The Indignus v 1.2

The Indignus evolved like most other sentient life forms from mammals, in this case ones resembling a kangaroo. They have a reasonably friendly manner once you get over their mild paranoia of other races. This trait is deeply rooted in their species, as the world they evolved on, Nexus (as they call it), holds only predatory species in it's food chain, except one: The Indignus. Practically every other species on their Homeworld hunted them for their meat, which they claim taste "just like chicken" (this is a translation error. Chicken to them means something entirely different...).

As everybody knows, all dimensions must meet each other at one point at a 90-degree angle to all other dimensions. All travel through dimensions is, of course, conducted through this point, known as the "Dimensional Nexus". Some races seem to evolve closer to the Nexus then others, for reasons yet unknown (at least to me...), enabling them to practice dimensional travel more at ease then others. This closeness also has other effects that have not been fully researched yet. The Indignus evolved unusually close to the Dimensional Nexus, which makes dimensional travel quite natural to them. Some Indigni can actually 'blink' themselves from one place to another, though accidentaly blinking to the wrong place has been known to happen. The Indignus have developed dimensional science to an unprecedented level, and have achieved feats impossible to other races, before they (The Indignus) discovered space travel. Even today, they rarely employ starships for travel, preferring instead to teleport themselves from one planet to another. This means that you will not meet any of their ships in Hyperspace or flying around solar systems. They do, however, employ space ships for defensive purposes and to maintain appearances (one must keep it's reputations, doesn't it ?). The Indignus have not survived three millennia of evolution by revealing their secrets to others, and they intend to survive another millennia.

They have the ability to cross to other dimensions, and are aware of the existence of the Arilou and the Orz. They have not made contact with either of them, considering both of them too dangerous to have contacts with. They have established what they call a 'Dimensional Lock', which prevents crosses between dimensions. No portal spawner will operate within the null field created by the Lock, and no Orz ships can enter this area. The Indignus did not originally use Hyperwave communication, but instead utilized what they call "Ultrawave", a form of sub-dimensional communication. Because of this they were not originally detected by the Ur-Quan, who follow Hyperwave broadcast to locate sentient races, when the Ur-Quan first entered this section of space. The first contact they had with another sentient race was when an Ur-Quan battle group accidentally happened by their home system upon returning from a battle. The Ur-Quan, who were surprised to see obvious signs of sentient life, gave the Indignus their usual ultimatum of 'Submit or Die'. The Indignus quickly sent the offending Kzer-Za into a dimensional pocket created for the purpose of holding life forms, but not before the Kzer-Za managed to cause heavy damage to several of their 0-range colonies (colonies within their home system). Several years later, the old Alliance of Free Stars sent a delegation, composed of Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm, to offer the Indignus membership in the Alliance. The Indignus, with the Ur-Quan experience still fresh on their minds, sent the delegation into the same pocket dimension as they sent the Kzer-Za, assuming that they were somehow connected. Amazingly, the three different races, realizing that they're trapped with no escape, found a way to live together peacefully (even if not harmonically). After the initial conflict the Ur-Quan realized that neither the Chenjesu nor the Mmrnmhrm, being both silicon based in their own ways, didn't trigger their territorial instincts. Their own little universe held everything they needed, and they were left inside that dimensional pocket, forgotten by most, to this very day. You can find out about the lost delegation from the starbase commander (or any equivalent), or from the Chmmr, who always wondered what happened to their comrades.

After you have proven to the Indignus that you are not hostile towards them, they will consent to open the Pocket Dimension they have sealed 50 years ago (about, not working on exact dates here). What will happen once the seal is removed is anybody's guess. This may be a good way of bringing back the Chenjesu and the Mmrnmhrm without bifurcating the Chmmr. Ironically, the colonists may not want to leave. The Mmrnmhrm have found a Homeworld, the Ur-Quan have found a peaceful existence with no fear of enslavement, and the Chenjesu's old Homeworld or Procyon is currently inhabited by the Chmmr. This could provide numerous plot ideas, which I will not elaborate on here, since this is supposed to be about the Indignus. Anyway, to convince the Indignus that you mean well, you must first arrive at their system without weapons on your ship and without escort vessels. You will then need to perform some kind of go-for mission for them, and you better not mention that you are allied with either the Orz of the Arilou. After you have convinced them that you REALLY don't want to eat them (they are rather obsessed about that), they can help you in several ways:

They can teach you to create small dimensional pockets to hold fuel and minerals you harvest from planets. Each Dimensional Fuel Cell can hold up to ten times the amount as the initial fuel cells, and cargo bays capacity is similar. They can also give you the basis for using Ultrawave transmissions instead of Hyperwave. This will be useful to evade detection by those races, like the Kohr-Ah, which use Hyperwave to track races as well as standard sensors (which a cloaking device, such as that the ZoG can equip you with- see ZoG file). While a cloaking device will keep you from being detected on a regular basis, there should be some heavily guarded location which you will need to infiltrate, where you will need an alternative form of communication or the beacons of your flagship and battlegroup will give you away (these beacons cannot be turned off as they are vital to the synchronizing between ships. We wouldn't want cloaked ships to bump into each other, now would we?).

There may also be a situation where you will need a Dimensional Lock, such as trying to protect from the Orz (who knows what they're up to...). You may also be forced to keep a certain force locked in another dimension, for reason not detailed here. In that case, this artifact will do the trick. Or course, while you carry this artifact no Interdimensional portals can open within a certain radius from you. And for some reason, the Orz seem to disappear as they enter this radius, as well...

The Indignus ship, which you will almost never meet except if you attack their Homeworld, is shaped like a big triangle composed of smaller triangles (similarly to a Pascal Triangle), with a short range phase beam in the nose and a Slip-Time device enabling it to slip out of the time stream for short periods of time (relative time, of course. That of the captain of the Indignus ship). In that time the opponent ship is completely helpless, not able to perform any action. Also in this time, enemy ships will not be effected by gravity, and asteroids will cease moving until time resumes.