Created by: Garry Stahl with a nod to Allan Dean Foster*.
Appearance: In the person of Neebish, the science officer in "Matters of Perspective"
Number of Members: 5 billion
Nature of Members: Hal Armin are six legged anthropoids. Hal Armin stand a meter high on all sixes. They are roughly two meters long and stand a meter and a half on "fours". They mostly resemble a preying mantis with much finer hands. They are light purple green in color that darkens to a deep purple as they age. They have oval shaped heads with large iridescent compound eyes topped with feathery antenna. Limbs are from top to bottom, true hand, foot hand, true foot. Hal Armin are obligate quadrupeds. They must move on four legs. When standing still they can rest the end of their abdomen on the ground and use the foot hands for manipulation. Hal Armin have wings that are nearly atrophied. An adult can fly to safe landing from a height. They cannot fly from the ground. (In an 100 foot or taller fall they can expect to land without injury. Ironically shorter falls do not give them enough time to deploy their wings and build enough lift to counter the fall.) The wings are lost after mating in both genders. Hal Armin are omnivores.
       They are egg layers that produce a larval stage. During the larval state the Hal Armin have limited senses and are nearly immobile. They must be cared for by full time nurse/teachers. Larvahood is the time in which education is handled. At five years of age the larva will metamorphose into a full adult. While this seems like a brief time for education a larva has little do but learn.
       The physiology of the Hal Armin can confuse the average humanoid. They lack the social need for physical contact so common in the mammal species. Hal Armin are very much social creatures, and most do poorly away from their own kind they do not have much sense of touch. It is entirely absent on the majority of their carapace. It is possible to cut into the chitin without any pain sensation. Only the losest three layers of the chitin have pain sensation (Their medicine lists eight layers of chitin). Hal Armin commonly cut the upper layer to add permanent decorations to their bodies. The result is they are not touchy feely. They do touch with the antenna and it is a highly sensual experience for them to flutter their antenna close to another person's antenna. You do not see it in public. It is Hal Armin foreplay, reserved for your mate.
       The entire race is agoraphobic and clastrophilic. They are perfectly comfortable in a dark tunnel barely wide enough to crawl through, but can freak at a wide field and an open sky. "Outside" is the name for the condition and 30% have it to a debilitating degree. 99% of the species have it to some degree. Those that do not are social misfits. But misfits that are needed for duties that others could not do. The Star Service, diplomats, even farmers are all people that have either a very mild case of "Outside" or lack it entirely.
Organization: Hierarchy. Hal Armin are organized from the Hive Mother (eldest female) on down. Everyone has a place and everyone wants it that way. There is even a place for the placeless, the Star Service.
       Hal Armin willingly choose to live under a totalitarian state. Because they choose it said states are never as abusive as they are in say Human cultures. Dissent is expected and welcome. Everything is debated in the pubic forum, but once the dictator calls the shot they fall in line and do.
Game Role: Something different to muddy the politics and challenge assumptions
World Role: Reluctant star travelers.
Relative Influence: Minor, and they prefer it that way. Hal Armin do not use or want the kind of influence their technology and numbers would normally give a race in their position.
Public or Secret?: Public.
Publicly Stated Goal: Not be anyone's slave. To live their lives without interference.
Relative Wealth: Second grade galatic power that directly controls 25 systems.
Group advantages: Racial cohesiveness. Hal Armin have a very tight "us" button. Every Hal Armin is the friend and ally of any other.
Quick response: Their form of government allows them a quick response to any threat.
Special Abilities: Fazz. Hal Armin have antenna that have the "fazz" sense. They can sense air currents and minute changes is said currents. They also have a keen stereo sense of smell. A Hal Armin can easily move with confidence in complete darkness.
Group disadvantages: Rigidity. When the established order is not working, usually in a crisis situation, Hal Armin are often at a lost for action. They also have a hard time ending a routine that is no longer useful.
Special disadvantages: Hal Armin are exotherms. Cold conditions will kill them. They also cannot swim as the openings for respiration are located on the abdomen, and cannot be held above water.
        Agoraphobia. a good 30% of the population suffers from agoraphobia, and cannot work or live outside the hive.
       Low advancement drive: Hal Armin do not adopt technology for the sake of change. Something has to fail before it gets reconsidered. As a result they are still driving the one light year a day ships the Aazzan "gifted" them with.
Those who favor them: Former members of the Anti-Aazz Alliance, Any non-hostile neighbor that has gotten to know them. The Federation is considering it.
Those opposed to them: Aazz with long memories, the Cardassians, LUW. The Cardassians did basic Cardassian things at he Hal Armin and nearly found themselves in a genocidal war. They leave the bugs alone, but don't like them. As a second string interstellar power the LUW consider the Hal Armin guilty until caught at something.
Area of Operation: Polar north and anti spinward of the Federation core.
Headquarters Location: Armin the home world
Public Face: Reluctant neighbors.
Notable Members: Lugneeserfan -- Founder of the Anti-Aazz Alliance.
Liracalee -- Founder of the Hormin Fusion.  She floated the idea that the two species complimented each other to a degree that both would benefit from the admixture.
Neebishterfan -- commonly known as Neebish by his friends and Starfleet. His fellows would rather he was less well known. Neebishterfan is an embarrassment for all Hal Armin.
History of the Organization: 200 years ago Armin was a world in a late industrial stage. The Hal Armin were a busy race minding their own business. That business was getting past their waring period and starting to enjoy the peace dividend. All this ended with the coming of the Aazz.
       The Aazz were a warrior race of slave taking reptiles that preyed on all the planets around them including the Hal Armin. The Hal Armin dug further in and learned what they could from the invaders. At last they shot a ship up enough to capture it and study it. Their own warp drives soon followed.
       Under the pressure of war they expanded quickly. In the process they met other races also victimized by the Aazz. At first the Hal Armin were reluctant to deal with other races. What if they were as bad as the Aazz.
       Finally Lugneeserfan privately meet and worked with other member of the other races. They together brought the plan for the Anti-Aazz Alliance arguing that working together they could do what none of them working apart could accomplish.
       It took 100 years but the Aazz war was finally won, by driving the Aazz off every world and bombing the Aazz homeworld back to the stone age. In the interval the Hal Armin had founded several colonies on worlds taken from the Aazz, want it or not they had a space presence, and have to deal with the other peoples that travel through space.
       50 years ago the Cardassian union ran into the Hal Armin, and tried their usual tricks. They found the logical insects massing on the border to conduct a war of genocide. A war the insects expected to win, by a margin low enough to make their own survival questionable. Some fast talking and the execution of some promising commanders got them off the hook, once, and only once. If they attack the Hal Armin again, there will be NO talk.
       Presently the Hal Armin maintain cool relations with everyone. They wish to be let alone, and are willing to leave alone. They will negotiate trade agreements, and they find this agreeable and stimulating. they are not interested in any political or military alliances. A mutual threat would change that.
Other members of the Anti-Aazz Alliance:
Gell -- Flightless avianoid. Most of their advances have fallen to internal conflict.
Horma -- Rubber forehead humanoids. The Hal Armin have linked their governments together the Horma living on the temperate areas of Hal Armin worlds and the Hal Armin taking the steaming tropics of Horma worlds.  As Liracalee stated it.  We offer you stability and you offer us drive.
Ottarions -- A race of amphibious mammals. They are currently Federation members.
Zten -- A related reptiloid species to the Aazz. Being relatives did not help.

*Allan Dean Foster created the Thranx, of which the Hal Armin are generally lifted, but not completely.