Part 130: Episode XII: 2350
Episode XII: 2350
The green-circled areas are the systems that I'd like to defend for strategic reasons. The ones above we just need more range to reach, while the two Tundra worlds seem vital to an attempt to curl around the lower side of the map and hold off Sakkra expansion. As we start the second half of the 24th century there's a Falcon headed to the tundra systems, and I'll build a few more. Once again I'm in a position where I don't think I can afford more than one for each, and that won't hold for long. I'm just hoping it buys enough time to get some of our colonies up and running. The blue star above the Tundras already belongs to the lizards.
Now I'll need a new Colonizer: I expected this to be a hostile system, but now that I know it's habitable I definitely need to seize it ASAP. That means reserve funding will have to be halted for the time being. Good heavens this is a slow build. It's exactly why I almost never transfer population off of the homeworld once it's full; this is the first time I can recall doing it, and only because Proteus is so useless. 36 million Alkari will spend the next several years in transports, producing nothing.
I thought this might happen. That pretty much rules out any expansion into the centre. Rotan(95M). Nice planet, but they've been here a while. I also run into a Meklar scout at one of the Tundras.
And this, a long-term goal down in the corner. We should be able to effectively cut off all rival access.
Oooh. This is where we may have a chance to 'turn the corner'. But we'll probably have to fight for it. Aurora is six parsecs out so I can't do anything to settle it now. I plan to send multiple ships there if at all possible.
Seven. Slowly but surely we grow.
Had to chase off a Meklar scout, so they will probably come here. I may shift my focus from the tundras above to Cygni and Aurora.
Same year as the last two images; 2356. The hits just keep on comin'. Good news is that Exis, our most populous colony, is almost ready to start population transfers to Rhilus. We'll start kicking up some momentum.
Finally. Tundra/Dead/Death Spores are the next set of choices. Tundra landings are the only useful one and the cheapest, so it's one of those decisions that makes itself. It's late enough in the game that I need to be doing a general research now, but I'm not sure if I can afford to do so. I need Deuterium Fuel Cells and Tundra Landings both. Each would get us two systems. I may well pay a price for it, but I'm at least going to crash the fuel cells, which are cheaper.
https://youtu.be/_SroA93O15k
Cygni here. That's a rather amusing battle. We didn't hit them much ... but didn't get hit at all! Laser vs. laser. That Cutlass had been hanging around for several years. No longer.
2367: All the colonies are either poor or at a minimum nearing equal numbers of factories and population. That's enough bootstrapping for now: Altair gets out of the transfer business. I've also stopped building Falcons, with eight of them in service.
The end of a decade-long, uneventful journey. The fuel cells come in 2372; Nuclear Engines is the only option now. The question is whether to rush Tundra or not. And frankly I think I have to. It could be worth four systems, since if we take the tundra pair we can then have the range to reach Cygni and Aurora. I've never done tech-rushing this late into things. A bold(and perhaps stupid) experiment?
We currently have 8 systems -- if all goes well I could swell that number to a respectable 14, with more to be added once we get the right hostile tech. That's a competitive number.
The next year, Exis is finally ready to start contributing. Almost three generations to get a quality off-world colony going. It'll shoulder much of the research load now and hopefully accelerate our progress, then help with getting the Colonizers out ASAP once that's done.
75 years and still we haven't met any other empires. The isolation of our starting position may have worked for us in this case. Some lipstick is appearing on this pig of a start.