The Crystalline Religion
 

Cryslonite Imperium,
536112.00 Teracycles since emergence
(.1 years terran = 3.12 teracycles)


Zexlak thought, and whether it is his thought or the energy of another Cryslonites' thought is irrelevant. The thought rippling through the Imperium at lightspeed and faster was chopped up into megahertz rate pulses and fed into everyone, cycling back into itself as it met itself and before a second had passed the system found thought stability for a moment, and went on to another issue. With every nanosecond gap all the crystals thought alone for an instant, only to be slammed back to collective again by another synch pulse.

The first thought was that Zexlak was somehow a malfunctioning crystal by being a first one, though that oddity had been solved merely 3 seconds ago, but another Crystal thought the question again, and the rebuttal came, which was that Zexlak was merely slightly specialized for dealing with organic infestations. Words can not show what the rebuttal said about his specialty in any detail.

The Imperium constantly continued this collective averaging of individual relapses, all while the physical work of the crystals continued, with energy being reformed and used and collected and reformed again.

The group of Crystals within a light second of Zexlak continued the thoughts related to his title, repeatedly, while more distant members only had an occasional comment from the far side of the emergence world.

Zexlaks thoughts went to new fast communications methods that were being used for those Crystals outside of the great pull of the emergence world. Responses indicated that the Crystals exploring the newly found portals were not diverging much from the collective thought, so long as the communications worked.

Crystals had placed these new devices at each portal, and in orbit of each of the solids oscillating about the sunworld.

Zexlak and a cadre of nearby crystals were also using subconsious synch to analyze and estimate the probability of organic infestations and other emergence worlds.

The Cryslonite had immediately rejected the idea that any other world could bring forth the greatness of the Cryslonite. The only other gaseous concentration known was the SunWorld which provided great amounts of energy. Throughout time, Groups of Cryslonite had shared thoughts of the great mostly untapped power of the sun, the great energy of it was felt on a visceral level by the Cryslonite, it vibrated every molecule of a Crystal to dream of inhabiting the SunWorld itself and sensing its every emanation. But every Crystal making the trek to SunWorld had expired. Only one world could support such a species as the Cryslonite, the world that was a cradle till the day the SunWorld received its long awaited guests.

The Cryslonite believed unanimously that it was their great destiny to inhabit SunWorld someday, and that formed the only thing that could be called a religion among the Cryslonite. There were a great many fervors amoung the Cryslonites, as fervors had a way of overpowering weaker thought waves, but the Pilgrimage of Brilliance to the SunWorld was most fervent, and it had the most aspects of a religious nature. The nature of the collective ensured that the Crystalline Religion would always hold sway among the Cryslonite.

The great thought shook through Zexlak as it did through all others. Zexlak contemplated that this great thought appeared almost once every hundred cycles, while thoughts of his own oddity appeared only every twenty thousand cycles or so.

The greatness of our goal must dominate our thoughts, this thought came from outside of Zexlak, and then he was in synch and contemplating the greatness of the Religion.

Research was a default state of sorts for the Cryslonite, so long as it did not marr the Holy. Solid Containers were being used to keep supplies in the same locations as the explorers as they found and investigated the portals. Solid Containers also brought pilgrims to the periphery of the sun for the final stages of the Pilgrimage of Brilliance. But Cryslonite in general preferred to be the only solids amidst a gaseous environment. Solid containers were claustrophobic for inhabitants, and every thought of the inhabitants became a thought of the collective, and so it was decided to try to make containers bigger lessening this pain and fear.

Zexlak knew that in solid containers would be the only way to travel through the portals.

On the far side of the emergence world from Zexlak, a Crystal that infestations may desire to call Kruzk had a thought, along with his nearby cadre, that the Crystals could calculate a bit more about chemical properties, thus allowing greater manipulations among the solids, liquids and gasses surrounding the SunWorld, and the solids used by the new containers.

Kruzk reasoned that any infestations due to be wiped out could very well try to attack the weak containers, and unless they could be strengthened against such horrors, it would not take much for the container to break.

Four tiny shuttle sized containers existed currently, three of them used for the pilgrimage and one used for searching for and investigating the portals. But already Cryslonite knew how to build containers that could fit 100 kilotons of solid mass. A brief divergence of thought from a subsequently shattered Crystal, had brought up container plans to inhabit worlds other than SunWorld, this was anathema, and no emergence worlds could exist, as Zexlaks team had already concluded and transmitted.

But plans for an even bigger container to be built were accepted by the collective, and by teracycle 536114.78 (a mere two teracycles since the research began) the collective Imperium knew how to make even bigger containers.

Despite the supposed impossibility of finding other emergence worlds, and despite a large amount of clashes among thought waves in the collective, it was decided to find out where the portals went. Plans were to do this in another 10 teracycles at the latest.

(Translators' note: Reports that the life expectancy of Cryslonite is around 5 years are based exclusively on the fact of the Sun Pilgramage that all Cryslonite take eventually, and almost universally shatter from. If they don't shatter from it because they refused to go through with it, it means they return as excommunicates and are shattered then. If a Cryslonite ever survived on SunWorld, that individual would gain no accolades, instead the greatness the victor experienced would reverberate throughout Cryslonite civilization, and many members would shatter just from the thought pulse of such a magnitude)

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Truly alien.
I like it! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

(OOC: This story is based in the gameplay world of Proportions)

First Battle of infestation Soluk
536145.32 Teracycles since Emergence

An entire battle over one enemy ship, the thought flew across the collective as an incredulous fervor. Those on the emergence homeworld were three seconds behind the actions in the Tricali system that was found to be the exit of one portal. Even with the quickening devices, three seconds was the best sync disparity possible. This created brief 3 second rifts of opinion between the DeInfestation fleet and the emergence world.

It was only 33 teracycles since the discovery of the portals, but already a valuable lesson in Infestation training was affecting the thought waves of the entire Imperium.

Six containers were destroyed with no losses for the infestation, 5 of them being ships and 1 of them a sacrifice container with a large-yield nuclear explosive.

Zexlak remained at an onship broadcasting station on the fifth DeInfester frigate where the infestation was to be informed of its impending death. To properly ensure this, Zexlak had the distasteful task of learning the vibrations that made up the infestations language. They found out it was called the Soluk Empire. A thought rang through the collective, that perhaps, although tainted by the Infestation nature, this infestation had at least a few similarities to themselves. The Imperium now knew the name and their history. And they knew that the Soluk shared no regrets about trying to take over everything that opposed them. That was a good moral stance to the Cryslonite. It seemed they agreed quickly on things, another good moral to the Imperium.

Nonetheless, the Cryslonite role was being redefined only slightly. The collective felt that no infestation should exist, and the emergence world found nearby the infestation, which had produced a great deal of crazed thought waves in the collective, could not be properly investigated until the system was clean.

Kruzk had contributed a great deal to the onslaught of thought waves that concerned the first battle of Soluk. This was the first battle as opposed to earlier skirmishes.

The problem throughout the battle, which Kruzk first expressed, was that planetary infestation bases had too many missiles for the ships to consider coming in range of the planet. Plus ships on both sides were as fast as the missiles themselves. When the enemy frigate was surrounded, it was surrounded around the planet, thus ensuring it could hide from fire within the protection of planetary missiles.

An escort and a frigate were both destroyed for failing to fall back in time to avoid enemy military. The collective did not want to fall back from the enemy ship, because it would give it space to wait and attack again. This was a mistake of the collective reasoning process.

After everything looked hopeless, the ships moved away from the planet, while holding a roughly circular formation. With the complete focus of the entire collective on this battle, 3 second delay or not, They managed finally draw out the enemy ship where previously their enemy had operated with flawless tactics.

But even after being impacted by the suicide container, and being hit with a missile, the enemy frigate still held form. The frigate managed to fall back into close orbit with the infestation planet, safe there indefinately.

Larger ships were being built by the collective, but the suicide containers were discontinued due to lack of effectiveness. The Cryslonite were great researchers due to quick cooperation and sharing of information, and they managed to quickly learn to build large containers.

From what Zexlak could tell, the Soluk infestation world had not been affected in daily activities. Only those manning the missile platforms remained busy. From detecting the energy waves coming from the infestation, it appeared there was much speculation about the Imperium itself. Zexlak and his cadre had still not thought of any way to communicate back to the infestation. Perhaps the energy waves could be recombined in different patterns to tell the Soluk to surrender.

(Translators Note: all names are transliterations of Solukian and Praetorian naming schemes, created by Zexlak in order to interact with the infestations on a limited basis. Zexlak created his own name as well.)

[ April 10, 2003, 04:53: Message edited by: civ2buf ]

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Very good, a trully alien idea. I'm impressed

Check out the Space Empires Fanfiction Thread, i've posted a question there for you, read through the thread as well, it's only 4 pages long http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

...Ohh, NO ! What Proportion Version do you play ? If it is more than 2.0, Soluk is a joke. PvK created it using Piundon race which is crystolline, but Soluk .emp has no Crystallurgy ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif It will eventually kill them because of research and ship design. To salvage you game, back up all Piundon AI files and replace them with files copied from any other race without racial traits, for example Terrans.
Good luck, I' looking forward the next chapter.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

I really like the style of ship designs in Proportions. The armor system is great, and creates much more of a motif of the early Ironclad ships and other heavily armored ships.

Tactical battles with missiles on both sides are some of the most interesting types.

Plus the fact that the homeworlds are actually powerful really gives a lot more siege type plots.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Yes, Proportions is IMHO the best mod around.
(JLC' AIc is here too) I am just a liitle bit worried about some discrepancies between empire files and actual AI files in the game you based your story.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Great story, keep it coming http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Edit: A post of 5 (short) words, and I can't get the spelling right http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ April 11, 2003, 00:21: Message edited by: primitive ]

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

The Soluk campaign, planetary disposal phase
536255.50 teracycles since emergence

The infestation world was being irradiated, napalmed, plagued, attacked constantly by high yield capital missiles, and peppered by an even greater quantity of light missile fire. Well over three and a half billion infestation units remained by the beginning of the planetary disposal portion of the campaign, where the fleet faced no more resistance for a dozen teracycles.

To say this was the limit of what could be inflicted on a planet would be wrong, thought Zexlak, no, a planet that had withstood the might of the Cryslonite for dozens of Teracycles should rightfully be completely torn asunder shattered into a million pieces. The collective certainly had that in mind for future research possibilities, the thought waves of solids shattering were prevalant in the Last cycle with knowledge of victory in the second battle.

Twelve ships had shattered to the feverish battles and skirmishes of the Soluk campaign so far. It was no concern to the Cryslonite, as the thought waves of celebration crested with great intensity on the mind shores of several billion crystals.

Because of the regular container service to SunWorld, it was now rather easy for Crystals to make the Pilgrimage of Brilliance in vast numbers. In the past, only those who were elders with vast energies stored had the resources to attempt it. An astonishing two million crystals took the pilgrimage in the Last Teracycle, when the campaign appeared to be nearing the end of active resistance.

Despite the fact that the collective was declaring victory, it soon became clear that the planet could withstand more attacks than the fleet had supplies to deal with. Unless they could cripple the enemy, it might not be a victory after all. The Soluk could just rebuild the weapon platforms that had been so deadly thus far.

More Supremacy class ships, which were equipped with napalm as well as rapid fire light missile systems, were needed and more refueling ships were in need to keep weapons in supply among the fleet.

But, with nearly four billion Solukians still alive, the plague should do excellent at sundering large parts of the infestation, and the conditions where becomming deadly from irradiation (how plague and irradiation would mix was unknown among the collective). How fast the infestation would weaken was the cause of much thought wave activity

It was time to learn about some better means of DeInfesting. Kruzk pondered what could be used to even the odds against such a massive target as the infestation world. Something more deadly than anything before.

The collective took that goal as another fervor, among thousands of boiling thoughtwave fervors competing every pulse for the collectives' attention.

We must destroy better,
We must destroy better...

But before all the plans for destroying Soluk could be dreamt of, the fleet had removed the force shield that surrounded the entire planet, temporarily. All of this in turn, happened while planetary weapons platforms were launching great salvos of missiles against the fleet.

For several dozen Teracycles the fleet waited while reinforcements poured in. Finally, with two ships with missile defenses available, the fleet plunged into a close range missile fight. They had to overwhelm the planetary point defenses, and that wasn't helped by long range fire.

The best ships for such a battle were the few newcomers known by the Soluk as the Supremacy class. The collective knew the Supremacy had the faster firing rate and anti planetary capabilities specifically designed for close range fire.

The fleets' point defense was inadequate, and both point defense ships were destroyed in the battle, but they had served as a distraction to the Soluk weapon platform commanders, leaving Sumpremacy, DeInfester LC and IIDS class ships to pummel the world until the shields gave out. Then, finally, the plague weapons of DeInfester P class destroyers were not stopped by anything, and the plague began its incessant spread.

The collective savored the thought of destroying an infestation with an infestation discovered by Zexlak to have the Soluk name of Plague. Plague, the infestation that fights infestation.

"With enough refueler ships, there will be nothing left of you, I swear it to you who are known as Soluk ambassador," Zexlak had learned the energy waves the Soluk used for talking, and now was sending hourly updates on impending doom to the Soluk.

As an Imperium, it was known that Zexlak had a great purpose, but as a collective, thoughts still rumbled that he should be shattered as an outcast, despite the fact that Zexlak kept to as many synch pulses as any other crystal.

It might take 100 teracycles, or a 1000 teracyles even, before the Soluk had no existence, but the Cryslonite had already won in their view, they had shown the fury and might of the great Cryslonite Imperium.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

The Cryslonite are Alone...
The rise of a new world and the new Galactic Order...
536361.60 Teracycles since emergence


The first civillian non-religious vessel was finally built nearly 250 teracyles after the first container set out on the religious journey to the SunWorld. The new system had another SunWorld, but theological debate raged over whether to pay any homage to that one.

The Soluk infestation was utterly removed, and the solid remnants had such deadly conditions that no one would ever inhabit it again. The Cryslonite now stood as experts in anti-planetary weapons and tactics.

A new emergence world brought one million Crystals along with the colony vessel sent there. The DeInfestation fleet returned to celebrations in the Cryslonite way, an energetic lightshow on the nearest solid planet sent into the minds of all the Crystals, and the widespread taking of thoughtwave altering drugs which had temporary effects on the coherency of the entire collective. This is why such things were Banned except in times of celebration lacking any need for coherent thought. Bannings are absolute and effective in a collective.

New planetary weapons known as neutron bombs were discovered only a few dozen teracycles after the fleet was back. They seemed to destroy infestations specifically. An investigation after the fact determined the constant irradiation in the disposal phase had not resulted in more deaths at the time, but it did maintain the planet as unihabitable for millions of Teracycles, but the plague now subsided, having no targets.

Better plagues had been discovered as well, and the fleet which was half anti-planetary ships made tremendous amonts of retrofitting to use new and better weapons.

A massive fleet of transporters was planned to send millions of Crystals to the new world.

Amidst the chaos of the celebration, Zexlak kept falling into despair at the loss of any use of his specialty, and he kept forgetting and trying to remember what he knew about the Soluk language and culture. But as a Crystal he kept being interrupted by pulses that brought him back in line. And the collective was pushing out anything to do with the Soluk except military planning for the future.

Zexlak pondered that he was doomed to start over each time, for after a victory, they would never willingly keep the Soluk on their mind. The fleet crystals even destroyed the data he had kept on a personal computer pad that the fleet tolerated during the campaign. So he had no source to look for the future.

Zexlak's outcast nature was much more evident once again among the collective, now that the war was over. Some suggested Zexlak had now finally become a rogue crystal.

Some said Zexlak was chosen for his role because he was an evolutionary strain that had some buffer against the pulses. But this was not a majority view, and thus was destroyed.

But strangely, some things were kept in Zexlaks' crystalline structure. They were things he did not think of now, for then they would be destroyed along with him, and he was well enough in synch to not know what he really knew. But something remained untapped.

Most Crystals have no personality and are completely interchangeable, excepting their own work position, which continously informs them of their uniqueness, each time getting snuffed in the collective pulse. Things that continously affect a Crystal mind can keep it unique, but should the differences end, the uniqueness falls away.

But Zexlak was unique in having a personality yet only intermittent ambassador duties to keep it refreshed. But he was a normal crystal so much of the time it never reached the level neccesary for the collective to feel they had to shatter Zexlak. Inside, something did remain from the prior conflict, waiting to return when next the time came for ambassadorship.

Zexlak thought to himself, "Maybe these infestations are dieing too quickly," and then the fervor of the collective overwhelmed him in its reaction...

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

The Praetorian Perspective
Year 732 of the JihadXi

"As the Emperors' chief historical clerk, I have the task of sharing the Emperors' perspective and I have set up my own record of my reactions to the great force of the Cryslonite Imperium for my own perusal.

First, the Emperor speaks through me as follows, to all servants of our Lord the righteous and mighty.

'We have tired of the puny weapons of war being used in the Jihad against the pathetic Xi'Chung. They orbit the same sun as we do, and they are our enemies, the great evil nemesis supported by the dark lord god who is the despoiler of our righteous destiny in the stars.

We have fought them with puny weapons suited to their minor purpose. This shall end, We said, for we are the Lord, the Lord shall provide for his people.

The Lord has called upen the great saints and archangels, do not look up them harshly. I have told you, when I was above this physical place, in the great book of Righteousness,

"You shall know an ancient enemy and you shall smite them, your righteousness shall gather with your proper rage at the vile defiler. You shall struggle, your faith in the Imperium shall be tested. But your lord will provide, for the Imperium of the greater place above you shall send its angels brilliant unto the enemy, and the enemy shall scatter, and the enemy shall fall before your Lords' righteous might."

We have seen this Imperium, led by the great Archangel Zexlak. I have called them for the final battle with the defiler. The two Imperiums shall be together, so it is said by Zexlak the Archangel of the greater realm. So it is said by your Lord.

The Angels have already swept aside such a puny force of the defiler, and they are cleansing the foul lands with weapons so great you shall never imagine their ferocity, but to know that the Archangel himself has honored us in there use.

No servant of the Lord shall ever touch that most benighted and cleansed land. It is blessed with your Lords' greatest powers, so that no growth may ever appear in the Defilers place.'

The emperor has stated his position, but I speak for my own ears. Whispers among the Emperors theologians and his great holy court have been spread. They know what the Emperor was to say before he discovered the weapons of this knew Imperium.

One thing was true, it is an Imperium, in dispatches that I received from one named Zexlak, it seems we were nearly the target of the great destruction ourselves. Zexlak was able to show his Imperium that our own Imperium shared in lesser greatness, and had not fouled all things. Zexlak shared that his people were greatly shocked to learn of two more worlds, especially two fighting each other, so close to their ancestral homelands.

It seems they had just finished destroying a great enemy like our own Xi'chung.

When the first reports came out of what is currently happening to the Xi'chung, it shocked the Emperor greatly. It seemed the Cryslonite were well equipped for the job they found themselves doing.

Zexlak was shocked when he learned of our caste system. It seems the Cryslonite have no caste, only temporary working situations. How can that be an Imperium? Everyone knows an empire has an emperor, some nobles of many levels and peasants and slaves.

Attempting to learn anything about the Cryslonite is insanely difficult. All their answers are nonsensical, and the only one they want us to talk to is this Zexlak. He says the rest of them couldn't communicate with us if they wanted to, which they don't.

A billion Xi'Chung residents were killed in the first weeks fighting, that began with a short battle against a remaining Xi'chung ship. Then the Cryslonite fleet came into range of a space station, and destroyed that fairly quickly. And they then made a brave charge into the unholy weapons fire of the Xi.

They wiped out all the planetary shields and the weapon platforms very quickly, and began destroying the planet in some form of infestation that ate away at the Xi slowly, then they began pummelling the planet with some unknown weapon.

Zexlak says they should be finished with the Xi in another two weeks. Two Weeks!!

A seven hundred year old fued settled by outsiders in two weeks. I was surprised when I first saw the massive fleet on long range threat displays in the emperors' war room. I thought they'd be another enemy to defeat.

Working for the Emperor makes one cynical, I even doubt that the emperor is god sometimes. Not in public of course, I know my role. And everyone around here knows the Cryslonite are extremely volatile and could decide to destroy us whenever.

Though I was surprised at their existence as such, the Cryslonite really shocked me with their weapons. They seem custom made to destroy planets. We barely can make enough ships for general use to hurt the Xi. We never caused a single scar on the Xi planet due to those bLasted shields.

I'll send out the emperors' report soon, but I have to hush for now. Hes' coming...

'Historian Malok? Have you sent it yet?'"...

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Impressive rate of story Posts!
(what is it called when you do something in a fast rate? good paste? It doesn't sound right...)

[ April 13, 2003, 11:58: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

good pace? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, thanx, that was it!

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Its because half the empires in this Large galaxy were within two systems of mine. Three empires so close. Seems like 90 percent of the rest of the galaxy must be empty.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

(ooc: The way I've roleplayed the Cryslonites makes them seem like they are Crystalline, Relgious and Psychic. I might try that some time, but they are only Crystalline right now as far as special traits)

Second Praetorian War
Praetorian Imperial Historians' Account
Year 0 of the Cryslonite Invasion,
9 Years of the Alliance

"The Emperor always told me he knew that the Cryslonite would turn against him in time.

We have expanded tremendously, intermingling with the Cryslonite, 12 of our ships were above their homeworld, ostensibly there for resupplying. But half the fleet left the Cryslonite world only months before the declaration of war,

The Cryslonite were very picky in choosing their colony worlds, they only desired Hydrogen Gas Worlds with no moons in orbit.

Before Zexlaks' death for treason against the Cryslonite, (as the new contact told me), Zexlak had told me the Cryslonite hated most things solid excepting themselves and their ships. And they considered stars to be proper colonization targets someday. Zexlak was on our homeworld for five years, with a lot of special equipment to keep him alive here. He shared a lot of information, too much it seems.

I know that his distance from anyone else in his empire interfered with his health. He grew obsessed with odd things. Even though he was closely watched by our officers, he seemed to be enjoying new found freedom.

Zexlak's independence from his empire and the things he told us were deemed treason to the Cryslonite state and he was "shattered", otherwise known as killed.

I've caught a few reports from the military high command that were also interesting. The interesting one says this:

'Your Highness,
We offer the following assessment of Cryslonite military tactics and allocational strategy:

Primary Scale of Operation: large fleet
Nature of Forces:
Diverse, all sizes and purposes.
Reactionary in response to new threats.
Current fleet assessment shows the past has forced the fleet to a heavy anti-planetary stance.

Open Space Doctrine:

The Cryslonite do not operate in small Groups, they prefer to always have overwhelming force when battling other ships.

They rely on long range missiles to destroy or severely damage the enemy ships.

Anti-ship warfare is a minor part of their overall strategy.
This means they are ill equipped for battle against a large enemy force, UNLESS they happen to be in enemy territory, in which case they can depopulate the region with extreme efficiency

WARNING: As you know, four billion Xi were destroyed in a month by the anti-planetary capabilities of the Cryslonite. They have since upgraded again to an anti-person stance.

Fighting the Cryslonite: In the event of hostilities with the Cryslonite, our best chance is to rely only on ships and ignore weapon platforms. The Cryslonite anti-planetary strategy will destroy us if they get in range for their heavy weaponry. If we can overwhelm their anti-ship capabilities, we can destroy the Supremacy class vessels, leading to much reduced anti-planet capability.

Cryslonite Reformation: After the diplomat Zexlak returned home, it appears the Cryslonite have begun taking a harsher stance with regards to us.'

At the declaration of war, we lost 6 ships in orbit of the Cryslonite homeworld. Cryslonite missiles were largely ineffective, but their newest ships had been equipped with heavy armor and particle weapons. Eight Cryslonite ships were damaged and none destroyed. The battle was full of pandemonium as we watched the shifting positions on the battle report displays. Two thirds of the Cryslonite fleet was useless in the battle and kept back out of it. Superiority class battle cruisers and battleships pounded our ships and were pounded in turn. But they were heavily armored and took more than twenty hits each while remaining effective. Missile fire only damaged our ships near the end of the battle.

Admiral Elzarn has a large fleet close by one of the Cryslonite colonies, it shall fall in a month he says.

We have more ships than the Cryslonite, but the Cryslonite ships are all in one fleet, and swiftly closing in on our home system.

We have defenses here, but I feel they will not withstand the napalm weaponry.

Holy Emperor! We've won I think, reports say the main Cryslonite fleet just warped right in to a minefield and satellite defenses. It seems they are completely oblivious to what mines are or how to deal with them. They never seperate fleets, so that must be the entire Cryslonite force.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

PS...

No the game isn't over, the historian is just a bit overdramatic.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Quite a surprise for them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Seeing mines for the first time can be painful!

[ April 13, 2003, 22:26: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

The Crystalline Struggle
536714.2 Teracycles since Emergence

Zexlak was shattered, excommunicated and denied to ever have existed by the collective. He had said the Praetorians were a proper ally, and not the infestations that they obviously were. He then went on to actively try to evade pulses of the collective in orders to be his own I.

Kruzk remained, he had championed the cause of armor, which proved useful. The Praetorians had grown too fast to be overwhelmed by planetary weapons. The collective could not grasp the apparent weakness of their weapons.

They kept expecting the missiles to destroy ships as fast as the napalm destroyed planets. One of the oddest things of all, of the nature of the Cryslonite, was that they could depopulate a planet much faster then they could weaken an enemy ship.

Even in the first campaign, they had struggled against enemy ships. The victory over the Xi only happened because of their lack of ships. It led to extensive development in that area, leaving the Cryslonite outclassed in anti-ship weapons.

This was being corrected, slowly. Crystalline weaponry was really time consuming to explore and research and ineffective, so the collective thought at least.

Kruzk contemplated the latest developments of the new struggle. The fleet was avoiding all ships and trying to break the enemy homeworld.

Weapon platforms failed miserably against the Praetorian might on a colonial emergence world that was rioting.

The death of all the rioters was vaguely pleasing. "They showed themselves as worth only the name infestation," was the thoughtwave.

A new "ambassador" to foreign nations was picked, and he refused to have a name. He vowed to abide strictly by the old code. He refused to conduct his work anywhere but the loyal emergence worlds.

The greatest chance the collective had, was to make a charge straight into close range of the Praetorian homeworld and ignore the losses from ten enemy bases and anything else. The collective felt it be the greatest honor to itself to succeed, despite any losses.

The Imperium had planetary ships that could destroy the weapon platforms, but the fighters were a great peril, despite the presense of great battleships.

To describe the relationship between the ships and the collective, it is best to give them names such as Supremacy, Superiority and Victory for the capital ships. The most revered ships were the planetary depopulaters, the Supremacy ships. The newest were battleship sized juggernauts of destructive power that were thrice as deadly as those who had attacked Xi.

The collective also several types of specialty ships. Despite several refueling ships, supply remains a large problem.

Point Defense, the new DeMine group and the old standard containers, one of which was in service for six hundred teracycles already. This container carried passengers to the Last point before the pilgrimage and the plunge into the SunWorld. This container was already legendary among the Cryslonite, and it made trips every 4 teracycles.

The collective also had 10 megatons of planetary defense platforms.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

The Cleansing War
Battle of Praetorian Homeworld
Battle of Praetorian Stations

This date is of such epic importance to the new Cryslonite collective that is forms the basis of an entirely new Cryslonite Calendar that has this as day 0.

The intensity of the thought waves on this day were so tiring as to require a complete stand down of the emergence worlds' production, research and construction for an entire Teracycle.

The desperation on the part of the Cryslonite reflected the fact that weakness in war would be devestating to the collective. The determination and overwhelming will to power of the Cryslonite led to stories of a crystal race that echoed across the galaxy, to places where no one knew the real Cryslonite, but they knew the legends of the Crystal Empire.

The lesson to remember when thinking of the Cryslonite is, victory at any cost. The collective has no thoughtwave for a victory that was too costly.

Missile ships were entirely irrelevant at this point in history for both sides.

First, Fighters from the Praetorian Homeworld overwhelmed the point defenses of the fleet, which was a first sign of difficulty.

The call was made to charge in, losses no object. In retrospect, it is easy to see that if the Cryslonite ships were as weak on defense as the collective thought, it would have been no contest.

The Supremacy ships were placed in position to destroy the planetary defenses. But a barrage of missiles destroyed one, and crippled a second.

The third Supremacy finally got into range for a single barrage, and was taken down by meson fire.

It was around this time that the collective began to panic, but then something happened. The collective had several ships facing an entire armada of planetary munitions, firing off weapons that were pathetically weak, with a Last wounded Supremacy trying to get into range. The shields were lowered with only one barrage of napalms, and a series of shard cannon shots. Two smaller ships were destroyed, but a single Superiority Battleship withstood 40 meson bLasts, and 10 missiles, and remained operational.

While the Superiority BS 0001 faced off that fire, the lowered shields of the planet took on plague. This was when the collective felt they had at least hurt the Praetorians critically.

But the Superiority class vessels continued to draw fire away from the vital and almost destroyed Supremacy.

All point defense ships of the Cryslonite were destroyed. That meant 80 missiles struck targets for every couple of shots by the collectives' fleet. The only chance was to take out the weapon platforms before the rest of the fleet was destroyed.

The collectives' intelligience reports during the battle discovered the homeworld carried mines that could have stopped the fleet had they been launched. Demining ships were still insufficiently deployed to the fleet. Three thousand praetorian infantry were also on planet, helpless to do much of anything. Six satellites remained in docks.

It seems the Praetorian did not expect such a sudden attack, they expected the Cryslonite to feel outclassed against such a force and hold off on any attack.

But the Cryslonite once more proved they are comfortable and unbeatable when orbitting a planet... an infestation planet.

Missile strikes continued, but the crippled Supremacy was untargetted by the Praetorians, and began destroying the weapon platforms. The military doctrine of the Cryslonite matches the goals of avoiding the military and striking the infastructure of other military organizations. Aggression is the only way to win a war, and the only way to win aggression is to destroy or conquer the enemies production basis, the planet. Never again will the value of planetary weapons technologies be questioned by the collective, for they have learned that what losses they did take were due to not enough Supremacy ships.

After the weapon platforms fell, it was time to lessen the danger of the bases. This was a more risky mission for those ships left of the fleet.

Fighters and a single enemy ship also had to be dealt with.

There was a large network of bases with supporting fire on any approach to any of them. But long range fire was too unreliable when you need to get through as much armor as the battleships of the collective have.

Again, a "wise" commander may have decided to back off, but under fire again the fleet cleared the military bases with the battleships bearing the brunt of the fire rather well.

All Supremacy class ships were destroyed. The homeworld was under severe plague warning.

A battle station remained, armed to the teeth, it was the Last great threat to the collective's fleet.

Satellite missile launchers damaged more fleet ships, but it was insignificant, and they came under lethal fire, ending that threat.

Beyond the Last Battle Station was the Last armed resistance of the Praetorian, it was a second Yarkand class space station with meson bLasters. The fourth Superiority battleship was destroyed, Superiority battlecruisers 1, 2 and 3 remained with little damage. Superiority Battleship 1 was very damaged from the battle stations' fire. Superiority Battleship 2 was slightly damaged, and 3 was destroyed.

The poorly named Equalization, built during the Soluk war but upgraded in engine and weapon quality, was modestly damaged and a DeInfester was undamaged, with the plague weapon that gave the fleet the greatest chance to prevent any resistance from the Praetorians.

But away from the homeworld, there were still dozens of ships of the Praetorian, and a counterattack on the collective emergence world was a possibility.

The Cleansing War would still need many years to reach its conclusion, but the battle of Praetorian Homeworld had a great effect on both sides, representing a victory as great as the loss of two thirds of the Cryslonite fleet to mines was to the Praetorian forces.

Later it was determined that armor was an issue on both sides of the battle. The space station and battle stations were heavily armored, as heavily as the Cryslonite fleet, but the shard cannon weaponry of the fleet tore right through the armor, destroying weaponry with ease.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

I'm working on a Last part from the perspective of the Praetorians. After that, there are only one or two empires left in the rest of the galaxy. (After I found 3 empires from exploring only 3 star systems)

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

BUMP

Any updates ?

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

The Invisible Crystalline
Last Log of the Imperial Historian

The Cryslonite fleet was worn down to only a few ships and we still could not totally destroy them. The two ships remaining retreated back across the wormhole, to Cryslonite space.

The righteous battle of Praetoria cost us greatly. The homeworld was in the throes of a dark plague, while millions were buried already from the napalm. Luckily only a few of the enemies' Supremacy class ships were available and the homeworld remained somewhat intact.

The Superiority class of the Cryslonite proved to be endlessly well protected. In short, we were hopelessly beaten technologically, while we had a temporary advantage in momentum.

The emperor was dead from riots on the Last day of the bombing, and the imperial staff was severely disorganized. The so-called grandson of God was claiming the throne, but many including myself rejected his claim. We felt the empire needs to be managed by the military, only then can they operate properly to destroy the Cryslonite. We can not divide our time with a coronation ceremony while Cryslonite are rebuilding Supremacy and Superiority over our heads.

But the power bloc in support of Admiral Hashuko was insufficient, and thus in year two of the Cryslonite invasion, the Grandson of God, Ssroik, picked his wife, appointed a royal guard, appointed a new imperial staff, of which I am not a part, and ordered the military to prepare planetary defenses.

It was over then. As I sit here with my notes, a powerless outcast once of the imperial court, I can see that no planetary defense will ever save us. Only ships can fight the Cryslonite on any terms. Ssroik is so stupid.

Ten million missile platforms would not be enough to stop the Cryslonite once they got into orbit again. All the platforms would be destroyed, and all the Cryslonite would lose is time.

Where millions of missile platforms would fail, a fleet of ten warships could easily succeed. The Cryslonite had little aptitude in space combat, having learned the art of war from planetary orbital battles and wars. We learned this so many times, the Admiral considered it his first order of duty to engage the enemy in space.

It could not matter much longer, the plague would get us all, in the end. We should be building ships and training medical researchers, but the coronation and its excess continued, and mere weapon platforms were constructed, the grandson of God proclaiming that nothing could stop them. He was a fool, and we will all die for it.

It was nearly three years before we saw the Cryslonite again. They had regrouped for a long time, and they returned with a fleet of ten ships bigger than the biggest ever used before, dreadnoughts.

Meanwhile, God's minions had built a few colony ships, which helped us none at all when the battle came once more.

Now they orbit us, closing in, while God promises his mere twenty weapon platforms will save us. But perhaps I will pray to the Cryslonite god instead, he is the one with true power, it seems.

I faced the sun and prayed to it, hoping that I could get away while the silly emperor-as-god here would die. I felt the warmth of the sun, cheering me in the final moments, and then finally I felt a streak of searing heat.

It must be the sun, the sun.
But it was napalm.
blackness forever...

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Illuminated Transitions
541763 Teracycles since Convergence

There was something about the Crystal Luminostra, something different, but this time this one different did not worry the collective so much as excite them.

Luminostra kept encountering contradictions in reconciling its' brainwaves with the collectives'. By a freak chance in the process of reproductive crystalline distortion, Luminostra did not have his current thoughts pushed out at each cycle.

Memory for an individual crystal was minimal, they only diverged slightly between syncs, before the collective came back. Each cycle the entirety of the crystals' mindstate was overwritten. But Luminostra found that each pulse merely accretted the same information of the collective on top of its current knowledge. As a consequence, information spilled over much later than when it was consumed. Luminostra found he could willfully disgorge the repetition of the collectives' thoughts, only keeping condensed summaries.

But before he discovered this, the multiple copies of the same information from the Crystalline collective made him into the canonical collective member. The disparities found in each Crystal from the lesser impact of more distant Crystals' thoughts distorted each of them, such that they more highly reflected their closest neighbors' thoughts, creating communities that dispersed and reformed in circular waves at the speed of thought.

Luminostra was able to hold off the immediate thoughts of his neighbors combining them in equal proportions with the entire collective. He did this because the collective desired it, and he had the collectives' desires as his own, only intensified many times over.

Everything the collective desired, he went after with great intensity. Before long the collective began to admire Luminostra... This was a dangerous precedent. The collectives' admiration caused Luminostra to admire himself even more intensely. He became an utter egomaniac by a completely collective process.

His egomania led him to learn about how to discard extraneous knowledge, which in turn lessened the intensity of his egomania. Luminostra became a Cache of most valued knowledge by means of memory filtration.

By the time he perfected his memory filtering, and thus made the rest of the collective dimly aware of it, a fervor was sweeping through the collective, that Luminostra must be the one who would finally be accepted by SunWorld.

When Luminostra became aware of the collectives' urge that he should take the pilgrimage, he spent a million cycles searching the collective brainwave for ideas of how to suceed.

Finally, the teracycle came, when Luminostra was to take the pilgrimage. He found a method to save himself, but the collective must not recognize it, or they would disbarr him from the pilgrimage and shatter him instantly. He had spent many cycles creating a device. To fool them all, he found reason to believe that it would be a good totem of the SunWorld, but he had known and discarded for an instant the knowledge that it would absorb all the energy that could destroy him on the SunWorld.

With his mind safely disgorged of such thoughts when the collective was focussed on him alone, he fell free from the escape door of the pilgrimage container. Now he had less than ten thousand cycles to search the collective, gathering information until he discovered again how to use the totem he carried...

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

The Sun God Luminostra

Luminostra sensed the kilocycles counting down in the collectives' waveforms. He searched the brainwaves as quickly as he could, while glancing at the totem.

collapse...energy conVersion...overload...explosion...

He manipulated the totem, finally sending a charge of his own energy which caused the totem to collapse in on itself like an imploding skyscraper. When that happened, all brainwaves, his own and his recognition of the collectives', halted and he was unconscious. Being unconscious is not a state that Crystals tend to be in. A few seconds before being shattered, other crystals might be in such a state.

When did he regain consciousness is completely unknown. He examined his memory, noticed that billions of new bits of information had somehow been absorbed while he was unconscious, and tried to orient himself by the collective. But he was plunged in the deepest core of the SunWorld, the collective brainwave had no power to reach through this much energy.

The totem dispelled all of the SunWorlds' energy as it approached him. It glowed brightly, but Luminostra was too distracted by the intoxicating effect of all of this energy. The SunWorld strengthened him every moment, without the barest harm coming to him. Energy was the Cryslonites' highest ambition, and highest exultation.

Luminostra's brain waves were pulsing a million times faster than the normal Crystal. With a billionfold the force.

His newfound thoughts beckoned him to return to the emergence world and claim command of the collective as the SunGod, the one who merges with the sun. Just as these thoughts circulated he began to breech the SunWorlds' protection against the collectives' thoughtwaves. Something was wrong, he thought.

The thoughts of the collective did not reflect the collective he knew. They were meek, grasping at weak things no Crystal would ever pursue. The emergence world was armed with pathetic defenses and there was barely a fleet of warships to be found. The collective knew nothing of any of the previous conquests. It seemed to only know of a single race, and they liked them.

The Piundon Empire had cowed the collective, but how? The collective seemed to extend to nowhere at all, a minor neutral blip in the galaxy. The more Luminostra looked at the thoughtwaves, the more alarming the situation was. Then he searched his memory and found out the truth.

The SunWorld was a portal, in a different manner than the portals that went to different star systems, this portal crossed into a parallel universe. Everyone who went on the pilgrimage had crossed over, transplanted onto the alternate emergence world, except Luminostra.

One thing he still did not know, is where his information came from. The collective was a wreck, the true religion was hated on this side, as all of those who crossed over found themselves in a much worse universe for the Imperium. The collective still was a collective, which meant that every newcomer from the first universe quickly found any ambitions of reinstating the religion among the atheist collective dashed.

Fear and meek humility had overwhelmed the collective brainwave. All they had achieved in thousands of teracycles was a large number of construction spaceyards that sat idling, a bunch of pacifistic Crystal transports and large numbers of weapon platforms.

Already Luminostra's outrage was subtly affecting the collective. Luminostra had a great amount of outrage from his old self of the proud Cryslonite instead of this pathetic group of fools.

This was one collective that certainly needed a SunGod and Luminostra was going to pound some sense into the collective and the rest of this universe. "No way in hell are we weaklings."

The universe would soon know the name of the collective.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

My PC crashed pretty fiercely, and wasn't exactly working, so I had to used the recovery CD to get it working again (I also have a mac, but can't play SE on that), so my save game was lost. But I didn't want to quit on this story, so I came up with this idea.

I started another game in Proportions playing as a different race that I'm working on. (The Robotia Foundation), and then I realized the crystalline were in the game, so I decided to take them over and have the SunGod try to fix the crappy AI induced situation they were in when I took over and assert their proper dominance over everyone again.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Wrath of the SunGod
88th month since the Atheistic Cryslonite Reformation
12rd month of the SunGod Luminostra

"I am Luminostra, do not forget my name. You have shamed the Cryslonite name, and now the collective shall follow an individual, Luminostra, the SunGod," the thought echoed through the pathetic collective over and over and over.

All remnants and materials of the atheists were destroyed, shredded into fine dust, not to be mentioned by a Crystal again. The speed and power of Luminostra's thoughtwaves forced the collective into perfect lockstep with his every command and wish.

The collective learned many things about proper weaponry, the art of napalm was rediscovered, the space stations were scrapped in favor of a large fleet to be built.

The Transform class destroyers were armed with Shard cannons and upgraded with Napalm soon after it was rediscovered. The Piundon's satellite defenses were destroyed in a few salvos, and a minor Piundon planet was in the SunGod's path, to be destroyed quickly, he hoped.

The mighty wall of doom of the Cryslonite was back. Nine Transform ships carried something, the Piundons' had no clue that the Cryslonite had gained some of their other-universely Imperial demeanor and power.

The Piundon colony was well armed, but its defenses were knocked out quickly, leaving millions of infantry who found themselves the main target of the Cryslonite fleet. The infantry was much better trained to evade napalm weaponry than the general populace.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Encyclopedia Galactica
War-History-Cryslonite-Post2408.8

As it was later known, the outsider Luminostra gained control of the Cryslonite Imperium with his forceful brainwaves, and after reinstituting an old religion, he turned to war doctrine.

Luminostra instituted a strict prioritization of placement prior to battle that reflected both Cryslonite weaponry and Luminostra's biases.

The best battle was over the enemies' most important world, regardless of the defenses there, because in that case, a suicidal rush of his ships could destroy a significant part of the planetary capabilities, if they were equipped with napalm.

Battles over colonial worlds were next best, followed by battles in enemy territory and Lastly, any battle in friendly territory.

Luminostra was an incredibly aggressive war planner, preferring to sacrifice hundreds of ships to put the enemy on the defensive, over any sort of defense.

In the war against the Piundon from 2408.8 onwards, there are many battles that illustrate the idiosyncracies of the Cryslonite.

In the first and second salvos' Luminostra destroyed two colonial worlds of the Piundon, but Piundon ships were on the move in great numbers, and Luminostra had to retreat his fleet, especially to upgrade his napalm weapons for the difficult fight on the Piundon homeworld.

But the Piundon had many ships and many shipyards, and the fleet could barely fight off them all and send the damaged for repairs before another group of ships warped in.

Luminostra's fleet struggled tactically, his weapons were weak, and the enemy ships were outfitted with more of the same crystal shard cannonry, but with shields, taking the place of the napalm and point defense that Luminostra's ships had.

It wasn't until 2410 that Luminostra finally targetted the Piundon homeworld, which had many space stations and transports in orbit.

Luminostra's fleet always came into battle in a formation roughly resembling a concrete block. He believed strongly in keeping ships together for supporting fire.

At the Piundon homeworld, most of the space stations were missile armed, which posed little threat to the fleet. Only a single space station, and a single destroyer, as well as the homeworld itself, had real damaging potential. The Piundon seemed to share the same aggressive stance as Luminostra.

But, the homeworld was extremely well armed, with dozens of long range shard cannon installations.

The manuever most well known of the Cryslonite throughout the galaxy was the planetary charge, and this charge would be the Imperiums' first in the long record of our galaxy...

Excerpt from the Encyclopedia Multiversia

The Cryslonite are one of the few races to rise to power in two seperate universes. In one of them, their rise to power was uncontested and they quickly overwhelmed their home galaxy. In the other, they were weak until a Crystal passed from the first into the second universe, acquiring great powers and converting the populous to the religion practiced in first universe.

Multiverse historians have labelled these two Cryslonite empires as the Ascendant and Transcendant Cryslonite civilizations. The early struggles of the Transcendant Cryslonite caused even Luminostra, the SunGod, to change his views. Even with his dominance, he still changed gradually towards the views of collective.

The struggle created a second element of their religion dedicated to sacrifice and veneration of the great sacrificial war charges of the Imperium.

The war charge at Piundon was the first for the Transcendant collective, it demonstrated the great power of a goal that transcending all other considerations.

For the Cryslonite, that goal was to crush all other civilizations, to crush them, leaving the Last sights of the infestations to be only the Sun illuminated form of a Crystal ship.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Loss and Gain
2412.5 years since the Great Emperor Sieth-sith
Wargaming and Analysis Log of General Moro-kel

"We ran a wargame of an assault on the Cryslonite Imperium well before they attacked us. We have substantially similar weaponry to the Cryslonite, as they also use a form of the shard cannon.

Before the political turmoil and reformation of the Cryslonites' that led to war, they used many diverse types of ships, and seemed rather docile. Their ships freely passed through our space, wandering aimlessly.

From what our intelligence analysts' say, some sort of extremist took over the Imperium with some sort of extra strong weapon. This extremist is known as Luminostra. When they declared war, the announcement gave us many clues as to his identity.

Luminostra believes that all other races are a scourge to be quickly destroyed. 'The Cryslonite have tired of being puppets to a lesser scourge such as the Piundon. Fear the wrath of Luminostra.'

As soon as we got that message, we found that Luminostra had reformed all of his ships to new designs and doctrines.

His fleet destroyed several of our colony worlds before attacking our homeworld with a clearly inadequate force.

I am still analyzing the results of the battle, but it seems Luminostra did not care what losses his fleet would incurr. He managed to destroy many of our space stations, but our planetary weapons annihilated his fleet quickly when he tried to reach close weapons range. The planet took no damage, and the remnants of his fleet could only slightly lessen our shield strength.

He was severely outclassed, but the ships showed no trepidation in charging into overwhelming fire.

Since then, our recon sorties have started to encounter a new type of weapon, and ships that can withstand a lot more attacks. Our captains are in dire need of training, as we have noticed the Cryslonite are now equal to us in weapons accuracy and evasive manuevers.

But the Cryslonite have little economic strength while we have access to the rest of the galaxy. They may know how to traverse warp points, but they are trapped as effectively as if they did not. We only need to hold them off until we consolidate our control over the rest of the galaxy.

But, the Praetor orders that we destroy the puny menace..."
__________________________________________________ ________

It would be easy to claim that the Cryslonite are the most underrated force in the Transcendant universe, and the most overrated force in the Ascendant one...

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

doumga-BUMP !

Still there ?
Check mail !

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Wow... this is fantasitc. I hadn't even seen this story until today. I love the way you take us into the mind of the Crysonite, it's really alien and effective.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Incursion
72rd month of the SunGod Luminostra

Luminostra was furious, pushing the collective into a tornado of anger and a drizzle of despair. The Piundon homeworld was so well armed that only a desperate retreat left any of the fleet intact.

Outranged, outgunned and not enough napalm, Luminostra thought.

To make the problem worse, the enemy had streamed into the Collective home system when the all out attack began, now only a few minelayers were active in trying to parry the counterattack.

It was becoming obvious that the Piundon had supply and production centers outside of their home system.

The greatest difficulty was an internal one, something no other empire could ever know about. Luminostras' power was slowly easing from the overwhelming despair that circulated the collective. Wait long enough and Luminostra would become a high-powered broadcaster of the average collective thought. It was much harder to purge thoughts with a large memory.

This point made Luminostra hate the unworthy subjects on this side of the multiverse. The Ascendant collective was his proper home, here he was mostly a nurse correcting the problems of wimps.

One thing that provided a small streak of powermania was the newest ship classes. They were armed with Quantum Torpedos' Crystalline Armor and shielding, making the battle against the Piudon a bit more even.

73rd month of the SunGod Luminostra

The Piundon invasion force pulled back, unexpectedly, but with the result that the wounded battle fleet was trapped momentarily. Supremacy fleet was left with only two battle ships, one of them crippled, and many support ships for supply and mine sweeping.

74th month of the SunGod Luminostra

Luminostra knew that a victory over the enemy in the collectives' territory would give the collective a boost of warpride. And all but one of the Piundon ships had returned to their home system.

The Piundon were not trapped, they could afford to simply defend against the collective, he thought. We are the ones who have no chance, except through the destruction of the Piundon, we are trapped, cocooned by a force that should fall, but will not.

All we can do is build the insurmountable force. Spend two decades building it. Destroy their star, destroy the planet from afar, those were the two ways that seemed possible. Napalm was not effective to the collective mind, not anymore...

Victory over a heavily damaged Piundon vessel raised no cheers, it was not a worthy victory to celebrate.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Quiet After the Storm
76th month of Luminostra's rule

The Piundon had their first look at the Crysllonite system since the war began, and concluded the Cryslonite had spent everything on the attack, and they would be exposed again the next time.

As the Encyclopedia Multiversia says, Luminostra affected the other crystals' like a Sun affects a planet. But every minute, the planets nudge the Sun a bit as well. Luminostra was tired. This is not something Crystals' are, but Luminostra was tired in spirit from holding up the Cryslonite collectives' moral.

He was beginning to lash out like a losing dictator. Luminostra commited sacrelige, by pondering if the Piundon sun could be destroy. The Sun was holy. Most of the conflict was in his head, as the collective was almost impossible to keep in a religious mood, and they did not object to the plan, at least in most moments.

Once the Piundon were finished, nothing could stop the Cryslonite, and the Religion or at least the collectives' pride could be restored.

It was a long path to research the ways to destroy a star, but Luminostra convinced himself that this would help renew the SunWorld lores and religion. He thought all research would validate the religion. Of course, in truth, knowledge of stellar mechanics would prevent the Religion from holding sway anymore.

Satellite and mine defenses were finally being set up, the Piundon attack was a bit too fierce for the ship defenses, and it was getting worse every month. The Supremacy ships did well, they could destroy 2-3 light cruisers each, because of their excellent weapons and shields. For unlike the Ascendant Cryslonite, in this universe, the Cryslonite had adapted to fight other ships. It was a neccesity of daily life for the Cryslonite.

[ June 07, 2003, 15:29: Message edited by: civ2buf ]

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

Watcher Intergalactic Awareness Reports
History: Galaxy 29086089
Cryslonite Imperium
Battle of Transcendance
2423.2

The Cryslonite Imperium is one of the few empires whose aspirations are undiluted by other concerns. The collective reinforcement allows for unanimity at all times.

After all the victories the Piundon won over the Cryslonite, the Piundon had moved on to other targets, to a large extent. Emperor Luminostra defended patiently, heavily mining the entrance into his home system, and placing a network of battle satellites as well. Before he could figure out how to destroy stars, he managed to gather enough warships to attempt one more conventional battle.

The year was 2423, and Luminostra's forces removed the mines and few ships blocking the Piundon warp point. His fleet was 36 strong, all of the warships were armed with torpedos', not shard cannons as in the Last battle, and half of them were the new Transcendance class Cruisers.

The Piundon homeworld was protected by two warships, a space station, and a satellite network, as well as planetary defenses. The shield grid was at full strength. This time, the Piundon could only repel Luminostra's fleet, they had no strength to invade his system.

The biggest worry was a fleet of ships that had just warped into the Piundon system as Luminostra was approaching their homeworld.

The battle began in the Last few days of 2423.3. Piundon leadership was confident this battle would go the same as all the others. Luminostra was on fire, restored in confidence by his' collectives' feeling of comfort from all the defenses he had built.

The Homeworld was not heavily armed like the Last battle. Only a dozen weapon platforms remained.

Only one ship was damaged, and none destroyed during the shield depletion phase. The homeworld could Last a while, but Luminostra's victory seemed immiment anyway. The Piundon had forgot how to defend a planet it seemed. And this fleet was improved not by numbers, but by technology. Each ship was protected by a combined shield armor energy defense system that made them the most durable light and regular cruisers in the galaxy.

The Quantum torpedos were excellent for quickly destroying ships and planetary napalm took out the shields and started destroying the cultural centers. The Cryslonite Imperium was back on top, it seemed.

And research still progressed on stellar manipulations. Within a few years a planet destroyer ship could join the fleet.

But for now the battle continued. Supplies were a bit low, the Quantum Torpedos were a bit intensive in supply use, and the fleet was not equipped with enough refuelers. The fleet switched to using only napalm on the planet to conserve supplies, but the homeworld would likely take many months to depopulate completely. Over a hundred thousand infantrymen were on planet, which also lengthened the time needed to defeat the homeworld.

But the torrent continued. For the first time, the Cryslonite had dealt a significant blow to the Piundon. The tide of the war had turned towards Luminostra.

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

(ooc: an incredibly clever diplomatic response from the Piundon, almost human)

Message From The Piundon Empire:
"Your shakedowns only show how desperate the Cryslonite Imperium is."

Response From the Cryslonite Imperium:
"We've crippled your homeworld, you've crippled our fleet, which do you think is more important. You are the desperate ones to attack an unsupplied fleet. We don't want to give you the deal you just rejected anyway. You have proven yourself to be our enemy for millenia. We will compress the soil samples infected with your blood, and we will destroy the planet, and then disinfect again, and again and again. Until nothing remains of the abomination you are."

Response from the Piundon Empire:
"I'm afraid your protestations ignore the fact that you a minor system power, while we are an entire empire. We can afford to lose one minor world. It won't be long before we invade your world."

Response from the Cryslonite Imperium:
"We don't laugh much, but after translating that the whole collective was giddy from your stupidity. If you are such a strong empire, how is it that, despite five thousand infantry platoons we still destroyed 90 percent of the usable areas of your pathetic infestation world. I've enjoyed translating for the collective, but this is the Last contact. Death to you, plagueridden."

Re: The Crystalline Religion
 

(ooc: err, for those confused, the first message was the one I actually got from the Piundon, the rest I made up.)