The Silicoids re-established their Aurora colony in 2414, thereby allowing me to perform Maximum Diplomacy there twice! Of course, lots of lesser, token bombing also happened in between. Then, amazingly, Sedimin actually takes my advice! In 2421, I find he's at peace with both of my allies, though still at war with Humanity. I immediately dispatch a small, Simian-friendship diplo corps from Aurora to Thrax, while the rest of the Gunboat Diplomats head for Romulas, a Silicoid colony it'll take them two years to reach! After my Monkey-Befriending Teams have bombed Thrax, the Gunboat Diplomats achieve still greater success!
Well, he's right in a sense: The war has been way, way more than just a "tremendous strain" on his people, so though it's been no strain at all on mine, the average comes out just about exactly.
It's just a year later now, and I'm at peace with everyone for what seems like the first time in ages - with everyone living in the galaxy! There remains one entity with which we can never be at peace, one reason I can't abandon my weapons research ... and even now, I have a laboratory prototype of a Gauss Autocannon working, and I'm ready to move on with a modification to the design, to develop Pulse Phasors. Artemis leads the way, and a time of reckoning approaches for Orion!
2425-29:
My new battle computers are now online, and I am ready to turn my attention to automating still more of my factory work, with Neutronium-based Improved Robotic Controls VI. Advanced computerized pattern recognition developed for my new computers also makes possible an extreme improvement in my ECM systems, but I deem this unnecessary. As the use of neutronium made the development of my new armored exoskeletons a simple matter, I also start carefully thinking through all the construction paths I bypassed, seeking new insights into materials physics that I might have overlooked. The simplest and therefore first thing I consider is Improved Industrial Tech 5. Meanwhile, we hold our fourth galactic council. Lasitus is nominated, and casts five votes for himself.
All the other emperors vote for me. My own 24 votes are barely short of the two thirds supermajority needed to vote myself in without help, but it's especially heartening to have unanimous support. I make a stirring speech to the council about duty and galactic unity, but it's not the one they're expecting. I speak of work yet undone and the potential for regretting such a momentous decision, and abstain from the vote, promising to consider the other races' offer again if they choose to renew it in 25 years. And with the council's mandate behind me, I set out to do the work - to do the duty - of which I was thinking in making my speech.
Every ship in my starfleet, now all outmoded, will be scrapped in favor of the new craft whose designs I have just completed: Six different fleets of Huntresses, in honor of the legendary Artemis. Nearly every one of my worlds begins assembling them or contributing resources immediately. The exceptions of course are poor Primodius ... and Artemis itself! There is no need to build a Huntress at the planet most responsible for enabling their existence, and which already bears that name! The circle of worlds building Huntresses shrinks in the next two years, and production ceases altogether in 2428, with over 45 ships in each fleet. They depart from Imra and Nyarl, to rendezvous at Orion!
In 2429, the Huntress fleets arrive, and we get our first good look at the Guardian! This leads to two important discoveries:
Amazingly, we're faster than the ancient dreadnought! But though our Gauss Autocannons can penetrate its shields, they don't hit it hard and fast enough in light of its advanced damage control and repair systems; the fleets we have will never be able to destroy it before it tears them to pieces! Its Stellar Converters cut down a third of our ships before the rest can even retreat!
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Next: Artemis and Orion
