Hydran Kingdom
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In the fictional Star Fleet Universe the Hydrans are an original race developed specifically for the game universe. They are enemies of the Lyran Star Empire and the Klingon Empire, both of whom have occupied Hydran territory before. Their government is known as the Hydran Kingdom.
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[edit] Hydran Biology
Unusually for the Star Fleet Universe, the Hydrans are a non-humanoid intelligent race of short (roughly four foot tall) methane breathing creatures with three arms, three legs and three eyes. Their skin is like tough leather and blue-grey in colour. They are also have three genders, Male, Female, and a neutral 'Matriarchal' gender. All Hydran births produce triplets, one of each gender.
[edit] Hydran Society
[edit] Monarchy and Government
The Hydran Kingdom is governed by a Monarch but Hydrans are, like many other species (such as Denobulans), not monogamous, meaning lines of succession are not very clear. At last count the Hydran Royal Family consisted of 30,000 beings, 1,200 of whom were princes (Male and Female). Any prince has the opportunity to inherit the throne. There is a nobility that is involved in internal politics and a Civil Service that actually runs the day to day affairs of government.
[edit] Religion
The Hydrans have a Pantheon of minor gods whose order can be affected by the political factions currently in power. There are many of these, since each household, fleet, starship and squadron has its own god or even gods.
[edit] Star-Beasts and the Keepership
Some of the most prominent Hydran cults worship creatures known as Star-Beasts, space faring creatures. One organisation, the Keepership, capture these beasts in Preserves- huge force field enclosures. This allows Hydrans to come and worship them. The job of the Keepership is to maintain these Preserves, protect Star-Beast cults and capture Star-Beasts, also making sure they have livable conditions. Although they are not politically important, many respect their bravery in what they do.
[edit] Star-Beasts and the Ulazhi
Then there is the Beast-Hunter Cult (ulazhi). These people consider hunting Star-Beasts to be the ultimate challenge. Lately many of Hydra's richest young men and women have joined the cult. Some within the cult claim that soon there will be a legendary migration of Star-Beasts called the Odyssey. During this time, anyone who captures a Star-Beast will become a god. It is claimed the Odyssey is near and so it is unsurprising so many Hydrans have joined the cult now.
[edit] Star-Beasts and the Muriyz
One of the other large cults is the Sacred Beast Cult (muriyz) and they are most fanatical, believing no one is worthy of touching or manipulating these creatures. As a result, they are frequently in conflict with the Keepership. Recently, the forces of the muriyz have been strengthening and there have been an increased number of attacks against Preserves. They have some political influence, in that they can convince many to ignore their actions by claiming there are more important matters abroad than a few loose Star-Beasts.
[edit] Gender
In Hydran society, the non-sentient Matriarchals look after the Hydran young. Males and Females, however, have a much more equal footing in society. It is more common for men to dominate command and technical positions while women form the labour force, pilot and ground combat corp, but females can hold command positions, even the throne.
[edit] Hydran Ships
[edit] Structure
Hydran ships are usually of a unified single hull form, lacking the defined primary and secondary hulls of the Federation and Klingons, While some ship classes have their warp engines located within the hull some cruiser classes mount the warp engines on short pylons projecting from the rear of the hull, usually from the sides (if the twin engined light cruiser class) and from both sides and the top rear of the hull (if a heavy cruiser class mounting three engines).
Hydran ships are well shielded, incredibly durable and can take large amounts of hull damage before losing internal systems. Given that Hydran weapons and combat philosophy require the Hydran ship to close to very short range on an enemy ship while withstanding the enemy ship's defensive fire, this durability is required to support the Hydran combat tactics. Once at close range the Hydran ship can generally inflict massive damage on the enemy with its Gatling Phasers and Fusion Beams.
[edit] Weapons
The Hydrans make use of two different heavy weapons and employ ships with either strong short range capabilities or for long range support. Some flagships and larger ships generally combine the two. The Hydrans also integrate fighter craft, which can increase ship firepower by 300%, into most vessels in their fleet, in contrast to other races that operate fighters only from specialised carrier's. Most Hydran ships support at least one squadron of fighters. In Star Fleet Battles, Hydrans are merely the first to deploy warp-capable fighter craft. Fighters can carry at least one of either heavy weapon and may also carry a 'gatling' phaser (ph-G).
[edit] Fusion Cannons
The primary heavy weapon of the Hydrans is the Fusion Cannon. This is a direct fire weapon that does massive damage up close, but is nigh on useless past ranges of 80,000 km. The weapons use a focused beam of energy to penetrate shield and the hull. This uses nuclear fusion, firing excited tritium at the target with deuterium nuclei. When the nucleii fuse to form helium, a tremendous amount of energy is released. These cannons consume a lot of power when being charged and they are frequently 'overloaded' to increase its effectiveness. It can also be set to 'Suicide Overload' which further increases the damage done but usually destroys the weapon. After firing, the weapon must cool and then charging can start again.
[edit] Hellbores
The Hellbore, in contrast is a long ranged weapon, and its strength does not dissipate as much at longer ranges, unlike the Fusion cannon. This weapon fires a magnetically charged fusion bomb that hits the enemy shields and wraps around them. Due to the nature of the fusion blast and shields, the weakest section of the shield takes the most damage. Hellbores can also interfere with Lyran ESG fields. If one crosses the field, it instantly applies damage to the field instead, and some of this damage can surge back into the Lyran vessel.
[edit] Other Weapons
As well as standard Phasers, the Hydrans also employ the 'gatling' phaser which is as strong as a defensive (ph-3) phaser but fires up to four times as fast. This phaser is only usually found on Hydran vessels but can be found on some Federation ships (generally carrier escorts). It is more effective than standard phaser-3s since it requires half as much energy as 4 normal ph-3s would require, but it should be noted that it is more subsceptible to damage than four separate weapons would be.
[edit] Occupation and the 'Lost Colony' Guilds
The Hydrans were once conquered by the Klingons and the Lyrans and subjugated. The Klingons and Lyrans, unable to survive outside environment suits on the Hydrans methane atmosphere planets, presided over the conquered worlds of the Hydrans from orbital facilities well armed with planetary bombardment munitions to ensure the subject populations remained quiescent.
A small number of Hydran colonies located far distant from the main Hydran Empire area of space were never discovered by the Klingons. These 'Lost Colonies' were operated by several Merchant Guilds and were being used to support Hydran exploration activities into Delta Sector.
The Lost Colonies, never located by the Klingons nor Lyrans, provided the Hydrans with a secure base to develop new weaponry (the Fusion Beam and Gatling Phaser and the fighter shuttle) and the ships to operate them (Ranger class cruiser, Lancer class destroyer and the Hunter class frigate).
Utilising the new ships, weaponry and tactics, the refurbished Hydran military was able to undertake a sweeping campaign to destroy the orbiting facilities controlling Hydran Worlds and drive the Klingon and Lyran fleets from Hydran space, allowing the restoration of the Hydran Kingdom.
[edit] Chronology
The above description is based on the Hydrans from Starfleet Command and Starfleet Battles.
[edit] References
- Starfleet Command Manual and Star Fleet Battles Hydran background.
[edit] External links
- Module Prime Alpha - for GURPS 3rd edition, includes detailed profile of the Hydrans for Prime Directive.
