Reeh

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Excerpt, Defiance

The reeh first appear in book 5, Croma Venture. This page contains spoilers — information gained in books 5-7.

SPOILERS ALERT!

Location

The miserable Reeh empire is located at the edge of the Spiral, far from human space. “The Reeh Empire has nearly a thousand populated systems, though. Those are just the worlds, inhabited non-worlder systems are thousands more.” (RS-21)

The Croma Wall supposedly keeps reeh from entering the inner galactic systems, but the mighty Croma aren't what they once were, and the Wall appears to work to reeh advantage. We know from book 5 Croma Venture that the Croma Wall has retreated, allowing the reeh to swallow the Corbi planet Rando.

Empire Founded on AI Tech

• Eons ago (roughly 25,000 years) the organic Reeh species found a lone Machine-race queen, the last ceephay in existence, and befriended her.
• She is at least 40,000 years old (RS-13, 15, 29)
• The Reeh named her The Rehel
• Over millennium, using their queen’s capabilities, the Reeh grew into an empire. The empire is founded upon genetic manipulation, based on AI simulations and genetic calculations. (RS-21)

Seven Command Unit Emissaries

• The Rehel (ceephay queen) created seven command units, her seven helping hands, sentient AI emissaries, headquartered on planet Eshir. (QD 25, 31)
• Not her equal, not queens
• After Amakti Los civil war ~8,000 yrs ago, Reeh probably enslaved their queen and killed her emissaries (Qd-25)
• But one of the seven command units is still alive, Shali. (QD-25, 31)

Reeh Descriptions

Narside reeh, generated with text-based AI program

• Language is more electronic than verbal, at least for technical matters (QD-33)
• synthetic-organic combination: "The hand came off, and she peered at the bone and arteries within, arrayed like a surgeon’s training model. Filament sparkled, inorganic and numerous... She dropped the hand and went back to...” (CV-22)
• reeh have messed with their own genetic code, so their original physiology is unknown (RS -26), but see Qalea Drop for original physiology, images of organic reeh
• "More bodies, this time several reeh—long, angular heads, skeletal arms and full of holes, just how Trace liked them. There was not much blood on the shiny white floor, and that was so dark red it was nearly black. Not a biological oddity, Trace was sure—an engineered one, thousands of years in the making. Like their horrid creations, reeh were not what they’d once been." (RS-26)
• "a reeh, black-eyed with its elongated skull, glaring down on them" (RS-29)
• Major Thakur sees "a big-jawed face, teeth prominent, making a lower-face snout that was vaguely reptilian. But the eyes were all advanced sentience, jet black and without iris... Sard had no irises. Krim hadn’t either. And hacksaws had no eyes, just optical sensors. Species without irises were trouble, the report had said." (CV-22)
• ”Trace knew that in reeh, and most of their slaves, those biomechanoid attachments extended within the wearer’s body, fully integrating organic and machine exterior.” (RS-4)
• ”Its face plate was half-off, a pointed, insect-like thing, or like the snout of a dog. Trace put her rifle into it and fired repeatedly, blasting dark blood and gore about the helmet as the suit jerked, and lay still.“ (RS-28)
• Reeh empire soldiers in armor at the splicer: “Jindi looked, toward the hangar rear, and his blood ran cold to see them, dark and loping like giant insects, angular heads thrust forward, legs bending the wrong way. Reeh armour, the real, galaxy-conquering thing, weapon pods on their arms, rocket launchers on their shoulders. Several turned his way.” (RS-27)
• Some similarity between Reeh and Alo: "Trace grabbed the reeh’s limp arm, and examined the armour. There was a join at the wrist, and she inserted her kukri and sliced. Bone cracked, and she gave the wrist another couple of accurate whacks. The hand came off, and she peered at the bone and arteries within, arrayed like a surgeon’s training model. Filament sparkled, inorganic and numerous. She’d read this classified report too, about the alo. Micro-filament, neither organic nor inorganic, made of intermediate carbon-based materials, reaching through the limbs to provide a sensory and coordination boost to hands and fingers....Alo took it to a whole other level. And now she’d become perhaps the first human ever to see with her own eyes that the Reeh did the same. She dropped the hand and went back to...” (CV-22)
• Appearance in battle armor, reeh shock troopers in Qalea Drop : “The reeh resumed its advance, appearing fully through the smoke. Huge armoured shoulders, and evil, angular faceplate visor amidst sensory gear and sloped armoured forehead. The powerplant hummed and throbbed like a living thing. The only reason it hadn't fired and killed him yet was that its shot would also destroy the control pillar behind him.” (QD-31)

Original Organic Appearance

• Similar to modern reeh, but without cybernetic implants
• Not so vicious and malevolent in appearance

Here was a photograph, of a bipedal alien on a medical table, hooked up to various tubes and high-tech equipment. The snout, the thrusting jaw, the close-set eyes were clearly reeh. But different. Not so malevolent, somehow. The bio-mechanical attachments that reeh today had inserted all through their bodies were missing. ((QD-24)

Psychopathic Acts

• Conquered and absorbed hundreds of planets and perhaps thousands of habitats on space stations (RS-21)
• enslaved, absorbed, dispersed, or exterminated at least 17 sentient species (Qalea Drop, 2)
• practices genetic manipulation and enslavement across empire and possibly beyond (Croma Venture and Rando Splicer)
• transforms species into attack animals and sentient slaves via genetic simulation, modification and control (RS)
  • “Reeh mind-control ran off a functional network.” (Rs-27)
• "Surely this, unknown to most of the Spiral, was the most dangerous species in the galaxy. And now Phoenix, on behalf of all humanity, had just picked a fight with it.” (CV-20)

Professor Romki: “All of reeh civilisation appears to be built around genetic manipulation. It’s their primary technology, and it seems both indigenous and ingenious. If the croma and corbi tales about what reeh have done to the occupied peoples in their space… well, the scale of the tragedy is beyond comprehension." (CV)

History Amakti Los

See also Machine Race - Ceephay

Reeh were a typical organic species until suddenly their civilization changed when they found a lone Machine-race ceephay queen. They built her a temple and dubbed her The Rehel. The queen helped organize and strengthen the reeh civilization, like an advanced civic engineer. She created seven diplomatic command units, dubbed the seven helping hands of the Rehel. Gradually, reeh power spread across neighboring space. Gradually, the queen/ Rehel upgraded the reeh with limited cybernetic implants. But some reeh wanted more power, more cybernetic implants, more change. They wanted an empire.

• The Origin Horizon is a dateline before which reeh history is shutdown. It’s an artificial mandatory prehistory. Delving into this prehistory is forbidden by reeh empire.

• The Origin Horizon is dated roughly 8,000 years ago, on planet Eshir in city Qalea (QD-10)
• The Amakti Los semi-religious society also existed, from even before the Origin Horizon (one temple was built 9,000 years ago (QD-22)
• Amakti Los society was a reeh organization. They feared too much cybernetic change in the reeh. They wanted peace between species and a return to native organic reeh anatomy and psychology
• Amakti Los disappeared 4,000 years ago, when reeh shock troopers murdered all members (QD-10)
• But Amakti Los temples, labs, and records still exist, beneath the city of Qalea. (QD-24)

Historical Civil War, Two Factions

• Gradually, reeh split into two diametrically opposed factions, arguing over genetic manipulation. See Amakti Los sections in Qalea Drop (ch. 10, 25)

1. Chariya - reeh rebels, supported native organic origins, peace, and inter-species collaboration (Amakti Los ), joined by some neighboring species
2. Narsid - reeh fascists, supporting reeh galactic supremacy via genetic and cybernetic manipulation (became modern reeh)

• Narsid reeh murdered all Chariya:

"Some of the non-reeh species joined the chariya -- that's what the rebels came to be called. All were betrayed and murdered by the billion before the end. The narsid embraced their new genetics and cybernetics technologies even harder as the war grew worse. Their minds began to change even further.” (QD-25)

• The ceephay queen Rehel sided with peace-seeking Chariya, according to iceball command unit Shali. So did the queen’s seven diplomatic command units, or “the seven hands of the Rehel” (QD-25)
• Styx speculates the reeh found a way to constrain the queen and force her to continue upgrading their cyber implants and to employ genetic manipulation on neighboring species. She may be held in captivity