RefSteel's Imperium 11 Report: The Hive Mind

[RefSteel]

I do review our legends, while awaiting my latest scouting reports, and...
I'm not sure I can believe this.



How the ancients knew the importance of the Triad stars, I can not fathom; look at them! The yellow star holds ultra-rich Maalor, the red star shines upon the Guardian itself, and the green star, in perfect alignment with them, is just-discovered Rha ... which, like Artemis itself, harbors the still-standing ruins of an ancient civilization!

Like Artemis ... and entirely unlike it. Here are no pristine cities standing among ocean waves, seemingly sealed and prepared like monuments just before their people's end! This arid world harbors glimmering crystaline ruins, many-faceted structures that must once have been vast cities like collections of shining jewels, all of them long since fallen, their broken pieces gleaming in the green light of the local sun. Signs are everywhere that they must have begun their decay even while they were still in use, sometimes seeming to have collapsed from overuse and undermaintenance. Here is no sacred-seeming emptiness untouched for centuries; signs are everywhere of recent activity, some time in the past few hexades, of explorers perhaps as small in number as my scouting pilots, but far less careful of the planet's artifacts. In some of the streets, I can see partially fossilized corpses, already exposed by digging, and whenever I look into the best-preserved structures on the planet's surface, I see recent, obvious damage, where artifacts and installations have been forcefully torn or cut away from their places, leaving little hint of what they could once have been. Thankfully, the planet's records have not been equally defiled; all have been accessed recently, but none actually tampered with, removed, or destroyed. Eagerly, I mine them for what data I can find of their last years - the history entirely missing from the Artemis files. The corruption of these files with time and wear is even worse than on Artemis, but at leas there has been no deliberate purging of the data ... and I learn how the people of Rha perished. A plague of such unimaginable horror that I can not bear to describe its effects swept the planet, and slowly, in perpetual and increasing agony, destroyed every one of its people. I find records everywhere of hopeless searches for a cure, images of horrible deformed people stumbling or crawling to do what they can for each other and themselves, references to the immunity of prepubescent children that brought faint hope to the wretched, dying adults in their constant pain and horror, but proved impossible to retain into maturity or to duplicate in mature subjects before the world had died. Could a plague this horrible have spread galaxy-wide? If the Artemisians succumbed to it, especially if they had no childhood immunity to give them false hope of a cure, might they have prepared their planet like a tomb, and taken a swift and tidy death together rather than proceeding in slow and horrible agony? I could almost believe it ... but that it seems impossible that the people of Artemis should give up the fight against such a disease!

[RefSteel]

Even as I seek deeper among the jewel-like ruins of Rha, I at last divine means of improving my ecological restoration work across the empire, and turn my thoughts to the matter, long delayed, of Controlled Toxic Environment technology, to allow the colonization of such worlds as rich, poisonous Artemis and fiery Ryoun. And in the meantime, I'm making the best I can of my existing colonization technology!



Ukko advances our Silicoid front, Bootis does the same for the Humans (in addition to being a terrific world wherever it lies!) and Anraq fills in the nearest neighbor to Artemis itself! Progress is being made on every front, including my quest for knowledge, and my hope for survivors of the ancient, catastrophic plague! Secret records uncovered on Rha suggest that the last adult survivors finally found a way to combat the plague, concentrating all the energy of their world to create an energy lattice large enough to kill all the pathogens within an area the size of a large building. The plague would only return at once from the surrounding area, and no means could be found of destroying it once it was attached to a living host, but the people of Rha were able to make a final, desperate bid for the survival of their species. All the children that could be found still young enough to be sure of immunity were gathered aboard a colony ship and sent out into space, with a secret destination that I believe had been a nature preserve set aside by some form of galactic government. As soon as the ship passed out of Rha's atmosphere, and could no longer be reached by invading pathogens, every power generator on the planet was red-lined, and the energy lattice was activated, burning out its generator and melting it into slag, but purging the ship and creating a small hope for the survival of Rha's single sentient species. The rest of the planet's tale can be well imagined, as the people died, and the disease migrated to the most closely-related animals, persisting for hexades before it finally killed all its possible hosts and so itself as well. Never before had I dreamed of such a horrible and all-consuming disease!

I hope to learn more from the surface as well, but that will have to wait, as a pair of Psilon ships are now approaching. I try once more to make contact with their pilots, and though the colony ship is clearly unarmed, its companion is a Star Blazer which hurtles toward us around Rha's asteroid fields. It fires nuclear missiles, which my Scouter dodges, hoping to prove my peaceful intentions by evading without returning fire (indeed, my ship bears no weapons with which to do so)! The attempt is in vain however.



Even as I colonize Klystron, the Star Blazer expends its missiles, closes, and fires on my Scouter with a heavy laser cannon, forcing me to retreat. (If you look closely at the screen, you can also see a cluster of nebula-delayed transports on approach to Kailis, quite close to the first shipments from Kailis up to Bootis, the latter with an arrow, like the one from Gion.) This does not bode well for my relationship with the enigmatic Psilons! Even granting the potential knowledge to be gained from those ancient, ruined cities, what could possibly make a peaceful species so desperate to secure a once-diseased star for themselves that they would attack the unarmed starship of an unknown would-be friend, without even taking time out to speak? I must know, and I must know quickly; as the Psilon and Bulrathi pilots won't talk to me, and I can't yet project my thoughts to the homes of their rulers, I work through the Silicoids to propose something extraordinary: All the leaders of all willing species should form a council to rule the galaxy together! I'm counting on their very jealousies to drive them to this council, as without it, it is clear enough that the galaxy will soon be ruled by me - but it is not power that I desire, and they are welcome to take part in this, if only they'll talk to me! The Silicoids report that the Psilons have agreed, and soon thereafter that the Psilons themselves have persuaded the Bulrathi. With all the rest in agreement, even Lasitus dares not refuse attendance, and we gather for the first time, - as distantly transmitted images only, but it's something - and I look upon them from Imra, at the heart of the galaxy.



The other races are interested in discussing only one thing - I think the Humans proposed it: choosing an absolute ruler of the galaxy - but I barely notice the question before us, abstaining with my six votes (just enough to hold a veto on any rash decision, just as it should be; I was wise to assure everyone that a two-thirds vote would be needed) as do the Silicoids and Psilons with their two votes apiece. Lasitus manages to assemble seven votes against me by nominating Monch of the Bulrathi, who therefore casts his four votes with the Humans' three, but that's not enough to make a difference, and all my attention is taken up with the Psilons anyway. I have found the answer to my question - that high brow, that narrow ridge of hair, those bright green bulbous eyes, those four slender upper limbs; everything in the Psilons' form declares it: I have found the children of Rha!

I long to speak with them, but their emperor cuts himself out of the conference as soon as the vote is concluded. Monch, on the other hand, appears pleased by the meeting, and stays long enough to introduce himself and open diplomatic channels with me. To my deep amusement, he appears to believe he will one day rule the galaxy - after all, he received seven votes in our very first election! - and is kind enough to say he hopes I will prosper under his rule. I like this simple emperor with his easy-going nature and friendly feelings, the more so as he immediately agrees to trade with me!



Our 225 BC trade package quadruples my level of inter-racial commerce; it is a pleasure to deal with an alien who doesn't hate me from the moment we meet. He has a reputation as an agressive ecologist, but Lasitus was reputed to be "honorable," so I'm not sure it means anything. It occurs to me that I should take advantage of my war with the Humans to make my own reputation, as a trusty friend and fearsome enemy, but I don't feel prepared to take action yet - though in the commanding position I've already achieved, it mght be a mistake to wait.

First here, and again in 2363, my turnlog takes note of an opportunity to make (diplomatic) headway through battle. I waited for a handful of techs to come in (construction and weapons were in percentages by 2361, propulsion the following year, and computers and force fields within the next five) but probably waited too long. This wasn't my biggest scoring mistake leading up to 2375, but I do think it cost me a fair number of diplo points.

Meanwhile, at a biolab on Sol, my spies find the Humans' plans for cheaper, simpler colony bases than those aboard the Live Queens, specifically for colonizing barren worlds like Bootis. Controlled Barren Environment is also valuable simply as technology - every little bit helps, believe me! I also speak with Sedimin again and increase our trade package to 100 BC, really just as an excuse to talk to him; even with all my constituent Klackons, I fear I sometimes grow lonely.

[RefSteel]

As the year 2360 begins, a GNN report lights up the Artemis screen again; the computing equipment behind the screen is working at full power as the message comes in, following its complex program of decryption.



Laan, right up against Human space, and Morrig, in my own back lines, are my 17th and 18th worlds, as the droid observes. The notion that I "will" control the galaxy "soon" is merely amusing. A single ship with a battle scanner, dubbed the Scouterer 2, is meanwhile off to Human space, to confirm that their fleets represent no threat to me. Their ambassador returned not long ago, and old Jimbo could put me in touch with their emperor if I so wished, but in the meantime, all he does is tell his long, boring stories. I generally divert my attention from him as he babbles away, but now a stray reference in one of his tales finds the set of my ears to which he is speaking: "...like the story of Artemis and Orion."

How can he know this? I enquire, and it seems the Humans have a legend similar to our own, an ancient myth in which the mighty hunter Orion is slain by the goddess of the hunt! Jimbo rambles on at length about how the Ronams or some other ancient Human people conquered (such a warlike race!) the ancient Geeks and changed the names of all their gods, but the original Geek name of the hunting goddess was Artemis! I at once realize the significance of this: There is no way that two entirely different races across the breadth of the galaxy, with no contact until late in the age of space travel, would have developed near-identical legends - right down to the names of the primary characters! - in their ancient histories. It was strange enough to see the name in the records of the planet Artemis, but this is too much of a coincidence to be borne. There is something - perhaps some racial memory - that has preserved a tale more ancient than either of our histories, and one closely associated with my Atlantis, though how I can not say. This bears much greater investigation, if only I can figure out how to investigate it - for in it may lie the true secret of the Triad itself! I think I shall pay closer attention hereafter to Jimbo and his stories ... when I have time for them.



At the moment, I'm busy spreading my people to the far corners of the galaxy, hemming my Human enemies in still more up at Ajax, and establishing a presence closer to the Psilons and Bulrathi down at Nyarl. Finally piecing together the secrets of battle suit construction from my studies of heavy-duty emergency engine maintenance droid hulls in a semi-intact Artemis spaceport, I'm also looking for ways to reverse-engineer those very droids' Zortium Armor so I can mass produce it on my own!

Oh, and I also have to deal with the Silicods, who abruptly "tire" of playing diplomatic "games" and start a war of their own with me. I'm glad I started the tradition of high council meetings when I did (the next is in 2375, as the other races seem to like round numbers in base 5 and 10, and I didn't insist on my standard 6-year Klackon hexades). I doubt they'd have agreed to bring it up with their Psilon friends if I'd waited until they tired of that kind of "game"! I look around for allies, but Monch can't reach the Silicoids, and Lasitus won't even consider peace with me. This bodes ill for my hopes of galactic peace and uniting all our peoples, and things are going to get darker before (and if) any ray of hope can emerge ... but I will take heart yet, for it's always darkest just before the dawn!

A monkey colony ship is coming to Bootis, so I assemble a couple of missile bases there, in case it's armed with something that matters. In the meantime, I finally learn to arm my ships with NPGs, and turn my thoughts to improving my defensive bases; they should be much more effective deterrents if they carry Merculite Missiles, I believe. Besides, mass drivers and neutron blasters just aren't very interesting to me. I only wish the missiles were as useless to me! With less than two hexades left to the Rise of the Triad, and half the galaxy at war with me ... well, let's hope this really is the darkest that it gets; the dawn can't come too quickly!

[RefSteel]

The first of two ape colony ships arrives at Bootis, and keeps coming even after my unarmed Scouter's immediate retreat. My missile bases tear it to shreds of course; I feel sorry for the innocent colonists who were sent by Lasitus to die over my world; their heavy laser can penetrate my shields, just barely, but can't do nearly as much damage as my nuclear warheads do to his ship. Thankfully, I develop a long-awaited improvement to our shield technology almost immediately afterward, which - since the monkeys appear to be in love with heavy lasers - should make my bases completely immune to the current Human fleet. They couldn't have won a battle anyway, but this should obviate the need to kill them even in self defense. This is the best I can do with shielding technology however, at least for the time being - oh, I [i]could[/b] improve our shielding even more, developing Class IV Deflector Shields, but there are better ways to spend my energy. I therefore cease to concern myself with force field advances entirely. (Naturally, when the second monkey colony ship reaches Bootis, it detects my class 3 shields and retreats.)

I learn to colonize toxic worlds, and return to my planetological roots with the only means I can devise of advancing in that field: Improved Terraforming +40. Then the very next year, as I enter 2370, with two Wasp Hive 2 toxic colony ships already completing at Bootis for rich Arietis and Silicoid-threatened Ryoun...



My spies find me another near-worthless Human tech (that's redundant, I suppose, but even so...) ... and on my own, I come up with far more valuable technology! My new battle computers and (especially) sublight drives have been on the verge of completion for years, and my failure to quite make them function has become increasingly frustrating as the seeming chance of success mounted without results ... but they're finally perfected, and I'm ready to move forward with ECM Jammer Mark III - simpler than a more advanced battle computer, and useful in case some enemy actually builds ships with bombs or missiles - and return to an old project whose utility I now understand: An Inertial Stabilizer should be easy to develop, unlike energy pulsars, fusion engines, or warp dissipators, and should prove useful for my combat starships. You see, I've been listening to Jimbo's droning stories about his monkey people's warlike history, and coming to understand what his people will require before they establish peace. One thing especially caught my attention in his tales about someone named Perry: "Gunboat Diplomacy!"

My first move is to approach Monch, and I am pleased to discover that he must have learned advanced fuel cells, allowing his ships at least 7 parsecs of range: He is able at last to join me at war with the Silis! He is able, yes. But the real question is, will he?



I knew I could count on the big fellow.

This was my most critical error of the game (for scoring purposes; in terms of winning, the game was pretty much over on turn 3). I was so worried that another war might be declared against me that I jumped at the first opportunity to start a counter-war between the AIs. If I had waited until my war fleet was built and ready to actually take advantage of enemy-of-my-enemy diplomacy, and incidentally also until I had contact with the Psilons (I knew I would achieve it by colonizing Neptunus in two years) I could have asked the bears and brains to join my war simultaneously, thereby ensuring that the Psilons' double alliance (with the Bulrathi and Silicoids) would break the right way. By bringing in the bears before I even met the brains, I gave the rocks a chance to force the Psilons to choose sides before I even had contact with them; in this case, the side they would choose would be determined not by my request but essentially by a coin flip. All was not lost, but I'd reduced my chances significantly.

Now that I have a war ally, I set about doing my part, designing a small, swift nuclear bomber called the Termite 3.0, and a support ship that looks like this:



I'll probably only build a single Hornet - one NPG cruiser goes a long way when you're top dog in the galaxy - but it'll be good to have, to ensure space superiority. I proceed to steal Improved Industrial Tech 9 from a Silicoid lab at Moro, increasing my miniaturization capabilities, and manage to frame the Psilons, hoping the damage to relations would help the children of Rha to choose correctly in favor of Monch and against the Silicoids. There is an option to frame the Humans instead, but fixing the Psilon alliance seems more important, and I hope the cold war the rocks and monkeys are fighting over the Silicoid world of Kulthos will turn hot anyway when the Human transports arrive.

[RefSteel]

So much for my scheming. Kulthos has been taken by the Humans, but they remain at peace with the Coids ... and the Psilons have retained their Sili alliance and gone to war with my buddy Monch! At least he's taking it philosophically; in fact, he's so relaxed, I decide to offer him a Non-Aggression Pact, and he agrees! Well, I certainly can't accept all this from him, and then leave him to fight alone in a two front war into which I led him! I dispatch most of my newly-built Termites as faith-keepers to the Silicoid worlds of Cryslon and Misha, while the remainder head up to Uxmai - a Human world in the nebula with few bases - as emissaries of peace!

Funny thing, my convoluted plans may not be working out, but the straightforward ones are just dandy! It's just a matter of understanding primitive alien psychology.



"Peace, Lasitus? What a wonderful idea! If only I'd thought of it myself and - for instance - proposed it again and again, once every few years, ever since your ambassador came back! (Oh, that's right: I did!) No matter! Let's put our past differences behind us, and enjoy a peaceful galaxy together - the kind of galaxy where I don't bomb your worlds into oblivion!"

Score one for gunboat diplomacy.

Here's hoping the Psilons will see the light as well; when Neptunus gives us contact, their emperor says all the right things - delighted to meet me, desire to work toward our mutual benefit, all that sort of thing - but he's reputed to be as honorable as Lasitus, which is no recommendation. It's one thing to say nice things....



...but it's another to mean them! Zygot the Honorable, welcome aboard the rock-killing team!

He also agrees to exchange 100 BC per year with me, so we're off to a terrific start with the children of Rha! Maybe the light is dawning! The Psilon people know nothing of the galaxy as it was before the plague - even planetfall on Mentar is the merest hint of ancient legend - starting from a group of children forced to fight for their lives when they landed, they unsurprisingly managed to retain little or none of their heritage except what was in their genes - but they started to piece things together at Rha when they first scouted the world, and now they are seeking knowledge of the ancient galaxy as avidly as am I.

[RefSteel]

Since I have all the Silicoids' technology already, my spies move on to sabotage work. They do take out a couple of missile bases at Rayden, but fail in their true mission, which was to create an opportunity to frame the Humans and draw Lasitus into the war. For this very reason, I elect not to bomb Misha, lest I destroy that Sili colony and break contact between the rocks and apes. My fleets in the region are now all converging on Cryslon and Rayden however, for Extreme Diplomatic Activities. All my fleets, that is, but the all-important Wasp Hive 3s and their toxic colony bases!



It's nice to hear that leaders are already preparing to merge with me, but I somehow suspect that the GNN droid is a better judge of planetary ownership than of alien psychology. My Termites retreating from Uxmai, for instance, probably made Lasitus (and perhaps others) even more unhappy with me than before, as they "attacked" in "violation" of our peace treaty, even though their "attack" consisted only of showing up - they had no choice, being already en route when the treaty was made - and retreating. Still, the harm should be small, and I knew to expect it when I launched my gunboat diplomats in the first place, so on the whole, I'm pleased - all the more so because I've just devised Merculite Missiles for my bases (I'm on the verge of breakthroughs on Zortium and Stabilizer too, with a good chance of finishing each at any moment - between Artemis, the materials supplied by Maalor, and virtually my entire gigantic population performing all-out research, I'm developing technology at an almost ridiculous rate). I decide to go back and research Gatling Lasers just in hopes of one more small success before the Rise of the Triad, as I'm not sure if I'll ever need any further weapons developments - though the merculite design suggested possibilities for a Graviton Beam, Stinger Missiles, or even Fusion Beams - after that date!

The weapons I've got, of course, I need now! The Silicoid Diplomacy Front (not to be confused with a Battle Front!) is about to heat up. I have completed the initial peaceful expansion phase of my development (or I will have as soon as I plant my last colony on the last toxic white star, Incedius, circled below). Here's what I've managed to get:



The next stage is making diplomatic overtures to the Bulrathi and Psilons, for instance by relieving the Silicoids of the burdensome heavy metals at their Rayden colony.



That's a good start, anyway; now that it has no bases and is barely populated, I send most of the Rayden Diplomatic Fleet on to Cryslon. With a huge Human Dreadstar of unknown design approaching Bootis, I put up another missile base and a swarm of NPG fighters, just in case Lasitus has decided my "attack" on Uxmai voided our peace deal (and in case the huge ship has weapons that would actually make me care what it does, such as bombs or an insane number of missile racks). He doesn't seem too unhappy with me though, and in fact accepts a trade agreement worth 275 BC per year!

Cryslon's missile bases are supported by a huge ship of their own, the Polaris, so the gentle diplomats aboard my "Kindly Institution of Love, Learning, and Early Reconciliation" Fleet may be in for a fight!



Well ... sort of. The Polaris insists on firing at my Termites even after they've destroyed the planet's bases, and I humor it, dodging its missiles, while most of its heavy lasers miss. Most of what it fires at my Hornet gets absorbed by its powerful shields, and though I lose several dozen bombers in the course of the battle, it ends with complete victory!

With every sign that three different technologies are about to be discovered, I am disappointed to find only Gatling Lasers ready before the election. I decide that a working Mass Driver design might be useful after all, and start work on it tentatively. In the meantime, I form my last peaceful colony...



...and proceed with my diplomatic overtures to the Bears and Brains.



That's apparently not good enough to get them to vote for me, and Lasitus, seeing that he'll have the support of my Silicoid enemies, accepts a nomination himself to run against me. At our first election, I just barely had a safe one-third veto.



At the election of the Rise of the Triad, I just barely exceed half the vote, with 15 of 29 - more than twice what Lasitus and Sedimin have togeter! Naturally, I abstain from the election once again. And so the Triad rises, as my new people of Maalor command more than half the galaxy, as the ancient Children of Rha express their pleasure and their belief that we can challenge the evil Silicoids together, and as the Guardian's star ... the Guardian's star remains a thrilling, troubling mystery.

[RefSteel]

Colonist: With the addition of Incedius on the final interturn, I am now up to 24 worlds!



Combined with my 15 votes in the 2375 election, (see sceenshot in story post above) this gives me (24 + 15) X 3 = 117 points in this field! Had I concentrated my forces more thoroughly at Rayden, I might have been able to glass it in 2374, retake it on the voting interturn, and score three more points, but this was not to be.

Researcher: The Gatling Lasers gambit appeared to come through for me, but most likely actually cost me points; if I'd put those RP into Construction, Zort would probably have come in for a bigger boost. The Stabilizer gambit of course was almost a complete waste - not quite though, because unlike Gats, I'll actually want to use Inertial Stabilizer someday. I also made a mistake when I chose Mass Driver on the interturn, any way you look at it. I just don't have a good sense for how well different techs miniaturize at different tech levels, and was still deciding how I'd proceed for the rest of the game besides. Advancing the tree instead of going back for Gats in the first place was clearly the better move. Nonetheless....



Computers 10 + Construction 12 + Force Fields 10 + Planetology 17 + Propulsion 13 + Weapons 15 = 77 Researcher points! Notice that Weapons is my second "best" field in 2375, with Force Field research cut off entirely. No, this is not a normal game. (Planetology as my best field is entirely normal however).

Diplomat: I made my biggest mistakes in this field, which I should have identified early on as the hardest of the three in which to achieve a high score (both in terms of game mechanics and the scoring math - it's the only field where it's impossible to score 150 points in a single scoring year). Asking the Bulrathi to declare on the 'Coids 2 turns too early cost me 20 points here, as I'm convinced I could have had alliances with both Monch and Zygot, and be up to Harmony with each, if I hadn't been afraid of being forced to choose sides in their war! I could also have had better relations with Lasitus - perhaps much better, as better relations in 2374 might have persuaded him to declare on Sedimin for me, resulting in bonuses from enemy-of-my-enemy diplomacy on the interturn - if I'd launched my gunboat diplomats sooner. Still, I didn't do too badly, and it's still theoretically possible that I could unite the triad at least!



4 for Restless Humans + 0 for Hateful Silicoids + 20 for Peaceful Psilons + 20 for Peaceful Bulrathi = 44 Diplomat points. By the way: My scores might look really lopsided - you could argue that I should have expanded less to ensure better diplomacy (the original Human war started because they hated me on first contact, presumably due to "you're too big" penalties) - but a close examination of the scoring system refutes this. Colonist scores are tripled in 2375, and there's no way I'll be able to get 100+ again with single points in 2450. If I could have sacrificed research for diplomacy, I probably should have done so (e.g. by building earlier "gunboat diplomacy" fleets with resources I spent on technology) ... but I really am a pacifistic technologist at heart. I guess I should probably have also tried allying to both the bears and brains in 2474, counting on a single interturn of bombing to elevate my score - and hoping I wasn't asked to declare on one by the other in that same interturn - but I just wasn't ready to take the risk (and I didn't want a war with either, ever, if I could help it. I told you I'm a pacifist ... at heart).

[RefSteel]

I work the last kinks out of my plans for Zortium Armor and Inertial Stabilizers one year too late to display at the Rise of the Triad ceremonies. The advanced armor has countless uses, and opens the door to Reduced Waste 40% due to its utility in factory post-production scrubbers, as well as providing the lightweight, durable material necessary for combat exoskeletons and still cheaper factories. The stabilizer of course provides no insights I didn't have already, but I am eager to develop the Fusion Drives of which I saw hints in pieced-together records from space docks on Artemis. Meanwhile...



My diplomats continue their good works, not incidentally providing me with another rich world to colonize. Zygot is extremely happy, and a master of the obvious, noticing as if for the first time that our two empires share a common enemy. Hoping to bring Lasitus into my circle of friends as well, I suggest that he join my Sili war...



... and agree to his extortionate request because frankly I no longer care if he can "attack" my dead world colonies. He signs up at that price in the year 2378, which is incidentally the year when Kholdan reaches its maximum complement of population and factories for the first time in history. Yes, I said Kholdan. No, I didn't neglect my homeworld to feed other colonies. My homeworld is Maalor, remember?



Ryoun is mine now, and my fleet slows its diplomatic overtures at Cryslon to make them at Aurora as well. Silicoid transports do arrive at Rayden, to reinforce what had been their colony, and I don't have enough of a fleet in space to kill them all, but my transports arrive first, and the rocks are lucky I take even three losses in battle, as my troops have dug in as defenders, and are wearing Zortium battle suits, while the Silicoids wear only titanium dress uniforms over their rocky skin. 2381 is also a big diplomatic year, as Lasitus tells us our diplomatic offensive is a ringing success, and accepts my offer of a NAP. I give him a nice spot on the mat alongside the other children. Monch also asks us to join him in an official alliance, but I sadly inform him I refuse be allied to an enemy of Zygot - nor however to one of his own enemies. I also ask Sedimin if he's had enough, as blowing up rocks grows tiresome eventually, and I honestly don't like killing when it isn't necessary, but he says, "No, please kill me more." (Sigh.) Very well. My heart isn't really in it (and neither is much of my fleet) but especially after Monch gets confused by my one-year hiatus from Silicoid bombing and yells at me about getting too big, I reluctantly resume bombing.

This proves insufficient incentive for "honorable" Lasitus to maintain his Non-Aggression Pact with me, though at least he retained it for most of four years - four times as long as our trade package and peace lasted after his first contact with me! I now suspect however that our pre-election peace treaty was still in force through those four years, and he was only waiting until that expired to break the NAP as well. Honorable indeed! The good news is, I've made a new discovery: My new missile jammer will help protect my worlds from Human aggression in case they actually need any protection, and when combined with Zortium manipulator arms, the advanced circuitry I devised to make the jammer possible should also be applicable to our factories! I get to work at once on Improved Robotic Controls IV! It might also be used for a more advanced battle computer, but that seems like a waste to me; what use could my people possibly have for such a thing?

[RefSteel]

Sadly, Cryslon does not survive the renewal of my diplomatic offensive. This time, it's very effective, bringing everyone but the Silicoids (even Lasitus, though he still won't talk to me) peaceful feelings toward me, and even persuading Sedimin to come calling.



While I agree the war is senseless, I'll bet he wishes he'd brought this up before I turned his homeworld into a glassy wasteland - even silicon-based creature that he is! With the Humans' biggest fleet en route to Bootis, I decide to build far more bases than are likely to be necessary, so as never to have to worry about building any more there ever again. So with Silicoid peace concluded and no danger apprehended from Human cold war fleets, I can turn my attention to more important things.

My new factory scrubbers and mass driver rail guns have been just on the verge of production-readiness for years, and I finally manage to get them functioning correctly in 2387. The scrubbers are terrific, significantly miniaturized from previous systems, suggesting a way to make my new factories even cheaper to construct than they could have been with Zortium alone. One of their byproducts also suggests a possible means of creating the andrium alloy referred to in some of my Artemis records, but especially with the approach of advanced robotic controls, I'm pushing for Improved Industrial Tech 4. Meanwhile, to further ensure my bases' impenetrability, I start to work out improvements to our Merculites code-named Stinger Missiles. Woe be the alien star fleet that tries to advance through a storm of these!



The Human fleet arrives at Bootis with its previously unidentified huge Dreadstar, which turns out to be built entirely from reprocessed lame. My ships retreat, and my bases don't bother firing, providing Lasitus with a peaceful option to save his ships, which he wisely takes. So much for the fighting. This was probably more kindness than he deserved, as everyone is whining at me anyway for being so much bigger and stronger than them. I am reminded of an ancient Klackon saying: There are worse things in the galaxy than being lonely.

[RefSteel]

I successfully work out plans to cut my factory construction costs in half in 2391. The process relies upon new advances in materials physics that promise a chance for still greater factory miniaturization, as well as the project I choose instead: A theoretical construct long assumed to be a physical impossibility, Tritanium Armor might actually be susceptible to mass production using my new Primodius-Artemis techniques! To my vast relief, in the meantime, Zygot makes peace with the Silicoids and Bulrathi. I would gladly form an alliance with either or both of my long-time friends now, but I doubt they'll agree - you'd think they'd be happy to be on the winning team, but instead, their emotions are ruled by jealousy. (Or, to put it another way, they're all huge crybabies.)

The development of advanced robotic controls in 2394 paves the way for nanoscale computer circuitry built entirely by machine, which could be used to double the accuracy of our battle computers ... or to work toward the achievement I most desire: An Advanced Space Scanner with which to observe the whole galaxy! Over the next few years, as my planets build up their factories and my neighbors complain loudly, I develop Stinger Missiles for more efficient defense and Fusion Drives for more efficient ... diplomacy. My next projects in those fields will be Ion Stream Projector (I'll likely never use Fusion Rifles, though they would admittedly be nice and noisy, and would make pretty flashes; I might never use the Projector either, but the project seems simpler to complete, and far more interesting) and Warp Dissipator (which wouldn't exactly be state of the art, but the only really new and interesting thing I could see that would grow naturally out of Fusion drives was a new form of fuel cell which I would never need). And then, in 2398...



...Sedimin proves once and for all that silicon-based lifeforms have yet to evolve any brains. His declaration of war actually comes as something of a relief, as it will heal my strained relations with other species! Monch immediately agrees to join the war effort again, and though Zygot drives a hard bargain...



...I have the 775 BC to spare, and he willingly declares when I agree. It will be especially valuable to have a common enemy as 2399 sees the quadrupling of my terraforming capabilities, which means my neighbors will only have more of me to envy. The bioengineering and environmental renewal systems that contribute to this latest level of terraforming also may open the way to Atmospheric Terraforming and cloning technology - I fear the latter may lead down a slippery slope though, and leave it alone, for now at least.

In 2400, some newly-built Termite 4.0s - nuclear bombers with fusion engines and inertial stabilizers - reach Thrax.



The council vote goes just like the one in 2375, except that the rocks have lost one of their votes, which somehow seems to have found its way to me! There's going to be more of this coming, I'm afraid.