Part 73: Meklar Opening

We have a winner! Your door prize is ... drumroll plz ... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! Ahem.

Episode VII: Meklar Opening




Psilons, Humans, and Silicoids. You figured we weren't going to avoid the egghead menace twice in a row. No Klackons once again, but the rest of the top competition is here. 'Easy Mode' is likely off. The galaxy itself displays a glut of homeworld possibilities in the lower-right quadrant, and a land of opportunity in the upper-right. Naturally, pinned against the left border, we appear to be the furthest empire from that territory.

Please don't let the Psilons take it. Pretty-please. With sugar on top.




Here we are. That blue star to the left is in the wrong direction, but it's the only thing within three parsecs. A lot of negative indicators early on. The colony ship will head there, scouts will push into areas that will extend our range the most as always -- that yellow star in the nebula, and the green one below and to the right. Let's see what the galaxy has in store.




It could be worse ... but only if it worked at it pretty hard. That's it and that's all until we get better range tech, so we'll proceed on that once we have the homeworld built up. But first things first: it's time for the Recon Rush. We need five of them, exactly a year's work. We got to Vega quickly and without incident, something we couldn't say last game as the humans. Not much else is good though right now.




One of the closest systems, four parsecs out. It's not much.




Better than this drek though. Sheesh. In 2307 the last colonists depart the homeworld for Vega. All told, 8 million over 5 years go.




That's better, and we should have a lock on getting it.




Planted itself right in the middle of things this time around. I don't know if that's good or bad.




Another nice one, but our chances of getting there before somebody else in the upper-left does are probably not good.




First hostile so far.




All four, Guardian included, were scouted in 2310. And artifacts! Also likely to be not claimed by us. But are we the first??? Nope. Silicoids are already here. That means they'll take Celtsi soon as well I bet. They got here VERY recently too. I think within a year or two. Too bad we weren't able to keep them away for a while ...

That's everything. Celtsi is 6 parsecs away so we can forget about that whole direction. That and Tyr are going to go Silicoid I'm pretty-much certain. In the nebula, Ukko is horrible and the only thing near it is the Guardian. So it's downwards and hopefully pushing down-right as far as we can. Early returns are that it could prove difficult to carve out enough space.

We chase the Silicoids off from Tyr a year later, just a scout. That will only last so long. Then Celtsi in 2313, a colony ship and a scout. Yep, they're coming. Back on the domestic side, Vega starts shipping people back to Meklon to max things out there sooner.




Celtsi, 2317. That didn't take long. Already sent a fighter along, and they take it. By 2324, Meklon is almost to maximum population, and Vega diverts enough resources for a year to get our first tech pull in.

** Computers -- Deep Space Scanner. Only choice.
** Construction -- Improved Industrial Tech 9. No Reduced Waste.
** Force Fields -- Class II Deflectors, always.
** Planetology -- Controlled Barren. Awesome. No terraforming, no Eco Restoration. We can land on planets that we haven't found any of. Super-great.
** Propulsion -- Both choices available, which is nice. We'll run with Hydrogen for purposes of getting moving more quickly.
** Weapons -- Gatling Laser or Hyper-V Rockets. no Hand Lasers. The Rockets are cheaper, and better initially for defense.

Getting no help on waste spending at all, or even terraforming, really hurts. Hand Lasers, another quickie, didn't show up either. Nice to have both range tech options but that's the only thing that doesn't completely suck here. I'm starting to think that our only hope here is to have a repeat of the Klackon victory; the Silicoids and Psilons fighting it out while we sit on the sidelines until the time is right to strike.