Suquedren

The Suquedren are long standing members of the Galactic Compact and were the first species to meet with humanity again after the Great Forgetting was over when one of their contact class vessels entered Earth orbit in 1930 AF to find that orbital facilities were operating again.
The illustration at the head of the article is a Suquedren Guardian, emerging from a burrow in the bulkhead habitat section of one of their trade ships.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Suquedren have some of the same characteristics that might be found on an Earthly mole but at a larger scale. They are roughly two meters in length with tough, digging front and hind legs, a large head with a powerful tusk filled jaw and a spiny tail.
The Guardian class are the largest of a number of closely related subspecies and these tend to be the ones encountered on most starships, taking the lead in matters of trade and commerce.

Ecology and Habitats

The Suquedren have evolved from ancestors who burrowed underground on the turbulent plains of a hot little world orbiting a class F star close to the inner limit of the habitable zone. Regular flash fires reduce the fast growing forests they call "the tangle" to ash and the local plant life is adapted to survive as seeds designed to withstand the heat and sprout quickly when water returns. Animal life either relies on hatching from eggs or burrows underground.
The Suquedren are often accompanied by a companion species usually just called Suquedren Cleansers. These are much smaller and are relatively unsophisticated animals with a symbiotic association with their intelligent fellow travellers. They have a distant evolutionary connection to the Suquedren but they have come to specialise in some of the secondary feeding chains which help to purify the environment.
The illustration below shows a Suquedron Cleanser

Suquedren Cleanser by DMFW with Disco Diffusion 5.2

Dietary Needs and Habits

The Suquedren are omnivores, capable of opportunistic feeding on plants and other smaller animals alike. When underground, they are the apex predator and on the surface they can graze from a wide variety of the swift growing plants that make hasty use of the periods between fires to reseed themselves.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Suquedren eyesight is relatively weak but their sense of smell is acute, attuned to detecting prey above and below the surface.

Civilization and Culture

Major Organizations

The Suquedren trade under the remit of a number of powerful groups they call Syndicates. The Syndicates operate like commercial companies in some respects but they can also call on military support. Suquedren Syndicates are fierce rivals and sometimes come into conflict with one another. Famous and powerful Syndicates include the Redrunners, the Sunrisers, the Oldharvest and the Deepseekers, to name but four.
Above the level of the Syndicates, all Suquedren owe allegence to the Arbiters, a kind of court with military powers of its own which mediates in disputes between the Syndicates.

History

The Suquedron built their civilization in caverns far from the solar flares that ravaged the surface of their world. From here, they developed all the niceties of intelligent life which other, more fortunate species would have been free to build on the surfaces of their home planets. This did not stop them from progressing to a high level of technology which in due course allowed them to travel between the stars as full members of the Galactic Compact.