Funnelers

Discussion in 'Approved' started by Khaos, Jul 7, 2020.

  1. Khaos

    Khaos Purple Man Impervium Donator

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2017
    Messages:
    602
    Likes Received:
    302
    Name: Funnelers, Warp Maggots, Cosmithan Warts

    Description:
    Funnelers are strange symbiotic parasites capable of facilitating FTL travel in their hosts. They have varying appearances dependent on the stage of their life cycle they're in, and what host they are attached to.

    Funneler hatchlings are squid-like in appearance, with a series of hooks for a mouth and several tentacles that release chemical propellants in order to move in the vastness of space. Their main body is almost webbed in appearance, with irregular radiation-shielding scales of a dark gray color covering its surface. They have no visible eyes or other orifices outside of the mouth and propellant organs on its arms.

    Once they have attached to a host, the hooks of their mouth embed into the flesh and glue on with a sort of adhesive, and the legs stretch outward from the 'bite' in order to better hold on and ward off other Funnelers from its 'spot'. These arms and the mouth eventually dissolve and morph into the flesh of the host, leaving only its body which changes characteristics and color to more or less appear as a 'skin tag' on the host. While mid-warp, they glow, the color of which reflects the color of the host's blood at times though the color trends towards a teal blue.

    Behavior:
    Hatchlings remain dormant until a non-warping host grows near. Sensing the thermal signature of the host, they will propel themselves towards it and latch on, the height of their intelligence. Once they have attached to the host, they will go through a metamorphosis into adults.

    These adults lose all cognitive function for the most part, rewiring their nervous system to integrate into the host's instead, and their organs will rearrange to primarily only facilitate warp fields, digestion, and reproduction. The host is then able to stimulate these creatures to engage a efficient but short lived warp bubble capable of catching up with space-faring ships and other entities, and the same process allows for a sort of biological interdiction. This, of course, can make their hosts very dangerous.

    Tamability:
    They have an incredibly simple intelligence. While you could prompt one to attach to a ship and find a means to both feed and stimulate it, it is inherently inferior to warp drives. Otherwise the simple-minded creatures don't do anything other than be a bigger pain in the ass than Barnakkles.

    Where is it found?:
    In space, both in realspace and hyperspace as it is an interloper. Typically around where other space-faring creatures may be found.

    Rarity: Common, as far as space critters go.

    Diet/Method of gaining nutrients and energy:
    Funneler diets are almost entirely parasitic in nature. It's only when they attach to a host that they gain nutrients via feeding on the host's thermal energy and blood, though in the case of ships they usually starve to death after attaching. Surprisingly they are robust at this however, being able to feed on various forms of life, from visitant matter to a stellar whale.

    Products?:
    There's trace amounts of mana found in their excrement, otherwise not much really.

    Reproduction:
    Sexual reproduction. When a cluster of matures, the asexual creatures release eggs and spores behind their host in almost a comet trail. These eggs are then fertilized, and left dormant until a suitable host not currently in warp grows near. They then hatch, swarming the host and attaching.

    Size:
    Varies. Hatchlings are usually around the size of a human, and fully developed adults can get up to as large as a small car. However, their maximum size is dependent on their host.

    Weight:
    Fairly lightweight as hatchlings, weighing about 200 lbs. Adults can weigh up to as much as 800 lbs, though 500 lbs is the norm.

    Lifespan:
    While they have proven to survive for extreme spans of time, they die whenever their host expires. The oldest recorded specimen was barely over a thousand years old.

    Abilities:
    - When attached to a host, they become a collective biological warp drive that the host may use to its advantage.
    - A host may stimulate them to engage in a short-lived warp bubble. This is excellent as a means of travel inside a solar system, and for chasing down nearby ships, but very taxing and impractical for interstellar travel.
    - When close to a space faring creature/vessel engaged in a warp bubble, the host can stimulate the Funnelers into performing an interdiction.

    Flaws:
    - Like other interloper species, it depends on positive cuils and its performance is highly tied to the local ECF. They die in an ECF of absolute 0, turning into Lusnium.
    - As they do not use erchius, they use their own anomalous means of creating warp bubbles. Hence less efficient.
    - The number of Funnelers required for a proper warp bubble to form is dependent on the size of the host. The larger the host, the more Funnelers are necessary for it to engage into warp.
    - EDIT: They CANNOT warp space while deep within a gravity well. They cannot bend space while on the surface of a planet, for example.

    Other:
    These turn Cosmithans and other space monstrosities into absolute nightmares, as they are particularly beneficial for space-faring predators.

    Notably they cannot open up hyperlanes or facilitate travel between hyperspace in realspace. Visitant scientists theorize that they originated in hyperspace, and brought to realspace as an invasive species. This is supported by a number of small differences between species in realspace and those in hyperspace. Given their interloping biology and function, there exists the theory that a long-gone interloper species had engineered these creatures to function as warp drives for some sort of biological ships. Unfortunately, there has yet to be any evidence that supports or denies this theory.
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2020
    Pinkbat5, Khan333 and Teldrassil like this.
  2. WowGain

    WowGain Bara King Staff Member Administrator Bronze Donator Event Builder

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2017
    Messages:
    605
    Likes Received:
    340