Perajan Harkas

Subspeces of Harkas from the Perajo nation, located on the Kulallara Belt in the Beta Targos System within the innerworlds.

The Perajo, being an innerworld subspecies, have very large radiators and very fast metabolism. A lot of their energy is used in heat management as to not burn in the close proximity of the star's light. Outside of their temperature range, such as when entering the midworlds, they will likely try to hyperventilate too much and cause their body temperature to drop to dangerously low levels. Instead, they use bioships or other purposed organisms that help them retain heat. Though the Perajan harkas evolved to become the apex predators of their area and quite high on the food chain, even they could be eaten by truly massive creatures in the past. This is not a significant problem now as the harkas are so dominant. They have created purposed organisms for fighting off predators. However, the fear of predators has caused many perajans to develop a heightened fear of larger creatures. In extreme cases it can make people scared of their own bioships or purposed organisms which would not harm them.

It is historically thought that, during very early periods of the existance of the subspecies, that they would rely partly on smaller harkas subspecies as prey. As both sides have invented new and stronger purposed organisms, there was an arms race between the 2, but it would normally be the perajans that would win. This has somewhat developed into an instinct for them, though in modern times they, and the UAC, try their best to keep all people safe from them through education. In early history, the Perajans might have been responsible for hunting some harkas subspecies into extinction.

Before the HF first contact, the Perajan harkas has conquered large fractions of their sector of the belt and as such have formed one of the larger nations, possibly due to their predator status and access to a lot of energy allowing them to grow large bioships. Their conquest came to an end when several nearby factions and nations have signed agreements to prevent the Perajans from spreading all over the belt and prevent them from consuming all life. However, they were not beaten back, only their offensive attacks became less effective under the overwhelming numbers. Their territory looks small on a zoomed out map of the belt, but it is a significant amount of territory and a massive amount of energy at such a close distance from the sun.

The Perajans have also used their gene splicing glands on themselves, giving themselves enhanced bioengineering capability (as with virtually all harkas), as well as an organ designed to act similar to a radar. They can emit radar waves through an organ located on their head and receive accurate bearings on a wide variety of targets within a large radius. Some creatures have evolved to counteract this by reducing their radar cross section, reflecting any radar waves that reach them away from the radar source so that a bearing is not obtained. As the Perajans are so powerful, this has proven quite effective on a number of animal species in the belt sector, even giving rise to one harkas subspecies with a very small radar cross section. They still survive to this day, probably due to this exotic mutation.

Along with a special purposed organism 'coating', they can be used as a form of space infantry with an extremely long range and small energy signature compared to a starship. The coating would likely be a colony of microbes which can give them protection from modern weapons to a point as well as further reduce their detectability.