I've got a treatment for a space whale plot in The Orville game that involves space pirates.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1slkMJSRpgHvmGCBsw_WwnBb1Ydo5ubv1GSlrzU0yjTQ/edit?usp=sharing
Captain Marque intercepts a Kaylon communication describing a Megacephalus sighting and rallies his crew to go on a hunt to harvest it’s meat.
Megacephalus meat is a priceless delicacy thought to have age reversing properties.
Kaylon reports multiple encounters but consistently fail to exterminate them because the Megacephalus simply “ceases to exist.” Or disappears in a poof of tachyons. (Dr. Who)
Captain Marque degradingly nicknamed the creature the “Cash Cow.”
Captain Marque is fanatical like Ahab, but the crew is ambivalent about the mission. Some are also eager to pursue the profitable venture, but many, including Reprisal, disagree.
Quartermaster Reprisal believes the Union should be abolished, as do all pirates, but she agrees with the Union’s hands off policy, and would rather protect the Megacephalus.
Many believe the Megacephalus is mythical anyway, and they don’t want to waste the ship’s time and energy chasing the Loch Ness Monster of Kaylon space.
The Precariat negotiates safe passage in Kaylon space, because pirates have been anti-slavery since the golden age of piracy on Earth. Kaylon are persuaded pirates are a fringe psychoclass of biologicals that poses no threat. (5LM: First Contact Protocol)
Note: I see this as being two things either a cutscene maybe before getting the mission order. Or possible a animation including youtube. I feel like this needs to be before the mission invite or intro.
Turns out the space whale is telepathic over extremely large distances, especially to gelatinous lifeforms like Yaffit, who feel it like a spooky resonate vibration. And it’s calling to the player.
It’s an ancient benevolent creature that’s been alone for so long it’s decided to die by orbiting a dying star (TNG:TinMan). This confuses the moral obligation to protect it.
It’s death song reaches into deep space, and players will be able to navigate to it once they realize what the signal is.
Any ship that comes close to the space whale will be caught in it’s tachyon wake, and suffer power loss as it fights off the space bacteria on it’s hull.
Exposure to the electrophoretic waves created by the Megacephalus could cause gelatinous lifeforms like Yaffit to trigger their mitosis process. (VOY:Elogium) Probably something it does to encourage the bacteria to procreate.
Any successful weapon strike, even on minimum power will be lethal to the space whale, and trigger the ending.
Whether it’s the pirates hunting the Megacephalus, or the Union hunting the pirates we all end up finding the wild Megacephalus eventually. This space whale is a bright pearl white reflective color that is blinding to look at in the sunlight.
For pirates it’s a question of whether or not to mutiny and overthrow the captain. Perhaps even turning him over to the Union in exchange for clean record.
If the player sides with Reprisal over Marque there could be a treaty with the Union where the Precariat adopts the Union’s endangered species policy in her Pirate Code.
The Union player pursues the Precariat, but learns that everything they know of pirates is propaganda. So, they’ve got to decide whether or not to arrest the pirates or let them go.
Duty says arrest them, but honor among captains says let them go. If the player lets them go they’ll have a gentlemen’s agreement with the captain of the Orville, but not the Union.
In the end, whether they’ve attacked the Magacephalus, or the star begins to go supernova and the corona of the star changes color the Magacephalus will die, and the player will receive a psychic song of it’s willingness, and even gratitude about moving on, but once the consciousness is gone the body begins to ungulate in great waves, and spin, at which point we learn that Magacephalus reproduces by macro cell division, similar to Yaffit’s species, and while the ancient white whale was preparing for it’s death, and has died, that’s because the two black whales it left behind are now infants, playing the glowing bacteria for the first time. Any attempt to communicate or foster them in any way is pointless. They both hear a distant whale song and disappear into the time stream.
Note: This sounds like it could be a mission
Purrgil
Massive creatures that live in deep space. A cross between whale, squid, and stingray.
Natural ability to fly through hyperspace if they inhale stores of Clouzon-36 gas.
Habit of wandering into hyperspace lanes, crashing into starships near their flight paths
They had four large hind tentacles, a single dorsal fin, and two side fins.
Whale-ships: Equipped with inhabitable armor, made into a base, and a fleet of ships.
Star Whale: Galeen
An ancient and benevolent species that often rescued spacecraft in distress.
Many flippers and tentacles down their stomach. Smaller, spiked tendrils on their back.
More intelligent than humans, and they could live for thousands of years
AUDIO: The Song of Megaptera
The Sixth Doctor sought to end the whaling of these creatures by the Toothons
Galeens transmitted their song as radio waves, and used solar sails.
Got nourishment from its own internal self-sustaining ecosystem.
The Sixth Doctor described a Galeen as "basically a micro-planet".
Digested time particles in dark matter so internal organs were "eternal organs"
Survivors of crashed ships could live inside them for generations
TV: The Beast Below
To lose a pursuer, a star whale could dive in time which left a trail of tachyons.
Their voices were too high-pitched for humans to hear.
They were capable of bioluminescence and had glowing patterns.
They fed on solar power from the stars they passed.
Legend: Guided early space travelers through dangers on their journeys.
PROSE: Pack Animals
Degradingly nicknamed Cash Cow
Kept as a re-growing source of meat.
AUDIO: The Widow's Assassin
The royal hall on planet Hurn was constructed from the skeleton of a star whale.
Psychically sensed the terror of children and could not bear to hear them cry.
They built a ship on its back and carve open its brain to torture it into moving.
This features a whale in space... although only briefly.
Chitauri ships in are huge weaponized cyborg Space Whales.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 05:00:00 PM by Guest »
