The Gliror are small carnivorous sentients with four legs and two arms. They’re physically weaker than a human, but more agile and have much better manual dexterity. A Gliror’s small size also makes it slightly slower than a human in a sprint. They’re covered in fine scales and have small but sharp claws on their fingers and toes, as well as a mouthful of sharp teeth similar to a housecat’s. Gliror toes are long and relatively nimble, making them good climbers; they’ve been shooting their prey from the safety of tree perches for thousands of years.
Gliror evolved from pack hunters. They won’t kill food with a laser (they consider it disrespectful), tradition dictates they hunt with crossbows or high-quality slugthrowers; all adolescent or adult Gliror will be skilled with a crossbow or rifle, and most can use both. In many cases, a Gliror will be skilled with a “proper” military grade weapon for self-defense but maintain a high level of proficiency with a crossbow solely for hunting.
Serious hunters will spend significant time and money on their rifles or crossbows. Some of this will be purely functional to increase accuracy, lighten it, etc., but a non-trivial amount goes into purely cosmetic alterations. Engraving and inlays of preferred prey species on the metal parts are common, as are stocks made of exotic woods from famous forests, often with extensive scroll work, engraving, and inlays; the wide, flat surface of a rifle or crossbow stock is seen as a natural place for appropriate artwork. Small animal parts are also common decorations on weapons. Teeth, claws, bits of hide or fur, all of these have been seen attached to hunting weapons in various ways; a string of teeth and claws is almost obligatory on young Gliror showing off their first few impressive kills.
They prefer to hunt their own food when possible, but can live on stored meat or appropriate synthetics; they prefer to avoid vat-grown and synthetic meat because it tastes weird. Gliror prefer their meat as raw and fresh as possible, but they can eat cooked or preserved meat. Preserved Gliror meat is usually more like stew than jerky; they like their food moist and aromatic.
Starships and remote outposts split their food supplies between breeding pens or aquaria for live food, synthesizers, and preserved rations. Typically, a meal consists of a small piece of fresh meat with synthesized or stockpiled food to fill out the meal.
Alliance food synthesizers can produce food suitable for Gliror. It requires the appropriate recipes and uses more water than an omnivore’s food, but it isn’t difficult. Most Alliance synthesizers come with Gliror recipes as standard, and those that don’t can be easily upgraded with a nice variety.
Bigger stations will have a pod or two dedicated to live game, configured as an artificial forest or swamp. They usually include some form of watercourse stocked with fish. Animals are brought in and released to form breeding populations, allowing the Gliror to hunt without disrupting the artificial ecosystem. While these hunts aren’t as satisfying as a real hunt in the wild, they’re better than netting a fish from an aquarium or spearing a rat in a cage.
Gliror hunting leave is considered a basic right for those that work in barren areas. Not allowing them to go somewhere suitable and hunt live game is unthinkable, and when circumstances have forced a group to neglect their hunting for extended periods their leader, whether civilian or military, will rectify the situation as soon as possible. This isn’t a contractual issue, it’s basic decency on par with telling people in the field they’re allowed access to a shower and decent food once they get back to civilization.
A number of Gliror planets are set up as game preserves. Their laws regarding ecological damage are some of the strictest in known space. If someone causes significant ecological damage, the Gliror will hunt them down. Considering the entire species is descended from big game hunters and their military is an offshoot of this mentality, this never goes well for the miscreants involved.
Someone bringing fresh or live meat to a Gliror facility will be well-received, and if he does it regularly is grounds for a reputation. Taking a Gliror on a hunting trip can make a friend for life. They have good relations with Halcyonians for obvious reasons. Halcyon is considered an obligatory visit for any serious Gliror hunter, and numerous resorts have been set up over the years to cater specifically to Gliror hunting parties.
Every now and then some “enlightened” vegan tries to preach the glories of herbivorism to a Gliror. While Gliror will usually stop short of eating the miscreant, these preachers tend to make a hasty retreat.
Although Gliror are single-minded when on the hunt, outside that activity they’re much more easily distracted. They have a million ideas at once, and some of them are even pretty good. Those Gliror with appropriate skills and the willpower to focus on a task for a long period have created amazing inventions, and it’s theorized that these Gliror are what dragged them out of the stone age. Some Gliror are as obsessed and single-minded about their inventions as most are about stalking prey. Other Gliror see these scientists as odd for not having a proper interest in hunting, but this is usually more than offset by the respect they gain by producing such amazing things. Numerous Alliance anthropologists have commented that they’re like a species of mad scientists with ADHD, as even the least technical Gliror is a natural tinkerer.
Gliror military operations are informed by their natural hunting instincts. They have two basic modes of operations: pack tactics and ambushes.
Pack tactics are instinctual to the Gliror, literally hardwired into their predatory brains. They’ve been ganging up on larger prey for millions of years, and they’ve only gotten better with time. While one member distracts their target, others target its now-exposed weak points. It worked on enraged bull Ephotabh back when they were still using their teeth and thrown rocks, and it works on enemy tanks. Add modern lasers and stealth gear, and a Gliror infantry pack is nothing to be trifled with. And do not provoke a battlesuit pack; their suits are made for speed, maneuverability, stealth, and heavy weapons.
Ambushes are also a built-in feature of the Gliror mind. When your species is surrounded dangerous animals, figuring out how to sneak up on them without your buddies becomes second nature. When hunting solo, Gliror will happily sit in a tree with a crossbow for hours watching a likely spot for their prey to appear. They’ve also been known to use bait; if they hunt a species they know what it eats, doesn’t eat, and considers a delicious treat. This tranlates well to military operations. While they may not be able to make as extensive use of bait as they do when hunting Loth for their pelts, there’s still a definite role for someone who can hide in a jungle canopy with a multispectral stealth suit, the best sensors they can get their claws on, and high-powered rifle.
Remote-fired missiles are very common among snipers. He either drags several out into the field and stashes them himself, or he has some other pack members help, ties them into his sensor net, and blasts his target from a completely different place.
Lasers are preferred non-hunting weapons; light, recoilless, good damage and penetration. Heavy weapons are typically guided missiles, heavy lasers, etc. Heavy weapons are usually battlesuit or robot-mounted. Battlesuits are very common in security forces that have to deal with other species; they’re the only way most Gliror can carry what humans consider a rifle.
Gliror sensors are very good. A typical Gliror hunter or soldier will be wearing multispectral goggles tied into a sensor network shared between other members of his pack and often other packs. These goggles are supplemented with remote sensor emplacements and sensor drones. If the Gliror have any time at all to prepare, assume they have the entire area under constant observation on every spectrum imaginable.
If the Gliror have a weakness on the battlefield, it’s their lack of physical strength and armor. A big Gliror is only forty or fifty kilos, and even with their smaller surface area they simply can’t carry that much armor. If someone can find a Gliror and get a shot off from even a relatively light weapon, they usually don’t survive. The human action hero trope of shrugging off multiple bullets through sheer macho awesomeness simply doesn’t exist among Gliror, and the human capacity to shrug off several wounds a Gliror would consider lethal disturbs them.
Gliror starships have good stealth and point-defense, but usually only one extremely powerful main gun on an axial mount. They maintain extensive databases on the capabilities of other starships, and know right where to hit them. A typical Gliror starship attack consists of a single overwhelmingly-powerful shot fired into someplace vital on the other ship. It’s much closer to WWII submarine operations than a stand-up fight involving exchanges of broadsides. As no state of war exists between the Gliror and Alliance, the rare hostile encounter between the two usually results in the Patrol ship being painted with a targeting laser guaranteed to trip the Patrol’s sensors, followed by the Captain receiving a message asking politely if they wish to stand down. Most Patrol Captains are smart enough to accept; it isn’t a true surrender, just an admission that things could have gone much worse for them. Since the paint is invariably on something vital like the bridge or main engine room, this isn’t an exaggeration.