Racial Features: The Lii'dra are a long-lived race that resemble the Grays of Earth legend. Lii'dra live naturally for two-hundred years, exiting their pubescent stage at twenty seven Solarian years old. They have sexless bodies that are very humanoid, with six fingers and a thumb. Their heads are oblong and have two large entirely black eyses. Their bodies are hairless and are covered in a callous grey skin that does not puncture easily. They lack anatomical difference from one another, and each one is easily three times as strong as an average adult human male. Their bodies do not contain lungs, as they take in the atmosphere they need through their epidermis. Their legs are similar to a humans and end in toeless stubby feet.
The Lii'dra have extreme cellular regeneration abilities and robust immune systems. They are capable of regenerating from a charred husk, and will awaken with most of their memories, as they lack a traditional brain. Their cranial cavity isn't occupied by a brain, but an almost jelly-like vat of pure DNA in a complex series of chambers that even the Lii'dra with all of their high technology, are still mapping out. The DNA is what carries and stores the information instead of a brain. Massive organelles that are traditional to a cell occupy their brain cavities. This storage method allows them to have a perfect memory. They can communicate via psionic waves using a special organ in the center of their skull, but it's just for communicating. They cannot read minds or control minds. They are able to communicate more emotionally with one another if the sender and receiver of emotion both allow emotion to pass through their psionic communication. . These aliens are able to communicate in a radius of one mile and detect one anothers presence in a radius of two miles. The Lii'dra's blood is luminescent maroon, and very heavily smells of sulpher.
They need a special synthetically occurring gas to breath. The Lii'dra's home planet is the only known planet where the gas is naturally synthesized at the core of the planet due to magma interacting with a special mineral that has only been able to be reproduced in lab conditions, and is also not found anywhere else. The Lii'dra must constantly expend energy and water on board their ships in order to pump more gas out. The Lii'dra are capable of using advanced terraforming techniques in order to force a planet to become habitable to them while not in their suits, but they have found it much cheaper to merely inhabit their suits and ships. The Lii'dra always have to have pressurized canisters of the gas they require with them. Because of this limitation, the Lii'dra always wear their pressure suits, except when they are onboard their ships.
The Lii'dra culture is something that would be familiar to humans. They are a caste system, with warriors, engineers, and common laborers. The predecessor, the oldest known Lii'dra, inhabits a life sphere on the Lii'dra mothership. Due to the fact that motherships can change, the sphere is able to sustain the predecessor automatically if needed, and can be moved into a shuttle or another ship. It is old and shriveled and has lived far past the age of any normal Lii'dra.
Lii'dra are birthed asexually, when a Lii'dra separates a small piece of itself though a special reproduction process that takes one Solariain day and requires intense focus to complete, otherwise the young Lii'dra spawn will die. The spawn is then placed into a incubator, reminiscent of what Lii'dra originally were placed into on their home planet, when they were placed near humid thermal vents. Lii'dra are assigned a caste immediately after being successfully incubated, based on what their initial psionic output is. Aggressive thoughts are evident of a warrior, passive thought is evident of a laborer, inquisitive thought is indicative of a scientist, and so on. This is nearly always successful, as this process is very accurate due to the Lii'dra being given positions based literally on their most raw thoughtforms.
Lii'dra wear armored suits that allow for mobility and protection. Lii'dra's will have different suit loadouts based on their caste. A single gas tank for a Lii'dra suit will last for twenty four Solarian hours before needing refilling. Lii'dra who are without gas for an extended period will enter a period of deep hibernation for a period of two days before their body's functions halt, and begin to undergo apoptosis. During this period, they appear to be entirely dead. In reality, this is their body preserving their brain DNA fluid for as long as possible until finally dying for real. If they are given gas within this timeframe, their bodies will quickly regenerate and they will awaken. The Lii'dra are not harmed by any other gas that isn't the special gas they require in order to breath, but they cannot breath it.
Lii'dra believe that their consciousness return to the stars and will carry on for an eternity upon their death, on a journey of exploration and discovery. They do not believe in God's. Lii'dra practice ancestor worship, culminating in the quasi-divine status of the predecessor. It's a general rule not to question the mysticism of the predecessor.
The Lii'dra obtain sustinance from the gas that they also breath in.
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The Lii'dra use powered suits, named carapaces.
Each Carapace provides:
+ Enhanced strength.
+ Enhanced mobility.
+ Night vision/Thermal vision
+ An arm mounted heavy machine gun, firing large caliber armor piercing rounds.
+ Sonic defense system - Emits an extremely loud sound.
+ Dispersed gas containment system. It's not a big obvious gas tank on their back. Multitudes of pressurized small cannisters are hooked up all throughout the suit and each carries a portion of the gas.
+ Shoulder mounted explosive launcher: High explosive, smoke, and stun.
+ Grappling winch.
+Jamming signal. The suits emit a wide variety of frequencies meant to jam modern
electronics, video recorders, ect within a certain range. This doesn't impede the Lii'dra, who have no need for comms packages.
+ Self-destruct command. The suit will explode rendering its components inert.