Panokseon

[Ugohr Poof]

Image source: Wookiepedia

A blue panokseon

Name: Panokseon
Designation: Non-sentient mammal
Homeworld: Keres I
Language: Panokseon-squeal
Average Lifespan: 40-50 standard years
Estimated Population: Only found on Keres I, estimated population 120,000

Average height of adults: 2.1-2.6 meters
Average length of adults: 6-8 meters
Average mass of adults: 3,000-5,000 kg
Skin color: Blue, peach
Hair color: N/A
Distinctions:

• Finned tail for stability
• Dorsal spine
• Sharp claws capable of piercing class-5 armor

Breathes: Type I
Strengths:

• Keen smell
• Capable of detecting even faint concentrations of hypermatter (as a result of having a special olfactive receptor specifically for hypermatter)
• Its hide has class-9 resistance to ion weapons
• Strong bones
• Capable of living for long periods without eating if they eat significant amounts of food in a single meal

Weaknesses:

• Slow metabolism
• Vulnerable to chemical sedatives
• Vulnerable to mind tricks
• Low endurance
• Vulnerable to digestive or pulmonary diseases (insta-kill in presence of hypermatter, a panokseon can only survive a digestive or pulmonary disease in absence of hypermatter)
• Sensory overload in presence of hypermatter

Races: Blue and peach

Diet: Herbivore
Communication: Squealing
Culture: Panokseons travel in packs of roughly 10-20 individuals: visitors to Keres I are advised to land their ships away from large groups of panokseons, but they are harmless so long as you do not carry hypermatter with you. But panokseons are not territorial in the slightest. Plus they stay mostly away from sentients' settlements.
Technology level: N/A
General behavior: Panokseons seem to roam the barren landscape of Keres I in search of hypermatter sources, often staying in one area for prolonged periods of time if a large source of food is found. Also, when members of the pack are killed, they mostly flee, but when the pack members are captured alive, other packs sense that a food or hypermatter source has been freed. Panokseon blood smell a little acidic. Even faint concentrations of hypermatter can cause sensory overload, which will startle the creatures.

History: It is theorized that panokseons descended from a herbivore species that were once bred by a sentient species that once occupied Keres I back in the days where the planet was first colonized, and genetically engineered by said colonizers to detect a specific energy signature emitted by hypermatter. Panokseons were at the top of the planet's food chain, or rather are one of the few links in the planet's food chain for as long as ecological records of Keres I were kept. Because Keres I is sparsely populated, they lived mostly undisturbed, eating grass, living almost anywhere in the planet's landmasses. Over time panokseons developed a keen sense of smell, even being capable of detecting faint traces of hypermatter in airborne suspension using said smell. The panokseon was discovered to the greater galaxy by [member="Ugohr Poof"] when some unidentified party released a panokseon onboard the ANS Bestine en route to answer a distress signal sent from Keres I, and he set out to capture live panokseons for the purposes of scientific study. it has been found that panokseons had a special olfactive receptor for sensing the special energy signatures of hypermatter.

Notable Player-Characters: N/A

Intent: To provide a species that can provide help in prospecting for planetside hypermatter sources or as clothing to produce ion weapon-resistant personal armor

Links: To boldly hunt what no one has hunted before - Ugohr attempts to capture live panokseons

 

[Rekali the Hutt]

I"ll be judging this submission today

 

[Rekali the Hutt]

So, before I actually go in length about dissecting the sub itself, we're going to discuss the elephant in the room. Hypermatter itself and how it operates.

Hypermatter Wookiee Article

Hypermatter was tachyonic matter that existed in hyperspace.[3] When constrained by realspace, charged tachyons were annihilated as they accelerated to infinite speed within a reactor. The hyperdrive adjusted the faster-than-light hypermatter particles to allow a ship to jump to light-speed without changing its complex mass and energy. The hypermatter annihilation cores were in turn confined by fusion systems.[1]

Hypermatter is less a specific substance and more of a phenomenon to explain the energy attached to a particle that exceeds the speed of light. E = mc2 right? Or Kinetic Energy is equal to mass time the Speed of Light squared. The reason Hypermatter is so effective is that it breaks the speed of light, so you replace that C with "infinite speed" to create much more energy. While there is of course science fiction technobabble to allow reactors to gather and harness this energy there is not a canon example that I am aware of a Hypermatter Reactor that isn't on a hyperspace-capable ship(A grant was given for some research into the subject, but there are no results that I can find). One might presume that while Hypermatter is present in hyperspace, it is not present in the Mass Shadows in hyperspace.

Ultimately this means that any Hypermatter-eating creature will need to be a space-worthy, hyperspace cable creature. There are a few creatures like this in canon, but the sticking point is going to be that your dev thread is hunting a giant chinese-dragon bodied creature on a planet, and no longer really applies to your species submission(unless you can find a reason that said creature would be on world while all of it's food is in space.)

If you can find and quote me a canon source that shows "pockets" of Hypermatter in realspace than we may continue as is, but otherwise the current creature has no way to find the only item that can fulfill it's dietary needs.

Despite its high efficiency, hypermatter still required massive amounts of reactant fuel to power the great starships of the spacelanes. For example, at peak power, the Venator-class Star Destroyer's main reactor annihilated the equivalent of 40,000 tons of matter each second. Even small starfighters required significant fuel supplies—the Utapaun P-38 starfighter consumed 6.2 kilograms of hypermatter each second at full power.

This is also another concern. While Hypermatter itself seems to contain extremely massive amounts of energy, it seems that none of the methods of converting that into useable energy are actually all that efficient. I'd be willing to accept that a biological entity might have evolved with more efficient method of converting hypermatter to useable energy, perhaps even another ten or twenty percent efficient, and the Starfighter mentioned is a good bit larger than your creature but at heart we're still dealing with a energy conversion unit of kilograms per second. The Panokseon might not have nearly the energy needs of a starfighter but we still have a problem. If we bring the energy needs down to say, a kilogram per minute of activity, how on Keres I does a creature eat that much substance?

Hypermatter instability was a great risk to any process using it, as shown when the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Battle Lance was vaporized along with its crew, when the improved, prototype hypermatter reactor it was carrying malfunctioned.

Lastly, this is our final issue with a Hypermatter-eating creature. A hypermatter reactor that malfunctions vaporized the entire ship and crew of a sixteen hundred meter vessel with thirty-seven thousand people aboard. What is stopping a hypermatter creature from vaporizing itself when it suffers a flu strong that interacts with it's digestion system? Evolution against diseases is typically done when a few members of the species resist a bacteria or virus enough to fight it off, but with a simple digestion problem being extremely lethal a common cold could ensure the species extinction.








These three things are the largest issues I have with this submission, as the concept itself needs significant attention to detail in order to manifest in a plausible way. I'll need these addressed before we can continue.

[member="Ugohr Poof"]

 

[Ugohr Poof]

The last objection is also that hypermatter is toxic to most, if not all, pathogens on Keres I, but that I'm willing to accept that a pulmonary or digestive disease could kill panokseons as a weakness of the creature.

Plus a starfighter eating 6.2 kg of hypermatter per second is, as you said, 2-3x as heavy as a panokseon: not only that but it has to fly in realspace at speeds way beyond that of, say, Keres I's escape velocity (ca. 10-15 km/s), that which a panokseon cannot achieve: the fastest ICly that a panokseon could move was ca. 10 m/s, which means a thousand times slower than a starfighter eating 6.2 kg/s, and a million times less kinetic energy. Slow metabolism allows panokseons to eat, and use, less hypermatter.

Also, Battlefront: Twilight Company says that pockets of hypermatter could be formed in realspace when solar radiation entered contact with a planetary core, as is the case on Redhurne, but that book seems to assume hypermatter to be much less dense and to be more akin to that of diesel.

Enter the rift alluded to in the dominion: a subspace rift could make it vent the hypermatter from the core to the surface. If you read the Keres I dominion thread, you would realize that the whole premise of the dominion is that some subspace (or hyperspace; these two terms are often confused one another) rift caused the problems of the planet and caused the dominion to occur in the first place.

 

[Rekali the Hutt]

[member="Ugohr Poof"]

I have work in an hour, so I'm not gonna be able to cover everything but I'll get you started on some stuff.

Plus a starfighter eating 6.2 kg of hypermatter per second is, as you said, 2-3x as heavy as a panokseon: not only that but it has to fly in realspace at speeds way beyond that of, say, Keres I's escape velocity (ca. 10-15 km/s), that which a panokseon cannot achieve: the fastest ICly that a panokseon could move was ca. 10 m/s, which means a thousand times slower than a starfighter eating 6.2 kg/s, and a million times less kinetic energy. Slow metabolism allows panokseons to eat, and use, less hypermatter.

I understand and alluded to this, but even so we're left with a very large rate of consumption. We're talking about 6 kilograms of fuel per second. Divide that by three for the mass and a thousand for the speed(which is rough and not entirely accurate but quick and dirty start) and you've got the Panokseon eating two kilograms for every 17 minutes of activity. The only creatures I know of that eat anywhere near that often eat plants or insects which are both utterly ubiquitous, not an extremely rare and volatile substance that you'd have to actively hunt to find.

Also, Battlefront: Twilight Company says that pockets of hypermatter could be formed in realspace when solar radiation entered contact with a planetary core, as is the case on Redhurne, but that book seems to assume hypermatter to be much less dense and to be more akin to that of diesel.

Disney Canon. In general I don't read or research disney canon, but stuff on based on them has been approved before. That's my for not looking at the d(ark)isney side. This precedent is fine. However this occurs when Solar Radiation comes in contact with the core of the planet. Considering the empire used specialized drones to mine and store the material one would assume they needed to go through the crust and head down to the core to get it. An extremely hot, pressure-filled,and otherwise unlive-able environment. If you want to use this precedent I'll need an extensive overhaul of the species in order to be adapted to survive running around(or digging around rather) the planet's core in order to find the hypermatter pockets.

Enter the rift alluded to in the dominion: a subspace rift could make it vent the hypermatter from the core to the surface. If you read the Keres I dominion thread, you would realize that the whole premise of the dominion is that some subspace (or hyperspace; these two terms are often confused one another) rift caused the problems of the planet and caused the dominion to occur in the first place.

Can you link this in the submission with your other dev thread? I"ll read it as soon as I'm able.

Lastly, this is our final issue with a Hypermatter-eating creature. A hypermatter reactor that malfunctions vaporized the entire ship and crew of a sixteen hundred meter vessel with thirty-seven thousand people aboard. What is stopping a hypermatter creature from vaporizing itself when it suffers a flu strong that interacts with it's digestion system? Evolution against diseases is typically done when a few members of the species resist a bacteria or virus enough to fight it off, but with a simple digestion problem being extremely lethal a common cold could ensure the species extinction.

This specific point I'll need you address in depth. I understand you've said you're willing to accept that a digestive disease could be lethal as a weakness, but I need in depth analysis as to why this entire species hasn't gone extinct from the common cold yet, and why a digestive disease isn't instantly fatal. We're talking about a quadruped with a stomach that acts as a very complex and powerful starship reactor in a far less controlled and supported environment. Rather than a team of dozens of well-trained engineers in a sterile environment this beast's stomach is maintained by the instincts of a single non-sentient creature in an environment teeming with solar radiation. Which brings me to my next point.




This creature has a starship reactor as a stomach. I can think of four species off the top of my head that operate like that. Two of them are genetically engineered by species with advanced biotechnology(The Teljkon Vagabond and general Yuuzhn Vong ships). All of them are spaceworthy. None of them are this small. The smallest Hypermatter Reactor precedent we have(Which in honesty is the only thing we can use as a comparison to this creature's digestive system) is the afore-mentioned P-38 starfighter, a ship that's about 13m x 13m x 2.5 meters in dimensions. Size-wise I'll need it to be at least as big as the P-38, or extensive reasoning given to why it fits the complexities of a very complex reactor in a very small stomach. Function wise I'll need extensive reasoning as to how this creature evolved with this path as a land-based species rather than a space-based species, as opposed to taking literally any other evolution path(which would far far simpler to adapt to) or simply not evolving into a creature at all.


EDIT: Other point I forgot to allude to, not only is the common cold arguably the plague for a species such a this, this species can also only feed on a planet with extreme solar radiation. Anything hitting the Core is going to cover the entire planet for at least eight or so hours a day. How does this not interfere with the livelihood of the species, or disrupt it's reactor-stomach in any way? Is it's hide made of lead or some similar material?


[member="Ugohr Poof"]

 

[Ugohr Poof]

What about the creature could simply sniff hypermatter (and hence have keen smell in general) without actually eating hypermatter? It could still be useful to detect hypermatter leaks... But does hypermatter even smell anything anyway?

[member="Rekali the Hutt"]

 

[Rekali the Hutt]

[member="Ugohr Poof"]

I don'y know about smell but perhaps the Panokseon can detect a unique energy signal Hypermatter gives off when used. Anything along those lines is plausible. It allows us to ignore the "starship reactor stomach" problem. There just needs to be some good reason as to why the creature evolved with that ability while still being an above-ground species as opposed to a core digger or space-beast.

 

[Ugohr Poof]

[member="Rekali the Hutt"] Let's say that the first species to have colonized Keres I may have genetically engineered panokseons to detect a specific energy signal hypermatter gives off...

 

[Rekali the Hutt]

[member="Ugohr Poof"]

That would be acceptable, though if they had a strong enough 'scent' to detect it from above ground any close contact would probably overload their senses.

 

[Ugohr Poof]

[member="Rekali the Hutt"] The genetically-engineered olfactive receptor would then overload their senses in presence of hypermatter, which is another weakness of the creature.

 

[Rekali the Hutt]

[member="Ugohr Poof"]

Alrighty, let's get to the rest of the submission then.

Estimated Population: Only found on Keres I, estimated population 120,000

Why is the population so large for only occurring on one planet with rather large radiation problems?

Sharp claws capable of piercing class-5 armor

Its hide has class-9 resistance to ion weapons

Firstly, why it would the creature have sharp claws as a herbivore? Secondly, why did it evolve to defend against ion weaponry? Lastly(if you can find a reason to keep these) I'll need direct references to armor-classes removed and replaced with a descriptive example.

Vulnerable to chemical sedatives Vulnerable to mind tricks

Are they extremely easy to mind trick or have extremely poor immune systems? If you're noting a lack of immunity that's less of a weakness and more of a standard thing.

Vulnerable to digestive or pulmonary diseases (insta-kill in presence of hypermatter, a panokseon can only survive a digestive or pulmonary disease in absence of hypermatter)

Now that your creature no longer eats hypermatter this needs to be removed.

Capable of living for long periods without eating if they eat significant amounts of food in a single meal

Low endurance

These two seem contradictory. Can you elaborate or remove one or the other?

Culture: Panokseons travel in packs of roughly 10-20 individuals: visitors to Keres I are advised to land their ships away from large groups of panokseons, but they are harmless so long as you do not carry hypermatter with you. But panokseons are not territorial in the slightest. Plus they stay mostly away from sentients' settlements.

Are they violent in the presence of hypermatter? If so, why?

General behavior: Panokseons seem to roam the barren landscape of Keres I in search of hypermatter sources, often staying in one area for prolonged periods of time if a large source of food is found. Also, when members of the pack are killed, they mostly flee, but when the pack members are captured alive, other packs sense that a food or hypermatter source has been freed. Panokseon blood smell a little acidic. Even faint concentrations of hypermatter can cause sensory overload, which will startle the creatures.

If Panokseon's ability to find hypermatter is a result of genetic manipulation why do they seek it out when it provides no benefit to them directly? Is Panokseon blood acidic? If so list it, and how much in the distinctions, if not why does it smell that way. Can I get some elaboration on the life cycle of the panokseon? How do they find mates, how long do they keep mates, why do they stay in a pack, what happens if their pack is under or overpopulated, etc.

. Panokseons were at the top of the planet's food chain, or rather are one of the few links in the planet's food chain for as long as ecological records of Keres I were kept.

Diet: Herbivore

This is contradictory.

Over time panokseons developed a keen sense of smell, even being capable of detecting faint traces of hypermatter in airborne suspension using said smell

I'll need this edited out. If Hypermatter had a distinct smell some other species in canon would have found it by now, it needs to be a distinct separate organ that processes the sensing of energy. I'm perfectly fine with your hypermatter detecting creatures, but it can't detect it using a common sensory organ that other other number of species would have been able to enhance or discover on their own.

The panokseon was discovered to the greater galaxy by Ugohr Poof when some unidentified party released a panokseon onboard the ANS Bestine en route to answer a distress signal sent from Keres I, and he set out to capture live panokseons for the purposes of scientific study.

I'll need that thread linked under Development.



EDIT:

One last thing.


If this race was genetically modified to find Hypermatter, why didn't the people of Keres I pick something smaller? All of humanity's attempts to use animals to find things have been with dogs, for a number of reasons. Naturally strong senses, ease of domestication, ease of breeding, cost of feeding, space required, and (very importantly) ease of travel. A police officer can put a dog in his car and run him around town to sniff for bombs much easier than he can an elephant, which is similar in size and weight to this creatute. It seems to me anyone modifying a species for this purpose would choose a much smaller creature so they had more of them, more control of them, paid literally a tenth or less of the food costs, could put them in a cage at night instead of a large enclosure(or even your own home), etc. Ultimately you can edit this down to the size of say, a dog, or present a number of very good reasons for them to use a very large and exotic creature over the alternatives.

 

[Ugohr Poof]

I wonder who could archive this - I do not think I would have any use for the final product anymore...

[member="Rekali the Hutt"]

 

[Rekali the Hutt]

[member="Ugohr Poof"]


This submission is Archived at the Submitter's request. If you wish to work on this again later feel free to PM [member="Lorelei Darke"] or [member="Reverance"] and they'll pull it out for you.