Eh? Complaints you say? Just one little nitpicky, unimportant little thing. Our worlds have no room to support any more people, with no chance of that changing since we're sure not going to develop more "advanced" bioengineered crops; there's no way to expand except straight through the Klackons; and while you were gazing rapt upon your tiny little trade agreement, this was happening:
Understand, I'm not blaming you for this - there's nothing you could have done to prevent it - but the bugs now have as many worlds as we do, and there's no telling what the Psilons and Humans are doing. We've got an uphill battle ahead of us, and it could take a long, long time at this rate - or end in our swift destruction! We need a plan, and I don't see anyone volunteering one that will do us any good. I've got my work cut out for me!
2381: Oh, no, oh no, oh no!!! On top of everything else, it's the single most terrifying force in the galaxy! Help! Stop! Nooooooooo!!! It's GNN!!!!! Please, please, please be just a demographics report! Pleeeeeeease!!! ... Wait ... wait, what?!
Yeah, my cybernetic jaw is hanging open too. You've gotta be kidding me! That's our second biggest planet after Meklon that just went rich! I'm suddenly not so worried about the apes and the brains!
OOC COMMENTS: I've had my doubts that I could pull this game off; I may have done well in the previous two Imperia, but my opening here was decidedly sub-par, as I kept seeking ways out of our corner that didn't exist, and then overcompensated whenever I realized each new means would fail. This random event is kind of lame, as it gives me a huge advantage, whereas someone else might have pulled mineral depletion instead (or one of the events Refinance ATM was worried about at the start of his turnset). Comparisons are kind of out the window with events on for this reason, especially with this map and variant: One planet goes poor, radiated, plagued, or into rebellion, and it's crippling. One planet goes rich, and ... well, we'll see what I can do with this thing! In fact ... it's a bit late to introduce another variant for this already-heavily-varianted game, but here goes: For the remainder of the game, or until the events luck evens out (I dunno ... Kakata going radiated and then getting a rebellion on top of it? I don't think anything short of that is going to be able to "even this out" ... and even that might have to happen soon!) the Meklar are Overconfident. We don't need other races; this is our galaxy! We will not offer any deals - no trade, no tech exchange, no threats, no DoW requests, nothing. We will not accept any deals offered to us by the filthy hostile-dwellers. I don't care if someone offers fusion engines for peace; it's not happening. Furthermore, we must always vote for ourselves if the High Council ever convenes. We know who should rule the galaxy, and we don't equivocate about it. Merely ruling the galaxy isn't good enough however; those vile hostile-dwellers make our hair stand on end underneath our cyberware. We must win by extermination! This means, if anyone wins an election, we must reject the decision and trigger final war, even if we're the ones who win!
2382: I take full credit for this luck, by the way. It's all about building up good karma for your reign. Remember how quiet I've been up until my turn to rule? Well, fortune's paying me back in spades!
Actually, we've had good chances of acquiring reduced waste technology for several years, so this isn't anything like as lucky as our miners' neutronium discovery, but it's still neat that it happened the very next year. Refrens can't think of anything with which to move forward other than improved factory building techniques, so I ask him to look into the Auto Repair System he mentioned to one of my predecessors instead. We need more cropland to support a growing population, and I believe I've already mentioned the only direction in which we can expand!
2383: Kakata hits zero unemployment, and goes to all-out mining, to ship minerals to our backwaters and get them up to speed! Uh ... and the Klackons have Aurora, the blue star far to the south. Kakata and all, this isn't going to be pretty.
2387: GNN is back! Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease ... phew. Just fleet strengths. (We're last. Big surprise. Our Klackon neighbors are first, which is semi-interesting.)
2390: In the past three years, Jinga and Paranar have finished their factories, leaving only Zhardan with any more to build, and force fields, weapons, and propulsion have all advanced to the verge of breakthroughs. The empire is suddenly looking very, very healthy - so let's hear it for the phenomenal karma of the Agriculture Ministry!
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Next: INCOMING!
