The results were always the same: the 116th Dynasty could only spare 16 men for the job, and no more. The deathblow for obtaining the crystals by force, coercion, or trade came from the four sitting Overpharaohs, the finest combat minds in the galaxy. Trade was out too, as the peoples below seemed totally uninterested in any technology greater than a cart and beast (unless it came to Blood Ball, in which some races were happy to use heavily-armored combat vehicles if it gave them an edge in the game), and besides, the Dynasty had few resources with which to trade after their last engagement. Planetary destruction was out, as the crystals had already been cut and refined, so the risk of them scattering into space, never to be seen again, was too great. A direct assault was out, as even with their primitive level of technology, the opposing forces guarding the vault had vastly superior numbers and the ability to wield mystical forces (which they called "Majick") that the Pharaohs had never seen before and were unwilling to test their technology against.
The 116th Dynasty spent many days deliberating the best course of action. The vault was guarded by armies from every race on the planet, as they all had an equal stake in the Blood Ball championship and wouldn't let any one race make off with the riches before the Championship had concluded. And what's more, it was all gathered in one spot, as if daring its owners to come down from orbit and pluck it back into their clutches.įurther scans revealed, however, that it would not be so simple as that: The Crystals were kept in an enormous, well-guarded, underground prize vault for the worldwide championship of the local sport of Blood Ball, a full-contact sport played by all races on the planet below that was as much about scoring points with a ball as it was about sending opposing players off the field in more pieces than that which they had when they entered it. The 116th Exploration Dynasty found a safe planet in which to orbit and was about to embark on a terrifyingly long journey back to the Miles when their scanners picked up something unexpected on the planet below: Another yield of Hex Crystals so large that it made the hard-won haul on which they were sitting look like a handful of dirt.
They were sitting on quite a large haul of their sacred crystals, but the aliens who had died trying to keep them from their rightful owners had put up an extraordinary fight, and the Pharaohs were so drastically reduced in their numbers they barely had enough troops to guard the Crystals they had, much less go on further missions. In a relatively primitive, often-overlooked, nigh-unfashionable end of the galaxy, the 116th Exploration Dynasty of the Star Pharaohs were returning from a successful but extraordinarily costly Hex Crystal recuperation mission.
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