The latest starmap images of Klackon space include some of the stars belonging to these races - those of which my fleet has managed to learn - appropriately labeled. Clicking through the image of course reveals the area in the context of the entire galaxy. The latter is important, as it makes starkly obvious the most important fact about our empire to myself or any other designer of a combat starfleet: The ridiculous distance between our worlds, especially between the Bulrathi core and the stars on the front with other species. What we need more than anything else is a superior engine design for our ships!
2382:
Well, this isn't helping. It was well and good for Munchencrunch to present me with designs for a new battle computer and an inertial stabilization device for our combat ships, and I suppose his new Robotic Controls project will be helpful eventually: In theory, it will allow us to keep half again as many factories operating per capita as we do already, and that can only mean more production for a larger fleet. The problem is with his propulsion research. Apparently, there's still no hope of any kind of engine more advanced than our retro-chic, retrograde, retrogressive rockets. We're working on Dotomite Crystals now, to extend our range still further and no doubt spread our worlds still thinner across the galaxy without hope of moving a fleet between them at any reasonable speed. In the meantime, I need to find a way to hold the stars we need, even though it's apparently going to take even longer to come up with an engine than for our slow-moving fleets to crawl across the galaxy.
This is the best I can manage with current miniaturization techniques: The Runaway (Cub) 1.0 is the most basic of laser fighters, with nothing added but the reserve tanks it needs to reach its destination. These are not meant for homeland defense, obviously! Their purpose is the same as a Long Range Lemon's would be: To sit in orbit above the rich world of Romulas and keep off interloping Silicoid colony fleets ... until we develop the technology to claim the world for ourselves!
Now, could I have designed something better to accomplish the same purpose? Possibly. A larger ship could mount a battle computer and more lasers, and each would have more staying power in combat besides. The problem is that there are no good long-term solutions possible right now. All our weapons are rapidly becoming obsolete. Alien weaponry is expected to be able to punch through Class II shields and duralloy armor with ease - the Runaways could mount duralloy instead of titanium, but it's not worth the extra cost; one more point of armor durability unlikely to ever make a real difference to the little ship's survival now that alien fleets will be mounting non-lasers, and the extra cost means fewer lasers in space. As a result of all this, our ships' best defense is to avoid getting hit in the first place, which means staying small and maneuvrable. A stabilizer on a larger ship would reduce the number of lasers it can carry to such a degree that these little long-range fighters remain the best option I can see.
A big part of the reason for that is the possibility of enemy shielding. As time goes on, the lowly laser will become an increasingly pointless weapon, capable of doing little or no damage to enemy fleets. Space-eating heavy lasers aren't a whole lot better. No matter what I build right now, its effective lifetime will be limited indeed. A fleet of these little guys at least has some versatility: Its ships can be reassigned to scouting duties when they become obsolete as defensive ships without crashing the budget, for instance. And the RBO-9 is unlikely to feel too invested in ships of this class to scrap them when their time is at an end - a more significant consideration than one might think. In any case, a cloud of these will be sent up to Romulas as soon as they can get there, in the hope and expectation that they'll be replaced once we can build a real fleet.
2390:
At long last: A real weapon to install on my starships!
It's no wonder that Munchy is grinning; Neutron Pellet Guns are simply amazing. They're space-efficient enough to fit on a fighter pretty much immediately, and unlike lasers and even ion cannons, they practically never go obsolete. Class 1 shields don't affect them at all. They always penetrate for at least minimal damage through starship shields all the way up through class 3. They're as effective against Class 7 shields as lasers are against Class 2s, and have a chance to penetrate anything below Class 10 aboard a ship - they can even damage planetary bases until they get class 4s installed. They miniaturize so effectively (unlike more powerful shield-piercing weapons) that I'll likely be able to choose between an advanced battle computer and mounting a pair of them on a fighter eventually, and large gunships will be able to carry dozens of the things. My Runaways assigned to protect Romulas are nearly obsolete already, and they haven't even reached the star; the new short-range Cub NPG fighters I'll be designing shortly won't go obsolete until I'm ready to redesign our entire starfleet ... with better engines! (We will have real engines someday! Hopefully!)
2400:
It's the turn of the century! After another inconclusive High Council vote (very similar to the first one, remember, only with more votes for each party) everybody's been preparing all year for the centennial festivities! Well, almost everybody. Munchy being Munchy, he's been working day and night on reducing our waste emissions, and he's finally gotten them down to 60% of what they used to be. I wanted to shout with joy when I heard ship-based Automated Repair and Zortium Armor projects were on the table, but he's pushing for another improvement to our industrial technology instead - cutting factory construction costs by about 22% - in preparation for the robotic controls the M.U.S.C.L.E is working on simultaneously. With all our planets' industrial development complete (except at poor Talas, where it never will be) it certainly won't help for our regular factories!
2403:
Tremendous news! Munchy finally managed to enhance our ecological restoration techniques, and he says the final element in the breakthrough suggests that totally self-contained, radiation-shielded colony bases will be possible someday! Once we've come up with a design and I've installed them on colony starships, they should make it possible for bears to live on any planetary body - even fiery Darrian and Romulas, or still more hostile worlds as yet undiscovered by Bulrathikind! This is so exciting: I can't wait to design those ships!
2407:
Still no breakthroughs, though Munchy claims that four different techs are "on the verge." At least the politicos have something to cheer about.
Not only did xenophobic Ssithra call up our invincible Running/Blocking Offensive Nine to propose a non-aggression pact, it even remembered to put a comma after its name! Better still, it proposed the pact at a time when there weren't any Bulrathi fleets en route to scout Darlok worlds, which means we won't be helplessly "violating" the pact in the moment of its inception! The RBO-9 decided to leap at the chance. We're gambling that Munchy will beat the Darlok scientists to the means of colonizing rich Dunatis, over by Darlok space, but he's working on it already, so the gamble may pay off.
2410:
It seems we're extending the gamble. With Class 3 Deflector Shields ready to roll out ever since last year, and Class V Planetaries under development, it seems we've requested and received another non-aggression pact, this time from the Klackon buggies ... and taught our Darlok "friends" how to build my beautiful Neutron Pellet Guns just for their trick for building a cheap ECM Jammer to mess with the guidance systems of missiles and bombs and things. I guess the stupid thing will help with spying a little, and help defend our missile bases, but it's so bulky and expensive, I'll never put one aboard a starship!
2412:
The diplomat corps' orgy of xenophilia is continuing, I see. No sooner does Munchy come up with Dotomite Crystals to fuel my starfleet than they race out to talk to our new "buddies" - the two races finally close enough for our combat, trade, and diplomatic fleets to reach. The Mrrshans, I understand. They're nice and fuzzy, and like to build starships (like me) - and their empress, Jasana, agreed to a 275 BC trade package right away. Plus she gave us a deep space scanner design when we taught her to make my beautiful NPGs - meaning not only a little boost for our spies, but a full extra parsec of scanning range for all my little starships, and two extra parsecs from our colonies, allowing us to see enemy fleets sooner, and giving me longer to design in anticipation of our defensive needs. But what about the Silicoids?
They only agreed to a 200 BC trade package, and all they gave us for our NPG design was some kind of low-grade terraforming techinque! We can do at least four times better after our radiated base plans come in, and ... well ... I guess it will miniaturize my colony ship designs a little ... and, well, yeah, allow another ten million bears at each of our colonies, with attendant factories ... but still! These are the guys most likely to poach our (yes, our!) rich worlds from us, and rich worlds are perfect for building fleets! How will my beautiful starship designs ever reach their full potential if we don't have rich worlds to build them in enormous quantities? It's a good thing we didn't ask for a non-aggression pact with them or anything. (Not that they'd have agreed if we had.)
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Next: Rising Tensions
