by Ade

The Tubars, as they are called, were made in special genetic-altering machines called tubes (hence the name tubular). They were made for the company Stale Mate, a mining company using genetically-engineered people to do their dirty work. They would take young men and women and offer them great opportunities if they would only be genetically engineered. The people were given lungs that could breath toxic fumes, and spiked backs which were a result of mixing reptile and fish DNA. They were also giving blue stringy hair and pink eyes to tell them apart from the Regs (the non-genetically-engineered workers) so no Reg was put into a situation that could harm them, and also because the Tubars were thought of as disposable labor who needed to be shown they were different. The Tubars were outraged and staged a successful break from the Stale Mate Mining Co. Stale Mate tried to kill off all the Tubars with a genetically-engineered virus, resulting in the deaths of many Tubars. (Actually, the Tubars were given a spiked back as a mistake -- their creators were going to change it but never got around to it ... but they soon realized the spikes helped keep the Tubars from getting killed off too much and wasting precious cargo. The spikes helped the tubars stay alive in avalances in the caves.)

Eventually they settled on the Tubar planet of Ryde and formed a community. The Tubars possess a certain amount of pride, caused by the extensive triumphs in their past and the fact that they successfuly fought a giant corporation and went through tough times but only got stronger. They also possess the ability to breath toxic fumes, incredible strength, and the ability to see at a microscopic level (but they can only keep their micoscopic sight on for a short time and it can cause them to be weakened physically).