Earth vs Core
The Core
Information concerning The Core is now available for public access. Images remain under review at this time and will be posted upon release.
Species
Classification of alien species, those not directly descended from Earth species, is still not an exact science, particularly for species whose unique characteristics coincide with those of two or more wildly different other species. Core Creatures are one such species, but the following classification is the currently accepted standard.
Xeno-Animalia Chordata Reptilla Pholidota Manidae Smutsia Sapien
The creatures of The Core are most accurately described as a humanoid (Spaien) cross between a large lizard species (Reptilla) and a mammalian species of Pangolin (Pholidota Manidae Smutsia). They have two types of scales, one very fine layer as skin and a much larger type that protrudes from the body to form protective shells either independantly or in overlapping sets. These shells grow and expand uniquely in accordance with the life experiences of each individual, providing a wide variety in appearance between classes and fine details that help Creatures recognize each other.
Unique shell patterns are the result of one of the species' distinctly non-reptillian characteristics: warm blood. Hot blood in fact. Natural internal body temperatures are thought to be around 150 degrees fahrenheit, but Creatures in the field have been documented to reach just over 200 degrees internally. Heat signiatures have always been a standard indicator of the presence of Creatures, but the astounding insulation properties of their sclaes allow some individuals to temporairily mask their body heat.
It is when the shells are heated externally that they change. When shells crack, Creatures fire them to cauterize the wounds and their heavily mineralized blood bakes into a ceramic-like plate. Believed to be an evolution developed in a desert habitat, where a scorching sun would cook blood and sand into a stronger shell, the ability has been perfected over time and is astoundlingly effective with the help of their nano-infusion technologies. Creatures have been known to withstand blasts of heat up to 2000 degrees fahrenheit, their shell plating healing in the process. Core Creatures have been observed intentionally shell-firing in the field, sometimes with external heat sources, sometimes through nano heat generation from within. These wounded soldiers often return to battle quickly and noticeably stronger.
The extreme heat tolerance of heavily shielded Creatures is also due in part to their highly efficient temperature regulation processes. Massive lung capicity and high rate of breathing allow rapid dissapation of accumulated heat with the added effect of acting as both defense and offense to nearby enemies with lower heat tolerance such as humans. An overheated Core Creature can release clouds or even jets of scalding breath, making them especially dangerous in high temperature environments.
Creatures are known to actively sculpt their shells through the painful breaking and baking process of shell-firing with a wide range of results. From fully shielded Golems to the smaller Fiend class with visciously sharpened talons, every Creature encountered to date seems to be bred and moulded for combat, an indication of what we assume to be a warrior's society.
Society
The events of our first contact with The Core on Plymouth have led us to many conclusions about their society. While these are only assumptions, as no civil contact or study of their overall culture has ever occurred, our experiences with our enemy over the course of the war seem to support our view.
The Core occupies the center of the galaxy, at least half of it as confirmed by long range scouts. This location and the designated symbol of their kind, a crescent shape mistaken for a "C" early in the war, led to the common name of our enemy. They are a resilliant species, able to survive in nearly any environment that is not highly magnetized, a limitation of their own design due to their standard nano-infusion of the blood. While they have been encountered in every other environment, they ten to gravitate towards hot, desert regions and planets, which is thus assumed to be their natural habitat. The Core Crescent is actually believed to be a reference to the sun of their home world.
Those we first encountered, the Critters, were revealed to be an adolescent population left to grow and evolve independantly on the planet. Their interstellar society is believed to rely heavily upon natural selection, ensuring that only the strongest of their kind survive the maturation process. Entire generations are left to fend for themselves, possibly from the moment they hatch, with only the briefest of contact from the overall society to maintain some sort of structure and guidance in the process.
Many have speculated that several different classifications of planet are involved in a Critter's coming of age, but with no definite understanding of the specifics of their growth process, none can say how many stages of survival they must endure. Age is something of a mystery when it comes to The Core, Creatures and Critters alike. We do know their kind lives substantially longer than natural humans and even Beta Clones with longevity traits, but the limits of that span are unknown. With no known elders of the species ever encountered, it is theorized that they are eventually defeated by younger rivals, making old age a rarity withing The Core.
Classes
The following classifications detail the general characteristics of the major types of Core Creatures encountered thus far. Aside from Critters, all classes have been encountered on the battlefield and are arranged according to combat specific qualities.
Critters: The general term for adolescent Creatures. Averaging 5 feet in height and relatively slight in build, these young individuals have not yet begun serious sculpting of their forms and are relatively uniform in appearance. Even designation between male and female is difficult, an ambiguity that stretches over the entire species.
Infantry Class: Generally uniform in size at 6 to 7 feet with medium build for a Creature and a balance of defensive plating and offensive blades. A majority of Core combat troops are in this class.
Beasts: Unorganized and wild in combat, striking out individually with little direction from superiors. Beasts are often cannon fodder, but seem to relish being on the front line.
Brutes: More experienced than Beasts, Brutes are better armed and armored. Often found in direct command of infantry in combat, Brutes occasionally gather in strength for coordinated offenses, charging into, and often through, particularly steadfast Legion positions.
Armor Class: Massive Creatures standing an average of 10 feet tall with some individuals equally wide. Extensively armored and sometimes even entirely encased in overlapping shells, these giants can withstand an extraordinary amount of damage and deal it out as well.
Ogres: With heavy plating in only key areas, Ogres maintain a significant range of motion and are utilized offensively, barging into the fray to push an advantage gained by the smaller infantry.
Golems: Entirely covered in thick shell layers and then outfitted with massive armored suits, these nearly stationary troops can be truly unmovable when they want to be. Used either defensively or offensively, Golems are found in any location that The Core does not intend to lose.
Blade Class: These Creatures stray from the typical development of heavy armor and focus on cultivating deadly appendages and the skills to use them. These warriors often develop their own personal style of fighting to make use of the unique assortment of blades they've grown.
Fiends: Found scattered throughout the ranks of Beasts, the frantic fighting of the Fiends blends well in their wild charges. Anywhere from 6 to 8 feet tall, their speed makes them difficult targets, but the sacrifice in armor means they are relatively weak when hit.
Valkyries: With more armor, Valkyries are slightly slower than Fiends, but their experience makes them far more deadly. Often nearing 10 feet and equipped with significant technological enhancements, these imposing figures often command larger forces of mixed classes.
Heat Class: This group of Creatures takes advantage of their sepcies' unique ability to regulate and utilize heat. As they grow they cultivate not only their plating, but their musculature, developing the strength of their armor and impressive maneuverability and flexibility. Very few Creatures belong to this class.
Furies: Quick, quiet, and short, Furies can be identified on the battlefield by the telltale clouds of steam from their superheated breath. The can lay clouds of steam and dust to mask troop movement or rush in with frontal assault to burn defenders off of the line.
Demons: One of the rarest Creatures encountered during the war, these are thought to be individuals of higher rank in the Core command structure. They garner a fearful respect amongst their own troops and are a terrifying presence to behold in battle. Standing sometimes over 10 feet with powerful builds and heavy plating, Demons have a more stylized appearance, with embellishment to their scales and often more ornate equipment. They often have menacingly sharp appendages, perhaps indicating that they rise through the Valkyrie ranks, but are far more heavily armored. They maintain impressive speed, but the highlight of their appearance is an almost constant glow of heat beneath their plating. Few Demons have ever been defeated in combat and information about their fighting style is limited.
Core Tech
Technology is what truly set humans apart from the other species of Earth, allowing us to go beyond the limits of our bodies, our habitats, even our world. The Core is the only other species to have achieved such feats, and their mastery of technology far beyond our own is what makes them not just a dangerous species, but a powerful society that nearly destroyed our own.
The fundamental technology of The Core is known as Elemental Manipulation, the unknown process by which they develop their ultra-alloy and crystalline systems. Having never found any confirmed production facilities for these materials, the process by which they are created is entirely unknown. Theories range from a chemical reaction, to physical stresses, to the use of the equally misunderstood grav-tech of the enemy, or perhaps some combination of these things, but to date no successful recreation of these elements has been achieved by humans.
Ultra-alloy technology is the driving force of The Core. It is present in every structure, vessel, and mechanism they build. Though we have never encountered an actual Core city, their massive military strongholds found throughout the war suggest that their construction capabilites are astounding. Not only can they use the unique properties of these construction materials to achieve otherwise impossible feats of architecture, but they also seem to be able to build and repair with impressive speed.
It is likely that the Core fleet transports their production facilities for these elements with them, as no facilities have ever been encountered and yet The Core has access to them wherever they go. The Legion speculates that a supply fleet well behind the lines maintains these facilities and moves them as necessary. With the ability to create ultra-alloy structures of massive size and transport them whole with grav-tech ships, the cumbersome Core fleet benefits from a highly mobile supply line that human mining and industrial sites can not provide.
There are also endless applications of ultra-alloys in smaller scales. The advanced metals have replaced natural ones in nearly all functions in Core society. Machines, armor and weapons, even jewelry pieces are now almost entirely made of ultra-alloys. Core soldiers are laden with heavy armor, equipped with deadly weapons, and aided by advanced equipment, all thanks to the widespread use of ultra-alloys.
The Core is so saturated by the use of these metals that they even flow through the blood of every individual. Nano-technology has been utilized by humans before, but our own progress in the field pales in comparison theirs. The construction of these microscopic robots is well beyond human capability and their programming and maintainence is in no way understood. What we do know is a list of abilities that can likely be attributed to this nano-infusion. Enhanced strength, speed, sensory reception, and reaction time are all apparent. Healing is accelerated, especially the process of shell-firing. Interface with their technological systems is also believed to be optimized by nano-functions, but the specific interaction is unknown.
The only major flaw of the ultra-alloy technology is a profound weakness to magnetic manipulation, a loophole that was discovered and utilized just in time to save the human race. Our use of mag-tech quickly became as abundant as The Core's use of ultra-alloys and has now become the staple of our offense and defense.
But ultra-alloys are not the only thing used by The Core to artificially enhance their bodies. Crystalline technology is believed to be relatively new, having been introduced during the course of the war, but already the enemy has developed new and effective ways to apply it. Crystalline enhanced armor began to appear regularly among the ranks of The Core and late in the war they had begun to apply it to their shell-firing process, fusing the crystal elements to their very bodies in combat.
And increased armor is just one of the possible applications of crystalline technology. The properties of these various new elements have been tailored to many specific functions. Charged ballistics can release incredible bursts of energy in the form of light, heat, or even destructive explosions. Fractile compounds are able to shear through armor at a microscopic level and can even be deadly as a breathable shrapnel for a limited time.
This newer technology has become relatively common, but thankfully not abundant amongst the enemy forces. The Core seems to have a more limited supply of crystalline materials or the ability to utilize them, and since sonic technology is not nearly as effective against crystallines as mag-tech is against ultra-alloys, it's a good thing that the superior crystal elements did not become the new standard on the battlefield.
The least understood technology of The Core is certainly their gravity manipulation, specifically the grav-engines that power their interstellar vessels allowing general propulsion and jump capability. Our inability to maintain or re-start engine function on captured ships has limited the opportunity to study the technology closely, so much of our speculation on the subject comes from observation both in combat and at extended range.
Grav-engines generate an artificial gravitational field, possibly a sustained singularity within the central chamber. This field provides stable gravity for the vessel's crew and through manipulation of the ship's orientation to the center of gravity it gains momentum. The large, gravity powered ships are relatively slow, with little maneuverability, qualities that Legion fighters have always appreciated. However, their gravitational signiature can vary, sometimes matching the pull of small planets and making close contact with fighters more challenging.
The jump capabilities of these ships is still a complete mystery. It is assumed that the grav-engine creates a wormhole, allowing the ship to jump from one point in space to another instantly. Luckily the range of such a jump seems to be limited and incapable of negating the effects of the Mag-Wall, our primary defense against The Core.
There has been some theoretical exploration of grav-tech and its possible applications, particularly in anticipation of its use as a weapon, but until more is known about the technology and how it works there is little that can be done by way of preparation.