Part 92: Turn 416

TURN 416


While President Archer musters his remaining ships in the eastern extreme of the Federation, our fleet moves west to hit the isolated outpost of Zadar.


TURN 417. Zadar is captured. Now everyone's empires are more contiguous.


The Federation has at least one more dilithium-rich system, but as we've learned from the Ferengi, they're just going to keep buying as many ships as they can, regardless of the rules.


TURN 418. Our scientist makes another unauthorized discovery, this time in "computer".


TURN 419. It's a good thing the Feds bought that Troop Transport at Surata, because they're not going to have the system much longer.


TURN 420. They evidently didn't have enough power to activate many of their Batteries--only 2 of them killed ships.


TURN 421. We waste no time in moving next door to Andevian. We've picked up a few more Scouts from our colonies. This is yet another system with 8 Batteries, so we'll need them.


TURN 422. But again, only a few of the Batteries could be activated with the system's power supply.


The Federation's diplomats have been awfully quiet. Perhaps issuing a demand will get them to speak up.


TURN 423. Our fleet arrives at Benzar, where all of the Federation forces have been gathering lately.


They have a couple of powerful ships in attendance, but also several Troop Transports and a Colony Ship. Chancellor Martok is displeased by the Federation's failure to build any Dreadnoughts or Defiants. "They have robbed us of the glory of destroying such ships," he growls.


Obviously we're targeting their command ships. I think some of those torpedoes are going to hit.


The Federation's last command ships and a couple small ships explode. But the non-combatants escape.


No problem--they can run from the systems, but when they come back the systems will be Klingon.


TURN 424. Benzar is home to the Benzites, another Minor Race that joined the Federation voluntarily. 42 million Benzites suffer bat'leth wounds during the transfer of power.


Our empire's remaining spy infiltrates the Federation and manages to tear apart the Nasreldine system's bunker network with his bat'leth. This is an inherently suspicious activity; he is repeatedly questioned by Federation personnel, whom he stabs to death one after the other.


The Federation's diplomat makes an appearance. The Humans refuse to pay us anything unless there is a promise of a peace treaty to go with it.


Wait a minute...Nasreldine system? Apparently the Federation was hiding a system from us. They have 2 left.


TURN 425. Our fleet moves south to discover the Nasreldine system and conquer it.


TURN 427. After taking Nasreldine, we move back north to the final frontier of the Federation: Merak.


There is nowhere left for the Federation to run. Every other system in the galaxy is Klingon. (Or Antican. Damn lawyers.)


We kill the last remaining spaceships in the galaxy that do not belong to our empire.


Our fleet is down to only a pair of Scouts--fewer Scouts than there are Orbital Batteries. But that will not stop us. As this is the last system, our Birds of Prey are asked to sacrifice themselves to destroy Batteries.


TURN 428. Among them is the Klag, our very first Bird of Prey. It has participated in nearly every battle fought after the invention of the ship. It has over 20,000 experience points, whatever that means. It will do its duty. Its crew have only seen victory, but they are willing to die as Klingons.


TURN 429. The last Federation system falls to the Klingon empire. Merak is surrounded by Klingon vessels and swarmed with troops. Only one shuttle manages to escape. It is piloted by Vice President Benjamin Sisko. No one knows what happens to him. Some say he managed to escape to live among the Anticans. Others say his shuttle flew into the galaxy's wormhole and disappeared.


President Archer is taken captive and sent to Qo'nos, where he is told he will either participate in a bat'leth duel or spend the rest of his life in a Klingon dungeon.


Archer is not as dumb as he looks. He appeals to Klingon pride by demanding a duel against Chancellor Martok himself, with the fate of the galaxy as the stakes. If Martok wins, the galaxy will be Klingon. If Archer wins, the Klingons must allow every system to determine its own government and coexist in a lasting peace. Worf advises Martok not to agree to this outrageous proposal, but as a matter of honor, Martok cannot refuse. What the aging, past-his-prime Martok does not know is that Archer has been trained from birth as an expert in all forms of hand-to-hand combat.


On the day of the battle, Archer takes his bat'leth and confidently stares across the arena at Martok. But suddenly, Archer's composure changes entirely. He glances across the arena, disturbed by all of the cheering and yelling. He is puzzled as he looks down at the bat'leth in his hands. Martok charges at him and gives his best Klingon battle cry. Archer gulps. "Oh boy."


(Archer dies.) Here is the graph for our game. The Ferengi got off to an early lead, with the Federation surprisingly close to them for quite awhile. The Cardassian and Romulan empires had their growth stunted by limited space; the Federation eventually reached its own territorial limits a bit later, leading to stagnation and a period of Ferengi dominance.

You can see the rise of the Klingons. Interestingly we were only well behind the Romulans and Cardassians for a brief period which probably coincides with the Cardassian bombings of Mintaka and Caldonia. I suspect the point where we overtook the Cardassians is when we defeated their fleet of medium-range ships at the Caldonian Starbase.

On the Romulan graph, you can see one major drop midway during its period of stagnation. I think that could be when one of their 5 systems went supernova. The Ferengi downfall, followed by our conquest of the Cardassian, Romulan, and Federation empires is easily seen.


So ends the Klingon adventure. We got significantly more points than the Federation run, which also took place in a medium-sized galaxy. Maybe the difference is morale: the Klingons were thrilled by conquest whereas the Federation hated it.

Next Time: A hiatus of undetermined length. Will it be the Ferengi who return, or the Cardassians? (Probably the Ferengi.)