The Crystalline Religion

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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.

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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.

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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.