Yesterday a fellow forum user and I conversed over one of their ideas: Biological ships. Of course, being the forgetful sombreroman I am, I kind of forgot where the conversation was. So I guess I should take it upon myself to explore the idea. So, how would this work? (Update: User Was Neeki)
WHERE THEY LIVE
In nebulae, exclusively. When a planet is inside nebulae, they wake up to feast on gas and dust. When a planet is no longer inside said nebulae, they begin to hibernate, which makes their hide immensely strong but render them defenseless. You could wake them up for a moment, but they will all act passive and get away. More on that later.
BEHAVIOUR
There are three types of behavior: Passive, where the ships will actively avoid you if attacked, Neutral, where they only attack if provoked, and predatory actively hunt for other creatures and ships. Passives eat just nebulae. Neutral eat battle scrap as well as nebulae. Predatory eats everything with absolutely no in-between.
ORGANS
A creature cannot live without organs. Here's a list of them:
Nerve Clusters: Parts of a brain. The more nerve clusters there are, the more intelligent they are, and the faster they react. Example: Stupid passive will take longer to realize it's getting hit, or take too long to realize at all. Predatory creatures react to spotting prey a whole lot faster. A creature dies instantly upon losing all of it's Nerve Clusters.
The Heart: The Heart pumps blood. Duh. Blood is like the creature's version of crew and energy, transported by Blood Vessels. More on them shortly. If all of the creature's hearts are destroyed, then it will not survive for too long.
Blood Vessels: Think of them as corridors. They transport blood to parts so that they maintain having essential nutrients. A cool thing with living ships is that they have an "Under Layer" where you can place extra smaller vessels. Of course, vessels have both ways and nerves in one corridor space. Just forger you can modify the under route of Vessels, that can't be attacked. Just remember that the under layer is NOT the main layer.
Rhythm Detector: Eyes aren't a good choice in space. I mean, Wouldn't they get foggy? Damaged by a star? And echolocation can't happen without water or air. So instead, creatures can detect Heartbeats and reactor pulses. They can also use advanced feelers.
Tough Hide: A creature's "Armour", Hide will actually take immensely low damage from lasers and electricity. BUT, hide is weak to more penetrating weapons, and will quickly slice through it. There is also a different type of hide that is impact resistant, but weak against smaller weapons.
Gas Boosters: They are basically engines. Out of nebulae, the creatures have a just-in-case gas storage to boost along and escape attack.
Fins: Fins make the creature slowly swim. They can only be on the outside, but they can potentially go immensely fast. However, being on the outside makes them vulnerable to attack, Meaning you can cut them down to disable movement. They also do not work out of nebulae completely.
BIOLOGICAL WEAPONORY
Watch out! These ships can fight back! Their arsenal:
Spikes (And Spine Launchers): Spikes will prevent melee attack. They can extend to fend off ships just out of range. There are potent Spine Launchers, Which releases acid and slowly damages a room. Or, One that deals huge damage to armour. Or again, one that actually releases a gas that damages crew, spreading like fire but lasting for a limited time. And finally, a rapid-fire spine launcher.
Infestation Launcher: These can only fire once in battle, but let's just say your crew may need guns. These fire an egg cluster that hatches. When the larvae chew through the armour and get on your ship, they go after crew and try to eat them. They take five shots to kill, but the eggs can be destroyed by point defenses. There is an alternate version that saps power from parts and damage them slowly. These guys are easier to kill because they stay in place.
Scrap Eating Mouths: Let's just say, don't let these things get near you. Or risk having your armour and parts be eaten slowly but surely. Crew can shoot at it once it gets inside, and eventually render the mouth toothless. The teeth regenerate later.
Claws: These can grapple your ships. These work well in conjunction with the mouth. These claws can also be shot at and destroyed, but also regenerate the same.
Proboscis: They suck away the power from a generator- better have the crew stop it from being sucked dry! I guess it could also have the opportunity to eat crew, but I'm meh on that.
Vacuum mouth: Slowly sucks your ship into melee range. Does not cooperate with webbing, as then it'll choke on the webs.
Webbing: Fires ultra-strong silk that traps ships. After some time of attempted movement, the ship will escape. The Webbing disables the user from moving in for the kill, lest it wants to leave the web easily escapable.
Junk Assimilation: Perhaps the most terrifying ability, Some creatures can assimilate junk, and use whatever weapons or parts on the junk. This includes... FTL DRIVES?! Now that's a way to live forever...
Spiked Tentacles: These can toss ships into unfavourable locations, such as in the path of stronger ships.
Now that we have their gross arsenal out of the way, here's a fun fact: It could be possible to BOARD them. But move carefully to avoid white blood cells. Then, you can put a control matrix on a Nerve Cluster and add them to your forces! However, upon taking too much nerve damages, the chip will malfunction and the creature will go back to doing it's business... But if it's Neutral or Predatory, It won't be happy to see you.
So, What do you think of this Idea? I thought these could be a very interesting addition to Cosmoteer, and will definitely add variety to ships. Add your own ideas in the comments, and have fun exploring ideas!