Yet another Silicoid colony ship - it's as if they have an infinite supply of these things - has shown up at Romulas with another Morey escort. We have dozens of fighters en route to the planet - three dozen of the Cub 2.0s alone (plus almost twenty more finished this year) - half of which are due to arrive within two years ... two years too late. We had only 13 Runaways in orbit when the Silicoid fleet arrived, they scored some lucky hits with some of their early fire, and the crippled remnants of our Romulas fleet had to live up to the ships' names and retreat: They had no chance to destroy the enemy. Not so for the fleets en route to Romulas as I write this. The Silicoids have planted their flag. Let us see them hold the world in the face of the Running/Blocking Offensive 9 of the Kodiak City Hibers ... and my new-minted combat fleet!
They sent fleet after fleet to this world while our starfleet was in orbit and our colony on its way. The Silicoids may pretend to be at peace (so long as they get to take what they want from our people) ... but 38 million Bulrathi assault troopers and dozens of combat fighters know it's war they declared when they attacked our orbiting fleet. We colonized Darrian this year, at last claiming the second-nearest star to our home ... and mark my words, in a few years more, we're going to claim Romulas too! With Merculite Missiles installed at our missile bases since their development two years back, and fusion bombs on the way in case we need to take the battle to the enemy, we're ready - just about - for anything!
2431:
Dunatis is ours. Far though it is from our homeworld, the ship we finally built to fly there at warp 2 arrived sooner than the warp 1 ship we sent to Yarrow the moment we were ready to send anything. Such is the power of strategic speed.
Transport ETA: Four years more.
Starfleet ETA: Next year!
2432:
The rich tundra world of Yarrow is a Bulrathi colony at last ... and eighteen Cub 2.0 fighters are arriving at Romulas IV. The Morey with its gatling lasers is still waiting in orbit, but it stands no chance against our latest fleet. With their incredible maneuverability and the rate at which they'll blast away its armor, piercing its shields, I'd be surprised if it even kills a single fighter ... and it doesn't. The Morey is in full retreat! Now we just have to deal with their incoming starships: A cloud of colony transports that will never reach the planet ... another Morey...
...and no less than three Kraken battleships! To say that we have our work cut out for us is the understatement of the century! It's a good thing we've been sending our main battle fleet!
2433: The Krakens are expected to arrive at the same time as our invasion transports. If we can't defeat them, they'll shoot down all our mighty warriors in space! Meanwhile, their 33 transports are due to hit the planet this year. They shall not establish a foothold on this, our world!
The Silicoid colony on Romulas has been destroyed from orbit by our fighter fleet. Their incoming transports all have burned. The Silicoids have officially declared the war they began by sending their fleets to Romulas. And in two years' time, the battle begins that will decide the fate of this vital, rich star system for the rest of history!
2435:
The battle is joined! On the side of the Silicoids, we have three gigantic death ships and a gatling destroyer. On the Bulrathi side, we have 108 highly maneuverable fighters, more than half of which are of the latest Cub 2.0 design!
The evolution of the Cub is visible in this shot, always using stabilizers for maximum maneuverability, increasing computer power when it became possible, then reducing it again to make room for nuclear engines. Not pictured is the Glow(ing)Den radiated colony ship, also with warp 2 engines installed, but operating as an unarmed civillian. (It retreated from combat range as soon as the battle began). The Kraken monsters all turn out to be armed with a deadly combination of missiles and both heavy and standard beams, capable of striking from virtually any range. My fighters dodge around the missiles as best they can, close with the Morey and burn it from the sky, and then - those that have survived - take on the deadly Krakens themselves! All the Cub 1.1s are destroyed; the smaller fleet of 1.0s follow them to the fires of the planet's surface, and the Cub 2.0 high-speed dancing fighters begin to burn ... but they're hammering the Krakens with round after round of blazing neutron pellets, and they've somehow managed to take the first Kraken down! The second burns under heavy fire, and finally it's a face-off in the fiery skies of Romulas between the last of the Krakens and the last of our NPG fleets!
Victory! Bear, those Cubs must be pretty good combat vessels. Someone buy that starship designer a pot of fermented honey! (Why, yes, that would be me.) Romulas is ours, as it was always meant to be. 33 Cub 2.0s survive to defend the world against no further incoming Silicoid fleets. (None yet, I mean). Now it's time to consolidate control of our new ship-building center so we can take the battle to the enemy!
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Next: Friendly Kittens
