Part 93: Episode IX: Sakkra Opening

Episode IX: Sakkra Opening

Green theme, naturally. Hissa rules from Sssla; get used to the 'S' frequency with this group.




Upper-left in a galaxy of Psilons, Humans, and the three aggressive 'animal' races. Yellow stars are pretty spread out so it should be a fairly 'equal' battle, at least in theory.




It's the two white stars here that are within range. We'll head to the one below and to the left, aiming towards the center, a much better position strategicially.




That wouldn't have worked anyway it seems.




A little subpar for a first colony, but it is what it is. Instead of having to drip colonists over for a bit, Sssla already is up to 54M population so they'll be sending several transports a year. This is going to get moving, and in a hurry. Meanwhile ...




Those are Mrrshans. We've got a nearby, likely antagonistic neighbor. Super. The Recon count here is five needed, exactly a year's work, and actually a sixth for Yarrow since they are so close.




Important for extending our range if not much else. We can get here without improving our fuel cells.




Lovely. Nobody's going to be able to reach it right away either so we might just get it.




That's two hostile systems now.




Nicer.




They don't waste time, do they. Less than a decade into the game and the cats are already on the warpath. These are clearly headed for Yarrow, which I think will have enough to survive the attack by the time the arrive. It better. I guess and send a half-dozen more from Sssla, even though that'll slow us down.




Could be a future battleground, despite it's size.




Not every day you get to scout a rival homeworld.




Our reinforcements arrive just in time. Would have won it anyway, but we couldn't afford to lose our first colony. An early super-aggressive Mrrshan gambit; planetary invasion in 2312. Yikes. It failed though, and now they are on the back foot having squandered much of their initial population.

Fierias has just 45M on it. Even with the extra sent over, Sssla is at 82M. Advantage: Sakkra. Everything's been scouted now and it's real simple; a race to Firma, right between Yarrow and Fierias. It's the only planet in range that we can colonize. If we beat them to it, the Mrrshan will likely be in even more of a pickle.

The next year a human colony ship shows up at Zoctan, the radiated system below us. It's sent on it's way, but that gives us a good indicator of where they are.




First Mrrshan attempt at taking Firma. You need to come with more than a bare colony ship, fellas. They're back a few years later -- with 26 destroyers. Figures.




Fat chance. Aggressive Technologists, they are already allied with the Psilons. Lol.







Sending an invasion to Firma would be pointless; we can't take on their fleet. And the only habitable systems are 5 and 6 parsecs away. So we're sort of stuck, and need some hopefully-quick research. Despite our bad initial relations(Wary), they do agree to a 50BC trade deal. That's good, since we have no way of bribing them this early. Time to check the research pulls.

** Computing -- ECM I, Battle Computer II, and Battle Scanner. Lots of options but we go super-cheap with the ECM.
** Construction -- Reduced Waste 80%
** Force Fields -- Class II Deflectors




Showing this so we can see our weird-looking blue lizard scientist. That's a super-cheap terraforming get there. We'll be grabbing both of these.

** Propulsion -- Both are available, but Hydrogen(range 4) would do us no good. It's Deuterium here.
** Weapons -- Hand Lasers only.

Well, we've got some cheap ones there. Really the big problem is the fact that we've got to wait for a 1k research right away to expand, and we've got a trade deal weighing us down. Just -14 BC, but when the total imperial production is less than 300, that's still a significant amount.

The whole Mrrshan situation is such a classic MOO thing; I simultaneously hate it and am forced to applaud it. They started out the minimum distance away from us, with Firma and Yarrow forcing both of us towards each other. They were already attacking before I could get the recon rush out there.