Quorot

While their Guiding brethren lead the way with glowing tails, Guarding Seastars linger on the fringes of exploration groups. They lack any ambient glow, and are larger and sleeker to move swiftly and silently through the water. And when a threat is detected, and they see the warning flash from the Guiding Seastars, they dart into action.

Instead of glowing spots meant for communication, Guarding Seastars have stripes and bold patterns they can light up to dazzle undersea predators. Working in teams, they keep the threat distracted with these displays before making an attack with their strong jaws or stingers. And once they drive the threat off, the lights turn off and they return to near-invisible shapes following along with the rest of the expedition.

Without glowing tails, Guarding Seastars are not sent out on their own for rescue missions or exploration, but instead usually matched up with a Guiding Seastar and a few other Guarding Seastars to create a core unit that the rest of the expedition team is then built around.