Once all that's done, the few surviving aliens retreat - but I manage to kill almost all their fighters before they go!
There's a battle at Gion too, but it's pretty boring. Their misiles manage to kill just one of our Tourorists before...
...they arrive, and the base is gone.
Luckily, Refrens is not boring! At long, long last, we have a real battle computer! Flush with success, he goes right to work on his next project: Getting us another one: A Battle Computer Mark VI! Then we find out that Gion is really and truly Arid, not just pretending, which is another way of saying it'll someday be ours. Whynil, on the other hand, is ours right now! GNN also gives us a census report, and the order has changed around a little, but the main thing is, we're still on top. The Bulrathi have overtaken all the other aliens, but they had a little help from us - the Klackons are now in third place, but they've, um, been losing a little population for some reason in recent times.
We're all out of Mobile HQs, so I redesign them: The Circus 2 has nothing but a colony base and nuclear engines - no bombs; that's ridiculous - for setting up big top tents wherever and whenever they're wanted. That much is great, but with incoming bugs and Psilons both, it's getting altogether too exciting in the south; I may have to send the Navy down to restore order! Also, that's not a lot to do after so many crazy things happened, so I'm also going to go seriously overboard with spying this year, just for fun.
2417: The red star in the west is the Alkari colony of Herculis. It thinks it's barren, and might even be right. It also has three missile bases that look like they're firing nukes. All I can say is, aliens are dumb. The battle at Whynil goes pretty much as expected - we lose a Neutrino killing off all their Cutlasses - and then our hard work pays off with a spy hit on the brains!
Oops, no, it doesn't: We just get stupid Deuterium. I don't bother framing anybody. I do bother bombing Kholdan though - and especially Gion! And of course our fleet kills all the transports that thought they were going to Tyr, which brings us to the always-hilarious ranking of space fleet strengths. We come in dead last even though I'll bet we could take on any alien space fleet and win, almost without trying.
The Psilons apparently read that sign I put out, because they now have a Star Blade over Zoctan. Wish them luck on figuring out how to colonize it before we exterminate them.
By the way, I'm cutting spy funding way down again to punish my spies for being dumb. My computer tech lead on the Klackons is 21 to something like two, and we've had spies in their space for pretty much ever, and all we ever find are stupid planetology labs, which we obviously never bother entering. And no, they're not propulsion labs with fake signs on the doors. I asked specifically. Anyway, that reminds me, Kakata's going to get to work on universal ship parts again, but we'll put up a fake sign that says "Navy" yard. You don't think the quote marks will give it away, do you? Keep in mind, our enemies are even stupider than our spies. I mean, they're the ones who built planetology labs in the first place, and where's the fun in that?
2418: Here's a cause for nervousness: Do the Psilon Star Blades - the ones with maneuver class 4+ - carry spores? ... Um, yes. As one arrives at Whynil, we find out that the answer is yes. We have 71 Neutrinos (69 after they're fired upon) and they almost save the colony, but not quite. At least we blow up the stupid Star Blades. (The Colony Ships accompanying them manage to retreat). We have to take out our disappointment on Kholdan and Gion, and even then, we don't have enough bombers to really do it right. Luckily, Ixi calls us up, and gives us a good laugh. Peace? Peace with your looniness? After all your unprovoked attacks on Berel? (Well, and some pretty provoked ones too, I've gotta admit...) Just when we're right in the middle of tearing your whole empire to pieces? You want peace? Here, I'll tell you what: If you abdicate right now, I'll sign you right up to headline with the Tyr Colony Comedy Circuit! We'll still exterminate your people though. Sorry.
Oooooooooooooh! 275 billion credits! Money! Wow, you're offering almost as much (well, no, not even almost) as Kakata alone can throw into our reserve in a single year! Here, let me think abouNO!
Oh, and Ixi? Don't come back.
All right, our fleets get moving, and I find out that the Psilons now have Hyper-X rockets, and are no doubt working on better shields and controlled environment technologies, which should give you some idea of how urgent dealing with them would be even if we didn't want revenge for Tyr.
2419: This time it's our idiot spies in Psilon space who can't think of anything to steal except planetology. I tell them to go away and stop bothering me and to not bother taking anything.
Luckily, our spies are not in charge of our bombing expeditions.
Kholdan is dying, slowly but surely - and Gion dies right away! This makes me feel so much better, I'm giving our spies one last chance to actually do something for a change, really just because I'm a pushover. Hey, let them have some fun, right?
2420: The Klackons are getting boring. They always just run away. And how many times can you bomb Kholdan before it gets to become routine? Plus, our spies responded to my encouragement by all getting killed. Great job, guys! I'm actually kind of glad someone else gets to take over this year - kind of! Next time anyone wants me to have another go at being emperor though, just say so!
Oh, wait. Before I go, I've got an important heads-up for the next Acting Head of RBO-12: A whole bunch of Klackon transports just crash-landed on the spored-out remains of Whynil, so in addition to the death spore residue, you'll have to clean up bug splatter! Bring lots of electronic deodorizers! Okay, have fun!
Just to give everyone a sense of the course of the war, here's a map for the "succesion game lurkers" - e.g. anyone actually reading this report! I've added a couple extra map symbols - green dots adjoining stars that are known for one reason or another to be Alkari colonies, and alien leaders' portraits (including the Guardian's) to the right of their homeworlds when known with complete certainty. All Meklar transports are bound for our Tyr colony (the Arid world south of Kholdan) while the Klackon transports are moving to the glass world of Gion (another arid, even further south).
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Next: A Time of Healing. ... Well, Okay, Not Really.
