Cryoavi

"We... don't really understand how it works. How any of it works. Our monkey brains aren't wired that way. What's even funnier is that they look at our stuff like it's magic. They don't get it. We can trade with each other all day every day, we can use each others' technology and benefit greatly. We just can't wrap our heads around it. It's basically the best kind of copywriting."
~Captain Jana Lenora, Galactic Trade Syndicate

Physical Description

The Cryoavi are a sentient, bipedal species with a compact, streamlined body shape, optimized for minimizing heat loss in their extreme cold environment. They have a thick layer of soft, downy feathers that cover their bodies, providing excellent insulation against the cold. Their feathers are a pale blue-gray color, allowing them to blend in with their icy surroundings. Their eyes are large and black, with vertical pupils that seem to gleam like dark ice. They have specialized fatty scaled pads on the bottoms of their feet, with sharp, hook-like claws that allow them to grip and climb on ice and snow and distributes their weight. They have two genders, male and female, and give live birth to single children. The children are able to walk in a few hours, and will spend most of their childhood between one or the other parents' feet, trading off throughout the day. The parents teach their child as they go in an 'apprenticeship' sort of education. As the child grows, it spends more and more time venturing out from under its parents' protection until eventually they are an 'adult' and able to strike out on their own.

Specialized Features

The Cryoavi have a number of specialized features that allow them to thrive in their extreme cold environment. They have a countercurrent heat exchange system in their noses, which allows them to warm the air they breathe before it reaches their lungs. They also have antifreeze proteins in their bloodstream, which prevent their bodily fluids from freezing in extreme cold temperatures. Their circulatory system is highly efficient, allowing them to conserve heat and maintain a stable body temperature even in the coldest conditions. Their 'feathers' aren't for flight, rather they're essentially specialized fur designed to trap ice particles which adds insulation as temperatures fall, and if they should rise this ice coat melts wich allows their shafts to fill with their blue blood and vent heat, allowing them to actually survive in a wide range of temperature tolerances. Finally, they fall into torpor if the temperatures fall below around −250°C. With proper medical monitoring, they can be revived even from this coma.

Technology

The Cryoavi have developed a unique technology that is powered by heat exchange, rather than heat generation. This technology, which human scientists and engineers call "cryo-energy," allows them to harness the energy released as heat is transferred from one location to another. To other races, it appears as if the Cryoavi are creating energy from heat loss, rather than heat generation. This technology has allowed the Cryoavi to develop advanced cold fusion reactors, which provide them with a clean and efficient source of energy.
Like what seems to be most of the species in the galaxy, Cryoavi lack the instinctive understanding of trigonometry that allows humans to find ballistics relatively easy. As a consequence, they never developed ranged weaponry, and in their minds combat takes place up close and personal. In general, they're more of an economically-oriented species than a violent one, which has served them well as with trade partners, in particular Galactic Trade Syndicate.
Cryoavi technology is valued by the PSC becaused it's designed by nature to work in extreme temperatures. They have vehicles, starships, robotics platforms, and equipment that can all work on temperatures ranging from -250°C to 500°C as a matter of course, and they have the galaxy's only known 'Sundivers'.
Working with Vanguard Dynamics, Cryoavi have invented a beam weapon that projects heat-rejecting energy. The humans do not understand this dynamic, but they do understand how to calculate projections, so working together they created a "Heat-Dampening Beam Device," or HDBD. No-one in human space calls it anything other than a "freeze ray." While it's marketed as a fire supressant device, it has a sort of an underground popularity with bounty hunters. Other devices using Cryoavi contributions are the Frozen Guillotine, chilling cloth, and Un-Flares. They are also responsible for the Snowbird mods in Electron-Sheathe technology.

Culture

The Cryoavi are a highly cooperative and communal species, living in large, interconnected cities that are carved into the ice and snow. They are fiercely protective of their environment, and have developed a sophisticated understanding of the delicate balance of their ecosystem. They are also highly curious and inquisitive, with a strong desire to learn and explore the universe around them. Exchanges are important to their culture, with gifts being given at the outset of any negotiation (the lower value gift in their culture puts the gifter in a disadvantage in the negotiation). The most successful corporations in trading with them game this habit by giving their negotiators a low-cost item in human space that's highly valued for the Cryoavi; Re; Humans can manufacture Carbexene easily, but the Cryoavi can't. A simple briefcase full of Chits reaps dividends. Much less successful attempts begin with attempting to short this gift or shame the Cryoavi on the value of their gift.
While they haven't yet branched out of their star system, they have colonized most of the moons and planets in their system with minimal terraforming thanks to the much wider 'Goldilocks Zone' of their species. They also have 'piggybacked' onto GTS transports and there's a small but growing population of them setting up in the Pan-Solar Consortium.

Weaponry and Tools

Freeze Ray: A carbine-sized HDBD favored by bounty hunters. While Rigelians and Cryoavi are generally unharmed by the freezing and thawing process (medical monitoring is still recommended) a human is usually killed. However, they are frozen at the point of death, and if thawed correctly, life saving measures can be taken, with the 'clock' of ToD beginning when the body has reached about 15°C internal temperature. The weapon does Fatigue damage, and if an opponent's FP reaches 0, they are frozen. Uses a Cold Fusion Cell (see below) as ammunition. LC1 $12,000.

Beam Weapons (Any)

Manufacturers	Weapon	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl	Cost	LC	Notes
VD, GTS, TSE, CS	Freeze Ray	3d(5) fat	5	100/200	3/0.5	1	25(3)	9	-3	4	$12,000	3	*See note

*:Treat fatigue as freezing. Side effect: make a HT roll at -1 per 2 points of penetrating damage or suffer paralysis. At 0 FP, target is frozen at the point of death.
Snowbird Mod: See section in Electron-Sheathe Weapons.
Cold Fusion (CF) Cell: A miniaturized breeder cell that uses cold fusion with micromagnets spinning inside a lead container with a stable quark cloud suspended in a vacuum inside. The quarks fuse into larger protons which then harmlessly dissolve. This process generates electrons and photons which are harvested by mechanisms in the rest of the battery, creating a steady stream of energy. A cell provides as much power as an F-Grade Quantum-Matrix Battery. If the CF Cell is damaged, it implodes and then explodes. It deals 6d crushing imploding, and then 12d burn ex rad sur 1d seconds after. When the cell is dead, it no longer recharges. If unused, it can last 10k years. LC 0 $15,000.
Coldcloth: A garment, usually a stole, made from coldcloth chills when subjected to kinetic energy. It provides little in the way of protection, but it does keep one cool in hot weather, leading to a line of undergarments used as hot weather gear. The only downside is potential frostbite when subjected to kinetic energy. For every 5 cr damage in a single blow, it deals 1 Fat damage. If subjected to more than 50 cr damage, roll a HT to avoid paralysis (from the numbing cold), and if subjected to 100 cr you must roll HT-1 to avoid frostbite on the limb struck. This applies to crushing damage before DR. Otherwise, the cloth adds HTx15 to your hot weather tolerance. LC 4, $100 per limb covered (undegrarments typically only cover the torso and groin).
Un-Flares: An endothermic chemical reaction that aggressively 'draws in' heat when the stick is snapped, effectively dropping ambient temperature within 20 ft in the open air by 50°C. In the case of an enclosed area, room, etc. it can draw heat in from up to 100 cubic feet, dropping the temperature 80°C. The reaction lasts for up to 5 hours, and it will put out any but the most stubborn fires in the area. $200.