No resource is more coveted than the lyshan crystal. These physical manifestations of the Aether allow for faster than light travel and communication, entropy fields, and the welds for metaphysicals. The problem lies in the fact these crystals are not easy to come by, nor is their extraction easy. They can be found on random worlds throughout the galaxy, where the barriers between dimensions are the weakest. The summoning of the Chained has also been known to cause the crystals to appear on worlds near the summoning. Even so, the endless appetite of the mortal races for the lyshan crystals far outpaces supply. And the mortal races would not even want these crystals to be in abundance.
Lyshan crystals mutate everything around them, whether that be the atmosphere, terrain, animal, or human. Merely growing horns is one of the more preferable options to prolonged lyshan crystal exposure. If left unchecked, a single patch of lyshan crystals can mutate a planet to something barely recognizable. It could turn a simple insect species into a ravenous colony full of bugs bigger than men that spit metal melting acid and with near bulletproof skin. Flora and fauna mutated by the lyhsan crystals are referred to as “hexes”. All the while, the lyshan crystals change the atmosphere to rain shards of glass, and where gravity becomes twice of what it usually is at night. And as these crystals are an aspect of the divine, all animals are drawn to them, and will defend the crystals even at the cost of their own lives. And it is not enough to simply bombard these creatures from orbit, or destroy them with airstrikes. Lyshan crystals are fragile, and will shatter if placed under great stress.
Whole armies would need to be brought to mine these valuable materials, adding to their already great cost. But that is exactly what humanity does. Two of the most powerful megacorps, the Ashuan aligned Cutt&Dyre Operations, and the Ostrus aligned Pure Aether Logistics, have grown so wealthy as they specialize in finding and extracting these crystals, no matter the mutated resistance.
Lyshan crystal mining is one of the most dangerous, yet lucrative positions out there. A soldier employed under Cutt&Dyre or Pure Aether can expect up to fifteen times the base pay for working for a government. However, that is because they only hire the best. These companies have some of the best outfitted militaries out there, boasting a carapace armor to base soldier ratio of 1:5, double that of most militaries. They also have a large amount of highly competent metaphysicals, partially due to their natural resistance to the mutating effects of lyshan crystals. Yet, even with all of these advantages, some of the worst planets have inflicted 80% loss of expeditionary forces. However, the worst planets have the largest stockpile, and even grievous losses like those will easily be made back by the sales back home.
An expedition follows after a lyshan crystal deposit has been successfully identified on a world. Then scanner ships are placed in orbit. They are to identify to the best of their ability what type of phenomena the world is likely to have. That data is then sent back to the megacorps to then construct a proper response. Though because of the otherworldly nature of the mutations, besides phenomena that can be directly observed, many of the more insidious mutations often dazzle the sensors and give good readings, when the opposite is true.
Below are some of the most notable worlds found on expeditions.
The Chained Garden: The planet was given this name after the absolute demonic conditions of the world were experienced. Every single measure of plant life was hostile. This ranged from roots reaching from the ground to strangle soldiers, to trees with bark harder than xanthium walking and trying to crush the expeditionary members underneath their feet. On every fifth day, the clouds would rain blood, which if somehow the blood got into a human, it would turn them extremely violent, attacking anyone in sight. Though this was all for the purpose of defending the lyshan crystals. The mutant plants would be observed capturing expeditionary members intact, only to force them to drink the blood. The infected members still possessed their intelligence and would use their weapons on expeditionary forces. Roughly a third of the forces sent fell under the sway of the blood.
Giant’s Land: Here humanoid, ape-like fifteen-foot creatures had been mutated. They had reached the gunpowder age and used crude cannons as firearms. They were also observed to ride even larger reptilian creatures, which they had also covered in crude armor. While the initial show of force was impressive, the technological superiority of the humans proved enough during the light of the first day. But during the night the gravity of the planet would triple. Only the metaphysicals and those in carapace armor could move. Used to these conditions, the giants would attack during the night, wreaking great havoc on the expeditionary force. After the initial day the giants would shift their tactics to hide during the light, and attack solely in the night.
Shifting Forest: Another heavily vegetated world, where the trees could reach to near skyscraper sizes. They served as the ideal hunting ground for this planet’s apex predator. Deemed the cainadids, these large, intelligent, jumping insects could change the color of their skin to perfectly match their surroundings. They could also control their internal temperature to a degree, making them hard to detect even with infrared. The males would simply eat their victims, meanwhile the females would drag their victims back to their lairs after paralyzing them with venom. The females would then inject the poor souls with their eggs, for the young to later hatch and take their fill, all while the soul was still alive. A burrowing variant would dig a small vertical tunnel, which it hid in, with a trapdoor on top. If anything got too close, the cainadid would pounce out to drag the meal down with it. Above the trees of the planet floated an almost asteroid field of rocks flying at high speed. These conditions made the initial landing extremely difficult and made air support near impossible.
Cakewalk: Originally called Dorapan IX, the almost harmless nature of the planet gave it its new name. It was inhabited by a race of green, stone-age, large, and feline-like aliens, which were very in-tune with the nature surrounding them. They held special reverence for an especially large tree, which their entire society was built around. While the air itself was toxic to humans, this was easily solved. Once mining began, this civilization, named the Gua’ni tried to stop them. But once it was realized their weapons could not even get past the basic plate of the common soldiery, the whole expedition soon developed a comical tone. The jaded veterans of the expeditionary forces had found phenomena that posed little threat to them. Kill counts were recorded, and it became a competition among the expeditionary forces to see who could kill the Gua’ni in the most comical ways. Those in carapace armor sometimes stopped using their weapons, deeming it “too easy.” Once the expeditionary forces took the “World Tree” as it was called by the Gua’ni, they captured the Gua’ni’s leader, and forced her to watch as they burned it down, to a laughing room of officers.
Razor Sands: An arid world where during the day shards of glass would be swept across the surface, slicing to ribbons any living thing not in at least carapace armor. During the night fire tornadoes track across the deserts, creating more glass to be added to the winds. Because of this all life had become subterranean, including a bronze-age hulking race of reptiles. That is also not mentioning the giant worms that would burrow through the sands to eat men whole. But the phenomena were not too special by themselves to make it on this list. What was special was the massive lyshan crystal deposit detected, and it had not had enough time to change the world into something truly horrible. Cutt&Dyre were the first megacorp to reach the planet, with Pure Aether arriving not a week later. A fleet battle would ensue, with eventually both sides retreating to opposite ends of the planet. Both megacorps would land, hoping to reach the best spots before the others. The Carmine would also get wind of this and launch their own forces to take the lyshan crystals for themselves. A brutal subterranean war would follow over the course of five years. Eventually Pure Aether would come out on top, but not before the other two factions still ran off with plenty of loot.
The next two worlds were products of the Gore War.
Motherboard: Originally known as Daja Falls, it was an outskirt industrial world on the rim of Haskur Empire territory. It was one of the many worlds that suffered from random lyshan crystal deposits forming on the planet, due to the rampant summoning of the Chained during the start and duration of the Gore War. While nothing terrible initially happened due to the lyshan crystals, Daja Falls would be one of the first worlds to be attacked by the Chained and their insidious technovirus. While the brunt of the first wave would attack other systems, Daja Falls would receive the attention of a splinter attack. A devastating conflict would occur on the ground and in space, with eventually Daja Falls pushing away the attack with the help of reinforcements. But just as quickly Daja Falls would be forgotten as the Gore War hiked up into full gear. But now tons of metal littered the landscape, not to mention even more lyshan crystals from the slain demons, and even more deposits from the torn barrier between dimensions. There were also remnants of the technovirus still on the planet.
As the people of Daja Falls tried to recover from the horrific invasion, a machine, originally part of a technovirus abomination, would gain sentience, when a piece of lightning would strike it, while it was on top of newly created lyshan crystal deposit. The organic portion would become metal, neurons became circuit connectors. At its heart was a large lyshan crystal. The first Mutatron was formed. This machine hungered for more knowledge and more lyshan crystals, along with a hatred for humanity, a byproduct of its technovirus origins. The First Forged, as it would be known, would scour the battlefield wastes. Any living thing the First Forged touched turned to a machine under its will. With this power, it would attack wastelanders, turning them into mutatrons as well, adding their knowledge to its own. The First Forged gave twelve of its original machines a part of its own lyshan crystal, creating the Second Forged. Blessed now with their own intelligences and the First Forged’s own powers, albeit weaker, they would go out spreading the Mutatron race. Eventually the planet would fall under the scourge of the Mutatrons. They would turn the people into mindless machines, turning them into the warforms known today. The First Forged would manipulate the lyshan crystal deposits on the planet, transforming the very world into metal. The oceans became coolant, the core a reactor, factories would dot the planet, pumping out evermore machines.
The moon of this world would be turned as well, transformed into a vessel, named the Mutatron Orbiter, which would act as the Mutatron’s main form of expansion. During the Gore War, the Orbiter would travel to new worlds, spreading the Mutatrons far and wide. As humanity was busy fighting off the Chained, they could not easily deal with this new threat, further adding to the calamity of the war. It wasn’t until after the Chained were defeated could humanity push back the Mutatrons to the uncolonized regions.
While the Mutatrons have no souls, like any creature mutated by lyshan crystals, the machines that do have lyshan crystals in them do have that spark of divinity in them that allows for corruption on a small scale. Mutatrons have been observed not attacking Maska-aligned Carmine forces in the past. Whether they are truly aligned with the Chained Gods has not been completely confirmed, but it is another reason atop of the many to have them exterminated.
The Hive: A planet far from the edge of Ostrus territory, it was selected for mining by Pure Aether, as a large lyshan crystal deposit was detected. Policy dictated that any such planets were to be mined immediately, as the longer the mutations were allowed to grow, the more dangerous the world. Unfortunately, all efforts were halted once the Gore War had begun. The large military of the company was called upon to stem the tide of the Chained and their technovirus. So the mutation was allowed to fester until something horrible arrived on humanity’s doorstep: the Manticores. The Manticores are a biological collective of various, large insect species, all under the directive of the Manticore Queen. Each species fulfills a different role, from workers, basic grunts, to vehicles and starships. Some of the more advanced castes in the Manticore race show intelligence even equalling that of humans.
Their weapons are purely biological, relying on acid-tipped spikes and biological plasma, along with an egregious amount of melee to get a job done. They have also been known to add creatures from other lyshan crystal worlds to their collective, including the cainadids from Shifting Forest, long before it was mined itself.
The Manticores are an expansionist hungry race. When they invade a world with their nest ships, they do not strip it barren, but fully optimize it for food production. Everything is farmed to its maximum output. The higher castes also require intelligent brains to fully develop. To achieve this, the Manticores will often raid human settlements and bring them back to their own colonies to then “farm” them.
During the Gore War, the Manticores were another scourge on humanity. Dozens of worlds fell, with millions of humans carted off for their farming programs. Like with the Mutatrons, the Manticores were eventually pushed back to the outer regions, but they still represent a threat to this day.
Communication with the Manticores is possible, and has been done on occasion, but they have limited interest in it, apart from dissuading attacks when they are at a disadvantageous position, or for trade. Though the Manticores are only interested in food, most notably humans.