Personal Thoughts on Spaceflies

[Jesse Bennett]

Okay, while I know that this means I might have spent way too much time pondering the subject, I have to know; why exactly are spaceflies endangered?

Ecologically speaking, they shouldn't be. As far as I've seen, they have no natural preditor (i.e. an animal that occupies the same natural enviroment and hunts the spaceflies for food.), only those that have moved into their wilderness. While it's true that the Split use them for energy, it had to take millions of years for the Split to discover space travel, and begin harvesting the little buggers. And, as an insectiod creature, they would, logically, have a high birth rate, and equally high mortality rate. Plus, space is a very big place.

By the time the Split left the planet there should be an incredibely large amount of spaceflies, spread across an even larger area of space. Plus, with no natural preditor, they should have grown and spread unhindered, right?

It makes very little sense to me, but I could be over thinking the whole topic.

Oh, and another question; what's their natural food source? I know that station-side they are fed nostrop oil, from the Teladi, but nostrop doesn't appear in space naturally, so what do they eat in their natural enviroment? Where's the ecological balance in this equation???

I'm prolly just over thinking the whole deal, but that's just how my mind works. Any thoughts from anybody, aside the fact that I'm a loon?

[Rapier]

I was with you up until 'prolly'. Now I'm just going to go away, shaking my head slowly.

[Jesse Bennett]

I personally like using "prolly" instead of "probably." Takes less time to type. Doesn't go over very well with English instructors, but neither does correcting their grammer.

[spds31apocalypse]

i had a english teacher, that would call us "yall" & then get pissed at herself...

Im from the south east United States.... & here it is a word

[Admiral_Denzark]

Well i dont think your a 'loon', well not completely

Im glad someone is talking about spaceflies, such wonderful beautiful little creatures and i will be having words with anyone who says otherwise...

Personally i will kill any Split (or anyone else for that matter) for just thinking about torturing or using these musically amazing little things for anything else than observance in their natural habitat...

Im thinking about forming the SDL (Spacefly Defence League) for protection of these wonderful gentle little creatures, and anyone says otherwise will feel the tip of my sword via my M6 Nemesis...

Up the spacefly, I Luv em...

Admiral D. A real jumpgater and spatially challenged...

[Nanook]

Little spaceflies??? You do know they're big enough to take out an unshielded Disco in a collision, don't you? Next time you're near a flock, use your external camera. To me, they're just navigation hazards, that make a lovely POP when I PSG them.

[Admiral_Denzark]

Ah but my friend i would never be seen in an unshielded disco, well at least not anymore lol

AND

also i use the term 'little' in this context and by definition to mean innocent...

Ah the spacefly...such innocence, unfettered by distance, or our small realities, unhampered by our wars or arguments or bloodshed, and only meaning a difference when they splat into our shields...

I shall gently clean you from my ship little spacefly and give you a proper burial in my specialist spacefly burial garden on one of my solar power plants

I had to kick out 16 workers to rebuild this area into a spacefly graveyard...lol

Admiral D.

[Etolf]

I take it that it's a Split one where the dead spaceflys go into a chute to produce more power!

Guess they do have their uses, especially if you have a collector fitted!

[Nanook]

I take it that it's a Split one where the dead spaceflys go into a chute to produce more power!

Guess they do have their uses, especially if you have a collector fitted!

Dead spaceflies are useless for power generation. It needs stunned, but live ones. Dead spaceflies are sold to the Teladi for fertilizer in their Flower Farms, which is used to make Nostrop Oil, which in turn is sold to the Split to feed their captive spaceflies. Sort of like the chicken industry using chicken parts to make chicken feed.

[Kissakias]

think that the flies live on humans garbages their lives are fast and they born like hell


the stations in space they have ppl inside and theirs garbages goes to space there you will find spaceflies

My english are more bad if i continue this so hope to understand what i'm talking about

[Hawk_strike]

Did you know, that some Species of Ant and bee have workers that lay Eggs specifically so that the eggs might be eaten? one can assume they just need to find a dead body floating in space, or a particularly Bacteria ridden asteroid to survive.

OR maybe there like LEafcutter ants and grow their own food ?

but heres the more pressing issue of the Spacefly...... Why does it need wings in space?

[NeckCuttah]

Hrmmm, I'm going to put my money on the "loon" option.

[Dougie]

And how does it move? In order to accelerate it has to transfer momentum to another mass (i.e. Like a rocket transfers momentum to the fuel it shoots out). Yet space flies seem to lack any fuel emissions

[Overkill211]

Anybody been real close to the "Unknown Object" UFO? Tailed one last week in the Disco (just for kicks). The ship's engines sound like a flock of spaceflies.

[pjknibbs]

While it's true that the Split use them for energy, it had to take millions of years for the Split to discover space travel, and begin harvesting the little buggers.

There were tens of millions of bison on the American plains when white settlers first went there. Within a couple of decades they had been virtually wiped out. Just because a species has been around for a long time doesn't make them extinction-proof.

Also, living in space is fundamentally a low-energy way of living--something the size of a spacefly couldn't absorb much energy from their surroundings, and finding anything to eat would be tricky, so one has to assume they have very low metabolisms and breeding rates.

One other thing: how do you know they're insects? Any traditional insect would die in a second in space, so whatever spaceflies are, they're not normal insects, even though they look like them.

[Biggy]

Personally i will kill any Split (or anyone else for that matter) for [...] torturing [..] these [...] little things for anything else than observance in their natural habitat...

So you don't mind torturing them for observance in their natural habitat? How nice
(I love using quotes out of context )

I have the feeling that the space-flies depend on space-faring races to exist, so they may not have been around for longer than the bigger races. They might have become an endangered species because their food supply (waste from space-ships) is disappearing with newer ships being more economical and producing less waste.

Just a thought for the 'loon' department.

[DeltaWolf]

And, as an insectiod creature, they would, logically, have a high birth rate, and equally high mortality rate. Plus, space is a very big place.

Insects breed in 2 ways - some lay lots of eggs and hope that some would survive, some lay very few eggs and takes extra measures to ensure survival eg some wasp spiecies. Space flies may be of the second type.

As far as I've seen, they have no natural preditor

Because of that they had no need for a high birth rate, and had not evolve to have any form of defence.

what's their natural food source?

Space flies are found in Nebulae - which consist of mostly Hydrogen gas and some other gases - they feed on this.

[Jesse Bennett]

Great, I'm getting answers to my questions. Thanks everybody. As to why I think their insects, they have very similar properties to them, so it was just an assumption that came easily. Though it's often bad to take the easiest assumption, it saves thought time.

[Midge]

but heres the more pressing issue of the Spacefly...... Why does it need wings in space?

And how does it move? In order to accelerate it has to transfer momentum to another mass (i.e. Like a rocket transfers momentum to the fuel it shoots out). Yet space flies seem to lack any fuel emissions

The "veins" in a spacefly's wings are lined with iridium forming a kind of wire. When flapped in magnetic fields, space is permeated with magnetic fields, an electric current is generated which is conducted to a coil in the abdomen. The coil generates a more compact stronger magnetic field that interacts, attract or repel, with the existing fields to move the spacefly.

I collect spaceflies accidentally stunned during battles. I have a dolphin docked in my condor specially rebuilt as a spacefly habitat. There, they are safe and feed on the finest quality nostrop oil and a bit of plankton and chelt now and then. 9 spaceflies currently live in my spacefly conservatory.

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

Spaceflies are baby khaak .... i say KILL EM ALL!!! MUHAHAHAHA