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Status: Extant, stable
Ship: Terminator
Homeworld: Gamma Serpentis 1
Contacts: Pkunk, Shofixti, VUX, Ur-Quan Kzer-Za
Quote: "BRAAK! CLACK!! HISS!! CLACK!!"
Commander Hayes remembers the Yehat as follows:
"The Yehat are a race of ancient warrior clans who have been
travelling the stars for many centuries.
The Clans are highly competitive and somtimes even wage war on each
other; but the clans are all loyal to the Queen and her royal family,
known as the Veep-Zeeps.
The Veep-Zeeps have been in power for over 2000 years, and it is said
that during their rule the Yehat have never lost a battle."
Physiology: The Yehat are, by description, a race of avians.
Nothing about their physical appearance, however, suggests that. In
fact, their seemingly featherless condition, their pointed head,
membranous wings, and their bizarre polydactyl hands (the Yehat have
6 fingers -- three as wing supports, as bats, and three more in the
thumb position, as pterodons) suggests a tight convergence with
prehistoric pterosaurs, instead of birds. Their feathered offshoots,
the Pkunk, also defy easy classification, but at least they share
some bird-like traits.
The Yehat are said to have evolved in a strongly magnetic
environment, as highly advanced predators. While not nearly as
territorial as the Ur-Quan genus, they nevertheless were predisposed
towards a fair amount of infighting, and, as earth raptors are
commonly known to do, possible siblicide and cannibalism. Their odd
quirk of polarizing magnetic fields to their defense found its start
early in Yehat culture; those who were best able to hone their
strange powers were best able to survive nest-hood.
The Clans which the Yehat organize themselves in assuredly had their
start in family groups which nested, hunted, and defended their young
together. As with Earth tribes, the Yehat certainly outbred, with the
result that neighboring groups were tied by blood to one another, to
the result that the Clans spread far and wide across their lush,
forested home.
Philosophy: The Yehat are a strongly honor bound race,
respecting power and authority, but not lacking common sense, like
the Thraddash. Their dedication to the Caer Zeep-Reep, their perch on
high, is total; one can only take that stand by winning the
allegiance of the warring factions -- and keeping it there. They
respect violence, but they also respect life, and prefer a lasting
peace to unending conflict.
Any slight to the Yehat honor is taken as an insult most dire. The
races of the Alliance, notably the humans, are highly respected by
the Star-Faring Clans, for they fight with nobility and loyalty to
all within the Alliance. The Hierarchical races, notably the Spathi,
did not, and the Yehat took much pleasure in blowing them out of the
stars. Their child race, the Shofixti, were uplifted with this in
mind, and for their part, the feral marsupials embraced the Yehat
philosophy far more truly than the royalist Yehat ever could.
History: Yehat prehistory was marked by a long period of strife
known as the "Wars of Ascension," where warlords led their clans in
battle to achieve dominance over their rivals, and in turn were
overthrown in bloody, savage raids. Nests were sacked, yolk spilled.
The Yehat look upon their ancestors as "murderers all," untamed and
feral warriors so caught up in their struggle to eradicate their
enemies that they did not realize they were cutting their own future
short.
It may be during this time that the Pkunk, the peaceful brethren of
the Yehat, first heard Weeny Wikki Beeki Birdi utter the Original
Squak, "Rup-rup-rup-BGAK." The newly aware Pkunk, realizing that the
Yehat conflict entailed needless bloodshed, strove to form a peaceful
commune apart from the savagery of their brothers. As this was hardly
possible on their stife-ridden homeworld, the Pkunk chose exodus, an
aim which the hostile Yehat gladly encouraged. If this is, indeed,
how the Pkunk came to separate from their ancestor's people, it is
unknown, but highly likely.
The Wars of Ascension ended, however, when the warlord of the
Veep-Neep clan took Caer Zeep-Reep. This victory was even more
spectacular than most, for the warlord was a female Yehat, marking
the first in a long dynasty of Veep-Neep queens. She won the
allegiance of the clans with a simple promise, held true throughout
her reign: Under her wing, the allied Yehat would never know defeat.
To this aim, the Yehat clans unified, and stood fast for over two
millennia.
Towards the reign of the last queen, the Yehat discovered the
sub-sapient Shofixti on nearby Delta Gorno. Although the primitive
meta-marsupials attacked the Yehat at first, the latter took their
courage in face of a superior foe as a sign of worth, and reacted to
the Shofixti's brave stand in peace and friendship. In return, the
semi-feral race looked up to the Yehat as their wise guardians and
teachers, eagerly embracing Yehat culture, values, and technology.
Their relationship was one of parent and child, with the Yehat ever
encouraging the Shofixti to grow in their own image.
As the Yehat clans occupied more and more territory within their
sphere of influence, and the Star-Faring clans interacted less and
less with the homeworld, had retainers assigned to them to speak for
them in counsel. The last Veep-Neep monarch, apparently chosen out of
noble lineage rather than noble purpose, seems to have been more
impressed with the loyalty of her own retainers than of the clans. To
please her toadying minions, she turned the spokesbirds into
warlords, thusly robbing the distant clans not only of a voice in
counsel, but their own autonomy, as the former speakers became
rulers. The Yehat, ever loyal to the queen, chafed under the new
authority, but dared not object.
When War broke out across the quadrant and the Yehat were called upon
to join, they did so without reservations -- from all but the queen.
She gave the semblance of faith in the Alliance cause, but secretly
feared their defeat, thus annulling the pact that kept the clans so
tightly under her wing claw. As her worst expectations became
realized, there were only two options: Make a desperate, last stand
with the Shofixti in the feign hopes of turning back the Hierarchy
task force; or ally with the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za, thus side stepping the
probability of losing the battle and the Veep-Neep legacy. She chose
the latter.
The incredulous Star-Faring clans heard the order of retreat, and
obeyed. The Shofixti were abandoned to their fate against the mighty
task force of Dreadnoughts, the outcome known to all. The Terminator,
now pressed into the fold of the Hierarchy, would not fight alongside
the Scout. When the star at Delta Gorno erupted into a fiery
supernova, the Yehat assumed their child race had been extinguished
in the flames, thus hiding their shame under a cloak of
extinction.
During the rebellion, the Yehat Star-Faring clans offered only
sympathies to the allied forces, unable to turn against the wishes of
their queen and the mandates of a Hierarchy Battle Thrall. However,
once the Zeep-Zeep clan was shown a living Shofixti, the horror of
their actions shed light on the traitorous, cowardly decision of the
Veep-Neep queen. A revolution was declared, with the clans divided
evenly among loyalty to their leader, or to justice and honor.
Cheep-Guava's renegade alliance, consisting primarily of the
Zeep-Zeep and Veep-Kreep clans, were equally matched against the
queen's own forces, including the Feep-Eeep clan. Their war may have
gone on forever, had it not been for the Pkunk.
The Pkunk, attuned to some harmonic alignment of the stars, planets,
and less tangible phenomena, decided the time was right for their
triumphant return to their home stars and Yehat brethren. The
peaceable avians entered en masse, to suddenly drop off of all
scanners. While the Yehat would not speak of the absorption, their
cultures fused irreversibly, and peace was declared when, at long
last, a new queen had been found -- this time, a Pkunk. Thus unified
once again, the allied Yehat could turn their attentions to the
Ur-Quan threat and lend a wing in the destruction of the Sa-Matra
Battle Platform. In fact, just as the Pkunk had predicted, because
the resistance had befriended a "certain bird-like race," they would
be saved at the last moment. Presumably, the Yehat and Pkunk, in
addition to detaching several ships to join the resistance, held
incoming Dreadnoughts and Marauders at bay while the Precursor vessel
could be wedged into the Sa-Matra's asteroid fortification and
detonated.
Future Plans: The Yehat, while probably capable of joining the
Coreward expedition, have chosen not to. Given their reunion with the
Pkunk and the obvious cultural and philosophical changes that
wrought, the Yehat need time to decide what their path will lead
them. Instead of heading into the unknown, the Yehat need to stay
put, not only for their own benefit, but to keep the other races also
not participating in the expedition, in check. Specifically, this
means the Druuge, although the Ilwrath and Thraddash could stand some
supervision.
It is my opinion, of course, that the Yehat were written out of the
sequel because of the viability of the Terminator class vessels
against the Hegemonic Crux. Fans of the second game should realize
that the Utwig Jugger is the Terminator's better in all but a few
rare incidences, and the new ships do not promise to be any
different. The Yehat Terminator just isn't up to the task of taking
down ships equal or better to it in cost, and thusly, their ships
would rarely be built. The Terminator is powerful against the Mauler,
Avenger, and Torch, and these are fights best chosen for the Yehat.
Yehat
Terminator
Main weapon: Rapid-Fire Pulse Cannons
Weapon cost: 1/2 of a point
Weapon damage: 1
Notes: With ten units of fuel, the Terminator can inflict 20 points of damage on a full volley of it's potent shot. With that out of the way, the fast flying bullets of the Terminator can shred many an opponent in seconds, especially if they haven't got twenty crew on them to lose. The range on the Terminator, for it's point value, is rather poor, bested by the other two ships in it's point class, the Orz Nemesis and the Utwig Jugger, but not the Pkunk Fury, it's offshoot race. However, the missiles are nonetheless deadly, and wandering into a Yehat's sights is not a mistake oft repeated. The only other thing worth mentioning about the guns is that often with slender ships (and of these, only the Shofixti Scout and the Androsynth Blazer form qualify), one or even both rows of guns can be skirted while the ship makes a Pickett's charge into the nose of the vessel. Since both ships are still horribly mauled in the effort, this attack is nothing but a desperation ploy. The guns are otherwise straightforward. Fuel is regained at 2 units per half second, so the Yehat can fire 4 shots every half second with a formerly empty battery. These bullets can only sustain one point of damage.
Special weapon: High Energy Force Shield
Weapon Cost: 3 (1)
Weapon damage: 0
Notes: (A word of explanation - when all fuel is expended, the Terminator can still manage to protect itself haltingly with it's high fuel regeneration. Only one unit of fuel need show on the battery before the shield can be reactivated, the forthcoming two from the engines are immediately put to use) The Yehat shield is much like the Utwig shield, save that attacks absorbed by the shield do not transfer their wasted energy to the battery. Otherwise, the shield conforms exactly to the details of the Utwig's special ability and most of their quirks also apply. Fighting Yehat is a matter of slipping in good shots during the brief intervals that the shield hasn't enough fuel to activate and while the pilot isn't paying attention.
Strengths:
Again, with the Utwig, a judicious use of shield versus firepower is
the key to victory. Yehat that are too much on the offensive will
take damage as if they had no special ability. Those who spend too
much energy on defense will be hammered until their shield relents.
Unlike the Jugger, however, the Terminator can shield and fire
(albeit briefly), both defending itself and razing their would be
attacker. The Yehat is strongest against ships which cannot deliver
long burst of fire or that have a heavy fuel expenditure per shot.
This means ships like the Mycon Podship or the Chenjesu Broodhome
suffer huge losses from Yehat predation, especially the Podship,
which has no defenses. Even ships with good defense, such as the
Cruiser, fall quickly because their attacks fall on shielded birds,
and their defenses can only take out a fraction of the pounding the
Terminator can deliver. The Terminator is in a moderate speed class,
faster then a Dreadnought, but not much. Since many ships fall below
the Dreadnought mark, the Yehat can catch them all and laugh off
their defenses while still flattening them. Ships with small amounts
of crew die the quickest, and afford the Yehat the luxury of
shielding and firing, holding whatever parting shots these ships can
muster at bay while their firer is destroyed.
Weaknesses:
Not surprisingly, just the opposite of their strengths. Ships with
substantial crew and lasting weapon attacks can score victories
(albeit painful ones) against the Yehat. Also, quick weapons can
usually pound a human Yehat pilot before they can raise their
defenses. The Chmmr Avatar is well suited for trapping a Ter