The Crystalline Religion

[Raging Deadstar]

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

[oleg]

...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 ! 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.

[civ2buf]

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.

[oleg]

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.

[primitive]

Great story, keep it coming

Edit: A post of 5 (short) words, and I can't get the spelling right

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

[civ2buf]

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.

[civ2buf]

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...