"I brought the plans as fast as I could. These new Deep Space Scanners should alert us to Bulrathi fleet movements well in advance of their arrival, and my team is getting to work on an ECM Jammer to protect our bases from their munitions even now. My plan is to race through these computer technologies as quickly as humanly possible, to help our spies hack into their systems if nothing else. Yes, a new battle computer would be useful in the Bulrathi war, but that's assuming we manage to field one before the war is over. I believe the path we've chosen remains the best way forward!"
2375
"We've successfully installed a double layer of shielding at each of our worlds, and the same can be done for our future starship designs. The personal deflector shield my colleagues are starting on now is our best chance for approaching ground combat parity with the bears. They may have gone to war with us; they may have a vastly superior starfleet, far more numerous defenses and ground combat abilities, and range - until Dotomite comes in, our transports starships without reserve tanks won't even be able to reach any of their stars - but at least they're not going to catch us with our jumpsuit-bottoms down!"
2377
"The situation looks bleak; if they send their heavy cruisers, our worlds may be in danger; we've got to get defenses up, advanced rockets for them to fire ... we're in great danger! We're so weak right now that ... wait, here's a news report! What more bad news could it bring us?"
"..."
"Um, we're the first race in the galaxy to reach our sixth star system? So ... maybe things might not be quite as bad as I thought."
2381
"We have received confirmation of a Bulrathi probe fleet on approach to Collassa. Two colony ships most likely departed Talas three years ago, and are expected to arrive within two years. Bulrathi war fleets are reportedly gathering at border worlds, and we will continue to monitor their activities. For the present, a missile base at Collassa 2 should be enough to hold off those colony ships."
2383
[sirens screaming] "Collassa Relay Station to Central Command! Those colships are armed with heavy blast cannons, backed up with NPGs! We've managed to take one down, but it's done too much damage already! We'll never get through the other one's armor before..." [thunderous explosion] "We've lost the base! Repeat, the base is down! The colship is moving in for..." [rolling concussive noise] "...orbital bombardment; they're..." [distant, rumbling explosion] "...firing on our factories! One just went up in flames at the New Albany industrial center, and ... they seem to be breaking off the attack - they're moving to a transmission orbit; we'll have Bulrathi transports coming in! We're pushing all available resources into rebuilding the missile base, but we have to keep it shielded from follow-through attacks or we've lost before we start; the project's going to take at least two years! Any support you can send us, anything..."
2384
"Reporting from Helos. You should now have the plans we need to reach Bulrathi worlds without extended tanks."
"It was a cinch to sneak in here, the way the nebula interferes with their shields and security nets. I also was able to confirm that the twenty-seven transports en route to Collassa from Paranar are the only ones being sent. The Bulrathi outclass us so thoroughly in ground combat, they don't expect any more to be needed. Let's hope they underestimate our starforce! As you can see, they're aware of the relocation warp lanes carrying the new fighters to Collassa from Berel and Primodius, so I advise sending a fleet from Sol as well while they can still arrive in time to intercept those transports. They're also aware of the twenty fighters already en route; let's hope they don't know about the missile base repairs - or hope their victory last year has made them overconfident."
2385
"Captain Raj Valdez reporting from deep Collassa orbit. I've lost five of my wingmen, but stage one is accomplished: Our starfleet controls the Collassa system once more! The planetary base has been repaired, no further damage was done to the planet's surface, and the Bulrathi colship is scattered around the local asteroid field in the form of shrapnel! I'm well aware however that our most important mission is yet to come; if we're going to save the planet from those transports full of invincible ground troopers, we'll need all the support we can get!"
2388
"Well, sir, there's no one on this planet who can say you don't send support when it's needed!"
"We're going to keep pushing out missile bases here - we've got another Bulrathi colshiip and four of their cruisers heading our way - but we'd have been roadkill if those transports got through. You can't imagine the relief we felt when we saw your reinforcements burn them all out of the sky."
2391
"I have to say, that GNN report s kind of a let-down after the big meeting with our computer scientists, celebrating our new ECM and everything, planning an improved space scanner that will tell us enemy ETAs more definitely. Obviously our war with Bulrathi has slown down both of our economies, but showing up dead last in research, right behind our Bulrathi enemies ... well, the timing could have been better, is all I'm saying. At least we beat off their latest attack on Collassa; one of their cruisers even had the sense to retreat, so maybe there's hope after all for some sort of peace...."
2396
"I have to admit, I can't think of any logical explanation. Perhaps if you accidentally told them you wouldn't make peace while you were taking a holoscan for posterity, and accepted a counter-offer without noticing they'd made it? You say it didn't happen that way, but how sure can you be? ... In any case, I guess we can chalk it up to the known fact that bears are completely insane."
"Whatever the reason ... or non-reason ... they decided to help us miniaturize our weapons systems. Those anti-missile rockets they sent the plans for will never get installed on anything, but it's the ... thought ... that counts, right? Anyway, it's good to have peace. I'm going to start sending trade ships out there too - we'll just assume it was a yes when the Bulrathi Advisory Council responded to my new trade proposal by twirling paisley umbrellas in unison, wagging their tongues, and crossing their eyes."
2397
"We were working on a colony design for toxic worlds? Really? Since when? ... Oh, right. Since we came up with those death spore plans that were promptly filed away somewhere in Government Secrets Warehouse number 952,361, never to be looked at again until the end of time. So our new options are, what? To make a huge leap forward in terraforming or to figure out how to colonize radiated worlds? Are you kidding me? Have you seen those mineral-rich radiated gems? Let's get on it immediately!"
2402
"No doubt our ursine neighbors have benefited as we have from the treaty, but it would be hard to imagine them taking quite so thorough an advantage of newfound peace. Looking back on the last few years, we see our new Hyper-X rockets finally enter production, helping to ensure our safety even if some arbitrary set of planets somewhere undergoes what the bears call conjunction again, with a Scatter Pack design now under development that should prove even more effective against every known starship in the galaxy today. We see the distribution of Dotomite Crystal fuel cells to every ship in our fleet, granting our scouts their first opportunity in years to progress further into the galaxy. And perhaps most important of all, we see the formation of our Ryoun colony earlier this year, the first we've ever placed in a hostile environment, thanks to our newfound controlled environment technology. With eight stars now under our control, and hope of adding another beyond Bulrathi space, we are perhaps in the best position of any living race to investigate the secrets of galactic history."
"Can the coincidence of mineral richness and planetary irradiation in every known case of each be related to the radioactive asteroids that surround so many planetless stars? Our investigations thus far have been severely limited by our scout ships' capabilities, but perhaps, if we can build colonies on the irradiated surfaces of those mineral-rich worlds, we'll have a chance to investigate their history, and perhaps shed light on the mystery of the asteroids as well."
2405
"Well men, we don't have to worry about those bears anymore! That's right, the lab boys have come up with some Personal Deflector Shields! Never mind that they've got duralloy battle suits to our cardboard body armor; never mind that they're half-ton slabs of claw, tooth, and muscle. We've got their number now with these deflector shields! Oooooooh, yeah! And just you wait: The egg-heads say they'll double our ships' shielding power eventually too. How great will that be? Too bad shields don't shoot down assault transports. And a good thing we haven't met anything crazier than those ursines!"
_______________
Next: Crazier
