2470: Ten Nexus fusion gunboats arrived at the immature world of Keeta, with megabolt cruiser escorts, before it could finish a third missile base, and with little in the way of a defensive fleet in orbit. The Meklar took the planet's orbit easily. At the same time, a single megabolt dreadnought and six megabolt cruisers reached Phantos, which was defended only by a Caiman cruiser. Thanks to its repulsor beam, the Caiman 5.0 should have repelled the enemy easily, but its pilot managed to maneuver himself into a position where the beam couldn't function properly, and was destroyed along with his ship and, as at Keeta, the entire colony.
The death fleet at Keeta would crash on the planet's surface for lack of fuel, but Obsessivus didn't care about the enemy fleet. The emperor's official speech to the Sakkra people following the news is transcribed as follows:
You will not build worthless, idiotic, empty-headed, filthy, grimy, inexpressibly putrid colony ships! You won't! I won't have it! Not again! You ... I'm talking to you idiots! Get away from those colony hangars and factories!!! Listen to me!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!! I told you idiots!!! I told you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!!!!!Obsessivus nearly destroyed the capital's holotransmitter when, moments later, Emperor Bullux of the Bulrathi called to beg for peace.
2473: Lacking enough combat ships to deal with the Meklar colony ship's escort, Obsessivus simply allowed the machines to recolonize Phantos in 2472, the same year that a Sakkra colony ship reclaimed Keeta, prompting the empire to return to whatever it tries to call normal, not without massive losses of time and investments. Two years of refusal to grow population while transports were being sent against the Bulrathi was especially crippling, especially with yet more transports needed to deal with the Meklar point worlds.
While Phantos was being retaken by Sakkra forces, claiming Advanced Space Scanner, Uridium Fuel Cells, and Gatling Laser technologies, leading Dr. Iguanaius to choose Hyperspace Communications as the next computer project to not bother researching in RBO-18's reign, Admiral Vipersian recorded his report on the battle for Dolz, speaking fondly - by his standards at least - of the new (Gila) Monster 5.0 destroyers, with their twin Omega-Vs and single fusion bomb apiece:
No enemy fleet detected. Monsters closing.2475: More than 650 transports landed at Bulrathi worlds simultaneously, and Obsessivus gloated over the bears' extermination with the conquest of Ursa, Draconis and Incedius...
...
Target's defenses destroyed. Transports on descent.
...
Conquest complete.
...prematurely.
People of Sssla! Two and a half decades ago, after the last galactic council, I swore a great oath that it would never meet again. Today, you shall see that oath fulfilled, for with all three Bulrathi worlds falling in the same year, there shall be no quorum for the meeting! Observe the aftermath of the battles, as ...The transcript of the speech ends here, but eyewitness reports suggest that the emperor tore a laser rifle away from a personal bodyguard and opened fire on the population below, shouting obscenities. Manufactor Serpentus was killed, standing nearby, as were dozens of RBO-18's other supporters, before the laser rifle's energy charge was exhausted and Obsessivus reportedly threw the rifle itself at the nearest supporter in the chaotic, fleeing crowd below while shouting, "I'll kill you with my bare claws!!!" It was then that Rex Bipolar Obsessivus XVIII leapt from the high balcony, arms spread and claws extended, with crazed and blood-shot eyes. Impact with the pavement far below the balcony was instantly fatal. So the reign of Obsessivus ended.
...
...
You scum!!! You utterly vile, worthless filth of the galaxy! This is your doing! If you'd been growing population as I ordered you to do, instead of slobbering all over your colony ship designs and new factories, we would have had troops and to spare at Incedius, just like at Ursa and Draconis!!! Don't you try to blame our incompetent soldiers! Yes, I know they outnumbered the ursines more than two and a half to one with a clear technological edge! Yes, they should still have won in spite of the bears' legendary fighting ability! But it shouldn't have been close enough for the accursed bears to get lucky!!! If not for you worthless, blithering, traitorous slime, we would have had millions more on hand to slaughter the last few Bulrathi! You die now! You hear me? I'll kill you all!!!
In spite of Sakkra control of more than two thirds of the galaxy, the election of 2475 was inconclusive, as the emperor's heirs squabbled for power, and the Sakkra leader nominated by the council had died just before it began. Admiral Vipersian saw to it that the Ion Rifle designs lifted from Draconis along with Controlled Tundra Environment were distributed to all Sakkra soldiers preparing to re-invade Incedius, and Dr. Iguanaius made a command decision to select Atmospheric Terraforming (rather than more ecology) and High Energy Focus as the empire's new technologies with the completion of radiated bases earlier the same year. Special Agent Hissius Chamaeleon even made it off of Draconis with the plans for a Battle Computer Mark II just ahead of the invasion. Nonetheless, the Sakkra empire had been thrown into disarray, a state rendered all the more hopeless as every planet in the empire turned its efforts to building radiated colony ships or colony-builder factories.
Primary Sources: The Reign of Chaos
2476: Miscommunication and internal strife were rampant throughout the Sakkra empire, with five Finality colony ships produced in the same year to compete for just two radiated worlds in the galaxy. The military commanders were uncoordinated, sloppy, and self-impaired ... with one exception.
From the log of the Caiman 5.0 leading the east-sweeping western fleet, shortly before news of the simultaneous Incedius invasion the admiral had ordered and the resulting extermination of the Bulrathi was transmitted across the galaxy:
Enemy in sight. Deploying Monsters and advancing._______________
...
Bases destroyed. Engaging the enemy fleet.
...
We own the skies. Transports descending.
...
Meklon is ours.
Next: Conclusion
