2300: We scrounge among the star ships that survived the succession wars for a usable fleet, but alas! All our warships were destroyed in the course of the decisive battle, burning under enemy fire as a last diversion to give Yreet Kree her chance to strike at the heart of the enemy! Only a pair of old Scouts and a Colony Ship can be repaired enough to cross the deeps of space for our people! Yreet Kree declares that a new line of ships shall be designed, and we of the Clan make it so, with Soar 1.0 scout ships to learn what awaits us among the stars! Yet before we think of building these, it is time for our pilots to set out with our small existing fleet!
Our Colony Ship shall carry our people toward the heart of the galaxy, whence in times of legend, the Kree bloodline ruled all the stars - we can only cross the first two parsecs for now, but in time, Yreet Kree's true heritage and birthright shall be restored to her! Our Scouts meanwhile take to the sky, flanking the colony ship into the distance, north and south!
2302: Success! Our cobbled-together Colony Ship reaches Esper in one piece, and finds a Steppe world, whose cold blue skies will soon be filled with Alkari! Three transports setting out for Esper will each be accompanied by its own brand-new Soar ship, being constructed as we speak, with their relocation orders already programmed in!
2303: Rawwwk?! Curse this nebula that slows our transports to a crawl! They've left, but they're barely moving. The Soar pilots asked if they should remain in company, and I responded with a clear negative: Yreet Kree would be little pleased if we abetted the nebula and made our own delays! Our Soars will therefore arrive on schedule, and as planned, while four more transports set out in spite of the nebula delays, and Altair returns all its energy to rebuilding the factories destroyed in the terrible succession war!
2304: Our Soars stop at Esper only long enough to refuel, and fan out to the east! The transports on the way will be all it gets and all it requires!
2305: We're ready to explore our back lines, and three new Soars go into production at Altair! As soon as they are finished, we'll dispatch them south and east to explore the final worlds surrounding our little empire! (OOC: In all three of my previous Imperia, I built Newscouts starting in 2300, fearing a neighbor right on my doorstep. Already behind on the growth curve here due to the Impossible settings, and counting on open terrain in our Large galaxy, I not only delayed my "Soar" Newscouts until the founding of Esper, but delayed most of my Scouts still three turns more. The latter may have been a grave mistake. We'll have to see.....)
2309: Hrawwwwwwk?! We're under attack!
There's a monster ship called a Guardian at the red star just by the southeast nebula, and it just demolished one of our Soars! I rush this news to Yreet Kree, but she is serene. "The Guardian will not harm us," she tells me, "so long as we send no starships to the star system it protects. Truly, it shall live up to its name! This proves the family legends are true, for they speak of the ancient Krees who created a Galactic News Network and established a council system throughout the galaxy, and anticipating the intergalactic cataclysm that was to destroy nearly all sentient life in the galaxy, fled to Altair under the protection of this nebula's unique Ilistrium shielding. At the glorious world of Orion, they left a mighty warship, an automated drone which alone could survive the cataclysm to come, to protect our ancient throne world until a galactic election could be held and won. Only then would the Guardian drone end its endless sentry work, and come under the control of the true heir to the galaxy." Humbled, I bow and sweep my wings, and give orders to all our fleets to avoid Orion until Yreet Kree is established at last as the true heir and ruler of the galactic republic!
2310: With all but two of our scouting reports complete, I respectfully suggest to Yreet Kree that we begin new research projects; we already know what we hope to discover, if only our start-up projects indicate the desired possibilities. She considers this, looks at the map of the southern stars we will visit over the next couple of years, and tells me she will give the matter some thought. Once she has ordered our Hyades Soar to Firma, to replace our Balky Scout there, and placed build orders for another Soar at Altair, to replace the other Scout in the north, she turns back to me and asks, "Are you certain our reports will tell us nothing to change our choices?"
"I am not, your highness, " I answer. "But I believe we can recover if they make our choice seem folly, and I do know that every year we delay our research is costly."
"Very well, Officer Treek," she answers, "and whether this choice proves good or ill, I shall remember who made it to me."
2311: Yreeaaawk! Had I known what our options would be, I would have suggested that we start research as soon as Yreet Kree's reign began! Improved Eco Restoration and Deuterium Fuel Cells are exactly the technologies we need, and it doesn't matter what our scouting reports show, since we had no choices in either field! Planetology will receive a slight research emphasis, as it is the more difficult and time-critical target of the pair ... and we need both of these technologies, as swiftly as we can bring them in! Nearly all our imperial energies are going into start-up investments for our shiny new toys!
2312: Hrreeeeek! Holy Coatl, will you have a look at VEGA!?
We need planetology tech, not so much soon as immediately! If only we'd started even sooner! Yreet Kree calls me into the throne room to thank me for my advice, but regrets that she can not continue our massive technology spending. Esper will handle our research for a while, as Altair still desperately needs more factories. I bow with a sweep of my wings in acceptance, but would have argued for at least a little more investment had it been anyone other than the all-wise Yreet Kree, true heir to Altair and the galaxy!
2314: I have my eye on Drakka, the ocean world in the southeast nebula. If alien races try to challenge us for control of one of our worlds, that is perhaps the likliest place, and one of the most valuable. Artemis, by contrast, seems relatively safe, while Firma is the key to our entire plan of expansion, and is the closest nearby planet to other yellow stars. Drakka, if lost, should be reclaimable, thanks to the nebula around it; Firma, if lost, would leave us with a very small empire from which to launch any reclaiming attempt! If we protect one world therefore, Firma must be that one! I prepare plans for an Albatross long-range destroyer, with twin lasers for fighting off enemy fleets, but hold it in reserve for the future; our still-rebuilding empire is not yet ready to build them, a fact perfectly well known to Yreet Kree.
2315: Our hurriedly-assembled, unreliable Scouts are finally scrapped, along with the designs for the cobbled-together old Colony Ship, leaving only our Soars in flight across Alkari space. With the balky old Scouts coming off the books, we're no longer paying maintenance costs for our sleek, small fleet, improving net production by a small but important quantity while the pieces of the Scouts provide useful resources for more Altair factories.
2321: I'm getting antsy pacing my perch, circling over my offices, thinking about Firma. Should we build a fleet to hold it? Not yet ... no, not yet. Yreet Kree is managing the empire, recalling millions of Alkari from Esper to Altair to help work its future factories, bearing in mind the effects of the nebula, and I have my ship designers put together blueprints for a new colony ship, the Nest 1.0, though it will be years before work can start on one of them.
2323: Still no sign of any other species. If first contact is with an armed or escorted colony ship ... but Yreet Kree is patient, and perhaps still war-weary from the bloody succession war, and continues our work on peaceful infrastructure and research.
2327: We're committed. The Albatrosses will never be built; we must beat the as-yet unseen aliens to Firma with deuterium-powered ships or pay for our gamble dearly.
2330: Yrawwwwk! We've got deuterium!!!
Eagerly, Yreet Kree asks our scientists what our next research project might be, and they all come back with Inertial Stabilizer! Well, that's all right with me, as long as they can progress with some better engines from there! Our new Soars are dispatched directly to the northeast blue and green stars just brought into range, and Esper takes over all our research so that Altair can finish its first Nest by 2333!
2331: Hoping to make myself useful, I arrange a huge ship design consisting essentially of parts for future ships. To be honest though, I hope it isn't needed.
2333: At last! Our ecological restoration techniques come through! As this limits the need for reduced waste technology, we elect to proceed with Improved Industrial Tech 9 in construction, a field we just opened last year ... and proceed with Controlled Tundra Environment in planetology! Our scientists don't even bother mentioning any other tech; they know how critical this one will be!
2336-8: The second wave of scouting reports starts coming in at last! We find we are surrounded by simply incredible worlds, from Paranar to Gienah to huge, fertile Vox, with a few less-impressive but still mostly attractive worlds mixed in ... and not a single one of them showing the least sign of alien presence! Our second Nest moves north to Artemis instead of south, to take advantage of Vox's fertility, as our population will be spread paper-thin throughout our empire before long, and Yreet Kree's gamble has paid off amazingly - like a marlin in the talons on a blind dive at the sea!
2339: Fully 37 years after our second, Firma becomes the third world to belong to Yreet Kree!
It seems we're alone in our corner of space, and nothing will prevent her from achieving her birthright in the galaxy!
_______________
Next: We're Not Alone!
