At Star's End

It's hot, bloody hot. The scientists figured another six thousand years before the energy output from the Gamma Vit' would force us to evacuate. Guess they were wrong, most of the cities are empty, the stations abandoned. Everyone who can run already has, and the government ships are evac-ing those who couldn't. In about a year or so Gamma Vit's gonna make one hell of a bang, but by then, this colony will be gone, the planet likely burned to a cinder as well.

Plot Description
Gamma Vitalis has entered the last stage of it's existance as a star. Hydrogen in the core has long since been depleted and the star itself has become bloated and swollen as it enters it's death throws. Sullen and angry red, the star has destroyed the planets that once orbited it, but further out forces unexpected begin to gather to observe the last moments of the star's life as the reactions in the core reach critical proportions and blow the star apart in a supernova.

750 meters long, a crew of hundreds, the Penetrator slipped into the Gamma Vitalis system with barely a blip on the scanners. She was not the first ship in the system, and certainly not the last. Already others have gathered, expectant and patiently waiting. Dozens more would come...

The Star Vampires
A strange migration has begun, with the long and sleek starships of the Star Vampires appearing in the vicinity of the Vitalis star system. The finned and flanged starships seem to bask in the terminal radiation of the star like sharks circling a wounded whale. For the most part the Star Vampires and Humanity have coexisted in peace, even spawning a hybrid race, the Space Vixens. The ships remain silent, slipping away from the ponderous and slow Earthling cruisers, escorts to the science vessels present to observe the supernova. The mood is tense as the normally loquatious Star Vampires avoid contact and continue to gather more and more ships, and unlike the human science vessels, the Vampires are arriving in their warships and their ships of the line.

1. The Seven Year Itch - The Star Vampires have come to the site of the dying star as it is a cosmic signal for them to reproduce. The humanoid aliens are basking in the radiation of the star, which is driving them into an orgiastic frenzy as well as accelerating their gestation. Before the star explodes, there will be hundreds if not thousands of births among the slow breeding Star Vampires. Ships that get to close might be attacked and their crews kidnapped for Space Vixen breeding stock, or simply destroyed for interfering.

2. The Dying Herald - With hundreds of Star Vampire ships gathered together, the death of Gamma Vitalis will be the starting pistol for a Star Vampire war. Already their ships have become increasingly aggressive, becoming indifferent to allies and openly hostile to enemies. Once the star explodes, the sleek warships will ride the hyperspace shockwave outwards to rampage across a large portion of local space. Most large human worlds and colonies will be avoided as the Star Vampires will not openly hunt their allies, but all other races are fair game.

3. An Alien Hunger - True Star Vampires, unlike Space Vixens, are able to draw sustenance from solar radiation. The outpouring from the bloated and dying star is an all you can eat buffet for the ancient elders of the nigh immortal race. Once filled with this power, the Star Vampires will become more dominant among the local races, aggressive and more industrious for several centuries until they begin to become more conservative and laconic.

4. The Terrible Child - The death of Gamma Vitalis is fortold in blood sutras of the Star Vampires, and those religious texts call the star the sleeping egg of a Star Vampire god. Much like a fringe cult, radical elements of the race gather to observe and pledge themselves to newly born Lovecraftian horror that will hatch from the corpse of the dead star. And like most fringe cults they are going to be very upset when the star explodes and no horrors from beyond reality unfurl. The observers will turn to their bestial aspect in despair as by their own eyes their prophecy is false, thereby nulling and voiding their entire ethos. The Star Vampires present become a large and dangerous, if disorganized, fleet of space pirates.