All this in the year that Nitzer is added to my empire, the newest and most daring Mrrshan colony! Just three parsecs from the Human star of Toranor, the desert world of Nitzer II where we established our northmost base will receive all the support we can provide immediately. Already, a large portion of our Mark fleet soars through the desert skies, having already denied a Human Scout control of the system two years before our colony's arrival, and transports are now being sent to get the colony started as rapidly as possible, even as I work to ensure the planet's safety, and remind the galaxy of my fitness for rule, by diplomatic means.
With only two stars to his name when we met him seven years ago, Strader the Pacifist must surely have seen the strength of my claim, and he at once agreed to the exchange of trade goods worth 100 BC per year between his Human empire and the Mrrshans who serve me. His people naturally benefit from this agreement far more than my own, but we can afford to offer this kind of charity to cement our position as the leaders of the galaxy. Already, another colony ship - completed the same year as our meeting with humanity, and arriving five years later - has claimed our fifth star system, and swift, new Pride 2.0 colony ships have been produced as well, the first three years ago - four years after human contact - another this very year, and more to follow almost as quickly.
Signs of the Mrrshan ascension are everywhere around us. Our new Iranha colony is the sixth world in our empire, more than any other race has yet claimed, and our fleets soar across the stars undaunted, seeking yet more worlds for the Mrrshan imperium! We are but four years into our second half-century of the new space age; in just four more, we will claim the jungle world of Antares, with more colony vessels on their way. Nothing will slow the expansion of the great Mrrshan Imperium!
Six decades into the new era of interstellar exploration, we are prepared to face any challenge. We have recovered even from the massive ecological disaster that struck Iranha three years ago, when a power core exploded during construction of the world's very first factory. Our strength is sure even there, in spite of the incredible chain reaction that left the entire planet a radiated shadow of itself, its rolling steppes forever blasted by the volatile elements that - defying all our calculations of probability - composed an overwhelming proportion of the planet's mantle and core. Though we dare send no one to that world any longer, lest the effects of radiation destroy their health and well-being, we at last have cleaned up all the waste associated with the disaster, and all those already present at the colony not only survive but have shown the necessary resolve to resume the work - this time with far more stringent safety measures in place - of constructing the world's full complement of factories. Moreover, in just three more years, another Pride will arrive at an arid world in the Obaca system, empty of minerals but in an ideal position to establish a fuel base for the south-central galaxy.
As planned, Obaca has brought us contact with the Psilon people, wise in the ways of research ... and in the ways of nothing else in the galaxy. Their emperor Dynalon rules over a two-planet empire even as the humans continue to expand across the northeast, and unlike Strader - who speaks of mutual cooperation and benefits - Dynalon and his people, when not talking shop, speak instead of "The Land of Ice Fiddles and Dental Lint," where they expect to pass upon their deaths, in a psychedelic paradise of contradictions best left undescribed. Their concept of martyrdom, for themselves and especially others - where self-destruction in the cause of knowledge or some ritual thing they call "floobji" leads to "a sideways place in the Land," with "a lollipop and free tissues" - clearly leaves them unfit to rule the galaxy, as even a people unaware of the right of the O'Ryans can see. We nevertheless will establish trade with them before too long, though only to the tune of about 25 BC, more as a gesture of magnanimity and inclusiveness than anything else, though also to discourage them from going to war with us so long as we can have a meaningful influence on their policies - which is to say, during their occasional bouts of sanity. In the meantime, we must prove that we can beat the Psilons even at their own game, by developing new and valuable technologies. We'll form another colony at Primodius in the east, just eight years from today, while we seek the means of reaching out to all the peoples of the galaxy, and uniting them all beneath our banner: The banner of the O'Ryans returned! Let us begin.
The time has come. Our prototype Deep Space Scanners open the way to research robotic controls, only the latest of our recent technological breakthroughs, as this more than all the others demonstrates our love of knowledge and peace. Three quarters of a century into the new era of the stars, my right of rule is so manifest that no further proof is needed. In the years since we met the Psilons, we have progressed from Hyper-V rockets toward research into fusion bombs; from one improvement to early plans for a second in our industrial technology; and three years ago, from improved deflector shields to theoretical means of miniaturizing them for our troops' use in the field. That very year, we held our first galactic election, of which the second is now beginning: Our Human friends and the distant Bulrathi abstained from the vote - as did the Psilons, for reasons understood to no one, least of all them - while Guanar received just six votes from his people and the shady Darloks together, against the five the Mrrshans cast for me. In the short span since then, we prepared to turn newfound knowledge of how to colonize inferno worlds toward the possibility of taming radiated environments like Iranha's, and learned that the voices in Dynalon's head had gotten into a heated argument which he took out on the Sakkra and Darloks, presumably dragging his Bulrathi allies into the resulting wars. With this year's breakthrough arriving just in time to further demonstrate our fitness for rule, the time has come to bring a lasting peace - our lasting peace - to the galaxy.
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Next: Conclusion
