THE SKORR RACE
The Skorr are an ancient avian race that thoroughly revel in hand-to-hand combat and bloodlust, and they have existed as a technologically advanced species for over 100,000 years. During that time their homeworld had been continually wracked by extended periods of global warfare; indeed throughout their entire recorded history there have only been a mere seventeen years of true peace on the entire planet. The Skorr themselves were divided into 12 separate nations, all warring over the same resources and land/sky areas. With a constantly growing citizenry each nation badly needed the room to expand and grow. For innumerable generations, utter violence ruled over the planet, mainly because of these overpopulation issues. Over time, the Skorr learned very advanced biological sciences and were able to modify their bodies so that they ultimately had total genetic control over their rampant reproduction systems. In fact, most Skorr normally laid between 8 to 10 eggs every 6 months, causing disastrous overpopulation problems for the entire planet but with new birth control techniques they were able to stabilize their world and eventually expand into space. Sadly, only total horrors awaited them in space.
The Hacksaws
The region around their homeworld (the Skorr Sector) was only very lightly populated by a few minor races, and the reason for this oddity became very clear once the avians spread into the interstellar void. In the same area, a much more ancient race of beings had once flourished (no one knows who, or else no one is talking) but they perished completely over time and only their genocidal weapons remained behind and active. These automated defenses were pure killing machines and they were programmed to kill any bipedal species they ran across, and kill they did. These lethal robots (called Hacksaws) were incredibly advanced and used multiple forms of weapons to wipe out any race they ran across, including poison gas, nuclear weapons, and biogenetic warfare. Unfortunately, the Skorr ran into a few dozen of these murderous automatons just a few years after settling several nearby worlds and an all-out war began between the two heavily armed factions. Over the next 50,000 years the war raged back and forth across innumerable star systems and several times the Skorr were nearly wiped out as genocidal Hacksaw weapons also rained down on their homeworld. Fortunately, these deadly avians remained amazingly fertile and were able to hold off their attackers by sheer numbers, although the price for eventually "winning" was incredibly high: over 500 BILLION Skorr had been killed in the conflict which had lasted for tens of thousands of years. During that extended war they also rapidly grew extremely knowledgeable in weapons technology, and by the end of the brutal struggle the Skorr had biologically developed more powerful, stronger bodies and other advances that left them the ultimate masters of their ever-expanding territory.
The Skorr eventually developed a unique way of travelling through space, a means in which no other alien species in the galaxy has ever duplicated. They did this by regurgitating a special dense foam and encasing it around themselves, enabling themselves to go into deep hibernation and using this bio-container they were able to swing themselves around their parent star, boosting their velocity up to near lightspeed and set off as individuals to other worlds to wage war. In this manner they were able to spread hostilities into their surrounding space. Few alien races could defend against armed Skorr soldiers as they dropped onto their worlds in the millions...and then in the billions. In this manner they were able to slaughter any newly encountered alien race easily.
Genocidal Rage (Jihad)
The constant genocidal attacks by the Hawcksaws also seriously altered the mental psychology the Skorr as a race as well. The intense massacre of Skorr and their children built eventually built in a genocidal mindset into their entire people. With the history of previous alien holocausts on their mind they began a Jihad of their local space, attacking worlds, spaceships, and aliens as they came across them. Over several decades the Skorr continually engaged in an orgy of violence, annihilating all the low-tech races around their homeworld. These included the Togwatee, the Clo-oose, and the Yoder. No mercy was shown to these aliens, just as none was ever shown by the Hacksaws to the Skorr and they continued their invasion into deep space, colonizing several nearby worlds in the process. These became the Skorr Worlds and for a time these new worlds satiated their desire for expansion and conquest, however in 2102 AD they finally ran into a expanding multi-planet empire called the Tri-Species Combine (TSC). The Combine consisted of the Alo, the Parren, and the Barabo races, and they were allied in a technical and military trade alliance across a dozen worlds. The Skorr immediately went to war against the allied races and within 50 years completely decimated their homeworlds. The final conflict came in the Battle of Wotan where vastly outnumbered Combine forces were annihilated by the jihadist Skorr space-armies. After this, the Skorr continued to expand across their local sector, destroying the Sard Imperium, the Chan'nat Empire, the Krim Confederacy, and the Kulina Travellers. Refugees from these defeated races fled the area, spreading fear of the Skorr as far as the planets Trill and Betazed.
The Xindi
Eventually the Skorr ran into a galactic superpower they couldn't defeat, the Xindi Amalgamation, which was located in the nearby vast Delphic Expanse. Huge battles with the Xindi took place but eventually the Skorr realized they couldn't overcome their enemies immense technological advantage and eventually joined them as the 5th race, the avian species. Within the Xindi the Skorr became incredibly powerful, and more socially stable, which eventually ended their mad jihad campaign against the rest of the galaxy. Some Skorr dissented, however, infuriated with the Xindi and broke away, forming a colony on the world Aurelian. Later this world (orbiting Xi Herculis, also known as 92 Herculis)) became a joint human-Skorr colony which joined the United Federation of Planets in 2204 AD. This binary star system is centered around a type-G yellow giant primary star, in the constellation of Hercules, a mere 160 light-years from Earth.
The Soul of Alar Incident
Ever since the Skorr have risen to sentience, their homeworld has continually been wracked with wide-scale violence, so much so that it nearly destroyed them and their planet. Competition for resources was incredibly fierce due to the lack of metals, hunting grounds, and breeding space were the main causes. This terrific ferocity shaped these avian aliens society in such a fundamental way that warfare became life to them; bloodshed was constant in their society. Ironically (like on the planet Earth with its Buddha, Christ, and other peace-advocate figures) the Skorr homeworld eventually saw the rise of great leader Alar and his "pacifism movement". Alar himself was of no significance; he came from no noble family and he had little wealth or influence within the government. What he did have was a new philosophy, a new way of life for the Skorr that meant the end of the violence and death that constantly tormented his homeworld. As Alars' influence grew over time, it began to sweep away the old ways of brutality and surprisingly in a few decades a tenuous planet-wide peace was eventually cultivated. Some say that Alar was a supernatural being from another world, sent to bring an end to the chaos that was so prevalent among the Skorr, while others say he was just a "man", a simple nobody who helped his race move into a totally new and more focused direction. Whatever the truth, Alar eventually died and his brain pattern (recorded before his death) was encased in a piece of indurite sculpture. The Skorr believed with utter surety that he would live forever through the object, which continued to be a force of unity among their race. It was also believed that Alar had some sort of deeply spiritual calming effect across the psyche of the Skorr, but whatever the truth was, the sudden disappearance of the Soul of Alar from its sanctuary on their homeworld sparked an unforeseen crisis that demanded a response.
Vedalan Intervetion
The year that the Soul was stolen (2269 AD), it was taken offworld and hidden deep within the galaxy in a unknown location. However, the ancient Vedala race were monitoring the sector and called in a specialized team when it was realized that the disappearance of the Soul of Alar could cause an all-out war between the enraged Skorr and the rest of the galaxy, who they ultimately blamed because no Skorr (in their minds) would ever commit such a blasphemous crime. In the Skorr, fertility is tied to the aggressive instinct; the more anger generated then the more the population swells. The Skorr could easily breed up to 200 billion soldiers within a single year, with weapons to match. Knowing that no Skorr would engage in such blasphemy as stealing the Soul, it was clearly done by a non-Skorr and so they would wage war against the rest of the known galaxy (including the United Federation of Planets) and fight until they could no longer wage war, a true galactic jihad.
Initially the Vedala tried to assist in recovering the stolen Soul of Alar, which was located in a temple on a "mad planet", a world that was intensely geologically anf ecologically unstable. The Vedala were (as of the mid-23rd century) the oldest surviving spacefaring race known to the United Federation of Planets (UFP). Physically, the Vedala had somewhat feline characteristics, including a significant tail. Although aware of the location of the Soul of the Skorr, the first three expeditions sent by the Vedala ultimately failed. These failures eventually led the Vedala to assemble a new team with specialists from various species, including several Humans. Participants were invited to a Vedala asteroid with the explanation that something extremely dangerous to the entire galaxy was developing. Once they met at their asteroid, the Vedala revealed that the Soul of the Skorr had been stolen and they were attempting to prevent a violent interstellar jihad by recovering it before the Skorr knew it was gone.
For this fourth expedition (which occurred in 2269 AD) the Vedala chose the following specialists: Sord, for his immense strength; EM/3/Green, an expert locksmith and thief; Lara, for her flawless directional sense; Spock, for his analytical mind and scientific expertise; and James T. Kirk, for his leadership skills and adaptability. Together they were to assist Tchar, a hereditary prince of the Skorr, in locating the Soul of the Alar. Although the Starfleet personnel were asked to volunteer for the expedition, Em/3/Green claimed to have been sentenced to the expedition. The team was eventually able to recover the Soul of Alar and avert the war. Following this sensitive mission, the Vedala proved that they possessed the ability to manipulate time. They also noted that they had the ability to cure an individual of mental madness, notably Tchar. They intended the incident to remain secret, claiming that in time even the specialists would lose the memory of the events.
In the end, the Vedala-supported expedition was successful, the Soul of Alar recovered, and the worst galactic war possible was averted.
