2300-04: Well, obviously the first thing is to get to know the galaxy! My brand-new colony ship must travel north - red is my color, and blue is cold! - but my Scouts will go south to meet our possible neighbors ... and new Sniff 1.0 scouts will get ready immediately to start snuffling around the west and farthest south, to meet possible neighbors from those directions too!
2303: Oho! My colony ship is in business! Zoctan is a nice Arid world, with lots of room for my people to grow! Millions of mighty bears set out at once to tame its wild lands and see what ancient civilizations might have lived there!
Sponsor's note: We have two stars in colony range, neither of them coreward. If the red star had been hostile (against type) I would have kept playing and sent my colony ship on to the blue star - but if both stars had been hostile, I would have scrapped the map and started again. Thus, even though I was playing it all the way through prior to further playtests, I "knew" at least one of those stars was habitable, and didn't have to send a scout to the blue star right away. I don't think I would have sent one in this case anyway, but this is one of the facts of sponsoring an event: You're never playing completely unspoiled.
2305: Grrrarrrr! Just as our Scout arrived at Tao, someone ele's Scout showed up too! It said it was a Mrrshan, and wouldn't you know it, that's one of the names of the races from the Grunt County dig site! We wanted to hear all about their cultural history, but we might have asked the questions too fast on top of each other or something - we do that sometimes when we get excited - and the ship fled into hyperspace. Lots of reports are coming in too; at a fiery world like the one at Tao, but in the west, at the red star of Rana, we've scented pure neutronium! And with nice, habitable worlds in the northwest and southeast, it seems there will be lots of chances to set up some good dig sites, but we'll still be wanting some new technology. Hmmmmm, let me see. Everything depends on the nature of that blue star just by Ursa, the very last one to which I'm sending a Sniff, so I keep my scientists waiting. Besides, for now, I need more factories.
2308: Hrrrrrmph. Another Mrrshan scout runs from the southeasternmost red star we can reach, but was probably there before us. I hope they make nice neighbors and share lots of cultural insights, and maybe let us do some digs on their homeworld while they're at it! That would be great! It's hard with all this interstellar space in between us though; none of our ships can even reach each other's worlds. Well, someday! For now, let's have a look at the sites for our future archaeological expeditions!
That critical blue star to the east holds the vast Steppe world of Spica, amazingly good luck for such a cold-seeming place! With rich little Selia at the green star in the far southwest as well, I think I now understand what my people will need. Our first task must be to learn the secrets of planetology!
2309: Well, will you look at that! Our genius science teams are getting started on Improved Eco Restoration! It's the only thing they could come up with to work on in its field, but that's fine by me! There's a prevalent theory that industrial waste contributes to the erosion of fossils and cultural artifacts, so the more waste cleanup we've got, the better! Oh, it also should improve our overall efficiency and make colony ships a lot cheaper, but those are secondary considerations.
2315: Grrumble ... hrmph. Not much to do ... I wonder how Brrreka's lab inspections are going. Well, we're going to want to improve our range eventually, especially if it helps us meet those Mrrshan creatures and they turn out to be friendly. Some of my scientists can get started on propulsion technology.
2316: Hrrrrrrrum! Both Hydrogen and Deuterium Fuel Cells are possibilities!
The safe move is for hydrogen, but since all the most ancient wars of our people, the valiant Bulrathi have trusted to the fortune that favors the bold! Deuterium will eventually lead the way to Selia, and I start investing heavily!
2329: Grrorgh? A great big golden droid interrupts my favorite nature program to tell us there's something called a Meklar that's producing more than we are! Hrrrrrrrumph! We don't need to lead in production; we have histories to read! What I don't understand is the rest of the report. How can we be out-producing the Silicoids? And they're leading the Sakkra, Mrrshans, and Darloks? Does this mean they're spending their time reading history and preserving historical artifacts too? One can only hope!
2335: My brilliant scientists at last develop superior waste cleanup technology ... at the same time as our new fuel cells! In spite of the dead worlds nearby, I make Improved Terraforming +20 my next priority, in hopes that it will lead them to means of colonizing fiery infernos, and seeking slices of history preserved in rocks that once were lava flows! Grrrrrumph - and don't even mention death spores to me; have you any idea what those would do to fossilized biological samples? Better to just move on to other subjects, like Nuclear Engines, which we'll pursue for lack of any other new choices.
Since we now have plenty of range, I do not colonize Spica as planned, but send our Den down to Gienah. And meanwhile, this eventful year brings another appearance of the newsdroid.
The Silicoids own six star systems already! If we were outproducing them six years ago, most of those worlds must be pretty new; we still only have two! Hrrrrum. We should work on that, really. Maybe something for our new worlds-to-be. I'll ask my scientists for suggestions on improving our Construction technology.
2336: Grrrrump. All they suggest is Reduced Industrial Waste 80%. Well, it's something at least. Anyway, there's better news coming: Millions of bears start home from Zoctan to replace the ones who will soon be leaving Ursa for our new colonies!
2338: Our Den sets its millions of inhabitants down at Gienah, just as we complete a new one at Ursa! Then GNN gives us the census rankings, and we lag behind the Sakkra, Mrrshans, and Meklar, leading only the Darloks and Silicoids. Hrrrumph. Numbers aren't everything, as any student of history can tell you. And what's this? Grrrrroar! Those Mrrshans we kept seeing all over the place have finally agreed to talk to us! And they claim they've arrived to free the galaxy of our terror! Grrrrrrrrrrr. Sounds like hypocritical war-mongering talk to me! A look at their five-planet empire shows that Fieras is the only star within talking distance of Gienah, though Paladia will be close enough too once we get Selia - which is exactly where our latest Den is going!
Our new Sniffs hurry out to explore while I talk to my new ... urmmm ... friend, an uneasy ruthless militarist named Yalara. She is happy to agree to a small trade agreement, so perhaps there is some hope for the funny-looking pointy-eared little lady. This won't prevent millions of invincible Bulrathi soldiers from racing down from Ursa and Zoctan to make sure we hold onto Gienah - and bringing their shovels, trowels, brushes, and tweezers with them!
2342: Another Den is bound for Phantos. If we have another neighbor to the west who's just being shy, we'll know soon enough.
2344: My bold move has paid off - or it looks that way anyway! Selia is ours at last! The place is clearly rich in minerals, but I'm hoping it's equally rich in potential for ancient cultural discoveries!
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Next: New and Interesting People
