The Saga of the Phi-Warpers
Many worlds have developed teleportation, hyperdrive, jump and warp systems for interplanetary travel, but none are as perfected as the Mechanoid warp drive. The Mechanoids had created the most accurate warp system ever devised. It was also one of the most heinous atrocities committed against humanity.
The Mechanoids discovered an oxygen rich planet with deep blue skies and even deeper blue oceans. Oceans dominated this planet, covering 87% of the surface. Under its majestic waves prospered an aquatic race of humanoid mammals vaguely similar to the Earth dolphin. Although these intelligent, gentle people possessed great psionic abilities what made them truly unique
was an uncanny psionic ability to teleport by means of bending time and space. Apparently, they were able to mentally probe space and manipulate its forces, By creating a sort of invisible vortex that bends the fabric of space, they were able to project themselves great distances in a matter of minutes (a form of dimensional shifting that, to this day, remains a mystery).
Having never known war or betrayal, the Phi-Warpers fell easy prey to the Mechanoid's treachery. Psionically neutralized, the Phi-Warpers were captured and subjected to genetic reconstruction.
After a century of painstaking genetic experimentation, the new Phi-Warpers were ready to take their place in the Mechanoid world. The Warpers' once large, powerful bodies were reduced to shrunken, tailless stumps. One arm had been transformed into a spindly dwarf appendage, while the other was monstrously giant and as weak and ineffectual as the dwarf. Their keen vision lost to tiny, far-set eyes which left them nearly blind. Drugged and placed into special life support canisters, they became the key components of the Mechanoids warp drive, Their minds, swept clean of cluttering thought, were controlled and stimulated by the Warp drive mechanism, activated only by the flow of coordinates and the pulse of energy required to Warp.
A single Phi-Warper could flawlessly warp a 20- ton object a distance of a thousand light years and 100,000 Phi-Warpers precisely timed, controlled and amplified by the cosmic energies of a Mechanoid power crystal could warp an entire planet-sized Mothership.
For now, the Warpers live as catatonic slaves to Mechanoids in a hell-spawned device. However, those that escape the tyrannical rule of their robotic masters have a somewhat difficult time adapting to the real world. Possessed of remarkable psionics and Mental Endurance, an amazing 61% of all Phi-Warpers are able to conform to their new environment with little or no lasting psychological trauma, but those that are driven insane (39%) are dangerously hostile, schizophrenic, and often possess multi-personalities. Those escaping permanent psychological damage retain their gentle manner and high regard for life Insatiably curious about their new environment, the ocean of space, they have become ardent explorers. Enjoying contact with other life, they will often join exploration expeditions, offering their warping abilities in exchange for companionship and adventure.
Unfortunately, many unscrupulous beings still capture, and imprison, Phi-Warpers in debilitating warp systems as the Mechanoids did. Slavers and some black marketeers will pay anywhere from 200,000 to one million credits for a single psionically incapacitated (but fully functional) Phi-Warper. The Nigelian Confederacy finds this slave trade (as they do any slave trade) most hideous, reserving the most stringent punishments (including death) for anyone involved in the capture and enslaving of Phi-Warpers. (Note: most Confederacy races find this act so terrible that when Slavers are discovered, they are treated mercilessly, with few Slavers taken alive for prosecution). Needless to say, this has endeared the Nigelian Confederacy to the Phi-Warpers.
Being very fragile and incapable of physically walking, it is wise to see to it that any Phi-Warper is suitably protected within waldoes or armor. Phi-Warper body armor is specially designed of lightweight metal alloys, complete with hover jets. This suit offers maximum protection and mobility. Movement is otherwise limited to crawling, psionics (levitation, telekinesis, etc.), hover devices or transport by someone eIse. Also, Phi-Warpers with telekinetic abilities are able to pilot most ground vehicles and other simple hover vehicles.
NOTE: for more about the Phi Warpers, the Nigelians, and the Mechanoids, please see books by Kevin Sembieda at Palladium Games.