The Sammie Sushi Empire

Diet: Omnivore Danger Level: Medium Social Ability: High Culture: Industrious, Economic Galactic Class: Trader

Information: Wow, sorry for the delay, but there’s several reasons why it took this long to post my so-called exclusive race to your database. For one, their home planet is rather difficult to find. Second, when I did find their home, they were in the middle of their month-long celebration known as Icky Ta Maass where they prepare and consume as much food as they can handle for the month. And for the record, a month on their planet is the equivalent to about three weeks of Earth’s time. So to be in the middle of it means that I will have about another week left before I can willingly leave the planet.

Don’t get me wrong, they are not keeping me hostage or anything. They are a friendly race, but during Icky Ta Maass, guests are encouraged to stay the entire duration of the celebration or they will miss out on some delicious food that may not be around after the party.

Anyway, now that I got that cultural trivia out of the way, let’s get down to some more historical things that would interest you guys on Earth.

The planet that the Sammie race live on is quite the oddity. Every evolutionary chain of their existence still lives and thrives on the surface, with a few others living under the water. So, from one point of view, they seem to practice cannibalism since they are essentially eating their own kind. But then again, some of you Earthlings eat monkeys despite a large pool of you guys foolishly believing that you weren’t an evolved form of that species of animal. But hey, who am I to judge? My race believes we spontaneously grew six arms and originally was a bird-beaked worm.

Anyway, as anyone who has eaten at any of the Sammie’s planets in their empire, the meat of their animal forms is so delicious that it is often severed raw. There is no need to cook it, as introducing heat actually spoils the taste and causes all kind of nasty illnesses. Because of this, they’ve developed a method of preparing food exactly like the Earth Asian delight known as sushi. Ironically, they call it sushi as well! Great minds think alike, I suppose.

Each Sammie family has a unique technique and a trademark secret recipe that they pass on from generation to generation. To learn the secret is an honor, but the real challenge brought on by the new generation is to take this family secret and modify it to make it better. Those that succeed often bring great wealth to their family, but even the most mediocre chef is able to produce a meal worthy of a repeat visit.

	Vehicle Type: Sea Class: E Armor: 42% Threat Level: 26% Speed: 32%
	Vehicle Type: Land Class: E Armor: 23% Threat Level: 31% Speed: 46%
	Vehicle Type: Air Class: E Armor: 12% Threat Level: 19% Speed: 69%

Information: Even though they run normal forms of transportation, they do have some unique vehicles that are appropriately themed for their enterprise. Early on, they were a sea-based delivery system, supplying food to each other in an attempt to better the planet. It made sense, because all they had to do was split up the catch among the various port towns. Sammies that started early on in this industry eventually grew very wealthy and continue to supply the planet with the various fish and marine life found in their local waters. As their empire grew, so did the variety of sea life and the vastness of their menu.

Around the same time, they developed land-based transports that were used to deliver both orders and supplies to customers and cooks alike. Just because the majority of the Sammies can cook doesn’t mean they all can, and what few business tycoons that found this out became just as wealthy as their sea-based suppliers. An interesting cultural trivia to take note of is that whenever these vehicles are seen on the road, other drivers pull to the side in order to let them pass. The story is that there was once an order placed by a customer who was on the verge of starving to death, and by the time the order got to its destination, the customer had died from starvation. The cause? Traffic jams.

Now as far as their air ship goes, that’s all for show. See, their planes are often used for marketing purposes, as they are completely impractical for transporting anything, let alone members of their own race! It’s a wonder how the laws of aerodynamics works with it given the unusual shape. However, any highly televised event that doesn’t have a Sammie Sushi Bar as a sponsor is not spending their money very wisely. It is whispered among the universal rich and influential that a Sammie sponsorship will bring in large amounts of monetary capital to anyone that signs a contract with them. The reason being is because they already make enough money on their own that they have more than enough to give back for the chance at advertising their product.

	Structure Type: Commercial
	Structure Type: Industrial
	Structure Type: Residential

Information: Their buildings are the same way. There are normal, non-descript buildings throughout their empire, but the ones that stand out are dedicated to their craft. It used to be that their entire product was produced within their restaurants. These buildings were modest in their scale, but housed at least two floors. The first floor was where all the dinner guests would go and eat all they can eat. The upper floor was reserved for private functions and parties. Whenever there wasn’t anything reserved for the day, large parties would be seated there. The kitchen sat in the middle of the circular building to insure quick distribution.

Eventually, the kitchen was slimmed down when the demand for food starting to increase to a frantic pace. Everything, with the exception of the sushi themselves, is prepared offsite and flash frozen. You can tell which of these prepping factories were the first to be built because they are closer to the restaurants than the ones they build now. The reason is because of the dislike of freezing and then reheating food for the guest. The trade off is that these historic locations actually make more money than the newer locations, despite having the same menu and the same quality of food. Why? Because they sell their novelty of being a historic landmark. And I mean they really sell it! Offering tours to first-time guests as well as to any large party investors that may be stopping by the planet for a quick meal is just a hint of their methods.

There is only one house in all of the residential areas that is unique enough to call attention to. It is the mansion of the Sammie chef that discovered sushi. The residents of this particular house will often give tours of the main floor, but the family will never let anyone see their private bedrooms located on the upper floor of the two sushi-shaped towers. The family is currently in their 103rd generation, so it kind of gives you an idea of how long the Sammie Empire has been at this business of making sushi and essentially dominating the food market in their area of space.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I still have an Earth’s week worth of food to enjoy!

Blowie

	Diet: Carnivore Danger Level: Low Social Ability: Low

Information: Huh, that’s interesting. You guys have a record of a fish that is only found on the planet that makes the universe’s best sushi. It’s similar to your Earth blowfish from the Asian waters, but it walks instead of swims. Another interesting note of trivia is that it is also amphibious.

Yes, the records show no relationship to the Sammies, which is interesting. In fact, it doesn’t look like you have a record of the Sammies to begin with!

I think I found my exclusive race to report on for you guys!

Holy Dove

	Vehicle Type: Space

Information: This spaceship is designed to look like, as its name suggests, an Earth Dove and is primarily used by religious zealots who travel the galaxy aggressively forcing their belief system on anyone and anything capable of conversation.

Sound familiar?

The Mighty Saucer

	Structure Type: Government

Information: From what I remember, this building used to give public tours of the area until a terrorist act caused them to shut down the entire building. I don’t remember much about the building, but they had an excellent cafeteria!

Cheese Wheel

	Vehicle Type: Land Class: R Armor: 28% Threat Level: 29% Speed: 43%

Information: Not much is known about this vehicle, but whenever I’ve come across it, it’s normally used in traveling circus shows as the clown car.

Romance Boat

	Vehicle Type: Sea Class: E Armor: 27% Threat Level: 53% Speed: 20%

Information: I believe Earth has these, but they go under a different name and they aren’t powered by an electric battery. I think they’re called Paddle Boats.

Battle Bike

	Vehicle Type: Land Class: M Armor: 33% Threat Level: 34% Speed: 33%

Information: A variation on the sport Kraksharr exists called Macha-Bike. The premise is the same, but the rules are different. Instead of pitting two players against each other, it is more like a death race where racers arm themselves in these bikes. The winner is determined two ways. The first is who crosses the finish line still in one piece or with the majority of the bike still in tack. The second is whoever is left the lone surviver.

Mach Mi

	Vehicle Type: Land Class: M Armor: 16% Threat Level: 42% Speed: 42%

Information: A popular sport among the violent races is known as Kraksharr. Loosely translated to Earthling English, it means “drag boom.”

The basic idea is to put two dragster cars, heavily armed, at either end of a long strip of road. At the sound of the bell, they fire up their jets and charge at the other at ramming speed. The entertainment starts when you realize that both players in this game are allowed to fire all sorts of weapons at each other with the intent of blowing the other vehicle sky high. If neither can destroy the opponents vehicle in time, the two will crash into each other. While rare, it is often the largest explosion you’ll ever find in a professional death sport.

Naturally, gambling on who the winner will be is legal wherever this sport is held, though places where the sport is actually legal are few and far between in my experience.

PDWAT Unit

	Vehicle Type: Land Class: M Armor: 25% Threat Level: 50% Speed:25%

Information: The acronym stands for Police Department Walking Assault Tank. As a walking assault tank, it is primarily used for situations and scenarios where the criminal has holed themselves into a building that conveniently has a large cache of assault weapons. You know, like in your Earth action movies.

For security reason, any Police department that has these only has one PDWAT per police district office. This is to insure that they can quickly locate any stolen units should something happen and it falls into the wrong hands.

Golden East Buildings

Heh, sorry about not posting any updates until now. Those art documentaries are just so fascinating to me, despite the fact that my race primarily favors technology and engineering information. I guess I’m just different and can see something they don’t.

Oh well, while I was visiting The Art House, I discovered a new section of the city of Aamsef had been redeveloped with and Earth Asian motif.

	Structure Type: Government

Information: This impressive building is apparently the districts governing office. The two towers are said to represent the two functions of government: the legal side and the diplomatic side. They have a very impressive court room where guests can take tours when there isn’t a state trial going on. It’s rather beautiful, I have to admit. Naturally, they wouldn’t let anyone in to the diplomatic side of the building for security reason.

On the tour, they will often point out various form of ancient artwork that traces the history of the building and/or the governing body. It's a rather boring tour unless you like history. Which I don't.

	Structure Type: Residential

Information: Now, what’s interesting about this area is that these houses seem to dot the area at an enormous rate! From what I was told, they are the homes of the various actors and actresses that perform nightly at one of the many theatres in the district. They are paid for by the government as a tribute to their art and craft in entertaining. The most successful actors don’t have bigger houses, which I like. I wish we would adopt that on my "ex"-home world with how we celebrate inventors and engineers, but it’s a cultural thing.

	Structure Type: Commercial

Information: These buildings are the giant theatres that dominate the area. They form a wall that surrounds the district and each one features a different stage play. Now, they are not strictly limited to the Earth Asian style of theatre. They do all sorts of art forms from around the universe! The largest of these building is an intergalactic art gallery displaying works that have been collected from various planets.

The art gallery has been under protest form its construction, from what I understand. Something about questionable methods used when acquiring certain items. Many races have gone so far to say that they were stolen from their home planets or empires!

The Art House

	Structure Type: Commercial

Information: I don't care what anyone says. I like visiting this place whenever I'm in the Ethal system. They show some really interesting documentaries and beautifully shot films. I can't say the same thing about some of the stories, and I don't like reading my films (especially since they don't offer any universal translators at the theatre), but for the price you pay is still worth the artistry you'll see.

Now that I think about it, I think I'll jump over to the Ethal system and pay a visit. I haven't seen a good art film in a long time.

Fat Dart

	Vehicle Type: Space

Information: Once bragged as the fastest ship in all the galaxy even though it looks like a watermelon with an obsessive amount of jets, it was bumped out of that title about thirty Earth years ago by another ship that was able to complete the Kessel Run faster than it could. Since then, this ship has been used in smuggling runs for wanna-be drug lords that will ultimately get caught.

Abode

	Structure Type: Residential

Information: You would think having six arms I would be more efficient, but I'm not. One of my six hands bumped a button and the next thing I knew, my long-range radio dish was sent flying into space. Oh well, I have four other hands to construct a new one while I type these updates for Zeek and Al.

According to the data on this building, it's just a simple house with no furniture other than a bed, a chair, and a desk. It's designed as a form of galactic urban development that is affordable for low-income families. Still, it doesn't look like it offers much living space.

Holy Hall of State

	Structure Type: Government

Information: Basically, a building that used to be a church and was turned into a city hall due to the religion gaining too much power and influence over its people. Whatever works for whoever, I guess.

Ohseadee

	Diet: Omnivore Danger Level: Low Social Ability: Low Culture: Industrious, Economic Galactic Class: Trader

Information: These guys are weird. They do things by the book, by the numbers, and are obsessed with making sure things are always in order. If even one thing is out of order or a number is off by even the smallest of fractions, the entire race loses it! Their planet is so organized that it’s a wonder why they didn’t try to straighten out the rivers and make sure the evaporation rate of the atmosphere is at a constant rate.

They hate visitors, by the way. It disrupts their normal behavior and daily routine. They tend to keep to themselves, and rightly so if you as me.

Pollination Package

	Vehicle Type: Land Class: E Armor: 26% Threat Level: 53% Speed: 21%

Information: The way I understand it is that this vehicle delivers a variety of products from all over the planet to places that need it for one reason or another. You know, like if you need a blanket, it will find a place that has blankets and then deliver the blanket to you. Only the products it delivers are kind of strange and often go unnoticed unless by random chance you end up seeing it deliver something you’ve never seen before.

Yeah, it’s a confusing piece of work with just as confusing use.

The Big Banger

	Vehicle Type: Sea Class: M Armor: 15% Threat Level: 73% Speed: 12%

Information: This bad boy is a slow moving assault ship that can take out a dock-side turret in a single, well-aimed shot! Or so I’m told. Unfortunately, because it runs heavily armed, it’s easy to blow up if you can land a well-aimed bomb on to its large deck. Carrying all that military power at once does bite you in the most painful part of the back side.

I bet you're wondering what happened.

Hey guys! If you're reading this (that means you guys reading this entry and not Zeek and Al), that means the server outage is going on longer than expected. Those little monsters are tough, huh?

In any event, while traveling the cosmos, I found one of your data satellites that must have fell out of orbit and just drifted off somewhere. I bet you’ll be surprised to know that it’s up to date to just before the data crash happened!

Because I seem to be the only one that has access now to the blog, I’ll be posting all these updates for you! How’s that? It should be fun!!

Oh, and don’t worry, I’ll be putting the proper labels on them so that you readers can find them easily. I’m still looking for that exclusive knew race for your records, but I figure it’s best to just update the blog as best as I can since you guys on Earth are kind of out of commission right now.

You know what? I think this message was meant more for Zeek and Al than it was to the readers. Oh well!

Later!
Ross