OSG-25 with kyrub's patch (1.40m)
- Thread starter Catwalk
- Start date
Step 1: Design the following:
- Fusion bomber FusB 5.0 pretty much exactly as ToddMarshall had it.
- NPG 5.0 fighter; I dropped to BCIII and Duralloy in order to shave a BC and get Stabilizer.
- Merc 5.0 fighter pretty much as ToddMarshall had it.
- New large scanner with 6 Megabolt cannons, shield 5, superb maneuver, repulsors -- basically every defense we have cranked up so that it's nearly untouchable but can do a modicum of damage every turn. Didn't also have room for auto-repair or ECM though. I don't intend to build a lot of these but a couple could be useful if we are going to attack more.
In order to do that I scrapped everything but our warp 3 NPG fighters.
Set everybody to relocate to Moro in the center of our empire. I am thinking Sakkra are a good target right now as they are pretty self-contained and not mixed in with other races so fewer poaching opportunities. We have a few incoming attacks so those will be handled by our existing bases & fleets. I also tell Guardas to modernize its defenses as there's a fleet incoming.
The Sakkra have a lot more bases on their worlds than I am used to seeing. We'll just have to see how that goes...
- Fusion bomber FusB 5.0 pretty much exactly as ToddMarshall had it.
- NPG 5.0 fighter; I dropped to BCIII and Duralloy in order to shave a BC and get Stabilizer.
- Merc 5.0 fighter pretty much as ToddMarshall had it.
- New large scanner with 6 Megabolt cannons, shield 5, superb maneuver, repulsors -- basically every defense we have cranked up so that it's nearly untouchable but can do a modicum of damage every turn. Didn't also have room for auto-repair or ECM though. I don't intend to build a lot of these but a couple could be useful if we are going to attack more.
In order to do that I scrapped everything but our warp 3 NPG fighters.
Set everybody to relocate to Moro in the center of our empire. I am thinking Sakkra are a good target right now as they are pretty self-contained and not mixed in with other races so fewer poaching opportunities. We have a few incoming attacks so those will be handled by our existing bases & fleets. I also tell Guardas to modernize its defenses as there's a fleet incoming.
The Sakkra have a lot more bases on their worlds than I am used to seeing. We'll just have to see how that goes...
2442: We go for the grand prize right off the bat: Rha, a size 250 Sakkra world, attacking with close to 400 fusion bombers, 200 merculite boats, and 120 NPG boats in addition to the scanner. 350 troopers are also sent, though only 300 can fit on the battle card. In the end we lose over 200 fusion bombers taking out the bases, but we do manage to take the planet, gaining Complete Eco Restoration, Terraforming +80, and Advanced Cloning. 180 population remains to take over the Sakkra colony and stand it up; with help from the reserves it is able to complete its shield and build 3 bases in the first turn.
We will need more reserves to stand up future conquests as quickly.
We will need more reserves to stand up future conquests as quickly.
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 257
"So, what did you do today, Emperor Zed?"
"Nothing much; just conquered a size-250 gaia from marauding space lizards. You?"
Thanks for the updates; I can't wait to read about the rest! (Though I'll be away for a little more than a day starting nowish, so I'll have to wait until Saturday night to catch up either way.)
2446: We take Willow from the Sakkra, but unfortunately a Sakkra fleet will be heading here this turn (retreating from our new colony at Rha.) Hopefully we can take it out with our own fleet of a couple hundred merc boats and a couple hundred NPG fighters, or we could lose the world as it won't be able to finish a base in just 1 turn even with boosted production.
Certainly we are likely to take some casualties with our own fleet as the enemy fleet is pretty substantial, even if their computers suck.
2447: Our fleet defending Willow successfully fends off the Sakkra fleet, through clever maneuvering of our Scanner to keep the enemy Juggernauts out of the action. Next up on the blocks is Kulthos, the assault fleet will arrive there next turn.
Certainly we are likely to take some casualties with our own fleet as the enemy fleet is pretty substantial, even if their computers suck.
2447: Our fleet defending Willow successfully fends off the Sakkra fleet, through clever maneuvering of our Scanner to keep the enemy Juggernauts out of the action. Next up on the blocks is Kulthos, the assault fleet will arrive there next turn.
2448: Kulthos conquered and reserves sent to speed up production of shield + bases. It won't be done this turn but there are no incoming attacks so there should be no problems standing it up in time to free up the fleet for the upcoming attack on Anraq, another prize world at size 220.
2450: We successfully invade Anraq. The Sakkra have Personal Absorption shield now so we take a few more casualties among the troops than anticipated, but we had sent more than enough. We get a vote and are nominated. Are we allowed to win by election? Once we absorb the Sakkra, nobody will be able to stand against us, so it seems like a good time to declare victory over the map. I guess I can attach turn 2449 and 2450 saves just in case we aren't; we are up against the universally hated Klackons so I think we can probably win a vote. Let's see...
We get 42 out of 59 votes, which is enough for a victory! Only the Klackons and Sakkra voted against us.
Well I guess I can't attach a turn 2450 save if we win the election, but 2449 save is attached.
Sorry it took a few turns to really get the conquest ball rolling; at the start of my turn we had all the tools needed to build a solid navy but it took a while to build up enough critical mass to be able to be successful attacking. Our fusion bombers are pretty good if you have enough of them, but you do still need a few hundred of them to be really able to take on large numbers of bases. The rest of our stuff is more-or-less ok though I wound up being underwhelmed by the merculite fighters; I should have skipped those and just built more fighters with more staying power. The merculites just couldn't do enough damage overall to be a decisive factor.
The other thing that was slowing us down in the beginning was I had to constantly strip all our worlds for population even as I was building fleets, since we didn't have enough worlds to do both at the same time very easily. Fortunately we didn't really have a lot of problems with this due to cloning techs, but it did slow things down a bit. Of course now we have plenty of worlds and are able to do both ship production and population growth at once, since we just ate 4 planets out of the Sakkra core and are looking to get more (or would be if the game continues.)
Regarding technology, I pretty much just ignored it during my turns. Jinga was on half-reserves and half-tech duty during my turns, other than being involved on fleet and troop production early in the turnset. That's pretty much the only world doing any tech for the entirety of my turns.
Another thing to note is that we were getting harassed by the Klackons pretty regularly during my turns. Primodius seems to be attracting a lot of attention; I had to rush it to defense-building before it could finish its factory builds because the Klackons have a slightly more capable navy than the Sakkra do (at least when it comes to attacking planets.) Everywhere other than Primodius is still pretty much good to go.
2450: We successfully invade Anraq. The Sakkra have Personal Absorption shield now so we take a few more casualties among the troops than anticipated, but we had sent more than enough. We get a vote and are nominated. Are we allowed to win by election? Once we absorb the Sakkra, nobody will be able to stand against us, so it seems like a good time to declare victory over the map. I guess I can attach turn 2449 and 2450 saves just in case we aren't; we are up against the universally hated Klackons so I think we can probably win a vote. Let's see...
We get 42 out of 59 votes, which is enough for a victory! Only the Klackons and Sakkra voted against us.
Well I guess I can't attach a turn 2450 save if we win the election, but 2449 save is attached.
Sorry it took a few turns to really get the conquest ball rolling; at the start of my turn we had all the tools needed to build a solid navy but it took a while to build up enough critical mass to be able to be successful attacking. Our fusion bombers are pretty good if you have enough of them, but you do still need a few hundred of them to be really able to take on large numbers of bases. The rest of our stuff is more-or-less ok though I wound up being underwhelmed by the merculite fighters; I should have skipped those and just built more fighters with more staying power. The merculites just couldn't do enough damage overall to be a decisive factor.
The other thing that was slowing us down in the beginning was I had to constantly strip all our worlds for population even as I was building fleets, since we didn't have enough worlds to do both at the same time very easily. Fortunately we didn't really have a lot of problems with this due to cloning techs, but it did slow things down a bit. Of course now we have plenty of worlds and are able to do both ship production and population growth at once, since we just ate 4 planets out of the Sakkra core and are looking to get more (or would be if the game continues.)
Regarding technology, I pretty much just ignored it during my turns. Jinga was on half-reserves and half-tech duty during my turns, other than being involved on fleet and troop production early in the turnset. That's pretty much the only world doing any tech for the entirety of my turns.
Another thing to note is that we were getting harassed by the Klackons pretty regularly during my turns. Primodius seems to be attracting a lot of attention; I had to rush it to defense-building before it could finish its factory builds because the Klackons have a slightly more capable navy than the Sakkra do (at least when it comes to attacking planets.) Everywhere other than Primodius is still pretty much good to go.
RaiddinnRZ
Chieftain
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2011
- Messages
- 60
We had a pretty sad vote win in my second set of turns and passed it.
I don't clearly remember the next step up from there, but its either half galactic population or 2/3, IIRC.
Raid
I don't clearly remember the next step up from there, but its either half galactic population or 2/3, IIRC.
Raid
RaiddinnRZ
Chieftain
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- Apr 17, 2011
- Messages
- 60
Given that we passed on an early game vote already, I would like to just go for the next higher win.
In any event, the way things are going right now, that should be either 25 years out or 50 years out.
My vote is to abstain this vote.
Raid
In any event, the way things are going right now, that should be either 25 years out or 50 years out.
My vote is to abstain this vote.
Raid
ToddMarshall
Maniac - Stellar Wingman
Like I said earlier, I want to kill everyone but the psilons and one other race unless the psilons turn on us. At that point, extermination is called for.
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 257
It's ridiculously late (now early) where I am, so I'll have to make this quick; more when I have a chance.
First: Terrific turns as always, Zed! It was great to have you drop by again for old times' sake (and more or less just take over half of Sakkra space for us). I hope we'll get a chance to game with you one way or another again!
Second: I've downloaded the 2449 save, hit enter, played out the battles (I lost one of ten missile bases and some obsolete fighters defending Primodius -- as Zed said, the Klackon fleets are much more dangerous than the lizards right now, and they brought hundreds of fast-moving Fusion Bombers to the battle, plus space support ships. And of course we conquered Anraq, at the cost of zero ships since Doom Drives can flat-out outrun Mercs.) and abstained in the High Council vote. And rejected a peace deal from the Sakkra. And noticed with some amusement that our fleet strength is "last" according to GNN!
That's all I've done so far though, and I need to sleep. I'll try to play the turns and report sometime in the next couple of days though.
Which is to say: GOT IT!
[EDIT]P.S. I'm with Zed: This game is won, and I'm not too concerned about whether our victory is "Diplomatic" or one of "Domination/Conquest/Extermination." It's clear enough that we could get whichever we wanted from here with ease. But I'm also all in favor of giving Maniac, Raiddinn, and TheArchduke an opportunity to play with all our cool new toys. Especially since it means I get to play with 'em too![/EDIT]
First: Terrific turns as always, Zed! It was great to have you drop by again for old times' sake (and more or less just take over half of Sakkra space for us). I hope we'll get a chance to game with you one way or another again!
Second: I've downloaded the 2449 save, hit enter, played out the battles (I lost one of ten missile bases and some obsolete fighters defending Primodius -- as Zed said, the Klackon fleets are much more dangerous than the lizards right now, and they brought hundreds of fast-moving Fusion Bombers to the battle, plus space support ships. And of course we conquered Anraq, at the cost of zero ships since Doom Drives can flat-out outrun Mercs.) and abstained in the High Council vote. And rejected a peace deal from the Sakkra. And noticed with some amusement that our fleet strength is "last" according to GNN!
That's all I've done so far though, and I need to sleep. I'll try to play the turns and report sometime in the next couple of days though.
Which is to say: GOT IT!
[EDIT]P.S. I'm with Zed: This game is won, and I'm not too concerned about whether our victory is "Diplomatic" or one of "Domination/Conquest/Extermination." It's clear enough that we could get whichever we wanted from here with ease. But I'm also all in favor of giving Maniac, Raiddinn, and TheArchduke an opportunity to play with all our cool new toys. Especially since it means I get to play with 'em too![/EDIT]
RaiddinnRZ
Chieftain
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2011
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- 60
Who is next up after RefSteel?
Is it me again?
Raid
Is it me again?
Raid
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
- Messages
- 257
Yup! Consulting the roster:
RaiddinnRZ - On Deck
(Catwalk on skip due to family issues)
TheArchduke
Maniac Marshall
(Zed-F Cameo) - Just Played
RefSteel - Up!
ToddMarshall
Maniac - Stellar Wingman
Yeah, it's you, then Archduke, and if we still haven't won yet, me and then Ref. i doubt we'd want to play beyond that, so lets figure that after Ref, this is your last set of turns.
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
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- Nov 29, 2007
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- 257
"Want to," eh? I haven't started playing my turns yet (except for redoing the interturn as mentioned above) but you're talking about 50 turns in the future! If we haven't achieved a Conquest victory by that point (even an "Us+Psilons+1-other-planet" one such as you described) I'll be quite surprised. Note however that I could be missing something obvious. And also I guess what I just wrote pretty much just means the same thing as what you did....
...Unless the Psilons turn on us and we've EXTERMINATED everyone by then!
(For those who aren't familiar with Sirian's/RB's victory categories, "Conquest" is the way we won last time: Owning 2/3+ of the High Council votes all on your own; Domination is winning an election with at least half the votes in your own empire and/or enough planets to trigger the "trying to merge" message from GNN. There's no in-game recognition of these victory conditions except the usual ending for winning the high council vote.)
Still not a lot of time, but let's see if I can get some of these turns played in the window I've got now....
ToddMarshall
Maniac - Stellar Wingman
Oh, I agree. I haven't looked at the saves in a while, but unless someone discovers planetary 15 right shortly, I don't see how we lose.
RaiddinnRZ
Chieftain
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- Apr 17, 2011
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Even then, that is just going to slow us down from killing them quickly.
I would be more worried that they developed Bio Terminator and Cloaking.
Even then, in my experience when an enemy takes or destroys one planet they usually don't take their whole fleet and immediately move it to the next close planet to repeat that.
In my experience, they usually try to regroup after such actions, which would give the player time to take 2 - 3 more planets from someone else.
Raid
I would be more worried that they developed Bio Terminator and Cloaking.
Even then, in my experience when an enemy takes or destroys one planet they usually don't take their whole fleet and immediately move it to the next close planet to repeat that.
In my experience, they usually try to regroup after such actions, which would give the player time to take 2 - 3 more planets from someone else.
Raid
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
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I'm actually quite interested in finding out whether this is still true with kyrub's patch. Either way though, we're going to beat these AIs. If they develop Bio Terminator (or a serious bomb) and Cloning AND put both on the same ship AND give it decent tactical speed AND put enough BTs or bombs on to matter (instead of wasting space on beams/missiles, AMRs, etc.) AND enough computer power to actually hit through our bases' ECM AND build enough of the ships to seriously threaten our planets ... then we'll design something better and beat them with better logistics on both the galactic map and the tactical screen.
As kind of expected, the window I had yesterday evaporated on me, but I'm playing the turns now. Which brings up a question: Since I played 12 last time and you only got 8, Raiddinn, would you like me to end my set a couple turns early this time so you could get 12 in what's likely to be your final turn set of this OSG?
RaiddinnRZ
Chieftain
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- Apr 17, 2011
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10 or 12 is the same for me, just go ahead and play your whole set.
Trying to conquer huge swaths of the galaxy in the space of 10 or 12 turns isn't really my style anyway. Better you spend the extra 2 turns getting planets and I will work on holding them all.
Raid
Trying to conquer huge swaths of the galaxy in the space of 10 or 12 turns isn't really my style anyway. Better you spend the extra 2 turns getting planets and I will work on holding them all.
Raid
RefSteel
Pacifistic Technologist
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2007
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- 257
Writing this and capturing/cropping/combining the images as I go, so it's taking a long time (mostly because of the images), even if you ignore all the things that keep interruptting. Here's what I've got so far:
2450: "Yesssss!" Emperor Steel rubbed his wingtips together in anticipation. "The most powerful empire in the galaxy ... and it's mine! All MINE!"
"But the real question here is, what kinds of TOYS do I have to play with?"
Admiral Zed, Commander Emeritus of the Alkari starfleet, cleared his throat. "I wouldn't call them toys exactly. These are serious weapons of war, designed to defend our people and defeat and subjugate the worlds of enemy empires bent on our destruction. During my tenure, we developed them in numbers ... and put them to highly efficient, conservative use."
The new emperor drooled over the combat specifications, more or less ignoring what his predecessor had to say. "Pretty toys," he cooed. "Ooooooh, pretty! But I want MORE! Lots more NPGs to protect our new holdings in the north! Lots of fusion bombers to GET new holdings in the south! More, more, more!"
He went right on drooling when he got his first look at Sakkra space. Remembering his dignity though, he quickly cleaned up his face, cleared his throat, and said in his most thoughtful voice, "I think I shall continue Zed's policy of taking their worlds from them." With another glance at the map, he added charitably, "I suppose I can let them keep Rigel if they don't annoy me too seriously."
"Now, I notice our last fleet of transports just landed. We have gaia worlds and cloning! I want 385 million birds in space by the end of the year!"
2451: Wing Commander Maniac gunned the throttle of his Scanner 5.0, the flagship of the fleet. "All right, boys; we've got a huge Sakkra fleet incoming, and the planet hasn't had time to get a base into play. I hear we lost a few dozen bombers taking orbit at Denubius earlier this year just because they got one of their Dragon battleships built at the last minute. Let's show those pilots what flying means!" He cut the transmitter out before adding quietly, "We'll have to. Emperor Steel didn't take my advice to build more merc boats, and we don't have enough on hand to kill their Juggernaut repulsor fleet." He brought his communicator back online as his fleet advanced toward the enemy. "Mercs, target those Jugs! Talons ... try to look useful. NPGs with me!"
Merculite missiles slammed home, and nearly 500 NPG fighters burned the Spirit fusion beam destroyers from the sky, while the smaller fleet of old Talons struck the Spectre Heavy Ion cruisers, all expertly correographed by Maniac aboard his command ship. When the dust of blazing space debris had cleared, the enemy ships were in full retreat. "We've done it! The planet's safe, and it should be fully shielded, with three bases, by the time their next fleet arrives! Get me a report on our casualties." The report was brief, thanks to Maniac's tactical brilliance and piloting: There were none.
After confirming that the Klackon attacks on Guradas and Phyco had included too few bombers to actually threaten the bases there, Maniac pulled the Scanner around and punched target coordinates into his hyperdrive. "All right, everything with Impulse engines aboard, come with me! We're going to make sure nothing else goes wrong up at Denubius! The bombers there are clearing out, so it's going to be up to you Mercs if they put any more bases together. We've got fleets and transports heading everywhere now, and it's our job to make sure those troops get to their targets safely and can survive enemy reprisals once they get there. Considering the number of planets Emperor Steel is targeting at once, it's going to take all we've got!"
2452: As soon as he dropped out of hyperspace, Maniac got the report from Firma: The same bomber fleet that had taken Denubius had lost another ship ... yes, one of them ... in taking it's target's orbit before the small enemy fleet retreated. That was all he had time to look at before the proximity klaxons sounded and his own fleet dropped out of hyperspace above the enemy world. Two new missile bases had been constructed in the bombers' absence, and it was his ships' Mercs against the planet's.
Maniac's won. The planet stupidly fired on the NPG fighters he'd brought along in case of meeting an enemy fleet - the only ships present that could do no harm at all through the planet's shields. Before they could get off another shot, the bases had been destroyed. Meanwhile, far off on the galactic rim, another Alkari fleet took on Iranha's defenses, and wiped them clean with no losses of their own. When a Dragon forgot to retreat from Willow, the missile bases and Merc fighters in orbit easily slagged it before it could reach them, but the Wing Commander wasn't paying attention to them. His eyes were on the planet down below. Of course the vastly more numerous Alkari forces had won the battle handily, with Maniac and his fleet providing space support, but he was receiving a private signal from the surface ... on ex-emperor Ref's private frequency. "Since when did you become a soldier?" Maniac wanted to know when he switched on the holoscreen.
Ref just grinned. "Oh, I knew the troops could take this place. I just came along for the ride." He sobered. "And a good thing too. After watching the battle and its aftermath here, I've made some research decisions, and I have some bad news for you. We're not going to be researching Auto Blasters after our current weapons project, in spite of your request and insistence."
Ref couldn't hold back his grin any longer as General alzgamer's top signal corps lieutenant displayed the results of his findings in a secret Sakkra lab. Maniac laughed with triumph. "How is that possible? I thought we already knew every tech the Sakkra had ever possessed!"
With a shrug, Ref answered, "It seems they developed a couple new ones here -- Auto Blasters and Complete Terraforming both -- just in time for our transports to come in and take them. That should help our empire out a bit, don't you think? Oh, and I don't think you'll be flying that Scanner for much longer either, since we only have two right now and they're not immediately needed. I just sent plans for these plans down to my nephew's [Registered Trademark of Alkari Personal Communications Device Corporation]."
"The Scanners were fine, but these Tempests should work even better. If the rumors are true and Steel just rejected alliances that both the Psilons AND Darloks were offering this year, it probably means he's bent on these wars going on indefinitely, and he'll want every edge he can get. Plus he always likes playing with shiny new toys."
2453: Emperor Steel rolled his eyes as the reports came in. "My uncle should have known better than to design a brand-new cruiser the year before we try to invade a Klackon world. Show me that image of the space battle again. Without of any cruisers in it, remember. We didn't even have any in that part of space before we scrapped the two we had."
"So what good are these three new cruisers to me? I'll probably have to scrap them soon too! After all we... Who? One of my uncle's research assistants? Research assistants? Who approved funding for a waste of resources like re..."
"...search?" Emperor Steel stared at the specs before him. "We have new Robotic Controls? Do you realize what this means? We're going to be outproducing everyone else in the galaxy even if we never conquer another world! And you're going to research MORE of them?!" Stormclouds gathered along his brow, but slowly cleared as he admitted, "I suppose it makes a kind of sense. By the time we finish researching anything in that field at this point, we're going to be at peace: We'll probably have conquered the entire galaxy!"
Dismissing the research assistant, he expanded on his theme. "I mean, how many planets did we take this year alone? There was Firma, and that new technology the lizards just developed..." he glanced at his notes to confirm the confusing highly scientific name. "...Improved Industriral Tech 5. And Iranha of course. We had to blow away another missile base first, but that was easy. And I mentioned we were trying to invade the Klackons, right? Well, we had numbers on our side - by a wide margin, thanks to my planning! - but we only had hand lasers to their fusion rifles, and zortium armor to their andrium, so in spite of our battle suits, our individual units were at a pretty big disadvantage."
"Not anymore, though!"
The emperor shook his head. "This is ridiculous! Between a cloaking device, fusion rifles, andrium armor, reduced waste 20%, and our brand-new plasma cannons, we've got levels of miniaturization that most birds never dream about. Because, you know, miniaturization is a really, really weird subject for a dream. Anyway, the point is, our entire star fleet just went obsolete! And you know what that means, right? It means I get to design some more new toys!"
Several weeks later, when he was temporarily done playing around with his engineers' Design It Yourself play-at-home shipyard simulator, he regretfully came to the decision that he would build only one new ship that year - scrapping the old fighters first, the only warp-3 craft that remained in the fleet - while he consolidated his gains and built infrastructure and things. The one ship wouldn't even have any guns aboard, of all things! Of course, he did still have a couple (hundred) transports in space, and he was sending more out already - after all, what good are robotic controls if the suddenly-unemployed population isn't put to good use?
2454: Emperor Steel was bored. Sure, the Sakkra and Klackons kept trying to attack his worlds, but their fleets were always repelled easily. Even the transports the lizards had sent to Firma were destroyed by the orbiting fleet before they could attempt a hilariously inept ground invasion. There had been a brief ray of hope when an agent in Meklar space reported a low-level breach in computer security, and he thought he might have gotten his hands on atmospheric terraforming ... but it was not to be.
Controlled Dead Environment, a tech so far out of date that it had dropped off his spies' technology report screens, would do nothing significant for his reign. There was the barest chance that the theft would at least make QX-537 angry enough to declare war ... and even as he formed the thought, the machine leader appeared on his holoscreen! "Together," the galaxy's most psychotic leader informed him, "our empires can challenge the threat of the evil Sakkra empire."
The Alkari emperor sighed: Just another note of thanks for killing Sakkra. "I haven't even really killed that many this year," he muttered to himself when he'd shut down the transmission. "Their ships mostly just retre..." He suddenly gasped. He'd forgotten all about it! The report must have come in one morning (or maybe early afternoon) while he was asleep! He rushed to the archives console, and found ... Wing Commander Maniac's report of one of the year's decidedly non-boring events.
"Target is sighted," reported Marshall's staticky voice. "They've got 80 missile bases! No shielding in this nebula though ... not that Sakkra shielding was anything to speak of in the first place. And they seem to have brought a fleet! Complete with repulsors, even!"
Emperor Steel rubbed his wingtips together. The Sakkra homeworld! If he could take this planet, he'd go down in history! If he ... could have taken ... already ... at some previous date, while he was sleeping off a wild night of carousing with birds whose identities he didn't remember clearly. He still wasn't sure which such occassion it had been. He watched as Todd "Maniac" Marshall expertly led his ships into battle aboard his brand-new, already-obsolete Tempest cruiser, watched as the alien fleet retreated even before it could be wiped out by a Merc missile volley and a swarm of NPGs. He watched as the fusion bombers nimbly danced around the Sakkra missiles ... and blew the planet's missile bases away. The space around Sssla was his ... with no losses to his fleet! After that, it was only a matter of time until the transports hit. He'd sent plenty.
So the Sakkra homeworld fell to the Alkari. The emperor beamed in satisfaction. And there was an adendum to the report: Breaking news ... well, breaking at the time ... from GNN!
"Eighteen stars! I'll soon control the galaxy! The newsdroid even said so!" He preened. But there remained one concern: Had he somehow missed something important? QX-537 had spoken of "challenging" the threat of the evil Sakkra empire together. What threat could he possibly mean? Emperor Steel checked the galactic map with trepidation. Could the robot know something he did not?
"Nope!" he observed with glee. "They're just a one-planet empire, on a poor, toxic world to boot ... and considering his worthless starfleet is technically 'bigger' than ours, that one little world is probably being crushed under maintenance costs too. Poor thing."
Of course, at size 111 and potentially growing, Rigel was "little" by Sakkra and Alkari standards only. Nevertheless, his point stood. So pleased was he with his first enemy's collapse - at the talons of his fleet and troopers - and his acquisition of an enemy homeworld that he even agreed to his uncle's suggestion that research funding resume its accustomed more-than-a-token-trickle pace. The question remained however: Could he sweep through the until-recently dominant Klackons as he had through the Sakkra people?
(To be continued....)
Spoiler Imperial Audience Chamber, Alkari homeworld, 2450 :
"But the real question here is, what kinds of TOYS do I have to play with?"
Admiral Zed, Commander Emeritus of the Alkari starfleet, cleared his throat. "I wouldn't call them toys exactly. These are serious weapons of war, designed to defend our people and defeat and subjugate the worlds of enemy empires bent on our destruction. During my tenure, we developed them in numbers ... and put them to highly efficient, conservative use."
The new emperor drooled over the combat specifications, more or less ignoring what his predecessor had to say. "Pretty toys," he cooed. "Ooooooh, pretty! But I want MORE! Lots more NPGs to protect our new holdings in the north! Lots of fusion bombers to GET new holdings in the south! More, more, more!"
He went right on drooling when he got his first look at Sakkra space. Remembering his dignity though, he quickly cleaned up his face, cleared his throat, and said in his most thoughtful voice, "I think I shall continue Zed's policy of taking their worlds from them." With another glance at the map, he added charitably, "I suppose I can let them keep Rigel if they don't annoy me too seriously."
"Now, I notice our last fleet of transports just landed. We have gaia worlds and cloning! I want 385 million birds in space by the end of the year!"
2451: Wing Commander Maniac gunned the throttle of his Scanner 5.0, the flagship of the fleet. "All right, boys; we've got a huge Sakkra fleet incoming, and the planet hasn't had time to get a base into play. I hear we lost a few dozen bombers taking orbit at Denubius earlier this year just because they got one of their Dragon battleships built at the last minute. Let's show those pilots what flying means!" He cut the transmitter out before adding quietly, "We'll have to. Emperor Steel didn't take my advice to build more merc boats, and we don't have enough on hand to kill their Juggernaut repulsor fleet." He brought his communicator back online as his fleet advanced toward the enemy. "Mercs, target those Jugs! Talons ... try to look useful. NPGs with me!"
Merculite missiles slammed home, and nearly 500 NPG fighters burned the Spirit fusion beam destroyers from the sky, while the smaller fleet of old Talons struck the Spectre Heavy Ion cruisers, all expertly correographed by Maniac aboard his command ship. When the dust of blazing space debris had cleared, the enemy ships were in full retreat. "We've done it! The planet's safe, and it should be fully shielded, with three bases, by the time their next fleet arrives! Get me a report on our casualties." The report was brief, thanks to Maniac's tactical brilliance and piloting: There were none.
After confirming that the Klackon attacks on Guradas and Phyco had included too few bombers to actually threaten the bases there, Maniac pulled the Scanner around and punched target coordinates into his hyperdrive. "All right, everything with Impulse engines aboard, come with me! We're going to make sure nothing else goes wrong up at Denubius! The bombers there are clearing out, so it's going to be up to you Mercs if they put any more bases together. We've got fleets and transports heading everywhere now, and it's our job to make sure those troops get to their targets safely and can survive enemy reprisals once they get there. Considering the number of planets Emperor Steel is targeting at once, it's going to take all we've got!"
2452: As soon as he dropped out of hyperspace, Maniac got the report from Firma: The same bomber fleet that had taken Denubius had lost another ship ... yes, one of them ... in taking it's target's orbit before the small enemy fleet retreated. That was all he had time to look at before the proximity klaxons sounded and his own fleet dropped out of hyperspace above the enemy world. Two new missile bases had been constructed in the bombers' absence, and it was his ships' Mercs against the planet's.
Maniac's won. The planet stupidly fired on the NPG fighters he'd brought along in case of meeting an enemy fleet - the only ships present that could do no harm at all through the planet's shields. Before they could get off another shot, the bases had been destroyed. Meanwhile, far off on the galactic rim, another Alkari fleet took on Iranha's defenses, and wiped them clean with no losses of their own. When a Dragon forgot to retreat from Willow, the missile bases and Merc fighters in orbit easily slagged it before it could reach them, but the Wing Commander wasn't paying attention to them. His eyes were on the planet down below. Of course the vastly more numerous Alkari forces had won the battle handily, with Maniac and his fleet providing space support, but he was receiving a private signal from the surface ... on ex-emperor Ref's private frequency. "Since when did you become a soldier?" Maniac wanted to know when he switched on the holoscreen.
Ref just grinned. "Oh, I knew the troops could take this place. I just came along for the ride." He sobered. "And a good thing too. After watching the battle and its aftermath here, I've made some research decisions, and I have some bad news for you. We're not going to be researching Auto Blasters after our current weapons project, in spite of your request and insistence."
Ref couldn't hold back his grin any longer as General alzgamer's top signal corps lieutenant displayed the results of his findings in a secret Sakkra lab. Maniac laughed with triumph. "How is that possible? I thought we already knew every tech the Sakkra had ever possessed!"
With a shrug, Ref answered, "It seems they developed a couple new ones here -- Auto Blasters and Complete Terraforming both -- just in time for our transports to come in and take them. That should help our empire out a bit, don't you think? Oh, and I don't think you'll be flying that Scanner for much longer either, since we only have two right now and they're not immediately needed. I just sent plans for these plans down to my nephew's [Registered Trademark of Alkari Personal Communications Device Corporation]."
"The Scanners were fine, but these Tempests should work even better. If the rumors are true and Steel just rejected alliances that both the Psilons AND Darloks were offering this year, it probably means he's bent on these wars going on indefinitely, and he'll want every edge he can get. Plus he always likes playing with shiny new toys."
2453: Emperor Steel rolled his eyes as the reports came in. "My uncle should have known better than to design a brand-new cruiser the year before we try to invade a Klackon world. Show me that image of the space battle again. Without of any cruisers in it, remember. We didn't even have any in that part of space before we scrapped the two we had."
"So what good are these three new cruisers to me? I'll probably have to scrap them soon too! After all we... Who? One of my uncle's research assistants? Research assistants? Who approved funding for a waste of resources like re..."
"...search?" Emperor Steel stared at the specs before him. "We have new Robotic Controls? Do you realize what this means? We're going to be outproducing everyone else in the galaxy even if we never conquer another world! And you're going to research MORE of them?!" Stormclouds gathered along his brow, but slowly cleared as he admitted, "I suppose it makes a kind of sense. By the time we finish researching anything in that field at this point, we're going to be at peace: We'll probably have conquered the entire galaxy!"
Dismissing the research assistant, he expanded on his theme. "I mean, how many planets did we take this year alone? There was Firma, and that new technology the lizards just developed..." he glanced at his notes to confirm the confusing highly scientific name. "...Improved Industriral Tech 5. And Iranha of course. We had to blow away another missile base first, but that was easy. And I mentioned we were trying to invade the Klackons, right? Well, we had numbers on our side - by a wide margin, thanks to my planning! - but we only had hand lasers to their fusion rifles, and zortium armor to their andrium, so in spite of our battle suits, our individual units were at a pretty big disadvantage."
"Not anymore, though!"
Spoiler Totally OOC comment :
The emperor shook his head. "This is ridiculous! Between a cloaking device, fusion rifles, andrium armor, reduced waste 20%, and our brand-new plasma cannons, we've got levels of miniaturization that most birds never dream about. Because, you know, miniaturization is a really, really weird subject for a dream. Anyway, the point is, our entire star fleet just went obsolete! And you know what that means, right? It means I get to design some more new toys!"
Several weeks later, when he was temporarily done playing around with his engineers' Design It Yourself play-at-home shipyard simulator, he regretfully came to the decision that he would build only one new ship that year - scrapping the old fighters first, the only warp-3 craft that remained in the fleet - while he consolidated his gains and built infrastructure and things. The one ship wouldn't even have any guns aboard, of all things! Of course, he did still have a couple (hundred) transports in space, and he was sending more out already - after all, what good are robotic controls if the suddenly-unemployed population isn't put to good use?
2454: Emperor Steel was bored. Sure, the Sakkra and Klackons kept trying to attack his worlds, but their fleets were always repelled easily. Even the transports the lizards had sent to Firma were destroyed by the orbiting fleet before they could attempt a hilariously inept ground invasion. There had been a brief ray of hope when an agent in Meklar space reported a low-level breach in computer security, and he thought he might have gotten his hands on atmospheric terraforming ... but it was not to be.
Controlled Dead Environment, a tech so far out of date that it had dropped off his spies' technology report screens, would do nothing significant for his reign. There was the barest chance that the theft would at least make QX-537 angry enough to declare war ... and even as he formed the thought, the machine leader appeared on his holoscreen! "Together," the galaxy's most psychotic leader informed him, "our empires can challenge the threat of the evil Sakkra empire."
The Alkari emperor sighed: Just another note of thanks for killing Sakkra. "I haven't even really killed that many this year," he muttered to himself when he'd shut down the transmission. "Their ships mostly just retre..." He suddenly gasped. He'd forgotten all about it! The report must have come in one morning (or maybe early afternoon) while he was asleep! He rushed to the archives console, and found ... Wing Commander Maniac's report of one of the year's decidedly non-boring events.
"Target is sighted," reported Marshall's staticky voice. "They've got 80 missile bases! No shielding in this nebula though ... not that Sakkra shielding was anything to speak of in the first place. And they seem to have brought a fleet! Complete with repulsors, even!"
Emperor Steel rubbed his wingtips together. The Sakkra homeworld! If he could take this planet, he'd go down in history! If he ... could have taken ... already ... at some previous date, while he was sleeping off a wild night of carousing with birds whose identities he didn't remember clearly. He still wasn't sure which such occassion it had been. He watched as Todd "Maniac" Marshall expertly led his ships into battle aboard his brand-new, already-obsolete Tempest cruiser, watched as the alien fleet retreated even before it could be wiped out by a Merc missile volley and a swarm of NPGs. He watched as the fusion bombers nimbly danced around the Sakkra missiles ... and blew the planet's missile bases away. The space around Sssla was his ... with no losses to his fleet! After that, it was only a matter of time until the transports hit. He'd sent plenty.
So the Sakkra homeworld fell to the Alkari. The emperor beamed in satisfaction. And there was an adendum to the report: Breaking news ... well, breaking at the time ... from GNN!
"Eighteen stars! I'll soon control the galaxy! The newsdroid even said so!" He preened. But there remained one concern: Had he somehow missed something important? QX-537 had spoken of "challenging" the threat of the evil Sakkra empire together. What threat could he possibly mean? Emperor Steel checked the galactic map with trepidation. Could the robot know something he did not?
"Nope!" he observed with glee. "They're just a one-planet empire, on a poor, toxic world to boot ... and considering his worthless starfleet is technically 'bigger' than ours, that one little world is probably being crushed under maintenance costs too. Poor thing."
Of course, at size 111 and potentially growing, Rigel was "little" by Sakkra and Alkari standards only. Nevertheless, his point stood. So pleased was he with his first enemy's collapse - at the talons of his fleet and troopers - and his acquisition of an enemy homeworld that he even agreed to his uncle's suggestion that research funding resume its accustomed more-than-a-token-trickle pace. The question remained however: Could he sweep through the until-recently dominant Klackons as he had through the Sakkra people?
(To be continued....)
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