Scorcher

The Scorchers are an ancient race of the galaxy. Currently "The Superstructure", a celestial body built from four sibling planets serves as their adopted homeworld.

Biology
Unique among the known races, Scorchers evolved inside their homeworld, close to its core. They are the oldest known race--photovores with an inherent grasp of technology and the ability to directly manipulate energy. The resembling large stone hot giants. Specimens have been reported to reach the age of a million years.

History
The Scorchers were sought by the Alliance for thousand years ever since the Obdurates declared war. General Netores Edge of the Imperium Ascendant was sent on a diplomatic mission to convince the Scorchers to get involve in the conflict. But the Scorchers declined as it was not their way to involve themselves in the squabbles of lesser races and refrained to get involved for fourteen hundred years. In order o bring the Scorchers into the war, the Imperium Ascendant's agent Proteus Vex deliberately attacked a Obduarte ship using his vessel the Farrago to attack the Eighth Obdurate Fleet.

After he pierced one of their vessels, the Obdurate fleet went into pursuit. Vex lead them to Rixxot Minor, a small Scorcher colony of at least seventy.

The Alliance had seeded the Rixxot System with comms relays, filling channels with enough chatter and code fragments to convince the Obdurate that they stumbled upon an Alliance military base. So the Obdurates did what they were bred to do and attacked. However what really brought the Scorchers into the war was that Rixxot was more than just a colony but a nursery. Nine Scorchers died on Rixxot, the first deaths to their race in three hundred years.

After the war had ended the Scorcher eventually discovered deception played by the Alliance. They held a grudge against the Imperium Ascendant especially Proteus Vex for his part in bringing war to them. Though in Proteus Vex's defense the action was necessary as the Obdurates would have eventually come for the Scorchers after they wiped away the Alliance. He approached a group on Korregag in the Reactionary core, seeking the missing Chancellor Rho 7 Baryon. Though they could take their revenge on him, he made it a point that Baryon knew most of their dirty secrets and his return to the Imperium was paramount. The Scorchers grudgingly agreed the threat of Baryon loose was a greater priority. Knowing that their kind created the tracking technology implanted in Baryon, Vex asked if it was possible for it to be removed. The Scorchers revealed it was within their ability but they did not have the will to undergo the procedure as the tracking device was within the nervous system of the subject but there was a species who could remove it: the Dahodem. After revealing that a pair of Dahodem were present of Korregag, the Scorchers urged Vex to bring Baryon back to the Imperium Ascendant.

The Scorchers were revealed to be a part of an even greater conspiracy during the Obdurate War. In order to achieve decisive victory over the Obdurates, the Scorchers plotted with the Alliance to teleport a star in the midst of the enemy homeworlds. However the Scorchers’ technology only worked on a specific type of Star, a white dwarf. The only white dwarf star that met the criteria belonged to a race known as the Silent, then a newly discovered and unknown spacefaring race. The agents of the Imperium Ascendancy tried to peaceful negotiate with the Silent to have them evacuate their world but the species refused. Faced with a breakdown in negotiations and the impending threat of the Obdurate invasion, the Ascendancy proceeded with the plan. The star was teleported into the Obdurate system, finally destroying the race's will to continue and ending the war. Though the Silent’s homeworld and it’s populace frozen to death without their Sun. Only a few thousand Silent remained as they had been off world. To ensure none knew of their genocide, the Ascendancy purged record and manipulated galactic communications across the Galaxy. The latter plan caused all translation programs to be unable to translate the Silent's spoken word to prevent them from spreading the truth, effectively silencing them. The Ascendancy’s role of the genocide was uncovered by their agent Proteus Vex who was repulsed by the deceit and crime, released the information with the aid of the Citheronians.

There appeared to be more to the conspiracy as Vex, now on the run from his own government for his betrayal, found that the Scorchers lied about needing a white dwarf star to end the Obdurate War. They intentionally selected the Silent’s star because it contained a star-borne species that was of similar compositions of the Scorchers. The Scorcher finding it blasphemous that their uniqueness as a race was threatened used teleported the star as excuse to wipe out what they perceived as aberrations.

However when the now fugitive Proteus Vex confronted the Scorchers, they were unrepentant of their atrocity, holding themselves above the laws of lesser species. The Imperial Ascendant's agents then arrived to take Vex into custody for his treason, the Commissioner of the group let it slip that the Ascendant had hidden the existences of hundreds of similar species to the Scorchers. This revelation enraged the Scorchers, killing Commissioner and threaten war on the Imperium unless they turned over all the locations of these cousin species. When the Imperium refused the Scorchers then set upon themselves to destroying the galaxy.

Culture
Scorchers are an advanced race that were unaffected by disease or decay with lifespans immeasurable compare to other races until the Obdurate War.

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 2269: Proteus Vex: Desire Paths - Part 8 by Michael Carroll (2022)