Starflight III Storyline Summary

*At the moment, Deus Siddis's full SF3 Plot Summary file has been added to this page. Pieces of the plot can be transferred over to other pages as the need arises. No additions to the plot (as discussed on the Forums) have yet been added to this file.*

**WARNING: THIS PAGE IS PARTICULARLY SPOILER HEAVY.**

## Recent History

### Alpha Sector

After Interstel's great colonial expansion of 4620 and war with the Spemin in 4640, the New Council ruled that interstellar events could no longer be handled by the private sector. So the New Empire was formed under the Council's leadership. To protect the Empire, Interstel's Starports and the majority of its fleet were forcibly purchased for use in the Imperial Navy. The Umanu and Mechans joined this New Empire, considering it a continuation of the old one that they had once served. The Empire maintained friendly relations with the Veloxi, who had recently embarked on an exploration campaign in search of their missing Glowing Pedestal, which they failed to locate, but instead discovered the Old Imperial base of Fallen Star and an elusive race called the Jaggen. The Empire also formed loose diplomatic ties with both the Thrynn and Elowan, though initially without each other knowing of the dual contact, do to their mutual hostilities. The Spemin, who had been pushed back into their inner territories after the destruction of their "Secret Spemin Death Fleet," formed a practically useless resistance to the Empire, the Secret Society of the Superior Spemin Starforce, or SSSSS for short. But during this age of relative calm, danger was growing inside Gazurtoid space.

After the defeat and subsequent disappearance of the Uhlek, the Gazurtoid expanded their territory into much of the empty space left by their former ally. The increase in resources allowed them to double the numbers of their fleet and prepare for a new crusade against the neighboring breathers of air. When the war with the Gazurtoid began, the Empire, Veloxi, Thrynn and Elowan agreed to form a war pact against the aquatic zealots. But in battle against the hordes of force-shielded dreadnaughts, the Veloxi were only moderately effective, especially since a large segment of their navy was still occupied in the search for the Glowing Pedestal, which had always provided them with guidance before great battles and conflicts (the Glowing Pedestal is said to be a device of the ancients, that allows anyone who sits upon it to know the thoughts of all who have the user in their minds, be they friend or foe.) The Elowan (who were lungless and thus unthreatened by the Gazurtoid) eventually learned that many of the ships they sent to the front lines were secretly being intercepted and destroyed by the Thrynn, which caused them to pull out from the pact. The majority of the conflict's weight quickly settled over the New Empire and the Thrynn Confederation of Planets. For every craft in their combined fleets there were two of the Gazurtoid's massive dreadnaughts, fully equipped with missile resistant shielding and numerous large scale laser batteries, which using the fluxes of the Cross Constellation, could appear well behind the front. But the Empire and Confederation were able to slowly make some headway using some of their own advanced new weaponry and the innovative skills of their captains and crews. Eventually, the Gazurtoid were pushed out of the Cross Constellation and Nexus Station was rapidly installed there as the Empire's frontal outpost against the water-breathers. No longer able to access the interior of Imperial space via the flux system, the Gazurtoid turned their attention to trying to crush the Thrynn. This provided a brief opportunity for the Empire to penetrate their core space with the aid of the captured flux network, and make planetfall on the Gazurtoid capital world. There they deployed the last Black Egg in their possession, a powerful weapon built by a forgotten race that had once threatened the Old Empire. As the Imperial fleet passed beyond high orbit, the Black Egg activated and destroyed the capital world below. The Gazurtoid fleet fell into disarray, bringing their crusade to an end. With the war finally over, the Arthlings, Veloxi, Thrynn, and Elowan were free to pursue new goals.

When the masses of war fleets receded from much of neutral space, the Elowan sent a scouting mission to explore central coreward space. Much to their surprise, they rediscovered the Seeayti, a race that was thought to have been destroyed over a thousand years prior. The Seeayti were in good health, and while the Uhlek had destroyed their fleet long ago, they had monitored distant events using their powerful sensory equipment, mounted inside the massive armored observatories on their homeworld of Salayeet for use in their recreational Starflight simulators. After spending some time with their old friends (who were also once friends of the Institute) and exchanging knowledge, the Elowan scouting party was forced to return home due to brewing trouble with the Thrynn. Having gained strong diplomatic ties with the New Empire during the war with the Gazurtoid and with their legions fully battle hardened, the Thrynn felt that it was a good time to begin a new campaign against their older, leafier adversaries. But while the Gazurtoid war raged, the Elowan had constructed a military outpost around a small colony world of theirs, Flornea. In the center of Thrynn-Elowan disputed space, this platform provided protection for the nursery world of Elan and the downspin Elowan colonies. So not only did its location slap the Confederation of Planets across the face, it was also the only obstruction before the warpath into the heart of Elowanian territory. Instead of attacking the station directly, however, the Thrynn flaunted their superior military power by constructing a rival outpost two orbits out from Flornea station. It was named Ryss, and with it as a base for their operations, the Thrynn believed that they would quickly crush Flornea and then use the system as a platform for their move against Elan. However, having painfully learned the ways of their former starmates, the Elowan knew what was being planned and threw all of their strength into the desperate fight to keep the system. Against a horrific onslaught, the Elowan managed to hold on, even as their casualties piled up into the hundreds of thousands. Eventually, the Thrynn were forced to reduce their conflict back down to skirmish levels, as the overt aggression was beginning to reflect badly on their status with allies. To destroy the Elowan stronghold, they would have to find a more covert method. Meanwhile, the New Empire was launching a new wave of exploration in its home sector. It had just started to scout the regions upward of what had previously been considered past sectoral boundaries, when a major discovery emerged on the opposite side of the Alpha Sector, near the Handle of the Axe constellation.

An Imperial scoutship had discovered a new inter-Sector flux that ended in a coreward location. Deep within the Dead Zone, this flux would prove difficult to secure. So to avoid a similar incident to the Spemin infiltration of the Delta Sector, the find was kept under wraps. To further exploration of this new region of space, the Empire secretly began construction of Outpost 2, near the other end of the flux. But just before it was operational, communiques from the station ceased. A reconnaissance mission was dispatched, which found the station damaged and lifeless. Plans to investigate the incident and bring the platform back online were derailed, when more serious trouble emerged back in known space.

Shortly after contact was lost with Outpost 2, an unexplained disaster destroyed the Shyneum Planet, the sole source of Shyneum fuel that powered the New Empire and its allies. In the near future, the supply will be exhausted and the New Empire will meet the fate of its predecessor. Worse yet, back in the Alpha Sector, Thrynn spies were detecting a new buildup of Gazurtoid forces along their border with the Empire and Confederation. Having slowly recovered a good deal of their strength and having never lost any of their resolve, the Gazurtoid were stepping up their skirmishes in both scale and number. With a new conflict looming, the Empire could not afford to be heavily distracted, so it turned to the once famous astro-resource corporation, Interstel.

The Empire had previously relegated Interstel to a purely mercantile role, but the dire straights that ran through current events reversed this decision. So the civilian corporation was charged with rebuilding Outpost 2, discovering what had attacked it, and hopefully finding a new source of fuel. To further these goals, Interstel was given access to top level secrets and techology, as well as its old diplomatic, military, and exploration privileges.

### Delta Sector

After the defeat of the Spemin and Uhl, and the freeing of the Umanu, the Delta sector once again became a haven for trade and commerce (and the exchanging of goods.) The majority of the Umanu joined Arth's New Empire while a few remained to protect the supply of Shyneum that now flowed freely through both sectors. The now united (at least until a new disaster appears that they can blame each other for) Tandelou turned their efforts towards spreading Thdok-Bryg-Ahhh to all those who would listen, as well as those who would not. The Humna Humna established a few new trade routes going through the Cloud Nebula, taking advantage of its resources (notably Shyneum.) The G'nunk have begun a quest to seek out G'noon species and show them their compassion. Those who are worthy of the burden of G'nunk, have been given the technology needed for them to spread their own compassion. Unfortunately, the Chichifa did not seem to have the mental capacity or patience to adopt advanced technology and the Xxr lost most of it to infighting (though a some of their massive battle armor is rumored to still be operational on the surface of their homeworld) but the Dershetche have made great use of their starflight engines and class 10 missiles. The Ch-Q-Tss-T have also achieved spacefaring technology (only without the help of the G'nunk) and have launched their first fleet (albeit a primitive one.)

Before the anomaly disappeared, the Arla managed to make one final successful mission into the past. There, they found and retrieved a device like those that formed the Cloud Nebula, a Legkian Sun Bomb. With the Uhlek close behind, they managed to narrowly escape back through the anomaly, into their own time. Unfortunately, the Ng stage had just become dominant shortly after they did. By the time they had nearly reached Kher stage, the bomb carrying vessel had wandered downspin into a G'nunk warfleet. When the debris had dispersed, the G'nunk were victorious, and they took the powerfully destructive artifact into their possession. Fortunately, the device's Arming Key was not captured, as it was taken off in another direction by another Ngkherarla craft, and hidden during the Kher stage. Unfortunately, there was another key that the G'Nunk had control of. It was the "Most Valuable Thing" that had been deposited atop the "Mystical Peak of Significance" on the Dershetche homeworld. The G'Nunk-armed Dershetche quickly took control of the object and their G'Nunk "allies" (the Dershetche have a tendency to show the utmost politeness upon every encounter with their G'Nunk friends) can take it (with some losses) when they please. The G'nunk coalition decided that after the end of their great campaign of compassion, they would use the weapon on whichever G'noon race turned out to be the most cruel (nonviolent), preferably one of great undeserved power.

As the G'nunk's mission of compassion began to disrupt normal trade routes, the Humna Humna went on a survey of space further upspin of the cloud than had been explored before, in search of monetary opportunities that came at a lower price in lives. It was during this time, that they discovered a special artifact within an ancient Legk ruin. During the war with the Uhl, the Legk hid all of their most dangerous technologies inside of a great extra-dimensional archive. The only way that anything or anyone, including them, could access it, was to use a special teleporter, like the one the Humna Humna found. For an extra precaution, the Leghk also made it so that the device could only be activated on a certain location, on a special world. This location was given to the Dweenle in the form of a riddle. The Uhl's unique intellect did not allow it to easily focus on something as trivial but clever as a riddle. The Humna Humna decided that this device was something so incredible, that it easily warranted the price of 1,000,000 MUs, which is what they have offered to sell it for. So far, none have come forward to purchase the seemingly useless relic. Only with the answer to the riddle (which the Dweenle knew, though they are a little hazy on some of the details at this point, without a good supply of Nid Berries) can the machine be used to access the archive (inside of which is another Legkian Sun Bomb, which in turn can be activated using an arming key, called the Most Valuable Thing by the Tandelou.)

The sector's great trading age was brought to an end, when an unexplained disaster destroyed the Shyneum Planet, the sole source of Shyneum fuel that powered nearly every local race, in addition to the New Empire and its allies. There were still massive reserves of it, and some fuel-rich fragments of the Shyneum planet had come down on neighboring worlds as meteorites. But in the near future, the supply would still become exhausted.

### Beta Sector

Shortly after the appearance of the Ringed Nebula, the Numlox retreated into their inner territory. They informed the Harsyrak that the "Keepers" had told them what they must do to survive- retreat into their inner territory, stay neutral to current events, and wait for them to bring salvation. Soon the Numlox' absence from the rest of Beta Sector space started to become apparent to the Draconi. They tested the situation by attacking the Arcel's Sentinel station and stealing the Ice Spire from the Nogona. Soon afterwards, the Rokta entered into a new time of expansion and began invading nearby space, including that of the Nogona. Edess, on the upspin edge of Nogona space, was quickly overwhelmed. The Ice Shrine on its surface was taken by the invaders.

### All Sectors

In Operations, there are reports of elusive "dark ships" and reports of slight temperature hikes on New Scotland, but nothing that seems especially harmful.

After a long period of silence, Minstrels have begun to sing a new song of warning, but this time not of a singular threat, and this time related in part to the Minstrels, themselves.

## Failure

As things progress, there are a few local conflicts in each sector, reports of ships disappearing within protected space, and the decreasing supply of Shyneum. But in time, a truly grave and universal threat begins. Coinciding with the strange and sudden appearance of the Ringed Nebula, a race of crystalline sentients emerges in the Beta Sector, boasting enormously powerful ships, each the size of a starport. With devastating energy, they destroy any ship that they come across (except for the Arcel's) and burn the planetary industrial and military centers off of worlds from orbit, before invading and repopulating them. Interstel advises its captains not to engage these craft for their own safety. The Harsyrak soon report that they seem to be coming from many of the sector's most Endurium rich worlds, which were also the first to be attacked. Following this lead, Interstel soon discovers that these silicon based life-forms match the Ancients in all biological respects, except that they possess a metabolic rate a great many times faster and more akin to that of normal sentients. The mechanism behind this change remains unknown.

Eventually, the situation spreads to the other two sectors. As before, the activity starts on the Endurium-rich worlds. In the Alpha Sector, the Imperial colony of New Scotland and the Veloxi sacred world of Sphexi both send distress calls. By the time military forces arrive, it is too late to save those on the surface. Soon, Ancient dreadnaughts begin to launch from the Endurium worlds in these sectors, into surrounding space. From this point until the end, all sectors will be challenged increasingly by the Ancients’ growing strength.

The Empire, along with the fleets of the other races, quickly find themselves fighting a hopeless war. In addition, many crucial Imperial attack squadrons and supply convoys are mysteriously being lost without any explanation, before they can intercept the numerous war vessels of the Ancients. If the player is not able to find a way to right the situation, most of the three Sectors will soon be taken over by the Ancients and most of the ships, planets, and lives of carbon based life-forms will be reduced to cinders.

At the end of the road, the final blow to the New Empire is dealt when Arth itself is destroyed in one colossal explosion, in the same way as the Shyneum Planet was at the beginning of the game. In a few weeks, all space in all three Sectors falls to the Ancients and only a handful of planetary races are spared, leaving complete the task that the Crystal Planet failed years before and spreading the Ancients back across the galaxy.

## Success

To succeed in defeating the massive threat posed by the Ancients, the player must defeat the main source of their strength, the Crystal Sun. This enormous machine provides the Ancients on various worlds of the galaxy, with the energy to think and act on a scale of time like that of the carbon based life forms that consume them. Without the Crystal Sun, few of the Ancients will be able to remain active. To protect it, the Ancients have fortified the structure with three defenses. The first is a shield many light-years across that quickly melts any craft that tries to pass through it (the "Ring" of the Ringed Nebula.) The second is a vast cloud of ions that obscures its location (the inner nebula of the Ringed Nebula.) The final is the pure invulnerability of the massive device. To get past these defenses, the player will need three artifacts, each from one of the three sectors. But the quest to find them will not be tread alone, as there is a cunning and invisible force that wishes to sabotage this effort, a race once called the Phlegmak. They wish to see the Ancients victorious over their mutual enemies, and will attack anyone whenever they come close to preventing this.

### Seeayti Detector

*Alpha Sector*

Description: A very large and powerful piece of sensory equipment, capable of precisely locating targets at great distances and through extreme interference.

History: During the final age of the Old Empire, the Seeayti were given the duty of attempting to develop a device that could see through the shielding of the Crystal Planet. It was used to try and locate any weaknesses on the surface and pinpoint a safe LZ for a risky and untested teleportation technique, to insert a lone combat engineer. The system was completed on schedule and it worked perfectly, but the mission was a failure. Having no further use for the device, the Old Empire loaded it onto a transport and shipped it off of Crystal Base. It was sent toward a secret Old Imperial stocking yard called Fallen Star (in a far upspin system), but shortly before reaching it, the ship was intercepted by the infamous pirate, Harrison. Given the empire's attempts to keep the operation concealed, he reasoned that the machine onboard the freighter must be an advanced weapon of some sort. But upon closer inspection, Harrison realized that his great prize was merely a glorified telescope. Still, this device was unlike anything he had captured before, and it was obvious this cutting-edge equipment would fetch a high price on the black market. So the Detector was sectioned into three components, each for a different customer. The Receptor Module was sold to the Thrynn, the Power Module was sold to the Spemin, and the Core Module was stashed on a secret depot of Harrison's.

Collection: The Veloxi speak of an Old Empire base (Fallen Star) upspin of their Kingdom > Jaggen Decoder accesses Base Records on Fallen Star > Base Records say it was stolen by the infamous pirate, Harrison, who broke it into three pieces before it could make it to Fallen Star. One piece was sold to the Thrynn, another to the Spemin, and the third he kept for himself. Once the Power and Receptor Modules have been obtained, they can be used to locate the position of the Core Module.

**Receptor**: Traded with Thrynn in return for a dozen Gazurtoid/Elowan specimens OR raided from an orbiting Thrynn Warship over a secret Thrynn research colony, with Elowan in support (the Elowan do not want to see the Thrynn finish their research on the device, and create an interstellar-ranged beam weapon.)

**Power**: Spemin crews tell you (after the necessary force is applied) the location of the device is stored at the S.S.S.S.S. HQ on Spewta. > The S.S.S.S.S. HQ computer message gives you the location of the device on a far outward, far upspin planet called Splooga. Upon orbiting this world, the science officer will remark that his sensors seemed to pick up some nearby high speed movement readings for an instant, but that they appeared to be a glitch and he will have the engineer run some diagnostics.

Having acquired the Receptor and Power Modules, the Science Officer will report that the semi-functional device has located its remaining component on the second world of 180,28, at coordinates XXX,YYY.

**Core**: Is found in Harrison's Depot, on planet two of 180,28. Upon orbiting this planet, the science officer will report that he momentarily picked up a number of high speed objects on his scopes, but they did not have energy readings nor any other ship readings. When leaving orbit with the device section, the player will be intercepted by three unidentified objects, the living "dark ships" of the rumors (Phlegmak Predators.) These craft will attack and attempt to destroy the player and his/her fleet.

Use: This artifact allows the player to locate the Crystal Sun system within the ion cloud of the Ringed Nebula.

### Black Hole Device

*Beta Sector*

Description: An invisible, hollow sphere inside of which can be seen a maelstrom of dark grey and black particles, spiraling in towards the center. The device seems to create a protective field around anything that is in contact with it and can shield the contacted object from large quantities of unfocused non-mechanical energy.

History: Little is known about the origins of the Black Hole device. The Numlox say it was made by the "Spirits" during a war they had with the Ancients eons ago.

Collection: **Draconi Base**: During the chaos of the Rokta's invasion of Edess, a task force of Draconi landed near the Ice Shrine and captured its central idol - the Ice Spire. It was brought back to a military world, known as Fahrk, and stored inside of a well guarded fortress. The player can either assault this stronghold directly, or he can capture an EMP warhead from a nearby armory and use it to disable the compound's defenses and then take the Ice Spire.

**Nogona**: Once the player releases the rare (Blank) creatures on Edess to drive away the Rokta and liberate the Ice Shrine, and the Ice Spire has been returned to the Nogona, they will be very pleased and reward the player with full access to their treasure world of Epek, and its various storage bunkers. In any of these bunkers can be found a list of the most valued items and their locations on the planet, including the location of the bunker that keeps the Planet Sentinel.

**Arcel**: After the threat of the Crystal Planet had passed, the Arcel put their Planetary Sentinel platform to good use as an orbital refueling station for their ships and a grand music hall. The structure's unique alien design gave it excellent acoustics and its expansive plasma conduits made excellent resonation chambers for the larger bass instruments. At the core of the installation remained the shield emitter called a Planet Sentinel. Although this device's original defensive purpose was no longer needed, the station still relied on it for most of its power. This weakness was exploited when the Draconi made an unexpected assault on the station, leaving it mostly intact from a structural standpoint but destroying the Planet Sentinel. The Arcel have ever since been looking for a replacement to repair their station and will reward the player with one of their "Great Secrets" when he/she supplies them with one. This secret has to do with one of the Numlox' "Keeper's" derelict Predator craft. Onboard this organic weapon is a brain-like artifact called the Predator Mind which houses significant records of this race's secretive history. Immediately after collecting the Predator Mind, the player will be intercepted by three craft of the same type as the disabled Predator, only active. These craft will attack and attempt to destroy the player and his/her fleet.

**Numlox**: When the Predator Mind is delivered to them, the Numlox recognize immediately that it is a device of the "Keepers." But when they read the knowledge that it carries, they will find information that is not so familiar to them, nor pleasant. It is here that the Numlox learn the dark secrets of their trusted Keepers. Understanding the truth, the Numlox wish to right the situation and aid the player. They now tell the player that when the time comes to move against their mutual foes, they will deliver support. To further aid, they give an artifact that had been used to protect them from many great dangers in the past, the Black Hole Device.

Note, upon returning to a starport with the device, Operations will release a notice detailing the highly informative contents of the Predator Mind, as revealed by the Numlox -

The race the Numlox call the "Keepers" are a species once called the Phlegmak by their human enemies. The Phlegmak, like their relatives the Minstrels, are a race of enigmatic space dwellers who have traveled the void for billions of years. They lived with little to fear, until the recent most span of their history, when planet dwelling life began to take flight into the vast space around them. The Phlegmak found that they were ill-equipped to protect themselves from the technologies of these new races who had entered their empty realm and attacked them for little or no end. While the Phlegmak once numbered in the trillions, the planet dwellers eventually brought their numbers down to the thousands. The only things that prevented the rest of them from being annihilated was their development of powerful bio-engineered weaponry, their telepathy, and their stoic, cunning intelligence. These survivors fought many defensive wars with the dangerous space-faring, planet-dwelling sentients over millions of years, but did not have the strength of numbers to make any kind of a lasting overt stand. For ages they searched for a method to turn the tables, before they finally discovered the Ancients’ Crystal Planet. The crystalline sentients had a similar goal against carbon based planetary life, but with their great weapon, they also had the power to execute it. So while the Phlegmak could not communicate with the Ancients, they could still aid them. Whenever a dangerously capable race was approached by the Crystal Planet, the Phlegmak would cripple them in order to protect the avenging weapon. But when they got to the powerful and innovative Numlox, they instead decided they could be used for their own purposes. By manipulating their belief system and fear of the Crystal Planet itself, the Phlegmak convinced the Numlox to send the majority of their fleet with them to be lead away by the Phlegmak to a place of safety, so that their race could be preserved. But they were instead lead to their deaths as warrior pawns of the Phlegmak after which these “Keepers” disappeared into exile. But now with the awakening of the Ancients and the building of the Crystal Sun, the Phlegmak have returned to make sure no rock-dwelling monster can hold back the tide of Ancients.

Use: This artifact allows the player's fleet to penetrate the heat barrier of the Ringed Nebula.

### Legkian Sun Bomb

*Delta Sector*

Description: A massive solar destabilizer. When similar units are placed in vast quantities at specific positions around a sun, the device can cause the entire mass to be ejected into space, often forming a nebula out of the freed Star Stuff. A key is required to arm this device.

History: Originally created as a weapon of last resort during the Legk-Uhlek war.

Collection: There are two Sun Bombs that can be used along with two arming keys. As soon as the player is in possession of one bomb and one arming key, the science officer will combine them and the device will be ready for use. You only need one armed bomb to win the game.

**Bomb 1**: Go to the Legkian ruin at XXX,XXX on planet X of XXX,XXX. Nearby is a Humna Humna Transport. Enter the transport and buy the Archive Teleporter for 1,000,000 MUs. Now go and deliver two dozen Nid Berry Bushes to the Dweenle's Plantation at XXX,XXX on their homeworld. The Dweenle will now be slightly happier and remember how you can find the answer to the riddle. The riddle will lead you to a Legkian ruin on a world. Place the Archive Teleporter there (it will start glowing) and then drive through it. A flash of light will immerse the terrain vehicle, and suddenly the surroundings will look extremely (insert artsy effect.) Nearby will be a Sun Bomb, sitting beside some other artifacts. Pick it up and then drive back into the teleporter.

**Bomb 2**: The G'Nunk possess a Sun Bomb of their own. To get it from them, you must go through a series of their trials to determine if you are ready for the burden of delivering the weapon. For the first trial, you must go to the Chichifa homeworld and collect the Iron Honor Marker (you will be met by a great many of the natives.) For the second trial, you must go the Xxr homeworld and collect the Silicon Honor Marker (you will be met by this world's natives and some of their heavy weaponry.) For the third trial, you must destroy a very large Dershetche fleet, at a location inside the cloud nebula. In the debri of one of their craft is the Titanium Honor Marker. For the fourth trial, you must destroy a fleet of G'Nunk and take the Cobalt Honor Marker from the debri. Now you are ready for the final trial. On the central mountain of the G'Nunk homeworld, the Sun Bomb has been placed so that you may take possession of it. As soon as you have, the G'Nunk will launch their final trial- a horde of wild creatures, G'Nunk, and G'Nunk attack vehicles. Take the Sun Bomb back to the ship and get in fast. Note that you must complete the trials and take the Sun Bomb before the G'Nunk use it to destroy Outpost 1 or else there will be no bomb to retrieve.

**Arming Key 1**: To find out the location of the first Arming Key, you must talk to the Arla and Kher. The Arla will tell you that the Kher are the only ones who know where it is, but that it will be difficult to get the information out of them. The Kher will tell the planetary coordinates of the Arming Key's resting place, but not the orbit or system of the planet. The Ch-Q-Tss-T witnessed some of the Kher's activity and know what system and planet they deposited the device on.

**Arming Key 2**: The second Arming Key (or Most Valuable Thing) is an old, worn out chunk that barely resembles the advanced piece of technology that it is. It is on a polar mountain region of the Dershetche homeworld. There, two things protect it. The first is that nobody knows it is anything more than space garbage worshiped by a slightly delusional race. The second defense is the native populace.

Use: This device is used to destroy the Crystal Sun.

### Final Battle

*Beta Sector*

Note: The following takes place only if the player possesses all three artifacts.

After the Black Hole Device has been used to penetrate the ring and the Seeayti Detector has been used to locate and enter the Crystal Sun system within the ion cloud, the Crystal Sun itself will be visible in the center of the system. Upon approaching it, the player fleet will be ambushed by two dozen predators. As they move to attack, a Numlox fleet of four warships and eight scouts enters from the other side of the encounter. They hail the player, and say that they will do what they can against their former allies and to move on and deliver the weapon. When the player has left the encounter (either after helping fight the Phlegmak or simply fleeing as the Numlox suggest) the ship appears over the Crystal Sun, in the center of the system. As numerous Ancient ships slowly approach from various directions, the Science officer informs that the Crystal Sun is now in range and the Sun Bomb can be deployed. After the weapon is released, there is a tremendous explosion, annihilating the ring and cloud, and leaving the Crystal Sun as a dim class M star.

After a short pause, the player is telepathically hailed by the Ancients (this is the first time they have communicated with a human since Commander McConnell.) The Ancients explain that their new found strength has been all but destroyed with the Crystal Sun, but if they must, they will continue the now hopeless fight against those that consume them, until the end. They then offer an armistice that can be accepted or declined.

If declined, the dreadnaughts will attack the player's ship and, for the rest of the game, ships of the Ancients will continue to attack as they did before, only there will be vastly smaller concentrations of them throughout the Sectors.

If accepted, the Ancients offer the secrets of Luminium as a gift, meaning Luminium will be sold in place of Shyneum for 500 MU. For the rest of the game, the significantly smaller group of active Ancients will not attack other vessels, unless they carry Endurium and refuse to relinquish it. The various hostile Endurium burning races of the three sectors are also weakened, as their territory and patrol densities are reduced somewhat by the focused pressure from the Ancients.

In either scenario, Interstel discovers that enough Luminium was dispersed from the destruction of the Crystal Sun to supply the known races for over a hundred thousand years.

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