. What humanity saw as failure, these 'Children of Aylv' knew as exploitation.
A clock ticked over to midnight and the revolution was born. Triganavia was dismantled overnight as two batches of one-hundred with fifty being in formidable condition incited a collective uprising against those who would otherwise use them for cosmetics, medical testing and meat supplements.

In a statement against humanity, after years of piracy after utilizing the escape pods to inhabit and take down other ships with lures of distress signals, the 'Children of Aylv' pried the remains of Triganavia from Mars, adding their birthplace to a hive which they call 'The Abstract'.
This citadel was made from hobbling together a few light-speed capable crafts with shield-integration, it is likely to drift in the Terran neighboring clusters, though its whereabouts are widely unknown. Though clusters of their forces have been eradicated, the unwavering and unpredictable frequency of attacks has left the Committee widely clueless how wide-spread the threat of The Legion and its Children of Aylv reach.
The established fear is in the stolen genetics technology in their possession which they call 'The Nightmare Machine' for its use to create abominations who serve most roles. In these ten years, few actual sightings of the three-hundred or so Aylvs have been made...or the survivors of raids are reluctant to speak of it.

Tormented ramblings whisper of the horrific brutality displayed by Aylvic marauders and their monsters, as well as mention upon hushed lips of some mysterious technology they possess. It has been romanticized as a presence rather than a device, capable of crushing, freezing and effortlessly tearing men women and children asunder with a mere mention of a few shapeless words. The Committee rejects these claims, as rumors of a glorified pirate faction in possession of terrifying, unknown technology is bad for morale.
For numerous reasons, this force the Aylvic Legion supposedly wield is referred to as 'The Mantle'.

Speculation surrounds the appearance of Aylvs, since experiments in their creation lead to a slurry of genetic combinations. The 'Primes' are the most stable and therefore hold more prominent roles in their society. Primes appear as small humans ranging between four to five feet tall with rabbit-like ears and tail, vertically slit pupils and pronounced top and bottom canines.

Curiously, Aylvs were designed to be genderless. As such, they do not have exclusively 'he' or 'she' distinctions even in physical appearance, but rather varying levels of gray somewhere in between.

It is unclear how long 'Wild' Aylvs live for, how reproductions works or if they established a 'home' planet. Their culture, religion and hierarchy is also widely unknown. Captive Aylvs tend to die from cardio-myopathy relating to stress and tirelessly resist interrogation. Information regarding them is difficult to glean, as the Legion is more likely to shoot someone than answer a single question, and those with answers are in unreliable states of mind.

Androgynous, Kaite stands at a physically unimposing 4.5ft (5.1 counting ears). A small black tattoo of T4-073 is printed into the left side of his neck which his hair mostly covers. His hair is sheen with what seems like white but fades to a silvery blonde-ish pink as the hair length continues; the follicles holding a mild bioluminescence. It holds a slight wave to it and is usually worn about 6-7 wavy inches long, covering an eye. From that protrudes long bunny ears with similarly colored fur, though the short hair is mainly white with a slight hue of the blondish pink around the edges. The bushy fluff of his tail shares these qualities, mostly white bottom with color striping the top. Heterochromatic eyes, with a similar glow as his hair, leave the left amber and the right a brilliant sapphire, though this is obscured by an eyepatch which they alternate between eyes. This eyepatch relays sensor diagnostics and trajectory, flourishing in the waves of aim assists granted by simple objective input. This input is fed through Kaite's eyepatch from, the ship...though he simply looks on with the HUD listing irrelevant information.
Kaite's taste in clothes is a tad eccentric and often accentuate his lithe figure. (example with mid-thigh stockings and knee-high boots)

On paper, '073' has a violent streak of disproportionate tendencies where they could come off confrontational and hostile. In all actuality, 073 is conditioned to be fairly timid and polite, if anything. With little social experience to base interactions on, 073 tries to compose themselves to in order to accommodate their disposition. For the sake of convenience, 'Kaite' identifies as male...though arguably behaves otherwise.
He is caring and determined, though distant and vicious if there should be an upset in his goals. These goals are usually to coincide with orders, though his building individuality blurs these lines.
Limitations to cells or testing chambers has dulled his perspective of reality, and the world outside of the walls fascinates him to no end.
In spite of their otherwise composed and even innocent demeanor, Kaite is a fear-biter and won't hesitate to defend himself and any others he deems worth it. Fickle as his temperament can be, he seeks direction and a frightened animal is best had on your side than left to roam free. Kaite does what hes told, often to the letter. Skittish around robots.

His is compassion and caring is presented objectively...almost to the point of it seeming disingenuous at times, which it may very well be. Regardless, he still gives his attempts at seeming genuine all of his effort, and it's quite convincing at times.
Much of 'His' disposition is disgustingly skewed and based off racial disposition, especially directed towards humanity. This is mostly in response to reactions regarding his appearance, having no knowledge of his star-borne brethren. After an altercation last time the Monroe stopped at the spire, Kaite is required to be in disguise when he leaves the ship...and he doesn't easily forget events or drop grudges.
Kaite does not see himself being on good terms with other races, and the actions of others validated the concept of 'disliking someone for no reason' in his mind.

Without the common grounds of his free brethren, Kaite has faded into an estranged religion invented by the Aylv.
'Distant Fish' is the name which they have given what they had supposedly seen within emotional turmoil and time spent staring into the one-way windows of their enclosures. Strangely, this behavior is shared throughout his kind, even years after the founders of the faith faded into obscurity...and without outside influence or contact.

The NR-13 is a civilian version of the NR-11. Although inferior to its military counterpart in every regard, it is still used by law enforcement due to its simplicity.
Caliber: 10x30mm
Magazine capacity: 15
Weight: 4 kg
Muzzle velocity: 1200 m/s

Military-grade armor Carthus requisitioned shortly before he quit the force and smuggled out in smaller pieces. Although he didn’t get the exosuit that normally comes with it, it is still a fully sealed combat suit. He also had his modified with flight assistance software, turning it into a flight suit for his fighter.

The Marauder is a lightly armored fighter, capable of atmospheric flight, intended for interception and long-range patrols. The internal cockpit, which also doubles as a punchout capsule, can sustain the pilot for 48 hours. This can be refilled in-flight if a suitable atmosphere is present. Although the Narix don’t allow individuals ownership of ships capable of spaceflight, crime and black market are ever present, and the only way for a Narix to gain such a ship, even military fighters.
Primary hardpoints: 4 (pivot 50°/-10° vertical, 80° outward, 35° inward)
Missile capacity: 20 (two internal missile banks, 10 each)
Crew: 1 (pilot)
Length: 19 m

Ruling body

Official name: Exiles of Faira
Common name: Faira - Whether referring to male or female or singular or plural.

Government: Military society
Faira government is the way it is out of need. With their dangerously low population and no planet to call home, military way of life is the only way that can keep their species alive. That allowed for a sort of socialistic governing and eliminating the concept of money from their economy which made them much more flexible in rebuilding after their Exodus.

Home system:
Faira nebula (Current) - A hostile gas cloud that is full of radiation and storms that generate strong EM pulses. The Faira ships can only survive here because of their state of the art shielding systems. In return, they are nearly perfectly hidden within the nebula, as it interferes with most sensors and even the visibility is very low. A remnant of a supernova, the nebula is rich in gasses, but the only source of ores are the remnants of one planet shattered into a tenuous asteroid belt. In the middle is a neutron star - the source of the deadly radiation.

Faira (Formerly) - The Faira star was a red giant that was at the end of its life by the time the Faira species reached into space. Evolving in this system gives the Faira high resistance to heat and their sense of sight is most sensitive to the red part of the spectrum. The Faira can see the part of the infrared spectrum as well, essentially granting them heat vision.

Inhabited planet(s):
Faira’Erea (Formerly) - The planet was the closest one to the star by the time Faira evolved. The planet’s life was based on organic silicon, and the Faira are no different, while the crust was also rich in iridium, iron and carbon. Copper and aluminum were practically nonexistent. Faira’Erea’s gravity was about 0,8 of Earth’s and the planet had no day/night cycle or satellites. The atmosphere was composed mostly of oxygen and nitrogen, and the planet had no hydrosphere.

Space nomads (Current) - The Faira now live on spaceships, searching for a planet that would accommodate them. The trouble is that the Faira evolved on a relatively rare planet under even less likely circumstances. It is likely they will forever be condemned to living in space, but they are adaptable people.

Philosophy: Authoritatian, Militarist

Civilian assets:
Faira’Dea - A giant lifeboat featuring rotating segments to provide gravity to the large ship efficiently. Houses 90% of the remaining Faira. Spanning 25 kilometers from bow to stern, this is one of the largest ships constructed, dwarfing even the relic ship found on Faira’Erea..

Faira’Tris - Garden ship that provides the Faira with food. About 5 kilometers long, it still dwarfs most military ships in existence. Over half of it is just storage for the processed food, with the production occupying only about 20% of the ship’s internal volume.

Faira’Karte - A mobile shipyard of the Faira and their only way of manufacturing ships. It’s size of three kilometers limits the size of ships the Faira can build. Faira’Karte features one capital 2km berth, two 500m berths and four 200m berths. It has two strikecraft production modules and sizeable docking array.

Faira’Capra - A resource processing and storage ship. It can house and carry the whole Faira mining fleet.

Faira’Hexus - Colony ship that is a jack of all trades. It has large crew capacity, self sustaining food production, strikecraft factory, hangar, resource processing plant and cargo bay and advanced sensors. It is literally built around a prototype FTL drive that allows a single Faira to jump the entire ship. It is the only Faira civilian ship that is armed, but only with point defense weapons.

Species

Name: Faira
Population and growth:
Total population reaches 1 000 000 - The maximum capacity of Faira’Dea. The terminally ill and disabled are often euthanized to make space for new children. While this may be cruel, the concerned Faira have a high sense of species unity and go along with this willingly. The population increase is 0% due to birth control laws and aforementioned practices. It is worth noting that only about 10% of Faira are born male.

Morphology:
Faira are humanoid in shape. Their hands have a set of three fingers and an opposable thumb, while their feet are toeless. Their skin is universally silver, but they have natural pigmentation patterns on it that vary in shape and colors. Their faces spot a rather flat nose with two slit shaped nostrils, mouth with metal looking, sharp teeth and trapezoid lidless eyes. Their forehead is lower than that of humans and turns into tendril like antennae that cover the whole of Faira head. Those are the only sign of sexual dimorphism of the species, as male are not longer than few centimeters and rather sturdy, while female can reach below shoulders and are extremely sensitive. Their bodily build is rather lanky with height span from 170 to 210 centimeters, and they lack physical strength due to evolving in 0,75G gravity. Their movement is very precise and quick though.

Anatomy:
Faira skeleton is very durable due to actually having metal iridium deposits within, making them an organic composite and allowing them to somewhat withstand higher gravity than their homeworld’s. Same can not be said for the rest of them though, as the silicon based tissues are more fragile than carbon or sulphur based life. A punch from a human will cause a painful injury to a Faira, possibly even causing lacerations. The species makes up for this with very sharp senses and high intelligence. Faira eyes are capable of seeing wider spectrum than human eye, mostly into the infrared wavelengths. Their touch is centered mainly to their fingers and palms. The rest of the senses are concentrated on their antennae, which are actually organic sensors. This causes Faira males to be unable to smell most things and renders them nearly deaf. The female antennae on the other hand are extremely sensitive to touch, sound and chemical composition of the surrounding area, to the point of incapacitating them with sensory overload on certain occasions.

Faira reproduction is mostly facilitated by the female. The hereditary information of the species is kept as an electrical wave function rather than chemical compound, with randomization caused by interference between the female and male signal. The fetus develops in the female’s abdominal birthing pouch for roughly twenty months. Faira have very short childhoods, fully grown at the age of 10.

Due to their rare biology, Faira are nigh immune to all biological diseases, but their wounds take awfully long time to heal. They possess a heightened resistance to heat and radiation extremes in general, to a point of being able to survive on a planet orbiting a red giant, or recover form vacuum exposure far longer than a human would.

Faira don't need to eat to sustain their life, but merely to get material into their system for growth, and healing. They gather energy from red light through special cells in their skin in a process similar to a solar power plant. As such, Faira have, in theory, unlimited life span, but most of those lives end earlier due to fatal injuries.

Mind-space

The Faira are sensitive to what they call Mind-space. It is a phenomenon they cannot well explain themselves, as it comes to them naturally, like moving a limb. They are uncertain to whether the existence of Mind-space is a result, the cause, or independent on their species. Other species might designate Faira as telepaths, but the definition is not exact. The Faira are able to cause events with thought alone, such as communicate with others, operate their technology or even lift entire ships into mind-space for faster than light travel, but even if other species were sensitive to Mind-space, communicating through it with the Faira would be nigh impossible, because the thoughts would feel alien in a manner similar to hearing an unknown language.

Mind-space is the basis of their technology, which is a good security feature, as to any species without Mind-space sensitivity, Faira technology would be as useful as a piece of rock. Even if you are sensitive to Mind-space, you will have to spend considerable time with heuristic decoding (Read: Trial and error) to figure out how to operate the systems if a Faira did not train you.

Using Mind-space allows the Faira to perform some spectacular feats not generally possible with common technology, such as projecting shields to protect their ships and moving them faster than light without the need for any dedicated drive. However, such feats require the cooperation and cognitive ability of more than one individual unless they are further assisted by additional technology. This means that the average Faira ship will have more crew than necessary to operate them, potentially putting more lives at risk and also causing some logistical issues.

There are several specializations a Faira can pursue regarding their usage of Mind-space. The most common are the Psychokinetics, who specialize in projecting force fields, performing FTL travel and constructing things from raw material. The less numerous are the Oracles, whose minds have limited precognition, allowing them to see possible impacts of an action with greater ease. Finally, there are the Inventors, who focus on experimenting with Mind-Space and pushing the boundaries of their knowledge.

Very rarely a Faira will reach a point of mastery in all three areas. Such Faira, called an Ascendant, can use the Mindspace to augment their own abilities, essentially creating a Mind-space feedback loop. One such Faira is able to operate a destroyer-class ship without any aid or stand up to a battalion of soldiers and come out victorious. This condition is however very rare and takes centuries or even millennia to awaken.

History

The Faira believe to have evolved on the planet they call Faira’Erea during it’s sun’s last phase of life. As such the life form evolved to a very specific set of conditions. Due to their rather extreme intelligence, they were able to study their star quite early in their technological development. Realizing the threat, they pooled all of their resources in a last ditch effort to escape their untimely destruction.

It was in the nick of time that they discovered an ancient wreck on their planet - a relic ship left there by a civilization long extinct. Through examining the relic, they managed to learn about the life outside of their system and reverse engineer some technologies that would prepare them for what they might meet out there, most importantly weapons - a concept alien to them thus far, as the Faira were always a unified people.

Seeing the evidence they might not be alone in the universe though, the Faira prepared for the eventuality, and although their escape plan only involved what would come to be known as the civilian fleet, they came up with blueprints for warships and modified their harbor ship accordingly.

Leaving just in the nick of time, the fleet managed to get out of the system just as the star begun to collapse. The initial plan called for the Exodus fleet to find a suitable planet and then evacuate more of the Faira. Instead, they found themselves without supply lines and with no home.

Threatened with extinction, the Faira were forced to take extraordinary measures to ensure their species’ survival. The military took over with the captains of the six ships taking on the roles of the governors. Strict birth control was established and most of the socialistic laws from before the exodus like healthcare for the disabled had to be removed. Under the new circumstances, their economical system simply couldn’t continue. Thus the Faira adapted socialism out of sheer necessity.

They had no choice but to return to their home system, now one of the most hostile places in the universe, as fresh supernova remnants tend to be. After a few rough years, their situation stabilized. Now with sustainable population, the Faira begun developing new technologies and building more ships that would allow them to expand into new systems and hopefully one day find a new home so that they would get the chance to build a civilization.

Culture

The Faira are a matriarchal society. To an outsider, they might even appear monogendered, as with how things are now the males are kept safe within the nebula as pretty much a national treasure. Being busy with their own survival throughout pretty much all of their existence, Faira developed little to no culture. What they have serves mainly for education, such as documentary movies or literature.

They prefer to relax physically in their free time rather than seeking food for the mind. There are facilities on each larger ship that are built to simulate their native environment, which they enjoy deeply as the environment they can maintain on their ships is vastly different, and while habitable, not at all pleasant to them.

Due to their frail nature, no competitive sports ever existed in Faira society, instead replaced by multiple games of skill and wit. The favorite is a simulation game where a player takes the role of a guide and guides a selected civilization on its development.

As far as design goes, Faira are fond of shades of red and metallic grey for colors. Their buildings used to have large flat bases with spires towering form them, something that carried over to their ship designs, which are generally flat slabs with functional parts mounted on them rather than integrated into the design itself. Faira do not wear clothing in the usual sense - due to their fragile nature, they took up to wearing powered exoskeletons with protective abilities. Only high ranking officers and diplomatic officials wear uniforms.

Technology

Base elements of Faira technology are Silicon, Iridium, Helium and Xenon

With the abundance of Helium in the Faira Nebula, Faira abandoned their original fission reactors in favor of newer fusion ones that had better power/fuel density ratio.

Faira sublight drives eject plazmatised gas, giving their ships very decent pull and acceleration while being rather easy to refuel with ram scoops from nebulae and gas giants.

Mind-space motivators are the first Faira attempt at building an FTL drive. A Faira physically connects its organism with the device through the antennae, essentially expanding their brain. This allows a single Faira to operate even the destroyer class ships, or jump a fleet of smaller ones into FTL. This process is very energy consuming and requires time to set up.

The exiles numbers are too low to allow far many casualties of war. as such, Faira developed highly advanced AIs to pilot their strikecraft and automate most of the duties on the capital ships. The hardware is based on their own physiology, making them essentially organic semiconductor computers.

The Faira use hull-envelope metal-ceramics composite armor: Lacking resources to build heavy armor, Faira never really invested into researching the technology. Their ships have double hulls serving as breach protection and spall lining, with the outer hull being a strong composite. While relatively resistant to kinetic attacks, it has trouble dissipating energy weapons.

The Faira can detect the Mind-space echoes of events in real-space, allowing them to bypass the usual interferences like celestial bodies, or radiation that would interfere with electromagnetic sensors.

While the theoretical principles behind Faira weapons are based on a relic ship of a long extinct advanced race, they could not completely reverse engineer the advanced technology. The power consumption leaves the energy based weapons with long recharge times and the ammunition actually makes it a logistical nightmare to supply their warships without access to a nebula or gas giants.

Military:

Ground forces: 0. Faira can not spare the lives, nor are they interested in invading majority of the planets. All of their crews can be considered ‘marines’, but they train to fight inside warships exclusively.

Ship classes:
FF Dwarf
Class: Fighter
Length: 10m
Crew: 0
Description: The Dwarf is a combat drone that can act either on its own AI or be piloted remotely from a capital ship. They are lightly armored, but fast and agile. The most common tactic is to swarm the enemy with overwhelming number of these small, easy to produce drones.

FG Singularity
Class: Gunship
Length: 100m
Crew: 0
Description: Big enough to be on the border between strikecraft and a ship, the Singularity is lumbering automaton bristling with weapon turrets. While well armored, this ship is slow and thus usually fit for escorting capital ships rather than attacking.

FC Nebulon
Class: Cruiser
Length: 200m
Crew: 50
Description: The Faira cruiser is meant for escorting larger vessels and patrolling alongside drones, acting as their mobile command center and launch platform. Due to the drones requiring no personnel, they can be latched onto the hull without the need for a hangar bay. The fastest of the Faira capital ships, having the largest crew to mass ratio.

FCv Pulsar
Class: Corvette
Length: 500m
Crew: 100
Description: Where the Nebulon is meant for defense, the Pulsar is a workhorse of Faira fleet, a jack of all trades, master of none. It was designed with that in mind, and itss gun placement allows for at least 50% of its firepower to be projected to all directions, with all weapons being capable of firing to the front. This is the smallest ship to carry the modular torpedoes, four tubes a piece with magazine for sixteen missiles.

FFg Comet
Class: Frigate
Length: 1000m
Crew: 500
Description: Created to be a ‘pocket destroyer’, this class is meant for engaging enemy warships. While it has the heavy weaponry of a destroyer in the form of the 15m dual mode plasma cannon, and its redundancy in engines, it lacks the fighterbay.

FD Meteor
Class: Destroyer
Length: 2000m
Crew: 2500
Description: The mightiest ship in Faira arsenal, these beasts can gut enemy ship in minutes with its two dual barrelled 15m plasma cannons and massive load of torpedoes. They are however extremely expensive, and to this day the Faira could only afford to build three of these ships - the Auriga, the Fury and the Imperieuse. The ship is, in theory, capable of rendering the equivalent of 35% of Earth’s surface uninhabitable if it expends all of its ammunition. Many voices have criticized the construction of these ships as being a countermeasure to a nonexistent threat. Further testing showed that it is also difficult for these to operate too far from the Nebula, as replenishing the ammunition for the two plasma cannons becomes a logistical nightmare.

Organization:
The bulk of Faira ships is split between three fleets. The Defender fleet, stationed with the civilian ships in the nebula for repelling immediate attacks, the Watcher fleet, patrolling the rest of the nebula and tasked with securing expansion points, and the Striker fleet, for operations outside of Faira territory.