Kriken Empire
"You can't fight the Kriken like any other army. They don't care how many you kill, you can't demoralize them. They're locusts; they're the cosmos rising up every hundred years to remind us humans just how close we constantly are to losing everything we've achieved."
-Colonel JP Harding, during the 7th Kriken Surge
| Kriken | |
|---|---|
| Facts | |
| Home Planet | Hive World Core |
| Skin color | Red exoskeleton |
| Average lifespan | 50 years |
| Affiliation(s) | Kriken Empire |
| Gender | None |
| First Appearance | Space Pirate Panic! |
| Latest Appearance | The Legacy of Infamy |
| Appearances | |
| Notable Vhozon | |
The Kriken Empire are a collective of the insectoid Kriken from the Angler Galaxy. They are an agile and highly intelligent race known for their warlike tendencies, constantly invading other worlds in order to find more room to expand their numbers. The Kirken are primarily a menace to the Galactic Federation and have been mostly a background faction in the Yoshi Bodyguard Universe.
History
Beginnings and Founding of Hive World Core
The Kriken evolved on a planet only known as Hive World Core, a swamp planet near the galactic core of the Angler Galaxy. They evolved from a primitive Triskeleton Swamp Bug, and unlike most races are very recent evolutions from their insect counterparts. Also on this world was a race known as the Piljmorians, an ape-like race that focused on industry. For years the Piljmorians attempted to exterminate the Kriken, who were a menace that threatened to overpopulate the planet. The Kriken's quick evolutionary response and reproductive cycle allowed them to adapt over the centuries to better combat the Piljmorians; they became more intelligent, tactical, and brutal.
At the end of their war, the Kriken had pushed across the planet, overrunning the Piljmorian cities and wiping their race out. Left with no enemy to sate their brutal nature, the Kriken turned to fighting one another. In the chaos, the first Warlord arose, who united the strongest Kriken factions and turned the Piljmorian factories to work for them. Seeing that their planet would soon be overpopulated by the Kriken, they turned to continuing the Piljmorian's research into space flight. Within five years the first Kriken ship left the atmosphere. By that time their planet was overrun by giant spires of Kriken architecture, and trillions of Kriken populated the planet. It would come to be known as Hive World Core, the first Hive World of the Kriken Empire.
Expansion and the Swarm Wars
The Kriken spread out across the galaxy quickly, invading world after world and populating it within a span of years. Their first expansion attempts were against an advanced race known as the Zoulians. The Zoulians had not encountered intelligent life before, but had advanced to faster-than-light travel. The Kriken fleet caught them by surprise, and within two years the Zoulians had lost their homeworld. The remainder of the Zou race retreated into what is now Federation space.
The Kirken assimilated this new technology, founding their first Technology World, a planet that had its resources and production devoted solely to advancing the Kriken's weapons and war fleet technology. Adding FTL travel to their fleets, the Kriken had a surge of expansion. For the next three hundred years they were unopposed, spreading through the galaxy and wiping out any race they would encounter.
They then discovered the Vhozon, a race more advanced then they but with very little in the way of military technology. Initial contact resulted in the loss of the Vhozon Empire's outer worlds. The surprise of the Kriken, though, the Vhozon fought back, pushing their fleet back in several engagements. The Kriken Warlord was surprised by this, never before had a race even stalled the Kriken fleet. He sent a massive surge to destroy the Vhozon. This conflict would be known as the Swarm War.
For fifty years the Kriken pushed the Vhozon back, adapting to their technology and evolving to be stronger all the while. Meanwhile the Vhozon were becoming stronger as a race as well, using genetic mutations and new wartime advances to stall the Kriken. However the Kriken were soon within the inner systems of the Vhozon's territory. In order to stop them, they created a psychic storm, the Mist of Vho.
The Kriken attempted to send their fleets through the Mist of Vho, hoping to push their way into the core worlds, constantly pushing for a year. This became known as the Year of Destruction, which resulted in the loss of several trillion Kriken. Any time a ship had managed to navigate its way through the Psychic Storm it would be destroyed by the Vhozon fleet, immune to the storm's effects. The Kriken were forced to retreat, their first actual defeat.
Civil War and the First Surge
After their first defeat, the empire went into a state of chaos. They saw the Warmaster as weak, and raided his palace with a large number of Kriken. Soon the Warmaster was destroyed, and the empire fell into infighting. Various warlords vied for control of the empire, planets went to war against planets. This fighting went on for three hundred years, until a new Warmaster rose from the conflict, uniting or destroying any faction that was against him and securing a seat on Hive World Core.
Though the Kriken of the time did not identify themselves by names, this Warmaster became known in Kriken writings as Reformer. He created the concept of the Surge into the nearby Cremia Galaxy, recently discovered by the Kriken. Their concept was that their entire galaxy was either consumed by the Kriken or unreachable. In order to keep the Kriken from going into infighting, Reformer would lead the fleet into a new Galaxy and they would spread out there.
This was the First Kriken Surge of 300 BZ, and humanity's first contact with the Kriken. The conflict lasted two hundred years, and destroyed much of the scattered human civilizations as well as pushed back many of the more advanced ones. The Kriken position in the Cremia Galaxy was solidified near its outer border, leading to the creation of many Hive Planets. The first surge was repelled when the Galactic Order of Diaban entered the galaxy, uniting the human nations and defeating the Kriken fleet. The Kriken were forced back to the Angler Galaxy, and the billions left in the Helios Galaxy became known as feral Kriken.
War Against the Federation
The retreating Kriken were once again plunged into a state of chaos. An attempted coup of the Warmaster was made, but this was repelled. The Warmaster then decided on a new methodology regarding the newly formed Galactic Federation, of which it saw as a worthy foe. The Kriken would build up their forces every hundred years, and when the time came they would again surge the Helios Galaxy. Meanwhile, the Kriken of Warrior Strains would be sent around the universe attempting to find planets to mark for invasion, those that were both rich in minerals and enemies to fight. Parts of the Warrior Strain's fleet would then invade this planet and establish a foothold for their empire. This lead to a small intermingling of Kriken in the Galactic Federation, many being used as bounty hunters for hire as they scouted out worlds.
The Second Surge nearly destabilized the Federation's hold on the Helios Galaxy, and pushed their fleets back to the galactic core. Only the quick thinking of Fleet Admiral Vil'okh stopped the Kriken, as he cut off the fleet from its support of the Hive Planets. The Second Surge was a total Federation victory. The Third through Sixth Surges were repelled by the Federation's containment policy, which involved putting a fleet in the void between the two galaxies and intercepting any ship going through at lightspeed.
The Kriken evolved further at this time, and the Seventh Surge caught the Federation by surprise as they moved into the Sapia Galaxy, bypassing the Helios entirely. There they made a brutal push to Diaban, annihilating many populated worlds along the way. The Kriken would make it to Diaban, but would be stopped there by the planet's superior defense grid. The Federation pushed with a counter offensive into the Angler Galaxy, only to discover that it was almost entirely inhabited by the Kriken. Within weeks the fleet was wiped out.
Modern Day
The Kriken Empire kept the hundred year surges up to modern day. They are seen as a constant threat to the Alliance of Worlds, and will constantly send scouting parties in to study the ways of the outside nations. The last major offensive against the Kriken was the Battle of the Sapia Void, in the 23rd Kriken Surge. Here the Galactic Federation was called to defeat the Kriken, only to be sabotaged by Space Pirates. The Kriken made it into the Sapia Galaxy and reestablished contact with the Feral Kriken lost there, pushing through several small systems. However, their numbers were still insufficient to face the Federation fleet, and the fleet soon dispersed.
The most famous Kriken in modern history is the bounty hunter Trace. Trace raided the Yoshi Bodyguard headquarters after a mysterious telepathic message informed him of an ultimate power hidden in the Tetra Galaxy. Trace was scouting for worlds for the Kriken Empire at the time, and followed a large group of hunters to try and find this power to give the Empire the edge against the Federation. It would turn out to be a trap, and Trace was defeated by the cosmic entity Gorea. He was able to escape after Gorea was defeated by Samus Aran and the Yoshi Bodyguards.
Several Kriken were sighted in the Hidukkel Sector during the outbreak of the psychic storm, but their purpose is still unknown.