The Cyclopedia Of Worlds

Paiki Suru, with human figure shown for scale. (image by Oliver Maqsud)
Common Names:	Paiki Suru, Pikis Arau, Devil of the Deep, Deep Paiki
Distribution:	planet Dakka, worldwide
Habitat:	open ocean, sub-surface to abyssal depths
Adult Size:	length: 60 – 65 meters (mean), 136 meters (max)
Adult Weight:	150 – 190 tonnes
Reproduction:	sexual (type 3) viviparous brood: 2 – 6
Diet:	indiscriminate, large fauna typically
Feeding Strategy:	predator, scavenger
Locomotion:	swimming (carangiform), paddling
Kingdom:	Type 2 Animalia

The PAIKI SURU is a large superpredator of the ocean world Dakka.

The Type II Animalia continues to grow throughout its lifetime. Ancient adults have been tracked in Dakka’s depths approaching 120 meters long, though the typical maximum length is 60 – 65 meters with a lifespan of around 150 years. Color ranges from a smoky pink or orange to nearly white in the oldest individuals.

The Paiki Suru swims with strokes of its four massive paddles, and sweeps of its long flexible tail.

The Paiki Suru ranges worldwide and is solitary. It breeds at irregular and infrequent intervals, typically at abyssal depths in winter waters. It’s temperament is not exceptionally excitable or aggressive, but with few natural predators it tends to regard any mass it encounters as a potential food source.

It is not Dakka’s fastest animalia in terms of raw cruising speed, but the powerful, flexible paddles make it stunningly agile for an animal of its great size. To survive, prey must be able to outrace the Paiki Suru over a distance. Once within striking range, very few creatures – and the same goes for highly mobile Research Drones – will escape devouring.

Famous naturalist Rocky Strone recorded the Paiki Suru’s use of its long tail as a tool to keep prey from making an escape:

This animal had managed to corral two or three dozen Queen Antics which, as you know, are extraordinarily fast, but with that tail whipping round and round, he kept ‘em just swimming in crazy circles until he’d swallowed down every one. And then, wump, he just went down, didn’t leave so much as an antic’s caudal fins behind.

“Dakka Sword”, mandibular claw
of the Paiki suru

Early in Dakka’s history, dozens of small water craft fell prey to what was called the “Devil of the Deep”. Alloy boats were sheared to ribbons by the Paiki Suru’s massive toothy jaws assisted by its mandibular appendages tipped with massive, chisel-hard scythes.

In the Fencepost Period and early War Period, when there was a virtual free-for-all in exploitation of Dakka’s biosphere, these four meter long claws – marketed as “Dakka Swords” or “Dakka Tusks” – were harvested greedily. The mandibular claws, along with teeth, and sometimes the animal’s preserved emerald-colored eyes, were sold to buyers all over Your Agency for enormous sums.

With no safe way of removing the mandibular claws without killing the Paiki Suru, the rest of the animal was sold as cheap fodder. The resulting cheap, protein-rich powder – ingredients of the famous “Paiki soup” of old – fed a generation of War Period refugees. The name “Deep Paiki”, still sometimes heard on Dakka’s floating Lotustown facilities, was given the animal by the Blue Agency populations that came to Dakka during the War Period.

With the Water Values Act of 491 N.E., harvesting of Paiki Suru became strictly regulated – virtually to the point of being banned outright. Only three individuals have been legally harvested in the century since the passing of the Act.

The Paiki Suru population is slowly rebounding now, with an estimated population of around 400 individuals on Dakka – over half of which are under 25 years old. A carefully monitored population of 16 young individuals was introduced to Coral Agency world Vorsor Vet in 603 N,E.

Planet Dakka southern tropics from orbit, with moons Agi and Argenta visible.