Terlan
A species of Troznux Arkan bioship. Terlans are very small comparitively, being only about 2 m long. This makes them comparable in size to a human, and puts them quite low on the food chain. However, they still scare away predators using their large biological particle cannon that goes down most of their body, their mouth doubles as the particle cannon. This has proven to be quite the anomaly to the Hyperion Federation, as this form of particle cannon fires neutron beams. They are also very fast. However, to get acess to this much energy, they need a fast metabolism. They digest food less efficiently and faster than most species.
Most of the Terlan body is taken up by a particle accelerator organ. This fires a large amount of high energy neutrons, which can easily pierce almost all shields of mechanical starships while heavily damaging biological tissue of any creature within the blast. This can easily kill starship crew or even large bioships.
Creation of these neutrons can very easily exhaust the Terlan though. Due to this, the body must store large amounts of fat and have the ability to burn a lot of it within a moments notice. This is often replenished however, when the terlan begins eating whatever target it fired at. It also doesnt usually use the entire energy reserve of the body.
They digest food very fast with a fast metabolism rate. This can provide them with a lot of energy especially when eating large prey. As terlans are too small to safely withstand the powerful forces of a gas giant, they could not survive with hydrogen fusion propulsion organs. instead, they have some extremely powerful bioluminescence organs which can propel a terlan body due to photons having momentum. This can produce a lot of heat. Excess body heat must be radiated, or the body would cease functioning. They instead obtain some gases that are less useful to the body through digestion before heating them up with the excess body heat and removing it from the body into the vacuum. A lot of this gas is produced by gut bacteria.
The existance of the terlans was due to a lost, rogue bioengineering experiment of the Harkas a very long time ago. This species began to roam the galaxy and left the Beta Targos System and were perieved by the harkas as simple, and not viable to survive in the wild conditions of the rest of the galaxy, so were thought to not be a problem. What they did not find out until much later, was the terlan species were sentient, and as it turns out having a large biologial particle accelerator built into their body gives a large evolutionary advantage. However, the modern versions differ noticably as they have evolutionarily drifted from their original purposed organism ancestor.
Their particle accelerator also doubles as the creature's digestive system. As the partile beam is emitted from the mouth, food is also taken in via the mouth, which can unfold from a refracting mode where it focuses neutrons into a tighter beam, into an open form for tearing chunks off and ingesting food. In the initial stages of digestion, they cannot fire their particle beam as the food blocks neutrons from passing through the stomach. Neutrons are created in a gland near an intestine and are directed and accelerated through the intestine by exploiting total internal reflection. A gas with a high refrative index to neutrons is used to direct them through the intestinal trat until the stomah is reahed. This inreases the energy levels of the neutrons and fores them to form a very tight beam. After passing through a short length of the intestine, they will reach the stomach from the bottom, where most of the energy is expended in accelerating the neutrons further. They become less focused in the stomach, so the mouth has a number of lenses that can fold in to allow food passage and to focus the neutrons into beams as they pass. This organ can beome very hot while firing the particle cannon, so it is kept in a vacuum sealed chamber, waste heat being sent to the body radiators. Firing the particle cannon will kill all lifeforms within a teran's digestive system from the mouth to the neutron reaction gland so they often have no microbiome until shortly past that gland. They can still develop sickness from food though, as it must pass through part of the intestine fully before they can fire the particle beam again. If they try to fire while their stomach or intestine has food, it can cause the refraction gas to heat up and fail to fill up the digestive tract. They will not be able to fire regardless of how hard they try, but it will cause them pain and can disrupt the digestive process. In an emergency, they can rapidly empty their digestive tract by either regurgitating or forcing food through the intestine more rapidly, which can damage the organ and make digestion far less efficient.
While the particle cannon is active, the barrier between stomach and esophagus will open but a 2-way mirror is deployed. Neutrons are continually reflected within the stomach in this way. They will reacct with several different types of gases which are designed to absorb the neutrons but re-emit them with higher energy. It works in a somewhat similar fashion as a laser. Neutrons are further focused as they travel through the esophagus as well; they could cause damage to the terlan if they hit the organ itself.
Basic Information
Genetics and Reproduction
They reproduce rapidly and similar to mammals. 2 sexes.
Growth Rate & Stages
From age ~1 they are sentient.
They grow at a steady rate until they reach their full length at about 20 years
Additional Information
Geographic Origin and Distribution
They are seen in most regions around the galaxy, but are most present in the more active areas of the galaxy. Although more predators live around these areas, there is also more food for the terlan itself to eat
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Visual, thermal imaging and psionic superluminal location
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Average Length
2.1 m
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Green bioluminescent areas that go down the length of their body, particularly where the particle cannon extends, and through the tail.
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