Today, we're going to talk about the Koraxian Empire, sometimes elaborated as its full moniker and translated (loosely) from the original language, "The Splendorous Hold of Korath, Vast in Space and Endless in Time."
For the past two thousand Earth years, Korath has ruled the Empire with a figuratively iron fist. Physically, Koraxians are luminescent green gelatinous blobs, about half the size of a human adult. They secrete a slimy substance that acts as a neurotoxin on most species. Unlike their Pa'rian and Salmaxian relatives, they have adapted their physiology for compatibility with ammonia-based ecosystems. This was apparently a defensive measure to thwart attempts at invasion by other species. All told, it has been a successful strategy.
It must be pointed out that most of our knowledge about Koraxians is the result of either Koraxian propaganda or limited Oolian intelligence. Their cousins don't like to discuss them. Hard data is difficult to come by. What we do know about their psychology is that they have two broad types: Rationals and Emotives. Observation suggests that Rationals are not necessarily more logical, but rather that they are drone-like in their disposition. They follow orders easily and tend not to agitate when maltreated. Emotives, by contrast, make up only 5-10% of the Koraxian population but occupy the vast majority of leadership roles. They are characterized by their ambition, pride, cunning, and vengefulness.
Recent scholarship has therefore endeavored to reclassify the two types of Koraxians as a biologically-enforced caste system consisting of a leader caste and a citizen caste. These are approximations, naturally. They do not fit neatly into human understandings of such systems, but the analogy is close enough for a basic understanding.
Likewise with the Pa'rians and Salmaxians, Koraxians descend from the so-called "Overlord" species that dominated our galaxy around 50,000 years ago. Not much is known of them for multiple reasons: the Oolians who overthrew them did their best to destroy all knowledge and artifacts pertaining to the Overlords nearly as soon as they took power; the Koraxians do not wish to talk up their ancestors except to accentuate their own lust for domination; their cousin species consider that entire period of history a great embarrassment. It is known that three other splinters of the Overlords once existed: the Vencilli, the Komala, and the Tandashi. All available information suggests they disappeared within the past 20 or 30 thousand years and nothing else is known of them.
We return our focus, then, to the Koraxians: their space adjoins almost all the other Known Species. It would be fairer to say that our part of the galaxy is enveloped half by the Oolians and half by the Koraxians, and everyone else lies within the sphere of one or the other. At the fringes of Koraxian space, we find the Pa'rians, who only otherwise adjoin the Salmaxians. Coreward from the Salmaxians are the Non-Aligned Region and Terran space. Opposite Terran space are the Dor'Tel and the Cranions, who share significant borders with the Koraxians, and the latter also share a border with the Oolians.
For the species caught in the middle of the Oolian/Koraxian sphere, there is constant tension. There are incentives to sacrifice weaker species to shore up stronger ones. Certainly, the Oolians have been known to spread their resources effectively rather than thinly. Koraxians, for their part, maintain neutral relations or no relations at all--which is to say, they either ignore you or are hostile toward you. They tolerate their cousins, seethe with a burning hatred of the Oolians, and everyone else is a future victim.
More recent events tend to contextualize the Koraxians more fully. The First Koraxian War was conducted over a period of six months in the year 2098. It began with border skirmishes which turned out to be a ruse for an undercover operation designed to locate the fold vectors that would provide the most direct course to the Sol System. As it turned out, there is a fold vector which leads from the space above the Koraxian homeworld to Earth orbit. This was a startling and horrifying revelation at the time.
The aid of some Koraxian rebels, along with an ancient technological artifact found on Earth, stopped the Koraxians from destroying Earth altogether--something they intended to do with a method called a "Derris Cascade." Supposedly, with enough ships linked in unison, a planet can be completely destabilized and caused to explode. The ships involved are expected to be lost in such an effort, but it is an effective means of terrorizing--or annihilating--an enemy race.
Here I will sidebar into another aspect of Koraxian technology, a process that was not known to humans until the war: a procedure known as "templating." Koraxians developed a technological process by which an individual could be transformed from their native Koraxian body into a body that would pass for any other species quite easily. This method was, in fact, used to infiltrate the Admiralty to obtain the artifact that would ultimately be used to end the war, before humans got to learn of it. Suffice it to say, none of us would be standing here now had the Koraxians succeeded.
The fact that there is a chapter in your textbooks entitled "The Second Koraxian War" should clue you in to the fact that the Koraxians were only briefly deterred. You were all also, I assume, alive for those events. I will attempt to elaborate on the matter delicately, then.
Although the direct fold vector route to Earth was thoroughly booby-trapped to prevent another Koraxian fleet from waltzing in unimpeded, other routes remained, including those used for common shipping lanes. Templated Koraxians used these to infiltrate Earth, weaken the defenses around the critical fold vector, and invited a handful of ships. This time, their intention was to subdue and conquer Earth until they could locate the aforementioned artifact, retrieve it, and then proceed with the planet's annihilation.
I'm at liberty to speak on the artifact--otherwise known as the Focus--due to its recent declassification. Prior to the public reveal of its existence, the conclusion of the First Koraxian War was chalked up to human grit, perseverance, and technological superiority. Military brass, wishing to save themselves the embarrassment, went along with the lie that Terran vessels quickly dispatched the invaders. In truth, ISEC vessels are hopelessly outmatched against typical Koraxian assets.
It should not be controversial to say that when the Koraxians staged a more traditional invasion of Earth, much of the government immediately acquiesced to subjugation rather than risk the rapid cleansing of all human life. Our one advantage was that the Koraxians knew little of the weapon that destroyed their prior fleet, and worried that it would be used against them once more at any time. They gained confidence the more days and weeks passed without their unceremonious obliteration. Knowledge of the Focus was, at the time, top secret. Since Terran leaders such as President Beatrice Cuerva knew of it, they were swiftly hidden by the human resistance or, in some cases, regretfully executed to protect the secret. President Cuerva escaped this fate, instead choosing to lead one of the human resistance cells, albeit without anyone knowing this publicly until after the Koraxian occupation had ended.
The Koraxians began systematic efforts to locate the Focus, unaware that measures had been put in place shortly after the first war to mask its energy signature and even fool ground-penetrating scanners as sophisticated as those equipped by the Koraxians--a small token from the Oolians, who were unable to offer much help against the Koraxians on this occasion as they were preoccupied with an unspecified conflict elsewhere.
Ironically, given their heritage from the Overlords, the Koraxians were ill-equipped to run a complex occupation of a hostile planet. They had not subdued Terran colonies elsewhere, either, and suffered through various annoying albeit disruptive attacks on their supply lines. Earth's environment is hostile to their biology and to survive on Earth they had to either undergo templating or stay contained within pressurized environmental chambers. Most opted to stay aboard their ships, meaning that direct administration of Earth mostly fell to the puppet government. That government's efforts at stamping out human resistance were half-hearted at best. It took the Koraxians a few months to discern that they were being played, at which point the entire government in place at the time was rounded up and publicly executed. This amounted to several thousand people, some of the brightest minds of the human race. The loss of those individuals is truly incalculable. Nevertheless, they proceeded to install another puppet government, which they hoped had gotten the message. That government's lack of institutional knowledge and experience, combined with general human stubbornness, meant that the Koraxian grip on Earth only deteriorated. A few rounds of violent government purges did nothing to resolve the situation, nor did the Koraxians particularly learn from these experiences.
So, here we come to some of the most significant learnings from the Second Koraxian War. Koraxian military strategy within their own space is primarily defense in depth. A small-scale attack on their homeworld during the First Koraxian War proved that an assault from within the heart of their territory could be effective, but they did little to address this, evidently writing it off as a fluke. During conquest and occupation, they seem to have little use for a rear guard, and are vulnerable to both supply line attacks and rear offensives.
To the credit of our neighbors and colonies, they combined forces to throw off the Koraxian yoke. A unique force of Salmaxian, Cranion, colonist, and pirate assets took the Koraxians by surprise and drove them away from Earth. It seemed that humanity had become slightly too much trouble for them to bother with. The Koraxian Empire would not frame this as a defeat, of course, but a voluntary decision to terminate occupation operations. They caused considerable destruction during their withdrawal, resulting in millions more unnecessary deaths. In the months that followed, the Oolians and our other allies assisted with rebuilding efforts. Those efforts are by no means complete, even today.
To summarize the Koraxian strategy, then: when they do not prove immediately victorious through overwhelming force, they struggle to hold territory and especially to pacify what they occupy. Their interest can be easily diverted if they do not enjoy quick accomplishments. We surely hope that they never attempt an invasion of this nature again, much less anything worse, but since the second war the Terran government has turned much of its attention toward bolstering our offworld colonies as well as reinforcing and disguising as much essential infrastructure on Earth as possible. Should the Koraxians see fit to dominate Earth again, we will be prepared to fight them off.
As for the Focus: although we know it exists, its location is not public. It is hinted to be kept offworld in a secure location, waiting to be deployed should Earth face a mortal threat. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say I hope such a day never comes.