The M.U.S.C.L.E. has plans ready to go for Zortium Armor and our first major planetary shielding; most of our established worlds have at least one missile base in place already, and are ready to start erecting their massive shield generators, while Munchy goes to work on an auto-repair system finally (Armored Exoskeletons would be fun for our troops to play with, but our fleet's the most important thing) and designs for a repulsor beam. For my part, I'm putting together a new Cub 2.1 design, enabled by the latest technological miniaturization, that mounts a Mark 2 computer, but is otherwise identical to its predecessor. It could have a shield or better armor too, but that won't help it kill incoming ships more quickly, so we're going to let it be.
2439:
We've got another Silicoid assault fleet at Romulas! Another of their interminable colony ships is escorted by the fourth Kraken battleship we've seen, and a pair of those Morey destroyers! Our fleet of 33 Cub 2.0s is now supported by five new 2.1s, just built right there in-system, and one of the old 1.1s for good measure ... and it's enough! Just bear-ly! Only 14 of our Cub 2.0s make it through the gauntlet, but the Kraken goes down in flames along with the rest of their fleet! The longer we can hold out here, the more the planet can develop its factory infrastructure, and the more surely it can defend itself permanently ... against the Silicoid poachers. If we have to deal with their allies too, there's no telling where this will end, and they seem to have formed an alliance with the Mrrshan kitties. Fortunately, our trade relations, NAPping, and friendly policies have built friendships with most of the peoples of the galaxy, and the Mrrshans can understand our side of the story.
The price they asked to throw over their Silicoid alliance was exhorbitant - we didn't even ask them to join on our side of the war - but Grrrarrrmgrrrr "Softy" Morgrag (411 Knockdowns, an unbelievable 170 Assists and 60 Secondary Recoveries, with 28 Crippling Blows but no Confirmed Kills) of the RBO-9 says when he looked into Jasana's bright green eyes, he was sure that we could trust her. Some of the other RBO-9 have started jesting that he's in love with the kitty, which is fine - if anyone else dared to make those jokes though, they'd get their head pounded in for their trouble. Teaching the Mrrshans to use robotic controls just to break up their Silicoid alliance might have been crazy, but I don't argue with the RBO-9. It's possible "Softy" was just being diplomatic, and he figured if the cats learned to use robotic controls, they'd wind up with more factories for us to capture intact if they ever turned on us. Or maybe he did see something honest in those funny-looking green eyes.
Oh, and speaking of eyes, Munchy's happily talking to engineers on all our colonies and all our fleets, explaining how to install the new improved space scanners. He's going to work on a Mark-IV ECM Jammer as soon as everything's working okay. Of course you know what that means: More miniaturization for my fleets!
2440:
Wow ... just trying to pick myself up off the floor and make sure each of my bones is in one piece. All of a sudden the planet decided it didn't want me or something - that I ought to be up in hyperspace with my fleets! News reports are saying it was an earthquake - an unbelievable 12.0 on the Rrrrichterrrr scale, I believe - and that we lost 26 million people and 248 factory-cities. Just when you think your homeworld's safe, I guess ... natural forces still pack a wallop! Well, then - time to start rebuilding! Good thing we've got other worlds carrying the load now. Like our rich world of Yarrow, that just maxed out its factories!
2441:
One of my brave little Runaways made it all the way down to Jinga, the most distant Silicoid colony we can reach. It's got a little snowball of a world packed with Silicoids, but we've got a planetary survey now, and as soon as we have a colony close enough, our invasion troops will be ready to roll. For now, I'm just sending out the latest GlowDen colony ship to claim an actual radiated world - the rich one orbiting Mu Delphi at the edge of the galaxy.
2444:
Well, it looks like not all our neighbors - not even all the non-Coidy ones - are friendly!
Even as the GlowDen out of Yarrow founds our colony at Mu Delphi, Ssithra proves it's serious about seeking the new star systems it supposedly so direly needs by breach of our non-aggression treaty. It seems its first fleet - three destroyers and a cruiser - was launched in the same moment it canceled the pact with us. How sad for the poor Darloks that they have such a dire need for star systems ... especially when beautiful worlds like Mu Delphi's were available right on their borders if they would only turn their efforts, like us, to researching planetology. Instead of, you know, building attack ships to batter against our missile bases and my increasingly invincible fleets.
Our Mrrshan friends have the right idea at least: We teach them to use one critical planetology tech, they teach us to use one.
As in the case of robotic controls, they're clearly getting the better part of the deal, though enhanced eco restoration is only a single-level upgrade from their existing version, just as the terraforming they're trading to us is the smallest possible upgrade over our existing variety, but this is a trade that helps us both, and that can only be a good thing. Besides, we'll find ways of making things come out even eventually....
2448:
The first Darlok fleet has arrived - more are coming already! - and unlike the Silicoids, these leaders in virtually every statistical category in the galaxy have armed their assault ships with modern weaponry! And by modern, I do mean, "Way beyond anything ever dreamt of in our part of the galaxy." Fortunately, we make better use of what we do have - and by "we," I do mean "me."
We've got five bases up at the planet, with triple-merculite missile tubes on each, braced up behind our planetary shield and their own individual class 3s. And remember those Cub 2.1s I mentioned, upgraded over the 2.0s that handled the Silicoid battleships for us? Remember how I mentioned that NPG fighters practically never go obsolete? Remember how I sang the praises of tactical speed? Well, we've got 81 of those 2.1 fighters here, and the enemy's anti-matter bomb cruiser is rated 1 on maneuverability. See where this is going?
We lost four or five little fighters. They lost their fleet. Of course, there's a lot more where it came from ... but thanks to our rich worlds, there's a lot more where our fighters came from too!
2449:
Another Darlok fleet is making a run on Spica - this one with a fast-moving King Cobra cruiser. Their Tarantula twin-mass-driver destroyers are so slow, and so loaded down with those bulky wastes of space (mass drivers have their uses ... under very occasional circumstances indeed) that we don't really have to worry about them at all, but the Venom destroyers with their stabilizers and Megabolts cannons (hyper-accurate beams that can hit even our fighters pretty consistently) could cause trouble in numbers, and the King Cobra, moving in with maneuverability of at least 4, mounting no less than 9 megabolts to deal with our interceptors, would be a serious problem if our ships had any less tactical speed. It would surely even have reached the planet to drop some of its nuclear bombs ... whereas, thanks to our fighters' ability to close rapidly with it and survive most of even its megabolt beams (we're still fast enough that they miss most of the time) we burn it out before it gets in range. Please be aware, everybody: Speed kills.
2450:
Ah - just as I suspected, we've started to get back toward parity in our tech exchanges with the Mrrshans. True, gatling lasers aren't worth a tremendous amount, but every little bit of miniaturization helps ... and you can't beat getting them for nothing!
I'm sure if Jasana were to actually find out where we got those designs, she'd look into Spymaster Grook's honest purple eyes and realize he was just trying to make our trades come out even. She did vote for Ssithra in the latest High Council election - so did practically everyone else - but with ursine voting power approaching a full veto and the Alkari abstaining from this election, we should be safe from the danger of backstabbing eyes-in-cloaks inheriting the galaxy.
Now if only Munchy would actually finish his projects in propulsion and weapons research, so I can build even cooler new ships. It's been over a decade since they were first reported "on the verge of a breakthrough!"
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Next: Breakthrough
