...their hopeless bases are burned down easily. I allow the local Bulrathi cruisers to wisely retreat from my invincible fleet of fighters, as I'm still hoping to maintain good relations with Monch, and after absent-mindedly working out the design for a simple battle computer, I begin to consider how Nexus's native technology can be applied to our factories for Improved Robotic Controls VII. Meanwhile, because I just shot down dozens of Bulrathi transports and saved his life and his entire race, Sedimin comes to me with this message:
Apparently, he values his missile bases above his existence. I guess if I led his kind of existence, I might feel the same way. His economy is too poor to sustain even 25 BC of annual trade, but Lasitus agrees to trade 50. The following year, I develop a repulsor beam and - ignoring more advanced planetary shields which would only slow down construction of Hercular/Scatter7 bases in case of emergency - start to consider how to build a Personal Absorption Shield, just in case. And naturally, the same year, Lasitus reacts to our new trade agreement by transmitting the following message:
Whatever. He can feel free to attack me to his heart's content at this point.
With work complete on our never-to-be-actually-assembled Mauler Device designs in 2460, and no need for, interest in, or conception of, any weapon more advanced than what I have already, I decide to toy with simpler things like a Graviton Beam. Unfortunately, while I'm making another leap forward in materials physics and going to work on Advanced Construction Tech III, I neglect to notice a Bulrathi fleet sneaking up on Jinga!
There are so many of them that when my lone base fires on the wrong ships, they actually manage to kill it without all first getting destroyed. This allows their survivors to bomb the planet a little before I dismantle them the next year. In the meantime, advances in terraforming technology suggest a way to use biotech that the ancient Humans never considered: They would probably have worked on a bio-terminator in my place, but if it works as planned, my choice of Universal Antidote could save countless lives from all types of diseases! Graviton beams also prove as simple as I supposed they would be, so I decide to toy with designs for a Fusion Beam. And the development of High Energy Focus also leads me to wonder if it might be applicable to engine technology, so I begin to pursue Anti-Matter Drives just as this is happening:
The blue transports eclipsing Ursa are actually just on their way from Nyarl to Jinga, to replenish the population bombed away by the now-destroyed Bulrathi fleet there. The white transports at Jinga, of course, are the ones getting burned away by my orbiting fleet - which now includes Soldier 6.1s, fighters with lesser computers than the 6.0s, but a Pulse Phasor apiece. This screen displays the original extent of Bulrathi space as of my first contact with Monch, by the way, and its present extent apart from Aurora (far beyond the top of the screen; they colonized it after one of my various diplomatic glass-making expeditions during the galaxy-wide war with the Silicoids). I only hope I can convince them to be content with this now, and - with the rest of the galaxy - to finally and truly accept peace.
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Next: Fat Chance
