Elachi

The Elachi (also known as Gamma Vertians and Mutes) were an alien species native to Gamma Vertis IV, in the Alpha or Beta Quadrant. The Elachi entered the astropolitical stage in the 22nd century and returned as a major player on the early 25th century, operating from subspace. 

Biology and appearance
The Elachi are a bipedal humanoid species native to dark planet far from their class K star. They see in the infrared range. Most notably, they do not communicate with sounds. However, they are affiliated with a solanogen-based lifeform dependent on subspace communicates with clicking sounds. These may be members of another specis or a racial variation. Elachi breath a different composition of atmosphere than typicl humanoids like Humans and Romulans. 

Origin
The Elachi evolved on the sparsely illuminated world Gamma Vertis IV. In the mid-22nd century, they sent ships to capture ships and abduct non-Vertians, whom they did not consider sapient lifeforms. 

Amongst the Romulans, there were stories of miners that operated passed the Eridan Belt who discovered alien beacons of unknown origins. Furthermore, they encountered alien beings that moved passed their outposts magnetic barriers and scan the miners before disappearing. However, little was known of these mysterious aliens except that the beacons left behind referred to them as the Elachi. Despite a Romulan presence on such worlds, the creators of the beacons never appeared and the encounters with the creatures were dismissed as paranoia. 

Unknown to many, the Elachi were considered the messengers of the Iconians and claimed to hold the means to bring the ancient mysterious race. At some point, they approached Romulan officers Taris and Hakeev who were searching for the means of harnessing Iconian technology. The Elachi only spoke to Hakeev and showed him a device which they claimed was capable of bringing back the Iconians. Taris had Hakeev study the device though he claimed it was harmless leading to this incident bringing about the destruction of the Hobus star. 

Legacy of Romulus
By 2409, the Romulan Star Empire had fractured following the explosion of the Hobus star which led to the destruction of the twin worlds of Romulus and Remus. In this time, the Tal Shiar rose to be a prominent force that sought the re-establishment of the Star Empire but under their rule but were opposed by the actions of D'Tan who had formed a his own government. At some point, Colonel Hakeev of the Tal Shiar forged an alliance with the Elachi to further their plans. This saw the aliens establish a beacon on the agricultural Virinat colony where it was situated inside a cavern. However, the activity of the machine and its protectors led to the native Khellid hive going aggressive which attracted the attention of the Romulan colonists. They managed to examine the alien technology but were unable to determine its purpose. During the Tapping festival, the Elachi along with their Tal Shiar allies launched a combined attack on the colony thus devastating it. The Elachi later departed though a number of colonists survived and were rescued by forces from the Romulan Republic who drove away the Tal Shiar invaders. 

Following this attack, they struck at the Reman Crateris colony where they decimated the settlement alongside their Tal Shiar allies. Elachi technology was used to cloak Tal Shiar vessels in the Khitomer system which allowed them to sabotage the diplomatic negotiations with D'Tan of the Romulan Republic. As part of their experiments, the Elachi began targeting ships along the Neutral Zone where the crews of such vessels and left no bodies behind on the ships. They later participated on the assault on the planet Delta Corvi alongside the Tal Shiar but their invasion was stopped when Major Vrimak detonated a Thalaron radiation bomb that scorched the planet. 

The Elachi operated from subspace and launched an invasion of the Romulan Republic. Their forces where defeated when the Romulans succeeded in sabotaging and destroying their main base Station Alpha. With the help of the Klingon Empire and Starfleet, the Republic successfully defended New Romulus against the Elachi invasion fleet. 

Technology
Analysis of their technology revealed that the Elachi made use of fungal bio-tech with trace amount of spores present from their presence. 

They were noted for deploying a number of beacons for an unknown purpose. Elachi were able to use powerful passive scanning technology was that was able to disrupt enemy starship operations. 

One capability of the alien technology was the capacity to cloak entire starships from detection through the use of anomalies. They were also able to use smaller rifts that were capable of being formed in the quarters of a humanoid and used these subspace anomalies to abduct specimens. 

One piece of technology commonly used by the Elachi were drones that were insectile automated machines. These were capable of being deployed on guard assignments where they were at times used to protect the alien beacons from outside interference. A more aggressive use of such drones were deploying them in numbers during their attacks on enemy colonies. The drones floating nature meant that they could fly across their environment and latch on to targets whereupon the subjects were forcibly taken back to their Elachi creators. 

During their attacks, they were noted to deploy large multi-legged vehicles that were dropped onto the planetary surface whereupon they razed enemy settlements. 

The Elachi were a spacefaring species able to construct large dreadnought class vessels as well as battlecruiser class ships.