When food is scarce, an akata secretes a resin from its pores that forms into a sturdy cocoon of pale green crystal-the skymetal noqual. An akata can hibernate in this cocoon without needing to eat or drink for centuries, though it retains a rudimentary sense of its surroundings and can break out in only a few minutes' time. These cocoons allow the creatures to travel through the void of space, seeking new worlds where they can infect suitable humanoid hosts with their larval young. Once a victim succumbs to this infection, the offspring fight among themselves until one proves the strongest. The surviving akata then animates the corpse-now a void zombie-which shambles about of its own accord.