Our troopers are so careful to preserve the world's historical treasures that there's no damage done to any of its factories, and in spite of their relatively small numbers, we're able to reverse-engineer their Improved Industrial Tech 9! Better still, Arrrt's people, with help and guidance from Arrrchie and his ingenious means of collecting data from ancient, erosion-damaged sources, are able to recover plans for a Neutron Blaster from a data center the Darloks had intentionally sabotaged to prevent just such a discovery!
OOC Note: While all this was happening, in anticipation of the Meklar developing Controlled Inferno or better, I was building up bases at my closest world to their space. At this point, the colony I was calling Fortress Berel already had more bases than I ever built across my entire empire in both previous Imperia combined! Unfortunately, Klystron would not have leisure to do the same - at least, not for some time to come....
2427-8: One of our agents snooping around a Silicoid laboratory on Misha finds plans for Improved Terraforming +10 in one of the dumpsters out back. Better than going for the gold and just getting killed, I guess. Besides, that kind of "spying" apparently doesn't bother Igneus, as he agrees to a large upgrade to our trade package. Perhaps this will lead to peaceful relations eventually and - best of all - historical preservation and excavation agreements!
2429: Grrrrrummmm ... uh-oh. The Darlok colony at Rhilus has two missile bases up, and a fleet in orbit. Most of my transports can probably get past those bases, and my Kodiaks could handle the fleet even if our crews were in hibernation, but the Shifters know that as well as we do. Their fleet retreats to shield-sheltered starbases on the planet's surface, where we dare not fire on them and risk harming the planet's historical treasures, and though in no danger from the bases' missiles, my Kodiaks can't escort the transports into the atmosphere itself! As soon as our troopers reach the atmosphere, the Darlok star fleet joins its firepower to the bases' and...
...it's a disaster. There will be no chance to conquer this world while that fleet is present without some highly advanced technology. Arrrt does console me a bit though, with the news that we've got Zortium armor ready, with some tough choices heading forward: Do we research Armored Exoskeleton, or the means of cutting our current factory waste in half? I'd like to have both, and decide in the end on Reduced Industrial Waste 40%, as helping the economy first will speed research into the exoskeleton or whatever else comes next.
2430: The Kodiaks split up last year, and that seems to help a lot. One destroys a bunch of ships at the second battle of Rhilus, and the other defends Klystron easily, dismantling still more Darlok ships. Better yet, our spies have stopped dumpster-diving and are now infiltrating actual Silicoid labs! At Draconis, they learn how to build an Improved Space Scanner, a tremendous leap forward for us all! At virtually the same time, the GNN droid announces that the heavy metals have been depleted at Draconis as well, but my agents swear up and down that they deserve no credit for that. Still, I have a feeling that's what's in Igneus's ... well ... in whatever jagged lump of rocks he calls his mind ... as he threatens us with "consequences" and relations with him go tense. Considering what he's done to us in the past though, if I'm forced to make the choice, I'd rather have his technology than his friendship.
2431: Taking my stance on Igneus to heart, my spies come through again, no doubt thanks in part to the new technology they just brought in! Rrrhet, our fifteenth officer and chief of espionage, reports that the Silicoids have a mark-3 computer, and his spies are ready to claim it. I make appreciative noises, and ask for a look at their report, but find the lab they're ready to penetrate has lots of other projects running too. The computer would be great, but right now, I think I'd rather gamble on something a little more timely, and order Rrrhet to direct his spies to the lab's construction wing.
Oho! And the gamble pays off! With our new Zortium Battle Suits, our troops will be all but invincible, and will be able to conquer worlds without risking any of their valuable historical sites! Of course, Igneus calls me up again to say I underestimated his patience with technology theft. Hrrrumph. I suppose that's true: I was expecting the NAP to be gone at least after getting caught two years in a row! I think he meant to bluster that I overestimated his patience, but he seems to have more than I believed!
2432: Small enemy fleets at Rhilus and Obaca retreat to each planets' surface, there to lie in wait for my transports where my Kodiaks can't reach. Thankfully however, Obaca has no giant battle fleet like the one that protected Rhilus a few years back. With just a pair of little missile boats and a single base to pass, nearly our entire giant fleet of transports - all sent at once from Ursa many years ago - make it through to land! Once our warriors hit the ground, of course, it's no contest. General Grrropo's brilliantly-orchestrated attacks with great war bears in zortium battle suits, bearing personal shields and hand lasers, make mincemeant of the Darloks and their duralloy suits in spite of equal shielding. So, with Obaca as our 18th system, GNN announces that we're well on our way to control of the galaxy! I certainly hope so: The aliens' notions of historical preservation are worse than ignorant, believe me.
It isn't long before Arrrt returns with his reverse-engineering team's discoveries: Hydrogen Fuel Cells are pure, unadulterated junk, but it's one less worthless tech for Rrrhet's spies to accidentally steal from someone. A Neutron Pellet Gun might be useful if we decide we need real fighters at some point, and - as with otherwise-obsolete Duralloy Armor - will help some with miniaturization; as Arrrt likes to say, all knowledge helps in the long run. More importantly, Battle Computer Mark IV immediately becomes our new state of the art (at least for a year or so) and should help Rrrhet's spies do their work even better than before. No jackpot here - the Darloks use improved robotic controls and planetary shields - but still more than I was expecting, thanks to the brilliance of Arrrt and Arrrchie's recovery teams, and it comes with another bonus: I finally get to meet Sauron!
He's a pacifistic technologist, my favorite kind of emperor, and he's doing pretty well for himself when you consider that he only owns four worlds. (Only the Darloks have fewer, and only because I just conquered two of their stars.) They must be pretty large worlds, but I guess they would be, naturally or not: From a visit one of my ships made to Sssla, I know he has at least Terraforming +40. He also seems a relaxed kind of guy, perhaps because I voted for him recently, so I call him up right away and sign him up for a huge trade package and an N. A. P. That worked out so well, I think I'll call up Yalara ... and indeed, she purrs that she'd love to have a NAP with me! Errrrr, and she does that one-eye-closing thing again; I wonder what that means. Maybe she wants to double our trade package? No, for some reason, she doesn't want to discuss that and just gets upset with me. What did I miss? It couldn't have been anything important, could it have been?
2433: After Darlok fleets flee from Klystron and Obaca, I receive a report that Silicoid spies blew up seven factories at Obaca. I scratch my head. "Why would they do that?"
Rrrhet's messenger shrugs and says, "Because they're aliens, I guess," but that doesn't sound right exactly. Maybe it's because they didn't, and it was the Darloks with a frame job. That makes a bit more sense to me. On the other hand, Igneus does break his Non-Aggression pact, which could mean trouble brewing. I enlist Sauron in my war against the Darloks, just in case.
2434: There are a lot more little Darlok missile boats at Rhilus than there were at Obaca a couple years ago, hiding under their planetary shield, but it's not enough to thwart the transports coming in! General Grrropo's forces are only outnumbered three to two by the time they make planetfall, and we lose even fewer of our forces planetside than we did in space! And Arrrt and Arrrchie's brilliant partnership cleans out the last Darlok technologies!
Controlled Tunra Environment, Class V Planetary Shield, Improved Robotic Controls III, and Inertial Stabilizer are all discovered among the ruins! Now, that's what I call good fieldwork, everybody!
2436-9: Perhaps because of the growing power of my people, with three new worlds since the last election and hundreds of new factories, the rest of the galaxy seems to be turning against me. Sauron breaks our NAP in spite of the way I've just crippled our common enemy, and immediately sends a fleet to poor Obaca, and once Rrrhet's agents steal Battle Computer Mark III from the Silicoids and GNN reports that we're the tech leaders in the galaxy, just edging out the Meklar and the Sakkra, Yalara decides I'm showing her up, and cancels her NAP with me. Of course, I never had a NAP with CB-715, and as my Snuffle arrives at Vulcan to scan its fleet, I get the gravest news I've yet seen in this galaxy: The death fleet is there no longer. It's coming for me.
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Next: Never Underestimate the Meklar!
