G’rek Zoor

### Denials

Corporate Booster Career Path, Corporate Ladder Career Path, Corporate Soldier Career Path, Guardian Career Path

## Description

The G'rek Zoor are a tall, burly alien species from parts unknown. They have wide faces with small eyes that are set far apart on their head a small, nearly useless nose set where most of us keep our foreheads and a wide mouth full of jagged teeth.

Space has been called a celestial sea. Those that leave their shores travel in ships. Even astronaut, that quaint Omnish word, means star-sailor. But maybe there's more truth than even that. In places, the maps of old would go smooth with the warning "here there be monsters." That never went away. Over the black waves of night, pirates still sail. They are called the G'rek Zoor, and they are coming.

Few know much about the G'rek Zoor, and most of those few are G'rek Zoor. They aren't talking. Which might... just be a language barrier thing. Maybe this is all just a big cultural misunderstanding. (Like that would be the weirdest thing in a universe with giant psychic death spiders and Terrans.) The G'rek Zoor speak Zoortese. Almost exclusively. The stars have to align and fate has to roll the bones for a G'rek Zoor to either be smart enough or meandering enough to have learned another language. Still, communication is a two way street. Unfortunately, it's difficult to build a language database when the most common Zoortese phrases seem to be things like "surrender" and "give us your stuff".

Since it's difficult to get into a rousing conversation promoting cultural exchange mid-hijacking, most of the information comes from former prisoners. By their accounts, the G'rek Zoor appear to be oddly fair dealers, at least when it comes to their fellow crew members. Loot is divided as evenly as possible between the entire ship, though the captain, head mechanic, and pilot get an extra half-share. All decisions are made by the captain, but every crewmember is allowed to contribute to the discussion beforehand. While the captain's word is absolute, the captain can only stay one by the agreement of the rest of the crew.

On first look, the average G'rek Zoor appears to be a formidable opponent. That first look isn't entirely wrong. G'rek Zoor can take a punch as easily as a Canidae. They're not quite as good about throwing that much punch, but they're still better at it than half the Sovereignty and Confederacy members. Unlike most of the powerhouse races, a G'rek Zoor is agile. They're the equal of the Aborians and of all the (acknowledged) Sovereignty and Confederacy species, only the Athasians are spryer. So when G'rek Zoor attack, hope they're at a distance. They're not the best with guns. Probably because most of their weapons are "acquired" from species with smaller hands.

For all their gruffness, the other notable thing about the G'rek Zoor might come as a surprise. Every person that has spent any time aboard a G'rek Zoor ship says the same: when actively in service as opposed to wandering among the stars, there's not an occupied space on board a G'rek Zoor ship that's quiet. Either a song is being piped through the com system or someone is singing. Even without knowing a word of Zoortese, it's impossible to deny the deep rhythmic noises being produced are anything but a song. That same song is playing or being sung in every room, and every song is being performed in perfect union with all the others.

The G'rek Zoor get around. Somehow. No one knows precisely how it was they managed to leave their planet in the first place. (Okay, it probably involved grand theft spaceship.) But they've done a marvelous job of things since then. In an act of supreme fairness, the G'rek Zoor are a menace to Sovereignty, Confederacy, and unaligned ships alike. Sometimes even other G'rek Zoor. They were probably the first species to make contact with both Sovereignty and Confederacy members and could have been the great uniter between the two if things had been different.