Actually, the simplest method and therefore the one the most technologically advanced race ever would use would be to project it as a massive bolt of energy. Think of an ultra-slow-motion video of a lightning bolt. First, you have the little wispy flickering thread of ionised air twisting from the target to the crystal, then, the crystal shunts several teravolts of electric energy into the ionised thread, sending it towards the other end of the ionised thread, ripping the very molecules of the air apart and causing a massive noise, before blowing up an entire squad. I'd say it'd get the name Particle Whip because of the sound like a galactic-scale whip such a phenomenon would create, and also because of the wispy thread seen before the bolt of energy. This has the effects seen in all the fluff whilst remaining within the laws of physics we all know and love.