by Barry Kirwan
Mannekhi – Level Six human-looking alien race except for their all-black eyes. They sided with Qorall in the ongoing galactic war, due to millennia of oppression by the Tazani under Grid rule. Mannekhi use Spiker ships for war, as well as Javelin Class Dropships for incursions.
Nchkani – Level Sixteen warrior race infamous for their brutality in war and insurrections, especially with their ships known as Shredders, and tank-like Crabs for ground assault.
Nganks – full name Ngankfushtora – squid-like Level Twelve cosmetic surgeons whose services are usually reserved for higher-level species. Their hospital ships are known colloquially as Lozenges, and smaller triage vessels are known as Egg ships, both due to their shape.
Node – an implant developed in 2050, shortly before WWIII, that allowed direct interaction with the web and all social media. Banned due to psychotic and fatal accidents. Kat and Jen each have one. They allow direct communication with the Hohash.
Orb – deep space vessel with gravity-based and organic viral weaponry, mode of propulsion unknown; new weapon unleashed by Qorall.
Ossyrians – dog-like Level Eight medical race, charged as humanity’s custodians after the trial, their eighteen-year long stay on Esperia led by Chahat-Me. Their hospital ships are known as Pyramid ships. Such ships visited Egypt five thousand years ago. Rapier ships are used for short in-system transit.
Ourshiwann – Spider name for the planet Esperia.
Qorall [kwo-rahl] – ancient enemy of the Kalarash, and invader of our galaxy. His ship is embedded inside an artificial asteroid the sits just above the event horizon of a black hole. His weapons include ‘greenspace’, which changes the nature of local space, preventing Transpace conduits from opening, and using the black hole to trigger gravitic shock waves.
Q’Roth [kyu-roth] – Level Six nomadic warrior race who culled Earth as part of the maturation process for its hatchlings, in a deal with the Alicians. Currently engaged as soldiers trying to stop the progress of Qorall’s forces across the galaxy. The Q’Roth are the formal Patrons of the Alicians. Q’Roth have a number of warships from the Mega Class Battlestar and Crucible warships, to Mesa Class Destroyers, interstellar Marauders and Hunters, down to the short-haul Raptor.
Quickspace – very rare spatial phenomenon (the spatial equivalent of quicksand) where the fabric of space breaks down due to external factors. Ships and beings caught in Quickspace founder and slip into other spatial realms, usually destroyed by spatial riptides, and are never seen again.
Rangers – Level Fifteen taciturn reptilian creatures working for the Tla Beth. The Ranger Shatrall crash-landed in Tibet in the early part of the twelfth century and realized the Q’Roth had targeted humanity for culling. He was unsure the Level Three assessment of humanity was correct, and so unofficially warned a local warrior tribe who became the Alicians’ principal adversary, the Sentinels.
Resident – an internal alien-designed symbiote implanted in Micah’s head prior to the Trial of humanity, which acts as a semi-intelligent Level Five translator, with various additional survival-based functions.
Savange – new home planet of the Alicians, ruled by Sister Esma.
Scintarelli – legendary Level Twelve shipbuilders, whose shipyards dwell in gas giants. Their star-ship designs include the interstellar Starpiercer, the Scythe warship, and the one-man Dart.
Sclarese [skla-ray-zee] Nova Stormers – Level Nine semi-intelligent stealth missiles based on energy amplification technology, aimed at turning stars nova. Built by the Sclarese.
Sentinels – blood enemies of the Alicians, involved in a silent war over a period of nine centuries. Last remaining Sentinel alive is Ramires. Sentinels were famous for their nanoswords, able to slice through a Q’Roth warrior’s armoured flesh.
Shimsha – home of the Spiders on Esperia.
Shiva – a Level Twelve Scintarelli Scythe-ship (a Cutlass Class warship) upgraded by Hellera to Level Fifteen. Shiva is a mind-ship, completely autonomous with its own personality.
Shrell – Level Nine matriarchal ray-like creatures who live in deep space, guardians and ‘gardeners’ of the space-environment, invisible to most other species as they dwell in Transpace. As well as protecting and fixing spatial tears, they can also poison space. They work for the Tla Beth.
Spiders – Level Four race harvested by the Q’Roth one thousand years prior to the culling on Earth. Homeworld called Ourshiwann, renamed Esperia. Visually-oriented race, otherwise deaf and mute. They live in Shimsha, near Esperantia, humanity’s last city.
Steaders – the ‘non-genned’ human population on Esperia, so-called because of the preponderance of farms and homesteads surrounding Esperantia.
Tazani – Level Seven patrons of the Mannekhi. Their battle-cruisers fire energy packets capable of destroying Mannekhi Spikers.
Tla Beth – Level Seventeen energy creatures, rulers of the Grid in the absence of the Kalarash. Their homeworld is located inside a supernova. Their small but powerful ships are called Gyroscopes. Their famed Mega Class battleships were called Grazers, believed to be defunct.
Transpace – a form of hyperspace allowing instantaneous travel across light years without relativistic effects. Transpace, however, does not use wormholes, which do not allow organic transport and can cause rips in subspace.
Transpar – Blake’s pilot Zack was transformed by the Tla Beth into a glass-like transparent living witness, unable to lie, and devoid (mostly) of his original personality, as part of the judicial procedure during the trial of mankind.
Wagramanians – Level Seven forest-dwelling tripeds famed for art, but also employed by the Tla Beth as shock troops during times of interstellar war, in their famed Hammer ships.
Whisking – short-range teleportation; requires vast amounts of energy, and only Level Fifteen ships and above can do it. Most ships, even at Level Fifteen and above, do not have the capability, and it is used in emergencies only, except by the Kalarash.
Xera – Level Eighteen Machine race developed by the Tla Beth, who had to be put down due to their war two million years earlier against ‘organics’. Their City ships were feared by an entire galaxy until they were neutralised in the battle at the edge of the galaxy in a place later named Hell’s End.
Zlarasi – Level Six aqua-farmers living in the oceans on Alagara. They use three ships: Conch ships (mass drivers), Diamond warships (anti-matter core and weaponry), and Serpent ships.
