Iridi

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Iridi
Alien21.jpg

Homeworld:

Karisia

length:

up to 3 metres

Height:

up to 2 metres if standing

Diet:

Omnivorous

Intelligence:

Sapient

Technology:

Highly advanced (Class IX)

The Iridi are a sapient, technological species. They come from Karisia.

Physiology

Long, gracile creatures, Iridi are quasi-bipedal. They grow up to 3m long (both genders) and mass approximately 200kg. Being quasi-bipedal means they run on four legs, but can also use their hands for manipulation. They are also great climbers, and good on rough terrain, though swimming does not come naturally to them.

Their head carries many mandibles, which break up food and move it into the gullet. It also has six eyes. All can detect motion and shadow, but the first pair see red and near-infrared colours, the second green, and the third see blues and low ultraviolet. In this way, Iridi have trichromatic vision like humans.

They can produce sounds from their throat, with a very wide range of noises. Their hearing is also wide-ranged, from 10 to 30000Hz (compared to approx. 20-20000 in humans). They have a melon-like organ in the front of their heads, which enables them to use echolocation. Vision and echolocation are both present due to their home planet's rapid day/night cycles.

They have long, segmented limbs. These are strongly muscled, allowing the Iridi to run fast. When on all four legs, they swing their hands up to prevent damage, to the palm or the keratinous claws. This keratin actually acts as an exoskeleton, but is strengthened in the claws. Thick bony plates exist on the back and limbs.

They have a silicaceous endoskeleton, which is quite brittle. However, it is wrapped in strong tissue, preventing damage. Their long bones allow greater attachment and turning forces, so a sweep of the paw could kill a man.

Their tail ends in a hook, a relic of their days in the trees. It is reasonably flexible both laterally and vertically.

The reddish marks along their sides are for sexual display- males pump a blue fluid into them before mating, and females withdraw blood from them altogether. The more profound the change, the more attractive the Iridi (because of this, advertising involving bodies is all film).

They have a lifespan of up to approx. seventy years for males and eighty years for females.

Reproduction

Iridi become aroused if exposed to much sexual display. They mate with the male on top of the female, grasping her segments with his chest claws. He inserts his sperm into her genital pore, between the legs, and it then travels up through mucus to the eggs (which are released, surrounded by proto-placenta during arousal). If the egg is not fertilised, it carries on going.

However, if a sperm reaches the egg, they implant in the womb and develop. Gestation takes eight months, Iridi are viviparous.

Offspring can walk aged half a year, and speak aged one. Sexual maturity is reached at seven years old, and eggs and sperm are produced from them on.

Diet

Iridi are omnivorous, though they cannot eat hard substances like nuts and bone.

In the past, Iridi ancestors dug up tubers and pulled down fruits with their claws. After this, they used long sticks and rocks to dig as well as open insect burrows. They also ate carrion, and then moved onto hunting once they developed the spear, which could take down their prey from afar.

Intelligence

Iridi have large brains, and around 1400cc of brain cavity. However, their brains are denser than those of a human, so their processing power is as great. This is linked to a long spinal cord, responsible for impulsive and instinctual actions.

Society

All living Iridi specimens are members of the Kimu tribe, which first developed villages and farming. They went on to exterminate the other groups.

An Iridi cityscape

Right now, they live in a single city and on colonies. No rural Iridi exist any more, and they live quite individually, leaving home after maturity. Iridi must marry within a year of leaving home, or they will have a partner chosen for them.

Married couples live in a household, caring for children until they leave the house.

Iridi rarely go into the private sector, usually working for their own race. Voll, the CEO of Genetic Solutions, is a notable exception.

Culture

Iridi have art, sport, and music. Music is completely vocal, and often is of messages about love or loss, like human music.

Their sports are mainly martial, but there are also one based around throwing rubber balls into a goal-hole on the other end of a field.

Their art can be of many things, but most usually it is of Iridi. Recently, an abstract movement has grown in power.

Religion

Most Iridi are irreligious, though most cities have a Girrism cult. Girrism is based on the belief that all life is in the hands of a group of immensely powerful spirits, which manifest as balls of fire. Recently, they were made to accept that stars are not these spirits.

Technology

Iridi are an advanced race, capable of interstellar space travel. This is done by travelling in their ships temporarily into the Crossverse and back again, and as such is quite dangerous, or using a Hyperdrive.

They have developed railguns and anti-matter weapons, though their prohibitive cost means their militaries use standard guns and missiles. They are ethically opposed to nuclear and chemical weaponry.

An Iridi spaceship

They have developed a kind of shield, based on a transparent field of ions around the device. It can be used by infantry, vehicles or even whole planets, though it can only take around 1kg TNT equivalent per metre squared. In addition, they have repulsor fields.

Spaceships

Iridi ships are usually equipped with fission engines, but also chemical-based thrusters (liquid hydrogen and oxygen mix). They can travel into the Crossverse using a distortion device, and therefore travel FTL. However, this is quite dangerous.

Iridi ships are of several types. The largest are the Sakros-class battleships, at 3500m long and with spinal railguns, cannons, heavy machine guns, nuclear bombs and RFGs (dense metal poles fired towards a planet, the planet's gravity accelerating them to very high speeds).

The most common are the lightly armed Diomedon-class freighters, often 2km long. These are used in trade and transport.

There are also Telemos-class battle cruisers, up to 900m long. These have large bombs and RFGs for orbital strikes. They also have large conventional cannons and heavy machine guns.

Iridi also have 430m-long Philax-class destroyers, which counter other spacecraft. They use rocket torpedoes and heavy machine guns.

All Iridi ships have carbon-titanium hulls, and a kind of shield, based on a transparent field of ions around the device. However, it can only take around 1kg TNT equivalent per metre squared, so they are no good in protracted battles.

A spread of Iridi rocket torpedoes

Fleets

The Iridi have ten military fleets (with a total of 4175 ships, making it the third largest fleet in the Viperius Galaxy after those of the Aians and Salsenes), of which one is a particularly large reserve fleet:

The First Fleet contains 400 ships, of which two hundred and ten are Philax-class destroyers, one hundred and forty are Telemos-class battlecruisers, and fifty are Sakros-class battleships.

Lead ship: ICS Ajactos

In the Second Fleet, there are 350 ships. One hundred and ninety are Philax-class destroyers, one hundred and ten are Telemos-class battlecruisers, and fifty are Sakros-class battleships.

Lead ship: ICS Phaemon

Within the Third Fleet are 350 ships, of which one hundred and fifty are Philax-class destroyers, sixty are Telemos-class battlecruisers, and forty are Sakros-class battleships.

Lead ship: ICS Dalaetos

The Fourth Fleet consists of 370 ships; two hundred Philax-class destroyers, one hundred and ten Telemos-class battlecruisers, and sixty Sakros-class battleships.

Lead ship: ICS Mirava

In the Fifth Fleet are 350 ships, and one hundred and forty of these are Philax-class destroyers, one hundred and ten are Telemos-class battlecruisers, and one hundred and Sakros-class battleships.

Lead ship: ICS Xander

The Sixth Fleet has 370 ships. One hundred and ninety are Philax-class destroyers, one hundred are Telemos-class battlecruisers, and eighty are Sakros-class battleships.

Lead ship: ICS Araxa

In the Seventh Fleet are 425 ships. Two hundred and forty are Philax-class destroyers, one hundred and five are Telemos-class battlecruisers, and eighty are Sakros-class battleships.

Lead ship: ICS Arella

The Eighth Fleet consists of 360 ships. Two hundred are Philax-class destroyers, ninety are Telemos-class battlecruisers, and seventy are Sakros-class battleships.

Lead ship: ICS Charas

In the Ninth Fleet, there are 400 ships. Three hundred and fifty are Philax-class destroyers, forty are Telemos-class battlecruisers, and ten are Sakros-class battleships.

Lead ship: ICS Vaniros

The Tenth Fleet is the Iridi reserve fleet. It contains 800 ships, and six hundred of these are Philax class destroyers, one hundred and forty are Telemos-class battlecruisers, and sixty are Sakros-class battleships. This fleet is drawn from only in emergencies.

Lead ship: ICS Xaka

Relations with other races

The Iridi have encountered several other sapient species. In the past, they did far more interference, uplifting several species. The consequences of several of these actions (total extinction or catastrophic war) cause the Iridi to adopt a non-interference policy for pre-interstellar civilisations.

Aians

It is known that this was the Iridian first contact. Iridi respect the Aians, and the sides have an alliance. They often send ships to assist each other, though Aian space superiority is clear, for example against the Kerarans.

Salsenes

The Iridi and Salsenes have made contact. Currently, they are researching each other using envoys, and sharing information.

Deraia

The Deraia and Iridi are allies, helping each other in exploration.

Mantrid

The Iridi fought a long war against the Mantrids, which ended in the bombardment of the Mantrid homeworld, Mantrus. The few survivors were taken away by the Iridi.

Elisri

The Iridi have fought the Elisri, when some Elisri craft attacked a freighter.

Aoarus

The Aoarus have razed four Iridi worlds completely. The Iridi have declared war.

Zyrothans

The Iridi and Zyrothans met very recently. They have embassies to each other, and trade.

Detroni

The Iridi often accept Detroni families into their settlements.

Kerarans

The Iridi hate the Kerarans, and have fought them more than once. However, they are not powerful enough to defeat their foes without assistance.

Vrah

In the Redsky War, the Iridi rescued the Vrah from their war-torn planet and helped them in their ineffectual fight against the Kerarans. As such, they have a firm friendship. Iridi sometimes use Vrah against enemies, usually in war. However, their own agility makes Vrah less popular for hire.

Skarg

The Iridi were the ones who uplifted the Skarg, though a great war amongst the Skarg resulted. They also carried them around Viperius.

Notable Iridi