User:Connorjg1

K'lax in the wasteland

Since the K'lax arrival in the Hegemony many disenfranchised members of the Hive for one reason or another have drifted into the inhospitable Moghes wasteland. Whilst there are doubtless others roaming the wastes, the two most notable groups of drifters are listed below.

The Mi'kuetz

A band of K’lax, consisting primarily of Queenless Vaurca. They roam the Wasteland scavenging and surviving in the ruins of what once was Unathi kingdoms. They make use of a combination of Klaxan and Unathi gear. While they are Wastelanders, they practice the same tenets the Unathi of Moghes do. The Hegemony recognizes them, sometimes hiring them to do tasks that Sinta’Unathi cannot.

Due to their work in the wasteland and their population primarily being made up of Queenless, they do not have a specific coloration. However, they maintain the green tint the rest of their hive have, with some being darker and some being lighter in color.

History

These Vaurca were among the many to arrive at Uueoa-Esa. However, when the K’lax were vassalized by the Unathi, the need to have Queenless within the hive grew less and less, and more of them were resigned to live and work on Moghes, as part of an independent workforce.

As the Hegemony Unathi population viewed the K’lax in a negative light at first, a major case of discontent brewed within the ranks of the K’lax Queenless. Many banded together to their own communities, where games were played, social events were hosted, and police forces formed to self-govern the population.

A Mi'kuetz worker lounging upon a beanbag in the shade.

Eventually, they realized that life in the wastes might not be as bad as some of the Unathi have told them. When they ventured out into the wastes, they discovered that the inhospitable nature it holds towards Unathi affected them to a lesser degree. They quickly developed nomadic tendencies, and began calling themselves The Mi’kuetz.

Way of Life

In contrast to the minor oppression and difficulty these Vaurca faced in the past, their personalities are bright, cheery. They find it easy to connect to people, after the discomfort over the bug-like looks have passed. Workers have the best attitudes of the subtypes that exist. Happy-go-lucky, they work while singing tunes of custom-made songs praising the Queens and their community, derived from Unathi folk-music. Warriors are cocky, but good-natured. While they exude happiness and joy, their personalities do not interfere with their combat ability.

They are nomadic, roaming the wastes from site to site, in search of salvageable technology. They developed large bound that can be used as pack-animals, called the Vizk'tul. These bound are capable of holding many tents and supplies needed to survive on the wastes. They can also carry injured Mi’kuetz who are incapable of moving themselves. They find their use beyond what normal-sized bound can do by pulling large sleds. These sleds can contain a variety of useful things, a storage sled for transporting scavenged technology, or a mobile forge or kiln for working in the field. Some bound have large saddles upon which snipers and scouts perch to detect threats and possible scavenging sites. Their technology is catered primarily to their lifestyle. Their most well known to be a chemical substance engineered to burn in any environment, even underwater, much like Zorane Fire. This chemical is used in flamethrower-like weaponry, but can also be used to melt down scrap for recycling purposes.

Their food consists of genetically altered k’ois which does not spore when fully grown, but instead creeps along the surface of wherever it’s planted. While it cannot survive in the sands of the wasteland, the soil underneath contains enough minerals to allow farming. As farming while roaming is quite difficult, Mi’kuetz engineers developed soil beds that can be placed on top of traveling Vizk'tul.

Diplomatic Status

The Hegemony population grew to get used to the Mi’kuetz presence on their homeworld, but the Wasteland factions, with the exception of the Dorviza, tend to see them as intruders upon their lands, desecrating and salvaging ruins which are rightfully theirs. The Hegemony contracts these Mi’kuetz for jobs other Wastelander factions refuse to do, or Sinta’Unathi simply cannot do, due to environmental hazards or otherwise.

The Mi’kuetz also keep good relations with the main K’lax hive, having kept close contact with them even after venturing into the wastes. Their expertise are often sought by Klaxan chroniclers and researchers, who wish to learn more about Moghes and the technology that can be recovered to augment and advance their own.

They do not have a good relationship with the Aut’akh, as both factions have caught spies stealing technology from eachother, the Mi’kuetz being marginally more successful due to backing from the Hegemony. Some of these K’lax have been nicknamed Bunker Busters for their uncanny ability to penetrate Aut’akh dens, having remembered underground tunnel warfare doctrines from Sedantis.

Outside of Uueoa-Esa the Mi’kuetz aren’t very well known, but are recognized to be part of the K’lax hive. Nanotrasen and Hephaestus both are known to hire from this group, mainly as a way to find cheap labour to explore hazardous away sites.

Yiaa’mak’tzut

Commonly shortened as ‘Yiaa’, and referred to throughout the wastes by many titles such as; Spirit Walkers, Drifters, Metal Mi’kuetz and more, this group of K’laxian Queenless are known for their eccentric and often mysterious behavior as well as frequently their extensive augmentation. Little is known by the Hegemony about the hive-cell and officially the K'lax Hive denies their existence on the rare occasion they're pushed, preferring to maintain a healthy distance from the line of questioning. Many denizens of the wastelands however know a different story, one tied into myth, of a group of roving sorcerers possessed of great power, alien to the land in which they reside and adorned in obscuring dark cloaks. Though they all differ in the exact story,two ideas have persisted throughout most renditions. The first tells that these beings journey great distance through the deserts and scour ruins top to bottom in search of arcane materials and artifacts of exceptional potency. The second is that they offer pact or boons to those lucky or unlucky Unathi who they cross paths with. One of many key points where the mythology varies is what toll these supposed gifts demand. In some renditions they are offered for free, others in exchange for esoteric payment, from seemingly useless crystals to gold, to even taking Unathi as apprentices, those selected matching some strange inscrutable criteria and rarely returning home.

These myths which found themselves rapidly spreading throughout the wasteland since the K'lax arrival are possessed of some truth, though it can be difficult for someone investigating to determine where fact begins and story ends. The Yiaa operate a great deal of Vaurca technology, especially for a Queenless hive-cell. They scour the Wasteland for the materials required to repair or continue operating the potent tools and weapons which provide them their edge, frequently through a trade in which the Yiaa exchange for a helpful service. Whilst this is the preferred method, peace does not always work, and if a group proves particularly unfriendly, they have also been known to seize their goal with overwhelming force.

The Yiaa have developed a particular affinity for Aut'akh communities and in many cases the two have developed a somewhat strange symbiotic relationship, some few Aut'ahk groups even going so far as to proclaim them to be the surviving members of the Sinta'Mador.

The Yiaa vary greatly in their coloration, capable of appearing as any K'laxesque color. It's not unheard of for the occasional Vaurca or Unathi acolyte to leave to the greater Spur, typically with the goal of securing support, financial or otherwise, for the isolated hive-cell. Their enigmatic behavior does not deter megacorporations like Hephaestus, Zavadoski, and the PMCG from hiring them, with many Yiaa workers being very capable machinists, engineers, and scientists, and Warriors stripped of sensitive augmentations serving as corporate security and mercenaries.

History

The Yiaa'mak'tzut are reluctant to share their history with outsiders, but that reluctance is not entirely political. Simply put, most of them don't know the full story. What is known is that the Yiaa'mak'tzut were one of the few loose groupings of Queenless that were taken aboard the K'lax Hiveship during the Exodus, but owing to the group's reputation as capable engineers, political disputes ensured they were never entirely integrated into one brood or another. Rather, the Yiaa'mak'tzut under Ta'Akaix'Ilk'urker had a position similar to vagrants aboard the Hiveship, drifting from place to place and fulfilling work orders for favours. Given the majority of these work orders consisted of helping keep the ship functional, they were able to mostly avoid any of the normal retributory action that the broods often demonstrated towards Queenless Vaurca aboard the Hiveships during the journey.

This all changed when the Yiaa'mak'tzut Ta, Ta'Akaix'Ilk'urker, was accused of having her group intentionally sabotage the Hiveship on multiple occasions to further her own political ambitions. Whilst the evidence was undeniable, the motive was not, and Ta'Akaix'Ilk'urker argued that it wasn't spite against the Hive but rather coercion which had forced her actions. She claimed other Ta had on several occasions threatened consequences to the Yiaa'mak'tzut if they failed to sabotage their rivals. Whatever the ultimate truth, this defence was sufficient in the eyes of the Queens to stop the Yiaa'mak'tzut from being culled but not to stop them from being labelled traitors. Whilst they would continue to be kept around for their utility, they would never be looked at positively by the K'lax again.

Shortly after the end of the exodus and the K'lax settlement on Moghes, the Yiaa'mak'tzut, no longer needed for their utility, were exiled into the Moghesian wasteland. The Yiaa'mak'tzut were abandoned with minimal resources and eggs, left to fend for themselves by the greater Hive and ordered to never return.

The first months of the exile were gruelling. The Yiaa'mak'tzut unfamiliar with the harsh wasteland were exposed to the elements, starving, and constantly harried by wild animals and curious bandits alike. Travelling at night was just not a preference but a necessity to survive. Still this precaution did not help them when they were dealt their biggest blow to this day, a Gawgaryn raid on their encampment which saw Ta'Akaix'Ilk'urker shot. Whilst the raid was repelled, the Gyne was left critically wounded and without access to the advanced lifesaving medications typically available to the Vaurca it seemed likely she would die in spite of her best engineer, Ka'Akaix'Rail's, attempts. It was several days after this that the Yiaa’mak’tzut would achieve their lucky break.

One of the Queenless who had taken up monitoring communications detected an unconventional radio signal. Deep within a local mountain range was what sounded to be screaming. What was less perceptible was that it was actually a scrambled coded message, which, when the group decoded, signalled the location of an old nuclear fallout shelter. The group with minimal hope for anything else set out into the mountains in search of this supposed bunker. It was there, deep in the isolated mountains, that the Yiaa’mak’tzut would erect their permanent encampment and establish themselves.

Way of Life

To be one of the Yiaa’mak’tzut is to live a life of contradiction unique amongst the Vaurca. It is to be both uniquely powerful, wielding technologies of potency few in the scorched wasteland can imagine, yet to simultaneously teeter on the edge of extinction. It is to be revered and to be feared in equal measure. It is to wish for exposure and support, but remain secret for fear of retaliation.

Under the guidance of the ailing Ta'Akaix'Ilk'urker K'lax, the Yiaa have embraced their mythological status. Whilst it was originally a by-product of typical Vaurca behavior appearing alien to the eastern wastelands denizens, it has afforded the Queenless group a degree of protection they may otherwise have lacked, secrecy hiding both the dire peril they face, their homebase, and the true extent of their capabilities. The mystique of their reputation has allowed them to negotiate, coerce, threaten, and obtain trade and favors where they may otherwise not have been able to do so.

In truth the Yiaa are stretched thin. The chance discovery of a wartime bunker built by the Traditionalists before Moghes was engulfed in nuclear fire has given them somewhere to operate from and call home but a general lack of numbers and phoron alongside their Ta's injuries has restricted their operations massively, debatably for the best. Few want to chance drawing the ire of the greater K'lax Hive more than they already have, for any serious effort from the Queens would doubtless see them hunted and exterminated. For now the K'lax, embroiled in conflict and politics of their own, appear satisfied with simply pretending they don't exist.

The Vaurca of the Yiaa typically fall between one of three archetypical positions, either 'Home Watch', 'Survey' or 'Guardian.'

The Home Watch are responsible for managing all the affairs of the Rakaris Mountain Base, with Warriors guarding and patrolling the local region for bandits or the occasional prospective explorer, whereas Workers tend to the health of the Ta, grow K'ois, prepare expeditionary kits, assemble tools to grow the facility, and other such home-making duties. Conversely, the Survey perform the tasks the Yiaa are best known for: traveling the wasteland scavenging, recruiting, trading, responding to distress calls, and building the group's reputation. Occasionally if a settlement is of particular value to the group they may station a Vaurca there permanently, often a Warrior. This "Guardian" both acts as eyes and ears for the Yiaa as a whole, connected to the whole via Hivenet, and acts as a military advisor. The knowledge of their presence alone discourages raiders and they're armed well to make good on any threats. This position is exceptionally rare and there's only a handful of Guardians across the domains which the Yiaa stalk.

Vaurca can and will switch which duty they fill at the request of the Ta.

The Survey:

The Survey are what one almost certainly thinks of when picturing the Yiaa and they are essential for the groups survival, as without the essential components they collect the hive-cells already failing technology would doubtless complete its decline into obsolescence.

The Vaurca and occasional Unathi of the Survey often wear dark cloaks which serve both to shroud their alien forms, lending further to their general air of mystery, and allow them easier travel under the cover of darkness. Typically they move across the wasteland upon strange augmented Threshbeasts, in small caravans of three or four, though exact numbers vary. As to avoid bandits and other opportunistic scavengers they tend to travel at night, the cold and darkness posing little obstacle to the biologically robust Workers and Warriors. It is a foolhardy group of Gawgaryn who seek to rob from a Survey expedition however, as the group's reputation and stories of horror from those few who've survived making such conflict a rare occurrence. This is by design. The Yiaa have too few Warriors to waste upon fighting and certainly too few weapons to lose any in what they view as pointless conflict. A Survey expedition will almost always seek to negotiate a peaceful solution to a matter before resorting to open violence.

Technology

It is likely that the Yiaa, with their largely diminished numbers, ostracization from the K'lax Hive at large, and difficulty moving with an injured Ta, would have perished after only a few months or years in the harsh Wasteland if not for one critical element: technological superiority. Though lacking in numbers, the Yiaa possess abilities that, to many in the Wasteland, appear to be done as if by magic. With a wave of the hand or the tap of a staff, grievous wounds are healed, radiation burns become manageable, scales grow or change color, and walls of steel crumble and break, not to mention the potions and relics or seemingly prophetic abilities possessed by the mysterious wanderers. In truth, these capabilities are not derived from some outside entity but are largely down to a Vaurca worker known as Ka'Akaix'Rail K'lax, those disciples that work with them and the limited access to the processing powers of the Cephalons which the hive-cell possesses.

Ka'Akaix'Rail K'lax is mysterious and dismissive about their origins when confronted, with supposedly no one outside of Ta'Akaix'Ilk'urker knowing the full story, and even basic details such as how old they are prove elusive to those that interact with them. Despite this, the prevailing theory amongst the hive-cell is that Rail was not always Queenless, perhaps even having been a Xakat’kl’atan at one point. Whatever the truth is, Rail's engineering and scientific capabilities are undeniable. Much of the technology fielded by the Yiaa is based on K'lax designs, which have undergone heavy modification by Rail so that they can be created and maintained with extremely limited resources. Under their deft hands, mundane crystals are turned into laser weapon foci, rare catalysts are substituted for more abundant flora, and once-destroyed mining equipment is revitalized into deadly weapons of war. These tools are almost always inferior, if sometimes only slightly, to the real equipment and weapons, but this matters little somewhere like the Wasteland. Members of the Yiaa’mak’tzut have long argued about whether Rail's capabilities involve simply pulling these blueprints from memory or if they perhaps have a grand repository stored somewhere hidden in the Interstice, and the Worker, for their part, is slow to share these secrets.

Despite this, Rail is chiefly aware that even with their best medications, they will not live forever, and the engineer is rapidly aging. With no small amount of pressure from Ta'Akaix'Ilk'urker, they have begun teaching other engineers and scientists and stockpiling blueprints for when they do inevitably return to the Aether. While the majority of those who have received their tutelage are Vaurca, a few very promising Unathi acolytes have been granted the honor of being a part of these lessons and often leave as very resourceful, if slightly odd, engineers, machinists, scientists, or pharmacists.

Acolytes

The relatively small Yiaa’mak’tzut have developed a unique method of alleviating their manpower shortage, that of supplementing their numbers with the occasional Unathi. These Unathi, called Acolytes, are given basic tutelage on matters such as Vaurca augmentations, chemistry, technology, diplomacy, and a variety of others before being assigned to a specific Yiaa’mak’tzut Vaurca who they'll serve under, even accompanying them on Survey operations. The presence of an Acolyte on a Survey team not only frees up the need for a manual-labor Viax, with them being expected to fill the more menial jobs, but also can smooth over negotiations with the variety of clans and dwellings they expect to come across. When a Yiaa’mak’tzut Vaurca departs the wasteland for whatever reason it's generally expected their acolyte will follow, though sometimes they're left at the bunker.

Aut'akh

The Yiaa have developed a novel relationship with many of the Aut'akh underbelly groups on Moghes. This relationship first came around as they discovered these outcast Unathi possessed a superior understanding of the cities, and their fascination with augmentation, a trait shared by many in the hive-cell, meant they not only tended to get along well, but the communes could offer them "miracles" in exchange for services that couldn't be obtained elsewhere. One such service they can offer is passage off-world. Often, a Yiaa going off-world will go alongside a smuggled Aut'akh commune, travelling with them for several months or years before leaving to pursue interests more relevant to the Hive, such as corporate hire. Despite this close working relationship, Aut'akh tend to view the Yiaa with much the same superstitions their wasteland kin do, which can leave a degree of emotional separation between the two parties.