Part 30: Episode III: 2515 - 2524

Episode III: 2515-2524





The new torpedoes are in, and it's time for our last missile upgrade. I say last because as it says, the Zeon is the best there is. We can always come back and get other stuff, but having maximum protection if the Psilons ever do get anxious is a good idea.

The same year, 2516, we take two more Silicoid systems.




This is about the 8th time or so they've offered a peace treaty. We're still not interested. A year later, the Sakkra say hello. Mostly fusion beams, although there Ion Stream projector did some damage. Not really lasting though since it can't kill anything on it's own. We beat them off easily.




Well, crap. Figures that it would happen eventually though. Our trade deal remains intact, but we need to prepare for war. At high levels of tech I like to go for an all-purpose ship, capital-size. No point in beating around the bush. I didn't really want another torpedo ship -- but we don't have much choice. What passes for high-end weapons for us right now:

** Fusion Bomb -- A joke. 4-20 damage. They have only Class V Planetary Shields like us, but also Class XV Deflectors. That adds up to 20, so they wouldn't do any damage.

** Tachyon Beam -- 1-25 streaming damage. Against small ships that probably wouldn't have that much shielding, this would be ok. But considering they have better engines than us, we are probably not going to hit the high damage ranges, so anything with their best shields will take very little damage if anything from this.

** Heavy Fusion Beam -- 4-30. Again we probably end up in the lower half of the range.

** Pulson Missile -- 20 damage. It would take a lot of these to go anywhere with their shields potentially eating up almost all of it.

** Gauss Autocannon -- halves shields, 4 attacks of 7-10. 0-3 damage after taking into account their shields. Not great.

** Anti-Matter Torpedoes -- 30 damage, 15 after shielding against ships, 10 against planets.

** Hellfire Torpedoes -- 25 damage x 4 attacks. 10 and 5.

Torpedoes are the only thing that can guarantee us they can harm the enemy. Hellfires will do twice or more the damage for about 50% more space. They are the only real option here.




Here's what I came up with: the Paladin. For a capital-size ship it doesn't have much in the way of weaponry: the Gauss I just threw on there to fill out the space. It can do a little something to strike/destroyer-sized ships. I focused on the bells-and-whistles here, giving this the best of everything. Except for armor, we're still quite a bit short of the best the Psilons can field. The Zyro Shield should give it a chance of surviving a certain amount of bombardment by their bases.

If we wait until war comes, it will be too late. I must get on a war footing now. Research once again takes a back seat. The Paladin costs as much as more than 10 Knights; no planet can build one in less than three years. Getting the Zeon missile before we have to do much fighting will be crucial, so our research efforts will be refocused in that direction. Of course, since the project just started, it's going to still take some time. Hopefully it's enough.

Another issue is that there is no such thing as a back-line planet anymore. I've been expanding what worlds have bases, but now they all will need them; the Psilons have unlimited(literally) range, a tech we haven't encountered yet. They can travel anywhere on the map. Probably the toughest question is how many systems to devote to shipbuilding, and how many to keep on research. Zeon missiles are by far our best chance to hold them off assuming they do attack, which makes research a bigger priority. All of the developed Rich planets will still build the ships, but we won't get many at first. The others will be on tech until the missiles arrive.




Another high-end tech that makes beam weapons far more effective. Important to remember that they lose accuracy, and therefore damage, at longer ranges.




After the latest ECM we get a crack at a truly ridiculous toy. The Technology Nullifier shown here is unfortunately something the Psilons already have, and can render an opponent's weapons systems nearly useless. However we're going for Robotic Controls VII instead. They didn't get that, and it's the top level of industrial expansion there is.





2521: tensions with the lizards have now boiled over. We also finish our first Paladin. There is no concern here: their tech is better than the Silicoids but as we've seen their ships are basically heavy fusion beams at worst, and they've only got a handful of planets. It won't be long until we turn our attention to them ... and something else in that neck of the woods.




Another year, another planet taken, and this. 'Klackon slime'. We were fast friends for like a century. Now we're slime ... because of our how big we've become. Okey-dokey.




Time for some of the dark arts. We pump up both security and our own spies -- let's steal whatever we can from them. Aside from the production invested, there's nothing to lose here. They hate us now and will go on hating us. Sucks to lose the trade income, but they lost it as well.




The year afterwards, we get the Zeon missiles. Good thing we rushed it. On the attack, matching this monstrosity known as the Mauler Device with High Energy Focus would give us a combination that could cut through any shielding. Also ...




It's been less than a decade I think but seemed like forever.




That ... is trouble. Almost 1400 cruisers is what jumps out there. Selia has some bases and is building more, but I'm pretty sure there's no way it survives this. At a certain point, and we're past it here, bases become of limited use. We will get a good look at their tech, which is vital, but I think we can probably write that system off. Tech spending goes back to normal now, and it's time to build a lot more ships. As in a LOT.




Escalon is the new rally point for the fleet. We've only got two Paladins right now, but the most lucrative 17 of our 41 planets have been switched over to producing them. That means about 4 or so per year on average. Have to get a handle on what the Psilons have, how effective our bases and these Paladins will be against their ship before formulating more of a strategy. Even though we vastly outnumber them in terms of territory, I'm not at all confident of winning this war ... Research is now less than a quarter of what it was, but that can't be helped.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUH2Him_fsM



That ... was hilarious. They have a mixture of modern and ancient. I'm quite sure they could have taken Selia -- the AI does tend to be more scared of missile bases than it should be oftentimes. And they don't have any technology nullifiers out there. Neutronium bombs, tri-focus plasma, and mauler devices are all a lot more scary. Clearly they haven't put their best engines on yet either. A lot of these designs look fairly old.




The Sakkra and Silicoids joined the Psilons, surprising nobody. They combined for just 11 votes though. The Psilons still have enough to be a veto bloc by themselves.




We vote for ourselves, there being no point in playing political games anymore. The High Council is still divided, and it's going to stay that way until somebody wins by force. The die is cast.