Part 63: Episode VI: 2475 - 2500

Episode VI: 2475-2500




You can see our economy is falling behind, and so is our research. This is not good. The space rocks just might be big enough to defy the galaxy indefinitely ... and eventually win. Although we're not there yet, we may have to eventually make a play for Orion.

2477: contact lost with the Alkari again. The Meklar have taken Jinga this time -- and they are tough enough to hold it I think. At least it won't fall back into the hands of the rocks. That avenue is closed to us though. The cybernetics and birds are now at war. It's a bad time to be Alkari, and any expansion by our best ally at their expense should be good for us.




It'd be nice to get something better, but we pilfer another tech. Also, Aquilae has it's planetary shield up. Very good odds we hold it this time. Marietta, the other radiated world, is now in the research business. We've consolidated those gains at least.




Seems like forever ago that we picked this, and it's finally done. +50M Terraforming is next; that would be a 40M per-planet boost. As it is, half our planets will be able to grow more with the atmospheric tech, including all of the rich ones.

Zortrium Armor came in the next year. More survivable ships would be nice, but I want to wait for a new weapon as well. We'll finally get some reduced factory costs next(industrial tech 5, a 50% reduction), but it may well not matter all that much anymore by the time it's here.




Starting to rack up the stolen jammer tech. May not research another one myself all game. Unfortunately, Helos, one of our best rich worlds, was destroyed by Silicoid death spores the same year. We took out their attack force, but not before the damage was done.

We will soon re-establish it, but it will take some time to rebuild.




This is the Silicoids' new toy. The main thing here is that it's just as fast as ours. We've got to be more careful in anticipating their movements now. Defensive capabilities are much higher, and they continue their commitment to biologicals and heavy beam weapons. Shielding ... not so much.

After chasing it away we resettled Helos, but the long work of cleaning up the toxic sludge will take some time. We still have the factories in place though, so it shouldn't be too bad.

2487: the Meklar and Mrrshan are at war now. The galactic unity is splintering, and since I have no contact with most of them I can't do anything about it .




Another couple years. The Hard Beam is in and we can update our designs. The next choice is not easy though. I wanted another missile here but didn't get it. Ion Stream Projectors are good at weakening enemy ships so another weapon can finish them off. Megabolt cannon gets a massive +30% accuracy ... it's a 'wide beam' weapon. I like that better, but I'm still going with cheap over better to get the next tier.




The latest toy here doesn't have nearly as many weapons, but can take more punishment with the improved armor and even improved shielding won't protect against it. In enough numbers, we could do some damage to the Guardian with this ...

Next cycle, Class VII deflectors arrived. Zyro Shield was an option ... but not as tempting as Class XV Planetary's. We previously had just Class II Shields, so this is a big step.




Finally time for our next speed step; Ion Drives will follow our just-completed fuel cell advance. I would not realize a quite important side effect of the range boost until a few years later: it put us back in contact with the other races, even without Jinga.




We have a few of the new cruisers, but more will have to wait for us to upgrade our industry again. Before that happens though, a brief detour to crash cheaper factory costs.




A couple years later, they snuck enough biologicals through to kill another planet: Paladia. I think I could have researched one of the antidote techs, and didn't.




Just when things were starting to get going again. Sigh. Good news is we have our factory discount in, and can start that expansion. A lot of other things seem to be crumbling though. There isn't much left of the fleet, and our bases aren't as effective against the latest generation of Silicoid attackers.




Another century ends, and nothing has changed here in the Council. The Bulrathi had signed an alliance with the rocks, but we were able to convince them to break it.

** Meklar(5)
** Bulrathi(8)
** Alkari(5)
** Mrrshan(7)
** Humans(9)

34-19, same count as last time. Two votes short. We've got some things to clean up, and need the next 25 years to go better than the last 25.