Part 78: 2130-2134 - Holding it together.

Slight panic when an update moved the save game location and I thought it had deleted them all! Its all good though, I just had to go hunting in APPDATA.



The Atuuko Bandits take one of our research stations from us.



We then sign a mutual defence pact with the Combine Utrantu Colonies.



We then trade techs with them, they are a lot more advanced than we are, and we pick up some engine improvements. Fuel is beginning to become an issue, as the pirates continually blow up any mining base we build!



I am forced to move the fleets away from Ghana to protect the other colony worlds. The defence platform and station are capable of defending the planet however.



Ogoonu Prime gets a new Naxillian governor.







7th Fleet arrives at Delta Serpentis, but without enough fuel to fill their tanks, they cannot make the jump to attack the Atuuko Bandits.



We are in another tight spot, and the general fuel shortage sends me begging to the pirates to stop their attacks.



We then hear that our allies the Utrantu are building some sort of super shipyard.



We investigate an abandoned monastery and get the co-ordinates for a specific area of space.



Down in the southern half of the galaxy, there are two interesting locations – scout ships are sent to them.



Then we get a message from the Ketarovs, apparently two of our fuel starved ships have attempted to refuel at a independent Wekkarus colony in a system they claim, and they are not happy.



More worrying is that our two frigates have jumped into a massive battle between a huge Ketarov Empire Capital ship (800 units large, we can only build to 300 at this time) and massed pirates. Where the Ketarov Empire got a ship this large can only be guessed at, but we have to hope it is salvage rather than a much greater ability to build than we possess!



Pirate ship after pirate ship falls to the guns of the Enigma of Tebren, and a size 500 capital ship jumps in to aid – without fuel and trapped in a warp inhibitor, our ships can do nothing but watch. Dozens of pirate ships fall to these two vessels.



We are low on most resources, but steel and casion are the two most pressing needs.







The Sol Marauders once more break their protection pact and go straight for Ghana. The mighty batteries there go into action and give of the six attacking ships are destroyed.



This is followed by another wave of four ships, all blown to smithereens. This leads to a new Admiral appearing.



I order the Wellspring-6 to be upgraded to a large station, as I am about to take a image to show this, I see the defensive platform explode!



Things continue to go from bad to worse at the Intrepid Hero, a cruiser owned by the Menacing Fang Bandits, drops in on the powerless 7th Fleet and begins to annihilate them.



The Ketarov Empire continues to demand that we remove the now crippled ships from their system. I am forced to order the crews to self destruct their vessels to prevent an interstellar incident.



Our eight colonies are growing in size, despite the constant raids, but we do not seem to be gaining any traction.







Another ship jumps in over Tebren 2, and the space battle is still going on – this planet seems to be a focal point for god knows how many wars and inter pirate clan conflicts. While a hell for the people living there, at least its tying up a large number of pirate ships.








Things quieten down to the point where there are only two or three pirate attacks a week, rather than a day. We finish upgrading Wellspring-6.



The only thing keeping the economy going is the occasional bursts of money from taxing trading ships.



With the station upgraded, numerous small and medium freighters are commissioned by the civilians, and they go out into the galaxy to trade. (the light brown circles represent one ship each)



Then we get another bit of good news, the Naxxilian Sovereignty has decided to trade their rare Loros Fruit with us!




We then finally get weapons platforms online – this one over Delta Serpentis and another over Ogoonu Prime.







We colonise another world with steel reserves, and then learn that someone has assassinated the Naxxilian Empire leader.



Things are getting better, slowly. But we are still paying out tens of thousands of credits a year to pirates who break their treaties and raid a planet before we can do anything. We are still strangled for fuel and without that we cannot do anything to fight them.




Finally, here is the current map.