Jeti Keto: The Crugi Empire

 Back at the Hexoni system, the council thought the Crugi resettlement would be a failure, but after a decade, their doubts vanished. Awed by the feats of the Crugi, the Villeri and Krokin races seeked to conquer systems of their own, and their relationship with the Coalition weakened further. Unfortunately, the Villeri lost its expedition troops when they attempted to capture the newly discovered planet of Stowein, where every living form seemed carnivorous, including plants. Its vegetation towered over the peaks of mountains back in the Hexonis System.

The Krokins, on the other hand, lost a thirteen-year war with the natives of the Genoan System, who were less advanced species than the Hexoni. The remnants of the Krokins force were stranded on the planet with no possible means of returning to Komodon.

 The Crugi expanded their 'empire' again, discovering and exploring more alien systems with the aim of conquering them. First, there was the Gdrasil system which had only two planets several moons and a single bright star. On the inhabited planet of Ratatus, they encountered the two dominant species of the primitive Myrixs and the civilized Gateans, locked up in a conflict for something each organism wanted, irrespective of species; space and resources.

The Myrixs were apex-headed with scaly skins and a grey hue. They lived in tribes under a tribal chief, who in turn, paid homage to the arch-chief. This position wasn't hereditary and the chiefs always fought for the status after the death of the past arch-chief, to rule the other chiefs till he died or was ousted from power. Superstitious beings, the Myrixs believed the star was a great deity, who ruled from the skies with his wives, the moons. When the Crugi scouts landed on the planet, many saw them as saviours sent from the sky to aid them against their rivals, while others viewed them as the sons of the god, because of their golden hue, sent down as bringers of chaos and doom.

The Gateans were fishlike creatures with small fins at the limbs and a dorsal-fin that ran along the spine and ended at a phantom tail. Governed by a leader called a 'Goti', the Gateans resided in settlements and towns known as 'Gotisans'.

 A debate began amongst the Crugi on which side to ally themselves to, the highly populated Myrixs or the civilized Gateans. The two commanders who conquered Torumato entered into an argument; Verdandi urged the Crugi to join sides with the Myrixs since they were more populated and would be easy to keep in check, but Murda opposed him in the grounds that being civilized, the Gateans could be disciplined and organized. He also pressed the fact that the Gateans would likely become technologically advanced too. The heads of the Crugi Houses detested this part of his argument and Verdandi won.

Crugi spaceships were sent to attack the Gotisans and the Gateans military, which resulted in a huge victory. A diplomatic envoy was sent to each of the nine Myrix tribal chiefs in Ratatus, urging them to join an alliance with the Crugi. Of the nine tribes, five refused to plead fealty to the Crugi cause and this led to a tribal warfare between the faithful tribes and the 'infidels' who dared to forsake their ancestral traditions. The threat of the Gatean species was forgotten for a while, as the Crugi launched a massive support expedition for their loyalists against their kind, providing them with low-tech firearms and training them in advanced warfare.

 While this went on, in the Eastern parts of Ratatus, the Gatean Gotisans united themselves and a large army of three hundred and twenty thousand warriors swarmed into Myrix territory, attacking the tribes without reference to their loyalty. The Crugi found themselves in a terrible position, with the zealous Myrixs at their front and the Gatean army at the rear. To avoid heavy casualties, both to his men and the new subordinates, Verdandi transported the Myrixs to the nearby planet of Torogo, where a new society for the Myrixs was created. There, the highly fertile Myrixs, in the absence of war, predators and natural disasters found in Ratatus, grew rapidly in population. It seemed then, that the decision to side the Myrixs was a good one, because though primitive, they were natural warriors, accustomed to being commanded and genetically seasoned for combat. Their interspecies and intertribal warfare over scarce resources attested to the fact. With their vast population, they became a ready source of troops for the Crugi Empire and their galaxial campaign to rule the multiverse.

 Enlarged by the Myrixs, the Crugi forces invaded the planet of Abyla-Wospi in the Jotidun System. They encountered two mysterious species of beasts with deadly traits; the Arcanes and Serits. Both were dangerous creatures, but the Crugi interested themselves mostly with the Arcanes. It took years but finally, the Crugi were able to discover the antidote of the Arcanes' fatal venom and kept it a secret.

With the knowledge, the Crugi captured thousands of Arcanes and bred them for use in warfare, injected them with hormonal suppressants that made them obedient and tamed. 

 In subsequent years, they also invaded the Tupijupi System, where they discovered the presence of an element, Krastal, which was confirmed as the most powerful element in the multiverse, more powerful than the Hexoni's Imperium. They sought to obtain the element for themselves but it was defended by the Romaki, a species who valued the element more than life itself. Failing to defeat the Romaki, the Crugi turned their attention to the Hexoni races, to avenge the injustice of the Coalition. They attacked the Villeri planet, Cunoti, assaulted Promeri and Xentan cargos and spaceships and carried raids on the---

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