The Plasmans

From BluWiki

Physical Description

Plasmans are, basically, sentient plasma-based amoebas. An average Plasman can grow as large as a small shuttlecraft. They reproduce like amoebas, i.e. they split in two once they grow large enough. Plasmans cannot forget anything, and their brain is decentralized, meaning it is quite hard to read their mind, and even harder to influence it with telepathy. Custom requires that once a Plasman separates, the two Plasmans must go in different directions, and develop different personalities. An average Plasman lives about 167 years. They nourish themselves with the gases in the atmosphere, so they literally "live off the air" (or however you say it. I'm Icelandic). They are capable of storing these gases for use later, as emergency supplies, or, to use as propulsion, since they are capable of exploding the gases to propel themselves. Their primary method of defense against the winds of a Gas Giant is their use of a slight electromagnetic force field to divert the wind away from them, and this field also allows them to interact with objects without melting them, by diverting away the heat. They can also use radio waves to communicate and “see”. It is proven that each new generation is a tiny bit larger than the other, probably because they need more space for all their memories. By the way, they come in lots of colors, but the common ones are: yellow, red, white, brown, blue and green (those are all star colors, by the way). And finally, a word of warning: never shake hands or get into a fistfight with a Plasman (unless you have some way of resisting extreme heat).

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Culture:

The Plasmans are mostly loners, although they often talk to each other (via radio waves). They are ruled by a council, and elections are held every 5.8 years (two Plasman years). When they reproduce (split), tradition demands they immediately separate to eventually develop into new personalities. All Plasmans are atheists, and very scientific. They are also very pacifistic (which isn’t a good thing in this universe of turmoil), but they are also quite logical, which means their ships are equipped for defense. They also have specialized warships, but these are quite rare. Most of their weapons are plasma-based (they ARE plasma-based themselves, after all). They are quite disgusted at things like biological weapons, but don’t mind genetic engineering (they can’t engineer themselves anyway). They also know how to keep plasma from losing its power over time, but don’t want to tell anyone how, unless they trust them very much.

History:

The Plasmans originated on a standard Hydrogen gas giant, which they call “Haven”. Since they have so detailed records of their history, I will only go on major points. The Plasmans descended from a single individual, "The first one". How he evolved is unknown, but most people believe some freak magnetic effect was the reason, creating, for a short while, fusion like the one in a star. They evolved quite slowly, and developed around one spot; the spot "The first one" was born. That point is the focus of their city, which spans roughly 1243 kilometers in every direction, forming a HUGE circle. Their history is free from any major wars, and minor skirmishes were generally just two or three insane individuals. Their development was a tad on the slow side, taking them a whole 4534 years to get to another system. When their first spaceship got to another planet, there was a week-long holiday for everyone (except the ones aboard the ship). The Plasmans don't need atmosphere for breathing, just nutrients, so they have often gone into space before, and indeed, their first spaceship wasn't anything but a big engine and LOTS of containers of nutrient-rich gases. The Plasmans know of other races, but prefer to remain isolated. They evolved quite far away from the other sentient races of the known galaxy, and arm their borders near the other races with anonymous defense stations. And it’s a pretty big border; it includes about 67 solar systems and over 150 colonies. Few have tried to break through the wall, because what’s the point? They didn’t know what was behind it, and if the insides of that space were defended as heavily as the border, they would need a ‘’huge’’ fleet to get deeper into Plasman territory. In fact most Plasman warships are in mothballs, but it’s a handy illusion. The only species that have contacted the Plasmans are, in fact, the Dvarians, and that was just due to freak circumstances. It was an IPD/E using an unusual hyper-impulse drive frequency, which for some reason reacted with subspace to form a stable wormhole leading close to a Plasman colony. When it began a stealthy long-range scan, it detected the colony (named Heimili) and the border defenses. However, when they were contacted by the Plasmans once they were discovered, they were in for a surprise, since they thought the Plasmans to be warlike, not nice guys. Soon, official negotiations had been set up, and currently the Plasmans and Dvarians are in an alliance, exchanging the hyper-impulse and fold drives in exchange for some of the Plasmans plasma-based weapons and shields.

Ground troops: The ground troops of the Plasmans are separated into squadrons of Soldiers, watch commanded by a Squad Leader, which are in turn controlled by Leaders. Generally, there is only one Leader on a planet, but in large scale colony defenses there can be up to three. The home world of the Plasmans boasts a whopping 5, and that’s the record. The Leaders report regularly to a General (about 1 General for every 20 Leaders). You figure out the hierarchy. Now here is a little extra info: in a normal squadron there are about 10 Troops, 4 Gunners, 2 D/P’s, 2 Snipers and 1 M/H. plus a Leader, of course. That’s a total of 20.

Soldiers

Trooper

General soldier. Can wield most weapons pretty well, but can’t operate artillery or other complex machines.

Gunner

Trained to operate all kinds of guns with fearsome accuracy, these guys can even take over for the sniper pretty well.

Driver/pilot

Operates all kinds of Plasman vehicles. Can hold his own without a vehicle, though, but not very well.

Sniper

Snipes. Duh. They prefer to wait a bit to take aim, but a panicked sniper once fired 12 shots in a second when he was panicked (those were quite inaccurate shots, though). Can operate normal guns too (but even a Troop is better at it).

Mechanic/Healer

Self explanatory. Oh, and they are the worst fighters. They know how to use a gun, but that’s pretty much it.

Leaders

Usually picked due to superior skills, these can be any class of a soldier (even M/H, but he has to display a good combat ability). They can operate most things pretty well (they’re taught stuff like driving/piloting after being promoted).

Weapons

Plasma gun: An OK rate of fire, low damage and medium range. Usually used by snipers, D/P’s and M/H’s.

Plasma rifle: Medium ROF, damage and range. These are the primary weapons of Plasman Troops.

Plasma sniper rifle: A Plasma rifle with upgraded damage and range, and a slightly reduced ROF.

Plasma gauss gun: Fires plasma slugs at opponents VERY FAST. Not a lot of things cans survive a ton of plasma hitting it, can they? That’s why only Leaders are entrusted with these.

Plasma grenades: Nan ROF, high damage, Nan range. Nan doesn’t mean infinite here, it means depends. Not standard equipment (except for bombers). Sometimes used by Gunners and Leaders.

Plasma bombs: A super-size plasma grenade. Too large and heavy to be effective for anything except air bombing (and that’s what it’s used for).

Armor: Plasman armor is made out of strange, semi-liquid metals that allow the Plasmans to remain flexible, although the armor isn’t designed to withstand lots of direct damage. In fact, Trooper armor is designed to direct damage away, not absorb it. It enhances the already-existing electromagnetic force field of a Plasman to divert beams away. This means it is mostly effective against energy based weapons, but is quite a lot more vulnerable to actual matter (i.e. bullets). Leader armor is the same, but with a power pack with increased capacity (but increased cost), and it’s a bit thicker. The armor is about 2 cm thicker, in fact.

Vehicles: LAV (Light Assault Vehicle): Exactly what it says on the package. Armed with two fixed Plasma rifles (controlled by driver) and a Plasma rifle turret, this vehicle is fast, armed and dangerous. Crewed by a D/P or Leader and someone to man the gun (usually a Trooper of Gunner).

MAV (guess ) Armed with three Plasma rifle turrets (one on top, two on sides), this vehicle is a lot slower than the LAV, but has better armor and armaments. Crewed by a D/P or Leader, plus three Troopers/Gunners.

HAV ( ) A Plasma gauss gun turret, plus two Plasma rifle turrets, and 6 fixed Plasma rifles makes this the most deadly of all Plasman vehicles. It’s also heavily armoured, and very slow (think: lumbering big beast with REALLY big and sharp claws). Crewed by a D/P or Leader, plus three Troopers/Gunners.

Fighter: An air-only fighter. Useful against other aircraft and ground personnel. Armed with two Plasma gauss guns. Lightly shielded and moderately armoured.

Bomber: And air-only fighter. Useful against buildings and ground vehicles. Armed with Plasma bombs and Plasma grenades. Moderately shielded and heavily armoured.

Vehicle Weapons: Plasma gun: The oldest Plasman weapon. Fires bursts of Plasma. High ROF, medium range and low damage.

Plasma Torpedo: A small chip that generates a magnetic field used to propel itself and the plasma it keeps close to itself. Plasma torpedoes are capable of becoming quite large, the only limit being the size of the launcher, which come in 5 classes: Type-1, Type-2, Type-3, Type-4, and the experimental Type-B. Oh, and there’s those special long-range artillery launchers. ROF, damage & range: Nan.

Ionic Plasma Cannon: Cannon for short. This gun fires a blast of plasma charged with ions. Very destructive and disruptive. VERY low ROF, VERY high damage and long range. Disrupts computers.

Plasma Gauss cannon: Fires Plasma slugs at an extreme rate. One slug does a bit more damage than a Plasma gun, and that plus the extreme firing rate makes for a deadly weapon. Extreme ROF, low-medium damage and medium range.

Secret super weapon

“This is something that would never be used”, is the general opinions of the Plasmans. It simply disgusts them. In fact the only reason it’s in the database is the fact it might help subspace research.

SPG or Subspace Plasma Gun

It can deposit plasma WITHIN objects. Its size could be anything from a object small enough to put in your pocket, to a ship-sized planet demolisher. It works by shooting a small subspace field generator with a magnetic field generator attached. The magnetic field is used to maneuver the small chip, and keep the plasma near it. Once it reaches its destination, it stops, and deactivates it’s subspace field. How many hearts could withstand a gram of plasma inside it? How many planets could survive a ton of plasma deposited in its crust? How many Plasmans would approve of using it? The answer is almost always 0. Want to guess what personality type the Plasman who made it was? Hint: it begins with m.