Rekhtons

Designed originally as a means to secure The Necrophyte Dynasty's dominion over the galaxy, the Rekhtons are now a menace that has been responsible for the downfall of entire civilizations and a constant threat to those already established.

History

The first reign of The Necrophyte Dynasty was thousands of years before any current events, having crawled their way from nothing, a prey species who relied on hiding under water to avoid becoming a bigger animal's food to an all powerful, all conquering interstellar empire. They spread far and wide across the stars taking over any planet they could establish a foothold on, but eventually as their empire expanded they began to run into a plethora of problems, the biggest of which being loyalty.
A number of far off worlds rebelled against the Dynasty, claiming ownership over the cluster of planets they were set to govern, these rebellions usually spurred on by the troops themselves. This infuriated King Devrekh, treachery being an unforgivable sin in his eyes. In truth however the fact was the Dynasty had become simply too big to keep every planet in line. There had been rebellions by lesser races and trouble from persistent pirates, but treachery from his own people was the last straw.
Devrekh had the top scientists of the Dynasty come up with a number of solutions to this problem, however one took his eye more than the rest. A process named Flesh Disassembly. The process involved running a series of wires through the cartilage and implanting specialised computer parts within the brain, linked to said wires. The outcome was an individual who had no control over their own body anymore, someone who would only follow orders. There would be no rebellion and no questioning from such individuals. Devrekh likes this idea a lot.
The first targeted with this were the rebellious Necrophytes, becoming the first of the 'Rekhtons', named for the research laboratory the process was created in. Once the traitors were dealt with, Devrekh had an entire legion of these undead warriors under his command, they would become the new terror of the galaxy as they were used to quell other rebellions and spread fear among those thinking of challenging his rules.
Eventually the process was adapted for a number of other races. Any race with a skeletal structure was compatible with the process, as after the flesh and organs rotted away, that was usually all that was left. While droids were floated as an alternative, an army on as bigger scale as the Rektons proved costly, and the amount of metal the Dynasty would need to support a such an army would have been immense. The method of creation for the Rektons meant armies did not have to stop to resupply for fresh troops and weapons. If they were running short of troops, bodies scavenged from an orbital bombardment could be reanimated to serve. If they ran out of weapons, the enemies weapons could be re-purposed. All of this combined with the fear factor of facing an army of zombies made out of your friends and allies was enough to make most bend the knee.

Eventually the process became fully automated, Rekhton scavenger fleets being deployed with the sole purpose of growing the numbers of these soldiers. These fleets would travel off to the far reaches of space and simply annihilate lesser populations in order to turn them into Rekhtons. Sometimes entire civilisations were completely wiped out as the Rekhtons washed over their planet.
Eventually the Dynasty began to crumble, but as its territories receded and leadership went into stasis, the Rekhton fleets were left unchecked. Continuing with their last set of orders they exist as a plague of locusts that ravage any suitable worlds within reach.

The Process

The Rekhton army operates in numbers. Losses are always high on both sides, but this suits them fine. The army strategy is based around the wave after wave attacks by the skeletal warriors. Each foot soldier is armed with a basic stun rifle, similar to the Necrophyte Brel'zar. The foot soldiers aim to overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers until eventually they run out of ammo or the will to fight. Eventually the enemy unit will succumb to the stun blasters. Unable to move, the Rektons will advance over them, on to the next target. Should they be lucky enough to avoid capture the stun effects will wear off in a couple of hours, but in a more likely circumstance they will be picked up by a Tomb Spider.
Tomb Spiders used by the Rekhtons are large flying droid vehicles with multiple articulated arms for grabbing the stunned bodies of enemy troops, they are then crudely stored in under-hanging jaw like cages until the tomb spiders reaches capacity.
Once a tomb spider is full it will return to the production ship. These ships are small (by ship standards) vessels with similar dimensions to a medium sized cargo freighter. One will often oversee a few hundred mile radius and be solely responsible for the deployment and construction of troops in that area. The production vessel is equipped with all the machinery to produce a fully armed Rekhton soldier in under half an hour, quicker and cheaper than the production of most droids. They are then armed and placed in storage on the ship until deployment via tomb spider is necessary.
The process is conducted all while the victim is still alive, however the invasive procedures usually kill them anyway, and even if it doesn't the parts implanted into the brain snuff out any and all remaining individuality.
The body will decompose as standard, but all the while the soldier will be fighting and functioning as any other rekton. Its easy to tell how long a Rekton soldier has been in storage for by the level of decomposition they are exhibiting. In a morbid twist, if a unit of rekton soldiers still resemble the friends and allies of those they fight it is a clear signifier they are running out of stored troops.

Tactics

Rekton tactics are simple yet effective. Without the governance from the Necrophytes Rekton tactics have more or less stagnated. They overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers and numbers alone. Their compliment of vehicles exists only to support the ground troops in their grizzly task of gathering enemy bodies.
Tomb spiders are armed with basic weaponry, enough to defend themselves if the enemy lays an ambush. Tomb spiders also carry out bombing and close air support duties aswell, their under hanging cages can be packed full of explosives, they also use the tomb spider for delivering new troops on to a battlefield. In some rare cases the Rektons have been seen to field faster moving aircraft, though only a few fleets seem to know how to build these. Other than the tomb spider they do not have much in between it and the production vessel, which stands guard over an area and acts are the Rekton base of operations for a several hundred mile radius. The ship itself is heavily armed and easy capable of fending off a large scale attack. Above that are the invasion ships, ships that contain production vessels, and then finally, the command ship, this contains the fleet master, an amalgamation of multiple bodies which contains a basic level of sentience.

The Universal Transmitter

The Universal transmitter was created specifically by the Necrophytes to communicate and command the Rekton fleets. Unlike most forms of communication it requires no network to beam the communications quickly across the galaxy. The transmitter itself is an enigma even in the current day galaxy, with very few individuals, even the Necrophytes, being unsure of how it works.
When Regenold managed to gain access to the Universal Transmitter he sent a transmission out which reached a significant amount of Rekhton fleets, he called them back to the Necrophyte homeworld and used them to established the Necrophyte Order, his own twisted version of the Dynasty of old. The fleets that didn't receive the call to arms and end up re-outfitted as Shock Troopers remain an ever present threat slowly but surely making their way through the galaxy.