Background
A Beast with a white arctic coat.
Beasts, as they're commonly referred to in plural, was originally a fully sentient canidae-based species from the destroyed world of Prime, which was destroyed in 3,962 BBY.
A cave-dwelling species that prefers cold, warm (but not hot), and tropical-like environments, their furs can come in a variety of colors and the colors are usually associated with their environment. White fur for arctic environments and brown or green for tropical and forest-like environments; a rare black color has been associated with Beasts that have been born to parents that have been or for Beasts that are exposed to long duration in Realspace.
The term "Beast" can be a misleading term, as the original sentient canidae species was a very social community with rules, technology, and a structured culture and law. However, most of that history was lost during the start of the Great War between the Beasts and the Red Rock Kingdom between 3,963 BBY and 3,961 BBY and the destruction of the world of Prime in 3,962 BBY. What is remembered of the Beasts' original society is unfortunately shrouded by the events and history of the Great War, which paints the Beasts as mindless monsters of war.
What remains of the Beasts, as we know them today, are often associated with the semi-sentient species that was a sub-group of the Beasts known as Sithspawn that served during the Hundred-Year Darkness. It is not entirely known if the Beasts located on Prime had Sithspawn within their culture---that could of lead to the concluded history that the Beasts were mindless monsters of war---or if the Sithspawn were captured Beasts from generations or years prior.
While the semi-sentient Sithspawn Beasts are the most widely remembered and seen members of the Beast species, the mysterious rogue flagship, Dark Eye, is rumored to have an authentic Beast culture aboard.
Wild Space & Beast Raiding Parties
More recently, Beasts have been associated with the semi-sentient species that was a sub-group of the Beasts known as Sithspawn that served during the Hundred-Year Darkness. It is not entirely known if the Beasts located on Prime had Sithspawn within their culture---that could of lead to the concluded history that the Beasts were mindless monsters of war---or if the Sithspawn were captured Beasts from generations or years prior.
Regardless of the what-if's, Beasts today are often seen as roaming bands of mindless creatures that lurk in Wild Space; although Beast clans have been found throughout the galaxy lurking in the shadows; the majority of their strength has been found in Wild Space (the highest concentration of Beasts can be found in the Kingdom of Jod, at the Beasts new home world of Arrado).
Beast raids in Wild Space can be devastating, leaving whole towns or cities destroyed and void of life, the inhabitants of those locations used for food and slave labor. The Beasts' tactics have been seen as nothing more then a leaderless species trying to survive. Imperial Military detachments are often called in by emergency calls for help, only to find the places they are called to destroyed. The few encounters between Imperial forces and Beasts are often times engaged in outer space, where Imperial naval forces stumble across Beast raiding parties and colony ship convoys.
To date, no known "home planet" has been identified by Imperial forces for these Beasts forces in Wild Space. Rather, from information gathered by engagements, these Beasts travel in out-dated and poorly running Colony Ships that served hundreds of thousands of years ago during the Great War with the Red Rock Kingdom. Warships used by the Beasts include newer space worthy ships captured during previous engagements with other planetary governments or even the Imperial military and that do pose a combat threat to lesser planetary military forces, but which are no match to the might of the Imperial Military.
Beast combat in Wild Space seems to focus on task-force sized 12 ship raiding parties with most ships in the party of freighter size or corvette size, designed for speed and mobility. A larger cargo ship will also go with the raiding party to act as a means to collect the "captives" and other stolen equipment. As the Beast raiding parties are attacking, an escort detachment (usually 12 ships in strength as well) stays back and protects the Colony Ship(s) in well hidden places in Wild Space.
It appears that these Beast raiding parties are territorial to each other, operating in numbers of 1 to 3 Colony Ships that act as headquarter and family ships, with several Beast raiding parties forming the offensive and defensive capabilities of each "clan". It appears these clans have well-defined boarders and won't take over another Beast clan's territory. From time to time, civil disputes will erupt between the various Beast forces and combat engagements will occur between them it has been observed. Forr the most part, unless a Beast clan sees the opportunity to take over another clan's territory because that clan is significantly smaller in numbers due to battle damage, the Beasts leave each other alone.
However, it has been observed that Beast forces will come to the aid of a fellow Beast clan if attacked by non-Beast forces, which leads to the belief that there is some sense of loyalty among the remaining Beast population in Wild Space. Sometimes, although rarely, Beast clans that have often times helped each other before when attacked will form allegiances and assist one another in well-defined roles to form larger raiding parties.
Project Zero
The Imperial Project Zero was a highly classified Imperial project to collect all the Red Rock in the galaxy from the shattered remains of the world of Prime and, if the myth was true, by rebuilding the planet, open a gateway to a new galaxy. Also, Red Rock myth held that the rock could produce unlimited power and healing ability. Project Zero was destroyed by a virus infused with the Light Side of the Force by a member of The Mercs, which then destroyed the reforming planet of Prime and turned it into a giant Black Hole.
While this project was of most interest to Emperor Palpatine, the Emperor allowed Darth Vader direct oversight of the project. Vader invested heavy interest into the project because of the Red Rock's famed ability to heal any damage done to the body.
A side-affect of Project Zero was the affect the Red Rock had on roaming Beast forces. As Red Rock was collected from around the galaxy and brought back to Project Zero, reforming the old planet, the en-mass gathered Red Rock also started to gather Beast forces, who were attracted to the heavy presence of Red Rock. The resulting weekly to monthly conflicts with Beast forces made the Empire turn the area into a mass naval training area to hide the true meaning of Project Zero, but also provide a means to have a ready-amount of naval forces beyond Project Zero's own defense forces in the event that the Beasts invaded en-mass to recapture their planet.
What Beasts the Empire captured, they did medical experiments on and were turning them into "super soldiers" before Project Zero was destroyed.
Social Structure
The term "Beast" can be a misleading term, as the original sentient canidae species was a very social community with rules, technology, and a structured culture and law. However, most of that history was lost during the start of the Great War between the Beasts and the Red Rock Kingdom between 3,963 BBY and 3,961 BBY and the destruction of the world of Prime in 3,962 BBY. What is remembered of the Beasts' original society is unfortunately shrouded by the events and history of the Great War, which paints the Beasts as mindless monsters of war.
Beasts, as we know them today, resemble a structured social structure that seems to place a single Alpha Male in charge of a "clan". Each clan can range from several dozen to several hundred or several thousand males under the Alpha Male. Alpha Males are appointed through one-on-one martial arts duels, where the combatants duel until the other surrenders the fight or dies in the process of the fight. There is always two Beta Males in every clan, supporting and defending the Alpha Male, and to act as respective second-in-command and third-in-command of the clan.
Females are submissive to the males, although the Alpha and two Beta Females hold superior status even over the mightiest of male warriors in the clan. And to disobey one of these females is certain immediate death. Typically, although not always, the females out-number the males three-to-one as they support the social and family structure of the clan as the males are off fighting.
Omega Males often fulfill the setting up and tearing down of camp settlements, as well as building towns, cities, space ships, vehicles, and weapons of war.
Males are in charge of clan leadership, defense, and hunting. Males also instruct the children how to fight and hunt. Finally, males are also in charge of setting up and tearing down camp settlements and building towns and cities.
Females are in charge of raising the children, preparing the food, gathering non-hunted food, and the education of the children. Females are also in charge of the medical-treatment of sick or injured Beasts.
Gathering this social information from Beasts today, most people believe that Beast social structure was based similarly on this before the Great War.
Biology
From the medical notes of a The Mercs crew member...
Date Posted: 10/7/10 7:28pm Subject: STAR WARS: INTERVENTION (A story-telling style OT starfighter game)---Always taking new players! - Date Edited: 10/7/10 7:51pm (2 edits total) Edited By: Wildwookiee
Johnny Boy
Medical Bay
Priest had just finished his shower and had just put on his sterile operating smock when the door to the Med Bay Hissed open. Priest noted that Taller had arrived, along with a boy toting a camera. Morbid curiosity, Priest was sure. He sent a short text blurb to Xavier, betting fifty credits that the youth would either vomit all over himself, or pass out once the autopsy began.
"Is everyone present?" Priest asked. He got a slight nod from the Captain. "Good, before I begin, a few pointers. Do exactly what I say, when I say it, without question; That means if I ask you to strip down, stand on your head and sing "Little Lost Bantha Cub," you ask what language I want it in. Do not speak unless you are answering a direct question asked by either the doctor or myself. Do not touch the corpse without my expressed orders. Hand me my instruments immediately, and do not get in my light. If you are outside of the field, do NOT approach the field, unless you want to get thrown across the room."
Priest motioned to the youth holding the camera to direct his attention to Sodalis. "Keep that camera on her. Sodalis, I want you to concentrate your senses on what we're doing: Speak exactly what you're thinking the entire time...I don't care how ridiculous or inconsequential; just don't stop talking."
With that everyone took their positions, and Priest activated the force field. He took a slow calming breath, relaxing his body and using several techniques that he had learned to slow his heart rate down. He flipped another toggle, and the secondary force field containing the corpse sputtered out, exposing it for the first time to the clean room. He pressed another toggle, and the red light on the recorder blinked to life.
"Autopsy, unknown lifeform, Medical Bay, Johnny Boy 0842 Zulu time. Captain Niklavi "Priest" Pesh performing the procedure, Assisting me is the Chief Medical Officer and several assistants, as well as observers, please state your name, rank, and function in this procedure for the record."
Priest waited for them to go through the formality. This was probably odd to them, however formalizing the procedure would standardize the record; and it would keep the medical staff on their toes. They were about to cut into an unknown creature, with unknown dangers...a known procedure would help keep them focused and calm. It was a good thing that they didn't know: Priest had also told Xavier that should anything begin to go wrong, he was supposed to activate the incinerators that would turn what was inside the force field into molten slag. They were done reciting their names and waiting for orders.
Priest led them through several diagnostics, they calibrated the scanners and then took weight and measurements of the corpse. Each scan was both entered in to the computer through the sensors, read into the record manually, as well as the recordings by both Xavier and the boy with the camera. As Priest examined the creature he ordered orderlies and assistants to take manual measurements of each length and breadth, entering into the record manually along with the digital scans. The creature was almost two meters in length, covered in tough, black, rubbery hairless skin. He described the, head; elongated nearly half a meter and nearly hairless except for patches of thin hair on the crown. It ended in a large mouth, with pointed canine teeth, and was generally featureless. Though closed in rigor, he pried the eyelids open, revealing the blood red sclera.
He moved down the body, describing the musculature of the creature. Its arms, taught and thick as bridge cables, extending from powerful shoulders into forarms which ended in hands with five fingers. Like most humanoid creatures, it possessed four digits with one that opposed the rest, allowing it the dexterity to wield tools, however the fingers ended in sharp, dense, retractable claws, which looked strong enough to score battle plating. Priest continued his exam, describing all articulation points on the body and having the assistants writing down the possible range of motion for each appendage or joint. This data would be confirmed or revised as the autopsy continued. The strong legs ended in a powerful feet, each ending with three clawless toes. He did a quick rundown of evolutionary biology for the record, noting that it was odd to have a different number of phalangial digits between the feet and the hands. He surmised that it would indicate a possibility that this creature was not natural, but possibly manufactured; however that was mere speculation based off of one piece of evidence.
Once the initial observation was finished, he held his hand out for a laser scalpel. He was rewarded with a confident slap into the palm of his hand, with the instrument facing the correct direction. He turned his attention to the bare sternum of the creature. His first swipe scorched the skin but did not break enough layers to split the skin. He noted the toughness of the epithelial layer and made a note for scans to be made on it to determine its strength.
Date Posted: 10/12/10 6:41pm Subject: STAR WARS: INTERVENTION (A story-telling style OT starfighter game)---Always taking new players!
IC: Priest
Medical Bay, Johnny Boy, present time
Priest was lucky...really lucky. As he was looking over the creature, intently making his first incision when the beast's hand shot up and wrapped around his throat, the creature wasn't able to constrict around his windpipe or carotid, allowing him a few seconds to determine how to extricate himself from the situation, before the creature painfully beat him to a pulp. The trick was to not lose his cool, he had been in situations that were bad...not quite as bad as this, but still bad. The creature screamed, the sound was painful to his ears, and to his heart. It nearly felt as if the creature was tearing at his soul, trying to separate it from his body it inhabited.
The Beast lunged at the Force field, striking it with his hand and receiving a shock that Priest felt not just a small part of. The creature was not phased in the least, but Priest felt it surge through his entire body, numbing his lower extremities. Spots began to form at his peripheral as hypo-tension began to take effect. He knew that he had mere seconds before he was lost to oblivion. Thinking quickly, he closed his right hand around the fingers of the monster to keep the claws from gouging his throat out, his left hand contained the laser scalpel. He jammed the head of the cutting utensil against the lower knuckle of the creatures thumb and turned it on. In a second the thumb fell away from the hand and, lacking the opposed digit the creature lost its grip on Priest, dropping him unceremoniously to the floor.
Priest hit the ground and used the momentum to roll out and away from the creature as darkness began to claim him, he yelled, "Try to save it, we still need to learn!"[/QUOTE]
IC Priest Medical Bay
Johnny Boy
Priest shook the stars from his head, clearing it. he could tell, concussion, bruised ribs, mild sub-dermal hematoma...nothing life threatening. He watched Xavier as he grasped the creature in his crush gauntlets, the deck plating scraping beneath him as the beast tried to pick up the quarter-ton Mandalorian. Xavier shifted his weight, and with a silent surge of energy crushed the larnyx of the creature. The creature collapsed dead...again, at the feet of the warrior.
Priest stood, with the assistance of Angerona and steadied himself. Xavier, wordless, turned and nodded to the Jedi, and resumed his stance as if nothing had happened. Priest calmly moved the corpse back to the operating table and grabbed the laser scalpel again. He calmly cut into the beast, opening the chest cavity.
Redundant systems crossed the thorax of the beast, as if someone had opened the chest, thrown in a bunch of spare parts, and connected them all. Evolution wouldn't do this...it was not natural. Priest took a moment to inject the blood, endocrine, and lymphatic vessels with colored, radioactive dye, allowing him to see the paths of the fluids that traveled throughout the creature. He exchanged the laser scalpel for a traditional scalpel, and began slowly extracting organs. Each organ was weighed, scanned, then a small portion of it was removed to be scanned microscopically and chemically. The remains within the body cavity were then bagged and set to be frozen in carbonite for further study. It was a painstaking monotonous deal that took a few hours. The stomach was emptied and the contents sent to be scanned, blood was removed to be worked up, and any other bodily fluid was sampled for research.
After the organs were removed, Priest and his team removed the skin of the creature, taking it off at the thinnest layer possible to get a full scan of what lay beneath. After the skin was removed, Priest took samples of it, as well as the lipidic fatty tissue that separated the skin from the skeleton and musculature of the creature. Once this was also removed, the connection points between muscle and bone, and muscle and muscle were determined. Each connection was cataloged, scanned, written, and observed, along with its range of motion, the length of the connective tissue, and the tensile strength of the cords. Scans would be performed later to determine the cellular strength and estimate the full potential energy each of the tendons and ligaments would be able to withstand.
Priest then turned his attention to the musculature. He broke each group down as it fit, naming each to a counterpart of similar anatomy; coining a new name in relation to its function when he found a muscle that did something that was unusual. Each muscle was separated, cataloged and bagged for storage, exposing the skeletal structure of the creature. Each bone was measured, weighed, scanned and cataloged. At this point, Priest noticed something odd: There was some sort of metallic object located on the right side, inferior to the base of the brain; between the spinal chord and the brain of the creature, which Priest had yet to uncover. He noted that it did not touch the brain, it was encased in bony overgrowth, but it was turned in the direction of the base nervous system. The perephrial nervous system was traced, measured and recorded. Tests would be done on the nerve tissue to determine nervous response and reaction time. he also noted that these nerves tended to cross over at odd intervals, run through foramens and paths that took them too close to bony structures. Priest noted that this would cause the creature an incredible amount of pain, he doubted the creature could ever lay or sleep as it was always in excrutiating pain.
Finally, Priest activated the laser scalpel and removed the brain of the creature, weighed it, and then sent it to scanned. hopefully things could be learned.