2501: The golden droid reports that Simius has exhausted its mineral resources and become poor. It is of little importance. I have dozens of worlds more. Now if only the Sakkra had left their Alkari neighbors in peace, I might have been able to let the centuries flow past me.
Already in this five year old map, you can see another Sakkra fleet at Imra, then of the Alkari, and rightfully a Silicoid world. They will not accept the mountains' peace.
2508: The world of Imra, rightfully ours since we placed our colony there in 2473, is conquered for our people once more, taken from the claws of the Sakkra. Our lander completes the job this year, after last year's destruction of the lizard colony by our fleet.
2512: While my spies have been reaping the last vestiges of other races' technology - at least of what we are able to use for ourselves - the Sakkra have sent fleet after fleet to their dooms at Imra, and now our little colony at Rana has experienced an axial shift and vast increase in fertility. If it were a larger world, that might have been welcome news. As it is, it's just more wind among the mountains.
2551: Klaquan appears before me with an offer of peace, an event of historic significance for this reason: She declared war on my empire no less than 120 years ago, and in all that time, we have not spoken, and neither of us visited a single star where the other had a colony or fleet. It was by far the longest phony war in known history.
2558: GNN reports that a computer virus wiped out 32,000 research points on our latest advanced computer tech project, which would have brought our tech level in the field up to the high nineties. I suspect that more than 32,000 were lost in fact - the tech was almost achieved, with a chance of a breakthrough this year - and the golden droid simply can't count any higher. No matter. I live in peace.
2589: The inevitable has happened, sadly.
Perhaps, had I been more attentive, I could have saved the Alkari from their Sakkra enemies. I might have bent over backward to give them more opportunities to reclaim Imra from me, or - as I finally realize now - I could have given them gifts of defensive and ground fighting technology, enough perhaps to ensure the lizards would never have overcome them. Yet the mountains cannot be ever vigilant for the lives of the birds who nest on their peaks. We mourn for the Alkari, but can do no more for them now than to hope that they rest in peace.
2603: Five years ago, our scientists discovered that Kailis was on the verge of a supernoval explosion. This year, they developed a solar rejuvenator to save it. Such is the way of the mountains' long peace.
2648: The Psilons cured a plague this year on their Maretta colony. I feel sorry for the soft-skins, sadly subject to disease.
2664: After stealing freely from all across the galaxy, the rock beings' spies have grown tired of waiting for each race to develop dull new-to-them technologies. A few years ago, they took up new missions as subversive agents, fomenting revolt to cripple the war machines of the alien beings.
Unfortunately, they went too far, accidentally throwing first Kholdan and then Exis into full rebellion. With their empire in a state of internal collapse, the Klackons could not protect their queen, and Klaquan fell to an assassin's blade, leaving her people to unite behind a new queen. The news droid claims our relations with her are neutral, but it is mistaken; neither our war nor the jealousy of the Klackons for our power are erased. I suppose our saboteurs may continue their work, but I ask them to branch out from rabble-rousing. We want no more assassinations in our galaxy.
2700: A merchant in formerly-human space decides to contribute some 3,000 BC to our coffers. He lands at our colony on Sol, and makes his contribution in the form of coals, at the site of what was once the human settlement of Newcastle.
27??: I wake from the sleep of the mountains to see the newsdroid before me again, with another unimportant ... wait ... what can this mean? Can such a being truly come out of the deeps of space? It can be no other than the final oracle of our people!
Heed my words, Silicoid people, for I am the last of the oracles of Cryslon, whose coming heralds the doom of the galaxy! When the present century ends, unless RBO-19 rises up to rule over all the stars as one, all shall be destroyed by monsters from the universe's deeps! Heed me, and prepare for doom! The better to prepare you, I shall begin with the destruction of this Paranar colony!
Maybe it didn't notice over 200 Scatter-X/Zeon bases on the planet's surface, or the nearly 4,000 fighters waiting in orbit with attack level 12, teleporters, and six particle beams apiece. The fighters destroy it so quickly, our archivists don't even have time to capture a picture of the attack for posterity.
So passes the final Oracle of Cryslon. I, the last but one, have but one remaining mission.
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Next: Conclusion
