We can hold the Meklar off now at any of our worlds so long as we react quickly - but they're still building dreads that could bomb our worlds into oblivion if our fleets weren't dispatched to defend them in time. Even when we do, there's danger whenever they muster a large fleet - as they did this year at Xengara.
We lost more than twenty destroyers - small consolation for them as we burned four of their dreadnoughts, two more colony ships, and a bunch more of their penetrator destroyers in the process, but attrition is taking a toll. In order to survive this war, we're going to need more advanced technology - so it's a good thing Tritanium Armor, a Cloaking Device, and a Mark VIII Battle Computer are all ready to roll out this year! That gives our scientists a chance to progress with Class IX deflector shields to further protect our ships, a Mark VIII ECM Jammer to finally give our bases some measure of protection against enemy bombers, and Advanced Damage Control to ... um ... wow. I skipped two generations of reduced waste technology and now just passed up a chance to cut the costs of new factories (due to go up in large numbers when terraforming tech is ready) by more than half ... for heavy armor and an advanced auto-repair system? I must have been out of my mind. We're Alkari! We dance around enemy weapons; we don't need to sustain their fire constantly! We have all the huge gunships (two) we'll ever need already! Just have a look!
In the wake of our victory over the main Meklar fleet at Mentar, we've split our combat fleet into two effective units. Shown here is our Altair Theater Mobile Defense Force (or ASF for Altair Sector Fleet), anchored by the old Barrage. Toranor, Maretta, and the rest of the Altair Sector are far enough from Meklar space that we'll always have at least a full year's warning of their impending arrival - enough time for this fleet to intercept them wherever they're moving. The fleet is stationed at the Artemis asteroid belt in case of an emergency in the Mentar sector: They can reach Galos in a single year as well this way, to cover our most important world - and one that can be attacked from two enemy stars without warning - in case a dangerous Meklar fleet is stationed at Proxima or Ursa while another is moving on one of our other Mentar-sector stars. If you look closely, you can see a portion of the fleet preparing to move up to Galos now, to replace some of the ships we just lost above Xengara.
Galos, naturally, is where we've stationed the Mentar Theater Mobile Defense Force (or MSF, the Mentar Sector Fleet), anchored by the Dactyl; you can see the victorious fleet from the latest battle for Xengara moving to rejoin it here. It rarely uses the entire fleet, as its mission is much more complex than the ASF's: The near-constant threat to Galos from the Meklar staging star of Proxima, the shield- (and engine-)disrupting properties of the Psilon Nebula, and the proximity of Ursa to Escalon all must be taken into consideration. Nevertheless, by dispatching the right ships to the right stars and planning carefully, we can protect our worlds with this fleet. If the Meklar ever moved their main staging star from Proxima up to Ursa, they would be able to strike at Escalon or Galos without warning, but that's part of the reason the ASF is stationed at Artemis: If the staging area did move, the ASF could immediately respond by moving up to Galos while the MSF made Escalon their base. It would take an extra year for Meklar forces to reach Altair Sector targets from Ursa, so there would still be plenty of time for the ASF to respond.
2582
Here's our first opportunity to see the ASF in action. We're still building up the Toranor colony as quickly as we can, but this fleet is its only defense right now - that's why the ASF needs to be so large for the time being.
At Maretta though, it's overkill. 60 Stinger Missile racks and 170 Heavy Blast Cannons could handle a lot more than a single Dread. (Those Penetrator destroyers, packing Heavy Ion Cannons, aren't good for much outside of a nebula in spite of their cloaking abilities.) In fact, at this point, with Toranor developing rapidly, preparations for another, more modern dreadnought almost complete nearby in case it's necessary, and the destruction of the last Meklar dread in the galaxy(!) - they might build more, but for now they seem to be concentrating on their new destroyers, and we've managed to destroy every one of the monster ships in their fleet! - I scrap the old Barrage and let the ASF make do with BlazeWings and a small talonfull of Wingslaps.
Speaking of those new destroyers, there are two battle groups of the things headed up to Escalon. It has almost as many bases as Maretta already, but the Psilon Nebula means we'd better send a fleet.
2583
Here's a look at the new Meklar designs.
In the nebula, with those cloaking devices and high maneuverability, they're a definite threat to our bases. They don't stand a chance in this battle though, against our far-superior fleet - and outside the nebula, in spite of the class 6 shields that don't show up in here, they can pretty much be ignored. In sufficient numbers, they can cause trouble for our BlazeWing fleets, but that won't matter unless they're escorting real ships like the dreads we've been fighting for so long - and lately defeating, which is what forced them to come up with new designs in the first place. We're ready to start on a whole new generation of warships of our own if needed, and even the BlazeWings themselves, the salvation of our empire when the Meklar attacked in earnest, will soon be hitting the scrap heap. Not only are they out of date, they're no longer really needed. My first battle above Mentar was decisive, and we've proven it in the years since then. The Alkari now own the space lanes.
