I see my predecessor has decided I'd like a challenge when running my empire. I'll have to send a thank-you note to the hospital bed where he's recovering from Acute Power Deprivation Syndrome. What he thinks he was doing at Paranar and Zhardan, I'll never know - at least, not until he stops frothing at the mouth, and starts talking in coherent sentences other than "one more year" and "one more colony!" I also notice we're building Landers at top speed here at Meklon in spite of still having less than 120 factories! No wonder Refrofit has been throwing things around in the lobby!
2336: The new Lander is now bound for Berel - I wasn't going to waste our existing "investment" in the thing, but that's the last one we're building for a while. I do notice it has "Kakata Ship!" embossed on all the parts that were made before my reign. Don't you love emperors who choose colonies for their appearance instead of their strategic location? I know I love them ... when they're safely tucked away in a recovery room at the Meklon Medical Center! Yes, we're going to colonize Kakata, but it's going to have to wait for more important things - like extending our scouting range by grabbing Berel, and the factories for which Refrofit has been screaming.
2339: The blue star in the south, Xengarra, is yet another hostile rich star, this one toxic and tiny. We could have had this information last year if my predecessor had been paying any attention.
2340: Colonizing Berel has brought us close enough to Kholdan for holocommunication with the Chief Bug, Ixitixlixtilixltixtlixixixtixilix! (Something like that anyway.)
This would be lovely except for the fact that she's a complete loon with only two stars to her name. I sign her up for a small trade agreement anyway, but war could break out at any moment for no reason, which would be a tragedy - the need for defenses and war fleets might curtail some of our intelligence-gathering activities! Worse yet, the main reason I colonized Berel was in hopes of learning about the blue and green stars near my cursor, and it turns out they're both still out of range. I therefore send Newscouts to the Klackon colonies instead, to see what they look like as well as we can. Since Ixwhatever could declare war on me at any time just for mispronouncing her name (luckily, that will never happen with a name like hers, right?) I don't really care if my ships' arrival makes her mad, and it's definitely worth it for the unofficial reports we'll receive. Better still, since we have contact at this range, I already know she has at least Deuterium Fuel Cell technology, and I'm going to start spying on her to find out still more, while I ask Refrens to suggest a project for computer research.
2341: Refrens has lots of ideas, and I choose Deep Space Scanner rather than ECM or a new computer. I'm surprised he even bothered to mention those two; has he been paying any attention to my policies at all?
2343: First unofficial scouting report received, and it looks like Kholdan's infrastructure is complete. Considering its fleet, I decide to ask Refrens if there's any way to improve our shield technology. Meanwhile, with Meklon now at 217 factories, I finally start a colony ship for Kakata.
2344: Looks like Class II Deflector Shields are our best hope for Berel's security. Research begins on them at once.
2345: Our Newscout arrives at Klackon Incedius, and ... uh...
That's a pretty big fleet they've got there, and the planet looks like its infrastructure's finished too. We can't get close enough for a decent scan, but its bright white color suggests it might be uninhabitable without vile planetology technologies too. So, yeah, we retreat. Meanwhile, our economy is starting to seriously feel the strain of our countless priorities. Uh ... hang in there, economy! You can do it! (Is there a better way to do this? Gotta be....)
2346: I declare a national holiday to commemorate the hard wok and sacrifice of our brave intelligence agents. We now know that Ixsomethingsomething has (Hydrogen and) Iridium fuel cells and ECM 1, but our valient spies were lost in the process of getting this critical information to our people. No planetology technology means that Incedius is habitable in spite of its appearance, so this is vital information to say the least! Espionage funding is kept low for now, since we'll need better technology to actually steal much of anything (actually, I should have realized this before I started spying. I ... uh ... blame my predecessor!)
2348: Dr. Refrens eBook, our Science Minister, works a miracle with our research teams, and we develop Nuclear Engines in record time! Next up is Dotomite Crystals, the only project he can think of to work on in the field, but also exactly what I wanted - to increase our scouting range more than ever! And at the same moment (bad timing - one year more and it could have had the engine upgrade ... I just wasn't expecting the tech to come in so soon!) my Lander is finished, and heads down to Kakata. More importantly, I'm assembling ships of a new design at Meklon: Scout 2.0s, to bring in new intelligence reports twice as quickly!
2350: My reign comes to an end, as quietly as it began. All is well in the empire - or as well as can be expected, given what I had to work with! No doubt my successor will take issue with what I've done. Yeah. No doubt he'd like to take over an empire in the state it was left for me, and see how he likes digging out of the same hole. Feel free.
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Next: The Turnaround
