Part 46: You Say Federation, I say Faileration

You Say Federation, I say Faileration



Welp, not Orion but also not peaceful.




There's also a gas giant and a tiny radiated planet. Meanwhile war broke out between Meklar and Darlok. That took a whole two turns. And here's a practical reason to kill those thieves:




They have one of if not the best planets around.

SD 3500.4 - Alkari and Silicoid are at war. We feel left out. Meanwhile we've observed enemy cruisers flitting about, but nothing larger than that yet.




There we go. The white star is Orion. Qapla! Meanwhile we get our first couple of buildings up including most critically the Robo-Miner plant on the homeworld, and an Alkari-Human NAP is signed. However we are now actually losing money. I don't think I want to keep going that way - I demolish the Hydroponic Farm on Kronos II. I'll accept slower growth there in order to not have that problem.




Our revamped cruiser, the Useful Tachi. They look the same as the other ones but are not. I thought about putting on PD, or Continous mods/Battle Scanner for more accuracy, but I think for now we don't need the bonus - except perhaps against the Alkari, but I don't plan on fighting them yet. Leaving the ECM jammer on should reasonably handle our projectile defense since I don't see anyone else putting out a bunch of fighters based on their tech. The Imperial Shipyards have requested more slaves be sent to the dilithium mines, and also report that the price of refitting will be 62 BC each, a fraction of a new ship. Kahless approves, but wants a Space Academy first. Our warriors cannot go into battle unprepared. This will put our annual income back slightly into the negative for the time being, but so be it. No sacrifice is too great to be made for the honor of the Empire.

Meanwhile, the engineers ponder what to do with our next design, a frigate ... and more importantly what to call it.

SD 3500.7 - Trilarians and Humans are at war. I'm going to lose track of who officially hates who soon.




Here's our frigate, the Qa'Cheng class. No room for a stabilizer on a ship that small, but I kept the jammer. A couple of fusion beams will serve as the armament for these tin cans. I concur with the advice given to blockade as many systems as possible with these. Construction of five of them is ordered.

SD 3501.4 - Alkari/Triliarian NAP. Also, Cryslon and Nazin are now blockaded by our first pair of frigates. Progress.




Nobody has chosen to fight our glorious Qa'Cheng frigates. The cowardly humans had a couple of cruisers in Sol, but still so far have neglected to engage. Every system within range has been blockaded except for Lir - I'll let the Alkari keep their illusion of peace. Meanwhile the Meklar had Umm blockaded, but have backed off. Kahless would very much like to strike there first. Unfortunately they are too well-defended. We will head to Scaliger. The Humans are the weakest target.

Battle of Scaliger II (1:41)


I care not for your 'mighty war engine'. You will make useful slaves to feed our warriors - literally. A transport departed Kronos immediately to see to the acquisition, while Kahless ordered two more constructed. It would delay the invasion, and the treasury most certainly complained about the cost, but sending our honorable warriors into combat against their defenders, clad in Powered Armor as they are, would be foolhardly with overwhelming numbers.

Meanwhile the homeworld has reached its maximum population for the time being. At Cryslon, the Silicoids deployed a Fury V[/b] battleship and chased our frigate off - a pair of human cruisers attacked at Sol, and again we retreated there. In both cases, quick action by the Qa'Cheng captains allowed us to hyperspace before the ships were destroyed.

Scaliger II Again (1:09)


The Humans were foolish enough to send their Phantom cruisers to Scaliger - our [i]Useful Tachis easily dispensed with them. I had thoughts of boarding one of them, but it was destroyed in the explosion of the other, because that's totally a thing in the vacuum of space. Their Gyro Destabilizer was a bit annoying, but more importantly their fleet has basically just committed suicide.




Even a full dozen Klingon warriors failed to overcome the human defenses, killing just one of their defenders. A furious Kahless orders more transports constructed, as well as an orbital bombardment to eliminate the intransigent ground troops at whatever cost is necessary.

Scaliger II Bombardment (0:10)


Well that was kind of wimpy.

SD 3502.5 - After two more rounds of bombardment just blew up more valuable infrastructure but didn't dislodge the final battalion, a fresh group of Klingons invaded. We still lost a couple more units, but Scaliger II finally fell to our might.




Note how it doesn't say 'remove', 'purify', 'sanitize', 'eliminate'. It makes sure that the statement is sufficiently evil. But we will keep them around - they are better farmers than we are. The cruisers move on to Sol, while Klingon workers are transferred in from Kronos II.

SD 3502.6 - In like manner to the battle at Scaliger, we dispense with the Starbase at Sol. Bombardment of the surface commences, with the unfortunate result of much collateral damage once more. But this cannot be helped. And then ...




It's time to waste time. We have yet another reason to hate Mysvaleer. We vote Ragazor because why not try and keep them happy with us. It's 7-3 lizards at the final tally, with almost everyone abstaining because this galaxy is nearly as hateful as we are.




Going nowhere, and getting there fast on Scaliger II. But give it time ... Note also the humans, both the free and enslaved versions.




Confirming the inclinations of all rational creatures throughout the galaxy that we are a bunch of murderous jerks, we commit genocide on humanity after some more bombardments and an invasion of Sol. 6M slaves survived, along with both factory structures. Not bad at all.




This screenshot is a few turns 'ahead' as I screwed up the initial one.

SD 3503.1 - There will be a period of consolidation here. We have enough cashola to get research labs up in various places and get all other essential infrastructure in place. We have a whopping 15 RP now, which as you can see will still not get us anywhere but it's more than we've had to date.

Every occupied system in range is blockaded by our frigates, and still there is room for perhaps a third cruiser. Population is at 27M, nearly a third of them are homo sapiens. 7M are still in need of assimilating, and because of that half the population is needed for farming duty. So there's some things to sort out and get straightened. Nice thing is that Scaliger is basically safe for the time being and I don't have to worry about defending it.

I'll eventually want a population incubator or two in the Scalinger and Sol systems ... both have a single Radiated planet free so I won't want to do much there but since we get a command point increase from just occupying them as Warlords I'll still throw out Colony Bases when it seems an appropriate time.

But then where do we go next? The Space Amoeba in Bier is still out of range for our combat ships. Firma is a size-15 Ultra Rich but the Trilarians have a Battlestation/Fighter Garrison/Missile Base combo there. The Silicoids in Cryslon - both planets rich - have Star Base/Fighter Garrison combos, just a Starbase only in Lir but that's a size-6 Poor planet so not that exciting. You could make an argument to grab it quickly so that we can expand the fleet though, but it would add yet another system we have to try to defend as well. It might be time to head for the Darloks. If I get another ship in the task force and do raiding first to clear out the missile base, maybe I can take down their Battlestation. Or perhaps that tactic would be better used against the rocks first? Of course they both have had a battleship around as well so there could be some attrition involved and it'd be touchy.




On the other hand, the current wars appear to have knocked down most of the enemy fleets. The Sakkra are the only ones who have a better one than we do, apparently. All save the rocks have progressed past us technologically but that was to be expected. We're not here to learn things. We're here to blow stuff up.

After pondering these matters, I decided to basically go for the jugular right now with the Silicoids at Cryslon. Aside from the Meklar on the opposite side of the map - by the time I get to them it'd be irrelevant - the rocks are the best race at building things. And they are also Tolerant, which will go a long way towards making me not have to care as much about pollution-reducing advances. If I could secure the riches of their system, I should be able to fashion a decisive advantadge in numbers. And so the orders went out - another cruiser and a transport would be built, and we would strike immediately, hoping that the unpredictable Trilarians wouldn't feel the need to attack us at Sol.

SD 3503.2 - Trilarian/Sakkra war. Perfect timing! We arrive at Cryslon, but they had a battleship built the same turn and it hangs around. I'll wait for that third cruiser then at least. Meanwhile Sol now has a Marine Barracks, first step towards it becoming useful.

3503.4 - Sakkra/Trilarian peace treaty. Grrr.

3503.5 - The Meklar empire was eliminated, and the battleship left Cryslon so we attacked ... and discovered we do in fact need that third cruiser here. Fusion beams don't do enough damage to take out their fighter base in time with just two ships. So we'll have to wait. Only the Darloks were at war with the cybernetics, so their profile is definitely up. It also leaves the rocks as the lone plus-industry labor force in the galaxy.

SD 3503.7 - Darloks want to pick on the Trilarians next. Fine by me.

Battle of Cryslon III (1:29)


I'd have preferred not to lose the cruiser, but we got the job done and eliminated their fighter garrison. The starbase will now fall easily. Meanwhile, a Triliarian cruiser deigned to kick our frigate out of Firma ... for the moment.

SD 3503.9 - Darlok-Trilarian peace. This stuff is hard to keep up with.

SD 3504.0 - Darlok-Sakkra war, and the Silicoids rebuilt the fighter garrison before we could attack again. Sigh.




I've gotta say no. We don't have any fighters and don't plan to anytime soon.

SD 3504.6 - Second battleship arrives at Cryslon. Welp, we're definitely stalemated there. I retreat our cruisers and decide to rethink the situation. The next year they make peace with the Alkari. That's not good for us either. The Alkari, Darloks, and Trilarians are now out of the question, both possessing Class III Shields. We need better weaponry to fight them from an attacking point of view.

I think it's time to talk to the ship engineers again. We need to shift into a design that has PD capabilities, allowing for more conventional planetary assaults with the ability to shoot down incoming ordnance/strike craft. With what we have, I'm not feeling great about being able to keep up the blockades and still expand more.