Starship Troopers: Skinny

Name: Skinnies
Dice: 12D
Dexterity: 2D+1 / 4D+1
Knowledge: 1D+2 / 4D+1
Mechanical: 1D+2 / 4D+2
Perception: 1D+2 / 4D
Strength: 1D+1 / 3D+1
Technical: 1D+2 / 4D+1

Move: 10 / 12
Size: 2.1 - 2.7m

Special Abilities:

• All Skinnies have low-light vision.
• Though very rarely used given a Skinny’s vast preference for ranged combat, they can use the vestigial claw on the back of their palms in the manner of their primitive ancestors. (STR+1D damage)
• All Skinnies have a special form of non-verbal communication, nicknamed ‘Skinny Comm’ by SICON. Though Skinnies can only use this to communicate with others of their own race, this ability does allow a Skinny to talk silently and through any form of obstruction to any Skinny within 20 meters.

Description: They came from nowhere, attacking with strange weapons, before leaving as quickly as they had arrived. In their wake they left only destruction and the realisation that they had taken many of us with them. I have no idea what happens to a Skinny prisoner, I’m not sure anybody does, but I wish them a quick death. Not long after that we were dropping low and fast over one of their alien cities. Their buildings were strange, but I had a feeling my rocket launcher would turn them into rubble easily enough. SICON was only giving us ten minutes to level the town. Ten minutes, sixty buildings, one squad of troopers? Plenty of time…
– Cpl. Micheal ‘Doc’ Holden

While the Skinnies were originally thought to be peaceful, even pacifistic but their recent spate of savage attacks against Federation interests close to the border planets of Ventis, Lalande and Xi Bootis have proven otherwise. Striking with unusual energy rifles, terrible incapacitating technological devices and clad in powered suits akin to those worn by SICON’s own Mobile Infantry.

While casualties to Skinny raids have been few, losses have been troubling. With the exception of those trooper deaths caused by misadventure in battle, the Skinnies have so far not been documented as killing anyone. While they do appear to have weapons of lethal capability, they favor the incapacitation and capture of their enemies and survivors of such raids report that being struck by a Skinny weapon is painful, disorientating and can cause unconsciousness but are almost never fatal.

Unfortunately for both Mobile Infantry and colonist victims of Skinny raids, whose unconscious bodies are dragged away and never seen again, SICON has so far been unable to locate any captives once claimed by the Skinny raiders. Whatever happens to captives of the Skinnies is entirely unknown, but Military Intelligence suspects that whatever their fate, it is anything but pleasant. Special Services sensers employed to find missing soldiers and citizens have been unable to detect even a trace of them, suggesting that this race may have some kind of innate psychic shielding.

These same psychics have, however, been able to detect several locations believed to be Skinny installations or outposts, though attempts to identify any kind of homeworld have so far met only with failure. More conventional investigation methods have also had only limited success, though SICON has managed to capture a number of Skinny vessels and corpses, and while live captures have been less numerous, some have been made. Autopsies and questioning of these captives lead SICON to suspect they can speak and may even understand Standard English, however, to date no meaningful communication with members of the race have been conclusive.

With the lack of an identifi able homeworld or command structure all attempts at diplomacy with the Skinnies have failed, leaving the Federation with only one choice. Not wishing to commit the full resources of the Strategically Integrated Coalition of Nations to an all-out war against an race of unknown capabilities, the Fleet and Mobile Infantry have been deployed in limited numbers to defend worlds along the apparent shared border and systematic strikes have been launched against nearby Skinny holdings to create an exclusion zone.

The UCF cannot and will not tolerate violence directed against its territories. If the Skinnies do not cease their raids, these initial strikes will only become larger in scale and more numerous. There are, however, several located worlds under Skinny control that the Federation has avoided attacking in the hopes of showing the alien race that humanity is not a barbaric race. There are limits to SICON’s patience, however. If the Skinnies do not cease and desist their attacks, the Federation will be left with no choice but to classify them as a threat to humanity and dedicate SICON’s forces to the eradication of their kind. The coalition of Sky Marshals have already worked out a plan of attack called Operation: Clean Sweep, a staged program of assault so overwhelming and large scale, it is considered an infallible method of dealing with the Skinny menace once and for all. Clean Sweep has not yet been put into effect, largely in the interests in peace but also because of the discovery of the Arachnids on Pluto. Bowing to the ancient wisdom of not fighting battles on two fronts, Clean Sweep and the forces tentatively assigned to it have been placed on standby until Pluto can be explored and the threat potential of the bug presence there is fully assessed.

Physiology: Skinnies are tall, grey-skinned bipeds with thin limbs and knobbly hides. Ranging from seven to nine feet in height these wiry humanoids are covered in a grey hide with occasional greenish blotches, this coloration seemingly either shifts throughout the Skinny lifecycle or are a sign of racial variation, similar in nature to the skin tones of humanity. Their leathery epidermis is pierced in places by protrusions of bone, most commonly on the shoulders, elbows and the length of the spine. Skinnies are completely hairless and do not appear to require surface respiration. Skinnies have a much higher body temperature (45°C/113°F), a temperature that can be fatal to humans (36°C/96.8°F). This higher body temperature causes a naked skinny to show up on a pair of snoopers like a neon sign.

The appendages of a Skinny are elongated and, as mentioned above, bear numerous bone protrusions. These protrusions come to distinct points and suggest that while they may not exhibit any pugilistic tendencies now, their ancestors may have been physical hunters at some point in their evolution.

The combination of their long limbs, thick skin and height requires a remarkable efficient cardiopulmonary and respiratory system to ensure proper circulation of gas and fluid to the structures of the body.

Sex traits are almost completely concealed inside a Skinny’s body and though there is certainly a gender difference as of the dozens of specimens taken during their unprovoked attacks, nearly 50% have been what SICON researchers have determined to be ‘females’. SICON scientists are still not prepared to confirm, however, whether or not Skinnies reproduce sexually.

Skinnies have four joints in every one of their three fingers, improving their manual dexterity by an estimated 12% when compared to that of a human. The most prominent feature of the Skinny hand is the sweeping talon on the back of the palm, which appears to be similar in nature to the dew claw of a neodog. This fearsome spike is typically between six and eight inches in length, however, some rare specimens have exceeded ten inches.

The unusual traits of the Skinny hand are mirrored in the pedicular array of this race. While each ‘foot’ has five toes, these are jointed in three places. Skinny toes splay out in a wide fan with the third or central toe being the longest, at almost 12 inches in length. This fan of toes elevates the ankle joint, as the Skinnies appear to lack any form of heel. As with Skinny fingers, each toe is tipped with a sharp cuticle.

Skinnies have the same sensory capabilities as human organs; they smell, sight, hear, touch and taste, with the tongue appearing to aid both consumption and communication. Scientists have so far been unable to attribute any function to the mandibles that lie to either side of the Skinny mouth, filled with a wide row of large incisors. Their other four senses are presumably as sharp as a human’s, though their sense of smell may be far less acute due to the reduced size of a Skinny’s nasal passages, the nostrils of which are situated between the bulging, close-set ocular organs. Also, given the slightly caustic effect of methane on scent receptors, this would not be a surprising biological adaptation.

It is likely that a Skinny can see only in the red spectrum, in much the same fashion as dogs, this would certainly explain their proclivity for gaudily colored garments. Hearing is similarly no more acute than a human’s audio sensitivity. Surprisingly, the structure of their ears, the five jointed appendages, similar to fingers that crest the elongated skull of the Skinny, does not grant the same ability to sense vibrations outside their normal hearing range. It is possible that their humanoid evolution has robbed them of this capacity or that on their homeworld such a feature was never part of the forebear race they came from originally. Regardless, these ‘fingers’ serve as the Skinnies aural organs, capable of receiving the vibrations of sound waves across their surfaces before transmitting them to the brain.

Their tactile senses are in no way limited by their dense layers of skin that covers the Skinny body. A Skinny has a thinner layer of skin over his hands, feet and face, while this is still noticeably thicker than the epidermis of a human, an advanced nervous system and a greater propensity of nerve endings seems to have adapted to this. SICON scientists are, however, at a loss to explain this apparent adaptation, as there does not seem to be any biological reason for this degree of sensitivity, suggesting that this adaptation is environmental in nature. It is likely that if the Federation could answer the tactile riddle of the Skinnies, they would learn a lot more about their homeworld.

SICON medical staff have been able to closely examine Skinny cadavers and in doing so have uncovered a number of microscopic lacerations on the back of the neck. These lacerations have been the subject of special investigation, as the small incisions and discoloration surrounding them form a distinct pattern that match other cadavers autopsied by SICON scientists.

While Military Intelligence would have preferred to perform these examinations directly, it is their opinion that these marks are a form of cultural patterning, much akin to ritualistic scarifi cation seen on Earth before the Disorders. They may indeed have some racial importance, but SICON scientists have made the assertion that these lacerations indicate the presence of a piece of equipment or some other foreign object that ‘disengages’ from the user immediately upon death.

Source:

• Starship Troopers RPG Sourcebook (pages 218-236)
• Starship Troopers Wiki: Skinny
• thedemonapostle