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Hypercrystals

A small environmental mod, this mod adds a new type of region on the edge of the galaxy which contains Hypercrystals.

Hypercrystals are for most, a dangerous navigational hazard and risk for passing ships, but for the few most advanced and powerful elder civilisations of the galaxy, these are an incredibly lucrative and potent source of resources, despite the explosive nature of their cores.

Designed for use with Red Sun (by Danny420dale) or (UNRELEASED: The Confluence, by me) or similarly powerful mods, as hypercrystals have very high durability and are balanced around such mods. You can still play without these mods, but treat hypercrystals as merely a hazard, due to radiation produced.

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Several thousand years ago, strange exotic matter signatures were detected travelling towards the galaxy at faster-than-light speeds, submerged partially in hyperspace. Naturally, interception was made by the most advanced civilisations, those civilisations with the capability of detecting and responding to them, such as the Confluence.

What they found, was fascinating. Intricate, beautiful, crystals; crystals made entirely out of exotic hyper-dense matter, crystals which grew naturally into higher dimensions. Crystals, which could naturally harvest energy and matter from higher dimensions, and even perform matter synthesis. Scientific oddities. They weren't native to our galaxy - where did they come from? Why were they here? How many other galaxies have they passed through or been present in? All questions that Confluence Intellects and other civilisations researchers hoped to answer.

But what was more intriguing, was what happened, merely a century later as the crystals impacted several systems on the galactic rim. They slowed down, and more of their structure grew out of hyperspace into realspace. They began, in concert, as if listening to some order, released vast outfluxes of superheated gases and exotic matter fragments, slowing their velocities and coming to a complete halt. Some specimens, the largest, designated planetoid-size, began to release "hyperseeds" - even denser structures containing enough energy and matter to grow into a full-size Hypercrystal over a few thousand years.

They were alive.


They were alive, but totally unlike most kinds of life. Even silicon crystalloid lifeforms such as the Crystalline species had nothing in common, except their crystal shaped structure. It was unclear, if they were even sapient or sentient, or were they more like bacteria or unicellular organisms, responding to stimulI?

One thing was clear, however - they operated on grander, far vaster timescales than most. A single response to research stimuli could take years, to decades. Their growth was no different - they grew over thousands of years.
A single hyperseed took several thousand years to grow into a small hypercrystal shard. The core took tens of thousands to grow into a mature hypercrystal, capable of reproducing via budding into hyperseeds every few decades. And, theoretically, these mature hypercrystals took millennia to grow into hypercrystal planetoids and niduses which could produce hyperseeds at a staggering rate.

Naturally, these findings begged the question - were they natural, or artificial in origin? Most would suspect artificial - how could nature and evolution lead to these spaceborne crystals of exotic matter, growing into hyperspace? Surely, this must be the work of some elder civilisation in some other galaxy, perhaps as a tool to harvest resources from hyperspace. Yet, there is no evidence for such a thing either.

They were capable of harvesting energy from hyperspace , synthesising matter and converting it far more efficiently and at faster rates than even early Confluence methods, and this seemed to point towards artificial origin by some even more advanced civilisation.

There was natural variation in hypercrystals - of every batch which arrived in the galaxy, a few anomalies; ones which reproduced and grew far too quickly - most, were contained safely for research.


After their initial arrival, monitoring Confluence intellects at hypercrystal influx points on the rim, noted that their composition began to change. Fewer immature crystals, more mature crystals, arriving planetoids began to be, on average, larger. Furthermore, they began to slow. There were fewer anomalies which reproduced too quickly. On average, it took longer for hypercrystals to begin launching hyperseeds, even their planetoids. Hypercrystal FTL was not particularly fast - only a few several times lightspeed, so there was still a time-lag, on intergalactic timescales. It was speculated that the changes in arriving hypercrystal composition simply reflected changes in conditions in their home galaxy several million years ago when they set out on their vast journey - perhaps higher hyperspatial energy densities for harvesting, so they could grow larger.

Some speculated that their reproductive activity, however, was changed by the local conditions of our galaxy, perhaps local hyperspace had lower energy densities triggering some sort of adaptive response in the arriving hypercrystals, causing them to store up resources within themselves rather than reproduce.


While hypercrystals were a scientific curiosity, and their hyperspatial extraction processes were studied and incorporated into later Confluence methods, they also are a lucrative store of already heavily processed resources.
Hypercrystals manufacture exotic matter to grow, incredibly dense and strong, and these resources are incredibly useful in the construction of megastructures, ships and stations for more advanced civilisations, and as they can simply be mined, rather than the incredibly long production processes and energy costs of industrial manufacture, hypercrystals are a useful source of these resources.


While for more advanced civilisations, hypercrystals are a useful opportunity, for most, they are incredibly dangerous and hazardous for navigation. Their vast, insanely energetic outfluxes of exotic matter fragments and superheated gases smash apart primitive shields and vaporise armour. Huge streams of energy in hyperspace drawn in towards them create discharges into realspace. Even the shields of smaller ships of civilisations such as the Confluence are not always immune.

They are also, for younger civilisations, a danger to hyperspace travel, as their intricate hyperdimensional growth in all eleven dimensions and their rapid rates of harvesting disrupt the local hyperspace structure and prevent FTL travel through most primitive hyperspace engines. More advanced civilisations, however, or those using other kinds of FTL such as warp drive, are unaffected.

There is always an element of unpredictability with hypercrystals. Their behaviour, understanding, and activity is all unknown. Proven, by the incident of the Raxani homeworld 412 years ago, where the primitive pre-FTL species' homeworld located on the rim, was impacted by several oddly behaving hypercrystals, which suddenly changed behaviour, harvesting and converting the planet itself into a huge store of exotic matter and stored energy in a matter of hours, of course, eliminating its inhabitants, before any response could be made. It then proceeded to grow rapidly and begin to launch hyperseeds at the staggering rate of dozens per second. The system was quarantined and several Confluence MCVs led by a Supernova-class HCV mined out the hypercrystals present, and the seeds launched. Intriguingly, research attempts to replicate the incident on other planets failed - proving their unpredictable nature.

This changed Confluence policy from mere observation, research and conservation to allowing controlled mining where hypercrystal presence might affect younger races.