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Solace Island is our name for the island paradise on which we've landed - thick with healthy foliage and fruit trees, perfectly adapted to all our constitutions: The component constitutions of the Meklar collective. The seas are if anything more pristine, more filled with healthy marine life, than when I first set eyes on this world - 180 years ago today. The factories built here by the Silicoids have all been refitted with Psilon waste scrubbers, and adapted to Meklar use, with clean-up crews working constantly to keep such industrial waste as they may produce from affecting the environment adversely. The poisoned wasteland that Sasha, Grraur, Miristys, and I remember is no more. Our old, still-young crystalline companion has at last returned home, and can grow here in peace and well-being ... now that the world-choking pollutants of its progenitors are no more. The Meklar do not disturb us, even now that we are the only remaining non-Meklar in the galaxy. We are not objects of strategic importance. We have no biological or technological distinctiveness that interests them. We represent no threat. All our peoples are gone - or rather, their lives as they had been are over - but who is to know that somewhere inside Meklar cybersuits, my parents, or Sasha's, or Prrlan's, those of Dy rlas or Grraur, or even the crystals that nurtured Miristys in the early years of its nucleation, are not traveling this world or one of the distant others, content and even happy in doing useful work, in being part of a greater whole, in the certainty and interpersonal connections that are always with them through the matrix of the Meklar? We must take consolation in this, for this is now a Meklar galaxy.
Even before assimilating Orion, they controlled an incredible 46 worlds, and now, of course...
...it's 47, as the ancient world of Orion and its incredible technological distinctiveness ... is added to theirs.
Only the bombed-out, radiated husk of Antares remains free of Meklar control, its crippling Silicoid waste still flooding its surface since RBO-23's cleanup crews can't reach the surface to control or contain it. Yet ... we also remain free. Perhaps there are even others, somewhere in the galaxy, in groups too small for the Meklar to bother assimilating. We can dream, at least.
The Meklar have won, absolutely and in convincing fashion, but there's more to life than winning. I think that's the most valuable lesson I've learned from all of this: Sometimes, it isn't possible to save the galaxy. Perhaps the affairs of a place so vast are better matters for wonder and study than for any attempt at direct interference - too large to plan around or even to cause alarm or worry. On a galactic scale, whatever I do, what will be will be. My thoughts are better bent on my own island home and especially my dear friends, the people here whom I love, and who love me.
It doesn't matter as much as I feared who rules the galaxy. Miristys is here, and beautiful, and growing. Sasha is here, my oldest and most trusted friend, and she still holds me close on cool island nights like a teddy. Graur is here, deep in a love for Sasha that knows no jealousy ... and Prrlan, who is proving as adept at subtle wit as at stealthy maneuvering ... and Dy rlas, still a brilliant mind, swiftly growing in wisdom. I am not alone as I was when I came here so long ago. I'm with friends - close, dear, beloved friends - and safe in spite of RBO-23. I'm watching yet another golden sunset, a vision that never grows old, and I find, here among my friends, I am at peace, and - finally - happy.
OOC Note: Okay, scoring: I'm almost embarassed to post this. Bear in mind that I posted the files for this one when I'd only played up to 2337, so....
Completing the game:
+500
2486 Extermination victory: ( 2600 - 2486 = ... )
+114
47 planets owned: ( 47 x 5 = ... )
+235
3(! Just Primodius, Selia, and Kulthos) self-founded colonies: ( 3 x -25 = ... )
-75
TOTAL SCORE: ( 500 + 114 + 235 - 75 = ... )
774?!?! Eeeeeek! That early opportunity for a cheap diplo win really drove me to score well on this one and prove I could beat the cheesily high score I would have achieved. Way more than my final score, though, I'm proud of (and thoroughly enjoyed) some of the great moments in this game, especially the first attack on the Humans and Silicoids, the incidental conquest of Orion while in the process of rolling up the Bulrathi, and of course the Psilon blitz! I hope, win or lose, everyone else who played had as much fun as I did with this Extreme Imperium!
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