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Description
Swarms of Baracule are often nicknamed "death darts". With a nickname like this, it should be obvious how local residents view the species.

Baracule are seafaring predators with voracious appetites and an uncanny habit of swarming larger creatures. A Baracule's main body is a small, cylindrical object with some resemblance to a sausage, and houses a compact collection of organs, the largest of which is made to continuously intake and shoot out water, propelling the entity (and its massive jaws) like a squid. With their streamlined jaws closed, they can achieve very high speeds, and spasm violently to make sharp turns. A Baracule is a small creature with a smaller stomach, and can't be active for long without food. But the species finds ways around this. Many ways.

Baracules have a lifestyle very similar to locusts. The species collectively hibernates for an intermittent number of years, burrowing deep down and slowing their life processes to near zero, but when the time arrives they "reactivate" in unison, popping out and zooming collectively in search of fresh food. An indivitual entity's brain is little more than a cluster of neurons that periodically send and recieve communicative pulses from others, making Baracules unquestioningly synchronized, even hiveminded in nature (but also means that lone Baracules are practically nonfunctional, not that they will ever willingly disperse), giving them the uncanny ability to focus on a single entity at once, and hunt it ruthlessly.

Individual Baracules dart towards their prey with jaws extended, then snap them shut in instinctive reaction to impact. If successful, the Baracule uses a sharp but delicate proboscis to inject a numbing agent produced by two very small side organs, which, in conjunction with the swarm, makes prey so numb and unresponsive that vital body functions shut down. Baracules will then instinctively sense the death of their prey and begin ripping chunks from it at their leisure... then move on to the next prey of choice.

Extremely large swarms of Baracule have been known to wreak havoc on local animal populations, but the ecosystem always bounces back... because Baracules allow it to. Yes, they will gorge, and they will ravage, but some will starve during the hunt, or find that their simple bodies have failed to fully reactivate, and be easy food for others (Baracules completely ignore dead members). Their hibernation is also a godsend for both them and the environment: it allows the Baracules to live longer, the ecosystem to recover, and ensures that the species does not eat itself to death. Some think the hibernation was a lucky genetic stroke, others believe it was artificially introduced, and still others believe Baracule swarms are smarter than previously thought, and have selectively evolved their dominant strategy through multiple generations.

Description
Swarms of Baracule are often nicknamed "death darts". With a nickname like this, it should be obvious how local residents view the species.

Baracule are seafaring predators with voracious appetites and an uncanny habit of swarming larger creatures. A Baracule's main body is a small, cylindrical object with some resemblance to a sausage, and houses a compact collection of organs, the largest of which is made to continuously intake and shoot out water, propelling the entity (and its massive jaws) like a squid. With their streamlined jaws closed, they can achieve very high speeds, and spasm violently to make sharp turns. A Baracule is a small creature with a smaller stomach, and can't be active for long without food. But the species finds ways around this. Many ways.

Baracules have a lifestyle very similar to locusts. The species collectively hibernates for an intermittent number of years, burrowing deep down and slowing their life processes to near zero, but when the time arrives they "reactivate" in unison, popping out and zooming collectively in search of fresh food. An indivitual entity's brain is little more than a cluster of neurons that periodically send and recieve communicative pulses from others, making Baracules unquestioningly synchronized, even hiveminded in nature (but also means that lone Baracules are practically nonfunctional, not that they will ever willingly disperse), giving them the uncanny ability to focus on a single entity at once, and hunt it ruthlessly.

Individual Baracules dart towards their prey with jaws extended, then snap them shut in instinctive reaction to impact. If successful, the Baracule uses a sharp but delicate proboscis to inject a numbing agent produced by two very small side organs, which, in conjunction with the swarm, makes prey so numb and unresponsive that vital body functions shut down. Baracules will then instinctively sense the death of their prey and begin ripping chunks from it at their leisure... then move on to the next prey of choice.

Extremely large swarms of Baracule have been known to wreak havoc on local animal populations, but the ecosystem always bounces back... because Baracules allow it to. Yes, they will gorge, and they will ravage, but some will starve during the hunt, or find that their simple bodies have failed to fully reactivate, and be easy food for others (Baracules completely ignore dead members). Their hibernation is also a godsend for both them and the environment: it allows the Baracules to live longer, the ecosystem to recover, and ensures that the species does not eat itself to death. Some think the hibernation was a lucky genetic stroke, others believe it was artificially introduced, and still others believe Baracule swarms are smarter than previously thought, and have selectively evolved their dominant strategy through multiple generations.