| rdfs:comment | - Kreton is the fourth planet of the Otheria/Kreton star system, several million light years from the known worlds. In earlier times, Kreton was a planet rich with life, and filled with abundant seas and thick jungles. In the year 1790, this world was settled by colonists from its neighboring planet, Otheria. By the year 2235, the original colony had grown to encompass the entire planet, the population growing to encompass several million people.
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| abstract | - Kreton is the fourth planet of the Otheria/Kreton star system, several million light years from the known worlds. In earlier times, Kreton was a planet rich with life, and filled with abundant seas and thick jungles. In the year 1790, this world was settled by colonists from its neighboring planet, Otheria. By the year 2235, the original colony had grown to encompass the entire planet, the population growing to encompass several million people. Unfortunately for the colonists, a freak asteroid laden with radioactive minerals approached the planet and struck near the equator, creating an explosion that kicked up thick clouds of dust laden with fallout. The colonists that survived this catasrophe lived only to face a new threat, as the radiation mutated them into the race that became the Kretonians. These dust clouds obscured Kreton from Otheria for nearly 50 years, during which time the Kretonians rebuilt as much of their planet as they could. What was once a lush paradise had become a wasteland, with climates that could create deserts one year and then create an arctic ice field within a decade. Water, which was once abundant, was now scarce and often laden with fallout. In this cauldron of devastation, the civilization of the Kretonians was born. When the clouds lifted, the Otherians discovered the fate of their brethren on Kreton, and attempted to re-establish contact. Unfortunately for the Otherians, the Kretonians held quite a grudge against them, having seen no aid from the Otherians for nearly half a century. These overtures were met with violence, and the war between the Otherians and the Kretonians began. This war lasted for 366 years, devastating both worlds, with neither side achieving any advantage. The war slowed from a raging inferno to a slow simmer, with only minor skirmishes occuring when ships of either side encountered each other. Then, in 2651, a ship from the Vanguard, the Clawed Fist fleet, and a few civilian vessels were drawn into an Otherspace drive mishap which was later termed the Gettysburg Effect, in reference to the Vanguard vessel that suffered it. These ships found their way to Alonar, the ninth planet of the Otheria/Kreton system, once a base used by the Otherians. Knocked off course by an explosion that destroyed the eighth planet, the newcomers had no idea they were just a few million kilometers from disaster. Leaving Alonar, they encountered the Kretonian battle fleet, and were promptly captured when the Kretonians discovered that they possessed something they didn't: Faster than light travel. With the aid of the Otherians, whom they managed to contact telepathically, they returned to their ships and escaped. Their escape came at a heavy cost. The Gettysburg Effect destabilized the star of the system, and after a few short months, it exploded in a massive supernova, completely destroying the star system, with the exception of Alonar, its remoteness on the edge of the system its saving grace. Thus, Kreton was put out of its misery, an end to a continual degradation from a paradise to a broken world.
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