The Lycoris Fleet

Basic Information

Anatomy

The role of the Lycorians as a servitor race for an aquatic master is very well reflected in their physiology. To match their newfound masters, the new Lycorians are fully amphibious, capable of surviving both in air and water even with extreme environmental pollution. Bio-nanites in their bloodstream and engineered redundant organs allow them to survive injuries and poisons that would be fatal to most other creatures, and they can even survive in hard vacuum for a limited amount of time.
The most distinctive features of Lycorians are almost entirely caused by the infusion of bio-nanites, which is done at birth to all newly created individuals. Their skin are gray and corpse-like, their eye glow with a myriad of brilliant colors, and their hair is almost invariably pale white or jet black, giving them a ghost-like appearance. Due to the presence of a significant amount of nanites in the bloodstream, their blood is a dark purplish-blue despite being mostly hemoglobin-based.
Lycorians only exist as female individuals arranged amongst a myriad of models, and while physical characteristics between models vary greatly, the members within a model are similar enough in a level that would be considered siblings or cousins to other species. Overtime, however, nanite-introduced mutations have introduced the growth of horns into certain Lycorian models, although the number, placement, and style of horns vary wildly between models and sometimes even within sub-variants of a single model. Natural reproduction with Lycorians is rare, and their numbers are largely held stable through cloning replacements.
Their bodies are extensively grafted with Fomorian bio-mechanical technology, making it sometimes difficult to ascertain where the original humanoid ends and where the grafted augmentations begin, or even where biology ends and where technology begins. The extensive cyborgization, however, also grants each Lycorian access into the collective tactical network in a form of technologically augmented psionics, allowing near instantaneous communication between members across vast distances and the ability to share emotions, sensations and experiences through created virtual spaces that far exceed the ability of other species.
A unique feature that comes with this perpetual linkage into the tactical networks is the ability of resurrection. So long as a Lycorian is connected to the network, at the moment of death her mindstate would be uploaded and stored. Once a new body, usually of the same model is prepared, the mindstate is downloaded into the new body and the recently deceased Lycorian rises again, ready to do battle against whatever foe that felled her. This unique ability allowed them great liberties in battles, as death simply becomes another opportunity to learn from one’s mistakes.

Additional Information

Social Structure

The Lycoris Fleet achieves decisions through local tactical networks at lightning speed with input from all sentient members in a trickle-upwards model. Observations and opinions from lower ranks are pooled to their immediate superiors, who then take them into account for formulation of orders and plans. In times of non-emergency, fleet-wide votes would be called through the same series of tactical networks. The orders issued by higher ranked individuals are binding, but their contents can usually be influenced by the opinions of their subordinates. This allows Lycorian society to be simultaneously hierarchical and fluid, allowing them to engage with the galaxy as administrators, scientists, and explorers in addition to their traditional martial role.
The Lycorian networks rely heavily upon the concept of intent, as it allows subordinate units to fill out details while those further up the chain of command can dedicate their attention to the larger picture. Equally important is the chain of succession, and should any member of the network become incapacitated another Lycorian will rise to take its place, making targeting individual Lycorians a largely futile effort, and cutting off elements of the Lycorians from the network only somewhat degrades their performance.
Neither would attempting to breach the Lycorian network through captured units grant attackers much advantage. Unlike the vast majority of hiveminds where information flows uninterrupted between members, Lycorian Networks have built-in access controls. Information and access to networks are granted on a needs basis, and captured units would soon have their network access rights severely restricted if not terminated, their former role granted to their backup who would then be granted full access privileges.
Tactical Network subdivisions, called Peripheral Tactical Networks are usually related to the division of fleets, although large-scale administrative networks, called District Networks, spanning different portions multiple fleets not in direct contact are also common. All district and peripheral networks terminate with the Prime Tactical Network, in which decisions of the highest level are made and presided over by the Supreme Fleet Commander.
The titles used by the Lycorians are largely reminiscent of titles of nobility used by iron age Pre-Lycorian society, long before their uplifting by the Formorians. From the lowest to highest, the ranks are Chevalier, Baroness, Vidame, Countess, Duchess, Princess, Grand Princess and Empress. During peacetime, however, ranks above Duchess are not used, and the fleet's authority are distributed among the Prime and Peripheral Tactical Networks. These titles give a very rough estimation of the scope of their authority and their position in the hierarchy.
During times of emergency, however, each individual fleets elect a Grand Princess and Princess from the roster of their respective Peripheral Tactical Networks, acting as the commanding officer and second-in-command of the individual fleets. If larger-scale coordination is required, an Empress will be elected from the Prime Tactical Network administrators, who will act as the commander-in-chief of the entire fleet. However while the Princesses and the Empress have final authority on all warfighting decisions of the fleet, they cannot override network cluster votes for domestic issues.

Civilization and Culture

Average Technological Level

Lycorian technology is largely derived from what they had inherited from the Formorians. Their machinery is always at least partially biological, from neural circuits to regenerative bio-nanite. Due to their long time in exile, technological development has been largely frozen until their return.
The primary powerplant for almost all Lycorian technology is the Singularity Core, consisting of a miniature blackhole kept contained by exotic space-time distortions. When power is needed, the containment manifold unfolds to allow the blackhole to evaporate through Hawking radiation while precisely-calibrated mass beams feeds it in order to prevent runaway evaporation, which usually ends in a massive explosion.
Similar metric engineering feats are also used for a variety of purposes in Lycorian ship design. From well-aligned space time grids utilized to fire coherent matter beams from Bose-Einstein condensate and weaponized microblackhole evaporation in corrosion warheads, to the complex recursive space-time structures of Klein Fields that protect Lycorian ships and can be reconfigured as a cloaking device. Even propulsion for Lycorians use a combination of standard fusion plasma thrusters for high speed maneuvers and reactionless gravimetric drives for fine maneuvering.
Lycorian industry is largely centered upon nanometric manufacturing of everything from consumer goods to warships. So long as the design patterns exist and there is sufficient amounts of nanites and raw materials, almost any Lycorian or Formorian artefact could be rapidly manufactured to extremely tight tolerances, at least in theory. Unfortunately, much of the design patterns stored in the manufacturing bionanites have begun to degrade and mutate, and with few master designs to cross-reference them with, newly built parts and products frequently fail to pass quality assurance checks and need to be recycled. Even when they do marshal up to basic standards, their build quality is a far cry from what the Lycorians would have used in their heyday.
The Formorian jump gate network came into the custody of the Lycorians after the return. While they are expensive to build or even restore to full function, once restored it allows nearly free travel between any two gates without the assistance of an anchorage station or jump tug. Even without gates, large masses of Lycorian ships can generate synchronized space-time distortions that function as a distributed jump drive, although the presence of jump tugs and anchorage stations significantly improve jump range.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

The proto-Lycorian culture was heavily adapted by the Formorians as their primary servitors. Despite the extinction of the Formorians during the final war, Lycorians still revere the Formorians almost religiously as benevolent deities that rescued them from the brink of annihilation. This, however, is not to say that they are bound to the past. Lycorian cultural ideas have changed drastically in their millenia of exile, to the point they consider themselves as the heirs of the old Formor as a sort of guardian of natural life in the galaxy.
Lycorian society is usually easy enough to grasp for outsiders. Sentient Lycorians value the concepts of duty and accountability above all else, and cases of Lycorians lying to another Lycorian is almost unheard of. Almost all economy is needs-based and resource acquisition and usage tracked through various logistics and tactical networks. The Lycorian concept of art and media are, for the most parts, tractable for most conventional minds, although their art, as expected, focus on scenes of underwater beauty and scenes of warfare. Lycorian media is almost entirely socially generated, with traditional broadcast/print media reserved for official bulletins aimed towards outsiders and client races.
The Lycorians aim to recreate the massive reservations for naturally evolved species that once existed under Formorian rule, with themselves as the custodians, defenders, and overall administrators of the realm. Lycorian philosophy does not value the complete assimilation of other species into the Network, as they deemed that the caretaker role is unique to themselves as an uplifted synthetic race. However, limited assimilation of client races, especially the ruling castes and local security forces, is often necessary to ensure smooth running of the reservations. In times of need, some of the assimilated security forces will be drawn off as battle thralls, but the vast bulk of the Lycorian military is first and foremost Lycorian.

History

While the destruction of the Formorian Archives on Indech prevents any deep insight into prehistorical Lycoris historiography, the basic information archives taken by the Lyocirans before their flight through the Tempest Gate can be used as a reference. The Lycoris Fleet seemed to have originated from a race of industrial-aged air-breathing humanoids that was brought into the Formorian fold as a client race before being uplifted into a servitor/warrior caste as an emergency measure during a conflict with a rival empire.
The Lycoris Fleet was the Formorian Empire’s hammer in case of full-blown total war. Having a far more violent history with numerous wars that almost pushed their race into extinction, the proto-Lycorians were rapidly uplifted with Formorian technology and organized into a dedicated warrior caste. The Formorian victories, paid for by the valour of Lycorian sailors and soldiers, greatly elevated their status amongst Formorian client races, becoming in effect the First Amongst Equals. Their duties as servitors began to expand as time went on, becoming not only soldiers but diplomats, explorers, and administrators, and perhaps most importantly, scientists.
The Formor was known to guard their secrets well, believing that allowing their mostly less-developed flock access to highly advanced technologies would lead to disaster. Engineering and scientific knowledge are disseminated on a strict need-to-know basis to Formorian client races, until Lycorians became exceptions to the rule. Lycorian researchers were granted unlimited access to Formorian knowledge and even collaborated with their masters in cutting-edge fields such as bionanites and space-time engineering.
The unrestricted access to technology was not without strings attached. In tandem with the opening of the archives was increased indoctrination of the Lycorian population, an urge to share the mantle of guardian and custodian with the Formorer, a message that the Lycorian received quite well. What was received less well, however, was the promotion of pacifism and non-intervention, as expected for a race that began as a dedicated warrior caste.
The expansion of the Formorian Empire hastened as Lycorians began to take a more and more proactive role in campaigns and administration, as the Lycorians began to integrate other races through any and all ways into the imperial fold, sometimes through economic and political subterfuge, other times through the jackboot of the Lycoris Fleet. But all empires would eventually face an eventual limit to their expansion, whether by internal strife or an even greater external force, and in this case, the Lycorians found exactly that.
At first, only a few border colonies and tributaries fell silent. Thinking that it was only a minor act of rebellion or a foriegn incursion of neighboring powers, a small task force was sent to investigate and report back findings. The reconnaissance force, however, failed to return, and the silence began to expand even further, swallowing up even fortified outposts and highly industrialized tributes. Survivors reported the invaders using strange technologies that puzzled even the Formorians, and how almost every encounter ended with a lopsided defeat against an enemy that is almost all but untouchable.
Within two years, the Formorian Empire was pushed to the brink of annihilation as the invaders reached Indech. Out of desperation and a need to evacuate population even further out into the hinterlands, exotic and forbidden weapons were deployed en-mass to stall the invader’s advance, culminating in the destruction of most planetary bodies within the system. The Formorians, unwilling to part with their home, decided to go down with the ship as what is left of Indech is overrun, shattering Indech into a field of icy shards as a final gesture of defiance.
The Lycorians, however, were given different orders. As a final command, the Formorians passed the responsibilities as custodians to them, should they ever find it safe to return to the galaxy again, before ordering them to evacuate the galaxy en mass through Tempest Gate, the first of a chain of experimental jump gate built for exploration of nearby satellite galaxies, located far from the reaches of any civilization. The gate was locked the moment the last ship passed through, to prevent pursuit from the invaders until it is time for Formor’s exiled heirs to return.