"Two years into my ... do we call this a reign? Into my whatever they're calling this now, mostly just approving more transports and familiarizing myself with the fancy new control facility along the way, and there's finally news worthy the name."
"This is no credit to me: My predecessor did all the work setting this colony ship on its way and even getting some basic defenses up here so we could finally expand our reach. I
have been ordering our few available Scouts forward to take advantage of the new fuel base they'll be making, but that's a small consideration - comparatively. Garuga may not look like much, but get enough of us lizards up there, and ... well, and
hopefully it'll have time to build itself up into a formidable and valuable outpost toward the heart of the galaxy!
"Now, I did mention scouting, didn't I? So colony tech for Taenth is a long way off and our Scout there can't stop anybody from seeing the place anyway, so it's going to check out the red star Garuga just brought into range. The Scout for the yellow star closer-by is earmarked already too, sent forward as soon as I took office about to hit Garuga next year. But there's more good news: Nothing incoming to Garuga on scanners, the fighters at Jeruth are just a couple parsecs away in case of emergency, and that orange flag where the Meks chased off our Scout is now in range for Garuga's tiny defensive fleet! I believe in aggressive scouting, so I'm sending them there right away."
- Totally Not 2353 -
"I can never get the hang of this new-fangled calendar system. I'm writing all this down as 2353 in spite of it being I think just a thousand and something, dating back from ... whatever they say it is. And I'm still wrong, because I'm pretty sure this would really have been
2352. It's just easier this way because otherwise people get all confused between what the techies call one- and zero-indexing. Either way, I'm willing to take their words for it, because they've just brought us a whole lot of real good news!"
"Little gecko buddy over here is presenting the materials engineering team's findings as I write, and it's going to shave ten percent of the cost of new factory construction - perfect for our new Mek-ward worlds and world-to-be! Which is lovely in itself, but it leads to a decision people are going to be second-guessing probably for the rest of my term in ... is it an office? Anyway, all seven years: With both choices to move forward and waste cleanup already in hand, I decided instead to ask the team to go back and cut down on our industrial waste.
"Now, this could be a big mistake, compounding the ones we've all already made, and I don't think I'd have even considered it back in the old days, but I took a look at our research rate, and I took a look at the pricetags on these new technologies, and frankly ... it isn't pretty. Another very marginal improvement to factory build times that wouldn't be ready until we've already built out a ton more factories is going to take nearer three times as long as the waste cleanup project that'll still save us tens of billions of credits every year, and unless our tech rate climbs a lot higher, it could well pay for itself before the shiny new industrial tech ever comes in - to say nothing of valuable but over-the-top-expensive duralloy. For those who are wondering, that's why I'd have picked up cheap terraforming long ago too - even before our waste cleanup technology. We're so good at planetology, the thing is just so
cheap, I think it would have paid back the price of getting it long before Death Spores were ready, nevermind whatever's beyond it that's sure to cost more than a fully-loaded
battleship. I
would have gone back for that one in the old days for
sure - but here and now? If I'm right, it's
totally worth it! If I'm wrong ... well, considering how cheap it is, if I'm wrong I may have to eat the non-imperial uncrownlike thing I'm wearing on my head.
"Anyway, it turns out we're not the only ones who've been making new discoveries."
"The bugs have discovered Hydrogen fuel - probably, I hope, for the sake of the honor of somebody who goes by Modnar apparently, by spying on us and not by doing the research themselves -
and they discovered the spy we had trying and failing to spy on
them. Weirdly, they didn't complain about him - didn't even show up in the list of incidents. Maybe that Modnar guy told the bugs
not to hate everyone who ever spies on them unsuccessfully since everyone in the galaxy's going to spy on them anyway and they'll just end up in perpetual war? Or our spy somehow died without being caught as
such? Or they really
don't mind failed espionage, as long as the spy isn't
hiding? Don't ask me. Anyway, I'm not planting a new one right now; if my successor thinks they might have advanced enough that it's worth another look at the bugs' tech by then, that'll work to - it won't be up to me."
"So here's what we're doing now. From
this screen, by the way, it looks like yellow paths are for our ships already in hyperspace, and a green path means it's
either for a ship I can still redirect because it hasn't jumped to hyperspace just yet
or it's any old transport fleet, as long as it's one of mine. Did I propose this hypothesis already about our display? Or did somebody else? I'm getting old here; I can never remember these things. Anyway, if we had some really great space scanners, I suppose the path for that bug ship near Rinnerth would be red, but of course we can't see it - it's only about as obvious as a coral snake trying to stealthily flail its way across a sheet of solid ice. I've been tracking it two years now, knowing it's just one of their scout drones, formerly known as Bumblebees, but I'm pretty sure this would be the first time they'd be able to get eyes on that world, and I'd rather they
don't see it and get a chance to coordinate transports for a future invasion if it's all the same to them - so I'm going to expand the size of our military fleet by a solid 25%!"
- Entry 054 -
"Right, right, see, so the year, in this new calendar thingy? It's right there!"
"That one. The one on the screen up there. Don't ask me; I've got my official Old Lizard License right here; I've already forgotten what it is. Gorgeous scenery on Jeruth though. Those snowy peaks in the background look like great places to sight-see from a distance. Preferably a
big difference, especially for a stealthy coral snake. In case you're wondering about Rinnerth, by the way, the Scout Drone Bumblebug turned tail and ran so fast nobody even had time to play any battle music. I wonder - if we had the wherewithal on our ships to blow the thing up before it could run, would we have been given a chance, or did it have some kind of auto-retreat orders that would have kicked in before we could even close to combat range? Maybe we'll find out someday....
"Oh, and we're apparently close enough to get eyes on the Meklar fleet guarding Orange-Flagged Blue Star. Still just the one Transistor fighter, so we should have this one, hopefully. Unlike 6 Pisces, the Meklar's new fourth colony, just out of our reserve-tank range along the galactic rim - no chance to do anything about that one, obviously. And there's exciting news from the labs at the same time: Chances - small but not nothing - of three different breakthroughs by this time next year!"
- Entry 055 -
"What a disappointment. I go in thinking it's time for my first real battle, only to see ... the Transistor took one look at our fleet, saw we had double its force in the system, and - like last year down at Rinnerth with the bug scout - beat a hasty retreat, before we even got to get a look at the tactical situation or anything! Which, sure, okay, is fine, it's not like we could have stopped it from retreating since it wanted to, but the
star system's the real disappointment: That Transistor was just sitting there all these years faithfully protecting a bunch of asteroids and what would have been a protoplanetary ring if it could last long enough before the star blows, around a blue star so hot and new, not even a single planet has had time to form!
It's not
all bad news though: Check out my first composite image from the new control chambers!"
"Our scanning crews have been doing good work already, and this just makes them all the better! And unlike our second-tier of planetology, we're spoiled for choices here in computer technology! So obviously I'm going to go back and pick up a cheap ... ha-
ha! - I'll bet I'd have fooled you if you didn't already see the screen. Obviously we're heading straight for robotic controls here for our factories!"
"Oh, and just a small note here: Those Mekkies are so upset about our bloodless "skirmish" over a completely useless star system that it counteracts two years of profitable trade two and a half times over. Let me just say, if CB-715 over there thinks
that was a
skirmish, it must think a couple of geckoes eyeing each other warily from the boles of adjacent trees is a major
war!
"All that said, I'm having a look at our tech priorities, and weapons and shields will be great to have, so I'm liking the chances of breakthroughs, but if they take their time to actually finish - and we don't have to spend much more on them - that's fine by me. So I'm dialing back their budget and putting all the excess into propulsion: The
real decisive field for our defensive needs. It'll help with colonizing too, but not until we have something to colonize - or more tech in the same field, potentially. Should I have pushed Planetology sooner instead? Well, that's something for the ... council? Or whoever to debate. I'm just doing what feels right to me."
- Entry 056 -
"Just hanging out with a Meklar Byte scout in the Caydranth system. I should have shown the message from later though, from the main command screen, about how a star with only asteroids and no rocky planets defies all theories of planet formation or something. I know
one tech writer who hasn't studied enough astronomy! (Stars are amazing, by the way, especially in their sheer variety.)
"I should show you our latest report on the old 'chines too, from the spy who just this year gave her life in hiding - without, again, apparently causing the slightest diplomatic incident - to get this valuable information on Mek technology:"
"They barely have any. I'd love to get their fuel cells, but with no spy, I heard I can't even offer an exchange? And I'm not sure what we'd even offer for it that they'd take, so I'm not going to bother asking more spies to give their lives in the same part of space. This does mark an interesting Mek year for other reasons though: I just spotted a cruiser called a Battery, in the neighborhood of Meklon. It claims to be armed, but I don't know if that just means
potentially armed since we've never scanned one, or
definitely armed but it's a colony ship with a single laser or something (not a bad design, by the way, if a planet is lightly contested) or armed and it's a legitimate full-on military warp-one cruiser with military technology almost as old as
I am! I hope it's not coming for Garuga anyway."
- Entry 059 -
"Well, our scout finally reached Avantador, and the place is pretty much gorgeous. Check it out for yourself if you don't believe me. I'd give odds that - if their biomechanical brains are working - that Battery of theirs was a colony ship on its way to take the place, and these seventeen transports are bound for 8 Sextans to backfill for the transports they plan to send there. Or on their way to Avantador directly to join the colony ship there, if the rumors are true that they can somehow convince their people to set out for planets that don't yet have colonies."
- Entry 060 -
"Well, that's it then! Under the circumstances, we're doing pretty okay - although we might want to shore up that fleet strength when we have nuclear engines for our ships. Right now, our defenses consist of ... five fighters. One more than when I took the helm!"
"Notice that the Meklar are staging a bunch of their own fighters at their homeworld. Two of them are also coming in to probe our space, but we've got enough to cover single fighters like those. Oh, and I started using purple flags for no-planet star systems and got rid of the flags on planets we already own. The number suffix on the enemy ships is the first time we saw them as far as I know - some of them are probably older than the 04x I claim, which really just means "before I took over at T+050. As for
our fleets-to-be, I can't wait for nuclear fighters: Speed
kills!
"So does age, unfortunately, and I'm running out of time. Good luck, future whatever-we-call-ourselves-now-instead-of-Emperor! I'm off to a retirement home ... hopefully, eventually, at Tessith or Avantador!"
