The Age of the New Frontier
Gate of Destiny
Starfleet Operations TVL-977
Subject: Crystalline Entity
Summary:
The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D encountered one of these nearly forty years ago, and the creature was destroyed. At the time, we believed that the creature was one of a kind and hadn't prepared for the eventuality of encountering another.
When this one was discovered traveling through this region of space, attempts at communication were made, but the creature responded by violently destroying the ships that were sent to make contact. As a result, Starfleet and the Klingon Defense Force have both authorized immediate action to end the threat caused by its presence.
The Tholians seem particularly interested in this Entity. Perhaps they hope to communicate with it, based on their biological similarities as crystal-based life-forms. As usual, the Tholians are enigmatic, and we're not really sure what they have planned. We should be prepared to defend ourselves from their forces, as we move to engage the Crystalline Entity.
Capabilities:
It focuses a Matter Conversion Beam in a similar manner to starship weaponry, and uses this to lash out randomly at nearby vessels. This beam deals substantial damage to starships, it is capable of disabling and killing crew at an alarming rate.
The crystal regenerates at very high speeds, and is incredibly resilient to our fire power - especially that derived from directed energy weapons. Massive amounts of sustained firepower will be needed over the course of our encounter in order to overcome this.
Matter Conversion Beam Weapon (Antiproton damage)
High Health Regeneration
High Kinetic Resistance
Very High Energy Weapon Resistance
There is a high chance that dealing damage to the Entity will cause a Large Crystalline Fragment to break off into space. We've observed these Large Fragments seek out starships and ram into them, destroying them in as little as a single hit. If you find yourself being followed by a Large Fragment, it's recommended that you either destroy it, or outmaneuver it.
Large Fragments that impact a starship will shatter into Small Fragments which return to the entity and apply a "Re-Crystalize" effect that will amplify the magnitude of the entity's attacks. The Small Fragments can be destroyed, but targeting them has proven exceedingly damaged, spawns Large Fragments which will attempt to ram vessels, but will ignore smaller targets (mines, fighters, etc). If they impact a ship, will split into Small Fragments. Destroying them before they can impact a ship will prevent Small Fragments from spawning.
Small Fragments will apply a buff that will increase the Entity's damage.
As a strange side effect of the Entity's unique crystalline structure, certain combat abilities that are typically used to drain enemy shields and subsystem power, have been proven to break down newly-formed crystals along the entity's surface. These abilities are specifically effective against Small Fragments that have attached to themselves to the entity and applied the "Re-Crystalize" effect.
Use of such abilities is recommended, in hopes of keeping the magnitude of the entity's devastating attacks in check.
The following abilities will periodically remove multiple "Re-Crystalize" charges from the Entity:
Tachyon Beam
Charged Particle Burst
Energy Siphon
Tyken's Rift
The entity is also capable of going into a sort of resonance trance. It is nearly immune to energy damage while in this state, and incoming weapons fire only seems to feed its rage. After it has concluded this trance state, any energy absorbed is violently expelled in a shockwave that can be extremely devastating.
It is recommended that our strike force switch targets during this phase to avoid feeding the shockwave, and resume fire on the Entity after it has expelled its shockwave. Allowing it to absorb too much incoming energy will allow its shockwave to potentially vaporize our entire fleet.
Can enter an Absorption phase:
Any damage dealt during this phase is absorbed by the Entity.
This phase lasts 30 seconds, after which all absorbed energy is expelled violently in a massive Antiproton energy shockwave.
If the Entity has been allowed to fully charge up with absorbed energy, and has any charges of Re-Crystalize, it's highly likely that this blast will destroy all ships within a 10km range, in a single hit.
The shockwave will damage any nearby Fragments and Tholian ships. It may be possible to use this to your advantage, but not recommended.
Recommendations:
This is a creature we're dealing with, not a starship. Weapons and abilities which impact starship subsystems will generally have no effect on the entity, except where previously noted to remove Re-Crystalize buffs.
Abilities which can control the movement of Large or Small Fragments, or deal damage over a large area, could both come in handy to control the number of targets on the battlefield.
Maneuverability is also important to avoid collision with Large Fragments.
Weapons: The special abilities found on Phasers, Tetryons and Polarons will not affect the entity. (It does not possess Shields or Subsystems)
Weapons: The entity is less resistant to Kinetic Weapons than it is to Energy Weapons.
Abilities: Subsystem Offline abilities have no effect on the Entity or Fragments. (Boarding Party and Viral Matrix, for example)
Abilities: Jam Sensors, Scramble Sensors and other similar effects are unlikely to affect the Entity, but will befuddle the Large Fragments.
Abilities: Movement control and multi-target damaging abilities recommended for use on shards. (Gravity Well and Photonic Shockwave, for example)
Abilities: If you can't destroy the Large Fragments, find a way to outrun them. They will find a new target once you are far away from them.
Additional Notes:
As far as we can tell, the entity is throwing off a large amount of strange subspace distortion. As a result, we're seeing various spatial anomalies. Be careful - as the entity changes energy states, it's likely that the anomalies will change as well.
Task-Force Orion:
R.R.W. Jenova – Scimitar Class Dreadnaught
U.S.S. Versailles – Galaxy Class Explorer
U.S.S. Starfire – Constitution Class Cruiser
K.D.F. K'ruela – B'Rel Class Bird of Prey
R.R.W. Jalok – D'eridex Class Warbird
Close File
Milky Way Galaxy
Beta Quadrant
Teneebia Sector
The large fleet of Federation, Klingon, and Romulan ships began their attack run on the massive crystalline entity that was moving to attack the Teneebia colony. As expected a Tholian fleet was with the massive creature and was ready to fight back. However even with the Tholians escorting the aggressive creature they were no match for the more powerful alliance ships that quickly began their assault. The fleet assaulted the Entity from all sides, burning through its crystalline skin slowly as it fired back.
Only the Tholians had a plan this time.
Their ships came together and released high intensity gravitic tachyon beams, creating a massive rift that began pulling anything nearby towards it. Some ships escape but a total of six ships were pulled in as they diverted emergency power to shields.
At the same time a Gravity Well was generated by a Federation ship that damaged the Crystalline Entity and under the constant barrage it exploded few minutes later. The Tholians began their retreat but the rift seemingly remained open as a result of the Tholians attempting to enlarge it and destroy the entire enemy fleet.
The rift pulled the five ships in and then collapsed.
A small scout ship emerged from a hole in space made of blue energy and flew forward into the system. The hole in space vanished as the ship left, leaving no sign of how it arrived. The scout ship then began its mission of reconnaissance, looking for suitable planets to colonize and use for resources. The scout ship only had a crew of two pilots with the captain sitting behind them, observing the two at their work station.
During its routine patrol it had picked up strange readings and followed it towards the fourth planet, an ice planet to investigate. When it arrived the passengers watched as a massive vortex of energy appeared and from it came five ships that did not resemble anything they had seen before. The captain ordered the ship to cloak itself, effectively hiding from the newcomer's sensors and quickly call for back up with the warning of an unidentified intruder possibly entering their Lord's space. These ships did not resemble any known enemy of their Lords but they could not be sure if they were allies or not.
They had received word to observe the intruders while waiting for their master's fleet to intercept them. Their scanners had been unable to scan the nebula since the electromagnetic interference was too great, even for their sensors. The intruders must be mounting an invasion fleet into their Lord's territory, using the nebula as a staging ground.
This would not be allowed. These interlopers would be destroyed before they could dare to stand against their Lords! Their Lords would not be insulted with unworthy steps made within their kingdom.
Arrangements would be made, fleets would be gathered, and then this new threat would be eliminated immediately.
"Main power has been restored, Admiral. Primary shields and engines will be restored in five minutes."
Admiral Denola of the RRW Jenova sighed as she sat back in her chair. "What the status of the others?"
"Starfire will have shields and engines restored in twenty minutes while the Jalok and the K'Ruela need a bit longer to restore main power. The Versailles is in slightly better condition than we are."
"Good then we can-"
"Commander, sensors detecting something over the ice planet!" A sensor operator reported as his console beeped.
"Another rift?"
"No...It's some kind of space rupture forming."
"What?" Denola exclaimed. "Show me."
The holographic map of the system was replaced by a visual image of the ice planet and above it a blue and white glowing hole appeared.
"Scan it!" Denola ordered.
"I've...never seen anything like it..." The scanner operator reported. "Sir, something's come out."
Out of the distortion window came out a group of ships, around seven cruiser class vessels but looked very bizarre. They resembled a massive pyramid with a double hulled ring covering up a central third of the ships that were connected to the pyramids by massive struts.
"Scan them."
"The ships are seven hundred meters in length and six fifty meters in width. They are on an intercept course, raising shields and arming weapons."
"Tactical analysis."
"The shields seem to be rudimentary in design and basic but match twenty third century shielding and their weapons seem to be plasma based like ours, only they match the ones from a century ago. The life forms aboard are humanoid but I am detecting other lifeforms inside them…Sort of a Trill and a symbiote." The console beeped. "We are being hailed."
"On screen."
On the screen appeared an ordinary human dressed in strange garb with flashing eyes as he sneered. "I am the great god Zipacna. You will bow before your god and surrender your ships or be destroyed."
Denola raised an eyebrow as she stood up. "I am Admiral Denola of the Romulan Republic and I will do no such thing. If you attempt to attack us we will respond in kind."
"You dare defy your god? You will perish. Jaffa kree!" Zipacna shouted before ending the transmission.
"Admiral the Versailles is raising shields and arming weapons. The others still need time."
"Tell them to hang back. We will deal with these aggressors."
The pyramid ships fired a wave of golden energy bolts towards the two starships. Their shields easily blocked the bolts of plasma and the Versailles was the first to fire, its phaser arrays hitting several ships at once and heavily weakening their shields. The Jenova was the next to fire, plasma beams and torpedoes reaching and destroying one ship and crippling another with a volley of plasma torpedoes. The other ships intensified their fire but it did little good against the two advanced ships.
"Which ship is Zipacna on?" Denola asked.
"I'm locking onto his ship now, Admiral." The Federation exchange officer, a young Bajoran answered as the scanner located Zipacna's ship. "Found him."
"I want that ship disabled."
The Jenova locked a tractor beam onto Zipacna's ship and locked another beam onto the ship, draining it off its power.
"The ship is on minimal power now, Admiral. The other ships are moving to attack us."
However the remaining three pyramid shaped ships forgot about the other enemy ships who begun their assault quickly. Phasers, disruptors, and even plasma impacted the shields followed by quantum and photon torpedoes that quickly destroyed the last three ships.
"Enemy vessels destroyed, Admiral."
"Good. Lock onto Zipacna and beam him into the brig. I want to speak with him…Personally."
R.R.W. Jenova
Brig
Denola stepped through the door into the holding section and spotted Zipacna in his cell, his eyes flashing when he saw her.
"You dare to capture a god! You will suffer a thousand deaths for this!"
"I highly doubt that." Denola concentrated and felt to neural patterns in the man's mind.
One was dominate while the other was repressed to the point it could do nothing but see through the eyes of his own body.
"You're not a god…You're a symbiotic creature that's taken over this man's body." Denola narrowed her eyes while Zipacna's widened in surprise. "I can sense the secondary neural pattern inside your mind. You took over this man's body…A slave for most of his life and led to believe serving you and others like was the highest honor before you stripped him of even control of his own body along with his freedom and his choice to live as he chooses and that of his people."
Zipacna stepped back. "You can read my thoughts?"
"I can…And I don't like what I see." Denola glared harshly. "Oppressing billions of people for your sick delusion. Killing your servants off for your personal pleasure as you fight your own kind for a sick twisted need for power…You are literally parasites!"
"We are the Goa'uld and we are the masters of this galaxy! The lesser races are expected to serve their gods!" Zipacna snapped.
"You are no god. Just a pathetic parasite drunk on power. Well, Zipacna, let me be the first to have the pleasure of saying that your little game ends here. We are more powerful than you and your kind will learn to leave us alone or they will find out the hard way when someone tries to oppress the Romulan Republic. That goes for your master as well…the one calling himself Anubis." Denola spat before she turned and left the brig, her disgust on Zipacna making her unable to look at him a second further.
Briefing Room
"Zipacna is a symbiote?"
Denola looked across the table at the assembled captains of the four other ships that came through the rift with the Jenova. She nodded and took the time to explain what she had felt when she probed the alien's mind. How the symbiote called itself a Goa'uld and that its kind took over humanoid bodies and used them to masquerade as gods and enslaved countless people in this galaxy. A quantum RNA scan revealed they were in the Milky Way galaxy, only in a different reality and traveled back to the late twenty first century.
Needless to say the other officers were disgusted by the actions of the Goa'uld and they knew if they were the dominant power in the galaxy it would not be a good idea to make contact with them. They needed to find a planet or system that could offer them shelter.
Luckily they had an option.
"There's a planet that can offer us some sort of help. It is known as Tollana and the information from the databanks in Zipacna's ship states that the Tollans are advanced enough that they might be able to help us." Denola offered.
"How close is it?" A Bolian Captain asked.
"If we use transwarp we will be there in a matter of minutes." Denola answered. "It seems the data from Zipacna's ship suggest that a Goa'uld named Anubis has taken an interest in this planet's technology. The Tollans have a form of phase-shift technology that's as advanced as a phased cloak only it doesn't need cloaking technology. Anubis wants them to make a bomb and send it through something called a Stargate…To Earth."
"Earth?" The captain of the Versailles, a human asked.
"Apparently Earth is an enemy of the Goa'uld in this reality but for some reason they cannot launch a direct attack." Denola explained. "I believe we'll find out more from the Tollan."
From there on it was easy to make a decision and the task force activated their tranwarp drives and headed to the coordinates where the planet called Tollana was located.
"Coming out of warp now, Admiral." Her first officer reported.
Denola watched as the light blue tunnel of transwarp space was replaced by normal space and a planet appeared on the view screen.
Only it was under attack by a Goa'uld mothership.
"Battle stations." Denola stated, narrowing her eyes as the klaxons rang across the ship.
"Admiral, I am detecting fire from the planet surface. They appear to be ion-based bolts but the mothership's shields are blocking them. They seem to be more advanced than the ones used by Zipacna. I estimate the shields are late twenty third century based." The Commander, a Reman reported.
"Tell the others to hang back while we handle this." Denola stated.
The Goa'uld's actions were reminding her more and more of the Tal Shiar and how the remnants of the old Empire acted under Empress Sela before she disappeared.
If the universe had any mercy Sela was dead and her body incinerated.
"Full power to weapons. These parasites do not deserve any compassion." Denola said coldly. "Fire on my mark."
The mothership seemed to finally notice the Jenova approaching and started firing on the massive ship that was larger than it. However the dreadnaught warbird's shields were powerful enough to block the concentrated plasma bolts aimed at them.
"It's time we teach these parasites what we think of them. I want that ship destroyed." Denola ordered as the ship barely shook.
The Jenova fired a blue tachyon beam, touching the shields and draining them of power in a matter of seconds. The second the shields were down the warbird fired all of its weapons, pounding the core overloaded and exploded. The Goa'uld mothership became a massive ball of fire that left nothing to show it had existed.
"Scan the surface." Denola said, her icy look now calm and professional once the Goa'uld ship was gone.
"It's bad, Admiral. Scans show multiple cities on fire from heavy bombing."
"Try and hail anyone on the surface."
A moment later a response was heard from the surface, audio only.
"This is High Chancellor Travell of the planet Tollan to unidentified ships in our orbit. We do not know who your or where you come from but you have saved us from extinction and I thank you for it."
"This is Admiral Denola of the Romulan Republic Warbird Jenova and you are welcome." Denola stated.
"I know of no Romulan Republic, Admiral. And the ships with you, some appear to be very different in design from yours."
"That is because they are not from our Republic but they are close allies. The Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets both are large political entities in our galaxy and we were brought here by accident."
"I see. Even if it was an accident it was fortunate for us that you came otherwise Tanneth would have continued bombing our planet until nothing was left."
"We are happy to help out, Chancellor. We offer our help to you now and I request to beam down to meet with you personally."
"Beam? You possess matter-energy transport?"
"We do."
"Fascinating. We will readily accept any supplies you offer us, Admiral. Our subspace transmitters and our Stargate were destroyed in the bombing so we cannot contact any of our allies for help."
"I believe we can help with that, Chancellor. I will beam down to speak with you in a few moments."
"I will be waiting meet with you, Admiral. And once again I thank you for saving us. Travell out."
Denola turned to her Commander. "Prepare several away teams from the task force and I want medical personnel to beam down with us. Begin scanning the surface for anyone trapped under wreckage and beam them out immediately."
"Yes Admiral."