Stickles and Their Seven Planets

Stickles, a highly mechanized race of lion-esque humanoids, have a love for things mechanical. They have a natural talent of fixing almost any type of technology in the universe. This has been the reason that many Stickles become engineers or mechanics. But the one thing Stickles have always had a problem with is their insatiable thirst to invent.

While Stickles can fix almost anything and even, on occasion, improve it, their own inventions tend to fail spectacularly. A fully functional Stickle invention can be one of the most rare objects in the universe. One of the reasons for this is that at most times, when a Stickle invention is successful, it is placed in the Hall of Inventions on their home planet. While this would normally be a safe place to keep them, the Stickle inventions that have not been so functional have been the reason for the destruction of 6 of their worlds. With each world's destruction, the Stickles that survived have migrated to another world similar to the previous one.

It hasn't been proven which inventions destroyed which worlds, but it IS known that the Stickle race, even though they are on their seventh planet, remain constantly upbeat about their situation. They still continue to invent regardless of the consequences. Considering their record with worlds, the Stickles are one of the few races that the GEF has no interest in conquering. They feel that the addition of Stickles to the Federation would inevitably do more harm than good.

The 6 destroyed worlds pose a potential problem for the race. Their numbers dwindle due to the mating habits of the species. The male and female of the species are not very fond of each other. In fact, the female of the species prefers robots and other androids to the male Stickle. However, once in a Stickle's lifetime, they are instinctively drawn to their current home planet for mating. A male and female Stickle will mate and then, more than likely, never see each other again. Male Stickles prefer this method as well, as they think female Stickles are annoying and get in their way. They tend to live their lives in a constant pilgrimage to learn and to invent.

Finally, the Stickle race has vowed a secret pledge to the Galactic Resistance to help overthrow the GEF. Many Stickles become mechanics on Resistance ships and others, like Kasey, become informational contacts due to their ties with many technology dealers and smugglers. So far, they have yet to contribute in any combat, but the Stickles may be forced to fight one day.

Quadrillian Quandary

The Quadrillian race, named so because of their distinct 4-armed anatomy, is a ritualistic race of people. Having just recently discovered interstellar travel, their species is not often found on planets other than their own Quadrillia.



Quadrillia was once a planet covered in rivers and lakes, but after a catastrophic meteor slammed into their world, most of the surface water had been evaporated. The main source of water now is found in deep, underground rivers. The sudden disappearance of all of this water has left the surface of the planet seeming scarred by deep craters and steep ravines where the lakes and rivers once flowed.



The meteor crash also wiped out many of the plants and animals that roamed the surface, thus the Quadrillian species had to resort to becoming a wandering group of tribes. Many battles were fought between tribes for territories that had water, and our lovable Grontar is a member of a certain tribe that had a particularly large amount of territory and power. So much, in fact, that they had given up the migrations and settled near the Crack of Bezod, a large series of ravines and crags which was the home for the vicious beast Bezod. The men of Grontar's tribe, once reaching the age of adulthood, would fight Bezod. If they returned alive, they became men.



As far as recent events are concerned, the GEF have been trying to acquire Quadrillia for several reasons. Firstly, the GEF feels they can enslave the Quadrillians as grunt soldiers, and secondly, Quadrilla is made almost entirely out of Oridium; an ore that is often used to create the blast shield in intergalactic cruisers. The elder Quadrillians have done well so far at keeping the advance troops at bay, but it is only a matter of time before the GEF sends too many soldiers for the tribes to defeat, seperated as they are.

Backstory Bloggin'

Due to popular demand, and not enough time to include these in the actual storyline, I have decided to write articles going into further detail of some of the people, places, and things in the Zap! Universe. I chose a blog format, so that our readers can comment on the articles and generally hold on to the feel of community that Pascalle and I hold very important with Zap!

And, by popular demand as well, the first article will give a little backstory to the race known as Quadrillians. Keep an eye out for it!