Ravaged by war and environmental catastrophe, mankind seeks refuge in the stars. Making a supreme effort, in fact the greatest and costliest ever undertaken by humanity, the Western nations send a massive colony vessel to Alpha Centauri, powered by a vacuum antimatter rocket.
After over a decade of travel, the settlers reach the planet dubbed Colonia. As the massive settlement pods begin their deployment, Colonia Security stands ready to defend the habitations from the native sentients discovered by the initial probes of the planet. Superbly armed and armoured, ColSec is 70,000 strong, which surely is a sufficient force to defend the ten million settlers.
But they hadn’t reckoned with the Shunqs, the native sentients of Colonia, or Martonga-fallah as the Shunqs called their world. Initial attempts at contact were met with immediate hostility and Colonia soon found itself under full scale attack, especially in the equatorial badlands where most of the essential mineral deposits were located.
The Shunqs were nomads, riding great beasts nicknamed “shunqifants” by the colonists. Two warriors could easily ride one of these beasts, or one female and three or four young (only male Shunqs were combatants).
Standing on average about 205cm (6’9”) tall, they towered over most humans and, although slender for their height, were strong and utterly fearless.
To survive the extreme heat and dust storms of the badlands, the Shunqs wore moisture suits and individually crafted helmets in many variations. Inured to the heat, Shunqs would occasionally fight without their helmets or gloves, showing their deep blue colouration.
Their main weapon was the Soom Rifle, an energy weapon with a power based on recharge time — the longer the shooter waited between shots, the more powerful the resulting discharge. ColSec body armour was able to survive rapid fire from a Soom Rifle but rarely a shot from a full charge (about 20 seconds).
Shunqs would ride into the battle zone but typically dismount to fight, although their strategy sometimes required that a portion of the tribe remain mounted for decisive action. The Shunq cannon, basically an enormous Soom Rifle, was swivel mounted on a Shunqifant — it was these powerful weapons that often turned the tide against the ColSec forces in battle, the Shunqs being adept at deploying them in partial cover to protect the animal.
Although Colonia had higher tech than the Shunqs, these fierce warriors quickly adapted and found ways to fight asymmetrically, and ColSec casualties mounted — casualties that could not easily be replaced. And the tribes of Martonga-fallah were estimated to be in the hundreds of millions ….
Note: Shunq warriors on foot are about 28mm tall. The two sets with "Shunqifants" have four different Shunqs each, and as to the animals in those sets, each set has two different bodies and two different heads, so a great deal of variation can be achieved. If the Shunqs are well received, we will make more, including non-combatants on Shunqifants.
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