No, I'm not crazy; I'm just all too well aware that we have no chance against the Sakkra right now. We're in this for the long haul or we're not in this at all, so I'm doubling the agreement up to 350 BC!
2384: We manage to improve our ecological restoration techniques again, which leads to ... no controlled radiated ... and no terraforming options. We are missing the first four levels of terraforming technology that the great planetologist Hreet Yrra envisioned, as well as all the controlled environmental techs except for Tundra! I might add that on the whole, our opportunities to make research choices have been few and far between, with nothing but ECM available thus far in computers, no option for a personal shield, no engines yet even envisioned, and (less critically) no Fusion Bombs. What a mess! I hold an emergency discussion with Kestrel, but neither of us can figure out a way to replace our scientists with competent ones, so we need a different kind of strategy. Soil Enrichment is our next planetology project, even though an antidote would be useful against the lizards' death spore technology. It's going to be a long time before we'd have any hope of surviving a Sakkra attack either way! Rather than dwell on that, I design a Stork 1.0 long-range colony ship. At least one will even get a chance to build a colony!
2385: We improve our factory construction techniques, which will help with our future colonies (or colony as the case may be) though we're already at or near maximum infrastructure at our existing worlds ... and I'm shocked to find actual choices for our next construction project! We just went through two levels of IIT, and as for automated repair, I'd rather rely on fighters if we have to go to war, counting on our Star Wing Clan pilots to keep them from being hit at all, than on giant ships that take heavy damage and then try to put themselves together again. On my advice, Yreet Kree therefore selects Battle Suits to give us a fighting chance in ground invasions.
Meanwhile, thanks to the new construction tech, I can also design two new ships: An Emperor (Penguin) 1.0 long-range tundra lander, and a small fleet of FarCry 1.0 long-range laser fighters, the latter to be built in case we beat the Sakkra to Ajax by just a few years. At any other world, this would be folly, but Ajax is rich enough to warrant the expense, and in a key strategiv location ... and its nebula will cancel out enemy shields, thereby giving our FarCries' lasers at least some hope of succes. For that matter, if we had any engines to speak of, I wouldn't bother with the reserve tanks. Under the circumstances though, long range fighters are worthwhile just to save the years of delay through which normal fighters would have to wait for the colony's construction to bring the world into range.
2393: Dotomite Crystals are ready for deployment aboard our ships, and our only choice for a new propulsion project is Uridium Fuel Cells. (OOC: For those keeping score, that's 1 controlled environment tech - and it's not among the top 4 - zero of the first four terraforming techs, and zero of the first three engines, the latter fact nearly obviating the propulsion excellence of our Alkari. Oh, and did I mention nothing but ECM in the first two tiers of our computer tree? Because this is frankly insane!) Our trade package with the lizards is finally turning a profit, and I'm going to let it keep that up this time, but I nonetheless call up Sauron ... and find he's willing to trade Controlled Toxic Environment for our Inertial Stabilizer!
He'd also have done it for Enhanced Eco, but I do not plan to help his economy get any bigger than it is already. Now, in honor of the fact that I learned to create it by cooperating with a crocodile, I name our toxic colony ship design the Plover 1.0, and our empire begins work on three!
2394: Our lazy, ECM-loving computer scientists finally devise the latest jammer, and we at last recover from the computer virus and develop a neutron pellet gun, too late to contribute to our recently-built defense fleets. The computer scientists of course want a new jammer, and ... wait ... what's this I see? They've presented a proposal for an Improved Space Scanner?! If they manage to develop that in a timely manner, I'll take back everything I ever said about them, right down to the sleepwalking! They've just won themselves some extra funding! Meanwhile, I've gone long enough without a missile, I already have hand lasers, over which Ion Rifle isn't much of an improvement, and Mass Driver ... just isn't very good, so I start research on Scatter Pack V Rockets, which should be especially valuable in the all the nebulas right around here. Still no sign of life at the worlds within mutual reach of the Sakkra and ourselves; let's just hope the lizards' wars are keeping all their fleets occupied far away.
2395: Yrawk! Somebody pinch me! Are we really forming a new colony?!
For the first time in almost a quarter of a century, we land on a fresh, new world - this one, being Beta Ceti, completely covered in snow. I also design a new NPG fighter, the Talon 1.0, with a stabilizer and battle computer. Sadly, these will probably be the best design we can build for a long time, so we start limited production immediately.
2396: Yrawwwk? The star I supposed was Ursa is the ocean world of Phantos ... and it's still uninhabited somehow! In the forlorn hope that this remains the case for another 11 years, Vox builds another Nest 1.0 while our few new Talons converge on Selia! This means we can say with confidence that the Psilon homeworld is at the yellow star alone in the northeast corner, while the Bulrathi, Darlok, and Meklar worlds are all in the southeast cluster!
2398: Dare I believe my eyes? We appear to have two new colonies - including Ajax! Not only is that a terrific world in its own right, it will extend my reach ... and brings me immediate contact with two other species!
Unfortunately, the Darloks are led by Darquan, a xenophobic expansionist who's very uneasy with me, and the Bulrathi by Krungo the erratic technologist - so it doesn't matter how he feels about me at any given moment; he might well declare war anyway! Fufilling my role as official diplomat of the Alkari people, I persuade Darquan to the smallest trade agreement that would possibly mean anything given the sizes of our empires: 80 BC per year invested toward eventual peaceful relations, hopefully! I also sign Krungo up for a similar trade agreement, but this is likely to be money thrown to the winds. I'm sorely tempted to trade technology with him, and finally settle on taking his Nuclear Engines for our Inertial Stabilizer, because I desperately need faster engines, and it's the only thing he'll accept that provides no strategic (only tactical) advantages to him. This does nothing for our transports, but future ship designs will definitely benefit. Indeed, in spite of my doom-saying about the Talon 1.0, I'm able to build a superior model already, and therefore scrap our few existing NPG fighters in favor of a faster colony ship, the Nest 2.0.
2399: We reach Xengara, the fertile world in the far northwest corner of the galaxy, and make it an Alkari colony. We get a couple of scouting reports, and ... wait, GNN? A special report? Cutting right into the middle of "Maverick's Flight?!" Uh-oh. This can't be a good thing. Well, we'll weather it! What ... Yiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!
It just isn't possible! It's too much to ask of our people, too much to believe! Our sinecure ambassador, Yraw Freep, was secretly an agent of the dead usurper! His last words, meaningless to the Sakkra and the GNN newsdroid, carry immense significance to anyone who knows of the succession wars and their history! His attempt on Sauron's life was nothing more or less than a traitor's strike against the heart of his own people! Like the usurper himself, Yraw Freep was willing to sacrifice not only his own life, but the lives of his entire race, for petty revenge against the true heir to Altair and the galaxy! Nothing I say or do can appease the Sakkra people. Sauron reacts to the assassination attempt by declaring war on us immediately, dooming the Alkari people! Yreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! I rush to Kestrel's side at once, for a desperate strategy meeting, but I fear there may be no hope of saving our people! Nonetheless, we shall do all we can ... and even if victorious, our enemies shall buy their spoils dearly!
(OOC: Immediately after the Diplo event, I took a few days off from the game; I had a number of Real Life[tm] things that needed doing, and knew I would need to completely change my strategy anyway - no harm in losing track of what I had planned! I intended from the first to come back and finish the game though, and by the time I had a good block of time again, I was ready to go on - among other things, with a great way to end this report in case of defeat!)
My first strategic move, after confirming it with Yreet Kree, is to approach Darquan and ask him to join our Sakkra war, pointing out that unless we unite against the lizards, they will soon take over the galaxy. Terrified of the Sakkra however, he refuses, and instead remains their ally! With our prospects looking bleak, we go to work building ship parts at Vox and Vega - there's no point in building bases with our hopelessly backward missile and shield technology - while rearranging our research priorities just to bring in Battle Suits and their attendant miniaturization, and putting most of our remaining efforts into Improved Space Scanner, the only research project we've got that's at once valuable enough to be worth the immediate wartime investment, well enough along that there's a small hope of completing it, and not in its final stages of completion already. My espionage budget is also increased across the board, to ensure we know what our enemies possess - and with the Darloks allied to the Sakkra and the Bulrathi an erratic people, everyone is now an enemy! If we survive this, it'll be a miracle - at least!
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Next: Trying to Fly Against the Wind!
