The species currently known as Battle Thralls were encountered after the subjugation of humanity by the Outsiders and the resulting rebellion.
They are eight to ten feet tall therapodians with varying dark shades of scaled skin. They also posess a series of thick translucent crystalline plating on their torso, arms and thighs that is usually a brighter colour.
They appear similar to bipedal dinosaurs such as tyrannosaurids or dromaeosauridae, but with significant differences. They possess three clawed toes and an elongated and serrated dew claw on each foot, with two fingers and an opposable thumb on each forelimb, again clawed. Their eyes are capable of independent movement and possess W-shaped pupils.
The location and size of their space is unknown.
TIMELINE
During the early days of the post-subjugation rebellion, humanity seemed to have caught the Outsiders off-guard. They eventually responded, however, with both Outsider forces and warships from an unknown species that quickly became known only as Outsider Battle Thralls.
After the assault and capture of the Outsider Mothership 'Zmnyi Myaz', several pilots began to attempt to communicate with these Battle Thralls, hoping to cease the conflict with what they supposed was another subjugated species.
With several false starts and a few unpleasant situations, not helped by human computer systems being unable to interpret even the most basic Thrall transmission, eventually a Thrall ship left some unknown technology behind after creating a wormhole to leave, and this was taken to the Accord and the Pact to attempt to reverse engineer it and decipher its purpose. It remained a mystery until the rescue of the famous scientist Peter Fienstein, however, who was able to easily grasp the technology behind the device, revealing it to be a form of translation unit, capable of learning. He quickly began work on developing a method to interpret Thrall transmissions, with the intent of eventually creating a fully fledged translator.
Eventually a basic conversation was held via ship-to-ship transmissions between human pilots and a Thrall vessel, and after several such 'meetings', the Thrall was willing to land and meet the humans in person.
Currently, a member of the Thrall Leadership caste is in talks with the Accord of Free Stars.
FACTS
The chitinous crystalline plating that covers a Thralls body appears to have grown as some form of natural armor, as opposed to merely being worn.
They can produce a range of tones from below human capability to far beyond our capacity to hear, but cannot vocalise in a manner to form sounds that could allow them to speak Esperanto or another human language.
The little that is known of their culture indicates that they have a strictly defined caste structure consisting of several castes, though at present only Leadership and Pilot castes are known to us.
The Battle Thralls are currently subjugated by the Outsiders as humanity was back before the journey of the Percival Lowell - Stage Two Subjugation, where the species has significant autonomy as long as any Outsider edict is immediately followed, and significant portions of their production capacity is used to fuel Outsider needs.
RUMOURS
Thralls appear to attach some cultural significance to eating, and refuse to do so or allow it in their presence.
They also wear a thin mesh-like mask over their snouts to hide their mouths, for reasons unknown. A small slit allows their tri-forked tongue to emerge periodically.
It was strongly implied by one of the Pilot caste Thralls during one encounter that the majority of the Leadership caste has been captured or exterminated by the Outsiders many years ago, and this is one of the main reasons that the Outsiders were able to control them as de facto replacements for the Leader caste.
While thralls of the Outsiders, there is clear dissention within the species. With the recent talks between a Thrall diplomat and the Accord of Free Stars, it is clear that not every member of their species is content with being subjugated by their xenophobic masters.
Each Thrall currently seen appears to have some kind of marking etched on their chest plating, possibly relating to their caste. At least one has had theirs partially obscured with three diagonal slashes.
