ETS Overview: Akeil

Hello , here's a new race I managed to come up with before finals for my Nexus project.  Copyright, by me.

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The universe can be a very harsh place for biological lifeforms.  Even though Cosmic Civilization has enabled psellular power to help biological life cope, spread, and even flourish, it has always been mechanical forms which have proven to be most adept at living throughout the universe.  Indeed, purely biological sophonts are relatively rare.  Most sophont groups today are supported by android bodies, cybernetics, machine bodies, or autokinetic psellular energies.  It is very rare, however, for a mechanical lifeform to evolve naturally.  There have been numerous world-seeding operations giving rise to otherwise naturally evolving machine biospheres, and it is not unusual for these places to eventually produce sophont machine races.  The Akeil are just such a race.

Originating from the machine-seeded world of Dallyuuei, in the outer rim of the giant quasar, Singing Wind, the Akeil evolved in competition and coexistence with all other machine life on their small world.  Dallyuuei has become totally integrated with the life it supports, just as any biological life-supporting world does.  The nabots (nanobots) were the first type of machine life to be introduced to the world, and they continue to flourish just as bacteria do in a biological system.  They have also given rise to complex machine life that now roams the planet, including the spacefaring Akeil.

The Akeil body is a living machine, different in its flaws and functions, but in all the complexity and ingenuity of any biological life.  In profile, many humans would note the similar upright stance Akeil share.  This is pretty much the only physiological feature the two species have in common.  Akeil evolved from six-limbed arboreal ancestors which, before that, were aerial.  Akeil retain feather-like panels on their arms used in complex body language rituals.  They are supported by an iron alloy skeleton, housing nanomagnet matrixes and chargeable electromagnets.  These electromagnets are most apparent in the claws on their hands and feet, which can grip to magnetic surfaces and produce electrical charges. 

Their nervous system is an incredibly complex radial-circuit nanomachine complex, insulated in protective layers of plastic.  Their muscular system is a series of nanotube fibro-optic cables and coils intertwined in a healing memory-metal matrix.  These underlying systems are protected by a fibroplastic skin, coated in insulating nanotube filaments.  Most bodily fluids are based on mercury, and are transported with the help a gold-based circulatory systems. 

Akeil metabolisms are regulated by the core reactor, protected in the upper torsos by assimilative metallic carapaces.  These carapaces can indicate where an Akeil grew up based on what materials they have assimilated into themselves.  Their torsos are connected to their abdomens by a ball-socket joint that doubles as a back-up battery, which stores static electricity.  Akeil must eat to gain new materials for growth and repair.  Their jaws are suited to a wide range of metallic foods, which are heated to a chewable level by a super-thermal-conducting pallet.  Materials are digested by a stomach of sulfuric acid.

Akeil detect visible and ultraviolet light with rows of eyes along each side of their heads.  These are protected by a retractable shield panel, and insulated from intense light with a shade membrane.  The three spikes on the snout detect radiation, similar to smell in biological creatures.  At either side of the head are radio wave detectors.  These are equivalent to ears, and Akiel communicate through these waves to each other.

There are three “genders” with which Akeil breed.  These are the builders, the makers, and the teachers.  Builders are non-intelligent forms which are capable of asexual autonomous reproduction.  However, these are only exact replicas.  A new Akeil individual is conceived by a maker and a teacher.  The maker already possesses unique programmed blueprints, which are provided with learning programs by the teacher.  The new hybrid code is sent to the builder, which crafts the new Akeil child.  Makers are strongly protective of their children, and very conscious of individual specifications.  Teachers are able to guide their child by use of their halo-like radio array.  This array is possessed only by teachers, allowing them natural long-distance communication and control over technology with their minds.  Makers are able to do this through artificial methods.

Akiel are psychologically similar to Humans in many ways.  Akeil, due to their natural powers of communication and family orientation, have produced much more stable societies over the years.  They have been instrumental in aiding some of the most far-reaching colonies of Earth origins.