Part 66: Episode VI: 2550 - 2575
Episode VI: 2550-2575The Meklar ask us to go to war with the Bulrathi. If we want to stay allied(and we do), there is no choice.
We remain sort of 'in contact' in terms of tech and fleet power, production has gained some. Still a lot of work to do of course.
I decide to try for nearly-max espionage against the Silicoids for a while, see if that gets us anywhere.
Incredibly, those idiots are still using some designs with retro engines. They've had sub-light for a good long while and recently developed impulse capability. If and when I get the chance, I'm going to work on getting the Bulrathi to break that alliance with the Silicoids, but that's for another time.
Planet holdings:
** Silicoid(18) -- Same.
** Bulrathi -- 11, also no change.
** Human(11) -- +4, a huge gain in a quarter-century, esp. if we hold Palladia.
** Meklar(10) -- Our one stable ally is also up, by two systems.
** Alkari(8) -- lost one system.
** Mrrshan(6) -- down by 2.
Looks like the birds and kitties are getting pushed out of the way a bit.
The two that we've got coming right now are definitely valuable. Andrium Armor will make our ships tougher and I'll do a small re-design when it arrives. Further down the pike is Complete Eco Restoration, which will slash our modest but still significant waste bills by a quarter(20 per BC, currently 5 per BC with Enhanced version).
Current maintenance numbers are about 15% ships, 12% bases. A little low but close to where I'd like to be. The research focus will continue for now. Terraforming is finished on Morrig/Phyco/Helos, and we've been building the shield on that last one. Soon those systems will be secure.
We repel the space rocks easily at Paladia in 2552. Another year, and Aquilae lost 32M people to the Silicoid attack. With our Planetary XV Shields, only their biologicals had any effect, but with the size of the force they sent it was still a third of the population.
Only took us five years of more intense effort to get in ... but couldn't access the two fields I wanted, Planetology and Computers. I wonder why, since I thought the deal was you can choose any category that you don't have everything they do? Anyway I went Weapons here. We got Merculite Missiles ... not as good as the Pulsons we are researching but they should be better than our current Scatter Packs against shielded targets.
2557. A big moment, as with no incoming ships this means our fleet is no longer needed to protect it. I begin to entertain thoughts of when we might be able to stretch our legs even beyond Paladia ...
I'm sure they'll solve this, but anything bad for them is good for us.
2561 situation here. You can see the typical proportion that is going to waste spending for quite a long time now; 15-20% I think. It'll be good to reduce that to nearly nothing. Also, the two 'Reloc' lines here are the two good rich systems fully-developed(Aquilae and Klystron) sending ships out to Paladia on the right. They are building enough to just slightly increase our ship maintenance costs as the economy grows, keeping that very stable so that the rest of the systems are able to work on keeping us competetive in research. Meanwhile the other empires are mostly fighting each other at the moment. Feels like I'm getting over the hump here, which is hilarious given how when I lost the three straight super-close High Council votes I was searching for something ... anything ... that would get me to that point. With that and all the chaos that followed, to be here and have things look like I'm gradually gaining power on a slowly accelerating curve is a beautiful, beautiful thing. It won't last forever but I'm working hard here to make sure humanity can stand against our foes when they decide we're worthy of more attention. In particular the Meklar-Silicoid stuff looks to be really intense.
Only a significant part of all the ships the rocks are sending every which way. Really glad I don't have to figure out who is going where, as MOO gives me the visual alert when one of my current systems is targeted. That's ... a lot of ships.
Andrium Armor came in. A new and improved 'HI' cruiser will be built. Three of these options were worth considering. The reduced waste would drop that amount by a quarter and is an older, cheap tech, but we'll have very little as it is once Complete Eco arrives. Reducing factory costs(currently at 5) by another 40% would be nice ... but it costs almost as much as the Tritanium which is probably overall even nicer, so I go that route.
2565: In 15 years the espionage push has gotten us absolutely nothing, so we abandon the effort. Might as well use the resources for our domestic affairs.
Then the Zyro Shield came in and we moved on to the Class XI Shield; currently we're at VII so that would be a major boost. Zyro is currently too big to really be practically useful on our ships -- I'd have to give up too much other stuff for it to be worth it I think. That'll be different once we get into attacking planets, but right now it's just about defending what we have. Also ...
Figures.
In 2567 Complete Eco Restoration finally arrives. Then there is this choice ...
Terraforming +80M would be another 30 million per planet. The Guava Plan requires that Bio Terminator, but also much more advanced tech and miniaturization than we have. I'd love to turn the weapon of the space rocks against them but we aren't at the point of being able to do that yet. So Terraforming it is.
2569. This is Exis, a former colony of ours of course and one that continues to change hands. The Silicoids look set to retake it, and I was quite tempted to send ships in to do just that. They've got a couple of new ones in that group though, capital ships for the first time and we don't know their capabilities. Also, Paladia's planetary shield isn't up and running so it would be at least somewhat risky to divert fleet assets from there just yet. I decided it's better to wait a little longer before striking out again, but I'd really like to get Exis(and Jinga, also probably still poorly-defended) back in the fold at some point.
I changed my mind a year later and decided to send some of our more expendable ships out there. Helos had finished up it's run of missile bases, and our military maintenance was nearing my target goal of 35%(32-33% at the moment). With a third rich world now in the shipbuilding business on our latest designs, we were going to scrap the old ones soon anyway. Why not put them to use and try to gain some territory? Plus the Silicoids had destroyed the Meklar colony at Rigel.
Here's the specs at the time of the expedition, 2570. The bottom one is our latest colony ship -- we can build destroyer-sized colonizers but only up to Barren landings. The more hostile ones can't fit and I don't want to use up more than one slot for that. All of the combat ships have been cruiser-sized with Hard Beams for a long time. The top two are the slower ones with Sublight engines and due to be eliminated. I sent the lot of them with a colony ship to Exis to see what happened. The other ones have faster Ion propulsion and escalating defenses(Andrium armor and minimal shielding on the latest versions).
We wouldn't get there until after them, but could always send troops at that point if we managed to secure orbital space. If not, then maybe we take some of the rocks with us instead of just scuttling the older ships, and get some intel on their newer designs. This should be a relative win-win.
The Mrrshan got to Exis first and reclaimed it in '71, then the Silicoids destroyed that settlement in '72, but not much was rest of their fleet, just a pair of cruisers. Looks like the Mrrshan showed their fangs beforing biting it. The rocks did not even attempt to defend their position in orbit when we showed up the following year.
Meanwhile, the Meklar had also gotten control of Rigel back, also good news. Alkari, Mrrshan, Meklar, and Silicoid, the first three of those friends, were all en route. The Silicoid fleet is not large enough to be a major concern, but the Mrrshan transports can't be recalled, so we sent as many people as possible to hopefully hold them off. That's an unfortunate accidental act of war we have on our hands. IF we can hold Exis, it should be enough to re-establish relations permanently instead of them constantly flitting in and out of communications. That means more trade, which could potentially be a lot more valuable than the system itself.
Unfortunate, but also necessary.
Same song, different verse. Obscenely stable, and veto-capable plus one for our enemies. The rest of the field:
** Meklar(6) -- Johan III, no change.
** Bulrathi(8) -- Granid, again the same.
** Alkari(5) -- Johan III.
** Mrrshan(4) -- Johan III. Lost one more. Once our strongest ally, they are steadily melting away.
We gain two more to 11, and the vote is deadlocked at 27-all. Our empire continues to slowly rise from near-ashes, but there is little changed in the overall balance of things.