Baoask

A warrior race hailing from many planets near NGC 2359 (also known as the Thor's Helmet nebula to Humans), the Baoask (pronounced BAT-ashk) are an insular people who choose isolation from the rest of the Milky Way. What little they do with the other species usually entails piracy, slavery, and other similar crimes. Not much is known about them save for what little is exposed on observation.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Baoask are bipedal, mammal-like beings. Like most other species, they have four limbs total with a head on their shoulders. The most prominent feature is a "cape" of coarse hair that grows from their head, shoulders, and upper arms. This cape is only present in males and grows larger and more voluminous throughout their lives. Males also grow facial hair at either side of their mouth and under their lips, which they often groom into this cape. Females grow a crop of hair on the crown and sides of their heads, but this does not grow into the same voluminous mane that is present in males. Their heads possess a rather large and strong jaw capable of crushing bone and lend them a brutish look, especially with their protruding brows. They stand hulking over humans, tall and wide, with musculature indicative of their warrior culture. Their hands have an extra thumb on each hand, and each finger ends with a nail that grows thick and strong, almost like a claw.

Genetics and Reproduction

Baoask reproduce via viviparous sexual reproduction. Those capable of pregnancy can expect to carry for a full year.

Growth Rate & Stages

A young male Baoask is born with the ability to walk, and speech develops within months of birth. As soon as they can speak, they receive an informal education around the home. This education centers around tasks necessary around the home, to include farming, cooking, and other self care tasks. At the age of 15, the young males are gathered to prove themselves in combat in a ceremony called Likamakr. These battles are watched by a panel of elder males, called a Reyna, and they choose individuals from these battles to join their warbands.
Females are given a formal education, often branching into higher level education comparable to that of other species. Not much else is known about the life of female Baoask, simply because they tend to stay within Baoask space. Whether or not they are forced to is anyone's guess.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Baoask are omnivorous, but unlike humans, they can embrace both fully herbivorous and fully carnivorous diets. Most of this food is gathered on farms within Baoask space, but they are known to raid Senate space when powerful solar storms kill most of their farms.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Baoask culture is splintered into factions known as Aetta, which closely translates as "clan". Aetta are composed primarily of closely knit families and allies. At the head of an Aetta is a Reyna, the most capable male. More often than not, this is determined by combat, and at any point a Reyna chosen this way may be supplanted. Clans who do not choose a Reyna by combat have their own rules, where sometimes the role is filled by the richest among them, or perhaps even a hereditary monarchy. Besides this, Baoask social life is lawless. There is no true governing body outside of the Aetta.

Facial characteristics

Male Baoask possess a signature mane that the species is widely known for. The mane grows from the top and sides of their head, their shoulders and upper arms. This is often combined with a smattering of facial hair, lending the Baoask a ferocious, animalistic appearance.
All Baoask possess protruding brows as well as no external nose. Where a nose would be on a Human has, instead, a few ridges of folded flesh, leading down into nostrils that lay flat on their faces. Below this rests their mouth, which features a rounded chin. Just behind their jowls sits a series of large fangs, which are exposed in some Baoask. Their upper lip can flip up over their nose, typically when they snarl, as an evolutionary left-over from their more animalistic ancestors.

Civilization and Culture

History

Archives Incomplete

Not much is known of the Baoask outside of the interactions with Senate species. Their personal history rests with them, and unless some of the more sociable Baoask come to bare it, the rest of the galaxy may never know.

Herlid

What is known of the Baoask's history can only be told through war. For a long time, the only species to interact with the Baoask were the Legati. While the Legati were integrating into the Senate, they suddenly found themselves under attack. The invaders took no land; only food and resources. And just as quickly as they appeared, they vanished. The deathtoll was staggering, and the economic loss while not the worst they had known, was felt in surrounding areas. Months went by until they appeared again, but this time, the Legati were prepared. Long range anti-air weaponry shot a single raiding ship down, and the attackers vanished. The occupant was alive and, while captive, given an Aineto merely to facilitate communication. While the Legati were more than willing to talk and listen, the Baoask captive was more inclined to lash out and spout threats and insults, many of which did not fully translate. The interrogations continued for weeks, and not much changed. The creature did eventually self-identify as a Baoask, and did tell his captors his name was Fretr. This was later revealed to be a joke on the Baoask's part, as the word "fretr" roughly translates to "flatulence". This would only be revealed later by a more amenable Baoask, presumably a member of a more friendly Aetta.
Another Baoask raid took place within the following weeks, this time with many more warships. Of particular note were the items taken, to include Aineto devices, Hypatia drives, and the release of the captive Baoask. While some felt this meant the individual was of significant importance, these thoughts were dashed quickly. The Baoask captive knelt on the ground, and much to the horror of all involved, was summarily executed, his head placed in a primitive sack and the body left behind. Leadership among the Legati were horrified and at a loss for what to do in response. In the end, the body was given the funerary rites that Legati would typically afford to Perfuges.
A cycle of raiding was something the Legati military could not abide by, and so, an expeditionary force was established to push into Baoask space. In response, the Baoask retaliated with an incredibly large fleet. The fighting did not last much longer than 15 minutes, however, as the Legati had a firing solution for their capital-ship sized Barberius Cannon on the Baoask flag ship. A brief truce was established while a delegation was sent to negotiate peace between the two species. When the delegates did not respond to remote communication, multiple simultaneous boarding pods were launched and attached to the flagship, where fighting broke out and ended with the execution of the Baoask Reyna onboard.
The expeditionary force pushed forward and assumed total hostility of the species, only to find that the Baoask they had just fought were only one of several Aetta, and other Baoask had no knowledge of the attack. The Baoask explained the situation, but as soon as the Legati left, at some point the Aetta met and, in a rare instance of unity among the species, joined forces against the Legati. This gathering warband came to be known as a Herlid. It could only be surmised that this was not the first time a Herlid had been formed, as intercepted communication suggested three prior Herlids forming in the past. For what reason these Herlids were formed is unknown.

The New Foe

The Herlid remained organized via stolen and reverse engineered Aineto devices. Remaining just shy of Senate detection, fleets took positions across the galaxy and, when the signal was given, attacked all at once. The tactics remained largely the same, merely spread across the galaxy. The Senate species were at a loss for what to do. The Legati, who were the ostensible security force of the Senate, were far too busy fighting the Baoask in their own territory, leaving botht he Syrac and the Nenet to fend for themselves. Though no one expected it, it would take the newest addition to the galactic scene to win the fight.
Civilizations up until this point utilized a number of munitions technologies. Legati made use of large scale rail guns, while Syrac used similarly large coil guns, and these were easily counteracted by Baoask anti-projectile countermeasures. Worthy of note is the Nenet electron beam gun, essentially a lightning gun, that the Baoask could not answer, but the Nenet's cultural norms at the meant these weapons were concentrated in defense fleets rather than offense. Humans had only recently become a truly spacefaring civilization, and this presented a problem for the Baoask that they could not have predicted. Baoask defense technology was built to counteract a single large round via a network of direct energy weapons across a single ship, but Human weaponry was built with cost efficiency in mind, and as such, Humans utilized clouds of projectiles of varying calibers. The largest of these weapons were propelled like their early space vessels were, using a mixture of low explosives on a fuselage controlled via disposable onboard computer. The smallest projectiles were launched in a similar manner, although using a uniquely Human invention: a mixture of sulfur, carbon, and potassium nitrate, also known as gunpowder. This low explosive was cheap and easy to produce on Earth, and as such they were capable of utilizing thousands of rounds of ammunition where other species may fire as few as ten.
Humans shared this technology and the means to produce it with their allies, but remained the primary driving force to push the Baoask back to their homeworlds. Try as they might, the Baoask's defensive arrays, at best, did nothing to prevent the damage Human weapons, and at worst made the smaller projectiles even more dangerous. The heat produced from directly stimulating the projectiles broke apart those of the Legati and Syrac, but it turned Human projectiles into deadly bits of slag that burned through armor and immobilized moving parts on the outside. For the Baoask operating the defensive systems, they found themselves with only one real tactic, and the Humans were more than capable of adapting. Many operators chose to focus specifically on large projectiles, which allowed the smaller projectiles to impact uncontested. Not firing on the smaller projectiles meant the Baoask could stay in the fight for a bit longer, perhaps long enough to strike a blow against at least one Human vessel. This, unfortunately for them, did not work as well as they had anticipated. Their backs against a wall, the Baoask conceded defeat and returned home, the Herlid now disbanded.
They did not forget the embarrassment the Humans had shown them, however, and many speak of war against the Humans to reclaim their honor.

Lifespan

~150 years

Average Height

2.5 - 3.0 m

Average Weight

90 - 115 kg