...0101001101101001011011000110100101100
0110110111101101001011001000111001100100
0000110010001100101011101000110010101100
0110111010001100101011001000010000000101
1100010111000101110001000000110110001110
1010111001001100101001000000111010001101
0000110010101101101001000000110100101101
110...
It seems I'm not the only one attracted to this world's pure and endless seas. I've lived here now for 14 years, and just within the past three, I've seen Scouts from both the Bulrathi and mysterious Silicoids, a Colony Ship from the Humans, and now another from something called a Psilon, appear as distant stars in the night sky. Each fled from the Sense/Net in orbit, but how long can this continue? Surely, soon, a ship will arrive that's prepared to deal with the Meklar! There was a flurry of intense communication on the Meklar Matrix when the Silicoids arrived that I didn't entirely comprehend, it was so rapid and — I might almost say — excited in its nature. What can this mean?
...0110000101100100011001000110100101110
1000110100101101111011011100110000101101
1000010000001110010011000010110111001100
1110110010100100000011100100110010101110
0010111010101101001011100100110010101100
100...
The Meklar fleets are now hydrogen-powered, and their scientists are getting to work on Irridium - apparently nuclear engines wouldn't help their transports, and stabilizers "can wait," whatever that means. I dread their growing reach across the ... wait ... the Meklar Matrix is just about lighting up my receiver! What can this mean? "Election"?! What on Maretta is...
My heart nearly stopped beating. What can this mean? The galactic leaders sought to choose a single ruler for all the galaxy, and nominated the heads of th most populous empires - Durpp of the Bulrathi ... and RBO-23! Worse still, though none had met the Meklar except in momentary encounters with their Sense/Nets across deep space, it appeared that the Bulrathi had made countless enemies ... for apart from the Bulrathi vote, the Meklar received unanimous support across the galaxy! Were my warnings not transmitted after all? Was there some other reason - respect or uncertainty - why star ships faced with the Meklar always chose to flee? All hope was vanquished ... or seemed so ... until RBO-23 inexplicably voted for Durpp and denied itself the victory! Perhaps it mistrusts the electoral process; perhaps it calculates that uniting the galaxy will only unite its victims against it when its true motives become clear, and prevent it from assimilating them one by one as it no doubt intends. Whatever the case, I must thwart its plans before - by election or its own deep plans - it controls the galaxy!
(OOC Note: Taking the diplo victory here would unfortunately score very highly in the system I devised ... but would also be very cheesy. So I've got a new (and difficult!) mission: Beat this score by the end of the game! This means I have to conquer - on average - better than a colony every five years from here on out, without forming any new colonies of my own, bearing in mind that I won't be in a position to start any invasions at all for decades to come!)
Meklar research is expanding rapidly, starting projects in computers, force fields, and weapons development in the past couple of years, to design an ECM jammer, double-power deflector shields, and a next-generation rocket. Then, just this year, after cutting down on their industrial waste, they started on a plan to reduce factory construction costs by 20%, with some passing reference to "Duralloy" whose value might be reassessed "if there are no better options available pre-invasion." Though I can't think who they could possibly invade, that last word was chilling.
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0010110101101101001011011100110011100100
0000111010001101000011001010010000001100
010011000010110100101110100...
I am saved! At long last, I am saved, after eighteen years alone on Maretta's surface! A Silicoid Morey has arrived in the system, and advanced on the local Sense/Net, arming weapons systems of some unknown design! The Sense/Net has fled, and the Morey is surveying the planet from orbit even now! I am attempting to signal it, and though the means I have at hand are primitive - there truly are no minerals to work with at all on the surface of this world - I have no doubt that I will succeed in time. The Silicoids or one of their allies will build a colony on these beautiful shores, and it will be a beach-head they will hold in Meklar space to stop the collective's spread across the stars! There will ... where is the Morey going? What's this transmission coming in? Another galactic council ... with the same result as before?! Why can't the other races see the truth - the danger the Meklar represent as the one race that doesn't desire election? They do not wish to rule; if they aren't stopped, they'll absorb the whole galaxy!
I ... I don't know whether to cry for joy or scream in sheer frustration. It was bad enough that the Meklar doubled their terraforming abilities last year and developed an ECM Jammer this year as well; neither of the vital projects they had code-named RC and EER were possible, but the designs they plan to consider for toxic colony bases instead are worrisome enough in themselves, and doubling their jammers' power can't be good for their enemies. Yet it all pales to insignificance for me beside the arrival of a Silicoid colony! With its Morey escort circling, their colony ship landed on the world's largest island, and some of its colonists, exploring the oceans, soon found me! I was sure I was saved at last, and urged them to provide a star shuttle for me, so I could travel to their homeworld and warn their emperor of the coming Meklar threat. Even in person, I have had enormous trouble making myself understood by these strange, crystalline beings - their biological distinctiveness, as the Meklar would call it, is either extraordinary, or nonexistant, in the sense of "not biology!" - and when I finally managed to get a look at one of their starships, my hopes collapsed within me: They maintain no atmosphere at all within their ships! Silicoids apparently do not breathe, and I could no more cross space in a Silicoid shuttle than I could subsist on a diet of stones and seawater as they seem to do here. The Silicoid empire is so vast, I believe they could defeat the Meklar decisively if they act quickly ... but I can't reach their emperor or adequately convey the danger to them! As best I can tell, they're feeling relaxed about the Meklar presence - and I dread they will learn of the danger the hard way, and all too soon.
Another GNN broadcast reports that, thanks to three Shark cruisers helping them colonize Ryoun just south of here, and their founding of Iranha near the heart of the galaxy, my Silicoid hosts have spread to thirteen worlds, more than even the Bulrathi! Yet even as they do so, they appear to have accepted a trade agrement with the Meklar worth some 35 BC! How can they fail to see the deadly danger of RBO-23's collective? The Meklar have found a way to communicate with Carnax, clearly and to their gain; I must do so too, before it's too late!
...0111001101100101011000110110111101101
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1010111010001110011001000000110000101100
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10101100100...
Hope at last! I was still trying to process the horror of a Psilon attack on Ryoun that reportedly struck last year - if they're busy fighting brush wars with each other, how can the peoples of the galaxy hope to stop their true and common enemy? - when a trade ship arrived here at Maretta, not from the Meklar, but from the Silicoids' latest allies: A living, breathing (not to be taken for granted, given the Silicoids' nature) people who call themselves Humanity! I can survive on their shuttles, and the captain of their trade ship is willing to carry me into Human space, thanks to one of his assistants, Sasha McAllister, my fondest friend among the crew, who has agreed to share her quarters with me. I need little space or nourishment for my small, frail body - my deadly Meklar cousins draw most of their size and strength from their implanted cybernetic machinery - one of the reasons it was so easy for me to survive for years aboard the old Meklar Scout before I disembarked here; I'll be able to sleep quite snugly in a compartment whose proper name, as I am told, is "Sasha's sock drawer." It's an extraordinary time, and I can finally make real plans for the future! Sasha even shows me a full map of Human space, so that I may better choose my route and destination. She thinks I should take advantage of the other Human alliance to meet the Psilon leadership, but it is so good to at last again be among people who understand me, I cannot bear to part with them so soon! I will travel to Sol, and warn the Human emperor of the danger. No matter that my new hosts politely seek to steer me away from this plan; it must be done! It is time to truly set my course to save the galaxy! I will burn this date, the date of my resolution and first freedom to enact it, into my memory: The year - by Human reckoning, which henceforth will be my own - of 2356.
It seems the Humans could use some help planning their imperail logistics. Not only does this year's acquisition of the little barren world of Stalaz represent only the fourth Human world - no more than the Meklar control themselves - but it appears all but certain that among even those planets they do have is at least one enabled by alliance with another species, far too distant to support or be supported by the rest of humankind in case of an emergency. Had RBO-23 acquired Maretta or Ryoun, the Humans might have found themselves in an untenable position, facing an implacable enemy with more planets than they hold themselves, and with at least one world less than five parsecs from their own home star. Thankfully, the Silicoid colonies at those two vital stars forestalled RBO-23, and created an opportunity to strike at the machine-collective's core exactly as I fear the Meklar could have done to Humankind had those worlds fallen to them. I just have to convince the Human leadership and its allies to strike while there is yet time, and destroy the Meklar before the cybernetic collective takes over the galaxy! Sasha suggests again that I try speaking to the Humans' allies first - Carnax of the Silicoids, as the nearest to the Meklar, or the Psilon leaders as perhaps the most intelligent - but I won't be distracted from my real mission here. The brush war going on in the south will need resolution by Human diplomats while the emotions surrounding it among Silicoids and Psilons are still warm, and signs that Bulrathi are in the far north suggest that talking to the Humans will be the key to ending the seemingly galaxy-wide war against those so-called "bear people" so that the galaxy's independent races can put aside their differences and unite against the machine-entity!
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Next: Among the Apes
