2440: Admiral Vipersian may have had the western front under control, but there was no such leadership in the east. Though the OCD period following the construction of Toxic bases had lasted only four years, that was enough time to delay planetary shield construction at a critical moment, leaving Uxmai all but defenseless against the incoming Psilon dreadnought. Even the Nova's rockets could rip through the planet's class 3 shields, to say nothing of the few fighters - mostly just Ion Scouts - that could reach the planet in time, and its 15 Hard Beam cannons punched through them like paper. Reinforcements were only a happy dream, with the entire imperial star fleet still moving at Warp 2, and with Quayal just one year away at Psilon transport speeds, the loss of the planet was inevitable.
With help from the imperial reserves, Uxmai would finish its planetary shield and another missile base the following year, as well as a few more Lithium fighters, but it was wasted effort. The first Psilon wave fell short as expected, but the planet's forces were depleted, and even if the second wave failed, there would be no way to stop the third. One year late, Obsessivus acknowledged Uxmai's defeat:
They are to raise and arm as many warriors as they can by next year, and spend all remaining effort on research projects. More Psilon ships are incoming, and the planet is lost. Tell our forces to fight well when the four-arms invade; we will reclaim their homes someday. Oh: One thing more. I am arranging for your safe transport back to Selia, governor, and for an X Lander armed colony ship to be dispatched to Uxmai with all haste. That lander had better be scrapped on its way. To lose the planet by conquest is one thing, but if they decide to bomb that world, and you haven't grown enough forces to prevent its destruction, you will find every instrument of torture the Sakkra have ever devised waiting on Selia for you. I will not have an uninhabited world in my people's reach!2441: The Psilons did not bomb Uxmai, and needed a little luck to overcome the Sakkra troops massed there.
They got that luck in spades, claiming not only the planet itself but three technologies likely to make them even harder targets going forward. RBO-18's response, recorded and transcribed when he received the news, was one word long:
Good.2442: In a desperate effort to continue their war against the Sakkra, the Psilons of Quayal increased mining operations on their planet's second moon on unprecedented scales. The unintended result, first made known to Obsessivus in a GNN report, was reported to Quayal's governor much earlier, by the planet's mineral resources supervisor:
Sir, there has ... there was ... I ... an accident, sir! Our new blasting tools to reach the deep neutronium cores ... they ... we ... I mean to say, it's gone, sir. Some kind of chain reaction with power crystals beneath the surface. The entire mineral deposition zone has been blasted into space, in pieces too small to recover. We're ... our most important source of minerals in the system has been depleted, sir. We rushed too much in trying to get at them too quickly. We ... ... please don't kill me...Obsessivus regarded this as terrible news, considering Quayal - in spite of the setback at Uxmai - a virtual possession of the Sakkra people already.
2444: One year after Lasitus's latest (and equally fruitless) plea for peace, the miserable barren world of Tao continued to never, ever, ever catch a break.
Fortunately, the Meklar Nemesis dreadnoughts just arriving - with almost 150 racks of fusion bombs between them, plus death spores and gats - were slow enough both strategically and tactically to allow the Sakkra to deploy an adequate defense. The battle was intense, but Planetary Governor Laotzuius was able to issue a calm report after the fact:
The Nemesis ships are no more. Work continues on additional bases. All is well.2448: The Psilon front had remained quiet since the loss of Uxmai, while Humans beat their heads against the fortress world of Dunatis, but Quark's request for a peace treaty was rejected out of hand. The greatest threat remained the one race which still refused to acknowledge its war with the Sakkra, in spite of prosecuting that war energetically. An emergency report reached Obsessivus in 2448 from Xengara, the empire's original extra-Sssslestial colony:
We are reading a Meklar death fleet! Nine battle cruisers, four colony ships, and no less than nine dreadnoughts, all of unknown designs! They appear to be approaching us at warp 4, and likely to arrive next year! We didn't believe our planet would come under attack, and have built only a few bases behind our defensive shield thus far - we need all possible assistance, desperately!2449: Xengara's fears were soon realized.
Every combat ship in the Meklar fleet was built around fusion bombs, death spores, or both. In addition to gatling lasers and the Colony Ships' rockets, the doom fleet carried 231 fusion bomb racks, 167 death spore pods, and 91 five-racks of Merculite missiles. Xengara's hastily-assembled bases and defense fleet managed to take out all the cruisers and a third of the dreadnoughts before the remaining dreads ran out of bombs and retreated, but by then, it was far too late for the colony. As shown in the following transcript of a meeting with the secretary of defense, Obsessivus was roused to incredible fury:
RBO-18: I hate them! I hate them! I'll kill them! I'll kill them all!2452: One year before the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Xengara colony's formation...
Sec Def: In time; but the Meklar are too strong to be killed off just yet, and...
RBO-18: The Meklar?! Are you crazy?! I'm talking about the Sakkra!!! One of our core worlds was just wiped out by an alien race, and what is my people's response? To drop all preparations of warships, defenses, and military research completely, and turn all their energy, all our partially-completed giant battle hulls, and everything else in the empire, to building infinitely redundant colony ships and scouts, together with a few factories! It will take me three years to colonize Xengara again, and there's no telling how much we'll lose in the meantime! I'm going to kill them! And when I'm done, I'm going to kill them again!!!
...the Sakkra people founded the Xengara colony. Two years before, the galactic council had met, and gone more or less the way it had 25 years before. And the year after that, both Lasitus of the Humans (for the nine hundredth time, it seemed) and Highsoar of the Alkari came begging for peace. According to an imperial memo written after Xengara was founded and the Sakkra ended their period of OCD, all this was enough to remind Obsessivus of the real enemy:
My people being unspeakably worthless idiots is only a problem because of all the despicable weakling races in the galaxy. I'm sick of peace requests, and if it's in my power to prevent it, we'll never hold a galactic council again!Two years later, OCD-delayed Zortium would open the path to Improved Industrial Tech 5, whose research Obsessivus would never bother to fund in his lifetime. It was one year too late to aid the design of the hundreds of Lithium ion fighters that took to the skies the same year to try and fend off yet more dreadnoughts sent in by the Meklar.
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Next: The Fate of the Galaxy
