Krypton (Ultimate Earth)

**Krypton** was a planet orbiting the red star Rao, home to the Kryptonians. It was destroyed in an explosion, with Superman being one of very few survivors. Radioactive fragments of the planet are known as Kryptonite.

## History

### Early History

Orbiting a red dwarf star about 27 light-years distant from Earth named Rao, the planet **Krypton** was once very much like our world. The Green Lantern Corps have dubbed Krypton's sector of space 2813 (Earth's being 2814) and was under the protection of Green Lantern Tomar-Re when it was destroyed. Krypton's primordial era produced some of the most dangerous organisms in the Universe. It was for this reason that Krypton was chosen as the place to create Doomsday through forced evolution. Doomsday was an infant who was released into the dangerous enviroment of prehistoric Krypton and killed, the surviving and strongest genetic matter was cloned and re-released so the process could be repeated until the resulting being was powerful enough to survive.

He became so powerful, he killed most of the planet's population before clinging to a cargo ship fleeing the planet and went into space with nothing but a strong primal hatred of all life. Doomsday escaped Krypton via a ship that regularly came to deliver supplies to his creator, Bertron, who he also killed and went on a killing spree across several planets. Doomsday faced the Green Lantern Corps, killing several hundred of them, but was ultimately defeated by the alien hero Radiant and entombed. Since it was deemed that keeping them on their planet would be an insult, Doomsday was sent into space, at which time he eventually landed on Earth, tomb and all. Up until its destruction, many dangerous animals, including ferrophage moles, still existed on Krypton.

In fact, Krypton's inhabitants were indistinguishable from humans, though far more advanced. Kryptonians had to use their advanced technology to survive. Over 100,000 years ago, Krypton had already developed scientific advancements far beyond those of present-day Earth, and within a few millennia had conquered disease, learned to delay the aging process, and perfected cloning; vast banks of non-sentient clones held multiple copies of each living Kryptonian so that replacement parts were always available in the case of injury. All Kryptonians were effectively immortal, "with all the strength and vigor of youth maintained", and enjoyed an idyllic, sensual existence in an Arcadian paradise.

#### The Last War

In the Kryptonian year 9846, military commanders from the city-state of Erkol launched an attack against the capital city of Kandor. The Kandorian Science Council met with General-in-Chief Pir-El and instructed him to launch an emergency retaliatory strike against those Urrika nations allied with Erkol. Pir-El deployed four Disintegrator spheres and launched them toward separate Urrika cities, including Erkol.

The Erkol commanders responded by activating their ultimate weapon – a robotic sun-craft that generated intense waves of red solar radiation. The solar ship first struck the city of Krypton polis, completely devastating it. Subsequently, Erkol's warlords issued an ultimatum: unless Kandor surrendered unconditionally to them, they would use the solar ship to destroy the capital city. The Kandorian Science Council grew even more nervous and implored Pir-El to embark upon an emergency plan.

Returning to his command center at Fort Rozz, Pir-El consulted with a team of scientists who labored night and day to design a device to counter the solar ship. A few days later, scientist Jes-Mo provided Pir-El with a special missile, which they hoped could repel future attacks. Pir-El launched the weapon toward Erkol, specifically targeting their solar ships. The missile released a black chemical cloud, which blocked sunlight from entering the city. The solar ships, unable to function without constant energizing from the sun, Rao, began to fall out of the sky.

The dark cloud left behind by the missile descended on Erkol. It contained a chemical agent, which altered the personalities of those caught within its sphere of influence. Everyone affected by the chemical cloud adopted a passive demeanor and elected to make peace with the city of Kandor. The Last War came to a close, and the ruling council of Kandor honored Pir-El as a great military hero.

In the years following the Last War, the Moliom councilors of Kandor strengthened their planetary federation and drafted a new constitution. Kryptonopolis was rebuilt and became the official capital city of Krypton.

#### The theft of Kandor

At some point in time, an alien pirate known as Brainiac came to Krypton and used his Hyper-Ray to shrink the city of Kandor and all of its seven million inhabitants. He enclosed the city in a bottle and placed it within a private museum on his spacecraft. As such, Kandor survived the destruction of Krypton many years later. The Kandorians continued to exist inside the city, and even manufactured an artificial red sun, which provided them with the means to thrive. Years after Krypton's destruction, Brainiac discovered the allegedly "last-surviving" Kryptonian, Kal-El, living on Earth. Kal-El (better known as Superman) fought with Brainiac and discovered the shrunken city. He did not possess the means to restore the Kandorians to their proper size, so he brought the bottled city back to his Fortress of Solitude safe-keeping.

#### The Cataclysm

Over the course of thousands of years, Krypton'a uranium core grew more and more unstable. As revealed by Kryptonian scientist Jor-El, the planetary core had been setting up a repetitive cycle of "chain-impulses", increasing in pressure exponentially, making Krypton's core dangerously unstable. Jor-El personally undertook a geological survey to confirm his suspicions. He presented his data to the Kryptonian Science Council, warning them that within a short period of time, Krypton would explode like an atomic bomb. For reasons that were never made clear, the members of the science council felt that Jor-El was acting irrationally, and chose to ignore his warnings.

Jor-El would not be quieted however, and he began working on designs for a fleet of ships that would affect a massive exodus from Krypton. Time grew short however, and Jor-El knew that he could never mass produce a fleet in time to save the people of his world. Instead, he used a prototype rocket and placed his infant son Kal-El inside of it. Jor-El set the coordinates of the rocket for the planet Earth. He had known of Earth for many years, and believed that it would be an ideal world for his son to be raised. With only hours left to him, Jor-El and his wife Lara Lor-Van bid goodbye to baby Kal-El and launched him away from Krypton.

This geological instability of Krypton did not go unnoticed by other denizens of the universe. The Guardians of the Universe observed this phenomena and assigned an officer of the Green Lantern Corps, Tomar-Re to aid the Kryptonians. Tomar-Re sought to use a rare compound called Stellarium to absorb some of the tectonic pressure, thus saving the Kryptonians. He gathered the compound, and was en route to Krypton when a yellow solar flare blinded him, and forced him to drop the Stellarium. He quickly recovered, but discovered he was blind. He gathered what little stellarium he could without his sight, and proceeded towards Krypton. He was closing in when his vision started to clear. He was too late however. The atomic pressure became too great and Krypton exploded.