Arcs:Crysek Arc

A NOTE BEFORE YOU READ THIS ARTICLE:

Writing on the Crysek Arc originally began in 2014. As of this writing (3/20/23), it has been approximately eight years since this story arc concluded in 2015. Unbroken's lore has changed much in this time. As such, much of what follows this note is no longer canon. Among other inconsistencies, the original version of the Crysek Arc makes no mention of the Helminth, assumes the ancient Keilicaela were once enslaved by the Currai Imperium, and references characters that no longer exist--be it in the form presented here or at all. However, the general plot beats of this draft are still relevant, and the impending canonical rewrite of this arc will adhere to much the same story structure as the original. Because of this, and for posterity, this summary is considered valuable to the Unbroken Wiki.

The Crysek Arc was a story arc written and coordinated by Layne. The first half of the arc, as the name suggests, focused on the doings of the Holy Conglomerate of Litiket, while the second half of the arc centered around a sinister plot by the infamous Currai Imperium Ashderian terrorist, Ashreksas. The arc is currently being drafted into a modernized, novelized version known as Shadowed Revenant.

Synopsis

The Crysek arc starts with the Empire of Namine and Ashderian Regime receiving a transmission from the Holy Conglomerate of Litiket, offering peace negotiations to both factions. The factions accept, and send Vespid, Thisposa, Thegalet, Nikan, Antarress, Phar’annic, Nova, and Joseph to negotiate with the Crysek. Midway through negotiations, the Crysek are attacked by a faction of heretical rebels, causing the Keilicaela and Ashderian negotiators to retreat. As they fall back, the negotiators are contacted by the heretics, who tell them of a Crysek superweapon with the ability to take out half of a continent in one fell swoop. While skeptical the superweapon even exists, the negotiators consider the deceitful nature of the Crysek and fear that the superweapon will be pointed towards Namine--so they set out to locate the weapon.

The negotiators-turned-infiltrators opt to hire Rex--an old friend--to transport them to the perceived site of the superweapon, as his ship is low-profile. Lee also joins up with the group during their exchange with Rex. When the infiltrators arrive at the planet on which the superweapon is thought to be located, they find nothing. They choose to investigate, boarding a Crysek cargo vessel and dispatching the crew. They use holographic emitters to disguise themselves as the crew, and land inside of a destroyer ship. While scouting the destroyer, Joseph makes a blunder and is taken prisoner by the Crysek. As he is being interrogated, Thegalet downloads the ship’s database for later analysis. The infiltrators track Joseph down in order to rescue him, causing quite a commotion in the process. After escaping the ship through brute force, the infiltrators board Rex’s ship and prepare to return to Namine. Thegalet analyzes the database and comes to the conclusion that the superweapon does indeed exist, and the Crysek are likely to use it on Namine. However, before they can act upon this, Rex’s ship is attacked by pursuing Crysek vessels. Our heroes attempt to defend the ship, but Antarress is lost in the process--blown out of the airlock by an unexpected depressurization caused by a Crysek missile. Despite their best efforts, the ship carrying our heroes goes down, forcing them to abandon ship. They land in separate locations, with Rex going down in the crash. After regrouping, the outfit moves to locate both Antarress and the crash site, in hopes that Rex survived.

Thegalet and Phar’annic detach from the main body of the group. They find that a Crysek scavenger vessel is salvaging the crash site. Thegalet and Phar’annic attempt to stop the craft, but they ultimately fail; the scavenger vessel takes off with the remains of Rex’s ship--and Rex himself. Meanwhile, the search party for Antarress tracks her signal down to a cave. Vespid, Thisposa, and Lee delve into the cave while the rest of the party stays outside and keeps the lines of communication with Thegalet and Phar’annic open. Vespid, Thisposa, and Lee find themselves in a long abandoned Currai Imperium “Hivemind” experimentation facility--in which Keilicaela were to be linked to a massive neural network and used as a powerful weapon by the Imperium. Fortunately, this project all but dissipated with the destruction of the Imperium long ago. The detachment continues, encountering a ghostly figure who urges them to leave the facility (oddly, we see nothing more of this figure after the initial encounter). Immediately afterward, the group finds Antarress, who claims to have also seen the figure. The group reports their success to the others outside via comm-link, and exit the cave with Antarress.

Thegalet and Phar’annic proceed to regroup with the rest of the group. Afterward, Nikan calls down the Ascending Eagle, flying the group back to Namine. All involved head to their respective ships. Vespid and Nikan call the leader of the Crysek heretics, thanking him for the information and offering to provide him with weapons and ships to combat the Holy Conglomerate of Litiket. The leader agrees, and Thegalet promptly proceeds to have NGC-WD manufacture the requested resources for the heretics. After their dealings, Vespid asked the heretic leader if he knew anything about Rex. The leader did not, but he assured Vespid that he would do some research and report back with whatever he finds. In the meantime, Lee calls down the Ilanian forces to assist the group in the oncoming strike against the Holy Conglomerate of Litiket. The Ilanian forces arrive, and their field commander, Fin’ar Tyrannus, confers with Vespid as to a course of action. Vespid asks her to have her forces assist in the assault on the Crysek homeworld, while Vespid takes a detachment to search for Rex. Fin’ar agrees, and Vespid receives a transmission from Nyx, who requests that her forces be able to assist Vespid’s detachment. Vespid allows this, and the attack groups take off--but not before the heretic leader returns, revealing that Rex had been classified as dead in the crash, but the Holy Conglomerate of Litiket were still in possession of his body. Enraged, the group resolves to continue their search, if only to retrieve Rex’s body for a proper funeral.

A bulk of Empire of Namine forces, along with those of the Ilanian Dominion, Ashderian Regime, and Joseph’s small fleet, assault the Crysek homeworld. While the fleet nearly completely diminishes Crysek defenses, Vespid’s group presses onward in the search for Rex.

Vepsid’s group, consisting of the Midnight Stalker, Venom Squadron, the Vigilant fleet, and the Ashderian ship Masa’kari (with Nikan on board) attempt to trace the scavenger vessel that abducted Rex and his vessel’s remains. Thegalet traces it to a remote quadrant of space, where the ship appears to be lying dormant. As the group approaches the downed vessel, it flares to life and begins emitting EMP blasts in an attempt to disable the group’s vessels. Unfortunately, the vessel’s power systems are driven to the point of a nuclear meltdown, destroying it instantly. However, all was not lost--Nova pointed out that the explosion caused by the ship was not consistent with the power of the reactors on the model of vessel that abducted Rex. Therefore, the vessel the group found was a decoy set to throw them off. Thegalet points out that the Crysek have gone to great length to hide Rex’s corpse, causing Nova to pose a question: “What could the Crysek possibly want with a dead body?” In hopes to find an answer, Vespid moves to board the destroyer that he and the others had originally infiltrated.

The group manages to find the destroyer without incident, and board it. Interrogating the ship’s captain, they learn that Rex’s body was brought on board the destroyer for tests by those described as “over-zealous scientists.” The group retrieves Rex’s body and stores it in the Midnight Stalker’s medbay. As Rex’s body was transported, Thegalet hacked into the destroyer’s systems once more in order to find any information as to the superweapon’s location. He finds nothing, and the detachment regroups over the Crysek homeworld, where Vespid contacts the heretic leader for intel. The leader advises Vespid to contact an “old informant” who lives on Clikta: a dead moon in the Crysek homeworld’s system.

Vespid takes his usual detachment to Clikta, where they find the informant in an underground bunker. The informant is an eccentric, aging Crysek who often goes off on tangents and speaks in riddle--avoiding questions entirely. He even asks Thegalet a simple divison problem (for no apparent reason), to which he correctly gives the answer: “121.3, repeating.” The group takes to calling the informant “121.3.” Eventually, the group coaxes 121.3 into coming to a deal with them: if the group assassinates a series of Crysek priests, 121.3 will provide the location of the superweapon. With their mission clear, the group sets out to assassinate the priests. Vespid commissions a group of highly-trained, Empire of Namine-sanctioned assassins to help them in the process: the Lethal Sepulcher. While the Lethal Sepulcher--lead by a grim, impatient, ex-Seething Sting assassin known as Taretex--assassinates priests across the Crysek homeworld, Vespid’s detachment does the same all across the star system. After the Lethal Sepulcher and Vespid’s detachment regroups and confirm that all priests have been assassinated, Vespid’s detachment returns to 121.3, who gives the group the superweapon’s IFF tags. All involved forces regroup and jump to the superweapon, unleashing a barrage of savage attacks. While the superweapon is distracted by the onslaught, Vespid, Thisposa, Thegalet, Nikan, Joseph, Lee, Fin’ar, Antarress, Phar’annic, Nyx, and Xaene land on the hull of the superweapon in an EVA mission. They infiltrate the superweapon, planning to destroy it from the inside-out.

They succeed, causing both cores of the superweapon to go critical. The group escapes to the hull of the ship, where they are picked up by Crysek heretic leader's ship. The group takes their seats and watches as the superweapon explodes. After the spectacle, the armor systems of our heroes lock up, rendering them immobile. The leader of the Crysek heretics appears in person…

…only for his form to shimmer away, revealing Ashreksas: the Currai Imperium terrorist mastermind.

Ashreksas, in typical "super-villain" fashion, explains that he orchestrated the entirety of the ordeal--from the heretic attacks to the false evidence that the superweapon was to be used on Namine--revealing that the sordid affair was a part of an elaborate plan to destroy the Empire of Namine and Ashderian Regime in one fell swoop. Thegalet foolishly warned Ashreksas aloud that he was tracing the ship, and would soon have the heroes freed. Ashreksas quickly destroyed the androids of both Thegalet and Nova before releasing a sleep-inducing gas into the ship’s aft section as he returned to the cabin, causing our heroes to fall comatose. As Ashreksas’s ship rockets away, Thegalet informs the Empire of Namine and Ashderian Regime of the situation, causing the battle over the superweapon to respark--this time, it was Keilicaela, Ilanian, and Ashderian versus the heretic forces.

While the forces are locked in intense combat, the captive heroes awaken in a small cell. They are taunted by Ashreksas via intercom while they brood, trying to formulate a plan. The fate of the group now lies with Thegalet as he organizes a post-battle search party to retrieve the lost heroes. Thegalet’s search party sweeps all possible areas Ashreksas could have gone. They find nothing, prompting Thegalet to ping Vespid’s ACH in hopes of a signal. A faint beacon returns, causing Thegalet’s party to chase after it. They find nothing but Vespid’s ACH and weapons, along with those of the other missing combatants, floating in space. Thegalet salvages the gear, and mournfully broods on a new plan for the hopeless situation.

Elsewhere, Vespid’s group is dragged out of their cell by Ashreksas to witness the destruction of a Empire of Namine colony (this was later revealed to be a clever illusion on the behalf of Ashreksas). Enraged, Vespid vows revenge on the last remaining Imperium loyalist, who simply laughs and orders them out of his sight. As the group is returned to their cell, one of the guards that escorted them looks back and shouts, “You guys owe me!”

The group, confused, waits a moment, before a portal opens in their cell. With no other options, the group enters the portal only to emerge into a ship. The portal closes behind them as the group observes that one computer console in the ship is active, reading “121.3.” The group, now knowing who to thank, rummages around the ship briefly before powering its systems on. They discover that the ship has an onboard AI: a construct by the name of “Keo.” Keo agrees to help the heroes, and begins to initialize the ship’s Phantom drive. Midway through the process, Nikan receives a transmission from the Empire of Namine ship “Decrepit Succubus.” The Succubus details that it has been attacked by the Shamecaster, another Empire of Namine ship seemingly gone rogue. The Shamecaster physically rammed itself into the Succubus, majorly damaging the Succubus and destroying the Shamecaster.

The group’s ship locates the Decrepit Succubus and boards. A crewman of the Succubus is thrilled to greet them, as the group’s disappearance was, of course, distressing. The crewman explains the situation and leads the group to the captain, who requests that the group use their ship to evacuate the entire crew of the Succubus. The group confers and agrees. After arming themselves (just in case), our heroes allow the entire crew of the Succubus to board their ship, which leaves for Namine.

On the way to Namine, the group discovers that one crew member of the Decrepit Succubus was infected with a strange parasite. The parasite was a boron-based lifeform that afflicted the brain, evidently causing the infected to become immobile. The Succubus’s medic commits to studying the parasite in the medbay of the ship until arriving at Namine, where the infected would be transferred to a proper medical lab.

Once the group arrives at Namine, Thegalet and the other inhabitants of the planet are overjoyed to welcome the group home. Thegalet redistributes gear, and the group plots their next course of action.

Days later, a funeral for Rex was to take place, but this did not happen; it was quickly revealed that what was originally thought to be Rex’s body was actually a very well-made decoy with a bomb rigged inside. The “body” exploded, causing the group much pain and shock. Meanwhile, Antarress studies the boron parasite and comes to a frightening conclusion:

The parasite was an infectious organism designed to make Keilicaela into mindless drones; this was the resurrection of the Currai Imperium “Hivemind” project from long ago.

Antarress calls Nikan to discuss her findings, and then summons Thegalet to help them devise a course of action. They choose not to inform the Empire of Namine for fear of an over-reaction. While Nikan, Antarress, and Thegalet plot, chaos begins to rage on Namine. The parasite is spreading, and is now making the infected attack all Empire of Namine installations on the planet. Only then do Nikan, Antarress, and Thegalet choose to summon the rest of the group. Vespid, for obvious reasons, is outraged to learn that he was not informed sooner. During this outrage, it was discovered that both Vespid and Thisposa were infected by the parasite. They manage to suppress their violent urges as the Ashderians scramble to solve the crisis. Through the hypnotization of Vespid and Thisposa, they found out that the parasite is receiving instructions from a remote system known as Burel-5. The group travels via the Aquilae to Burel-5, where they encounter heavy resistance from infected Empire of Namine ships.

The Aquilae manages to push through the blockade and land on the only planetary body on Burel-5: a strange artificial installation known as the Array. After punching through the Array’s shields, the Aquilae lands and lets the group loose. The group encounters a lone temple and journeys through it to find Ashreksas pulling the strings of the parasite outbreak from within. He taunts the group via intercom once more as they traverse the temple, laden with traps. The group eventually finds Ashreksas in a clearing with many infected Keilicaela and security drones. During combat, the group learns that Rex is still alive; however, he was severely mutated and brainwashed by Ashreksas to work against the heroes. After many intense skirmishes with the infected, the drones, Rex, and Ashreksas himself, the group finds the so-called “Insanity Hub,” where rows upon rows of dormant, infected Keilicaela were linked to a neural network leading to the Master Hub--a singular Keilicaela infected by the parasite, feeding commands to the other infected.

Vespid makes a mad dash for the Master Hub, but is stopped by Ashreksas. Fortunately, Nikan followed Vespid in and was able to distract Ashreksas, allowing Vespid to plunge his ACH blade through the Master Hub. The other parasites infecting the Keilicaela then had no commands, and relinquished their grip upon the Keilicaela species. Shocked, Ashreksas is subdued by Nikan, who lifts him into the air with one hand and bites his throat out.

Ashreksas’s writhing form is dropped in front of an infuriated Vespid, who, using his own anger and the fleeting hate caused by the now-dormant parasite, rips out Ashreksas’s lungs and fashions them to be as the wings of a Keilicaela. Both satisfied and disgusted by his handiwork, Vespid strings up Ashreksas with hanging wires to make it appear as if he were levitating. Vespid lets out a battle cry, and the newly non-infected Keilicaela in the room join him. In one final act of retribution, Nikan drew a pistol--Ashreksas’s own--and shot the terrorist three times with it, killing him.

Ashreksas is now dead; the lives of so many Keilicaela and other species oppressed by the Currai Imperium--past, present, and future--have been avenged. Our heroes and the uninfected Keilicaela proceeded to escape the temple just before it collapsed, taking Rex into custody and hoping to find a way to cure him, thus ending the long journey of the Crysek arc.