Kal
Whispers
- Intent: Do battle with flesh-puppets wearing flying steel.
- Image Source: Alien Spacecraft by Dmitrii Ustinov
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: Yorik-et
- Manufacturer: Greystone Mercantile
- Affiliation: Greystone Mercantile
- Market Status: Closed-Market
- Model: 'Nullmane' Hunter-Killer Biocraft
- Production: Limited
- Material: Carapace, Crystal, and Sinew.
- Classification: Space Superiority Biocraft
- Length: ~12-16 metres
- Width: ~3-4 metres
- Height: ~3-4 metres
- Armament: High
- 'Voidhammer' Gravshaper
- Biosynthetic Starlances
- Biodrone Receptacles
- Defences: High
- Squadron Count: Low | 8 || One 'pack', but they rarely operate from carriers.
- Manoeuvrability Rating: High | Low ('Lurch')
- Speed Rating: Average | Very High ('Lurch')
- Hyperdrive: Superluminal Transit
- Biosynthetic analogues to most standard systems, but not shields or a hyperdrive.
- Complex biosynthetic organisms devoid of metal, engine exhaust, and conventional reactor signatures, Nullmanes are difficult to detect for many run-of-the-mill sensors. They are hardly proper stealth fighters, but achieving a weapons lock is unusually difficult. They can generally remain undetected at a distance, especially if hiding in deep space or the atmosphere of a star or gas giant.
- Gravshapers are used in place of both shields and conventional thrusters.
- Nullmanes are able to survive on background radiation near-indefinitely and can recharge their internal reserves by orbiting a star or resting in nebulas or the upper atmospheres of gas giants. They can regrow missing or damaged parts in the same way, with enough time.
- Nullmanes are inhabited by animalistic spirits that return to the Netherworld upon the biocraft's destruction, only to be placed within a nascent Nullmane in one of Greystone's deep space 'cradles'. This allows the starfighter-creatures to retain experience even in death.
- The inclusion of a Gravpulser Shardform helps against interdiction fields, but only slightly - the Gravshaper is small indeed.
- Bump in the Night: Nullmanes are difficult to sense, even for Jedi, and even more difficult to pin down. Their Gravshapers can deflect all but the most unavoidable of hits (unless overwhelmed by quantity or power output) and their cunning minds react to threats with inhuman speed.
- Gravitic Interference: Interdiction fields interfere with the anomalous properties of Gravshapers, lowering their performance in all fields. As a result of the Nullmanes' singular reliance on the devices, they take a small to moderate hit to speed, defences, offences, and agility.
- Avoidance Tactics: Nullmanes rely on avoidance and deflection over resilience - they have no shields.
Hatred. Ideology. Greed. The root causes of strife are legion, but the result is the same - violence.
While inherently unproductive, it cannot always be avoided. The next best thing is to force 'an acceptable resolution' promptly and so Greystone set out to arm itself. Not content with run-of-the-mill starfighters, they charged their most brilliant bioengineers with creating an alternative, a biocraft.
It is easy for outsiders to equate Nullmanes with mindless drones, especially given Greystone's tendency to expend them as needed, but the truth is somewhat more complicated. They are arguably sentient, but nonetheless fairly animalistic. They are expandable, but only because of their ability to 'return from the dead' - the Shadows treat them more like pets than drones and encourage playful antics during times of rest.
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