Product Description
The Omega Octant is east of the Alpha Octant empires seen in the Star Fleet Universe (beyond the Inter-Stellar Concordium), on the other side of a galactic void. That void is a dead zone where life is impossible and ships fall apart, marking a separation between Octants. The Alunda Host is comprised of two species in a symbiotic, or perhaps parasitic, relationship: the Mirn, a “land-octopus” species from a mineral-poor star system, and the Alunda, a species of “space whales” which has been “domesticated” by the Mirn for use as living starships. The “wild” alunda (small a) are found across the Milky Way Galaxy, though only the Mirn have gone to the trouble of bio-engineering Alunda (capital A) Host ships. It so happened that the one thing the Mirn home system has in relatively large quantities are the rare minerals the wild alunda feed on. This drew these creatures there in larger numbers -- and made it easier for the Mirn to domesticate them.
In order to adapt the wild male and female alunda to serve as Host ships, the Mirn installed bio-engineered control systems to interface with the creature’s brain, selectively bred the creatures to add or enhance certain desirable traits (such as enlarging hollow areas inside them to act as living quarters, enhancing their innate defenses into various offensive weapons, and so forth), and even modified various parasitic life-forms into shuttles and Remora fighters. Alunda Host ships are armed with bioelectric bolts, plasma whips (which could later be adapted to launch plasma-like whipcrack torpedoes), plasma cloud generators, and attraction/repulsion fields.
The Tracker Frigate is based on the wild male alunda, which the Mirn first domesticated shortly after boarding their first female alunda. However, it took less time to bring the male Host ship to this modern standard than it did to evolve the female Host ship to Huntship standards. Trackers bred quickly and were seen in large numbers, often deployed in four-ship groups led by the less common Devourer Destroyers.
The ship is available in a variety of materials. Ships are unpainted, use standard flight stands available from many sources, and, while designed for gaming, make fine display pieces.