Part 25: Turn 227

TURN 227


Immediately after we liberate the Angosians from a lifetime of Cardassian slavery, their diplomat sends us a condescending message just like the Caldorians did. Outrage is felt all across the empire.


The Romulans are asked by the remaining empires to accept their surrender. Upon receipt of the Angosian message, the aged Romulan emperor spends most of the day alone in his chambers and refuses to see anyone. Nearby servants can hear howls of anguish through the walls. Then comes a loud cry: "What good is it to rule the galaxy if noone respects me?!" A few moments later, he emerges from his chambers appearing perfectly composed. "I have reached my decision. The answer is no."


The Angosians have doomed the galaxy to more war.


TURN 229. A pair of Battle Cruisers and a Destroyer near Ferenginar decide to strike out and attack a small fleet containing a Ferengi Marauder.


The Ferengi may pretend they still have a fleet, but they're just providing targets.


Angosia goes from liberation to slavery in record time. But the rage they stirred within the heart of Romulus is unabated. The whole galaxy will burn.


TURN 233. Romulan warships fan out across Cardassian space in the northwest. Sometimes they invade systems with Troop Transports, but other times they simply bomb the life out of them.


TURN 234. One system falls after the next. There are many Orbital Batteries, but the remaining Destroyers, along with a new crop of Scouts, hurl themselves into them. Fewer ships in the fleet means more credits per turn. We're back in the black and netting nearly 5,000 credits per turn.


TURN 237. Our intel power continues to strengthen as people go from building intel centers to manning them. The Klingons' internal security is finally being penetrated.


TURN 238. Even the biggest Cardassian systems are easily nuked into nonexistence by all of the Battle Cruisers.


TURN 240. The Romulan fleet makes short work of the northwest; the fleet near Sol stomps the life out of the remaining Ferengi systems. The order is given to attack the Ferengi systems around Ferenginar and also to venture into the north-central pocket of unexplored space.


Moving to the east, the Cardassian system of Kaelon is impressive, with 465 population units. But it will not last long under the weight of Romulan fury.


TURN 242. Kaelon's vaunted Orbital Battery defense quickly falls, along with over 100 million people.


Many systems are now simply producing the default build of "trade goods" (i.e. nothing) because the entire population is manning farms and intel centers.


TURN 243. The fall of Kaelon spells the end of the Cardassian empire, which they call a "union" for some reason. The Cardies thought they were safely nestled in the corner of the galaxy. But instead of riding out the war and watching their allies die, they bite it. The Ferengi-Cardassian alliance is now just the Ferengi. Three empires inhabit the galaxy.


TURN 245. There are still Minor Races to be discovered. Weird icthymen are found in the north-central pocket.


At the same time, the Bajorans are also discovered. They are members of the Ferengi empire--good thing the Cardassians didn't find them first.


Our spies no longer have the option of stealing or destroying Cardassian stuff. Here, they manage to pierce Ferengi counter-intelligence for the first time and destroy a command ship. We'd love to believe it was a Marauder, but it was probably just a War Cruiser.


The Antedeans managed to maintain their neutrality throughout the entire war. Their independence has been preserved in part through the biggest Orbital Battery defense we've seen yet: 13 Batteries!


Apparently a lot of Ferengi have been hiding out in these heretofore hidden areas. They've even got yet another Marauder lurking around on Bajor.


TURN 246. ...Not anymore, though.


We count the Ferengi systems and notice that one of them is missing from the map. After counting and recounting Ferengi stars and trying to figure out why it's one less than the number of systems they have on our intel page, we figure it out. A trade line connects a Ferengi system and an unexplored sector in the southwestern corner. There have been systems hidden in there all along, and even the Ferengi have been down there!


TURN 248. Antedean neutrality comes to an end. Their Orbital Batteries each knock out a ship, but we just have too many of them.


Our spies strip all the Orbital Batteries from the Klingon system of Omicron Ceti, and our Qo'nos fleet ninjas an invasion. Our attention is drawn to the Cirrus system, which is inhabited by Klingons but is not shaded in red. In fact, these Klingons had a rebellion and broke away from the Klingon empire. I guess their morale must have been pretty lousy after all this time. The Cirrus Klingons may attempt to distance themselves from the empire, but they will be conquered as well.


TURN 249. Ferengi systems drop one after the other.


TURN 250. We discover the Chalnoth hidden in the southwestern corner of the galaxy. They've been trading with the Ferengi, but they are independent. This means the Ferengi must have another system in the southwestern corner.


The southwest is as far from our fleet as it gets, so we don't bother with conquering them by force. We have so much money now that it's ridiculous. The Chalnoth can be bought with trinkets.


TURN 251. Xanthras, a tiny Klingon system near the north-central pocket, was apparently hiding a few Troop Transport ships that we never destroyed. That oversight is fixed by a fleet of 26 Battle Cruisers, our biggest collection yet.


TURN 252. We don't even need to find the hidden Ferengi system, as it has apparently rebelled and declared its independence from the Ferengi empire. The Ferengi empire is finished, and now only we and the Klingons remain.


Not the Klingons of Xanthras, of course. Those Klingons are all dead.


Our Scout in the southwestern corner does manage to find the Talarians, which were apparently a member of the Ferengi empire until they rebelled. Once again, we bribe them into our empire out of convenience. We've got nearly a quarter of a million credits to spare.


The southwestern corner, now fully explored. 12 Orbital Batteries on Talar? Yeah, we'll just buy these guys.


Now Dimorus is the only remaining system of the enemy empires. Our fleet orbits, but does not assault it.


TURN 256. The Chalnoth may look like dumb animals, but they're a lot smarter than the Angosians. The Talarians follow them into our empire.


With the war at a close, all of our Battle Cruisers are ordered to Romulus, to train at our empire's naval academy. It will take awhile for all of them to arrive.


TURN 261. The galaxy is ours, except for the Klingon system of Dimorus. Around 40 Battle Cruisers in all are training in Romulus. We've even brought home the 2 Warbirds.


TURN 262. In the end, we accumulated over 35,000 intel points. Now we will allow Romulans to conduct research so that we can invent the Warbird II.


TURN 265. Romulans discover level 9 construction, which is basically magic. (Magic is worth a few more points of industry per factory.)


TURN 274. Romulans discover level 9 biotech. It's based on the varied evolutionary pathways that are taken among disparate worlds. It's our observation that in fact sentient life-forms seem to have a lot more similarities than differences.


TURN 278. We continue researching for the... Oh, hi Borg.