Trentads

The Trentads are a species of metallic, intelligent robotic beings from planet Dit'pln, discovered during the Peace Station Era.

Origin

The most mysterious aspect of the Trentads is their origin. It seems clear these creatures were designed by some unseen faction, but when or why this happened is unknown. Some theories have been voiced that the Trentads were originally ordinary service robots for their creators, but their masters perished for some reason. Intelligent enough to survive on their own, these machines would then have formed a civilization of their own. However, no evidence exists of the creator civilization on Dit'pln, leading others to believe the planet is not their original homeworld. It is even possible the Trentads are some sort of an advance colonization force for some species that through some fluke of history never failed to arrive on this planet.

Yet others believe they might be the creations of the "Builders", the mysterious species that also created the Mechanoids.

The entire planet has been declared a HFed Nature Reserve by NPERC, to preserve this unique mechanical ecosystem and study the creatures from a safe distance.

Anatomy

Trentads have various different types of locomotion, including hydraulic legs, as well as MGD levitation. Many have some type of mechanic vocal cords, but radio is also used for long-distance communications.

Clans

The Trentads are divided into three warring factions, or "clans":

The White Trentads

Hemisphere shaped, with three legs, two large ocular devices, and MGD levitation, designed for flying.

The Little Ones

Hemisphere shaped but smaller than the others, two ocular devices, three legs, designed for walking.

The War Machines

More angular than the others, the War Machines are also more heavily armed. Two or three ocular devices, five or six legs, and MGD levitation; designed for walking or flying.

Head Trentads

The leader of each of the factions is the clan's Head Trentad, which is a significantly larger machine resembling a mobile fortress. The Head Trentads are also equpped with on-board factories capable of producing equipment and more Trentads from raw materials. As such they can be called the "mothers" of the entire clan.

The Head Trentads are also significantly more intelligent than their offspring. It is suspected they also keep some type of logs on the history of the Trentad race that could be useful in deciphering their origin, but the Head Trentads have not been willing to share this information.

Language

The Trentads were extensively studied by scientists of the Hemmoian Intelligence Committee. In particular, Kuraat Sulaati's team of researchers studied the long distance radio communications used by the mechanoid creatures in an attempt to analyze their language.

In order to explain the seemingly nonsensical translations performed by the Committee's great linguistic supercomputer, he theorized the Trentads were using a highly complex code language to fool them. He was, of course, wrong; the computer just plain didn't work.

See also

• Mechanoids, a similar but more advanced artificial species.
• Trentad tech, various examples of Trentad technology.