An adult Skaraan body is about the size of a donkey. At the front is a centaur-like torso with two small arms and a horse-like head. At the rear is a muscular tail that can operate intricate controls.

The Skaraans are based upon a corporate structure, offering military services to other alien races. They have the most advanced military technology of all the main powers, with technologies such as cloaking devices and advanced manoeuvring systems. This makes them a dangerous foe; however, they rarely make war due to the costs involved, preferring instead to support other alien races and reaping the benefit through payments of services.An adult Skaraan body is about the size of a donkey. At the front is a centaur-like torso with two small arms and a horse-like head. At the rear is a muscular tail that can operate intricate controls.

The Skaraan central government exists only to enforce civil laws. It has no diplomats and makes no policies, treaties, or tariffs relating to non-Skaraan affairs. Skaraans conduct defense and interplanetary trade through private corporations. These corporations operate strictly for profit, and have a reputation for being sneaky. Skaraan War Corporations have offered their services to the USFP but so far we have never hired them.

While Skaraan vessels are built around a set of standard hulls, each War Corporation outfits its ships with different technologies, making the Skaraans tricky enemies full of surprises. Every Skaraan vessel is equipped with some combination of the following abilities:

• Warp Drive (5 second bursts)
• Jump Drive (6,000 unit range)
• Invisibility to Tactical
• Cloaking device (60 seconds)
• Invisibility on Main Screen High-speed turning

Due to their ability to cloak, jump, or warp, Skaraan ships are often hired to attack USFP Deep Space Stations in the opening phases of an invasion.

Skaraan War Corporation’s regional office

Skaraans can tolerate a wide variety of environments. They are quite comfortable in the same environmental conditions as humans, Arvonians, or Ximni. They can tolerate the environments favored by the Kraliens and Torgoth with minimal extra equipment. For this reason, the Skaraans are the only race frequently seen on the planets of all of the other races. Because their government has no policies about other races the Skaraan race never has any enemies, though individual Skaraan corporations have numerous enemies. Thus Skaraans may be found living peacefully anywhere at any time. But other Skaraans in the same place and time might be hunted as bitter enemies, all depending on which corporations employ them.

The Skaraans’ weak government and strong corporations have given them a robust economy but their society has a few key weaknesses. They have almost no environmental regulations and almost no public health institutions. While the private corporations leave them well-defended against military attack and well positioned for financial prosperity, the entire Skaraan population might be unable to cope with a disease outbreak, natural disaster, or even an unnatural disaster.

While the fanatical Kraliens may be the most numerous and constant threat to the USFP, it is the Skaraans (Ska-RAY-ans) and their War Corporations that are the true enemies of peace in the known galaxy. They thrive on conflict between the races, eagerly encouraging border disputes, so all sides will come to the War Corporations for the latest weaponry, and the Skaraans carefully keep the sides in balance, so no one side can gain an advantage over any other.Until the Terrans arrived on the scene, it is assumed the Skaraans had kept this balancing act going for millennia.With the TSN entering the picture, Terran superior technology forced the Kraliens, Arvonians and Torgoth to band together. The Skaraans soon joined the fight, and proved to be (other than the Ximni) the only other race that matched Terrans in terms of FTL technology and firepower. Apparently, the Skaraans had been holding back the best technology for themselves.The Skaraan Cruiser, (known colloquially as the Defiler) Battleship (Enforcer) and Dreadnought (Executor) are about the size of a TSN warship, but are incredibly powerful for their size. Each can be equipped with either Warp or Jump drive, although their use of this technology in combat is limited, and appears to have a very short range. Skarran warships also carry a number of advanced modular devices, which can be used to cloak their ships from sensor detection, shoot down enemy torpedoes or mines, or disable enemy Warp drive with a tractor beam. Since each Skaraan warship carries its own unique combination of these modular systems, this makes their tactics very unpredictable and dangerous. Skaraans also have a standard base station design, which serves as a particular War Corporation's regional headquarters.Physically, a Skaraan is about the size of a donkey, and has four legs, two arms, and a muscular, prehensile tail that can also be used to operate equipment. A Skaraan's head is vaguely horse-like, but biologically Skaraans are not similar to any Earth animal. They appear to have evolved long ago in a different direction than other races in the galaxy, developing multiple limbs while still living in an aquatic environment.  While their biology is largely unknown to the TSN, it is believed that an individual Skaraan is actually a symbiosis between a male and female pair, who reproduce on a cycle of five to ten years. A Skaraan does not consider itself male or female, and often can seem to be conversing with itself, but the Skaraan still considers itself an individual. Skaraans do not form any kind of cultural or family bond, outside of the bond to the Corporation.Not all Skaraan Corporations are War Corporations, but those Skaraans that are encountered by the TSN usually represent a War Corporation. While Skaraans do have a central government, it has no real power, and Skaraans have no real societal structure; their Corporations are their organizational and governing structure. Since all Corporations are in competition with one another, conflicts between Corporations are common, even to the point of open warfare. The Skaraans actually have no malevolent motive in keeping conflict going between the enemy races, and between the Hegemony and the TSN, their Corporations are simply selling to the highest bidder, with different corporations taking different sides in the conflict. The Skaraans have approached the TSN several times about selling us technology, but our charter with the USFP prohibits such deals, even if we were inclined to take them up on the offer.Despite their warmongering traits, Skaraans are actually quite amiable and outgoing, and they are the only known race that has been seen mingling and interacting with all of the other races. They are adaptable and can survive in a wide variety of environments, meaning that the other races do not have to make adjustments to their life support systems when Skaraans visit.