Exogorth, Adult

The exogorth, colloquially known as the space slug, is a gigantic species of toothed gastropod. Biology. They are silicon-based lifeforms that survive in the vacuum of space by making their homes in the caverns and craters of asteroids. The average adult space slug grows to about 10 meters in length. Space slugs reproduce asexually by fission. Once an adult slug reaches a about 10 meters in length, a chemical trigger causes it to split apart into two identical but smaller slugs. Occasionally, this mechanism is overridden, and the slug grows to monstrous sizes that rival capital ships in sheer bulk, with some weighing over a million kilograms.

Travel. A space slug travels through the asteroid fields they inhabit by pushing off the surface of one asteroid and floating through space to land on another. They also use stellar winds to help propel themselves through space. Through highly evolved sense of spatial awareness, they are capable of calculating the trajectory and distance of perilous moving bodies around them. This sense of spatial acuity also aids them in hunting food. Feeding. They feed on the minerals of asteroids, various stellar energy fields, mynocks (another silicon-based lifeform), ships, and other unfortunate creatures that unknowingly pass into its mouth. They are able to anchor themselves into a cave in an asteroid with tendrils, which also draws nutrition directly from the asteroid itself. Although their primary diet, similar to Mynocks, is passive radiation, they tend to chomp on rocks and metal as well. On occasion, a naturally occurring chemical trigger causes the space slug to kill whatever is near them. Colossal slugs are known to take sizable bites out of capital ships that pass too close to the slug's current dwelling, and even swallow smaller vessels whole. At these sizes, the mynocks they eat will often become internal parasites, rather than nourishment, living inside the cave-like esophagus of the slugs that ate them. Some slugs have entire ecosystems of other life living within their digestive tracts.

Variations. Giant space slugs are larger than average ones. It remains unclear if they were a separate species from the common space slug, or just individuals larger than normally reported. Crimson slugs are native to the asteroids of Tapani sector and distinguished by a red stripe down either side of the body. Cularin space slugs are found in the Cularin system and are comparatively easy to train. Some theorize that they are descended from a domesticated form of space slug. Other theories hold that these exogorths are descended from natives to the world which formed the Cularin system asteroid belt (Oblis) before its destruction, and that these creatures survived and adapted to the void of space. They may have been related to—or the same creature as—the space worms which hollowed out the moon Eskaron.