Following an inconclusive council vote and an agreement to MS-35's proposed trade package increase, RBO-29 started plotting his next move in the war. He successfully defended Imra from a small colony fleet as his scientists developed Neutron Pellet Guns, leading the way toward Merculite Missile technology, but lacked the force he needed to resist an incoming fleet at a much more important target: Beyond the coreward nebula, the Hoard-like terran world of Beta Ceti III! And when another force arrived at Imra, though only one of the aptly-named Avenger cruisers survived to retreat...
...most of his fighters perished, and they could not save the colony. Clearly, RBO-9 decided, better tools were necessary. He taught Darlok engineers to build his new NPGs in exchange for their plans for a deep space scanner, to better equip his spies and spot the movement of enemy fleets, but this new technology could do little to stop the Klackon menace. The very next year, at Anraq, he discovered the hard way that both Klackon destroyer designs carried spores. And - still smarting from the losses he'd taken at Imra - he learned the hard way at Beta Ceti that their ground forces had been equipped with new, even shinier toys.
The Klackon empire had acquired their twelfth star systems over the corpses of the Sakkra at Beta Ceti. Invasion after invasion failed at the Klackon world of Maalor, and by 2381, failure to recognize the danger of Imra's proximity led to a deadly threat...
...as the bugs dropped a small payload of death spores into the skies of the Hoard world itself! An emergency meeting of RBO-29's inmost council was convened; even Count Refsalot was invited again, and contributed as well as he could in the face of the enormous threat. An emergency fighter fleet was able to fight off the spore ships the following year, but the battle was by no means over, either above the Hoard or at Beta Ceti ... where the Sakkra finally reestablished control of the planetary orbit, with dozens of transports coming in. And finally, for once, the Sakkra ground forces would be able to use some new toys.
Battle Suits were developed in 2382, with Zortium Armor planned for use in future wars. Personal Deflector Shields would be ready by the following year, with planetary shields on the horizon. Another assault fleet was repelled at the Hoard world, but not before half of the planet's population had been destroyed by bombs and spores. So many fighters had died in the planet's defense that more than three fourths of the incoming Klackon transports landed safely on the planet's surface, and buildings crumbled as their foundations were shaken by fusion rifle bursts. Even the soldiers' shielded titanium battle suits couldn't stand up to those fusion blasts for long - the bugs' shielded duralloy suits held up far better against Sakkra laser fire. RBO-29 himself joined the battle, sending gouts of fire across the landscape, and Count Refsalot acted as field general, contributing as well with precision fire from his regulation blaster and even leading charges with a hand-made laser sword. When the dust settled over the Hoard world, amid screaming ambulance sirens, the Sakkra had won the battle - but not the war.
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