It took about five minutes from the time the computer was invented for a programmer to write a space-combat game. The new opponent is called the Beast, and it has no ships of its own. Instead, it captures and takes over the ships of other races. Thus, the ships of the opponents from the first game make a return appearance, but they now have new abilities and are controlled by a malevolent new intelligence. The power and danger of Beast fleets is demonstrated by the fact that the majority of players in network and Internet play are running them.
Ships deploy and fight on different levels and at different angles.
All the ships have various capabilities. Leeches are spy craft that can either broadcast an enemy ship's position or quietly destroy it by slowly stripping it of its resources. Mimics use holographic technology to appear to be different ships entirely. Mimics can also dock with one another and use their combined generators to appear to be a larger ship. In an interesting twist, the Beast can't develop its own technologies.