|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
M'kkiae |
 |
|||
Homeworld: |
M'kkia, Sector 38 | |||
Ecology: |
Nitrogen-Oxygen-Water (H:D:2:7) | |||
Biology: |
DNA II | |||
Languages: |
M'kkiae, Grand Federation J | |||
Human Contact: |
2247CE | |||
FTL Status: |
2250BC - Grand Federation assisted | |||
Current Status: |
Grand Federation Tertiary Race 2250BC, Extinct 2262CE | |||
Environment |
Ideal |
Tolerance |
||
Atmosphere: |
.23B O2 | .15-.35B O2; CO2 < .03B | ||
Temperature: |
300K | 275-320K | ||
Gravity: |
1.04G | 0-1.80G | ||
Other: |
Humidity 50% | Humidity 20-99% | ||
The M'kkiae are an extinct war-like race notable for their complicity in the betrayal of the Heshar during the War of Liberation and for their ultimately suicidal war against the emerging Human Race in the 23rd century CE.
The M'kkiae were green-furred carnivorous bilaterally symmetrical quadruped hexaforms generally massing 80-100 kilograms and measuring 1.8-2.1 meters from their vaguely feline heads to their stubby tails. The M'kkiae head featured two large hard lidless black eyes, a "nasal" cavity adapted for respiration and communication and a mouth of triangular teeth adapted for digestion and olfactory sensing. The two forelimbs ended in furless black hands each with six fingers, two being opposable thumbs; the two midlimbs were generally used for locomotion, but ended in hand-like pads with six claw-like digits suitable for both grasping and running; the two hindlimbs were fur-covered and ended in clawed vestigial digits.
The M'kkiae passed though five distinct life stages separated by a period of chrysalis. Juveniles developed within the body of an impregnated host and spent the first five to seven years as fairly low intelligence scavengers, often dependant on adults M'kkiae for a steady food supply. Once reaching a size of fifty kilograms, the Juvenile's fur stiffened and it rolled into a hardened ball, emerging after six weeks as a Neuter. The Neuter, or young adult stage of the M'kkiae, was a full-sized M'kkiae form, distinguished mostly by scent from other adult forms, and was fully intelligent, entering into an apprenticeship stage of social development, learning skills from Male and Female adults. In times of conflict, the Neuters formed the "cannon fodder" front line troops in a conflict, but were generally unsuited to skilled labor or complex decision-making. After up to a dozen years of mostly mental development, the Neuter entered chrysalis, emerging as a Male. The Male M'kkiae formed the warrior and team leaders of the M'kkiae military and the bulk of the skilled labor force of M'kkiae society. After a period of twenty years of Male development often marked by "worthiness conflicts" and at least one successful mating, the surviving Male M'kkiae again metamorphosized into the Female stage, marked by higher intelligence and leadership duties. In pre-contact times, the Females were the dominant stage of M'kkiae life, controlling society and most decision-making. After a period of over forty years and several matings the Female stage would transform into an Elder, a larger (up to 400 kilograms) dark-colored form, hairless and with only vestigial limbs. Traditionally, the Elders of non-dominant families served as the implantation hosts for M'kkiae reproduction, dieing in the process of giving birth to a new generation. After contact with the Heshar and the Grand Federation, this Elder role fell upon unintelligent biological constructs, and the Elders became the high-level decision-makers of M'kkiae society.
The basis of M'kkiae society was a family of related Females, who often traded or raided Juveniles from neighboring families to diversify their bloodlines. Pre-contact M'kkiae society was based on often violent competition between families and groups of families cooperating as clans, with the dominant clans or families acquiring Juveniles and impregnating Elders from lesser families. M'kkiae mental patterns and brain physiology were quite unusual, leading to unique brain-pattern signatures and a nearly incomprehensible native language only rudimentally translatable into Grand Federation standards.
The M'kkiae remained centered on clan units of up to twenty thousand individuals led by a few hundred Females though most of their development, reaching an industrial civilization prior to contact with Heshar envoys in 2250BC. Warfare between clans and families was constant, with the victors seizing Juveniles and Elders to strengthen their reproductive success. Recognizing the M'kkiae's value as soldiers and considering their nearly unreadable brain patterns a hedge against manipulation, the Heshar adopted the M'kkiae as a client race, ostensibly a Tertiary Race, but effectively outside the Grand Federation hierarchy and answerable directly to their Heshar masters.
The M'kkaie served the Heshar loyally for almost three thousand years, but their desire for a more dominate role, encouraged by the Un'aa'graum and Eenikiti, led directly to their revolt and betrayal of the Heshar during the Great Expedition to Sagittarius in 732CE. The M'kkiae fleet attacked the Heshar, their warriors slaughtering and desecrating their former masters at every opportunity, fighting with such ferocity that even the Eenikiti became alarmed. After final victory in the War of Liberation in 814CE, the Grand Federation Primary Races elevated the M'kkiae to Secondary Status and allowed them to colonize neighboring worlds and become patrons of a number of races, including the Khzraut.
Situated on the edge of Grand Federation Space and feared or distrusted by most races, the M'kkiae eventually fell into isolation, losing regular contact with the Grand Federation core before 1100CE and becoming complete isolated by 1700CE. The M'kkiae retained the traditions of artificial Elder impregnation and the more cooperative government council-based government imposed by the Heshar. They concentrated their dominance instincts on controlling the nearby races of the Khzraut and the soon extinct Rooma. The M'kkiae did not have a well developed computing technology and soon lost the capability of supporting microjump travel. By 1800CE, the M'kkiae were essentially a static late macrojump technology race, dominating their homeworld, eight colony worlds, including the former Rooma homeworld, and the chlorine-breathing Khzraut.
In 2247CE, a M'kkiae patrol made first contact with the Easterner enclave on Kyushu. Within two years, the M'kkiae had conquered the six Easterner worlds and had begun a debate over the best method for meeting the threat of Human expansion. The M'kkiae War began with M'kkiae-supported Eastern raids on Confederation outposts in 2251CE, but only two years later did the M'kkiae Council of Clans end its Great Debate and begin a full mobilization against the perceived Human threat, devastating the Human's Alimeen allies with two massive assaults in 2255CE and 2258CE. The war went well for the M'kkiae until the Prime Fleet with its dozens of warships and assault carriers foundered at the decisive Battle of Sirius in 2259CE. Thereafter, the planetbuster Hellking-equipped Human Terran Confederation made its own determination that the M'kkiae were a lethal threat, and began a Hellking-led offensive into M'kkiae space, destroying the colony world settlements, freeing the Khzraut and finally devastating M'kkia in 2262CE. The M'kkiae were psychologically unable to accept surrender and continued to fight against the Human Terran Confederation until their homeworld was reduced to a hellish radioactive and tectonic wasteland by a punishing Hellking bombardment. No M'kkiae apparently survived the war, in their home system or on their colony worlds.
Two deep chambers on M'kkia withstood the Hellking bombardment and held a reserve force of hibernating M'kkiae warriors. In 2943CE an expedition from the Empire of Humanity's Ministry of Science accidentally activated one of these chambers, releasing over a hundred M'kkiae and triggering a running firefight that led to the destruction of all but one expedition vessel. In the following year, the Imperial Navy, led by two Hellkings, returned to M'kkiae, destroyed the two bunker sites and spent the next six months completely destroying the crust of M'kkia, rendering the world into a glowing ball of magma. A subsequent fleet action repeated this procedure on all former M'kkiae colony worlds in the late 2940s.
The M'kkiae are extinct. Despite stories of lost colonies, warriors in hibernation or hidden settlements deep in the Grand Federation, there is no credible evidence that any M'kkiae survived the M'kkiae War or the subsequent final destruction of their homeworld in 2944CE.
Most information about the species comes from Heshar Era Grand Federation sources, Khzraut histories and M'kkiae War era military intelligence and it may be incomplete, biased or erroneous.
All pages and images ©1999 - 2006
by Geir Lanesskog, All Right Reserved
Usage Policy
