The Crystalline Religion

[Cyrien]

good pace?

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by Cyrien:
good pace?

Yes, thanx, that was it!

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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.

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(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.

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PS...

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

[Ruatha]

Quite a surprise for them
Seeing mines for the first time can be painful!

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

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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.