Chomurk

Sometimes called “sunchasers,” chomurks are known for their unique, dangerous life cycle. When a chomurk first lands on an asteroid, space station, or similarly small astronomical body, it immediately begins devouring anything it can find, preferring organic matter but eating metals or stone if necessary. If provided with sufficient material, it can reproduce asexually in a matter of hours, giving birth to a clone that grows to adult size in a day. The hive continues to mindlessly eat and reproduce, at which point some individuals begin melding their bodies together to create a “thruster-mound.” Guarded by nonmerged chomurks, the thruster-mound begins pushing the celestial object into a decaying orbit toward the nearest sun at exceptional speeds. As they approach the star, the nonmerged chomurks absorb solar radiation that both empowers and mutates them, creating genetic diversity. At the last minute, those chomurks launch themselves off their temporary home, scattering back out into space, where they hibernate until running across a new object and beginning the process again. Those chomurks incorporated into the thruster-mound are willingly sacrificed in the fires of the sun—along with any remaining residents of the hijacked celestial body.
Chomurks resemble 8-foot-long, 2,000-pound isopods, with colorful articulated shells and two sets of mandibles arranged in a cross shape. A ridge running down their back ends at a cylindrical protrusion with a rear-facing orifice—this is their biothruster, capable of releasing astonishingly powerful blasts of focused flame and force. With little intelligence, chomurks instinctively organize toward a collective goal, willingly sacrificing themselves for the good of the hive.