Kameyama

The Kameyama or Turtle Mountain is a species of giant space turtles.

Biology
Kameyama are large organisms that swim in the void between planets the way sea turtles swim the oceans of Earth. The size of these creatures is staggering and a sight not to be forgotten. The lumber lazily through the spaceways seemingly oblivious to their environment as nothing cannot pose a threat to these behemoths. For all their time spent in the void, they are still living beings dependent on air to breathe.

Behavior
Just as their earthy cousins would emerge from the ocean depths so their beaks could touch the sunlight and draw a breath of air, so too the kameyama must occasionally descend upon an oxygen-rich planet.

The coming of a kameyama is regarded with dread in some cultures and as a religious event in others who regard these creatures as messengers of the gods. Many believe that the beasts' mouths are the portal to the mansion of the gods and to be devoured by one of these is akin to being "raptured" to heaven. On the rare occasions Kameyama descend upon a world, once their appetite is sated, whole forests are left ravaged and lakes left dry.

Fortunately, the kameyama are solitary creatures, few in number. However, every 500 hundred years or so, a spawning instinct is triggered where hundreds of these space turtles have left entire worlds all but devastated in their frenzy. Eggs are usually laid and covered in the warm sands of some newly emerging world still in the throes of volcanism. The only time in its life that the kameyama is susceptible to predators is when it first emerges from the sand, but within a few weeks, the predators often becomes the prey to the appetites of the voracious kameyama as it, like all newborn, gains weight as quickly as it can.

How it actually manages flight, no one really knows. Some believe it may be the result of unknown gases it manufactures within its shell or maybe due to some as yet unguessed mental process.

How long their lifespan is, no one actually knows but it must be measured not with years but with generations. When a kameyama carcass is found, various spacefaring clans find it a good fortune. The body is excavated, the shell sanitized and then towed to a space dock. A new "head", "navigational flippers" and "tail" are constructed; decks are built; equipment is installed; thrusters added; and weapons mounted.

After years, a dreadnaught of the spaceways emerges, a flying fortress that can be likened to a castle in the sky.

Appearances

 * Space Usagi Volume 1 (1992) Issue 001
 * Space Usagi Volume 2 (1996) Issue 001