Soviet Starting Forces

[welchbloke]

What, like filter feeding in a Nebula?  Where ships are too slow to get away? . They would breed over time so killing them all would be short-term good but long term bad - Save the Space Whales!

Still just a vague idea at the moment though
Edited to add: Instead of Asteroids how about Comets?  Most stellar formation theories indicate that comets have water, carbon and other organic materials.

[UnLimiTeD]

They could just create wealth, I mean, thats sort of what current whales do, right?

[Father Tim]

I was thinking of some type of large but non-hostile (unless provoked) space-dwelling creatures that would have a (as yet undetermined) valuable resource. I was considering using asteroids as their food source but a nebula is a good idea (or swarms of space-going krill :)). They would breed over time so killing them all would be short-term good but long term bad - Save the Space Whales!

Still just a vague idea at the moment though :)

Steve

I was thinking of the creature in the latest season of Doctor Who, but I like your thoughts.  I would like to request that NPRs have an opinion (preferably varying from empire to empire) on starwhale harvesting.  I can imagine an otherwise-friendly NPR that pursues unrestricted starwhaling, while I'm carefully 'managing' their numbers to balance current & future profit.  Especially if we're both 'fishing' the same nebula!  To quote one of my favourite lines from the movie The Hunt for Red October, "WARS have begun that way, Mr. Ambassador!"