Part 107: Episode X: 2475 - 2500
Episode X: 2475-2500
Silicoids-Sakkra-Mrrshan is the only active alliance at this point. No profitable tech trades could be found, and the Bulrathi were not interested in any of our developments for bribing purposes. There's a window where that kind of thing is no longer as useful, and we seem to have reached it.
The galaxy is becoming more hostile; we lost rather than gained at Rigel but our alliance with the Silicoids leaves some chance, if a small one, of reversing that. This planet here, with Bulrathi and Mrrshan orbiting, could potentially be an opportunity. Certainly we don't lose much by have some colony ships at the ready. Three were built, one per two years at Phyco. One for the green star, and two to kept in reserve at all times.
2481. Stinger Missiles were available next, but also the 'Thotimx Special' -- Anti-matter torpedoes. Defense is good. Cheaper is also better, and the stingers are almost half the cost. None of that really matter though in the fact of the fact that we need to defend the territory we expand to(if any). Torpedoes it is.
This is the green star. An astoudingly-large, already-terraformed terran world. Yeah it's Ultra Poor, but beggars can't be choosers and that's a lot of Sakkra to increase our influence in the council and pay for the ships Phyco pumps out, if nothing else. The Silicoids arrived at the same time, but we 'won the tie' and chased off a single Mrrshan cruiser.
A small -- very small -- flicker of hope is renewed.
Naturally. I'd have expected nothing less. An Alkari colony ship is bound for Rayden, two years out. That's it though -- and I'm mostly just hoping the Silicoids hang around a while.
The Mrrshan, under Emperor Yalara, are Ruthless Expansists and Wary of us. All expected. Still, they agree to a trade deal of 375 BC. Hopefully that will keep them from exercising their more hostile proclivities, since they aren't interesting in any of our tech even as a bribe.
A little behind the Bulrathi, and just as irrelevant compared to the Silicoid as are everyone. We are still out of contact with the Alkari, but that's it.
Not a whole lot of places left that Orion can be. We probably would need another couple planets to fund a fleet that could take the Guardian on down the road anyway and we can reach only one of the few unclaimed worlds. Might as well get a ship out there to check it out(the green one, smack dab in the middle, is exactly 10 parsecs away).
We now have the irrelevant Energy Pulsar. Normally I'd frown on a range increase at this point in a game, but here I don't mind so much. The further our Orion-scouting expeditions and colony ships can reach, the more potential salvaging operations we will be able to countenance. I try to shop the Pulsar around, but with no success. We're in the opposite of a sweet spot; they won't trade anything useful, and don't want our crap as a bribe.
The trade deals are proving particularly beneficial to Rayden's development, increasing it's production as much as I could with reserve transfers. Of course, a planet that size, nearly a decade away from the incoming colonist transports, ultra poor -- it's going to be a long time before it does much more than extend our range. It takes a full three years before it can do so much as build a tenth of a factory annually.
In 2488, the first batch of colonists arrive. Up to 27M population, we can now build almost a full factory. ONE.
Another few years. This will help our survivability a bit. Time for another ship design. We've got a choice between cheaper factories(Industrial Tech 5), equipment for ground troops(Armored Exoskeleton), or waste reducted(Reduced 40%). Normally the factories would be the last one on the agenda, but with how long Rayden's going to take to build up, I decide that's the best use of the funding.
I decide here it's time to move up to Cruiser-sized ships. We still have laughably inept(MK I) computing and are mounting Fusion Beams. I add in a couple of heavy ones and a battle scanner to the latest design at the bottom, our first of the heavier class. The older destroyers were around since right after the first attack on Rigel.
AdvancedEco arrives to help the struggling economy, and Terraforming +50M here will add 20M to each world.
One more place that is not Orion.
A rare, but interesting event. This may shake things up a bit. Bulrathi and Mrrshan are now at war. The Silicoids soon joined them. If some of the Bears' planets become available to us ...
It's 2496. It's not the Bulrathi whose planets appear to be set to become available. They are attacking Ukko and Rigel, above and below Rayden. An opportunity to expand our influence potentially, and I pre-emptively send a colonizer in both directions, ordering up a couple more from Phyco. Ukko is gone the following year, with three Bulrathi colony ships in orbit. I expect the Bulrathi will just retake it, but had I not sent our Colonizer early they would have been able to do so before we were in position. At least this way there's a tiny chance the Silicoids will come to the rescue before the bearish ground troops arrive.
Finally our Toxic Landings get to be used for something ... and a nice rich world. It would be super-nice to keep it -- and the Bulrathi fleet has left! They didn't even stick around, so there's a chance that might happen, esp with a big group of Silicoids incoming. Thanks stooges! Erm, allies. Benevolent overlords. That's totally what I meant, rock dudes.
The rocks have been decreased. This is great news for all freedom-loving empires. And of course we love our own freedom ... but aren't so particular about that of our rivals.
** Alkari(2) -- Granid
** Bulrathi(15) -- Down as well, partly due to troop transports during the war.
** Mrrshan(11) -- Granid. +1 here, a bit more relevant.
** Meklar(7) -- Abstain. Now that is quite interesting.
We have 6 now. It's 33-15 Granid, so we could afford to vote for either, but we need both of them to be in a tolerant mood so we don't. Abstain again. Six is a record for us. We're nearly as big as the Meklar now.