Darrian became a Sakkra world in 2505, though their ground forces barely scratched out the victory. Meanwhile, Sakkra spies at Misha snatched an old Meklar shield design, and RBO-29's top physicists came up with an Ion Stream Projector, a device that he hoped might have a prayer of dealing with the insects' temporal-fugue fleets. It would not of course come in time to deal with the latest incoming offering from the Klackon cold war machine.
Missiles carried by the hundred-plus Knight and Ranger cruisers could penetrate Sakkra bases, as could their Tachyon beams ... and the hundreds of Dragoon destroyers carried twin Plasma Cannons - still more devastating weaponry. Mrrshan attacks were repelled at Darrian and Galos - the latter had built a shield and thirteen missile bases with sheer Sakkra lizard-power, not even taking time out to assemble factories - but when the Klackon fleet hit Rigel, the jungle world was burned to ashes beneath the relentless fire of their beams. Imra was to be the next Klackon victim - the very next year, under the fire of an even larger number of Knights, Rangers, and Dragoons - but the absence of the outdated neutron fighters left Sakkra repulsor and ISP ships with more room to maneuver, and the tide began to turn. Missile fire (useless against Sakkra ships that could dodge around even Pulsons) wiped out all the planet's bases, but the colony survived, and the Klackon ships did not.
As further industrial technology rolled in, opening a path toward Klackonesque Tritanium armor, plans went into motion to expand Sakkra power still more. Rigel was re-founded in 2513 with the destruction of another Klackon fleet (after destroying more Mrrshan invaders all over the galaxy) and RBO-29 made his move on his long-time Darlok enemies.
The bases at Narzina's homeworld fell to a bomber fleet while a well-armed repulsor cruiser handled the ships in orbit. The following year, with the conveniently-timed completion of designs for a personal absorption shield, ground forces took the planet.
The Darloks were no more, and for the first time in their history, the Sakkra actually managed, upon conquering an alien planet, to recover some of its builders' technology!
Death spores would never be used, and radiation controls for colony bases were no longer needed, but every improvement to planetology would help with Sakkra productivity, and it was always good, in RBO-29's opinion, to have another class - Mark 4 in this case - of battle computer.
Count Refsalot would not doubt have been horrified by the act of xenocide, but RBO-29 had found a way to deal with him: Insisting at the height of his people's danger that his hoard of gold was being kept aside for the ultimate emergency, and that it might come soon to hand, he told the Count of Sesame that he trusted no one else to catalog it and ensure that it all was there, ready to be spent in defense of the galaxy. Count Refsalot had been kept busy tallying the money for years on end, with no contact with anything beyond the treasury.
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Next: Communications Breakdown
