I wouldnt trust my life on these things though, what if part of their life cycle is to drop down to a depth that dangerous for people? Yeah, im happy to stay in my nice and cozy hab in orbit. Not to mention its a gas planet. Storms of methane and acid just... happen, i dont want rains of sulfur acid
It's kind of a novel idea, apparently the corals self regulate based on altitude and pressure. Add more weight to a reef and they either grow, or overproduce hydrogen. Remove weight and they go dormant until they are at their altitude. There is so much we don't understand about them either.
There's been some interest in colonization of the reefs. Planet's gravity is heavier then earth normal but, still habitable. The ecology is biocompatible with humans and a few other kinds. Problem is the low amount of metallics, but hey, they have a dozen metal moons so that shouldnt be too bad.
They sorta sit as a foundation/keystone species. Almost all higher order life on this planet is involved with these coral reefs. I mean, some of these reefs span the sizes of continents. And its interesting because these structures are so light and strong think aerogel capsules filled with hydrogen.
Turns out these structures were floating masses of coral, reefs of the stuff. These microscopic creatures would latch onto any particulate they could to anchor themselves and start making coral masses. Then once they grew big enough would start producing hydrogen and float up. Sorta like snowflakes?
Huge metal content on the moon, when some follow up ships came by to check it out. Pretty standard surveying went on. Meteorological data on the gas planet came up anomalous, floating structures on the cloud decks. Man people were super excited for civs, but nah, just an unusual biosphere.
No will corruption. We speculated that this strain lacked sentience but its hard to prove without a direct mental link. Unfortunately direct mental links require neural contact, hence assimilation. So partial success, the subject just looks like he has a carpace helmet. Observing for further changes
You said bacon? 👀
I might get it myself then