As a typical adolescent, Gesh flew past the guards and into the gap between the kelp wall that was his window the moment before his mother angrily pushed aside the portal covering and swam into Gesh's room, expecting it to be empty. She inquired on the state of his studies, to which Gesh anxiously explained how he'd been having too much fun all day to bother with such trivial things. His mother, to say the least, was not pleased, and bared her fangs at Gesh and made a few threatening gestures before leaving. Gesh groaned and swam to his library, leafing through the plastics with the sharp, angular cuneiform language inscribed upon them.
Government
No need to study that. On Rakbi, one controlled what one owned, and the Nin family owned more than any other, with the Kar/Tan clan trailing a distant second.
Meteorology
Yeah, we know everything about the weather here, and most everything everywhere else. What of it?
Space Travel
The Rakbis had only basic warp capabilities in their capital ships, and none to speak of in smaller ones. As such, they have never left the Delta Quadrant, save in exploratory situations.
Energy Acquisition
Gesh smiled and listened to the tide-churners outside. More electrical energy than they would ever need was produced every pass of the planet's three moons. Excess energy was stored in wet-cell batteries, which, in turn, powered Rakbi equipment, spaceships, and IPBM's.
Communication
Low frequency is the way to go. Rakbi voices range from 60 Hz to 0.02 Hz, and have be raised in pitch by machines to communicate with high-pitched, whiny races such as the humans. Likewise, special translation earpieces are equipped to diplomats so that the high frequency sounds can be heard by the Rakbis. The Rakbis use extremely low frequency electromagnetic waves to communicate over large distances. The sub-radio waves require less energy to produce, thus draining less of a ship's energy. As an added bonus, few other races have the technology to decipher messages sent in such a fashion, so the secrecy of Rakbi inter-stellar communications is assured.
Warfare
Finally, something of interest!
Pre-emptive strikes--The Rakbis are known for launching preemptive strikes by establishing small colonies on planetoids in enemy solar systems. They use these to fire large numbers of Inter-Planetary ballistic missiles, which use the gravity of the system's sun to slingshot the missiles towards the enemy planet. When the missiles arrive an Earth-month later, the Rakbi settlement has already packed up and gone, leaving their enemies with no targets to engage.
Daf Kar and the Francium Bomb--For billions of years, since the formation of the Universe, the last member of the Lithium family with a stable nucleus had been Cesium. Francium was so radioactive that it vanished soon after it formed. Daf Kar, a thousand years ago, had created an isotope with a stable nucleus that did not appear naturally. Ever since, the Rakbis have harnassed the incredible explosive power of the element which requires only water to set it off. As a water-based race, the Rakbis are only interested in sea worlds. Their interests and abilities coincide; their weapons can only be used to attack worlds that they wish to inhabit later.
Interplanetary Ballistic Missiles--These form the backbone of the Rakbis' space armament. Each one is independantly crafted for its intended target. In combination with the Rakbis' sophisticated knowledge of Projectile Physics, this results in pinpoint accuracy even for missiles that traverse hundreds of millions of miles. As Francium bombs are the primary warhead, the IPBMs crash into the enemy water body and allow water to enter the Francium chamber at a predetermined depth. *NOTE* Ballistic missiles of the Rakbi accelerate to a speed equal to two-thirds that of light, meaning that it takes about 1.75 (they have to accelerate from zero, so it takes extra time) seconds to traverse the entirety of a space battle over a distance of a light-second (which is seven times around the Earth at the equator--hooray for trivia!).
Space Combat Ships--Only two types of ships are used in the event of encountering enemy fleets.
1) The StormCaster series of capital ships hold the StormRider series fighters, and send out random EM pulses of all frequencies excepting the exceptionally low ones used by the Rakbis, effectively scrambling the communications of enemy vessels. They are outfitted with weak but rapid-firing projectile turrets for defense against lightly armored enemy fighters and have ports to launch ballistic missiles (carrying Francium and water) to shoot down frigates and capital ships. New ships are outfitted with the just-invented Vibroblade Drones, which fly to ships with strong armor and slowly cut through the shielding, searching for power and communication lines and fluid pipes.
StormCaster series ships use FalseShield protection against beam attacks from frigates and other capital ships. A shield is projected far away from the ship itself, and an image is projected onto the shield. This causes the ship to look much larger than it really is. Beam weapons are focused on the FalseShield, which immediately collapses under the attack. When the beams hit the true shield, they are dispersed and not as powerful. The FalseShield is then re-erected.
2) The StormRider series fighters use jet propulsion in the vacuum of space. These are fast and swift, but lightly armored. They bear only a few tracking missiles to target small enemy ships. Their low ammunition supplies result in frequent trips back to StormCaster ships to refuel and rearm.
Navy--Below, on, and above the water, the Rakbis are in their comfort zone.
1) Below
a] StormSighter series forretresses are semi-permanent (they can be moved, but they are vulnerable when in motion and therefore are only moved behind friendly lines) bases that are essentially well-defended supercomputers. Their primary function is to receive information from StormDarter and StormMerger ships via low frequency EM waves, calculate it and send it back with little delay.
b] StormMerger series battlesubs assault surface and submarine enemy ships with ballistic missiles (Francium bombs, of course). The trajectory paths are calculated by StormSighters. StormMergers are built entirely metal-free, so as to make use of large electromagnets on the ship. When metal ships come within a half-mile radius, the electromagnets can be turned on (the range can be adjusted by changing the amount of electrical energy flowing through the magnet) and disrupt the course of the enemy ships. The magnet strength changes every second so as to avoid compensation by the enemy ships.
c] StormDarter series raidersubs assault surface and submarine enemy ships with ballistic missiles. Each sub holds only 2 missiles. They leave from either StormSighters or StormMergers, fly through the water at unparalleled speeds towards enemy ships, shoot the missiles and return to base to reload. The missile paths are calculated by StormSighter forretresses.
2) On
a] StormLauncher series capital ships serve as a staging ground for StormGlider and StormWreaker missions and also launch water-to-space missiles to destroy enemy space stations.
b] StormMatcher destroyers engage in surface-to-surface or surface-to-air battles. They use ballistic missiles and rapid-firing projectile weapons. Both StormLaunchers and StormMatchers launch PereGull suicide drones.
3) Above
a] StormGlider series fighters are launched from StormLauncher capital ships and engage in air-to-air combat with rapid-firing projectile weapons.
b] StormWreaker series air-to-water fighters fly off of StormLauncher capital ships and shoot missiles at surface ships.
c] PereGull suicide drones are launched from StormLaunchers or StormMatchers. They fly upwards, then dive at enemy ships. Whether by self-destruction or after being hit by enemy fire, the drones scatter pellets of Francium with a coating around the enemy ship. The coating wears off about five feet underwater. The water and Francium mix, creating an explosion that envelops the enemy ship in blue flame and incinerates the crew, if not the ship itself.
Land--There is little land on any of the Rakbi colonies, so the race has not had much land warfare in its history. As such, the Rakbi have no land vehicles or any standing army. Their entire land force consists of highly trained saboteurs and assassins. The Rakbi land forces are lightly armored to maximize energy efficiency and speed; their armor will halt light sidearms and reduce the blows of slightly more powerful weapons, but against any heavy weapon the difference will be negligible. Common armanents of a Rakbi saboteur are listed below:
1) Sidearms--The most common are small projectile weapons, wide and thin to fit easily with the hands of the Rakbi.
2) Main weapons--Two weapons are typically strapped onto the arms of a saboteur, which can be used while still maintaining the dexterity of the hands. Both focus EM waves on single or multiple targets. The weapons can be adjusted quickly to exchange range and spread. One (the Eye of the Storm) fires concentrated X-Ray radiation to destroy the workings of electrical appliances; the other (the Incinerator) spreads Microwave radiation. The microwaves are absorbed by water and fat molecules, increasing the temperature of any organic target drastically. Death by an Incinerator is exceptionally painful, although quick if the rays are focused on a single target. Unfortunately for the victims, the saboteurs often use the Incinerator with a wide spread to immobilize many organic enemies at once.
3) Other tools include poison gas canisters, sonic grenades (these are used against races that have higher-pitched hearing than the Rakbi--the Rakbi are unaffected because they cannot hear that high of frequency, but other races [such as humans] are rendered unconcious), infrared grenades (your basic heat grenade), vibroblades (tools used to cut swiftly through plastics, metals, and other materials), and straight blades (knives, for silent dispatching of unarmored foes).
Edited by Ravnin IV, 23 July 2008 - 09:45 PM.
