Nephrops Lifecycle Fleet

> Each ship, somehow bigger and and more elaborate than the last. I heard their Spike Drives are something special too...
>
> -Otto Geistman

### Ruling Body

None (see text)

The Nephrops have been plying the spaces between the stars for millennia. Their knack for engineering has now become central to their culture and life-cycle, and few choose to live on terrestrial bodies. Most are born during regular cycles of spawning and habitat construction. Each new Nephrops generation brings with it further generation ships.

## The Lifecycle

For 10 millennia, the Nephrops have continuously plied the stars in an extension of their own biological life-cycle. Each ship in the Lifecycle Fleet cruises lazily throughout the galaxy, ponderously pursuing its own path and goal. Yet, a Nephrops' time aboard a Lifecycle ship is only one part of their three-phase cycle.

### Born With the Low Tide

A Nephrops life begins at their traditional spawning location: a black hole known as Low Tide, located 4 lightyears from their home system. For reasons lost to antiquity, the Nephrops gather vast amounts of raw materials and construct orbital shipyards from their journeys throughout the galaxy to this location. Once a Lifecycle ship reaches a critical mass of materials and mature crew, it returns to this location. Crew and information is exchanged, new Nephrops are born, and most importantly, new ships are built from from scrapped vessels or gathered materials.

Nephrops eggs are gestated and raised by their corresponding crews until they are approximately 15 years old. After this, they can opt to join a new crew once the ship returns to Low Tide, or remain with the one they were born on. Each individual takes the "personal" name of their birth-ship as their surname. Curiously, Lifecycle ships themselves also do this, with those constructed at Low Tide eventually giving way to their own "family" of vessels.

### Out to the Ocean

Following their return to Low Tide (and sometimes the home system itself), Lifecycle ships will embark once more into the stars. Nephrops aboard generally join in their ship's vocation, a special task that they will embark upon until next return. Gathering material for further Low Tide construction is typically a secondary goal, with esoteric tasks like "locate every black hole in this sector" or "catalogue additional sapient life forms" forming their main goal while among the stars.

This second lifecycle phase is typically the longest for most Nephrops, with many living and working aboard vessels in the fleet for three centuries or more.

### Back With the High Tide

By tradition, Nephrops return to their home system before visiting Low Tide, and remain when they feel they can no longer remain among the Lifecycle Fleet. The Decapode System, their home, is sacred ground to the Nephrops since time immemorial. As such, nearly all Lifecycle crews have requested that it remain off limits to non-Fleet sapients.

Most Human authorities respect this, and as such, close-range scans are nearly impossible. Sapients who respect the Fleet's traditions are generally unwilling to share much about it out of reverence. Information regarding its contents must come from a scant few individuals and indirect observation.

## Structure

The Fleet has no central authority and recognizes no government beyond those formed within individual ships. Some ships will occasionally collaborate or band together toward some greater goal, but with the exception of the Lifecycle Fleet itself, these collaborations are generally short lived.

Though structured cooperation is uncommon, conflicts between Nephrops are nearly unheard of. Crews aboard Lifecycle ships are simply more interested in their individual journey through the stars than with the activities of other vessels.

Lifecycle ships are themselves built in the ancient tradition of Nephrops generation ships. Each are designed to be self-sufficient, able to venture through the stars nearly indefinitely. These vary greatly in size and population, and can be anywhere from 0.5km to 30km in length, bearing between 1,000 and 5,000,000 members. Vessels on the smaller end of the spectrum are much more common.