Mothership (Devourer)

The Beast Mothership is the command ship used by the Beast.

Overview
The Beast Mothership was originally the lower section of the Kuun-Lan mining vessel, consiting of a hangar module, a research module, an ore drop-off and processing module, and an engine module. It was subverted by the Beast contained in the Beacon Pod and served as the Command-self of the Beast fleet. Its excellent armor, significant intelligence, and ability to spread the Beast to other vessels, temporarily made this ship one of the most dangerous vessels in the galaxy.

Creation/Birth
The Beast's rebirth began when an unidentified Beacon Pod was found and brought aboard by the Kuun-Lan. Realizing the value of this undiscovered alien artifact, the Somtaw Kiith-Sa ordered Kuun-Lan to study the artifact on-ship, and meet up with the Clee-San to transfer their more experienced science team to that module.

When the science team was studying the artifact in the Tel Sector, an unknown entity inside the beacon awoke and began to spread throughout the ship. This infection caused unusal readings in the power systems, which were detected by the ship's bridge crew. Upon contacting the science team, the sounds of screams could be heard, and the team leader begged command to "Cut [them] loose!" This warning gave the command crew time to decouple the lower half, and saved the rest of the ship from subversion.

As the lower half of the Kuun-Lan drifted away, the bridge crew could do nothing but listen to the screams of the science team as the entity infected and consumed them.

Known Journey
The subverted section's first victim was the Clee-San, a Somtaaw research vessel which was sent to investigate what had happened inside the lower decks by downloading the data recorders and performing close-range scans. However the ship was hit by an Infection beam fired by the subverted section, which hit the Clee-San, and arced over to its escorts as well. This gave the Beast an understanding of the Somtaaw ships, and it soon began to produce its own fighters. The Beast next subverted a Turanic Attack Group consisting of a Taiidan Heavy Cruiser with Ion Array Frigate and Missile Corvette escorts, signalling the beginning of the Beast's rise to power. Lacking the strength to face such a powerful array of vessels head on, the Kuun-Lan was forced to retreat.

After this, it appears that the Mothership continued to spread the Beast infection, resulting in the subverted ships encountered subsequently by the Somtaaw mining fleet''. The Kuun-Lan'' did not encounter the Beast Mothership again until Koreth's Rift.

​"Martyrs of Kharak! Look at what that thing has done to our old lower deck section! It's grown an entire mothership around it. What is this thing?!" — Kuun-Lan​

By this time, the Beast Mothership had morphed into its pre-final form, and only faintly resembled its original shape. It also sent a demand to the Kuun-Lan.

​"Kuun-Lan parts! We want beacon brain. Give us data, or we take data with your parts." — The Beast​

The subverted Caal-Shto provided additional support during this encounter.

The third encounter the Kuun-Lan had with this ship was in the Galactic Rim. With the help of the Imperials revealing the location of the Naggarok to the Beast Mothership, the ship hyperspaced in to support the Naggarok 's repairs and hold off the Somtaaw fleet until they were complete. The Mothership hyperspaced out once the repairs were complete.

The fourth encounter with this ship was in the Sojent-Ra system. The ship hyperspaced in the sector in response to a distress call from the Clee-San. Unfortuately for the Beast Mothership it was a trap laid by the Kuun-Lan. Though it was a tough fight, the Mothership, and the fleet with it, couldn't withstand the attacks from the newly operational siege cannon the Kuun-Lan completed, and so it was destroyed by it.

Many years later, it reformed after the Coor-Lan, another Somtaaw Command Ship, encountered the wreckage of the ship. With a final effort to survive, it fired one last Infection Beam and successfully completely subverted the Coor-Lan. Over time, it used the Coor-Lan to reform into a secondary pre-final stage and eventually, into its final stage.

The Coor-Lan, the soon set a trap for the Kuun-Lan. The Kuun-Lan barely survived and soon came into contact with a surviving escort of the Coor-Lan, the Caas-Riva. The two hid in a debris field with Progentitor wreckage. The Coor-Lan followed them and soon came under fire from Progenitor drones that the Somtaaw accidentally activated. The Beast subverted a Progenitor Keeper but wasn't fast enough to subvert the attack drones. The Beast retreated.

The Beast then encountered the Galactonian Armada and tried to subvert them. The attempt failed as when the beam came into contact with the Galactonian ships, it had no effect (The Galactonian ships use armor that is not a compatible surface that beast cells can survive on. It has an acid effect to the cells.)

The Galactonians nearly exterminated the entire beast fleet. The Beast would have perished but for the first time, the Beast cried out for mercy. The Galactonians spared the Beast.

Growth Stages
The Stages of the Beast are shown here

Growth 1 Growth 2
 * 1) The Beacon Pod unleashes itself in the lower decks of the Kuun-Lan. (STAGE 1)
 * 2) The lower decks infect the Turanic Attack Group.
 * 3) The infected lower decks absorb all of the RU's inside of the lower ore canister that was still attached to the lower decks.
 * 4) The lower ore canister's hull is consumed.
 * 5) The hyperspace drives from the taiidan cruiser used in the Turanic Attack Group are added to the lower decks. The lower decks are now able to use their drives (STAGE 2)
 * 6) The Mothership continues to infect more ships.
 * 7) The Beast Mothership enters Pre-Final stage when enough ships are infected.
 * 8) The Beast Mothership grows its Infection Beam Prongs.
 * 9) Beast Mothership is destroyed (Growth 2 begins soon after)
 * 1) The old Beast Mothership is too damaged to function
 * 2) The Coor-Lan and it's escorts are subverted.
 * 3) The parts of the old beast mothership are salvaged.
 * 4) The subverted Coor-Lan starts to add the old beast mothership's debris and salvage to itself.
 * 5) Beast Mothership has reached Final Form.

Technology
The Beast Mothership was built using captured technologies from subverted ships. Itself based on the lower decks of the Kuun-Lan minning vessel, the Beast dramatically altered the original design, adding, among other things, improved engines and construction capabilities.

Weapons
Early on, 6 large Mass Drivers provided excellent coverage against enemy strike-craft, with the best coverage to the sides and below the ship. However, after this early stage and through most of its existence the ship was armed with Energy Cannons, giving it the ability to defend against frigates. The only areas not well-covered by these energy cannons were the forward arc, and angles sightly above the ship. Even so, they provided coverage over 80% of all approaches, making it a difficult opponent. It later got three large ion cannons when it fused with one of its carriers.​

The primary weapon of the Beast Mothership was its infection beam. It had a range of 10 kilometers and could fire every 90 seconds, subverting whole squadrons of strike craft or up to two frigates with each shot. This beam could fire from any of 6 points all around the ship, and was capable of completely subverting enemy units in a matter of seconds. This version of the weapon was sightly more powerful then its down-scaled equivalents on Beast Heavy Cruisers and Carriers, which required more time to recharge and could fire to a range of only 2 kilometers.

Armor
The Beast Mothership possessed unique organic armor, reddish black in color, which was reinforced by depleted uranium and superconducting fibres. This allowed the Mothership to survive direct exposure to the plasma from an exploding fusion sphere fired from the Siege Cannon. What is more, the organic component of this armor allowed it to regrow in seconds after being hit. Such combined armor was the best ever seen by Somtaaw, effective against a wide array of weapons, including Ion beams, plasma weapons and kinetic guns.

Self-Acceleration
Only really seen in Multiplayer games, the Beast Mothership has the ability to focus extra energy into certain subsystems of itself to significantly accelerate their functions, at a cost of gradually degrading its own hull. It can enhance ship construction speeds, it's movement speed, its turret firing rate, the recharge time on its infection beam and its Research speed. The last one is important; the Somtaaw Kuun-Lan can research several technologies simultaneously, one for each of its primary modules, but the Beast Mothership can only research one technology at a time. For it to keep up it will have to use the Research acceleration quite regularly. Having roughly 3 Workers repairing it will counteract the hull degradation of accelerating one system, allowing it to be accelerated indefinitely.