With Meklon's miserable shielding - and nuclear missiles that couldn't even penetrate to the armor of the newest Klackon battleship - its missile bases all fell even more easily than its small combat fleet. Even so, INT-986 refused to make peace and turn around his Stalaz-bound raiding fleet. Instead, the raiding fleet - what was left of it - waited to turn around until it ran up against the colony's missile bases.
In the meantime, Klackon agents picked up Hyper-X rocket designs from Altair and obsolete shielding from the Psilons, on the way to the real advances provided by Klackon scientists: Reajax fuel cells that brought the Silicoids back into communication range and every star in the galaxy into range of Klackon fleets, followed by plans for an armored combat exoskeleton for skirmishes on planetary surfaces and a hard beam for use in the deeps of space. Another agent discovered worthless plans for gatling lasers at Meklon ... as the Klackons prepared to end Ngxskgkgrkhgg's bandit raids for good: Anticus, Dustmit, and Earwigi arrived at Tyr and dismantled its defenses, and 140 transports loaded with Klackons in shielded duralloy combat exoskeletons were launched.
In 2424, they arrived, and claimed the planet's 111 factories, along with the plans for obsolete terraforming techniques ... and a planetary shield, at long last.
The following year, Refakira's rock-busting fleet arrived at Antares, just as computer scientists developed an advanced space scanner that would reveal every planet in the galaxy. The time had come for the final High Council meeting in the galaxy.
Refakira Kurosawfly, the 30th Ronin Bug Overseer, fell a single vote short of claiming the seat of High Master with Klackon votes alone ... and all the bandit warlords, without exception, voted against him.
Refakira hung his head, but would not give up the fight to free the Klackons from the predations of bandit raiders. His watchful agents on Antares reported home with the plans for the ion rifles the Silicoids were distributing to their ground forces there, but the first wave of Klackon forces, outnumberd almost three to one, were still defeated on the ground. RBO-30 could have accepted this if Ngxskgkgrkhgg were willing to see reason - but instead, when the holochamber lit up, it was Tachaon who appeared: The only bandit warlord not already at war with him. "Times change," Tachaon informed him. "Our Non-Aggression Pact is broken." The room went dark. Refakira sighed, and looked out across the galaxy.
There was no time to waste. The following year brought another small leap forward in terraforming technology, and the year after saw the advent of Klackon ship-based deflector shields as powerful as the Silicoid planetaries.
As a hundred transports hit the surface, outnumbering the Silicoids by more than three to one, with a massive technological advantage, it also saw the fall of Antares. The Silicoids would try to reclaim the world two years later, but less than two thirds of their transports reached the surface, and they failed utterly. And in the meantime, the Klackon people were proving their rights at ultra-rich Phantos to the Psilons.
Just four years after an agent found the Psilons' plans for colonizing toxic worlds, battle was joined in the sky of Phantos IV, the world for which the Klackons had fought Silicoid bandits for ages. Beemont destroyed an armed Psilon colony ship, leading the way for Anticus to plant a Klackon colony.
Tachaon responded by officially declaring war. The bandits had shown their true colors: There was no one at peace with the Klackons in all the galaxy.
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Next: Conclusion
