Monday, August 3, 2009

Imperium 21 - The Ultimate Betrayal

2408: My black-cloakers are doing great! We just got our first collaborative project with the Meklar finished last year, and that gave us the plans for ECM Jammer Mark II! The only problem is our space fleet. Our Interdictor is at Crypto, but there are so many enemy fighters attacking, it can't destroy them all in time to keep them from firing on the dozens of transports I sent there, filled with election campaigners! Those fighters shot down more than twenty of my transports! It sure is a good thing the other 64 were able to convince Crypto's people to turn away from Meson and vote for me. Probably they were convinced by the way Meson ruthlessly ordered his fighters to fire on my peaceful campaign fleet. That wasn't the worst thing my fleet did though! Look and see! Against my express orders to never bombard civilian population, they ... wait a minute ... wait a minute! That's not a Darlok fleet! That's not an alien colony!



Does this mean I forgot to put up a defense base at my homeworld?! How come no one told me there was a Mrrshan fleet on the way?! We're supposed to be friends with the Mrrshans! I didn't even think I had to send any campaign workers over there! How could they betray me this way?! They killed a million innocent Darloks, not to mention those factories! I'll have to send a stern letter of complaint to Mirana right away!

2409: Well, I finally got around to building that missile base at home, and the Mrrshan probe fleet ran away. I never did send that stern letter though; I keep thinking it isn't strong enough, and then rewriting it, and then thinking I'm being too heavy handed, and ... well, you get the idea. Anyway, the attack fleet is gone now. Meson's fighters finally left Crypto too, after my Interdictor's dissipator field kept them from approaching my new citizens on the surface. Meson also called again, but I didn't have my translator handy, and I was right in the middle of a meeting, and all my advisors said to just say no to whatever he asked and get rid of him. They had a good point - Meson's pretty mean, and he's about to not be emperor of anything anyway since all the Psilons seem to prefer to be in my empire once our campaign workers tell them how things are run here - so I did.

2410: My good old black-cloak scientists up in Meklar space sent me the collaborative plans for Nuclear Engines in Machine Language, so that's pretty neat. I'm not sure what we'll use them for, since the fusion drives we worked out with the Psilons' help are so much more advanced, but that's okay. Maybe they can speed up our pizza delivery trucks or something. Oh, yeah! And something else happened this year!



All the Psilon people have joined us Darloks, and Meson's been thrown in prison for his war-mongering ... or ... exiled maybe? Something. Anyway, I won't be hearing from him again. The Psilons must be really happy now that they've joined up with us; together, we make a great galactic powerhouse! We'll unite the galaxy yet; just you wait and see!

2411: Stupid Ariel called on the holophone again. I couldn't be bothered to pick up my translator. He must have seen the writing on the wall when the Psilons voted Meson out of power, and begged me not to send any more campaign workers to Altair or something. I rejected whatever it is he was asking for. Sorry, but he declared war on me, and my Psilon and Darlok subjects and my Alkari subjects on Keeta and I have a new official policy for the galactic leadership club: No Tin-Pot Dictators Allowed!

2412: My missile base chased another bird-brained attack fleet away from Keeta. That'll be the last one, fortunately.



"Destroyed" is kind of a harsh way to put it, but the truth is, there's no Alkari empire anymore! We ... uh, did whatever it was; what was our policy on war-like emperors again? I forget ... anyway, prison or exile or whatever, we did it to Ariel, and all the Alkari are now happy citizens of my empire instead! They even taught us to make Dotomite Crystals (Range 7) which are kind of cute, if technologically obsolete.

2413: I've just about had it with Mirana! She sent 30 assault transports here to my homeworld, and a few of them even made it through my defenensive screen! We lost a million more people to their hand laser fire, for no reason! It's a good thing we all had emergency personal deflector shields and ion rifles to hold them off with, or it might have been even worse! Well, you know what this means! Time to start a new diplomatic campaign!

2415: Remember how I politely ceded the Paranar system to Mirana even though I had a colony ship of my own on the way? Well, I'll bet the Mrrshan population there will realize I really had first claim. And when we tell them about the massacres at my homeworld, I'm sure they'll turn away from their mean old empress right away! Of course, I know better now than to suppose Mirana will let me run a peaceful election campaign on one of her planets if she can help it! Good thing I have such good Pure Fusion diplomats ... and an Interdict cruiser ... and a bunch of fighters to protect the campaign transports ... arriving today!



That did it! The Mrrshans of Paranar, with their empress' oppressive military presence removed, all voted to join my empire instead! I notice there are less of them than when we spotted the world from space, which can only mean Mirana's forces attacked them to keep them from joining me. That's really the last straw. I'm going to have to deal with her the way I did with Meson and Ariel! Errr ... especially since she just called up and declared war on me.

2418: After what happened at Paranar, I don't think I have any choice but to get rid of Mirana's military as fast as I can! I cleared out Maretta two years ago with most of the Paranar fleet, and just this year, its people decided to join me! Plus, last year, I got some of my great shape-shifting spies to cut down on her homeworld's military - we have to act fast here, before Mirana turns her guns on more of her own people! Just look at what happened at Draconis this year, apparently just before we took control of its orbit!



Really horrifying, don't you think?

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Next: Uniting the Galaxy