Created by Captain Michael Turlogh Kane on Aug 16, 2016 @ 4:20am

THE THAL

At first glance, it is difficult to believe that a cunning malign intelligence lurks within THE THAL’S seemingly dead crystalline exterior. They resemble crystal centaurs; four to eight legs sprout from their bodies, making them surprisingly nimble and sure-footed. From their broad, powerful torso, two sets of arms descend; one equipped with dextrous grippers, the others tapering out into two deadly monofilament blades. They have no real necks or spine; their cranium is simply presumed to be at the top of the slabs of their bodies. A terrifying set of four burning red eyes glows from inside their heads, marking the only sign of life. These eyes are thought to be able to see in a number of visual spectrums, allowing for a multitude of varying sights - ultraviolet, electro-magnetic, and others. Coiled under their bodies are pliable, rope-like, thin crystal membranes; these serve as each individual Thal’s bio-energy extractors.

The most horrific factor about the Thal is that they consume biological life forms to survive. Being crystalline, they do not respire either anaerobically or aerobically, so do not require the ingestion of proteins, carbohydrates, calories and other organic nutrients to survive.

Instead, the Thal feed on the bio-energy produced within the neurons of biological life-forms. They are able to store this bio-energy within the crystalline lattices of their carapaces. They use their pliable, rope-like membranes to extract the bio-energy, the very life force, of their victims. These membraneous extractors bore through the victim’s skull and literally suck the life force from the brain of the victim. This gruesome practice is usually done while the victim is awake and aware of what is happening, in order to generate the maximum amount of synaptic activity. The length of the process varies according to the size and complexity of the victim’s brain, but the end result is the same: the victim loses its self-awareness, but retains consciousness, and dies painfully as all enzyme activity, regulated from the brain, ceases. The body’s organs follow suit shortly thereafter.

It is unknown how the Thal body, without a digestive system, actually processes this bio-energy, but it is theorised that they use it as some kind of psychic “fuel” to maintain their connection with their Hive Mind. This connection is unlikely to ever be understood – since the Thal do not have internal organs, it is virtually impossible to monitor brain patterns or perform autopsies on captured corpses. Thal that do die simply become “inert”, as if they had been switched off like a machine.

Given their crystalline carapace, the Thal are virtually impervious to standard phaser fire. Phased polaron energy seems to cause them discomfort, but multiple attacks are needed to even slow one of the monsters down. Standard Marine pulse rifle ammunition is equally useless, but some marine units have reported more success using armour-piercing rounds. Sonic weapons have been more successful against them, but Starfleet does not have enough of these weapons to equip all frontline starships with them.