The Crystalline Religion

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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...

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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?'"...

[Ruatha]

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 ]

[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.