Strange Crystals

[Kazkin]

Golems have for quite some time been a known entity both by the colony and outside of it, the end result of complex slime mutations. Slimes themselves are the source of the 'blob', a type of infectious single cell organism that spreads like a cancer. For a great many decades Soteria has experimented with slimes, an often forgotten and neglected area of research because it is relatively dangerous and yields rewards/research not comparable to the risk. While a blob can be considered a malignant cancerous formation of a slime (i.e. a slime that does not split and instead continually grows), slimes themselves are relatively safe in comparison, being far easier to contain and experiment upon. Through a complex series of mutations a slime may be rendered into a 'golem', a singular minded creature of immense physical strength and durability, but often lacking in mental ability.

Golems are extremely rare and have only ever been seen in the employ of specialist mercenaries or the excelsior, where longer lived golems prove to be excellent and accomplished front line fighters thanks to their innate durability and strength. Being an outcropping of mutated slimes they are often more the result of either time and patience or completely accidental creations when obscure conditions are met. The Soteria has deemed the use and employment of golems as not worthy of consideration, as the director has deemed the single minded loyalty of golems is too easily manipulated and could prove a danger should anything go wrong, preferring use of far more reliable, easier to produce, and far easier to destroy cyborgs and AI systems. The difficulty of creating golems certainly plays a part in this decision.

This consensus by the director and his overseers is now being reexamined in the light of recent events with a new infestation called the 'ameridian crystals' that infested the lower mines. This strange crystal spread much as a blob does, with soteria overseer Jeanne Petite speculating that the crystal may be a variation of a mutated blob, however unlike its potential ancestor these crystals function differently. Ameridian crystals spread slowly by comparison but do not appear to hit a 'critical mass' and do not slow or cease their spread. As the infestation grows, the crystals light up the area in a faintly greenish glow that is caused by the radioactive nature of the gem stones. This passive radiation is enough to require environmental suits but not enough to affect synthetics, mycus, or cindarites who all carry innate immunities to radiation.

This spread of crystals radiate from a purple colored spire which, according to one psion who inspected it, link to a larger mass deeper below the earth. These spires have proven largely indestructible but can be easily contained with regular steel walls. The growing crystal mass appears unable to force open doors or break down solid structures, instead merely spreading as far as it can before halting entirely. Despite this, the crystal is now being classified as a level 7 biohazard, given its potential to spread quite far and irradiate large swathes of space. In addition to this natural danger, the crystals also appear to create golems when reaching a certain level of mass.

These lesser golems are markedly weaker than golems produced through slime mutation, being both slower, less durable, and lacking in the physical strength golems are known for. In areas of heavy crystal infestation, however, they proved quite numerous and appear to follow a sentinel thought pattern. As these crystal golems move from their spawning crystals or die new ones are rapidly produced by the crystal formations to replace them. These crystal golems appear to have animal-like intelligence, being incapable of being reasoned with and innately hostile to all non-lithoid life forms, forcing swift reactions by the combined colony defense forces. Destruction of the crystals and the golems by breaking them into shards proved to be the only effective way to remove both the radiation and potential threat before successfully walling off the located spire.

These left over shards have proven highly valuable, both for the Soteria and Lonestar. Shattered crystals separated from the mass rapidly lose their radioactive nature, allowing them to be handled safely by hand. Lonestar has found these crystals to be valuable for their scintillated appearance and rarity gives them a potential selling value among collectors and jewelers. Soteria on the other hand discovered that these crystals may be refined through use of a specialized machine discovered near the first infestation location. This machine is capable of refining ameridian crystal directly into different useful materials, such as plasteel, diamonds, uranium, and even plasma. How this is done or where this machine came from is currently unknown, with neither the Soteria nor Lonestar able to stake a real claim on its design. For now, the machine has been given to the Soteria for reverse engineering.

Sad to say and much to the disappointment of both the Soteria and Lonestar the contained crystal spire appears to have withdrawn below ground once more, leaving behind its bountiful crystals to be collected but removing a chance for further research and potential resource collection. Both factions are keenly interested in recovering or finding a naturalized spire, believing the potential for resource collection and research incredible. Equally, the Soteria has repurposed new funds towards researching slimes, postulating that the ameridian crystals may be mutations of either blobs or slimes themselves, with the hope that artificial spires or faster produced golems may be discovered.

[Kazkin]

Accelerated Evolution - Anomaly or Intervention?

Another further sighting with the ameridian crystal has lead to new and stranger developments. While previously, the crystal formations showed nothing more than a desire to spread its radioactive gems as far as it could, creating mindless green crystal golems to defend itself, we are now seeing a wider variance on the spires creations. Blue colored crystal trees developed into containment cells for smaller, faster golems of sapphire crystal coloration that moved exceptionally fast while the purple crystal spire began to produce larger and far stronger behemoths to protect itself. These behemoths and runtling golems proved just as mindless and wanton of destruction as the emerald kin the colony has seen before. However, one such purple behemoth set itself apart, wandering far from its crystal spire and eventually ending up at the colony solars.

Why it did this is currently under speculation (see below) but it came to the solars with a prospector junkbot in tow, seeming to be inspecting the console and solar array before it was noticed and quickly investigated. The golem was not hostile and appeared to not be able to understand spoken languages, yet it could deduce simple hand gestures and motions. It took particular interested on marshal ranger Dalloc and two psionic researchers from soteria. The golem appeared to be chiefly interested in the metal and geological comparisons of ranger Dalloc and the psion's foci crystals, seeming to compare Dalloc and the junkbot and the its own purple crystals embedded in its stone body to the foci crystals.

This curiosity eventually lead the golem to bring those it was studying back to its spire, where ameridian crystals were rapidly spreading and various golems were mindlessly attacking wildlife. Containment protocols were swiftly engaged before mech support was brought in to quell the crystals before they could be fully quarantined. During this event, the golem appeared confused by the fighting, eventually leading it to dragging first the prospector junkbot and later ranger Dalloc towards the spire. This was notably unusual, as the golems presence appeared to prevent either the junkbot or Dalloc from coming to harm, letting them remain safely among the crystals.

This strange development was further compounded by the Soteria after the crystal spire and ameridian crystals were contained. Bringing the one friendly golem back to xenobiology, multiple researchers and ranger Dalloc began to run various tests to collect as much data as they could.

Collected information is as follows:
* The ameridian golems are capable of speaking directly to adamantium slime golems.
* The ameridian golems are aware of slimes and the mycus, claiming to be from deep underground in the same areas.
* The ameridian golem claimed that the slimes it knew of were much larger and more human shaped than those within the Soteria.
* The ameridian golem expressed that it became curious about its surroundings, developing interest in things beyond its spire. It seemed capable of recognizing many higher conceptional thoughts but did not understand them fully. It often expressed indifference when asked questions beyond its scope of understanding and did not appear to consider such at any length.
* The ameridian golem appeared capable of restoring basic slimes to life using parts of its crystal body, breaking off plasma crystals to revive a basic slime before rendering it non-hostile.
* The ameridian golem did not have a concept of the self or of death, but vaguely explained that it did not "end" like a mycus or slime would.
* The ameridian golem could not retain its form indefinitely and eventually fell apart.

The information was partially confirmed later, as Soteria scientist contacted one of the local mold minds within the mycus tribe residing in the colony. The mold mind seemed genuinely amused that a golem was on the surface and went on to explain that the nature of the golems was one of harmony with the mycus, as they are innately immune to the residual radiation emitted by spreading ameridian that they kept contained using slime-molds. The mold mind further explained that crystal golems were actually partially infused by slime creatures whose solidified essence formed the crystals visible on the ameridian golems bodies. This font of information is currently being verified, but collates well with existing data gathered. More so, the direct link between slimes and golems now has some light shed upon it. What this may mean or lead to isn't presently known but speculation among the Soteria suggest that the crystals have risen to the surface due to the mycus withdrawing, allowing the crystals to spread farther then before in the power vacuum created in the ecosystem. This then brought the crystals within proximity of the anomalous and often mutagenic nature natural to the planets surface biome, leading to an accelerated evolution. When asked why the mold mind or mycus did not inform the colony of this potential threat, the mold mind replied that nobody asked and it did not think it was worth mentioning. Reports that the interviewing researcher needed to be sent to medical for breaking their nose while face palming too hard are false and merely exaggerated by various witnesses.

No matter the case, Lonestar and the Soteria are eager to see further developments, as several CEO's have noted that a self spreading crystal that can be refined into other materials is a veritable unlimited resource, while the Soteria desire as discovery to expand both their golem and slime research. To that end, Soteria is now gaining additional funding from Lonestar to develop methods to not only easily contain the crystals, but destroy the golems that inevitably are created to defend their crystal garden.