The Argonian Race
The Argonians, self-identified, are another reptilian race. It is theorized that they are either an off-shoot of the Kraliens, or a ‘superior’ caste. They share common features, although the Argonians tend to wear more clothing. Rank or their place on the social strata appears to be marked by jewelry or ornamentation.
Initial contact with this race was deemed to be friendly, as they offered to trade information about the local area for information about us. Unfortunately, this was shown to be a ruse as a large Argonian battle-group captured Ambassador Maslov’s task force, killing him and hundreds of Terran soliders and civilians.
Their ships are larger than their Kralien counterparts, and appear to be better in nearly all aspects, save for speed, in which they are equal. Battle tactics, like all of the races thus encountered, are similar to the Kralien in that they use direct-fire weapons exclusively, and favor overwhelming their enemy with numbers.
Groups of Argonian vessels are highly dangerous, and have destroyed many TSN vessels. Hit and run tactics are suggested against these dangerous foes.
The Torgoth Race
Very little is known about this race. While they appear to be in league with the Kraliens, they do not appear to take orders from them, nor do they group with other racial battle forces. Their ships appear to have an independent self-destruct feature, which destroys the vessel should it become crippled.
The Torgoths, named for runic shapes on the first vessel seen, appear to be insectoid. Six-limbed with the same multifaceted eyes as the other local races gives rise to a theory that they all share a common planet of origin.
Their star vessels are very fast in sublight, almost as fast as our Artemis-Class Cruisers. However, they suffer from a slow turn rate. Tactics are invariable, as their ships are heavily shielded in the front, leaving them weaker in the aft hemisphere. Torgoth Commanders turn their vessels and charge into beam range, looking to inflict massive damage with their swarm of vessels.
We cannot stress enough how dangerous a group of Torgoth vessels are, against a single ship of the line. TSN Captains are well-advised to only engage the Torgoths with maximum advantage.
Brian, I appreciate the work that you are doing. It is entertaining and well thought-out. But as someone who is writing mission scripts I have a suggestion regarding the alien races:
ReplyDeleteThe storytelling possibilities become much more compelling if one of the alien races is humanoid. Right now you've got two reptilian and one insectoid enemy, which is very pulp 1950s classic sci-fi (I LOVE that stuff!). But it doesn't allow the type storytelling we saw on Star Trek and other shows that inspired Artemis.
Remember the The Enterprise Incident, when Kirk dressed up as a Romulan and Spock seduced the Romulan commander? Or the relationship between Princess Ardala and Buck Rogers? Great stuff!
You haven't described the Skaraans yet, so perhaps they can be humanoid. Otherwise I suggest making the Argonians humanoid because "Argonian" is a soft and relatively attractive word.
Having a humanoid enemy is great for LARPing, but even in a non-LARP game it's cool. Imagine a story that has a human spy planted aboard the Argonian flagship. Better yet, imagine a story in which an Argonian is disguised as a member of the Artemis crew. Imagine a mission in which Artemis can save millions of lives by rescuing the beautiful Argonian princess from a rogue Skaraan captain (I'm actually working on that one right now).
Thank about it. I'm only suggesting one humanoid enemy race to make things interesting. You could build an original culture for them like the Klingons or Romulans of Draconians or Cylons or whatever.