Obdurate

The Obdurates were a belligerent alien species that once was a threat to all star-faring civilizations.

Biology
Obdurates were a humanoid race that was noted to be extremely durable, able to take a lot of damage to actually hurt them. In fact nothing sort of beheading will stop an Obdurate.

History
The Obdurates were the aggressors in a war that lasted fourteen centuries that sought the extermination of all other races. A coalition of kingdoms of the various races was formed, the Alliance, but was on the verge of losing. One of the members of this alliance, being the Imperium Ascendant, sought to the aid of one of the oldest races in the galaxy...the Scorchers. The Scorchers dismissed the war as a squabble between lesser races. But the Imperium drew them into the war, thanks to the aid of one of its top agents, Proteus Vex, who used an indestructible ship of rogue Scorcher design, the Farrago, to collide through an Obdurate vessel. The Obdurates pursued the would be Scorcher vessel to the Rixxot System, where a Scorcher nursery colony existed. The Farrago proceeded to flood the system with chatter that convinced the pursuing Obdurates to believe they stumbled on an Alliance military base. The fleet attacked the planet of the Scorchers, finally drawing the ancient race into the war.

The conflict was brought to an end with the deaths of billions of Obdurate citizens, caused by the Alliance teleporting a dying white dwarf star into their system. Now, decades later, as the galaxy’s races come to terms with an uneasy peace.

In the post-war many of the Obdurates holdings were divided among the kingdoms. The surviving Obdurates were mostly persecuted, and it wasn't uncommon to see other sentient use them as punching bags or vectors to vent out their frustrations. For all intents, the Obdurate civilization was no more, but that proved to be untrue as an agent of the Imperium Ascendant discovered a lost Obdurate generation colony. Though the colony was at the level of an agrarian society and have yet to rediscover spaceflight, a select few of the Seaborne Coagency and Imperium Ascendant decided that the colony needed to be destroyed. For if the colonist ever made contact with the wider galaxy, and the Obdurate War, the leaders of both powers feared that they would seek revenge on the galaxy.

In a massive conspiracy, Chancellor Rho 7 Baryon went MIA after murdering the Ascendant agent who informed him of the colony and later he conspired with the Seaborne to eliminate it. However Baryon did not anticipate that his most dedicated subordinates, Proteus Vex would be sent to track him and return him to the Imperium. Despite his attempts to reframe from killing Proteus using assassins, Baryon had to shoot Vex in cold blood. Vex though was saved thanks to a Citheronian prisoner who nearly murdered everyone on the Seaborne vessel Baryon was on. To prevent more needless bloodshed, Baryon agreed to heal Vex and explain his actions. But when Vex and his ally learned of the plot, they decried the action to be nothing short of genocide, especially to a colony that played no part in the war. Together the two joined forces to kill Baryon and anyone who was aware of the Obdurate colony, hopefully leaving it in peace.

During the Scorcher War, Proteus Vex, Marshal Bihet and Melody Pen Naday devised of a ingenious plan to secure a new fleet for the Imperium Ascendant after the Scorchers declared war on it. Prior to the war, the Scorchers were assigned the duty to construct a new fleet for the Imperium. But since the two kingdoms were now at war, acquiring the fleet seemed impossible. Their plan took them to Vahus Void where a fleet that was originally bringing constructed, and using the Farrago, the crew of three diverted several physical ammunition blocks used by the Scorchers to destroy the custodian fleet guarding the shipyards. There they planned not to take only the fleet, but elicit the aid of the enslaved Obdurates who had built the fleet.

Culture
When the Imperium Ascendant made contact with the Obdurate, they responded in violence, and afterwards went off to invade other worlds, butchering the people, stealing their supplies and moving onto the next world. They ignored all attempts at negotiation and only responded with hostility.

The Obdurates were apparently a decadent culture that believed themselves to be a superior race. Some Obdurates would abuse their bodies to near death, thanks to their innate physiologies, and then invite a Flesh-Pilot in to take control and repair the damage. Once the repair was done, they would expel the Flesh-Pilot to repeat the process. Obdurates were a cruel species that honestly never saw their actions to be evil even when they attempted to wipe out every sentient race in existence. Even when they faced retributions by their enemies they were psychologically incapable of conceiving why the other races would destroy their homeworld.

Appearances

 * 2000 AD Issue 2163: Proteus Vex: Another Dawn: Part One by Michael Carroll (2019)
 * 2000 AD Issue 2164: Proteus Vex: Another Dawn: Part Three by Michael Carroll (2020)
 * 2000 AD Issue 2165: Proteus Vex: Another Dawn: Part Four by Michael Carroll (2020)
 * 2000 AD Issue 2168: Proteus Vex: Another Dawn: Part Seven by Michael Carroll (2020)
 * 2000 AD Issue 2315: Crawlspace Part Four by Michael Carroll (2023)