Species 24285 Lerthol Gunship

A species of purposed organism of the Vleno System. This species originated on Lerthol, a very hot lava planet.

The creature has a single large rotor blade keeping them in the air, along with a number of small thrusters to achieve high speed and to perform various maneuver such as strafing very fast. Armed with 4 large chainguns which can each fire in different directions (but not at an elevation higher than about 20 degrees each), it was designed to counter large quantities of infantry. However it must eat a large amount of food to gain enough energy to sustain this. With the 'eternalisation' of war, they slowly turned against their Harkas creators for a food source, as well as the rest of the military. From that point, the harkas have become terrified of organisms like this as they could use their thermal imaging to find other organisms very easily, possibly allowing it to find groups of harkas before they themselves could be found. However, the significant sound it creates to fly can act as an obvious warning to anyone in the area. Although the ground and air itself are both quite hot and emit heat signatures, those given off by organisms native to Lethol is slightly higher. The thermal imaging needs to be well tuned in order to work, and the creature constantly tunes it. Even still, it is far less effective on this planet than the other 2 planets of the Vleno system.

Flight can use a lot of energy especially for a creature of this scale and mass. As such, they have a very fast digestive system and can eat almost any creature that can fit in its mouth. Most harkas would fit, along with a number of purposed organisms. They require fewer mechanical parts for self repairs, and most of the metal they ingest will go towards growing ammunition that it will use to kill any food source it can find. This species has to eat about half of its body mass daily but processes food efficiently. Urine and feces are removed from the body through the same orfice near the rear.

The craft itself grows ammunition, which is actually a symbiotic organism mostly comprised of metal. This way, after death when it is fired, it will be revived by the archaeotech artifact back in the ammuntion storage gland of the helicopter. New bullets often have to be grown as well, mostly because it can take time to revive its bullets. The creature also has a shield generator, but it can be overwhelmed with sufficiently large weapons (usually some form of anti air purposed organism). Its armour is sufficient to deflect small arms fire, but even the rotor can be damaged by small arms weapons.

Due to the very energy intensive nature of flight, blood would need to be pumped at a very fast rate. As such, they have a specailised heart which makes use of a mechanical pump to make blood flow constantly rather than in pulses. Also, the creature has a large amount of blood within its large veins, which supplies a significant amount of energy to its rotor engine. The brain is located in a protected location behind the rotor despite the creature having several eyes in many locations around the body. Many sufficiently large purposed organisms in this star system are sentient, and so is this creature. In order to supplement the biological brain, it also has a mechanical part which performs calculations and makes firing solutions far more accurate. It can detect radar waves as well, but cannot hear because of the very loud noise it already constantly makes during flight. It constantly scans the areas nearby for both predators and food while in flight.

The several enterances to its respiratory tracts are located at the top, designed to intake air thrown down by the rotating blades while in air. The body does not have to provide much additional pressure as it is forced through the tract in this way. For this reason, it is a 1 way respiratory tract, but it can present a small weak point near the bottom of the craft where air exits at high velocity. While landed, the creature requires less air but forces air through with peristatic compression.

It can slowly walk while landed.