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Description

Ported to OBJ from the low poly model created for the video game Starfleet Command 3 (SFC3). Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. NO MODEL DOWNLOAD, although you can extract and port it yourself using the SFC MOD plug-in for the old Milkshape 3D editor, both found with any good Internet search engine these days. Good luck and happy hunting!

First introduced in TNG "Datalore," the crystalline entity was one of the most feared large lifeforms to encounter in the TNG/DS9/VOY and later eras. To quote Captain Picard from the same episode, it is "... an unknown kind of creature, capable of stripping all life from an entire world… insatiably ravenous for the life force found in intelligent forms like us." Named for its crystal-like appearance and composition, this feeds on energy of all kinds from anything -- hence Picard's statement above. Shielded starships are safe for a time, although the entity can continuously attack the shields if it so desires and eventually drain them down given enough time, thus enabling it attack the ship itself. Once it can do so, then it will suck all energy (including life force energy) out of everything and everyone on board in a matter of seconds, leaving behind only a wrecked and dead ship as well as dry husks that quickly dissolve into dust in place of its formerly living crew. Ouch. It is not only intelligent but very much so, in some cases demonstrating an almost human-like cunning, and coupled with its powerful energy-sucking capabilities makes it an extremely dangerous foe to encounter whether it be in open space or on the surface of any celestial body. There are known ways of dealing with it and a select handful of proven ways to destroy it, but unless you have the resources to enable one of those means of destruction the best thing you can do is to treat the crystalline entity like the Borg. If one shows up in your area and you don't have those resources, then start running - as hard and as fast as you can. You might get lucky and escape its grasp.

The crystalline entity is of extragalactic origin, having arrived in our galaxy at some point during the back half of the post-TMP era (exact date unknown). It is considered part of the same general group of cosmozoan life forms as the TOS space amoeba (TOS "The Immunity Syndrome") and the TAS intergalactic cloud (TAS "One of Our Planets Is Missing"). For many decades it was believed that only the one crystalline entity had entered our galaxy until others were sighted and encountered in later years (LD, various other semi-canon sources). It is apparently capable of reproduction although one is never seen reproducing, so how it does so is anyone's guess. From sightings in later decades it has been theorized that any given crystalline entity starts out small and grows as it feeds on and consumes energy, much like a Borg cube ship growing in size and complexity as it assimilates the raw materials necessary to enable that. The one involved in the original encounter with the Enterprise-D was the size of a typical large asteroid (!), but both smaller and larger ones (!!) were observed in later decades.

This is also known by other names by other species, with variations on the Entity or Entities (capital "E") and the Brancher(s) being the most common. Per one semi-canon source the Tholians have their own name for it which they have never revealed to anyone and their attitude toward it hovers somewhere between genuine respect and near-religious reverence. They even drove off a Federation fleet attempting to destroy one near the Holdfast (STO mission "Crystalline Catastrophe"). It has been suggested that these came from the same galaxy where the Tholians originated and that they consider them as some sort of semi-divine being; however, conclusive evidence for both remains lacking.

'

This is canon, given its repeat appearances on screen in official Franchise media. The possible Tholian connection is semi-canon (sourced from STO) but I include it as a possible story or project hook for the more creative-minded among you out there.

ASIDE - This is one particularly nasty space monster to encounter in a video game situation, and the fact that it is intelligent makes it even more of a problem than most space monsters. If you include this in your own gaming mods, you might want to make it so that only the best-thinking players (not necessarily the hardest fighters) will be able to beat it. How you might implement that I leave up to you.

Description

Ported to OBJ from the low poly model created for the video game Starfleet Command 3 (SFC3). Preview picture posed in XNALara XPS. NO MODEL DOWNLOAD, although you can extract and port it yourself using the SFC MOD plug-in for the old Milkshape 3D editor, both found with any good Internet search engine these days. Good luck and happy hunting!

First introduced in TNG "Datalore," the crystalline entity was one of the most feared large lifeforms to encounter in the TNG/DS9/VOY and later eras. To quote Captain Picard from the same episode, it is "... an unknown kind of creature, capable of stripping all life from an entire world… insatiably ravenous for the life force found in intelligent forms like us." Named for its crystal-like appearance and composition, this feeds on energy of all kinds from anything -- hence Picard's statement above. Shielded starships are safe for a time, although the entity can continuously attack the shields if it so desires and eventually drain them down given enough time, thus enabling it attack the ship itself. Once it can do so, then it will suck all energy (including life force energy) out of everything and everyone on board in a matter of seconds, leaving behind only a wrecked and dead ship as well as dry husks that quickly dissolve into dust in place of its formerly living crew. Ouch. It is not only intelligent but very much so, in some cases demonstrating an almost human-like cunning, and coupled with its powerful energy-sucking capabilities makes it an extremely dangerous foe to encounter whether it be in open space or on the surface of any celestial body. There are known ways of dealing with it and a select handful of proven ways to destroy it, but unless you have the resources to enable one of those means of destruction the best thing you can do is to treat the crystalline entity like the Borg. If one shows up in your area and you don't have those resources, then start running - as hard and as fast as you can. You might get lucky and escape its grasp.

The crystalline entity is of extragalactic origin, having arrived in our galaxy at some point during the back half of the post-TMP era (exact date unknown). It is considered part of the same general group of cosmozoan life forms as the TOS space amoeba (TOS "The Immunity Syndrome") and the TAS intergalactic cloud (TAS "One of Our Planets Is Missing"). For many decades it was believed that only the one crystalline entity had entered our galaxy until others were sighted and encountered in later years (LD, various other semi-canon sources). It is apparently capable of reproduction although one is never seen reproducing, so how it does so is anyone's guess. From sightings in later decades it has been theorized that any given crystalline entity starts out small and grows as it feeds on and consumes energy, much like a Borg cube ship growing in size and complexity as it assimilates the raw materials necessary to enable that. The one involved in the original encounter with the Enterprise-D was the size of a typical large asteroid (!), but both smaller and larger ones (!!) were observed in later decades.

This is also known by other names by other species, with variations on the Entity or Entities (capital "E") and the Brancher(s) being the most common. Per one semi-canon source the Tholians have their own name for it which they have never revealed to anyone and their attitude toward it hovers somewhere between genuine respect and near-religious reverence. They even drove off a Federation fleet attempting to destroy one near the Holdfast (STO mission "Crystalline Catastrophe"). It has been suggested that these came from the same galaxy where the Tholians originated and that they consider them as some sort of semi-divine being; however, conclusive evidence for both remains lacking.

'

This is canon, given its repeat appearances on screen in official Franchise media. The possible Tholian connection is semi-canon (sourced from STO) but I include it as a possible story or project hook for the more creative-minded among you out there.

ASIDE - This is one particularly nasty space monster to encounter in a video game situation, and the fact that it is intelligent makes it even more of a problem than most space monsters. If you include this in your own gaming mods, you might want to make it so that only the best-thinking players (not necessarily the hardest fighters) will be able to beat it. How you might implement that I leave up to you.