Umgah HyperWave Broadcaster

This special high-power HyperWave Caster was developed by the Umgah for their own "humorous" purposes. Built using standard technology common to the Home Quadrant species of the First War, it is similar to an ordinary starship HyperWave Caster, except on a much larger scale, comprising a large, self-contained blue machine encased in the amorphous organic plastic used by the Umgah in most of their bioengineering-based industry.

The Umgah spent a great many resources to build this very expensive machine; the ability to transmit messages from much greater ranges than others would expect was invaluable for their brand of entertainment. They first caused the Ilwrath revolt against their priest class by impersonating the deities Dogar and Kazon by broadcasting on a popular Ilwrath entertainment channel; they were thus able to directly manipulate the fanatically religious Ilwrath into causing endless chaos throughout their region of space.

They also began a campaign of sending long-range Hyperwave transmissions to nearby sentient races as elaborate practical jokes, stirring cultures into panic of attack from "Jud the Ineffable Vug", "Killmaster 18" and "The Grand Master Planet Eaters". The Spathi, the Umgah's favorite torture victims, were particularly gullible for this sort of ploy. However, the Umgah employed it against them one too many times, and the Spathi finally caught on and launched a successful military attack to capture the Umgah's Caster.

The Umgah, lacking the resources to build another such device in the near future, were forced to end their games. The Spathi were unable to find any use for the Caster themselves, and bestowed it as a parting gift to the human Captain Zelnick after they withdrew from his New Alliance; he proceeded to use it, and the impersonation programs built into it, for various useful purposes, including controlling the Ilwrath himself.