Omni Scale Souldra Shards MGL

The Omega Octant is east of the Alpha Octant empires seen in the Star Fleet Universe (beyond the Inter-Stellar Concordium), on the other side of a galactic void. That void is a dead zone where life is impossible and ships fall apart, marking a separation between Octants.  The Souldra are comprised of a species of dark energy beings about which little is known. Apparently, the Souldra are native to an alternate dark matter dimension, which is connected to the material universe via an unusual “Black Sun” system in the depths of the Alpha/Omega Void. Only one extant Omega species, the faerie-like Loriyill, had encountered the Souldra before the modern era of Omega Octant history; the Loriyill had defeated the Souldra in a conflict centuries ago, eliminating them as a threat the Loriyill believed.

However, the surviving Souldra had fled back to the Black Sun system, from where they would steadily bide their time and build up their resources. In the decades prior to the Sixth Cycle, the Souldra would send long-range missions in search of pockets of dark matter across the Omega Octant, establishing dark matter caches in those pockets as waypoints and “recharge stations.” It would appear that once the Souldra became aware of the pending Andromedan invasion, they timed their own assault to coincide with it. However, it should be noted that no formal alliance existed between the two; the Andromedans were as liable to attack the Souldra (and vice versa) as anyone else. The Souldra drained the Bolosco home colonies of all life just prior to the Sixth Cycle; as the Invasions wore on, they attacked and drained the homeworld of the hummingbird-like Singers, who had been under the protection of the Loriyill at that time. As a result, the Loriyill ignored the Andromedan threat entirely and unleashed their full might against the Souldra. While Souldra ships lingered for years or decades after the final attack, their invasion at large was brought to a decisive end.

Souldra ships are built -- or perhaps grown -- from dark matter; a cross-section of a Souldra vessel would look like a crystalline circuit-board. They are armed with phaser-equivalent dark matter pulsars, plasma-like dark matter torpedoes, and a dimensional phase device (which enables a Souldra ship to temporarily phase out of the material universe). In addition, each Souldra warship is akin to a “casual carrier,” equipped with various types of fighter- or shuttle-like Shards - most notably the Black “Vampire” Shards, which are capable of attaching themselves to enemy units and draining their crews of their life energies, which in turn can be used by the Souldra ships to replenish their soul shields.

The most common Shard type, Black Shards were singularly dangerous for one reason: their ability to attach to the hull of an enemy ship (or to the surface of a planet with a functioning biosphere) in order to allow the Shard’s mother ship to drain the life energy found therein. Armed with a single forward-oriented light dark matter pulsar, it was ill-equipped to take on enemy fighters, obliging the Souldra to deploy Red Shards in the superiority role. Notably, certain empires were immune to Black Shard vampirism, to include the robotic Drex (although their walrus-like Drexari masters were vulnerable) and the Andromedans (no one is quite sue if this means the Andromedans themselves are not alive, or if their form of being is simply too different to be compatible). Also, the use of Black Shards required the mother ship to remain within 350,000 kilometers of the target; if it is forced to move farther away than that, the Shard immediately withers and crumbles into dust.

The Red Shard is the Souldra equivalent to a superiority fighter. Armed with one forward-mounted heavy dark matter pulsar and a 360-degree light dark matter pulsar, its ability to maintain its capacity to fire its weapons even when crippled made it a tenacious attrition unit. 

The Violet Shard was akin to a torpedo fighter. While it had no dark matter pulsar armament, its single dark matter torpedo could be re-armed (yet not overloaded) by the Shard itself even when crippled. Opposing empires soon learned that the only way to mission-kill such units was to destroy them (or their carrier) outright. 

This comb of Shards has six Black Shards, two Red Shards, and one Violet Shard. It is available in a variety of materials. Ships are unpainted, use standard flight stands available from many sources, and, while designed for gaming, make fine display pieces.