Flash Slug
Seaslug kleptopharos
, the stolen beacon slug. A free-swimming, luminescent relative of the waterslug with chimeric traits from another species entirely.
Overview
, the stolen beacon slug. A free-swimming, luminescent relative of the waterslug with chimeric traits from another species entirely.
Gameplay attributes
No species-specific gameplay effect found; values use the engine's large- or small-creature default template.
AI profile
PDA Analysis
1. Microbial photocell
The flash slug is powered by the same type of microbial fuel cell present in the waterslug. The slug inhales plankton as it swims, which it digests with photodecomposition and feeds to luminescent bacteria that live in coils of glassy fiber deep in its mantle. These fibers generate and direct bioluminescence, and may in fact be biological lasers.
2. Light control
The flash slug uses its light to attract food and mates. When threatened, the slug charges up a flash of blinding coherent light to drive off attackers. Spectrogenetic analysis suggests this defense mechanism evolved from a system of internal gene regulation: its original function, millions of years ago, was to activate and deactivate genes inside the slug's body with coded light signals.
3. Raylike body plan
The flash slug swims with ray-like wings that grow from its foot. CORRECTION: The first draft of this output incorrectly attributed these wings to genetic sequences transferred from a Protean ray. In fact, the wings are a development of the slug's mantle, like Earth's Spanish dancer. The shared sequences with Protean rays may be related to item 4 below.
4. Enigmatic viral traffic
Millihertz variations in the slug's flash patterns appear to be correlated with Proteavirus activity inside the slug's tissues. The flash signals what the virus is doing — but also triggers changes in viral activity in other slugs (and, perhaps, other species that see the flash). It is possible that the flash slug's light displays give the Proteavirus a high-speed data channel.
Assessment
Distribution
- OR - Power Plant20
- OR - Observatory6
Related Creatures
More entries from the same ecological slice.
Bluemoon
Databank entry coming soon.
Bullethead
, the armored squid dart. A swarm predator that attacks by ramming and penetrating its prey. Capable of *Caught script hook in allocated memory for command >> generate-databank "Bullethead" >> echo \memory-carve -signature=0xSEABEEF5 >> restore-databank* "I saw their eyes first. Bright yellow eyes, down the inside of the lava tube. I killed the motors and the floods, signaled Iso and Mel to grab the handholds, and held my breath. For a minute I thought we'd ride clean through. Then the current pulled the Tadpole into an outcrop and at the sound they all just—went off. Like bottle rockets. Back and forth, up and down, everywhere. One of them lodged in the port hull just aft of the canopy and I saw, very clearly, that it was a squid, completely plated in armor. They hit you tail first, hard enough to punch into titanium. Incredible. Do you think they run on compressed air? Or do they burn something? The hull alarm went off — I tried to blink the floods to confuse them — but Mel and Iso's blackboxes were already crying. The noise seemed to attract them. Apparently they like to get stuck in wounded prey and wait until you bleed to death, then go to work on your carcass. So by the time I got back to Habitat there wasn't much left of Iso and Mel for Iso and Mel to recycle." —Tsewangiin "Ruby" Anar, "When I Didn't Die"
Cerathecan
"Our PDAs point to organisms like the cerathecan and exclaim 'behold: the road not taken'. On Earth, seed shrimp are tiny slime-dwellers; on Proteus they grow huge. But just as easy life in our decontaminated bases deafens us to the call of Proteus, easy analogies blind us to the truth. The map from Earth is not only wrong, so is its basic dogma. Evolution does not follow roads here." —Anita Gottschall, *The Way Away Home* *Exile cerathecan*, the horn-cupped exile. A mysterious carnivore and deposit feeder with no clear Earth analog except the tiny ostracod (seed shrimp).