CODA Xindi

[mactavish]

So I am interested in Xindi statistics, both for the Xindi species and for their technology/ships/equipment.

Anyone care to jump right in?

mactavish out.

[mactavish]

Here's what we know about the Xindi so far:

1. The Xindi-Primates are very human in their attitudes and behaviors.

2. The Xindi-Arboreals are reasonable and tend to think along the same lines as the Primates.

3. The Xindi-Aquatics take a very long time to make a decision about anything.

4. The Xindi-Insectoids, on the other hand, are quick to reach a conclusion.

5. The Xindi-Reptilians are militant, reactionary, and generally unpleasant. They seem to be generally opposed to the ideas and proposals of the Primates and the Arboreals.

6. The sixth Xindi subspecies - the Avians - became extinct long ago. They built an aerie in the cliffs of a planet used as the Xindi Council meeting chamber. The Council was formed to prevent the extinction of any more Xindi subspecies.

7. The Xindi homeworld was destroyed ~2023, presumably as the result of a century of warfare. The various Xindi subspecies have their own colony worlds (some of which are integrated), their own leadership structures, and their own fleets of starships. They all defer to the will of the Council for matters involving all Xindi.

8. The Sphere Builders - whom the Xindi refer to as the Guardians - saved the Xindi from racial dissolution decades earlier. They aided them in forming their Council and duped them into uniting against a fictional threat posed my mankind. The Xindi revere these Guardians as their saviors.

9. The Sphere Builders are extradimensional. They built their network of spheres in the Delphic Expanse to reconfigure space so that they could survive in our reality (presumably to colonize and/or invade). They are capable of not only viewing possible future timelines, but also (apparently) of traveling in time.

10. The Xindi as a whole are more advanced technologically than humanity in the mid-22nd century.

Have I missed anything?

mactavish out.

[Balok]

Xindi-Insectoid names get longer as they grow older. Didn't we learn, perhaps in "Hatchery", that Insectoids only live about nine or ten years?

[mactavish]

You know, I really like the concept of an alien race consisting of mutliple subspecies. That's a pretty nifty gimmick and not one we've seen too frequently.

Another piece that I've noticed is that all Xindi share a couple of physical characteristics: they all appear to have a sort of "Klingon-lite" forehead and perhaps redundant nostrils (2) along their cheekbones. It appears that they all have them.

Dr. Phlox also noted that the various Xindi subspecies share remarkably similar genetic makeups.

mactavish out.

[Ezri's Toy]

Originally posted by mactavish
Dr. Phlox also noted that the various Xindi subspecies share remarkably similar genetic makeups.

No different than mankind and the rest of the real-world life forms on this planet. The variances between species on Earth only involve a 5%(?) 1%(?) difference in DNA sequencing ?

The only difference between the Xindi and humanity is that various Xindi species developed sapience and the ability to use tools. On Earth, we have species that use tools (some species of the great apes) and some that are, or are close to, human-level intelligent (some species of cetaceans, particularly dolphins) but none other than man to combine the two.

[mactavish]

I'm curious how technologically advanced they are compared to humanity. How fast do their ships go? What about their subspace cooridors? Their weapons (ship-based and personal)? Are their vessels equipped with shields?

Would you think that all Xindi are equal technologically? Maybe some species are more advanced than the others in a specific area. Are the Reptilians and Insectoids better with weapons? I am really interested in designing some Xindi vessels, but am not sure how good it's systems should be. From what we've seen, I'd say a really good structural integrity field (SIF) is standard (at least on their shuttles).

It seems that the Xindi have transporters. Do they have replicators?

As for their personal weapons, it seems like the different species have different firearms. The Reptilians seem equipped with phaser or disruptor rifles. The Insectoids, on the other hand, had their "glop gun" that splattered some sppoge on a bulkhead which then sprayed some sort of energy or chemical attack at the crewmen.

We've also discovered that the Reptilians seem to like knives. Are they like Klingons in that way? Maybe with a martial history of unarmed and melee combat styles.

Just some things to think about.

mactavish out.

[Space_Cadet]

mactivish, I'm trying to work on some Xindi starships. I' believe Xindi starships don't have warp and rely on vortices to get from point a to b. Chances are the Xindi ships are only capable of impulse drive, IMO. The repetillian starship seem to come in different sizes kinda like the Klingon BOP in TNG or its a special fx mistake.

The transporter thing seems iffy. On Twilight, in the alternate 10 years after Earth's destruction, they have transporters but in the recent episode they beamed over Hoshi, yet they always boarded through the airlock. My theory is the Sphere Buidlers are giving them bits of future technology along the way.

I believe their side arms are disruptors. It is my belief that phaers are a federation trait and tradition says disruptors are for bad guys. . But i think their weapon has one setting which is to kill. I don't think the Instectoids have the glob gun you mentioned. It was the reptilian than fired it. Its probably their version of a grenade launcher. The insectoids, on the other hand, have some sort of "sonic boom" gun.

I tend to think they are technologically equal considering they are united and share their technology amongst them.

Xindi reptillians have a "suicide" glan.

We'll see how the arc ends.

I"m going to try to catch "The Council" again

[Tobian]

In a recent episode of Enterprise I was watching there were a number ofinteresting titbits to make some summaries out of.

The Xindi definatelly do work together to produce their technology as I distinctly remember one of them mentioning how he was a designer of one of the parts for the Reptiles ship (right before he blew it up )

The Xindi also seem to have mapped out the expanse almost fully and mentioned how each of the spheres is connected by subspace filaments... I wonder, if the Xindi are actually warp capable or not. While on the one hand they were talking about opening a rift to earth for their weapon, it could be something to do with these subspace strands within their space that allows them to form their subspace rifts - possibly technology they gained from the Sphere builders - if the Sphere's dissapeared they might not be able to do it anymore.. maybe they will - it's just a possible story ark Certainly Archer is going to have to ride one of these rifts to leave Xindi space as even the Vulcans couldn't leave it by normal means!

In terms of weapons technology I think the Xindi are quite inovative. There comes a point when a weapon which can disintergrate you ceases to get any better But they do have lots of disabling weapons - such as the sonic shock thingy and the spray on goo weapons.. Which have the added advantage of sealing off the coridoor too! The components of their weapons are a curious mixture of semi organic, organic and metals - their energy cells seem to be some sort of organic form!

I'm not 100% sure if the Xindi have shields as it's a little bit of a wooly issue in Enterprise and I suspect that the answer might be 'some' of their ships do.

It's hard to say if the Xindi are very much more advanced than humans / Vulcans - allot of the initial fear of the region of space they inhabit really stems from the Sphere builders, who we know are sharing technology wih the Xindi for their own purposes, though to be fair to the Xindi they do seem like they know how their technology works - I.e. they understand it not just use it - so in the aftermath of the TCW with the Sphere builders allot is going to have changed in the political landscape. It was hinted that the Xindi actually join the Federation at some future date so it could be possible they do that relativelly soon after it's formation - or equally 3 weeks before the Sphere builders invade

[mactavish]

You know, I don't think that we have actually seen the Xindi use warp drive.

Does that mean that they don't have it? Perhaps. Maybe the use of their subspace corridors precludes the use of warp travel. Maybe they have both but their warp drives are slow compared to how fast they can travel using their corridors. I'm not sure, but I'd suggest that they do have the capability of producing a warp-capable vessel but that they haven't done so just yet.

How long have the Sphere Builders been working in the Delphic Expanse? We've learned that they contacted the Xindi ~120 years earlier, just after the destruction of Xindis, their homeworld. How old are the spheres themselves? It seems like we've heard in one episode or another that they're thousands of years old, but I can't rightly remember. Anyone that can help my failing memory, feel free to do so.

So the Xindi apparently have been a spacefaring race for millennia. This is evidenced by the fact that the Council world - originally settled by the Xindi-Avians - was over 4,000 years old. So the question is this: how did they travel to another star system? Did they use STL drive, warp drive, or were the subspace corridors available at that time? If we assume that the corridors were available, and that the Sphere Builders are somehow responsible for them, then we can assume the Sphere Builders have been around for quite some time.

As for the Xindi technological base, I think that they're probably 15-25 years more advanced than mankind (depending on the field), but that the Vulcans are probably 40-50 years more advanced than humanity (if not more). The Vulcans have ship-based shields, tractor emitters, and FTL engines able to go faster than Warp 5. The Xindi appear to have powerful ship-mounted weapons (more powerful than <i>Enterprise</i>), transporters, and medical-related technologies superior to humans and Denobulans (as evidenced in "The Council"). So, I guess that I'd say that the Xindi are somewhat more advanced than humanity and somewhat less advanced than the Vulcans.

So what about the Andorians? The Klingons? The Axanari? The Denobulans? The Romulans? The Tholians? I think that everyone is more advanced than mankind in one or more technological areas: the Andorians have better weapons, faster ships, tractor beams, better sensors, and so on. The Klingons have faster ships and more powerful weapons. Not sure about the Axanari. The Denobulans seem to have a better grip on medicine and other sciences than mankind, but (to the best of my knowledge) we've not seen one of their ships as yet.

As for the Romulans, the CODA books suggest that - in the age of <i>Enterprise</i> - they have no warp drive, no cloaking technology, and no beam or energy-based missile weapons. The episode "Minefield" seems to contradict much of this, but - as we've only seen one ship - it's hard to tell how widespread their cloaking and weapons technology are.

The Tholians are a mystery. They obviously have warp-capable ships, powerful weapons, and some sort of temporal sensor technologies. I think that they are much more advanced in many ways, but that their reclusive nature makes them something of a wild card.

There are, of course, other races that we've either not seen at all or that we've seen fleetingly. I am interested in the Breen, the Ferengi, the Bajorans, the Cardassians, the Orions, the Trill, the Betazoids, the Shelliak, and a host of others. I'm interested in what you guys have to say about them.

Your insights are most welcome.

mactavish out.

[Tobian]

Fascinating subject mactavish.

Hmm I don't think it's as so easy to quantify everything in this era as easilly of who is how far ahead of an other - mostly because exactly how advanced people are is somewhat cloaked.

I think that the Xindi are probably on a par with the Vulcans it's just that they are in different areas. I think that a Vulcan cruiser could probably beat a couple of the Xindi ships in terms of tactical firepower, however I think in hand to have level of technology the Xindi would beat the Vulcans. None of the Vulcans technology was able to stave off the effects of the Expanse (though generlaly this hasn't been a problem for everyone else).

I think that it could be that the Xindi have slow warp drive, because thos ehandy shortcuts are apparently MUCH faster than conventional warp drive. I do think they are somewhat limited though, and possibly to the expanse it's self.

Going to other races. The Andorians seem to have some more advanced military technology though perhaps not as advanced as the Vulcans. The Klingons are probably on a par with the ndorians, however I suspect that the Klingon empire is quite a large thing by now and their technology comes more from a slow plodding pace than rapid development - Point in case - Klingon technology rapidly falls behind Federation technology - yes their arms and military budget means their ships are capable of outputting huge quantities of energy through those weapons - but in almost every other area, including medicine they are sorelly lacking.

The Romulans I suspect have a technology level comparable to the Klingons - it's just their strengths lie in other areas - I.e. cloaking fields and tactical weaponry rather than brite force like the klingons. Perhaps they are even less advanced than Humans, it's hard to really know - but then that's their whole game isn't it - and always has been!

I think that the Tholians are pretty much hands down FAR more technologically advanced than almost every other species. They have ships that can easilly handle the Vulcans and the Suliban. They seem to have advanced sensors and the Tholian web, while distinctly odd, demonstrates a hugh technical prowess in terms of their ability to manipulate energy and gravity and subspace. The fact they are fairly teritorial and have no real need for expansion is why they don't neccessarily have huge fleets of ships - they have just enough to do what they need to - protect their assets with lethal force!

[mactavish]

I would also tend to assume that the Xindi have warp capabilities but prefer to use their subspace tunnels for the sake of speed.

Regarding the Klingons, I think we're on the same page. In my estimation, they were probably artificially advanced by the Hur'q - the aliens that invaded and conquered Qo'nos at some point in the past. Last Unicorn indicated that the Klingons got warp drive by capturing and reverse-engineering the <i>U.S.S. Ranger</i>, a Starfleet vessel. Apparently they already have warp travel (as evidenced in several episodes, including "Sleeping Dogs" and "The Expanse"). They don't have cloaking technology in the 22nd century, however; perhaps they get it from the Romulans or the Suliban.

I truly love the Romulans and would like to see them take a greater role, but I'm really not sure how to design their vessels. Do they have plasma weapons? Photon torpedoes? Defense shields? We know that the one we saw in "Minefield" has a cloak, and that they can produce mines with cloaks... which leads me to believe that their ships can cloak in the same fashion as the Suliban cell ships.

I also agree with your assessment of the Andorians. They are pretty militant, possessing pretty decent hand and ship-based energy weapons. I like the Andorians almost as much as the Romulans, and I really wish we'd seen more of them to this point. Tellarites, too.

The Xindi are pretty tough; they cleaned <i>Enterprise</i>'s clock pretty effectively (though they did have multiple vessels). I desperately want to put together some statistics for the various Xindi ships we've seen so far, but damn it, Jim, I'm a writer, not an engineer!

So anyway, I like this topic and plan to keep adding to it. I think that - even though <i>Enterprise</i> has its issues - it does offer a pretty cool glimpse into the history of Starfleet, the upcoming Federation, and the many alien species (friend and foe) we've grown to love/loathe since the 1960s.

mactavish out.

[Tobian]

I believe there are several instances where it was indicated that the first contact with the Klingons was what precipitated the later wars - but that's all nor (relativelly) in the past because the Entperise Timeline version has changed it. Plain and simple if you want to run Enterprise you HAVE to go with their version so all other arguments are rendered moot as the Klingons have played a pivotal role - if you arent running Enterprise you can just brush it under the carpet and be as vague as possible

I think as a model the Hurq' are a good way to explain the relative technological advantage of the Klingons - They are pretty powerful BUT they don't have a huge understanding of the technology and haven't really grown into more modern forms of war (they place a strong emphasis on their tradition and culture) - I suspect the reason we've seen so much change in the Klingons is that the generation AFTER TOS were reacting to a sudden and violent change in their society and it's implications of loss of identity. This points to the Klingons being suddenly accelerated - that power went to their heads, but with a few more years under their belts they decided to try and recapture their traditions before they were destroyed by their new culture!

I, despite making the Vulcans Evil, love the Andorians, though of course with the addition of the third series the Andorians had some evil installed - It's easy to see how they come round to allying with the Humans. The Tellarites are the last of the big 4 to be shown - and i hope they do - ye's we've seen *1* but I meant their culture as a whole. I think they did a good job making the Andorians a little less Naff, and I hope they can do the same for the Tellarites! If it's supposed to be realistic for the Federation to form with them as a central partner then they REALLY need to be in the show soon!

I guess it's also hard in this era to reflect such differences in game stats - the top and bottom end of the scale doesn't have quite as much difference in stats as the TOS - TNG era - though in some ways this is a blessing in disguise as really the ships aren;t much better or worse - What makes them different is the story arks.

Things like the Trellium D in the Delphic expanse make a HUGE difference (maybe an edge which ships need to navigate properly without melting!) but which wouldn't really represent any physical stat. Things like Tholian weapons also tend to be a 'special' case, you can't really stat them because they are more or less in the 'Species 8472' camp of - dead or not if you're hit!

Something which isn't reflected in Decipher which should have been was torpedo availability. In the Delphic expanse the enteprise never once mentioned a lack of them - yet Voyager was always concerned with running out! To me that speaks of a lack of continuity but in real terms I err on Voyagers side - Some things have been stated to be unable to be replicated - and they don't even have replicators on Enterprise anyway ! The ability to manufacture parts is a HUGE problem for Enterprise era crews - but then I think this is something of more of a plot nature.. because total damage of one system might strand them in their location alone for decades, so you have to let them repair it - but equally you might arbitrarily decide to say "Your warp coil is damaged beyond repair - what are you goingto do ?" as a story ark such as Archer had to deal with when he was 8ahem* forced to steal one!

[mactavish]

You and I also agree on the Tellarites. If they're so important, then where the heck are they? My understanding is that they are the primary engineers of the Federation, and that a great deal of starship design and construction is based on their ideas.

I see portraying the Klingons like Vikings with warp drives and disruptor cannons. Their traditions are very important to them, but so in kicing everyone else's butts. They are fairly well-equipped, but seem a lot like the Kazon in some ways: they have this advanced technology that they don't completely understand. Unlike the Kazon, they can reproduce and repair it, but their limited understanding has led to a major slowdown in their technical development, much like "the Race" from the Turtledove novels. Thus we see the D-7 as a ship from the mid-22nd through the late-23rd centuries with little real advancement or development. Perhaps they have their subjugated "client races" produce new ships and weapons for them, spending their own energies on conquest.

The Andorians really do rock. I've been using a lot of my Last Unicorn Games books as source materials for my CODA game preparation, and the Andorian book is just the best. Besides the little linguistic nuances, we have the Am Tal and the whole dueling culture scenario (which seems somewhat supported by what we've seen in <i>Enterprise</i>). The fact that they are so militant and well-armed is very likely one of the main reasons that the Earth-Romulan War ended when it did; the prospect of facing the humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites was likely a little discomfiting. (Yes, I realize that I didn't include the Centaurans; <i>Entperprise</i> seems to indicate that Alpha Centauri is a human colony, so - while it may be a founding member of the Federation - it is populated by humans).

More later.

mactavish out.

[Space_Cadet]

Hey hold on... i thought i this was Xindi thread

I still contend that the Xindi don't have warp. The vortices are there FTL travel but we'll have to see in the next two episodes on what they really are, considering the foes have escaped through them.

Now as for the stats ....

1. xindi ships appear to have disruptor like weapons. I've referred to the Starship sourcebook and noticed that Klingons and Cardassian have similar generic disruptor technology. Perhaps one could fit the Xindi in there too.

2. I think the Xindi disruptor rifle has unlimited power.

Like i said before, transporters are kinda iffy. Why did they have to board ship through the airlock like in Rajiiin?

I agree with Tobian that the Tholians are ahead of the crowd. Romulans are a mystery. Its assumed that they do have a primitive form of cloaking that even a shuttlecraft can easily detect. Klingons have obviously mastered transporter use as shown in the Maruanders episode. The Andorians, I believe, have primitive deflector shields which might explain how they're able to go through the expanse with realtive ease and it seems like they can get out of the expanse with ease too.

[Tobian]

it is about the Xindi but it's also mactavish's thread and I was answering him

In al seriousness there is a need to understand the relative technology of all of the races of this era to understand the Xindi.

because of the general poorness of cultural databases sensors and general intercomunication exactly what one race has to another would be an anatamae to the period people too! that and advanced adaptable shielding hasn't made things like the radiation in the delphic expanse negligable