40K Lizardmen

Lizardmen for 40K:
The Pirates of Dracon

"The swamps. The seas. The stars. It makes no diffr'nce to a Dracon, lad! Fer all the cosmos' treasures are ours ta keep!"
-Gol D'Roger, Kaptain of the Dracon First Fleet

"Quick, while he's philosophizin', grab 'is booty!"
-Kaptain Skurvy, Grand Admiral of the Dracon Admiralty of Admirals

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Many poets compare the stars to an ocean. For the Dracon, a race of reptiles from a marshy world, this is surprisingly accurate. Long ago, they abandoned wheel and sail after discovering the jet engine, and this was in turn abandoned in favor of the rocket. Every form of transport they possess had rockets and hover engines rather than wheels, for their mastery of solar power and chemical propulsion was unmatched. They hopped easily between the worlds of their native system, happily mining and living as explorers. It was a simple, peaceful existence, far from the wars of the galaxy, allowing them to expand to neighboring systems in search of gold and glory.

And then the Dark Eldar came and fucked everything. Their marshy homeworld, unprepared for conflict, found itself swarmed by enemy forces. Strip mined for its reserves of fuel and sacked of its riches, they fled their home system in the wake of their government's collpase. This left an empire of trillions without direction. And when trillions of pissed off reptiles with a part of their brain 100% convinced they are still towering theropods go without direction, they tend to get a little angry.

Their government splintered after the fall of Dracon, leaving spacefarers to pick up the pieces. Of course, there were dozens of officers declaring martial law under their rule, numerous pirates claiming a blood tie to their dead king, and numerous revolutionary elements declaring it time to throw off the shackles of royal oppression. This resulted in dozens of fleets, each claiming to be the true successors of the royal navy, the pirate kings, or students of a whackadoodle revolutionary. Each of these fleets bravely sets out to deal with the vile impostors claiming a right to rule, secure in the knowledge that they are the once and future kings of Dracon. These fleets fight openly, shunning the use of assassination and subtlety- the Royal Fleets find such underhanded tactics dishonorable, the Pirate Fleets find them boring, and the Revolutionaries find it too predictable.

Looking at Eldar, Humans, or even Tau causes them to recoil at the strange bone structure. The sight of most humanoids causes an ancestral rage towards the destroyers of their homeworld to well up inside. This results in a fractured race of incredibly angry xenophobic pirates who loot for resources and revenge- perceived or justified- in the hopes of rebuilding a long-dead and half-forgotten civilization.
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Dracon are wide-bodied reptilians, akin to a bipedal crocodile. Their backs are covered in thick scales which block anything from bullets to blades, though their leathery underbellies offer little protection. Because of this, a common tactic among the fleets is shooting their opponents, turning around, and shuffling backwards to advance with heavily armored spotters to guide them.

The Dracon have survived thanks to an unusual trait: They can store the resources their bodies need to function. Their tails are massive stores of fat, with specialized bladders containing water and gasses throughout their bodies. These allow them to regulate every part of their body, from its chemistry to its temperature. In short, any plan that relies on starving them out is doomed to failure. Strange diets allow certain members of the race to expel hazardous chemicals and poisonous gasses from their mouth by contracting their gas-bladders.