Ceph (Crysis)

Ceph are an alien species that feature in Crysis.

Origin
The Ceph were an incredibly ancient alien race from a technologically advanced civilization that were seemingly native to their home planet located in M33 Galaxy. They had developed an extremely successful method of interplanetary colonization that allowed them to spread not only through their own home galaxy but allowed them to making significant incursions into neighboring galaxies. Their hive mind allowed them to adapt to vastly different environments on billions of worlds. This allowed them to survive on Earth-like worlds, high gravity gas giants and ice sphere whilst in more extreme cases adapting to planets that were unimaginably hot, toxic or consisting of strage conditions such as dark matter or warped space-time. The Ceph hivemind was engineered to allow them to dominate the universe allowing them to control much of the southern spiral arm of the M33 Galaxy. It became part of the vast billion year old Ceph controlled web of countless worlds with numerous ships and colonies comprising a single gigantic hivemind. Within their home galaxy, this impossibly huge Ceph hive was designated as Over-Hive Hyperion. Another two somewhat smaller but still immense over-hives exist in M33 with one being Over-Hive Iapetus situated west of the galactic core and Over-Hive Coeus located on the eastern fringes. Around a million further hives cover three or more star systems within their home galaxy.

Over-Hive Hyperion launched a seeding ship that journeyed to the Milky Way Galaxy where it headed to Earth. It was estimated that the vessel arrived on Earth around 65 million years ago. The seeding ship was speculated to had possibly been rendered inactive by the same asteroid that caused a mass extinction event on Earth during that time. A second seed ship was similarly believed to had been damaged and left derelict and lifeless around loose solar orbit. In 1919, a private expedition led by Jacob Hargreave was launched to investigate the site of the Tunguska Event of 1908. Alongside his colleagues Karl Rasch and Walter Gould, the group discovered the Ceph under unknown circumstances. Only those three survived the expedition where Hargreave managed to come into possession examples of the alien technology as well as knowledge of the threat posed by the Ceph to mankind. Through the stolen technology, he established Hargreave-Rasch Biomedical Research Centre in preparation for the coming of the aliens.

Lingshan Accident
Officially, the unidentified aliens were discovered at the Lingshan Islands by the efforts of an archaeological team led by Dr. Rosenthal who was being tracked by the CIA. Her team had uncovered fragments of the Ceph technology in other parts of the world that had brought them to the island. However, the alien technology attracted the attention of the North Korean government who dispatched the Korean People's Army to secure the Lingshan Island to appropriate it. This in turn brought about a United States response who dispatched their own military forces to prevent the KPA from acquiring the artifacts. However, the Korean Gneeral Kyong activated the structure thus inadvertently awakening the Ceph who activated an icy sphere that froze most of the island as well as killed everyone within range. The aliens engaged both the United States and North Korean forces thus forcing them to evacuvate the island. Ultimately, the American forces authorised a limited nuclear strike against the ice sphere. However, the sphere simply absorbed the nuclear explosion instead of dispersing it thus allowing it to expand. The resultant Ceph counterattack was massive enough to sink the entire US fleet.

Manhattan Invasion
Upon reaching the Second Stage, the Ceph reflective adaptation saw them shift from the relatively low numbered high-powered resource heavy units at Lingshan into a more numerous and tactical flexible force. These units were loess powerful individually but began spearheading the incursions on the planet. A result was the aliens managed to combat the numerical superiority of the native humans that was a key advantage in their victory at Lingshan.

In 2023, the repurposed spore weapon was proven to be 100% effective against the Ceph in New York. However, the aliens rose up in multiple locations across the planet despite the fact that the spore had driven them back whilst drastically reducing their numbers at all the incursion sites. This was because the survivors quickly developed a resistance to the effects of the spore and disappeared underground. The earthbound Ceph were observed to had attempted to contact a second ancient seeding ship locked in loose solar orbit but the craft was a derelict devoid of life. The Ceph then continued to operate at hidden bases and birthing factories under every continent on the planet where they attempted to adapt again to outmaneuver to defeat the tactics of their human foes. This included breeding a newer Second Stage Ceph that were better adapted for the war on Earth. The Alpha Ceph that formed had given birth to a new generation of its army when the hive suffered a heavy loss when the weakened creature was identified and captured by C.E.L.L. under New York.

Aftermath
In the following period, the various human forces led by Prophet were responsible for hunting down the Ceph around the world. This period continued over the next twenty years where they managed to uncover the existence of a high ranking alien commander known as the Alpha Ceph. However, whilst engaging in this hunt, the C.E.L.L. corporation was responsible for secretly operating from behind the scenes where they began to erect Nanodomes to contain the Ceph presence in their specific outbreak locations. Among these included New York where the Liberty Dome was erected that kept the aliens contained. At this point, C.E.L.L. was responsible for capturing the Alpha Ceph and contained the organism where they began to tap into its energy in order to harness the alien technology. This was with the intention of creating free energy which the corporation beamed globally and made the rest of the world dependant on. As a result, the Ceph deactivated as their hive mind was rendered inactive due to the Alpha Ceph's containment with only Stalker type organisms still operating though these entered into a wild, feral state. Through Ceph energy, C.E.L.L. made the rest of the world dependant on them and had individuals pay off their debt by working for the corporation. Unknown to any, the Alpha Ceph's mind still operated in Karl Rasch who had used the alien nanotechnology to extend his life. This led to a mental battle between the Alpha Ceph and Rasch which the human lost whereupon the alien influence began to work to free itself. The moment only arrived when Prophet was freed from C.E.L.L. imprisonment by resistance fighters. This group was directed to attack the Ceph energy installation though they were not aware of the Alpha Ceph's imprisonment. Instead, they believed that the creature had been killed when Prophet had been hunting the aliens down prior to his capture. Thus, once the containment facility was destroyed, the Alpha Ceph was freed where it began reactivating the rest of its compatriots and bringing them under the direction of the hive mind. The result was large scale fighting between C.E.L.L., the Ceph and the human resistance fighters. However, the ultimate goal of the Alpha Ceph was to begin its species Stage 3 colonization strategy that involved using its power to create a wormhole to its home galaxy to allow an incursion force to invade Earth. Upon learning of this fact, Prophet moved to engage the alien and succeeded in killing the Alpha Ceph but not before the wormhole allowed a single alien warship to partially emerge. After being transported into orbit, Prophet took control of the C.E.L.L. Archangel orbital weapon satellite and used it to destroy the alien starships which exploded as well as seemingly collapsed the wormhole. Thus, the Ceph were defeated and the C.E.L.L. corporation was brought down after their monopoly on alien energy generation had ended alongside the collapse of their brutal reign.

Biology
In appearance, they shared many physical similarities with the Cephalopodic species of Earth. As a reactive species, the Ceph adapted themselves to better cope with various different environments. As such, there was a degree of difference between a planets Ceph hive and their parent Over-Hive in the home galaxy. The two branches only shared a genetic ancestry but the home galaxy were unlike anything seen by the local hives. Where local hives had evolved over the course of decades into a well-adapted highly capable force, they paled in comparison to the Warrior Ceph of the Over-Hive that had billions of years of combat evolution behind them.

In reality, they were a hive based species that shared a single vast intelligence with a society similar to Earth ants. A single collective intelligence controlled them rather than an individual mind. As such, the Ceph do not think like humans with their intelligence being vast and so utterly different in terms on functions and how it manifested itself. This med it difficult for a human being to comprehend the genius of the Ceph mind. In fact, it was believed that it was engineered to allow them to dominate the entire universe and survive on many different worlds. Their hive mind was described as being force of pure energy which linked all their race to one another. Outsiders that connected to it faced the danger of being overwhelmed by it and consumed by the hive mind. At the heart of the hive intelligence was a single unique creature that ruled them all.

A key advantage of the aliens was them able to return from their defeat and become stronger each time. This was attributed to their hive intelligence that made them successful by being a reactive species. Each new Ceph hive began with relatively little inherited knowledge from its parent hive unlike humans that passed on their knowledge from generation to generation. Despite that being the case, the Ceph had the deadly ability to adapt and react quickly. It was this trait that allowed them to succeed as a species and thrive in billions of different environments.

Among the greatest of the Ceph was a large entity known as the Alpha Ceph ('Premor-Xenus') that was able to control and direct their forces. They developed as part of the second stage and were a unique organism that rose to dominance. It was considered the mind and soul of every alien on the planet with every Ceph's existence tied to it. The Alpha Ceph was deemed to function as an incredibly powerful living reactor and controlled their technology. As such, they were remarkable as they served as a central nexus and focusing point for the hive mind. Alpha Ceph naturally generated near unlimited amounts of energy through an internal reaction that could not be replicated by humans. The energy flowed cleanly among the Ceph that made up the hive and powered all the Second Stage Ceph equipment including their exosuits.

Different types of Ceph units included:
 * Grunt : these 6.5 meter tall humanoid armored machines were armed with blades for melee combat but also made use of a built-in energy weapon and an EMP device designed to drain energy reserves within their foes electrical equipment.
 * Stalker : a 6 meter tall construct that adopted a sleek hunched hunter-like stance and typically fought with melee blades but also possessed a built-in machine gun weapon. These Ceph did not solely rely on their racial hive mind but reverted to a feral state when separated from it. Stalker type Ceph were notably different from the rest of their kind as they did not require a connection to the hive mind in order to operate. Instead, when deprived of the mind link, they entered into a more feral state where they attacked any target but without any coordination. This mindstate changed when the hive mind was brought back online.
 * Guardian Units : a powerful Ceph bipedal construct that shared traits of the Stalkers as well as others but were much more powerful and had the ability to enter into a stealth mode making them invisible.
 * Devastator Units : these heavily armored bipedal constructs held heavy weapons and some form of missile launcher. Their greater mass allowed them to smash into enemy lines and the Ceph typically deployed them in pods from their dropships.

Other notable type of Ceph included:
 * Scorchers : an insectile quadrapedal creature designated pyrus-xenus that acted as a mobile turret that were armed with Incinerators that shot out streaks of flame to roast enemies. It held an armored head which it used to protect itself from enemy fire but was capable of being remotely hacked by a Nanosuit.
 * Masterminds : these quadrapedal four armed large constructs were able to control energy fields to drag targets to them and used it to manipulate other Ceph to fight for them.

Society
Once a Ceph hive grew to a certain size, it proceeded with the next stage of its life cycle which was to produce seeding ships. These craft contained everything needed to grow a new hive from nothing with them being launched into space at random. This was part of Stage 1 Ceph Colonization strategy whereby the seeding ship contained a small proto-hive consisting of around 50 to 150 Stage One Ceph along with their adaptive technology. After finding a suitable location for a new hive, the early Ceph began initiating a massive energy absorption operation that froze surroundings as a by-products. In that time, they also began environmental analysis and early asset construction activities. The energy collected was used to birth a new generation of terraforming Ceph that were specifically adapted to the local environment. It was believed that the proto-hivemind of the Stage One Ceph was controlled artificially and was reliant on the acquisition of energy in order to remain stable. It was for this reason that Stage One Ceph were vulnerable as they were not yet self-sufficient.

In the next part of the cycle, the aliens began the Stage 2 Ceph Colonization strategy once huge amounts had been collected by the First Stage Ceph to birth the next generation of creatures. The newer organisms were able to function as a single, self-sufficient hive mind on their own with them being self-sufficient and not needing further power. Stage Two Ceph were highly adaptive and reactive entities that instinctively configured as well as re-configured their activities, equipment along with genetic makeup to better suit their local environment. The purpose of the Second Stage Ceph was to conquer and terraform with the aim of turning a planet into a Ceph hiveworld that in time produced seedships of its own.

A final part of the cycle was the Stage 3 Ceph Colonization strategy which only occurred upon failure of the previous stage. After being unable to terraform a planet to due local persistent resistance, Stage 3 was initiated that involved the deployment of the much more advanced Warrior Ceph directly from the parent Over-Hive in the M33 Galaxy. Even the most advanced enemies were expected to be defeated by the Stage Three Ceph leading to a swift conquest of a contested world to turn it into another hiveworld. There were several means through which this stage could be accomplished with a particular preference for creating space/time wormholes to the target world. Once done, a Warrior Ceph battleship was directly inserted into local. This incursion force was tasked with sending multiple starships that would gain orbital supremacy and conquer the target world.

Technology
A craft utilized by the aliens in terrestrial operations were Ceph gunships that were small aircraft similar to a Human helicopter. These gunships possessed strong armor and required missile weapons to destroy them. Their armaments took the form of a powerful plasma chaingun and a lunahc system that fired multiple enery projectiles. Ceph dropships were aerial craft that were used to deploy up to six drop pods onto the ground and releasing these forces to engage enemy units. An example of Ceph starships included large alien structures underground that were capable of breaking forth and floating in the air. These structures were described as being a lithoship.

One of the weapons available to the Ceph was a weaponized virus that was capable of large scale infecting of a populace. It was generated and released into the atmosphere from large spires that emerged from the ground that in turn were part of a larger underground Ceph structure. Another aspect of their technology linked closely to the Ceph's hive mind nature was the establishment of devices called MindCarriers. These machines were situated on the field where they provided individual Ceph a connection to their hive mind. A further ability of the Ceph was the capacity to create wormholes that crossed between galaxies in order to allow their starships to travel to different planets.

It was believed that the ancient Ceph of their home galaxy were much more unimaginably advanced compared to their Earth kin which were compared to cavemen.

Appearances

 * Crysis
 * Crysis: Warhead
 * Crysis II
 * Crysis III

External Link

 * Crysis Wiki Entry