My diplomatic initiatives are proceeding nicely, as Yalara calls to ask if we can double our little trade package - of course I readily agree - and Sauron grants my request for annual trade of 100 BC. And of course, since the Meklar are attacking us, war or no, I elect to return the favor, and make another try at Dolz - this time with millions more bears than before!
2486-8: The Meklar fleet arrives at Obaca: 11 Nemesis dreadnoughts, 21 Ajax cruisers, and 49(!) Annihilator cruisers! I lose my last Kodiak and nearly all the system's Swipes ... but the Sirians are incredible! The entire Meklar fleet goes down in flames (that entire Meklar fleet - there's another at least as strong still gathering at Vulcan) and, no doubt because of my destroying its ships, CB-715 shows I was right to launch my attack force last year, choosing this moment to declare on me. Two years later, the rest of his starfleet makes a sneak attack at the same poor world, but I've had time to put some bases up, and with their Scatter 7s, advanced shields, and orbiting defense fleet, they dismantle the enemy completely. It's always nice when you can start a war by completely eliminating the entire enemy starforce!
Of course, it's even nicer when you can also take a homeworld simultaneously. Rrrhet's spies take out no less than a dozen Cryslon bases, and those of Grrropo's forces who make it past the remaining bases and the Silicoid ground troops - we were outnumbered only about two to one on the surface - claim the planet and its beautiful historical artefacts for our people!
There's a second wave on the way of course, ready to fill the world near to capacity! From here on, conquest of Silicoid worlds follows a simple and natural progression: Our agents move in first, take out as many bases as they can while reporting back about landing sites for our troops; transports come in next, once the planet is confirmed non-radiated, with Swipes arriving simultaneously to erase any fleet that might be trying to hide behind their bases, and the planet falls to us immediately. With some of our Swipes remaining behind to defend against incoming fleets, we hold every world without trouble; Crius, the last Silicoid world outside of radiated husks, falls in 2495, at the same time as another, far more important development. These important advances don't occupy all our attention, naturally; for one thing, Narzina decides in 2489 to "free the universe" of our "tyranny," so we have to add her once again to the list of our implacable and unutterably stupid enemies.
Meanwhile, Arrrt is doing his usual brilliant work: our latest terraforming technology is ready to deploy in 2490, as are hyperspace communications and advanced damage control in 2492. Though there are points in favor of many others, we elect to focus our future efforts on Improved Terraforming +80, ECM Jammer Mark VIII, and Powered Armor, in their respective fields. We'll see if they have an effect on anything. Meanwhile, Rhett's spies in Meklar space - numerous and wielding a sizable computer advantage - continue to stick their fingers up their noses and hurry back to report what they find there, while our space superiority is so complete that even Meklar "death fleets" coming to poor Obaca are merely taunted mercilessly ... until that important development of which I spoke.
With the destruction of even a handful of Dolz's bases, our latest swarm of transports has no trouble taking over - we'd been whittling the place down with suicide transports for a few years anyway - and clean out the valuable remnants of uniquely Meklar technology: Class V Deflector Shields are well and good, but a Personal Absorption Shield will give General Grrropo many more options, and Advanced Space Scanner finally allows us to see into the deepest parts of the galaxy, and make our advance missile-sabotaging efforts a luxury instead of a necessity. Discovery of neutronium deposits at Ursa this year doesn't even meaningfully affect us, as victory is so thoroughly assured already. I expect to win the upcoming election handily at this point, by dint of having conquered the galaxy, but I'm not taking any chances. From here on out, nearly every world at my command will be building Swipes or Sirians, or vat-growing warrior clones for General Grrropo to lead to victory.
2498: Sauron provides some comic relief by threatening our overwhelmingly powerful empire while we prepare for the decisive battles that ... well, actually, the decisive battles have all been fought already. So, we prepare for some battles that ought to pre-empt any vengeful attempts to destroy important artefacts ... and of course be fun and instructive!
2499: This should give you some idea of how the year goes:
Sssla falls. I almost feel sorry for the lizards. We have Andrium Battle Suits to their Duralloy breastplates, and a Personal Absorption shield to their complete lack of personal shield technology. They somehow manage to kill some of us, but we kill more than nine times as many of them. Vulcan falls. We don't quite manage a four to one kill ratio, so only 11 million bears survive to take over their 360 factories and the most incredible pre-Orion artifacts any of us have ever seen. Omicron falls, but that's a whole different story, as nearly half our transports reach the planet, and are barely outnumbered by more than three to two. 29 million of our people now hold the world's 280 factories and mineral riches.
Our conquest of Sssla yields plans for Fusion Drives and Advanced Eco Restoration, which hardly matters, since we'd learn to use them anyway next year when we officially rule the galaxy. How sure am I that we shall? Well, you saw what the galactic map looked like. Here are the power graphs to go with it:
The galaxy is in our paws. There's just one thing left to do before we go back to full-time archaeology.
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Next: 2500
