Rudra Outcast Colony
The Rudra outcast colony is a colony of the Rudraic Empire, having 'disposed' of the unwanted elements of their civilization, rendering the inhabitants effectively exiles. Despite that the colony has been provided with enough resources to secure their continued existence, to prevent any acts of vengeance. The exiles themselves have been cast out due to more of political reasons and varying views, rather than being a colony of criminals. The colony itself relatively independent, having colonized it´s new homeworld and its moon and having a few mining outposts and trading stations throughout the system, however will not receive any help from the empire it originated from.
Now, after having established themselves in the system over the course of the last few years the first few official contacts have been made with the outer world, transmissions going outwards with hails and trading offers...
History:
The history of the original empire is relatively simple and has been split by the historicians into four main ages:
The age of Clans:
For a long time after the Rudra achieved sentience, they lived in clans, whilst these clans persist to this day, back then they were highly territorial and aggressive, resources were scarce on the surface of the planet as it had only a few watersources, Clans were fighting whenever they met and usually only one of them left the battlefield alive, clans usually consisted of a few dozen, up to around a hundred individuals, which was limited by the nomadic nature, when a clan grew too big, elders and young folk were exiled, either to die or form their own clan. This age lasted for several dozen millenia, none of the clans growing particularly powerful, again due to their nomadic nature, however eventually some of the Clans began settling down and soon after, the next age ensued...
The age of Strife:
Whilst the Clans were highly territorial and aggressive by their very nature, in the past this did not prove much of an issue on the large scale. Now however, population numbers grew further than before and technology started advancing, their clans and homes were rooted in place making the conflicts even more fierce than before, several large clans rose and fell under the constant ambition of making their weapons more effective, their fortifications more powerful...
Like this they advanced through the ages, opposed to humans which took several thouasand years, the Rudra advanced from their first settlements to fission technology with only a few centuries...
...and as the fission weapons were discovered, the Rudra civilization as they knew it ended within only a few months. It is uncertain to this day which clans fired the first warheads and how long ago this was, nor does it still matter at this point, as after the conflict the planet was shrouded in darkness, an irradiated wasteland and with the nuclear winter, the third age came...
The Dark Sleep:
Only refered to as 'the dark sleep' the age of the nuclear winter reduced the planets biosphere to shreds, the air was thin and satiated with radiation and there was rarely any light, 99.98% of all lifeforms went extinct, but by a course of events that borders a miracle, the Rudra survived, after another several hundred years under the thick clouds a race heavily altered by the radiation stepped into the light as the clouds started subsiding...
The age of Light (also refered to as 'The age of Stars'):
After the clouds subsided the first city was formed by a large group of survivors, led by a particularly powerful leader, the city was named 'Citadel of Stars' which is todays capital and has been adapted as the name of the homeworld. By using fragments of technology from before the winter, the civilization slowly started to sprout again, as the survivors heard of the city and wandered towards it, now all united under a singular leader and after the heavy mutations in their cognitive systems by the radiation, the Rudras aggressiveness seemed to have, at least partially, degenerated to minimal levels, although they retained their warrior culture.
Over time, more, smaller cities seemed to sprout around the larger ones and the civilization prospered anew until it eventually reached the stars...
It took the Rudra an ominously low amount of time to reach the age of ftl drives, it is rumored that there has been an outside intrusion at this point, others instead praise it as the work of their formidable leader, but as they reached space their territorial nature seemed to slowly return, however this time rather than directed inwards, directed outwards, as the Rudra were in a particularly densely populated starcluster...
After approximately one decade they had conquered around 33% of the local starcluster, or rather it´s inhabitated worlds, counting at around eight, interestingly enough they then suddenly stopped their expansion and reinforced their defenses and built up the infrastructure of their newly acquired territory...disposing of any opposing sentient races in the process...
This cycle repeated two more times, the Rudra conquering the entire starcluster with it´s 24 habitable worlds in the process, exiling anyone who dared to oppose their current emperor into outcast colonies like the one in G-S16, the last expansion wave lies thirteen years in the past...
Owned space:
The exact position and size of the Rudraic Empire is currently unknown, according to unconfirmed rumors the main empire is currently in possession of 25 more or less habitable worlds.
The Colony on the other hand only owns it´s own system, including it´s homeplanet and the mooncolony. It located somewhere in the 'western' sector of the galaxy.
Politics:
The politics of the Colony are relatively simple, most of them share the opinion that many of the things the emperor had done were wrong in one or the other way, to prevent such actions from the colony, they have assembled the 'Council of Clans' a gathering of the colonys clanleaders, which together decide on the fate of the colony. Any new clanleaders can enter the council, given that their clan is big enough.
Species:
The original 'Rudra' species, which had lived before the nuclear winter is long forgotten at this point, people know that they were likely humanoids, but it is hard to determine any details as the irradiated world had destroyed most traces of the former races dna.
The current form of the Rudra (Rudra-Iradi) would be described by other races almost as 'demonic' in appearance, they have a red skin and are roughly about 2.7 metres tall, the females being on average 20 centimetres smaller, the males have have big protruding canines and both genders has a pair of large black horns reaching from 20 to 40 centimetres growing out of their heads and their eyecolors reach from orange to yellow, notably, each individual has two pairs of eyes sitting above each other.
The race is extremely sturdy, having a more dense muscle structure and more durable bones than humans, their horns being almost as durable as some spaceship armor alloys and due to it´s past they are also extremely resilient to radiation, heat and cold.
An average Rudra has a lifespan of roughly about 230 years, some individuals however reaching ages up to 300, they reach adolescence at the age of 30 and are considered an elder once they reach infertility, which is usually around the age of 170-200.
Another notable trait is an allergy to certain asteroid salts, which they had only found out once they reached space, the first unlucky specimen coming in contact with the salts turning blue and shedding it´s skin, however not dieing or receiving any lasting damages a while after the exposition had stopped.
Military:
Whilst the colony is in theory a seperate entity to the empire, most of their culture and military tactics have been carried over to their new home.
Due to the warrior culture of the Rudra, both male and female usually serve in the military defense forces or police duty for three decades one decade after they reached adolescense, after this period the Rudra can decide to either continue with their service or seek another profession, whilst it is theoretically possible to abort the service earlier or pass on it completely, most Rudra go through their entire 30 service years regardless as it gives them recommendations for any job they apply to and within their culture those who have served a long time in the military have a high reputation.
In ground combat the Rudra usually rely on heavily armored mainline units which ride warbeasts, which are ironically held as pets in times of peace, additionally to their heavily armored units there are usually armored landingships equipped with drop pods as well as so called 'Hunters', essentially Guerilla troops which hunt down supply convoys and are used in ambushes and flanking tactics. Due to their high physical capabilities they are fierce warriors and it is strongly advised to avoid close quarter combat situations.
In spacecombat their behaviour is rather diverse however there are certain tactics they seem to choose preferably if they have the choice:
-Artilleryline: The Rudra are in possession of large artillery ships (for example the 'Steelrain' class) which they keep in the back of their formation, these ships are usually defended by armorships (for example the 'Bulwark' class) which take hits with their heavy armor, the frontline is usually formed by smaller craft like corvettes and fighters, holding off craft that tries to get behind the defensive line.
-Spearhead: A rather traditional tactic in which a convoy of destroyers and battleships are pushed into the enemy formation guarded by armorships, usually accompanied by packs of fighters which ward off attempts of intruding the formation or flanking it.
-Hunterpacks: An unconventional tactic in which fighters and corvettes fly in the shadows of larger ships, whilst the larger ship is tanking the initial fire and puts pressure onto the enemy, the smaller ships outmanouver the enemy to attack weak spots in their ships.
Ships:
Ironhead
Fighters used by the Rudra Outcasts, they are state of the art technology, measured by their standards, and equipped with a triple plasma gatling and point defense systems as well as shields. Despite their heavy armor they are quite manouverable, giving the Rudra a good baseline for their fleet.
Broadsword
A 'Broadsword' class frigate used by the Rudra Outcasts, equipped with two mass accellerators several kinetic cannons and a turret mounted behind the bridge, it is versatile and adaptive with all critical parts of the ship being protected by shields, compensating for sections which are less armored.
Bulwark
The 'Bulwark' class armorship plays an important role in Rudra warfare, it is heavily armored and has full shielding unlike most of the other craft and also has very few structural weakpoints, even the turrets being armored. The speed of the ship is however mediocre at best, given it´s heavy weight.
Citadel
The 'Citadel' class cruiser is one of the larger ships of the Rudra navy, being equipped with a broadside of linear mass accellerators, heavy kinetic cannons and an array of laser turrets, it has a large variety of weaponry at it´s disposal, even mounting several guided missile launchers which can be reconfigurated for torpedos. It has heavy armorplating and its advanced sensor arrays improve the accuracy of the surrounding ships, making it a valuable asset on the battlefield.
Steelrain
The 'Steelrain' class is more of an artillery platform than an actual cruiser or battleship, it´s armor is only mediocre which it makes up with a decent manouverbility for it´s size, it has a total of six superheavy quadruple kinetic cannons, as well as emp missile launchers and an array of defensive turrets, it usually sits protected behind lines of defenses, dishing out heavy damage to everything that gets into it´s firing range.