When we discovered the desert world of Kronos, my military advisors hinted darkly that this world and Beta Ceti might once have held other civilizations, destroyed more thoroughly than Arietis by the fabled Guardians. The advisors in question were laughed out of the room as usual. Scouts also sent back reports on the dead world of Vulcan, beautiful arid Mu Delphi, and the large but barren planets known as Trax and Simius. Draco believed it would be possible to build enclosed colony domes and water recycling plants to claim those worlds as well, but that would be a project for another year. We had more important things to consider in 2307, as an urgent message came in from our satellite observatory:
For the first time, we had spotted a functioning starship belonging to alien beings! Draco calculated that the "Psilon Scout" must be bound for Beta Ceti, and must originate at the yellow star (which he tentatively named "Mentar" for obscure reasons) to which the cursor is seen to point in this image. Our Newscout pilot prepared a full diplomatic reception (well, he broke out the cold cuts anyway; our Newscouts were economy models, sadly lacking the room for quite the reception we might have wished), but when the Psilon Scout arrived, it immediately turned and fled as if from an enemy - as did a second Psilon Scout that reached Mu Delphi simultaneously. My military advisors proclaimed a double victory, apparently embracing their role as court jesters. They were laughing out of the other side of their faces when we discovered yet another starship, a Klackon Fighter according to its call sign, down at Trax. Unlike the Psilon Scouts, the Fighter closed on our Newscout, warming up its weapon systems, and our pilot was forced to hastilly re-stow the cold cuts and retreat! If there's one thing I can't stand, it's wasting luncheon meat, but I chalked it up to a misunderstanding (I said I was young, okay?) and ordered the Newscout pilot to return to orbit and attempt to make amends to the Klackons. After all, how could they not have peaceful intentions with ships called "Fighters"? I may also have been slightly distracted, awaiting scouting reports from around the galaxy, including Crius, a white star with an icy world in the far north, and Argus, a beautiful jungle like Romulas except for two small differences: First, the Klackons had already established a colony there ... and second, our mineral scans returned the same approximate concentration of metals and energy sources that they usually detect when scanning empty space. Our Newscout pilot's attempts to greet the people on the surface all met with dismal failure - they looked like ants, crawling about with their heads down, never even looking skyward - so we recalled him to the Antares asteroid field, hoping to avoid any more "misunderstandings" with our neighbors.
2309-20: Beyond the Nebula
The Klackon Fighter had left Trax by the time our Newscout returned, so I was able to return my attention to scouting reports. We discovered barren Maretta, and minimally habitable Yarrow, where we met another cowardly Psilon Scout. Our pilot didn't even bother finding rye bread for the cold cuts this time. Another cowardly Scout pilot, this one something called a "Darlok," would later arrive at Maretta, and retreat toward one of the yellow stars in the far north of the galaxy. Meanwhile, I finally managed to find a scientist capable of leading our efforts in the field of planetology. I don't know what it is about my people, but they can never seem to get their heads out of the breeding nest and battlefield long enough to think about really important things. It seems the only exceptions are outcasts like Draco with whom - and here I mean absolutely no offense to my best friend - no one would ever want to breed. Case in point:
... I don't believe I had ever before seen a lizard in quite that shade of blue. Draco's recirculation ideas went right over her head (indeed, she had a bit of a one-track mind, always talking about pollution cleanup; it did occur to me that the ... interesting hue of her scales might have come from living too close to a factory exhaust duct, coloring her goals and opinions) but I approved her proposed research project nonetheless. After all, Improved Ecological Restoraton technology would free up more energy for more exploration!
OOC Note: It would do a number of other valuable things for us too, as Sargon points out in this thread.Once our new project was identified, I gave our science teams a large start-up investment; their funding would slow down a bit once everything got started, but grow steadily as the years progressed. Most of our energy continued to go into infrastructure, and we were soon rewarded with the total industrialization of Sssla!
2321-33: The Race for Arietis
As Sssla prepared to complete its final factory, I ordered work to begin on a new assembly-line-model colony ship, called the Lander. Additional Newscouts were built at Romulas as well, and sent south in anticipation of extending their range via the Arietis refueling depot. Hoping to extend it still more, I opened a center for propulsion research, where more scientists came out of hiding to work on Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Draco visited and asked them why they didn't suggest Deuterium, and they chased him off so quickly, I began to suspect none of them knew what the word "Deuterium" meant. I didn't pay much attention, since Hydrogen Cells would be plenty for my purposes, for a little while at least. Meanwhile, in anticipation of taking Arietis, I ordered 15 transports from Romulas back down to Sssla. Romulas had nearly reached its population limit in spite of my neglecting its early growth. This is what it means to be Sakkra.
In 2328, our first Lander arrived at Arietis, and the ancient home of the Otter Weirdos was ours! Then as if to celebrate the glorious occasion, the Klackon leader finally acknowledged my many peaceful transmissions as well! We hurried coldcuts and rye out to a picnic table (having heard rumors that Klackons love to crash picnics) only to find that he wanted to talk by hologram only. That, and that he was Emperor Xantak, a Ruthless Diplomat ... and a giant bug. When our Newscout pilot at Argus said the Klackons looked like ants, I thought he just meant they looked small from orbit ... but no. Worse yet, Xantak had called only to babble at me. When I asked him to establish trade between our people, he wouldn't agree to so much as a 25 BC agreement ... and as soon as I broke the connection, I discovered the reason why that might be!
The Colony Ship wouldn't be armed of course, but the Cutlass would, and it looked like they were due to reach Arietis on the following year! (This scan also reveals the full extent of early Klackon space - the stars Argus, Kholdan, Proteus, Jinga, and Lyae - for those who are interested in the field of ant-thropology.) Our fleets in the region all consisted of unarmed Newscouts, and with Arietis just founded, it couldn't possibly build anything in time to meet them. I was convinced that the Klackons would just turn around and leave our planet to us, but my military advisors weren't getting laughed out of the room anymore. I raged against the injustice of assuming Xantak was an enemy ... but he had refused trade, and he had sent an armed Fighter after our peaceful Newscout, and he was sending an armed escort with his colony ship ... and most telling of all, he refused to come to my picnic!!! Though I hated to do it, and knew it would set our colony ship production back, I ordered a pair of armed starships built at Sssla, with orders to proceed immediately to Arietis. These Monitor 1.0s would be more than a match for the Cutlass, and I hoped they would establish Arietis as a permanent Sakkra colony once and for all.
OOC Note: Romulas was too far away to send anything in time, and Sssla had already sunk two turns into colony ship production. The Monitor 1.0s, with medium hulls, Battle Scanners, Mark 1 computers, and a pair of Laser Cannons apiece, would arrive just one turn after the Klackon fleet (via RELOC). A cloud of small laser popguns would have done the trick too, and would have helped to shoot down the inevitable transports (inevitable because the bug ships would be in orbit unchallenged for a turn) but as the Sakkra, I wasn't worried about lost population; I was a lot more worried about lost production, and the Monitors had two huge advantages over popguns: First, they could be used to scan enemy fleets in case of a more prolonged war, and second, (and most importantly) with Sssla going to pure research and reserve production, it could almost but not quite build three. This meant that almost a third of the shipbuilding BC already built up at Sssla would be preserved for more colony ship production. If I could have designed a ship that cost barely more than half the investment I'd already made, that would have been even better, but no such possibilty existed.Eager for battle and space to breed, fully 30 million of Sssla's people volunteered to board transports for Arietis in company with the Monitors while Romulas sent a few more transports to Sssla. The exodus of warlike breeders had an unforseen positive outcome at Sssla as well: Would-be scientists came out of hiding, as their bullies were all departing, and I was able to open four more fully-functional research centers. Even as my Newscout was forced to retreat from Arietis, the new research proposals were carried before me. Our Construction Team was advised to work on improving our factory-building rate with Improved Industrial Tech 9, though factory waste reduction was also a possibility. My military advisors hissed and kicked and wrestled each other in the high court, scrambling to suggest any number of projects opened up by our examination of Arietis records - Anti-Missile Rockets, Neutron Pellet Guns, and Hyper-X Rockets all had their screaming, choking, war-crying advocates - but I ignored them all (as usual, I suppose) and suggested that we develop Hand Lasers to ensure our success in case of ground invasions. The other labs got to work on Battle Computer Mark II and Class II Deflector Shields because the scientists in charge couldn't think of anything else to do. Mineral resources were being shipped to Arietis by the ton, and of course the transports too were on the way, but it would still be many years before the planet could possibly be ready to fend for itself.
When our Monitors arrived, they confirmed that the Cutlass was a fighter with a single laser cannon and nothing else, while the Klackon Colony Ship bore nothing but a standard colony base. No one was surprised to see the bugs retreat from our war ships, and I confess even I was equally unsurprised to see insect transports incoming from Argus - if there's one thing I can't stand, it's an unprovoked ground invasion, but Xantak had showed the "color of his throat sac" very clearly. Fortunately, there was good news coming: Soon after one of our Newscouts discovered Centauri (the beautiful terran world in the far south, as large as Romulas), we made our first scientific breakthrough of the interstellar era, as our bright blue planetologist introduced improvements to our ecological cleanup technology. She was eager to go on with plans to terraform our worlds to increase their maximum population, but I reminded her of Draco's recirculation plans again, and in light of new discoveries (and working out her waste cleanup obsessions) she took the idea and ran with it, seeking to develop Controlled Dead Environment technology. Meanwhile, transports continued to move between Romulas and Sssla and Arietis to help develop the one-time homeworld of the Great Otter Weirdos (hereafter the GOWs) after the battle - or to retake the world if the bugs' invasion somehow broke through!
Our Monitors each shot down a single Klackon transport, leaving 26 million insectoids to assail our 35 million loyal lizards! Neither side had any technological advantage, but our people knew the terrain, and 22 million of our brave warriors survived! The carnage was terrible - more than 40 million sentient beings died in space or on the surface in the course of that single battle - but all that our people could talk about was the glory of victory. For my part, I reconciled myself to the outcome by considering the joy it brought my people, and the fact that Arietis was no stranger to violence; it had seen its entire population wiped out, and its fertile slopes reduced to desert, in a far more terrible battle in its ancient history.
Plus, the research we would do there was going to ROCK!
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Next: How Not to Win Friends and Influence People
