It ends with a bit of comic relief, as three Darlok transports make it through my screen (Yes, Darlok. They sent them years ago when it was a Meklar colony over which they briefly had a ship in orbit). With entrenched ursine warriors directed by General Grrropo and fairly severe technological superiority, we take no losses in killing them all.
2452: Yalara calls, and I ask if this means we can talk again, but she didn't have talk in mind I guess; she just declares war right away. This makes me sad, but I'm not sure why exactly. I guess I'll have to go and take over some of her worlds, since we'll never get right of passage for our archaeological teams restored at this rate. I consult with Arrrchie about it, and he cheers me up immensely. He's sure, once we capture those worlds, if the habits have any history, we'll be able to infer from the historical record what all those one-eye-closing and teeth-showing and lip-licking behaviors are supposed to mean. We probably won't learn anything really surprising - I'm pretty sure they're just signs of being sleepy or hungry, especially considering the way cats spend their time in general - but it's always good to know for sure, and it's great to face the prospect of new discoveries!
2453: We hold Klystron against another assault fleet, and each year that passes improves our chance of holding it permanently! The Meklar also bring a fleet to our rich colony in the south...
...but Fortress Incedius is up to 24 bases, and when its Scatters take out the lone incoming Ajax, the three Nemesis dreadnoughts retreat.
2454: A Silicoid Shark flees from our fleet and base at Rhilus, our Kodiak shows up in time to kill all the Meklar transports just arriving at Klystron, and Narzina complains that I'm too strong. She's directed to the complaints, debates, arguments, and getting-mauled-by-an-angry-grizzly department. I'm getting tired of these blow-hards; it's almost as if these crazy aliens put their politicians in charge of their empires!
2455: The main Meklar war fleet arrives at Klystron again ... but this year is very different: We have five dissipator cruisers of three different designs, a trio of dissipator destroyers ... and the Kodiak itself! The enemy is once again warped out as emergency energy reserves are exhausted, and they do kill our Growl cruiser ... but not before we destroy their Nemesis, Annihilator, and three Tornado dreadnoughts, and all 27 of their Ajax cruisers!
2456-8: The war is going our way. We dismantle small enemy fleets with nothing resembling losses, and when Arrrt finally develops ECM Jammers at the same time as a Bio Toxin Antidote, he comes through with better news still: Robotic Controls V is available for research (skipping ECM 6) alongside Advanced Soil Enrichment! Then, with GNN reporting that we're still the galaxy's technology leaders, I decide it's time to spring for still more, and give the lizards my IIT 8 for Controlled Dead Environment. The trade won't really do much for either of us, but it gets something out of the way ... and if it's a good thing, it's done just in time, as Sauron declares war on me the following year! Of course, that's also the year when our first wave of transports hits the kitties.
We're outnumbered more than two to one at each feline world - our first wave at Helos, and at Imra the following year - but the enemy has neither hand lasers nor battle suits nor Zortium Armor nor General Grrropo on their side, and it's a slaughter. The 48 factories at ultra-poor Helos, and 180 at Imra, between them yield designs for Death Spores, which we will never be put to any use, believe me; Irridium Fuel Cells, which are nearly worthless, but at least they're out of the way now; Improved Terraforming +30, which is not worthless by any means; and ECM Jammer Mark IV, which at least makes Chief of Espionage Rrrhet slightly pleased. Meanwhile, the enemy's most effective bid against us is a sabotage attempt at Kronos that takes out ten factories ... and GNN reports that we nearly control a majority of the galaxy.
2459-66: We destroy the remains of the Meklar death fleet as CB-715 starts putting a new one together: One based on Stinger missile cruisers, which - if built in numbers - could live up to their name: Annihilators! In the meantime however, we're destroying or chasing away alien fleets of all descriptions, and arriving in numbers at the last feline world we've scouted to date. Almost two thirds of our transports get past seven Mrrshan missile bases at Mobas, and we're only outnumbered about four to three, so the outcome is foreordained. From the factories we conquer, Arrrt and Arrrchie reverse-engineer all the Mrrshan technology we don't know about already:
Mass Driver isn't too useful, and the less said about Gatling Laser, the better, but Graviton Beam is the kitties' best weapon, and Controlled Barren Environment serves the same purpose as any other obsolete planetological technology. Not a bad haul from 124 factories! With that accomplished, I find that Yalara is willing to talk again, but apparently only so she can call me names. She flatly refuses my offer of peace.
Arrrt does even better work on his own than when reverse-engineering alien technology. We've develop Andrium Armor and Anti-Matter Torpedoes, and Impulse Drives in the course of just a few years! With several great choices, including Tritanium, Reduced Waste 20%, Auto Blaster, and Pulsons (as well as not-so-great ones like Trilithium Crystals) we elect to move forward as quickly as possible with Improved Industrial Tech 3, Scatter Pack VII Missiles, and Intergalactic Star Gates. In between, Narzina warns me that, if I continue to expand, the ineffectual fleets she keeps sending in my direction might officially be called war fleets. She is directed back to our complaints department - the one with the angry grizzly. Apparently, she gets along with him though: To my absolute shock, the following year, she agrees to 50 BC in trade!
All of this brings us to the next - and hopefully last - stage of our galactic war. As Rrrhet's spies destroy feline missile bases at Paladia (and fail, as they've been failing for decades, to accomplish anything in Meklar space) huge fleets of transports set out from Ursa and Celtsi, converging on the very first world the Meklar conquered from me: The lush, terran world of Dolz!
Along with my transports will go hundreds of war ships of our latest design, now being assembled all across the empire: The Swipe 5.0 is the fastest, most accurate Ion fighter I can create, intended to cut enemy fleets out from planetary orbit before they can retreat to bases on the surface, preventing them from firing on our transport fleets. Finally, I call up Yalara to offer the olive branch again, but she turns her back and says she doesn't eat leaves. Hrrrrrrm. We seem to not be communicating terribly well here. Maybe things will go better with the machines.
2467: Or maybe not. My Swipes do their jobs quite effectively, but even without any ships to assist, 18 Stinger/Scatter bases are apparently too much for even 77 Impulse/Andrium transports. I lose them all. With more (doomed) transports on the way, I can't even accept when CB-715 shows up to offer peace.
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Next: Okay, so ... peace?
