Death spores! They actually used death spores on us! This only makes it more clear than ever that all the filthy, planetology-researching, hostile-world-dwelling alien races must be purged from the face of the galaxy! They are the pathogens and electronics glitches of the universe's body! Lucky thing for the universe, it's got Meklon's Surgeon-Repairman General himself to look after it now!
The first thing I do is send the Navy up to Kholdan. The second thing I do is notice a pretty big bug fleet due to arrive at Whynil around the same time we'd get there with our ... uh ... Circus? Circus? Our colony ships are called Circuses?! Something, somewhere, has gone terribly wrong with this plan of succession. Oh, well. At least we've made a good start toward conquering the galaxy. This leads me to cancel that first thing for now. This is the basic problem with our "one ship Navy" - it's only one ship! That makes it difficult for it to be in two places at once. The third thing I do is to decide once and for all: Are we waiting for our reportedly incompetent spies before we build new fleets, or not? No! Enough! We have too few bombers, they have no computers because they were built decades ago and needed room for fuel tanks, and their name is a travesty! Tourorists?! What were we thinking?! Still, even they have a purpose - for the moment. The Scouts ... I'm sorry, but we're at war right now, and are likely to remain so into the indefinite future. We don't need someone sitting over Imra confirming there are still no aliens nearby. When we reach that fabled year when one of our "just about to be scrappable" ship classes actually gets scrapped, maybe we can design something to fulfill this all-important task, but in the meantime, the Scouts are history. In their place, we'll build ships to take over the roles of all our outdated fighters: Surgeon 2.0s, with our most advanced computers, for surgical strikes!
2421: The Rangers at Gion attack, failing to realize that the Neutrino Bs there, though outdated by our standards, are way better than them. The Rangers kill five of our fighters before we purge them from the galaxy.
Our new-built fleets depart, mostly for Kholdan, and I decide to put off bomber building after all, since our current fleet should actually be enough to deal with the bugs, and I'd really like some higher-tech models before we take on the brains. I also look in on Refcon's spies, but they're just picking their olfactory sensors, so I reduce their funding, hoping to teach them a lesson.
2422: Whoa ... I wasn't expecting that to work! I'll have to keep that strategy in mind for the future! (I'm kidding, spies. Don't go on strike or anything.) They grab an inertial stabilizer, which isn't great, but isn't bad, and we celebrate by bombing Kholdan!
Surgeon-Repairman General's Warning: Getting hammered from orbit by hundreds of nuclear warheads may be hazardous to your health.
Ooooooops! Looks like our celebrations got a little out of hand! Sorry about glassing your homeworld, Ixitixl! We promise to rebuild it even better than new though: As a Meklar colony!
All right, and GNN comes on; should be some interesting news this year. Could even be an event I have to deal with, using my impressive knowledge of medicine and machinery repair! Let's see.
... wha ... buh? So now Paranar's fertile? ... I'm a little speechless. Okay, yeah, like Minister Refried, I was pretty quiet when everybody else was running the show, so I guess you could say I have Good Karma(tm), but ... things going right for the Meklar? Isn't that kind of a coals-to-Newcastle kind of deal? Now that I think about it, that newsdroid looks an aaawwwful lot like a cyborg. Maybe there's a conspiracy! Well, I'm not going to complain! Paranar goes right to work building factory-hospitals and other infrastructure for its new people-to-be.
OOC Comments: So did the game not get the memo that I'm well on my way to taking over the galaxy? Seriously, two good events, both hitting my core worlds, as the first two events of the game (and the only ones through 2422)? This one won't make nearly as much difference - it's further from the front, less of a benefit, and later in the game - but still! All right, I'll tell you what: My machines are now Even More Overconfident. My Overconfident variant rules are now permanent, regardless of future events luck, plus: I've neglected missile bases a bit so far - in fact the only five I ever built were destroyed - so there are no bases or planetary shields anywhere in my empire. Well, it's going to stay that way. We don't need planetary defenses! Our fleet can take care of that sort of thing! No defense spending allowed for the rest of the game.
2423: Uh-oh. Refiraxis miscalculated when he got the new fighters ready to help defend Kholdan, and I missed it in my review! They haven't arrived yet, and here's the enemy fleet! It gets pretty ugly - my attempts at using decoys don't fool anybody, and I lose over a hundred fighters - but they're sustainable losses with our reinforcements coming, and I wipe out their entire fleet! More importantly:
Kholdan and Gion are now Meklar colonies! And someone else must have gotten a couple more colonies someplace in the last few years, because all our new planets used to belong to the bugs at some point, and the galactic high council is meeting! For the very first time! In 2423! Honestly, I wasn't sure it would ever happen, so I guess the joke's on me. I'm up against Krungo of the Bulrathi, and everyone votes for him except the birds, who seem to like me. Six votes of my own make it eight of 16 for RBO-12! Maybe I'll pretend to care someday. Oh, and the Psilons come calling, with nothing interesting to say. (Not that anything they say could be interesting!)
We also meet the Alkari, and find out they have a xenophobic expansionist in charge of things, and also are running a three planet empire, at Altair, Kailis, and Herculis, the very three planets we knew they owned already! Just like the Psilons and ... ooooops. The Klackons have left the Three Planet Club! They're down to Incedius and Arietis, and those are getting polluted down to nothing while they desperately try to maintain their fleet! These "ecological" aliens are really sickening. First death spores, then dead-insect-transport splatter, now pollution ... clearly, the only race in this galaxy that bothers to care for the environment is the one wise enough to ignore planetology!
You can see my cursor pointing to the blue star south of Herculis, the only world other than alien colonies (which are sure to have bases up) brought into scouting range by Kholdan. I'm sending a single Tourorist down there to snap some pictures (and not blow anything up for a change). With reinforcements on the way, the rest of the ships that survived the battle of Kholdan head up to Incedius. There's a fleet about to get there that they can't handle on their own, but I'll want them there in case that fleet immediately leaves. Spying begins on the birdies, who are already feeling peaceful toward me, thanks to their long-standing war with the Klackons (and everyone else in the galaxy) and the bombing I've been doing lately. I could sign them up for an alliance and all sorts of trade, exchange technology ... lots of things! But who needs 'em? They probably use death spores or some other disgusting planetology thing anyway!
2424: My Surgeons get ready to defend Kholdan from the next incoming bugs. We take out the largest fleet of enemy fighters with reactive fire, then burn the Rangers. The Klackons manage to scratch the armor of my lead ship, and their last little squadron of five fighters escapes with its lives. I suppose they'll claim that as a victory. Our Navy encounters a much bigger fleet, but doesn't manage to kill any of it since all the bugs immediately retreat. This allows us to make Whynil our newest colony! It also frees up the Navy to head up toward Arietis. When it gets there, I'll decide whether to send it on to Incedius ... or to Maretta! And our last Circus proceeds to Incedius, just in case a miracle occurs.
2425: Good news and bad news. First, the bad news: That big Klackon fleet at Incedius is heading for one of our worlds, and we might have to kill it. Now the good news: That big Klackon fleet at Incedius ... isn't at Incedius anymore!
The Klackons also reach Kholdan with another fleet, this one with a lot more fighters. Using a combination of reactive fire and superior piloting skills, we kill everything but their largest fleet of fighters before the latter can close with us. Then it's 124 of their Sabres against 89 of my Surgeons, straight up.
Surgeon-Repairman General's Warning: Studies have shown that attacking Meklar war fleets reduces life expectancy by 100%.
Mine are better. My spies also hit the bugs, but don't actually steal anything since planetology is their only option. My researchers, on the other hand, hit the jackpot, increasing our factory-hospital construction efficiency by 25%, a huge boon to our new worlds! Refrens eBook points out that we could improve this still more, but I direct him instead to proceed with Reduced Industrial Waste 40%! He seems to be snickering as he leaves the room, so I suspect he thinks he used "reversed psychology" on me. He can believe it if he wants, but the choice was obvious no matter what he said. Oh, and want to hear some more good news?
Remember when I sent the Circus to Incedius in case a miracle occured? This was the miracle. Thanks, Klackons! Awfully nice of you to send your fleet away! Also to send all those transports we're busy destroying right now; it sure makes our glassing runs go faster on the colonies they leave! Also notice that my election opponent is a monkey named Lasitus this time around. He gets the bugs' last vote, his own three, and three from the bears. The Psilons abstain from the voting, the birds vote for me, and I vote for myself, of course. This gives me a plurality, which pleases me slightly, but has no real effect on anything.
OOC NOTE: Notice that the border of the screen is the one from a recent combat instead of the usual silvery frame. This is a curious glitch that happens on the scouting/colonizing/bombing screen (but not the command screen, which comes up for e.g. the "transports destroyed" messages) whenever I have the option to steal a tech but hit "Esc" instead. It lasts for the whole interturn when I do so, then goes back to normal.
My entire Incedius fleet heads for Arietis except for a single little Neutrino. Nearly all the Surgeons do the same. There are Klackon fleets coming to Tyr and Kholdan (including the big one that just left Incedius) but fighting them in our skies would be unsanitary, so I'm going to ignore them completely.
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Next: Making Things Sanitary
