Heolik

"If we had never found the Heolik, we would have never thought anything could exist like they do."

- Antenocte

The Heolik (Aheolidae heolis) is an aquatic mammal native to Planet Cooler 362 (formerly Planet Peregari). Residing in the only known ocean of liquid oxygen in the galaxy, it has been classified as near threatened, due to its small living range. Despite being the only sentient species on its homeworld, the Heolik has a relatively small population size. Since its discovery and use by Emperor Cooler, its population has been in steady decline.

The Heolik is the largest living liquid oxygen-based mammal, and ranks amongst the largest liquid oxygen-based creatures to have ever existed. While showing some structural similarities to the Felid family, the Heolik seem to have coincidentally evolved similarly instead of being genetically related.

Origins
The planet Peregari, home of the Heolik is an astronomical anomaly. It features an atmosphere of 89% neon, 10% nitrogen, and 1% trace elements. The entire planet is covered in a signature light blue sea of liquid oxygen. The planet Peregari is the only known source of liquid oxygen in the entire universe, and it contains an incredible amount of it. As such, this planet had early interest from outside traders and conquerors. However, being how toxic both the atmosphere and great ocean was to most outsiders, Peregari was never conquered.

The planet has a small, roughly thirty mile stretch of land that rises above the sea when significant amounts of oxygen freezes during the summer. During this time, the Heolik go onto land, mate, and deposit their eggs on the land. Within an (earth-based) month, the small continent sinks again, and the new Heolik hatch a few months later.

Around the 500 Age, Cooler became aware of this planet and sent emissaries to try and conquer it.

Intergalactic Usage
Peregari proved to be harder to take over than Cooler had expected. Most planets up for conquering lasted about a month on his request list (which was sent to every commander under his command). However, Peregari remained on the "not-taken" part of the list for over a year. Countless companies were sent to conquer it, only to be killed, or die of poisoning within days after. Even attempting to set the flammable ocean on fire was barely useful. Most equipment stopped functioning within minutes of entering the atmosphere due to the collection of gases. And those which did get through didn't last long. The high pressure of the planet prevented fire from burning for much time. Cooler personally got involved after realizing how long the planet had been left unconquered. He would not let anything stand in his way.

But even Cooler, if he possessed the strength, did not want to risk his life. He did not know if he could survive in the atmosphere, as he wouldn't have to breathe, but the gases could potentially poison him. For this reason, being that the technology to get a proper enviro-suit was still decades away, there was little he could do. After several controlled experiments trying to acclimate him to the atmosphere failed, the planet was deemed too toxic (even for himself); and with the indigenous species being quite dangerous, he did not try to conquer the planet again.

Instead, sending a copious amount of hologram transmissions, Cooler promised protection. His offer was simple. He would not let any other species attempt to mine the planet for liquid oxygen if only the Heolik would send him troops to fight. They agreed, and were spared.

At the height of Cooler's empire, the Heolik comprised of 3.4% of all of Cooler's soldiers. Their entire species population currently is 300,933,860. They are considered vulnerable due to their unique planet. It is currently unknown if Heolik are able to breed outside of their normal conditions, which do not exist anywhere else in the galaxy.

Appearance
Heolik are white creatures, bipedal and without tails. They have pale, tough skin, which is slightly scaled. They have six fingered webbed arms, and four toed webbed feet. They possess blue, wrinkled, flat faces. They have flat, wide horns protruding from the back of their head, curving upward and over their face. They do not possess tongues, but have rows and rows of teeth. Females are generally up to a foot shorter (males reach about six feet tall) than males, and their faces are dark purple, distinguishing the genders.

During the summer mating season, Heolik grow short white fur coats while on land to protect them from the cold. For a Heoli such as Konatsu, who is a soldier under Cooler, and spends most of his time above the surface, his fur coat lasts all year long. Normally this is not the case, and the fur falls off when the creatures go back into the water. As Heoli have an antifreeze-like material in their cells, they can withstand the coldness of their planet. Once the Heolik go on land, this material in their cells is lost and a fur coat forms. It slowly comes back after the end of the mating season when the fur falls off. Konatsu, being offplanet for so long could not just return home. He would freeze to death that way. His unnaturally long time above the ocean's surface has depleted the cold-controlling agents in his cells, meaning he could not return to the planet ever again.

Behavior
Heolik are solitary creatures. To find two together outside of the mating season is very uncommon, unless the two are fighting over territory. They usually hunt alone, and do not stay with those they have mated with. Females raise their children (who hatch in groups of 2-5) for about four months, teaching them to hunt only to completely abandon them afterwards.

During a particularly warm cycle (circa 30,015 Age - 30,011 Age), male Heolik were observed hunting in pairs or even larger groups on occasion. This was due to the depleted food reserves caused by the warm weather. The creatures who did this hunted as a collective group - and remarkably so, seeing as none of them had any predisposition, training, or evolutionary traits to guide them in how to hunt mutually. Still, once the extreme warm cycle was up, the groups dispersed, and none of them remained friendly toward one another. In fact, once the temperature went down, the groups still formed together broke apart violently, with the members slaughtering one another.

Longevity and Mortality
Heolik males reach sexual maturity at 3 years of age. They live to an age of 120 years old, and do not have a period of old age. Heolik never stop growing until the day they die. Heolik females age much the same, reaching sexual maturity within the timeframe of 2-3 years of age. They generally live to be a bit older, at 127-134 years. Like males, females do not have a period of old age.

Technology
Heoli technology is few and far between. There is no government, no organization, no leader. What has been created has either been used by single individuals or stolen by others. Some technology includes basic water-skiffs and tier 3 trap design. They did not possess any advanced weaponry or technology, nor any type of sustainably usable power source. Most of what they were able to use was current or wave-based, but those were unpredictable and often times contradictory. Aside from boats and traps, Heolik also possessed a sophisticated lure system which, by using a flow of liquid oxygen and their own inherent power, could create a mirror image of themselves. Many veteran hunters used this type of trick often to catch prey or warn a fellow Heoli to not get to close into their territory.