Klingons

   Although a strong alliance was held between Humans and Klingons for close to 100 years, it was recently broken by an unprovoked Klingon attack on Deep Space 9.

Honor and ritual tradition play an important part in Klingon culture. Family heritage sets the pattern for generations to follow, giving klingon bloodlines great continuity in the establishment of both private and governmental leadership stucture.Rites of passage and tests of warrior skill are revered signposts of klingon maturity, often envolving to-the-death combat with primitive blade and blunt weaponry. While their technological level has long since evolved toward more efficient weapon and combat stems, most Klingon 'disagreements' are still settled using the ancient hand-to-hand methods of their ancestors.

For those occasions when long-distance or wide-damage weaponry is more suitable to the task at hand,Klingon science has provided a variety of high-efficiency disruptor units. These devices, generally pistol-like in form, lack the disintegration capability of phasers but produce a higher destuctive effect per reserve energy unit used. Larger ship-mounted versions of these disruptors are the primary weapons of the Klingon fleet, but are attuned specifically to be effecive against enemy vessel shields and hulls. Also available to Klingon vessels are variations upon the photon torpedo, but these are based not upon Federation science but upon those units acquired during the brief Klingon/Romulan alliance.

The Klingon/Romulan alliance,which was dissolved more than five decades ago, led to great scientific advances for both cultures. The Romulans gained several Klingon D-7 battel cruisers, from which they acquired warp-drive technology,In exchange for which they shared secrets of their cloaking systems. One of the most comman Klingon spacecraft in use to day, the familiar Bird Of Prey attack cruiser, is perhaps the most concrete reminder of this past alliance.