Drone Commander
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On the Range with Erika (Lore in the Comments)
🕑 Added 2025-05-31 14:22:42 +0000 UTCLore time. Erika is the first hybrid you meet early on. Her mum and dad were Sekarri and Kethri respectively. The Kethri (Fox like aliens) have even more advanced but ancient bio-tech capabilities.
Whilst Fel is a combat instructor, she's not allowed to be Straker's direct teacher - Rhyzark only agreed to Fel's original plan of abducting 400 people, as long as they were a mix of demographics; and not a power play from Sekarri girls to get more men on board. Remember the Battle Center in the Stellar Grove (Floramel's scene) - this is where Erika trains you; you can actually partake in battles in the centre to gain stats, level up and make money.
Let's get 2 birds with 1 stone and address both Bikini Armour and Sekarri hyper sexualised culture. Sekarri have various battle equipment, their older models of mech suits were bulky, unwieldy and ultimately failed in their civil wars prior to the Drone fleet arrival; as it was mostly border skirmishes, insurgencies and when they did come up against aliens, it was the Kethri who behaved much more like terrorists and special ops rather than a space going military power. They found, the best approach was a trade off, to balance protection and ease of removal, maintenance to allow for high speed and flexibility. The metal bra, cuffs, shoulder pads and belt pads aren't what they seem; they are housings for advanced nanite refills and batteries (yes good old fashioned batteries).
The casings protect them and the inner workings. In combat, the armour is activated sending streams of nanites held in suspension by a magnetic field between each armour piece. This forms a kind of proto-shield which can stop a direct hit from a human Challenger III tank. When not in combat, the nanites are kept in their chambers. They are a consumable, meaning there are small holes in the armour that open up, where you simply pour in the nanites to top up as required. Effectively it's not really armour, they are conduits for the nanites to be suspended into a shaped force field.
So they can be fashioned into whatever look they like, as long as there is redundancy. The Sekarri women outnumber the men 7:1, the men have a lower sex drive than human males but much larger ..ahem, reserves. Meaning micro-evolution nudged them closer to bird culture on Earth, where courtship, plumage, dancing plays a huge central part in their culture. Sekarri women, like human men constantly have s3x on the brain; but they are also ready to make a display of affection the minute they see an opening. Sekarri soldiers (predominantly female) have movies about a hero who died happy knowing she caught the eye of the man she liked on the battle field moments before her death. It's bananas and is a huge blindspot for them, which is why only in recent 200 years "men in the workplace" became valued, as they become a forcing function for more sensible tactics.
But now, with nanite tech everyone can be a 10/10, rarely anyone is ugly; overweight, out of shape - sure; maintenance is an issue that arises if you don't have good merit shares and service credits. So back to Erika, she's asked to join Straker's pride. Erika naturally gravitates to a Lorena role, Casual Mums (On-and-Off Caregivers). These mothers participate in their child’s life more sporadically, offering support and care when they are present but are not as consistently involved. They might have other duties or interests but still contribute to the child's upbringing when they can.
Comments
Adrik Stepanov
She looks more kitty cat to me.
Imsolo
Well she's in for quite the life ride with Straker. He'll make sure she's gonna have more then enough of her own kids to care for before she knows it ;)
