The Stellar Cloud: Runts of an Empire, Fight Together – 10/03/2014

Well, this is a bit late this week. I am actually writing the Thursday blog on Friday morning…I have an excuse (Don’t I always?) Sam was off in some other corner of the country and wasn’t bugging me to get it done on time…so it’s his fault. (He reports that he was in Cleveland rocking out! It’s hard to find good help these days!)

Today, I want to introduce you to a ‘Runt’. The meanest runt you’ll ever meet. This guy is a Soelien Twa Infantry Soldier. The Soelien Twa fought side by side with Terran and other Grand Alliance soldiers during the Cyber Rebellion. Twa soldiers were chosen from the smaller members of the Soelien Twa drone cast. Although they were still as tall if not taller than humans, the Terrans called them “Twa Runts” because of their smaller stature when compared to the mining drones of the Twa. The Terran slang for infantry was “Grunt”.

The Soelien Twa Empire joined the Grand Alliance in 3124 to halt the cybernetic scourge. However, it was not their first encounter with cybers. They had fought a losing war with numerous cybernetic races, including the hated KOR in the Baxel Galaxy long before they joined the Grand Alliance in 3124. Queen Soel the 42nd, the first leader in Soelien Twa history to sign a pact with an alien race, remarked at the charter signing ceremony that, “Every ton of ore we will mine will be used to fight the cyborg threat.”

She was true to her word. The Twa fought alongside Grand Alliance to the bitter end. No Soelien Twa outposts are extant in known space. They passed into the darkness when the cybernetics overwhelmed the Estra Galaxy over a thousand years ago.

- End Transmission -

Runts had their protective back shell removed to allow them to wear powered battle armor. A normal Twa drone (non-military) sported a large beetle style back shield that formed naturally from birth. It molted and renewed as the drone matured.

The weapon depicted is a standard issue Frenics Arms TR24 plasma rifle. Frenics, a Terran weapons firm, landed the infantry small arms contract for the empire wide standard issue infantry rifle. The competition for the contract was fierce with over sixty firms submitting bids. There was some controversy over the unfamiliar alien bid process. Stelltron Corporation went so far as to file a complaint with the Grand Alliance Inspector General’s Office after rumors of massive bribes surfaced in the closing days of the bidding cycle. No one in the alliance wanted to insult the Twa by raising the specter of drone corruption. A private conversation between Stelltron officials and the Grand Alliance Secretary General resolved the issue and the complaint was quashed.

The insignia is the Imperial symbol of the Soelian Twa Empire.

SoelienTwa

Artwork by Max Bagdasarov

Comments are closed.