The Crystals of Madness
From Yb Timeline
"‘I'm a big one-eyed crystal God.’"
-One Eyed Crystal God (I honestly can't remember any quotes)
The Crystals of Madness was the prelude story to the Galdenthane Saga. It introduced the two key players of the saga, the Galdenthane and the ScryAldor. The story was the shortest done by Sub, but paved the way for his largest (and still incomplete) saga.
Characters (in order of appearance): Sneezier, Jet Gundam, Tron, Enni, Wiggly Jr., Top's Lawyer, Hey You, General Daliear, Noxus, Kooplass,
Locations: Starcruiser Prime, New Euphrates, Gap between dimensions
Time Period: Mid-October, 2009
Contents |
Story
Shattered Fleet
The story started with a group of scrap collectors scavenging through a group of destroyed Galactic Federation ships. As they wandered through the wreckage, they began to find that the group of ships was actually an entire fleet, and some unknown force ripped through them effortlessly. As they moved to salvage a supercarrier, a shadow came over them. The group panicked, when a giant beam hit their ship, killing them all. The beam then shot down to the planet of New Euphrates below, annihilating it's surface.
The Response
Several days later, an Alliance of Worlds fleet was orbiting the planet of New Euphrates. The planet's surface was completely barren, but still intact. On the Starcruiser Prime, General Sneezier privately discussed the situation. The planet had emitted an energy spike of cosmic proportions; all sections of the galactic cluster had been able to detect it. And yet, only a short time later, the planet was found with its atmosphere intact, and its crust cooled off.
Then a group of hired spec-ops mercinaries entered the room. These were old Star World heroes able to trusted with such a top secret Alliance of World's operation; Top's Lawyer, Hey You, Enni, and Wiggly Jr. Former Yoshi Bodyguards and SWDF officers Tron and Jet Gundam both accompanied Sneezier as an honor guard.
The group went down to the destroyed planet, scanning the surface and finding that microbial life was starting to develop at a rapid pace. After a stint involving Hey You nearly crashing the transport, the group made it to a Celestial Architect ruin which had survived the liquidification of the planet's crust. Sneezier commented that Shi'un had no knowledge of the Celestial Architects ever expanding this far out. There, Commander of the Federation forces, General Daliear was surrounded by other Alliance of Worlds Expedition Team members. Be briefed Sneezier that the ruins somehow survived the cataclysm that destroyed the planet. The crypts went down for miles, but scans were coming up inconclusive. Scout teams were sent down there, but were ambushed by ROB defensive automatons.
Sneezier volunteered to go down with his group, but just then a group of Vhozon ambushed the Alliance of Worlds team, wounding General Daliear and slipping past their defenses. Sneezier took his group in hot pursuit.
Descent into Madness
Sneezier and his team began to move down the ruins, eventually running into a holographic pedestal. On it, a strange orange Architect gave a short warning; whatever was in there had caused this sect of Architects to kill their own brothers. Sneezier pondered this, before moving on.
The group was impeded by a giant wall of Vhozon ice, obviously an attempt to block their progress. Tron tried to zap cannon the ice, but it was reflected and hit the floor, collapsing it. The group fell into a mass of ROB defenders, where a firefight ensued. After destroying the ROB units, it was revealed that the ROBS had been long disabled beyond any plausible function. Something had animated the defenders.
The group found another pedestal, which warned them that whatever was locked in the ruin had the power to drive the most strong-willed individual to insanity. Ahead of that, the group of Vhozon was firing on itself, some members obviously insane. The group fought both factions of Vhozon, wounding their leader, Noxus. Noxus warned them not to go any further, for they did not know what they were unearthing, when Hey You opened the giant door that lead onward. Noxus gave a warning that they had damned their entire universe, and vanished.
Meanwhile, above, a massive wormhole opened, and billions of strange creatures poured out, heading for New Euphrates.
The Gaze of a God and Deus ex Cloud
Inside, they found a giant mass of green crystals, emitting a strange energy. These crystals seemed to grow with a strange energy. This energy deactivated Tron and Jet Gundam, leaving them lifeless. As they approached the center, a eyeball manifested itself, made of solid energy. The eyeball began to stare at them. This simple stare began to fill their minds with painful memories, amplified thousands of times. Top's Lawyer was given paranoia of death, Enni was being filled with the realization her universe and past were all a lie, Wiggly Jr. was given regret for being unable to save his mother. Hey You was unable to be effected (the God only being able to hear Hey You's theme song looping in his brain). However, Sneezier was the worst effected, being filled with memories of his past, and how his meddling with time has cost the lives of trillions.
However, Sneezier was able to use his Newtype powers to then silence the vision of the God. The Crystal God, who seemed openly impressed at the strange psychic powers of the Newtypes, vowed to break Sneezier's mind and uncover its secrets, and began the assault again.
Up above, strange crystal creatures descended on the planet. The Alliance of Worlds position was threatened to be overrun by billions of strange monsters. At first, the defenders were unwilling to abandon Sneezier and his team in the ruins, but after all seemed lost; they eventually pulled back to space.
Down below, just as the group was on the verge of being driven utterly insane, the Cloud appeared, wanting to save Hey You (and Tron, after some prodding from AFLAC). The God acknowledge the presence of the Cloud, and shot a beam of energy at it. This beam was even able to damage the Cloud, and in a last ditch effort Top teleported the group away from the planet.
Prelude to Annihilation
With the Alliance retreating, the strange crystal creatures had full control of the planet, and began terraforming it with giant crystal spires, concentrating around the ruin. While this occurred, a strange fleet of golden ships appeared from slipspace. They unleashed a bombardment of energy on the planet, annihilating the creatures below, and detonating the planet.
On the Starcruiser Prime, Sneezier awoke in an infirmary. The rest of his group was around him, saying they somehow appeared in the hold of his ship. Sneezier pondered the strange events that occurred on the planet, as his ship drifted for Star World.
Meanwhile, in the gap between dimensions, Top and AFLAC were attempting to repair the Cloud, which was damaged by the God. AFLAC scolded him for his carelessness, while Top tried to calm him down.
Trivia
- Sub originally planned the story to be longer, but time constraints and lack of actual content forced him to shorten it.
- At first there was supposed to be a ScyAldor Team that rescued the group at the end. However, this would conflict some canon later in the arc, so the Cloud was used.
- Subsourian the Dark was to be used, but when Sub remembered Sneezier's Newtype powers, he was used instead.
Connections to Other Stories
- The Cloud would appear again, damaged from its battle with the Crystal God, in The Dark Cloud.
- The story would be continued in Rebel Yell, outlining the battle between the ScyAldor, crystal creatures (known as Galdenthane), and the humans in the sector.
