Roth II
Roth II is the second planet in the Roth system.
History
Roth II was explored by the Klingon Empire in 2138. However it wasn't until 2166 that they landed a colony on the planet. Over the next 5 years the colony grew until it numbered over 250,000. The Klingon Empire also put a number of defensive satellites into orbit around the planet. After all, the Romulan border was dangerously close.
It was during this colonization stage that the Klingons noticed the large 4' humanoid flying bugs that seemed to always be around. Weapons fire kept them at a distance, and an examination of the bodies killed seemed to indicate they were more a nusance than a threat.
This was not true. The humanoid bugs were intelligent, with a complex society. They watched, learned and waited. In 2171 when the Romulans attacked suddenly with out warning or provocation they had their chance.
The Romulan attack eliminated the defensive satellites and the orbiting communications array in the first few seconds of the attack. Then, under cover of a high altitude missle attack on the colony, infantry troops were landed. These troops attacked, using the confusion caused by the intense damage from the bombardment to make an assult on the Governor's residence. They hoped to capture important documents and computer data regarding Klingon troop strength and locations.
The mission was a failure. With both sides' total concentration devoted to eliminating each other, it was the opportunity the Rothians had been waiting for. They moved in, seized weapons from the dead on both sides. Then assulted both waring forces.
With victory the natives went a little wild. They hunted down and killed every off-worlder they could get their hands on. Men, women and children. Using the modern weapons taken from the dead sometimes but most of them also used the 6" razor-sharp blades that were part of their natural defense system. These blades are located above their pincer-like hands on all 4 arms.
When they were finished, they collected all their dead, plus all the weapons and equipment they could, then destroyed all the rest. Then they returned to their underground hives.
The Romulans left. The mission was an obvious failure, the troops lost. When the Klingons came to investigate they found their colonists dead, mixed in together with the dead Romulans. Investigation over.
As for the Rothians, they examined the equipment they took from both the Klingons and Romulans. Especially the weapons. After much trial and effort they discovered the necessary skills needed to create their own weapons. Weapons different from that used by the Klingons and Romulans, but just as deadly. As for the rest of the technology only the communications devices interested them. The rest was examined, disassembled, then destroyed or just stored away.
Natives
The Rothians are an insectoid race. They have 4 compound eyes which allow them to see above, behind, in front and to the sides but not below them. They stand just over 4' tall and weigh on average about 100 lbs. They have 4 arms and 2 legs. All these limbs have 2 joints like 2 elbows or 2 knees. The feet are 4 clawed toes shaped like a X. The hands are 2 pincers with a razor sharp 6" blades attached where the wrist would be. They have 4 wings that propel them through the air at speeds up to 20 km.
On average, the ratio of male's to female's is 1,000 to 1. The females organize the males into work parties. These include diggers, foragers, herders, soldiers and farmers. The females do no work and seldom ever leave a nest.
Government
Their does not appear to be any form of centralized government. Each hive city operates by it self. The hive queen controls the females who in turn control the males.
Environment
Roth II has a temperate environment with lots of water. This water is most notibly found in huge swamps, some of which are hundreds of miles in size. Their are also a number of rivers and lakes.
There are large heavy rain storms occuring just about every other day. Some of these storms can have wind speeds of up to 100 to 150 km an hour but these are fairly infrequent. The norm is for average to strong winds. The same goes for electrical lightning storms. Only about 20% of the storms will have any lightning with an occassional storm being extremely active with chain and ball lightning.
Animals
The only type of lifeforms other than insects are fish and crustations, of which there are thousands. On the other hand their are millions of different types of insects. About 77% of the insects are tiny things but the other 23% range in size from 1/2 inch in size to an enormas 10 meters.
Economy
The Rothians do not have an economy as most other races do. They use a trade or barter system between each of the large hive cities. This system was used as well to transfer the new skills and knowledge learned from the off-worlders.
Before the arrival of the Klingons they did understand how to work a number of different types of metal. They used it to make tools and weapons. Some of which were fairly complex in design.
Communities
Like most insects the Rothians live in large communial groups. These hives of theirs are mostly under ground and can be very complex. A typical hive city will extend over 1.5 km under the planets surface and may be spread out over a width of 5 km.
Each hive city will useually have between 2 and 11 entrances, each guarded by males selected to work as soldiers. These entrances can range in size from tiny to huge, with tiny allowing 1 individual to enter at a time up to the huge ones which could allow over 50 to enter and leave at any one tme.
All hive cities also have chambers built for specific tasks. These tasks include farming, herding, manufactureing, storage and birthing, to name a few.
Population
On average a hive city will grow until it has 1 million inhabitants. When a hive reaches this size it will usually split into 2 equal groups with half the population moving to new land and building a new hive city.
At this time there are about 86 million of them split between 128 hive cities.