Rumors, myths, and legends can be found everywhere and happen to be quite common in the vast expanse of space. Many are simply stories created to pass the time on particularly long voyages, while others, happen to hold some truth them. One particular horror story is commonly told by traders. They tell of black ships that appear out of nowhere and send boarding teams of terrifying creatures with charcoal black skin and glowing red eyes. There are even stories told by soldiers of abandoned planetside research facilities and military bases filled with the same creatures. These creatures have been dubbed Riggers.

The Riggers

Riggers are a spacefaring race of notoriously sadistic creatures with an affinity for technology. They commonly attack military, trading, and even pirate vessels, using the ships for raw materials for their machine shops as well as using the crew for various surgical and cybernetic experiments. They live in colonies in whatever suitable location they can find. They prefer urban facilities, military bases, abandoned stations, and particularly large ships. Their origins are currently unknown.
Fun fact: The Riggers are actually called the Vookurek.

Appearance

The average Rigger stands at around seven feet tall and has a long guant body with leathery charcoal black skin pulled tightly over its skeleton, giving it the appearance of a charred corpse. Its fingers and toes are tipped with small black claws and its head is decorated by two rigid horn-like growths that sprout from either side of its head. The design of the horns vary from individual. A Rigger's most striking feature is its deep socketed glowing red eyes. Worn on every Rigger's back is a device that contains a powerful battery that it uses to power various weapons, devices, and attached modular equipment.


(Concept drawn for me by the talented thetallestblue, whose art can be viewed at thetallestblue.deviantart.com)


(Just some crappy thing I did in paint to show how the horns are positioned on the head.)

Language

Rigger language consists of spoken words coupled with guttural growls and even timely placed chuckles and other forms of laughter. It is believed to have been created by the first High Tinkerer council. Outsiders that learn their langauge are percieved differently by different colonies. Sometimes it's considered a flattery, and other times it's an insult punishable by torture and/or death.
Fun fact: Riggers have over 300 words for "Eviscerate"!

Personality and psychology

Riggers seem to be in a perpetual manic state, always laughing and cackling even in particularly dire circumstances. They rather enjoy existence and strive to do what they love to do above all else, further their race through technological advancement, and inflict pain. As a result, they focus on weapons development. Riggers actually have a psychological need to inflict harm and can potentially go into a withdrawal induced psychosis if denied this need for too long. Riggers have no concept of fear and care little about pain and discomfort. This, however, doesn't mean they're stupid. If they come across an enemy they cannot defeat through conventional means, they will withdraw and return with superior numbers and firepower. They're simply more prone to suicide tactics, such as one-way boarding pods and mad charges toward enemies with powered melee weapons. They rather enjoy being up close and personal.

Biology

A Rigger has a basic humanoid skeleton, their skin and bones being not much tougher than the average human. Riggers have a standardized set of organs, such as a heart that pumps a dirty violet colored substance throughout their bodies, plus a few duplicates for redundancy as well as a brain that can withstand a significant amount of damage before it begins to have serious adverse effects. Rigger eyes sit deep within the eye sockets and naturally produce a dull bioluminescent red glow. Being without eyelids, the eyes themselves produce a near transparent red jelly that keeps the sensitive organs moisturized as well as protected from the environment. One can actually tell a Rigger's mental state through the solidity of this jelly, so when it's running down their faces, watch out!

Rigger types

Each Rigger upon reaching maturity is given a specific task that is decided upon by the colony's instructors. Young Riggers are very receptive to new information and almost always display a certain knack for any one of the roles. Few show a knack for multiple roles. These tend to become leaders of their kind.

Soldiers- Many Riggers in a colony show a distinct aptitude for destruction. This notable lust for blood leads them down the path of a soldier. Although not as frighteningly intelligent as other types, the soldier makes up for this in sheer cold brutality. Soldiers enjoy a grueling regiment of extensive combat and weapons training and their physique is bolstered by intense physical training coupled with cutting edge chemical therapy. The end result is a thick-skinned, thickly muscled living weapon. A soldier can kill just as effectively with its bare claws as it can with a rifle.

Tinkerers- Put simply, Tinkerers are the mad scientist-like inventors of a colony. Tinkerers develop the weapons, armor, and other technology used by the rest of the colony. On the battlefield they tend to be better equipped than soldiers, although, perhaps not as savage. They utilize fantasitc and usually destructive high tech devices ranging from force screen generators, to teleporters, to anti-matter rifles.

(Prepare for a huge picture.)

(Drawn by Zizzit, an online friend of mine <3)

Surgeons- The ever-eccentric medical specialists. Surgeons develop the medical technologies used by the colony and treat injured and wounded Riggers. To better quell its normally overactive idea fount, one of a Surgeon's favorite passtimes is performing experiments on captured sentient lifeforms. Included in these experiments are forced cybernetic grafts, the administering of experimental drugs, and the eventual conversion of the subject for use as guards or cannonfodder in battle. Surgeons are rarely, if ever seen in large scale conflict. With no sense of empathy or morality, they freely conduct whatever horrible proceedures or experiments their twisted, yet brilliant minds can come up with. These Riggers are ever curious and build expansive xenobiology databases for the rest of the colony to utilize, whether it be to start trade relations with another species, or to better understand how to rip them apart in battle.

High Tinkerer- Only one per colony. The High Tinkerer is the undisputed ruler of a Rigger colony. They stand at about nine feet in height, but retain a relatively gaunt physique. They are the most disturbingly intelligent of the Rigger types and always have the best weapons, armor, and other gear, which they build themselves. The tech they build is always unique. No two High Tinkerer inventions are the same. Generally being scheming masterminds, these Riggers are rarely seen outside of their inner sanctums. They're much too important and busy to make personal appearances, unless of course they like that sort of thing. They're very individualistic.

Technology

Riggers utilize a large variety of different technologies from slugthrowers and the use of fossil fuels, to plasma weapons and fusion reactors, to the utilization of antimatter. Rigger types are restricted on what technology they can utilize by technological creed.

Technological creed

A Rigger's worth in the eyes of their colony as well of their patron deity is judged from their ability to make use of their knowledge to design, build, and maintain their own equipment and devices.

Weaponry

Riggers love to cause pain, as much of it as possible. This desire shapes the weapons they use. The following weapons are named by those that have encountered them as none know the Rigger language well enough to know what they name things. Because of a Soldier's limited technological knowledge compared to that of a Tinkerer's, these are the most frequently encountered weapons. Tinkerer weapons are much less uniform and tend to vary wildly.

Rigsaw- This is a combat-modified two-handed chainblade favored by soldiers for up close and personal encounters. Can chew through a wide variety of armor and is absolutely devastating when used against infantry.

Rig pistol- Various designs of powerful, large bore pistols are created and circulated throughout a colony. Regardless of the design, they all hurl large slugs in a semi-automatic fashion. These are standard sidearms.


(Hooray for the return of my awful concept art!)

Fleshripper- This is the primary weapon used by soldiers. These are powerful bulky rifle-like weapons that fire large rounds that tear straight through flesh and a wide variety of infantry armor. Can be fired in single, burst, or automatic fire modes.



Thunderclap Rifle- An extraordinarily powerful anti-material rifle mainly used by the notoriously cruel Rigger snipers. Although primarily designed for anti-vehicular duties, many Riggers like to use these as an anti-infantry weapon, cackling with unimaginable joy as it rips limbs free of its target or turns a head into a light spray of chunky red mist. Due to the size of the projectiles, a clip carries few rounds. Normally it's not an issue. This weapon is named for the explosive crack that resounds from the weapon when it's fired. Most of these weapons use a bolt action reloading system.



Meatchewer- This functions much like a shotgun, but rather than pellets, it fires super-heated hunks of shrapnel into targets. Very effective against infantry, although has a short range.



Heavy Cutting Laser- This heavy and bulky device is usually used to carve up captured ships and vehicles into manageable hunks in Rigger machine shops. Often employed in anti-vehicular roles.



Encountered Tinkerer Weapons

Force weapons- If anything could be considered a standard melee armament for Tinkerers, these would be it. They appear to be simple bladed weapons of varying style and design, but when powered on, they become wreathed in a visible energy field that can slice through even the strongest material.

Plasma weapons- Most ranged weapons utilized by Tinkerers fire glowing bolts or blasts of plasma heated to fusion temperatures. Sometimes these are rifles, pistols, shoulder mounted cannons, gattling weapons, and even flamers.

Armor and protective devices

Rigger Combat Infantry Armor- Standard issue for Soldiers. Like most Rigger technology it's bulky and inorganic in appearance. It consists of a helmet and visor, chest and back plate, shoulderplates, gauntlets, shinguards, and boots. Offers protection against small arms fire.


(I'm rather poor at armor design in my opinion >.>)

Powered Combat Armor- Very heavy and encumbering armor used by both Soldiers and Tinkerers. The rather substantial weight of the armor is offset by powerful servo motors and sometimes synthetic muscle built into the armor. It provides much more protection than standard armor. This armor covers the entire body.

Force screen generator- Tinkerers encountered in combat tend to be equipped with force screen generators that protect from kinetic damage. This shield more commonly takes the form of a bubble around the user, but has been known to fit the contours of the body. The shield is invisible to the naked eye unless hit.

The Riggers are © me, Ocular Bleeding
I would appreciate if you not use, steal, or alter the concept without my consent.

Greetings all, I return with the updated information on my pride and joy alien nasties. As before, I don't really expect anyone to create the faction for me, I'm just sharing the concept in hopes it'll draw interest or inspire others. With this post, I shall attach the most recent build of the mod that was made. I altered the concept a decent bit since then.
I should also state I did not make this mod. It was a community project. I simply fixed the sharp aim and offhand support offsets.

Mod Credits
Actor sprites and coding- MrEvilPoni
Weapons and everything else- tosty
Additional work and code fiddling- ppiksmada, Shook, Ocular Bleeding (Me)
Build 22 conversion- maddog321

If I forgot you, PM me and I'll add you.

Link to original topic

Download link provided by 411570N3.

Can someone update this? To B22 I mean. It looks properly epic.

Looks very interesting, but it should be converted to build 22.

Wow, I completely forgot about the Riggers.
How long has it been...?

Build 20 or further back I think. It's still here somewhere...

So, can anyone convert it?

I did... think I deleted it... all you have to do is replace Base.rte/Devices/Null.bmp with Base.rte/Null.bmp in a few places, or copy/paste null into the devices folder.

Nevermind, I got off my arse for once and did something *Gasp*
It was more than replacig null.bmp or whatever. I used the mod converter then had to check all the inis for "HandGroupGroup" And change them too "HandGroup"
Works for pc, didnt do squat for mac

EDIT: Hmm I like these guys, maybe I might work on them if its ok with the creator...

I think it would be particularly awesome for work to continue on this mod. Anyone can feel free to do whatever work they want as long as it stays in line with the concept. Don't hesitate to run ideas by me through PMs.

I really like these guys, so I want to throw in some ideas too. This has not been approved by the author, just something I wanna draw.

Coalition soldier converted by Rigger Surgeons. Made in the image of the riggers themselves.

Something seems amiss. Like I could swear there are posts missing from the thread, anyway, Soldat, I would have to say that's some incredible degree of awesome. You're quite the artist. That's what I imagine Surgeons would do to their subjects when they finished with them. Mindless cyborg shock troops. Great job :3

heh, i was wondering when you were going to notice noone posting.
this concept is pretty cool, quite ♥♥♥♥ up; but i like that. the coalition shock trooper is weird enough to enjoy blowing apart, and the riggers themselves would be imposing. i cant stand saws used as weapons though.
i can imagine fighting a silhouette with red eyes in a tunnel though, and then being killed without really knowing it was there, or after an OSHI- moment. i do like how spindly they are, i've always liked that. maybe i'll do some concepts for you, if i get around to it.
i like the idea, but it needs more work behind it i imagine these guys as a much more brutal, angular version of the heartless from Kingdom Hearts. crawly creepy nasty things, that you have to kill lots of.

I would love to see what you come up with. At one point, they were supernatural critters, but I pulled them away from that and made them into an alien race, basing them at least somewhat in reality. I like them more that way personally.

The "edited clone" is so dam neat I am going to try makeing it but from the art I cant tell if it is flesh under the old armor or machine or a hybrid of the two care to enlighten me?

looks like both to me. maybe a mechanical outer with a bag of organs inside.