...just got away with it! Orbital bombardment left exactly one population unit alive! Lest I believe that I'm lucky though, this was immediately followed by a GNN special report.
The quake hit our Rich world, right on the Human front, the lynchpin of our defense in the northwest. Fortunately, we had addressed all the immediate threats to our worlds in that sector already, and the planet could build back those factories fast.
I finally got around to attacking the Darloks in 2434, above the poor oceans of Reticuli. Their fleet was built around Hyper-V rockets and generally moving slowly (there were some heavy lasers present too, which all died under the fire of my Gecko) and after some nimble dodging, we owned the planet's orbit. With over a hundred Bombards at the Bulrathi world of Gienah, losing only 11 before we closed, we had no trouble making the missile bases disappear in a burst of Fusion flame. Simultaneously, our main Bear Hunting Fleet reached Spica, whose single Hyper-X base couldn't touch our ships before our MerCobras' superior missiles removed it from the face of the planet. Down at Argus, a Klackon Knight and pair of Horsemen tried to take on the local defense craft, failing to remember that Geckos eat bugs for their daily snacks. Ignoring the Hyper-X rockets due to their insufficient numbers, our Gecko sent all their ships down to the planet in flaming wreckage. Nonetheless, our Bombards, with their low tactical speed, were showing their age in real battles. We lost 194 of them at Lyae, killing only two of the planet's 10 Stinger bases, largely due to the attrition attacks of 64 fast Cutlass Fighters. Yes, our Gecko could gobble the Cutlasses up, but not fast enough to keep them from killing our bombers. This left me with much to think about, so I thoughtfully bombed Reticuli. I thoughtfully bombed Gienah. I thoughtfully glassed Spica. And I thoughtfully watched and grinned and cheered as our ground forces captured Quayal. Meanwhile, Bullux decided our words of peace were honorable again - after all, though we wiped out roughly half of his empire (one of three planets glassed, another severely damaged) ... we also bombed the Darloks! And Alexander wanted to talk to me too!
"Ummmm ... no. Alone, my empire can dismantle the 'threat' of the evil Bulrathi empire ... and yours into the bargain, Alex. But thanks for calling! Byeeeeeee!"
The Klackons had a little more right to thank me for blowing up lots of bears, since after all I didn't manage to kill many of their people (well, not this year, I mean...) - the crews of a couple missile bases, maybe some collatoral damage on the surface, and a few dozen fighters - but still. I think Xantak still hadn't gotten it through his head that I was coming with bug spray for him!
It figures that the one race that really understood the galaxy was the Brains. With some kind of new age babble about coexisting in perfect harmony, Zygot asked me to agree to an Alliance - the kind of Alliance where my giant monster death fleets wouldn't kill little old him. I sadly regretted that important affairs of state prevented my giving his request the due consideration it deserved, but offered his envoy a comfortable place to wait for my schedule to clear: Right beside all the other races' envoys, at the bottom of the nearest lake.
Seeing a large Bulrathi Claw due at Gienah in two years, where I had nothing but Bombards, I sent my Spica Bear Hunting fleet to ... Hyboria. Gienah would be glass before the Claw could arrive. Meanwhile, having already scrapped the Firenewt and the old (2.0) version of the Bombard, I went ahead and finally designed a modern bomber: The F-Basilisk3, with a Fusion Bomb, a Mark 4 Battle Computer, an Inertial Stabilizer, Sublight Drives, and the galaxy's best maneuverability.
In 2435, we defended Stalaz without losses, won Sol's orbit at the cost of a few Bombards, and glassed Gienah as expected. I also bombed Sol pretty heavily, but I was still expecting Alexander to call and compliment me on my handling of the Bulrathi. Instead, he surprised me by calling me reverend, claiming to bear "greetings from the most powerful humans," and declaring our war to be senseless, suggesting that we call an end to the thing. I looked very earnest and thoughtful for a moment, frowned a little with still deeper thought, and said, "See, now, here's the problem 'zander: This war was senseless when you declared it. It was a purposeless exercise in simian stupidity. But you can't just go back on it once I start cluster-bombing your homeworld, okay? Have some courage, man! Have some conviction! Fight to the end! For Humanity!!!"
I closed the connection, and looked at Draco, and Draco looked at me. We both said the same thing at once: "This guy is so, so dead."
Realizing belatedly that new factories wouldn't pay for themselves before I eliminate my enemies, I stopped industry production outside of Tyr, Paranar, and (for sentimental reasons) Arietis. It was also for aesthetic reasons only that I designed the Lander 3.0 (Standard Colony Base, Sub-Light Engines, and nothing else) to be built at Vulcan, Willow, Gion, and Yarrow (back up to speed already; sorry, Bears!) in time to colonize what was once Bulrathi space. Just about everyone else was building Basilisks.
In 2436, our Gecko and MerCobra's took care of Nyarl's Darlok fleet while 16 Basilisks made quick work of its Darlok bases. Thanks to our Bombards evading missiles instead of pressing the attack, we lost nothing in the course of the battle. I gambled in Klackon space and over-reached, so though our 55 Bombards did take out Jinga's lone missile base, only 34 survived, and they had to retreat from 11 Cutlass fighters. Meanwhile, at Lyae, a piloting error by our Gecko allowed the hundreds of local Cutlasses to kill all the Basilisks at the planet when they'd only burned two of eight bases. This resulted in the loss of all our transports at the planet, a grave misfortune which would have been much graver if we hadn't stolen sublight engines a few years before. (Thank Tiamat for warp 2 transports!) There was no gamble in Darlok space of course, and we conquered Reticuli with 32 million Sakkra left over to roam the oceans. Since we bombed the planet before landing (as well as Nyarl) Bullux called to cheer us on, which reminded me that a) he was still alive, and b) this would have to change ASAP. Oh, and the Psilons told us their patience was exhausted - they threatened (but didn't actually declare) war. This in spite of the fact that they were the only race I had never attacked throughout my reign, in spite of knowing that I could crush them like ... well, no, honestly, a lot more easily than a bug ... in spite ... I looked at Zygot in disbelief and then glanced down at the report Draco had handed me. It was from Admiral Ssitzenlusst over at Paranar, complaining that his massive mixed fleet in the heart of Psilon space was getting bored. I shrugged, and looked up at Zygot. I said, "Your funeral, buddy," and gave the orders my admiral had been awaiting.
I dunno. If you're running the little white empire in the southeast, do you threaten to attack the galaxy-spanning green empire? (You'll have to look hard to see the Bulrathi empire here; they were so thoroughly doomed by this time, they barely warranted an appearance on the map, and were fading away.)
As if to underscore the parenthetical point above, the Ursine Claw retreated from Hyboria when our fleet arrived in 2437. True, it had no chance against us, but at least it could have gone down with a fight. Hyboria was the last planet in the Bears' empire! Our MerCobras took out all five of the planet's missile bases before our bombers could get close. We thwarted various Human attempts to attack our planets and fleets, at a total cost of one Newt, destroying a large cruiser, 10 medium destroyers, 16 little Couriers, and a medium Corvette in only battle where they didn't just flee ... and then I was ready for the real fighting to begin. At Proteus, the Klackons' spore ships retreated, but their six Stinger bases managed to kill 16 of our 108 Basilisks before...
...they ceased to be. So much for the "real fighting." It was nice to finally have bombers with real combat speed.
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Next: Retribution
