The Hottards are a species who are members of the Wake, a galactic convoy of ships.
Biology[]
Hottards are a dioecious bipedal species. They have a total of four arms, a pair of main arms attacked to their shoulders and a smaller pair located on their sides of their bellies. Each of their limbs contains four fingers. Their faces are somewhat round and triangular, with three large main eyes, three smaller secondary eyes and muzzle containing a mouth. Hottards apparently require an environment of extremely hot temperatures in order to properly function. Thus they require environment suits to interact in other biomes.
History[]
A Hottard named Magistræt Heilig having discovered a virgin planet through a Gardonnian psi-scout, claimed it for his people. The planet while teeming with life was ill-suited for his species and thus he relayed orders to his Migrunts to prepare the work to Hotta-form the planet by constructing a device called the Diverter to place the planet closer to the sun.
In addition to making the planet ready for his people, under the terms and conditions of Wake's colonization protocols, the Hottard also had to locate the missing psi-scout that had been sent to the planet to scan for any intelligent life. Hottard was assisted by drone companion Snivel in this endeavor.
The signal to the scout led them to a human girl named Nävis who had crashed upon the planet at a young age and lived a primitive existence, together with a great cat name Houyo. Unaware that the psi-scout was inhabiting the girl, the Magistræt ordered the pair to be captured, In the attack the girl and cat fought off the Hottard's Migrunts. When the human was about to be captured personally by the Magistræt, he was stopped by Houyo though his act in saving his friend costed him his life. Nävis having escaped swore revenge on the Hottard.
The Magistræt was angered by losing the two fugitives thinking that they were nothing but simple animals. However his assistant Snivel disagreed as he found the knife Nävis left behind, which was an example of a manufactured tool. But more amazing that she was an evolved creature, Snivel pointed out that Nävis was an oddity as their psi-scout had failed to report her in his scan. The droid had many more question on what kind of species Nävis was and where she came from. Unfortunately the Magistræt did not share his enthusiasm, as he only cared about completing the Hotta-forming of the planet.
The Magistræt then ordered his laboring Migrunts and Snivel to pursue Nävis, whilst he returned to their base to repair his environmental suit. Magistræt Heilig managed to make it back to his ship, serving as his base, having endured the cold environment, he was met with a call from his mate Saahre who was with the Wake Convoy. His was distressed to learn that the Hottard in the Convoy were experiencing severe cases of claustrophobia that it had begun to spread like an epidemic among the clusters of his species. Saahre implored him that it was urgent that he Hotta-formed the planned with due haste, which Heilig swearing that he would.
Snivel who was coordinating the effort to capture Nävis with the Migrunts, received news that the girl had fled into the remains of a crashed space vessel. The droid then finding the discovery to be exciting quickly reported this to the Magistræt. It confirmed that Nävis was a castaway who may be the only survivor, as she represented a race that met entirely new intelligence requirements from the Wake's. Snivel wished to report this find to the authorities on Wake, However doing so would put on hold the Hotta-forming plans for the planet as the Wake's scientists would want to preserve the lifeform and her wreck for study. Desperate to save his people, Heilig cut the transmission to the Wake using an excuse that the Diverter was causing interference. Snivel saw through this deception, realizing that his superior was intentionally withholding crucial information from their superiors. Snivel asked that Magistræt restore communications, warning that such breach in protocol would be viewed as treason. Magistræt though instead seemingly destroyed Snivel to prevent him from interfering with his plans to claim the planet for the Hottard,
Unknown to the Magistræt, Nävis was being aided by the psi-scout who was inhabiting himself within her. Having understood her scientific significance he managed to communicate with her to halt her attempts to destroy the Migrunts. And also warned her of the danger her world was in due to the Magistræt. That being said Nävis made peace with the three Migrunts who were pursuing her, convincing them that there was more to life than just following orders. Together with the psi-scout, and the Migrunts Leaf, Stone, and Booboo, Nävis aimed to stop Heilig 's plans. The psi-scout then with Nävis' help was taken to the remains of the cockpit of the ship to hopefully send a call for help from the Wake Convoy.
Heilig having dispatched Snivel then gave out orders to his Migrunts to eliminate Nävis and then proceed with destroy her wreck to remove all evidence of her existence. Though the kindness Nävis showed to the Migrunts inspired the laborers to take her orders as the "Freemaker" and rebel against Heilig. With army of the Migrunts standing at the Diverter, with Nävis leading them, Heilig was outnumbered. The psi-scout attempted to reason with the Magistræt to surrender and talk it out. The Magistræt refused and thus ordered the Migrunts to apprehend the human confident that they would follow his orders in their conditioning. It was partly successful as half of the Migrunts obeyed his commands while the other half refused, leading to brawl between the two factions.
Nävis tried to take Heilig's life but he easily restrained her and was prepared to kill her. He was stopped as his suit was shutdown by the Wake's authorities who arrived to see what the situation was after receiving the scout's message. There on the planet's surface they saw only chaos as they observed the fighting Migrunts. The commanding colonel then gave the order to the Migrunts to accept their reward, small green pills that were dispensed from their belts which they ate eagerly and caused them to self-destruct.
Heilig was taken into custody and stripped of his position as Magistræt. Before the Council of Wise at the Wake Convoy, he was charged with the destruction of material, treason and attempted genocide of an unknown race. He was condemned to have his psionic energy to power a freighter for the colony. His verdict was earned due to the lack of remorse the being displayed for his actions in hiding the truth, as the Council reasoned that there could have been a peaceful solution.
The Hottard was unrepentant as he know that the Council would have ceased the Hotta-formation and condemned his race to the destructive consequence of continued space travel. That now there were millions of death just so the Council could recover a scout and observe a savage biped in its natural environment. Whatever they thought of him, the former Magistræt believed the survival of the Hottards was worth the elimination of Nävis, especially when there was a question of doubt of her intelligence, even among the Council. Heilig took his punishment with satisfaction, as it showed the commitment to his people.
After he was taken away, some in the Council found their decision was difficult as the Hottard's arguments were defensible. But the Council knew that they had to make an example of Heilig to prevent future treasonous actions. In the end the Wake managed to find a suitable planet for the Hottards, where a statue of Heilig was erected in his honor.
Culture[]
The Hottard are members of the Wake Convoy, an interstellar convoy that contains thousands of vessels populated by numerous races who set out in search of adventure, riches and so forth. For the Hottard their motivations in the Wake are to locate a new world for themselves, as they are dangerously overpopulating the space within their own vessels.
Source[]
- Sillage #1 - À feu et à cendres