In a desperate attempt to delay the inevitable war between the Mrrshan and Alkari peoples, RBO-31 proposed a small trade agreement ... which Redwing inexplicably accepted. Perhaps in the end he was simply so ruthless in his exercise of power that even his racial hatred for felines could not prevent him from seizing an opportunity.
Still, the Darlok war raged on; a missile base on Esper fell to sabotage three years later, even as Neptunus was repelling a large Darlok fleet. Local investigations suggested Alkari saboteurs, but RBO-31 was not fooled by the true shapeshifting culprits. It was becoming increasingly obvious that the war with the Darloks could not be sustained, and so after repelling a smaller fleet at Neptunus the following year, RBO-31 was deeply relieved when Nazgur at last accepted a peace proposal. While the Darloks were on the line, the Mrrshans made another deal with them as well: The hand lasers that the shifters had used to such good effect against Mrrshan invaders were traded to the cats for gatling laser technology.
This period of peace was so productive that some among the Mrrshans, failing to understand the advantages of the other races, declared it a golden age: A new ECM Jammer was developed at the same time as Irridium fuel the next year, and RBO-31 celebrated by upgrading the Silicoid trade package to some 225 BC. Three years later, the hostile worlds of Stalaz and Maretta would finally be added to the Mrrshan empire, and the last surviving Mrrshan professor of field dynamics finished plans for a personal deflector shield just two years after that. Unfortunately, the underlying collapse of Mrrshan society was already nearly complete. The scientific projects still being pursued were hopelessly backward by galactic standards, and growing more so every year - each barely more advanced than those that came before. And recognizing this painful truth, RBO-31 was preparing desperate means of achieving power in the galaxy.
Accompanied by two dozen fighters, the Scritch destroyer, and no less than 265 Graaar 1.0 smallcraft intended to bomb Silicoid missile bases into oblivion, fifty million Neptunian cat warriors departed for the Rayden system. The upgraded trade agreement with the Silicoids suddenly looked extremely foolish indeed, and there was some question of whether the fleet could accomplish its ultimate goals, moving across the skies as it did at a mere warp 1, but RBO-31 considered a Silicoid war the only hope of the Mrrshan people.
Still more combat ships were built in lieu of research spending, as the cats managed to scout the Dunatis system in 2397 and brace themselves for war. Two years later, just before the next scheduled High Council meeting, the Mrrshans upgraded their Darlok trade package to 200 BC in light of improving relations, traded waste reduction technology to the Alkari for a new battle computer, and by enquiring about technology exchanges discovered that the Silicoids still lacked both hand lasers and personal deflector units. Morale was therefore high going into the High Council meeting ... which pitted Nazgur of the Darloks against Crystous of the 'Coids. Voting for Nazgur again as the obviously superior candidate, RBO-31 at once earned the Silicoids' ire.
Crystous made a furious appearance in the holochamber just as RBO-31 was reviewing just-received images of Vulcan IV, a large barren world near Rayden that held a Silicoid colony. If Crystous was not amused by RBO-31's voting however, it must have been downright mirthless when it checked its space scanners for Mrrshan interstellar activity.
With four waves of transports already en route to accompany the ships already arrived or just approaching, the Mrrshans were fully committed to an invasion of the Silicoids' artifacts colony. The transformation of the Mrrshan people from a curiosity-loving scientific society to a warmongering culture of violence was complete. Darkness had fallen over the Mrrshan empire.
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Next: The Wages of War
