Less than ten years have passed since we signed the peace treaty. And of course we're still not at war! - not technically! Of course, the Meklar don't especially care about that kind of triviality. We've made good use of the nominal peace, completing our new ECM Jammer, terraforming, and advanced damage control technologies. The tech teams set right out to work on a Mark X Battle Computer which would be the most advanced in the galaxy, yet another terraforming project - code name IT80 - and finally, at long last, Industrial Waste Elimination. Yes, we've learned our lesson and gotten to work on an economic construction project, finally! Of course, the Meklar haven't been idle.
They still have a two-generation lead on us in computer technology, and a one-generation lead in the fields of Construction, Force Fields (it took them decades, but they finally did get planetary shields sometime after the middle of last century) and Weapons, but we're at parity in the field of Planetology in spite of our backtrack for a Bio-Toxin Antidote all those years ago, and in Propulsion, we have a three generation lead! This is partly, of course, because the Meklar have been spending much of this period of peace ... building another assault fleet. Here, you can see a good part of that fleet - more than 300 cloaked Destroyers! - attacking the nebula world of Mentar without bothering to declare war. On defense, you can see my entire starfleet: The decades-old Dactyl, still chugging along, doing its best to protect the planet's 30 missile bases. Yes, I said thirty. In a nebula, those destroyers are serious business, and between their cloaks and their combat speed, the Dactyl won't be able to keep them all at bay.
They manage to destroy more than a third of my missile bases ... in exchange for all but one of the ships in their fleet. These Meklar will not defeat us - not in war, and not in peace! Subsequent to this, of course, Captain Obvious makes an appearance.
Yes, GNN droid, their fleet is bigger than ours. Did you notice how much difference that made? If you guessed "precisely none," you can give yourself a mechanical cookie.
2607
I've been keeping espionage spending to a minimum, just making sure we always have someone in place to report on the enemy's technological progress, but I have been letting them try to do actual spying, just to keep their wing in as it were. And this year, somehow, at last, we beat the odds! No chance to grab anything in their best fields - Construction and Computers - but we should at least be able to clear out some junk in planetology, to pave the way for better steals later on when our tech improves, and...
...wait, did I just say we beat the odds? Apparently we beat them senseless with an aviation wrench! Our lonely, inexperienced spy just landed us Soil Enrichment technology - way out of date by Meklar standards (they have Advanced Soil Enrichment in play) or the overall standards of modern technology, but a huge leap forward for our economy! This means each of our fourteen worlds will be able to support millions more Alkari, grow their populations faster, and in some cases work over a hundred new factories! This calls for celebration! Who wants to celebrate with me? How about those weapons technicians who called for an appointment? Hey guys! What's that? You're done designing our new Hand Phasors too? When you said there was only a 2% chance that they'd be ready? Did one of my advisors bribe the pRNG?! Ooh, and now the Meklar are calling me! At the rate this day is going, maybe they're offering to give me a key tech for free!
Oh. I guess not. Well, roger that, M5-35. If I keep trying to spy on you, I take it you'll do something really nasty ... like sending your fleets at my planets and trying to kill me? 'Cause you may not have noticed (you know, he is erratic...) but you've been doing that anyway already.
