All the prophets of doom are wailing that I've only delayed the inevitable. They cry out in the streets that Toranor was the first, but Xengara will be the next to fall and die. I have less than half as many defensive bases there ... but also more than twice as many BlazeWings. I did manage to get a Dactyl dreadnought into play as well ... and most importantly, this is not their main fleet! The Dactyl could only hold off one or two of their three deadly bomber groups at Toranor, and only for so long before being destroyed - the third group simply ran on through and blasted the bases away. Here though, we only have to deal with one Annihilator! It has a massive hull and automated repair systems, and can blast away with heavy weapons regardless of my repulsor, but I think I have a chance! Of course, I thought that at Toranor....
Victory! We've done it - and all we lost was one BlazeWing destroyer! We can defeat these Meklar ships ... at least if we can face them one or two at a time. Their impossibly huge stack of cruisers has only short-range weapons, so a repulsor ship could handle them if they didn't have dreadnought support ... but the problem is, they do! If that entire death fleet comes for any more of our worlds, we may be doomed - but I'll do what I can to stop it!
2566
The battles for Toranor and Xengara are ongoing. I look back with grim amusement on the early days of 2562, when the first colony ship the Meklar sent there just barely managed to retreat, nearly destroyed by my local Wingblaze destroyers. I hoped I might rebuild the place myself back then, before I saw the next Meklar colony fleet, this time with dreadnought escorts. We've just built a small fleet for a suicide run to wipe out their colony at all costs, but even if it works, that world might never again be a productive part of our empire. Still, we must try, or what hope is there? So long as their fleets fly above Toranor, two of our most productive stars will be vulnerable to attack with no warning at all. Their missile bases will be helpless even against single dreadnoughts without support from space to keep the enemy at bay, and we can't afford to split our limited starforce down there. With Galos likewise under threat from the doom fleet stationed at Proxima, we can't even spare the Dactyl to defend the still-embattled world at Xengara.
We've been trying to make do with Wingslap destroyers to keep their bombs away from our bases, relying on our pilots' reaction times to avoid as much enemy fire as possible in spite of the ships' flimsy hulls and lack of shielding. We can't risk a lucky shot from a heavy fusion cannon taking out a whole repulsor group, so we've got a trio in orbit above Xengara now, along with the planets' bases and a BlazeWing battle group, trying to fend off another Annihilator dreadnought, escorting a colony ship armed with Omega-V Bombs and Heavy Fusion beams!
Another decisive victory! I've lost only two destroyers in the skies above Xengara, and burned down two of their dreads and now a colony ship as well. In spite of the cost of our defenses, I'll take those trades any day of the year! The death fleet still lurks though, and it's too much to hope that they're going to split it up so I can deal with the pieces separately. For that matter, even if they did ... well, it's great that we destroyed a couple of Annihilators when they came at us one by one, but those are probably the least dangerous of the Meklar dread designs. And even now, not content with their attacks on Toranor and Xengara, the Meklar are sending a pair of their most advanced and most deadly ships - the Tornado dreadnoughts - in company with another armed colony ship, to Mentar. The one-time Psilon homeworld is among the most important in our empire, and they're going to be hitting it next year.
2567
For all this past year, all our available resources have been diverted to our Mentar colony - but we still dare not leave Galos unprotected with their doom fleet so near. I had to leave the Dactyl there and couldn't have another dreadnought ready in time to defend ... so it's going to be up to my destroyers. With only seven bases complete on the surface, my BlazeWings are really going to be put to the test!
Oh. One more thing about Mentar. Notice the purple stars in the background? Notice the shield levels on those enemy ships - and on my missile bases? This star system is in the Psilon Nebula, and shields ... don't ... work! If even one of those ships reaches the planet, we're pretty much dead in space. The Wingslaps are going to have to hold off both sets of ships without being destroyed, and the BlazeWings have to take them down before the Tornado autorepair systems get ahead of their attacks! Our brave pilots race across space, taking hits, returning fire....
...and win a resounding victory! I finally have enough firepower to take out their most powerful ships! Now, if they don't send too many at once ... and their repulsor dreads don't freeze our fleets and render them defenseless ... and we can get enough warning to muster our fleet ... um, that's a lot of ifs. And with all my resources bent on defending my worlds, I'm falling further behind again in advanced technology - we finally completed the Doom Virus research we'll never actually apply, but the hope of doubling our terraforming abilities with the project code-named IT60 is a long, long way away - yet for now, against the odds, we've saved Mentar! There's hope for our ... there's ... ..... why are our emergency sirens blaring at me?
Mentar? Mentar?! Didn't I just save that place? What do you mean we've got bogies incoming within the year? Why is this an emergency? Didn't I just prove I could take out their ships piecemeal even when two of them come at a ti.....
Oh. Uh. That would be their doom fleet.
