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The Okaati are a sentient, bi-pedaled race of creatures who, during the sixth-millennium, depart their native homeworld following an ecological holocaust of their own making. They are encountered by the Fleet in the seventh-millenium after entering the Empyrean Expanse, appearing to share a similar predicament for they have an always on-the-run fugitive fleet of their own.
Origins and Exodus
Initially pacifistic and humble, the Okaati became parasitic in their wayward exile due to resource scarcity and other socio-political factors, with adeptness at stripping resources from the worlds within the Empyrean Expanse. Their aggressive ways affect the numerous species who formally attempt to aid them peacably, resulting in the creation of the Comitat, an assemblage of victimized species seeking both justice and containment of the Okaati (Battlestar Galactica Classic #4).
In the intervening millennia, the Okaati became a scourge that outpace and outwit the Comitat, striving to find sources outside of the Expanse. This search, lead by their leader Parrin sometime in or about 7349, results in contact with the Cylon Empire's emissaries Baltar and Lucifer. Upon their return into the Expanse, Parrin and her Cylon escort are detected by Blue Squadron following its fracas with the Kiernu. Believing the Raider escort to be attackers to the then-unidentified vessel, Captain Apollo and fellow Warriors dispatch the escort, handle an enemy with presumed similarities to the Cylons, and are introduced to another fugitive fleet (Battlestar Galactica Classic #0 & #3).
Turning Point with Humanity
After dispatching the Cylon Raiders and the Comitat's bladeships, Captain Apollo's squadron is led to the Okaati fleet and lead to believe that the Okaati share the same perilous journey through the cosmos as a "fugitive fleet." Buoyed by the possibilities of an alliance with fellow victims of oppression, Apollo leads the Okaati to the human's Fleet (Battlestar Galactica Classic #0).
Believing that Parrin's plan to use the Fleet in order to barter for tylium from the Cylons would work, the Okaati engineers engage in deception to hijack the Fleet's various ships (sans Galactica) by conjoining each Fleet vessel with a Okaati Harvester, allowing the Harvester to disable and stage its Colonial partner on Gehenna Prime to this end (Battlestar Galactica Classic #3—#5).