Laan, right up against Human space, and Morrig, in my own back lines, are my 17th and 18th worlds, as the droid observes. The notion that I "will" control the galaxy "soon" is merely amusing. A single ship with a battle scanner, dubbed the Scouterer 2, is meanwhile off to Human space, to confirm that their fleets represent no threat to me. Their ambassador returned not long ago, and old Jimbo could put me in touch with their emperor if I so wished, but in the meantime, all he does is tell his long, boring stories. I generally divert my attention from him as he babbles away, but now a stray reference in one of his tales finds the set of my ears to which he is speaking: "...like the story of Artemis and Orion."
How can he know this? I enquire, and it seems the Humans have a legend similar to our own, an ancient myth in which the mighty hunter Orion is slain by the goddess of the hunt! Jimbo rambles on at length about how the Ronams or some other ancient Human people conquered (such a warlike race!) the ancient Geeks and changed the names of all their gods, but the original Geek name of the hunting goddess was Artemis! I at once realize the significance of this: There is no way that two entirely different races across the breadth of the galaxy, with no contact until late in the age of space travel, would have developed near-identical legends - right down to the names of the primary characters! - in their ancient histories. It was strange enough to see the name in the records of the planet Artemis, but this is too much of a coincidence to be borne. There is something - perhaps some racial memory - that has preserved a tale more ancient than either of our histories, and one closely associated with my Atlantis, though how I can not say. This bears much greater investigation, if only I can figure out how to investigate it - for in it may lie the true secret of the Triad itself! I think I shall pay closer attention hereafter to Jimbo and his stories ... when I have time for them.
At the moment, I'm busy spreading my people to the far corners of the galaxy, hemming my Human enemies in still more up at Ajax, and establishing a presence closer to the Psilons and Bulrathi down at Nyarl. Finally piecing together the secrets of battle suit construction from my studies of heavy-duty emergency engine maintenance droid hulls in a semi-intact Artemis spaceport, I'm also looking for ways to reverse-engineer those very droids' Zortium Armor so I can mass produce it on my own!
Oh, and I also have to deal with the Silicods, who abruptly "tire" of playing diplomatic "games" and start a war of their own with me. I'm glad I started the tradition of high council meetings when I did (the next is in 2375, as the other races seem to like round numbers in base 5 and 10, and I didn't insist on my standard 6-year Klackon hexades). I doubt they'd have agreed to bring it up with their Psilon friends if I'd waited until they tired of that kind of "game"! I look around for allies, but Monch can't reach the Silicoids, and Lasitus won't even consider peace with me. This bodes ill for my hopes of galactic peace and uniting all our peoples, and things are going to get darker before (and if) any ray of hope can emerge ... but I will take heart yet, for it's always darkest just before the dawn!
A monkey colony ship is coming to Bootis, so I assemble a couple of missile bases there, in case it's armed with something that matters. In the meantime, I finally learn to arm my ships with NPGs, and turn my thoughts to improving my defensive bases; they should be much more effective deterrents if they carry Merculite Missiles, I believe. Besides, mass drivers and neutron blasters just aren't very interesting to me. I only wish the missiles were as useless to me! With less than two hexades left to the Rise of the Triad, and half the galaxy at war with me ... well, let's hope this really is the darkest that it gets; the dawn can't come too quickly!
2367-73: Getting Committed
The first of two ape colony ships arrives at Bootis, and keeps coming even after my unarmed Scouter's immediate retreat. My missile bases tear it to shreds of course; I feel sorry for the innocent colonists who were sent by Lasitus to die over my world; their heavy laser can penetrate my shields, just barely, but can't do nearly as much damage as my nuclear warheads do to his ship. Thankfully, I develop a long-awaited improvement to our shield technology almost immediately afterward, which - since the monkeys appear to be in love with heavy lasers - should make my bases completely immune to the current Human fleet. They couldn't have won a battle anyway, but this should obviate the need to kill them even in self defense. This is the best I can do with shielding technology however, at least for the time being - oh, I could improve our shielding even more, developing Class IV Deflector Shields, but there are better ways to spend my energy. I therefore cease to concern myself with force field advances entirely. (Naturally, when the second monkey colony ship reaches Bootis, it detects my class 3 shields and retreats.)
I learn to colonize toxic worlds, and return to my planetological roots with the only means I can devise of advancing in that field: Improved Terraforming +40. Then the very next year, as I enter 2370, with two Wasp Hive 2 toxic colony ships already completing at Bootis for rich Arietis and Silicoid-threatened Ryoun...
My spies find me another near-worthless Human tech (that's redundant, I suppose, but even so...) ... and on my own, I come up with far more valuable technology! My new battle computers and (especially) sublight drives have been on the verge of completion for years, and my failure to quite make them function has become increasingly frustrating as the seeming chance of success mounted without results ... but they're finally perfected, and I'm ready to move forward with ECM Jammer Mark III - simpler than a more advanced battle computer, and useful in case some enemy actually builds ships with bombs or missiles - and return to an old project whose utility I now understand: An Inertial Stabilizer should be easy to develop, unlike energy pulsars, fusion engines, or warp dissipators, and should prove useful for my combat starships. You see, I've been listening to Jimbo's droning stories about his monkey people's warlike history, and coming to understand what his people will require before they establish peace. One thing especially caught my attention in his tales about someone named Perry: "Gunboat Diplomacy!"
My first move is to approach Monch, and I am pleased to discover that he must have learned advanced fuel cells, allowing his ships at least 7 parsecs of range: He is able at last to join me at war with the Silis! He is able, yes. But the real question is, will he?
I knew I could count on the big fellow.
OOC Note: This was my most critical error of the game (for scoring purposes; in terms of winning, the game was pretty much over on turn 3). I was so worried that another war might be declared against me that I jumped at the first opportunity to start a counter-war between the AIs. If I had waited until my war fleet was built and ready to actually take advantage of enemy-of-my-enemy diplomacy, and incidentally also until I had contact with the Psilons (I knew I would achieve it by colonizing Neptunus in two years) I could have asked the bears and brains to join my war simultaneously, thereby ensuring that the Psilons' double alliance (with the Bulrathi and Silicoids) would break the right way. By bringing in the bears before I even met the brains, I gave the rocks a chance to force the Psilons to choose sides before I even had contact with them; in this case, the side they would choose would be determined not by my request but essentially by a coin flip. All was not lost, but I'd reduced my chances significantly.
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Next: Early Conquest
