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Crystal Guardian

Arc 1: Between the Darkness and the Light

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Chapter 11: Impact

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When Nalen arrived at the boulder site he used his Crystal Armour's computational capabilities to estimate the mass of the boulder to be about 957 tons (957 000 kilograms). Nalen then used shield expansion to extend his shield around the boulder, he then twisted the shield to form a loop, and this resulted in Nalen and the boulder being isolated separately from each other. Nalen then began to pump air into the boulder containment shield.

When the boulder containment shield was filled to maximum capacity Nalen increased the shield power, then he created an electrical field in his part, this was to serve as additional protection for him. Using his hands Nalen fired ElectroLaser Lightning Plasma Energy Balls into a vortex on the boulder containment shield. The vortex on the boulder containment shield was such that it allowed energy in without releasing air, and as the temperature in the boulder containment shield rapidly rose the surface of the boulder began to melt. The pressure on the boulder containment shield increased to astronomical levels as the temperature increased.

When Nalen reached the limit of his ability to maintain the boulder containment shield he stopped firing into the boulder containment shield, and then Nalen created a vortex at the bottom of the boulder containment shield directly under the centre of gravity of the boulder. When Nalen released the superheated air trapped in the boulder containment shield both he and the boulder rocketed to the sky at incredible speed.

As they moved through the atmosphere Nalen collected and stored even more air into his part of the shield. As Nalen reached an altitude of 9000 meters he activated the thrusters of his Guardian Crystal Armour increasing their speed to beyond escape velocity and pushing them through the thickest part of the atmosphere at an incredible rate of climb for something that heavy. Nalen pushed through the atmosphere along the way collecting more and more air until he reached an altitude of 100 000 meters above ground, the very edge of space.

Using the Guardian Crystal Armour's computational capabilities Nalen calculated the optimal drop trajectory. Nalen closed the boulder containment shield thrust vortex and then pumped 70% of the air he had collected into the boulder containment shield. The boulder began to fall with Nalen using his Armour's flight systems to manoeuvre the boulder. As he moved through the atmosphere the air in the boulder containment shield became superheated.

Once again Nalen created a vortex at the back of the boulder containment shield directly parallel to the angle of attack of the falling boulder, and as he released the superheated air the speed of the falling boulder increased to 12789 m/s (Mach 37.1773258) with Nalen flying along just above the boulder.

At altitude 45000m Nalen sends an urgent joint communiqué to all field Guardians, Vangleads and Vanguards.

Nalen : " Everyone get the hell out of the way! I'm coming in hot; get airborne or take cover!"

Included in Nalen's communiqué are Trajectory Details, Impact Target and possible Blast Radius and yield. On the battle field, all the Crystalorb Forces disengage and get the wounded airborne as they began to detect Nalen’s approach. At altitude 9000 meters Nalen releases the boulder and climbs at an oblique angle to an altitude of 15000 meters. As the Crystalorb Forces disengage the HOD Forces become aware that something big is heading for the centre of their forces.

The HOD Forces tried to escape as the ground began to shake, but most were not quick enough, and the boulder was too close. The boulder's impact on the ground was enormous, creating a massive crater, and the explosion released 79.2015693 Terajoules (22.00044 GWh), the equivalent of the explosive energy contained in 18.92993 Kilo-tons of TNT.

Nearly all the enforcers caught in the shockwave were killed, half the Under-Lords and Overlords survived, but all the Grandlords outside the immediate impact area survived. All those in the immediate impact area were instantly killed. Lord Tsela and his escort Grandlords were outside the immediate impact area, and used their ability to jump very high distances to escape and take cover behind mountains.

- - -

At the centre of the Impact area remnants of the fragmented boulder were visible from the air as the four rescue force Guardians landed. Esara and all the other Crystalan forces also landed with Nalen the last to make his approach. As Nalen hovered above the impact area and slowly descended to the ground, his shield at full power, all the Crystalan forces quietly observed Nalen's slow decent to the ground.

Lebago : " Is it me? Or does he look like an Orb of Red Light descending from the Sky?"

Nasan : " Like a descending Red Star!"

As Nalen touched the ground he stood there for a little while.

Peo : " What's that hamming?"

Aman : " It's Nalen's energy field! As the charged air particles collide they release electrical energy"

Esara moves towards Nalen, and when Nalen sees Esara approach him he disengages his shield and takes off his helmet. When Esara sees that it truly is Nalen she runs and embraces him, and they stand there in each others arms for 2 minutes.

Esara : " Sweetheart! I've missed you!"

Nalen : " I've missed you Esara!"

As the other Guardians approach Nalen to thank him for his efforts Esara and Nalen turn to face Lenong the Senior Guardian on the field.

Lenong : " Good to see you again Nalen!"

Kanang : " That was some display of power!"

Aman : " Good to have you back Nalen! We are all in your debt!"

With tears running down Nalen’s face.

Nalen : " Now I'm become death, the destroyer of worlds! "

Nalen was overcome with sadness, the sight of the devastation had shaken him, it was all too much for him. Esara explains why Nalen is so shaken.

Esara : " Nalen has never killed anyone before; he had always found a way to defeat his enemies without killing them. Unfortunately for him, the first time he was forced to kill, he killed over 1300 people!"

Nalen : " This must be how it feels to be a scientist involved in the creation of Weapons of Mass Destruction! To realise what one has helped unleash upon the world!"

At the Crystalorb Command Centre there was enormous relief; Anun activated the joint communications to give final mission instructions.

Anun : " Lenong! I'm sending the locations of all the dead Crystalans, send teams to collect them; their Armours are still reporting their positions. Bring them home, bring everyone home!"

- - -

As the Crystalorb Forces collected the bodies of their fallen comrades the remnants of the HOD also collected the bodies of their own dead. For the first time the two forces chose not to engage each other on sight, they reached an unspoken cease fire, a silent truce.

At Crystalorb, the Council of Elders and the Guardian Council withdrew to separate Chambers, with the Council of Elders meeting in the Council Chambers.

Isis : " It is just as the Spirit Stone foretold!"

Cyris : " Nalen does harbour a great power!"

Gaurdius : " And now he has shown us the true extent of the Crystal Armour's power!"

Isis : " A terrifying sight; the Idea that one person can hold the power to instantly kill millions shakes me to the core. Now the control of that power will rest with us, we have in our possession a terribly distractive force, and I don't know how I feel about this! This power is clearly not a defensive weapon, but an indiscriminate killer, a Weapon of Mass Destruction!"

Onala : " Indeed!"

Cyris : " We must take time to properly consider how to reconcile the capabilities of the Crystal Armour and the Crystalorb Charter!"

Jalen : " Yes, the Crystalorb Charter is our Crystalan Law!"

Lumen : " The Crystalorb Charter speaks to our truest nature, and our Fervent Aspirations. Who we are, and who we hope to be! I'm also troubled by the recent direction of our people, and the sad thing is that I know we can be better, we can do better! The Crystalorb Charter says; freedom is the right of all Sentient-Sapient beings. We must honour that, live it; not threaten the world with new found power!"

Lerata : " We are at war! Have you forgotten why we fight? Have you forgotten the horrors the HOD is capable of?"

Tshego : " They've attacked us, and with their wealth they corrupt entire nations! Their cohorts are shifting the little national resources they have to serve Hodian interests, and recently they’ve introduced Mutagenic recombinant RNA into the human race, an act that will surely destabilize the world!”

Lumen : " What Nalen did was necessary, but it was also an escalation!"

Isis : " An escalation the HOD will no doubt try and match!"

Cyris : " War is the ultimate failure of the human spirit."

Lumen : " We must try and negotiate some kind of peace with the HOD."

Isis : " We must try to find a way out of this mess."

Hamun : " This isn't a squabble over pieces of a golden rock; it's a war, of Powers and Principalities! The HOD are the Hyena, the roving wolf, all they want is an opportunity to bear their teeth and feed!"

- - -

As the Council of Elders continue their deliberations the Guardian Council return to the Crystalorb Command Centre to observe the Crystalorb Force's return to Crystalorb. The HOD are also making their way to their homes after they collected their dead. The News Media has arrived at the conflict site in the Central African Republic.

As soon as the HOD left the area the News media convene at the impact area. The News Media began to give live television reports of what they believed was a Meteor impact event. At the Crystalorb Command Centre Guardians were monitoring all News reports on all channels looking for any sign of evidence that could expose Crystalorb or the presence of the Crystalorb forces.

A news report from one of the smaller Satellite News networks GCN (Global Communications Network) news catches the attention of the Guardians.

The News Anchor Paul Stanton goes to field reporter James McNeil who's giving his live report.

James : " As I stand here in the middle of this devastation there can be no doubt about the power of the impact of the large rock that hit this area!"

Paul : " How big was the rock?"

James : " Scientists say that it must've been at a minimum 15 meters in diameter"

Paul : " Do the astronomical societies know how they missed such a large object coming into contact with the Earth?"

James : " Well the simple answer to that question is that there are simply no telescopes on this part of Africa, I mean to put it simply this is the middle of nowhere! Yet we have located two kids who claim to have seen everything. We have found a translator who will translate for us”

The account of the 2 kids Nate and Paku is seen on the television.

Paku : " We were playing in those mountains looking for birds when we saw 3 Planes fly over there and drop people in parachutes."

Nate : " Then the airplanes exploded in the air!"

Paku : " So we went over to see, and that’s when we saw them!"

James has the translator translate his questions to the kids.

James : " Them? Who's them?"

After the translator translates.

Paku : " The gods!"

Nate : " There were two types, the Fire gods and the Glass gods!"

Paku : " The Fire gods were fighting the Glass gods!"

James : " What do you mean Fire gods and the Glass Gods?"

Paku : " Some were covered in glass and others were shooting fire balls from their hands!"

Nate : " And the Glass gods produced lightning from their Chest and Hands!"

Paku : " The two groups fought for a long time, and it looked like the Glass gods were losing, many of them were being killed by the metal Fire gods; the leaders of the Fire gods!"

Nate : " Until the Red Glass god arrived!"

Paku : " She brought with her a storm!"

James : " So this Red Glass god was a woman?"

Paku : " Yes!"

Nate : " That's when we left!"

Paku : " We ran away and hid in a cave in one of those mountains!"

Then James turns and faces the camera to complete his report.

James : " It might be easy to dismiss what the children are saying as the wild imagination of traumatized children, but except for this!" James holds a Manacle of Destiny up to the camera “The two kids say that they found it on the ground as they ran away. They also say that this is part of the hand of the Fire gods, they insist that the gods somehow wear this device to shoot fire from the hand."

Paul : " What is that thing?"

James : " I've asked some of the renowned scientists here to look at it under a microscope, and what they found spooked even the most sceptical scientists."

Paul : " What did they find?"

James : " The device is of a Biomechanical nature, it looks metallic but it's organic, complete with a cellular structure that is very densely arranged. The scientists all agree that this technology goes far beyond anything they've ever seen or heard of."

Paul : " Are you saying that this is some kind of secret weapon?"

James : " There are other questions Paul, like how is it that advanced military equipment failed to detect something larger than the US space shuttle as it entered Earth's atmosphere?, and the meteor fragments don't look like other fragments we've seen in the past, again why is the US military not releasing footage from their nuclear detonation detection satellites?"

Paul : " There seems to be a lot of questions?"

James : " Yes Paul, speculation is rife and conspiracy theories are beginning to spread, yesterday we received an anonymous tip that global vaccines have been contaminated, I just wonder what all these events have to do with each other?"

Paul : " Indeed! Thank you James!" James acknowledges Paul "Strange!"

James : " Yes! James McNeil reporting live from the Central African Republic!"

Paul : " Join us for continuing coverage of this unfolding story as we seek to uncover the complete truth!”

The GCN News channel goes to a commercial break.

- - -

At the Whitehouse the President of the United States meets with Admiral John Bright; John Bright is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The conservative President Stanley Carver is particularly upset at the lack of information about what happened in the Central African Republic.

President Carver : " God dam-it John! What the hell is going on?"

Admiral Bright: " Our DSP satellites picked up the impact, and once we noticed it, we began backtracking the images to investigate!"

Images appear on the screens.

President Carver : " And?"

Admiral Bright : " That's when we saw it sir!"

President Carver : " Saw what?"

Admiral Bright: " It's hard to describe Mr President, but it looks like there was some sort of battle."

President Carver : " Are you saying that there is some truth to the news stories?"

Admiral Bright: " Yes sir Mr President! From our analysis we think that there are 2 Factions! Crystal Armour and Metallic Armour! The Metallic Armour faction seems to have larger numbers, but the others seem to be flight capable! We think that the Crystal Armour faction is responsible for the attack on the vaccine facilities in India, Europe and Southern Africa!"

President Carver : " Are you saying that they're hostile?"

Admiral Bright : " It's a strong possibility Mr President!"

President Carver : " Where do they come from?"

Admiral Bright: " We can't be sure Mr President! They're using some kind of stealth!" he leans in as if to whisper "We've been hearing rumours about a powerful Hybrid organization in South Africa, but nothing can be confirmed! They say that it goes back over a hundred years!"

President Carver: " Super human Hybrids in Africa for a hundred years? Why don't we know anything about this? How is it that they have been here all this time?"

Admiral Bright: " We believe that they're of African decent, and the racial policies of the various South African authorities may have driven them underground Mr President! They would've had to hide themselves for generations, and they would've had to develop defensive capabilities."

President Carver: " If they've been around for over a hundred years, then they would've witnessed our own racial policies, and those of the Europeans. They are unlikely to trust us! Any of us!" pause “Is the South African Government aware of this?

Admiral Bright: " They know something, but we don't know how much they know! However we believe that the Crystal faction is very likely to make direct contact with the South African Government!"

President Carver : " What about the other ones? Ah! The Metallics?"

Admiral Bright: " They seem to be operating in plain sight Mr President! Based all over the world! Involved in all sorts of Business activities! The fact that they're hiding in plain sight concerns me a little!"

President Carver : " Why?"

Admiral Bright: " Because for whatever reason they're not afraid of Governments! They seem confident that they can deal with any Government that tries anything."

President Carver : " What?"

Admiral Bright: " I think their confidence implies that they may have infiltrated everything, and they're everywhere!"

President Carver: " We must talk to them! Find out what their intensions are!"

Admiral Bright: " At least we can find the Metallics Mr President! Maybe they can shed some light on their foes!"

- - -

At the Crystalorb Command Centre the Guardians were watching the news reports, and now wondered what the Global Repercussions of this will be? And they wonder if they should somehow intervene to retrieve the Manacle of Destiny?

Inala : " We should do something about this!"

Loj : " The technology of the Manacle of Destiny is too dangerous to be allowed to fall into the hands of unscrupulous characters!"

Ocyris : " Even if they could find some way to open it, they will never be able to understand its power source, and the Manacle of Destiny will not accept those that are not connected to it by blood"

Anun : " The responsibility for the retrieval of the Manacle of Destiny rests with the HOD!"

Loj : " Tsela is a Madman; we can never expect him to behave rationally!"

Anun : " In any case we can't recover the Manacle of Destiny without harming people, and the Manacle of Destiny is not ours to recover. We can't justify the harm we would cause in trying to retrieve the Manacle of Destiny, if the HOD does not recover their Manacle of Destiny then we must not intervene even if it exposes our secret. We don't kill to protect secrets, but to protect lives."

- - -

The Guardians meet to plan, and the Council of Elders also debate their next course of action, but before they could finish their deliberations the Crystalorb Forces begin to arrive back at Crystalorb. As is Crystalorb custom the bodies of the dead arrive first, escorted by their immediate commander. Crystalans don't believe in presenting a good image, they prefer the truth even if it's painful to bear.

The body of Kolen was escorted by Guardian Lenong of Sector 10 and the other 3 fallen Guardians were escorted by; Guardian Aman of Sector 2, Guardian Kanang of Sector 8 and Guardian Pule of Sector 11. The fallen Vanguards and Vangleads were escorted by senior Vanglead Lebago. Nalen and Esara arrived with the rest of the Crystalorb Forces. The Crystalans were in a period of mourning, and many families had lost a loved one, the only smiles to be found were of those relieved to see their loved ones return home safely.

Of the original 128 group that left Crystalorb 57 returned alive, 71 were killed, amongst the dead were 4 Guardians. The additional rescue force lost 7 Vanguards, bringing Crystalorb's total loss to 78, with a further 63 injured. The Council of Elders and the Guardian Council stood at the base of the Pyramid as the dead were laid before the pyramid. The Council of Elders gave the families of the fallen time to mourn their loss before the Commitment Ceremony could begin.

- - -

After several hours the Commitment Ceremony began. In this process Jalen, Hamun, Lumen, Tshego and Lerata the more Spiritual members of the Council of Elders would articulate and expatiate the Commitment Ceremony for the fallen warriors

Tshego : " Heart of our people! Heart of Crystalorb!"

Lerata : " In the name of all Crystalans!"

Lumen : " We beseech you!"

Hamun : " Awaken mighty Spirits!"

Jalen : " And receive our fallen amongst your order!"

The Armours disengaged from the bodies of the dead, locking themselves into Armour spheres then hovering 2 meters above the bodies of the dead.

Tshego : " We are born of the Light! We live in the light!"

Lumen : " And upon our death we return to the light!"

Lerata : " With this in mind, we will now return our fallen to the light!"

Multiple beams of light connected the Spirit Stone to all the bodies

Jalen : " It's time for all of you to return to the Source!"

All the Crystalans at the Commitment Ceremony activated their Chest Crystals, generating a beam of light that connected with the Spirit Stone, and this caused the Chest Crystals of the Dead to activate, absorbing all of the bodies thereby increasing in size. When the Chest Crystals were finished absorbing the rest of the body they hovered next to the hovering Crystal Armour spheres.

Hamun : " The Crystal Armour is a part of a Crystalan and thus cannot exist without the Crystalan; the Crystal Armour will now mourn them!"

The Crystal Armour spheres each generated a massive aura of light that was very bright, then produced an electrical energy stream that linked it to corresponding enlarged hovering Chest Crystals. The Crystal Armour spheres began to move in circles around the enlarged hovering Chest Crystal moving incrementally closer to the crystal until eventually fusing with the Chest Crystal.

Lumen : " They are no longer with us, from here onwards they will forever be a part of the Spirit Stone!"

Tshego : " Mighty Spirit Stone Accept your children into your home!"

With that, the combined Chest Crystals and Vanguard Armour spheres flew up the pyramid and fused with the Spirit Stone in a massive flash of light. The Commitment Ceremony was concluded.

- - -

After the ceremony all Crystalans returned to their homes to reflect on the events of recent days, Nalen in particular had spent the past four years sleeping, so he needed time to catch up on things that occurred in the past years.

Nalen talks to his family about his perception of the world while he was sleeping.

Naole : " Was it like a long dream?"

Nalen : " Not exactly!"

Casara : " Well? How was it then?"

Nalen : " It was like I was trapped in a parallel Crystalorb, others could come and go as they pleased but I could not leave!"

Casara : " What do you mean by others?"

Nalen : " I think that there are abilities of the Chest Crystal that are yet undiscovered, abilities the hold untold power! The Chest Crystal does not die as long as it receives energy, and in the body that energy comes mainly from the skin and food. Our skins absorb 80% of the energy we need for the Chest Crystals, and here in Crystalorb that energy is supplied by the Illuminating Crystals!"

Esara : " How do you know this?"

Nalen : " After a long time I realised that the Crystalorb I was in was a different reality, a reality like a separate dimension. When I tried to get out it became clear that I could not physically leave the reality, because the reality would extend as far as I wanted it to. It's my theory that Chest Crystal is capable of Chest Crystal to Chest Crystal radio communications and that as we dream the Chest Crystal broadcasts the dream in radio waves"

Casara : " I don't get it?"

Naole : " Neither do I!"

Esara : " What your father is saying is that he was trapped in a dream plane, and that while there he could receive other people's dreams. He's saying that the Chest Crystal sends what you are dreaming to the dream plane, and that the two of you might be able to communicate with each other using just your Chest Crystals"

Naole : " Is that really possible?"

Casara : " Father; are you saying that Crystalans are telepathic?"

Nalen : " I don't know about that, Telepathic implies the ability to read minds, that's not what I'm talking about; the Chest Crystal can allow us to send information via radio waves to another Chest Crystal. And that information could be anything; one could even allow another to see what they see"

Esara : " How far would that radio communications extend?"

Nalen : " It would depend on the strength of the radio wave energy, but I suspect even laser communications are possible, what I'm talking about are faster and more efficient ways to share information and knowledge. The communications capabilities of the Chest Crystal also give me the idea that it might be possible to interface with a computational device like a computer in the same way we interface with the Crystal Armour!"

Casara : " How did you finally escape the dream plane?"

Nalen : " That was a little tricky, but once I realized what had happened to me I tried to reconnect with my body, and after many attempts I was finally able to gain some control of my Chest Crystal but being asleep and in that room for so long had depleted my energy. I don't know if you realise this by now, but the Illuminating Crystals at the top of the Hemispheres do more than provide light to Crystalorb. Our bodies absorb the Light from the Illuminating Crystals, that is the main source of power for the Chest Crystal, but because I was in that room for so long what I call full spectrum energy was low in my body. To fully recover I required the 3 components!"

Casara : " I get it, red energy from me for your red Crystals, blue energy from Naole for the blue Crystals in your heart and Clear energy from Enala because even though we have red and blue Chest Crystal some of the Crystal in our bodies are still clear Crystals"

Naole : " And by draining the three of us of our energies you were able to power your Chest Crystal enough to use it to wake yourself from your deep sleep"

Nalen : " They've become much brighter haven't they Esara?"

Esara : " They sure have!"

The family continue to talk for hours, sharing laughs and memories, finally reunited and filled with new hope and reassurance that whatever was wrong with the world could be made right again.

- - -

End Arc 1

next is

Arc 2: Restoration of Hope

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