Special Agent Teegri, Achernar Neotropical Facility, Year 6 of the present Sovereign's Reign:
There's not a lot to say about the cats who run this place, except if they had seen me, they'd be fighting over who gets the best pieces of me on their plates. You had better believe I was careful about sneaking in: If the rest of the Sovereignty is even considering a reckless, dangerous plan half-way across the galaxy, the least I can do is try to keep anything from blowing up close to home. Small risk, small reward, maybe - every lab but this old greenhouse devoted to planetology was too well-patrolled to be a possibility - but hey, every little bit helps and gets usless stuff out of the way, and the designs I lifted
were coveted by our people at one time: A little over a century ago, when we hoped in vain for a chance to quickly research them ourselves, before our scientists and the Earthlings' twice superseded them. I did make some efforts to help the cause while I was here though:
I figured we'd be fighting with the cats before long anyway, and bad blood between them and the far-off Republic wasn't likely to help us any, but this planet's close enough to Triumvirate stars that something might happen that way if they can be convinced it's worth a fight. I don't exactly expect the pacifistic Earthlings to do much to these kitties once we get around to taking Fierias - although if war materialized, we might have to move up our timetable for that - but if these cats think they have a reason, there's at least a chance they might send their fleet off to those Triumvirate worlds, and either get it eaten for lunch or run away, but either way give us a window to attack them on our terms. Not that this little frame job, scattering simian hairs and skin flakes lying around in likely spots, and depositing oily residue in the shapes of their so-called "finger" prints, is likely to break up the kitty-cats' love for the technology leaders of the galaxy, but like I've been saying, every little bit helps.
Maybe I'm overstating our "consideration" of a riskier plan, besides. If we wanted to do it, we probably would have had to go all-out to crash up the ships we needed at the earliest possible date and take control of the battle for ourselves. Instead, we're hedging, trying to open up a few more options technologically instead of putting everything into the fighters and bombers and colony cruiser we'd need.
The Sovereignty as a whole wasn't too enthused about all the risks, so we're being a little more cautious - almost as cautious as me - and pushing our scientific priorities while new long-range scanner ships go out for a closer look at alien fleets. It shouldn't be much longer now, at this rate, before we can improve the space available on our little ships and maybe miniaturize their targeting computers a little more along the way. We could use the help: Right now, our long-range bombers would be able to hit enemy bases - either potential enemy - with only about one bomb in
five, while a Clam Drop with our latest, greatest Mentaran computers could manage four
times that rate right through the enemy counter-measures.
Now, if only someone like me - like say my twin sister Kreeji - could help with that!
Special Agent Kreeji, officially-nonexistent military research and development facility code-named "Starfall" at Galilei, Year 7 of the present Sovereign's Reign:
Can't believe I
found this place!
Everything seems to be here! I'd better not leave any trace if I can help it - one of us had an object lesson in that earlier this year - but it helps this seems to be our
second deep penetration this year! Trace we left was in a nameless subterranean computational facility at some Hive world out beyond even our extended range, and the good thing is, it was left on the way
out from helping us to their latest battle computer, the old-to-us Mark IV. But
here? Just tempting technological secrets banked nearly
everywhere, and with so many possibilities, ended up hedging my bets and going with the best chances I could of getting something to really help, with the least possibility of disappointment - where even the worst-case scenario would be no dud. And in the end...
Gonna be a long time before we can use an Omega-V bomb for anything directly, but our short-range ships can carry anti-matter bombs now if necessary, and our neutron-pellet guns will practically fit in our drone-launching backpacks. Plus, once we manage enough miniaturization, we're pretty much set for space-to-surface weapons indefinitely. That's important too; we may need more than we've got to make headway on the far side of the galaxy.
Population of Ajoite is still unchanged, rocks being understandably slow to breed, but they've got their first five-layer shield up already. Don't know when they started on it, but if they're going all-in for more, they can probably have a base up behind their full shielding before we can get a fleet into their space. That's going to make any long-range attack extremely expensive, and we won't even know for two more years what they - or the bugs - are mounting on their fleets. There's no other way across the core for us though; if we're not staying home and we're not attacking our friends, we have to go after
somebody!
Ambassador Ireet-Eek, Hoshina Interstellar Communications Relay Station, Year 8 of the present Sovereign's Reign:
It is always a pleasure to welcome the Fiershan ambassador: She speaks so directly, so without inhibition, and makes it so very simple to discern the truth - merely by remembering that it is precisely the opposite of whatever she may say.
Here, while demonstrating the typical feline confusion about whether they want to be a Khanate, a Khatunate, or a Clan, she pretends that our spy was caught in a failed attempt at espionage on her people when she and we were perfectly aware that the spy in question, our Special Agent Teegri, had already left Fierias with exactly what we had hoped to gain: Design specifications for an inertial stabilizer that may return to Fierias ere much longer aboard fusion bombers our engineers were busily designing as we spoke. The pleasure inherent in what she called our "sneaky games" was all the greater since another deep penetration in Simian space happened almost simultaneously, acquiring the fruits of their materials engineering research and enabling us to design lightweight avian battle suits that will greatly enhance our winged soldiers' survivability when we inevitably invade her homeworld. Sadly, our first vast wing of long-range fighters had already launched by then, ready to deploy from our richest world toward any possible battle front, but these will not be wasted; they are already superior in every respect to the old Talon 3.0s we still have drifting around at Katsura!
It is unfortunate that our own research has not been favored with the same success as the agents in my department have achieved; a little extra construction or electronics engineering technology might go a very long way - but we must be patient. Not everyone can be expected to match what we achieve.
I should observe at any rate that our assorted trades with other peoples of the galaxy have already given us some sense for what
future research may mean: If we feel we'll need to know what different planets hold prior to controlling their skies, we can undertake an expensive side project for the purpose - and whether we do or not, another level of factory controls will await us beyond the one we're developing now! Sadly, if the poor scientists don't get their acts together soon, they won't be in time to help with our favorite Risky and Dastardly Plot!
Chief Engineer Boolbu-Yiyke, Yonezu University Materials Engineering Laboratory, tenth and final year of the outgoing Sovereign's Reign:
Well, no, no, we still don't have any breakthroughs here as
such - nor in the computer labs next door - in spite of all the growing odds we've been getting all this time. I'll say in my defense, there's been no luck on the espionage front either these past two years anyway ... if ... well, if you call that a defense. But I want to point there
is something going on out here: We're the closest Sovereignty star to Ajoite and Acaneh, and close to Akechi in case we need to stage there, and the long-range colony ship that's been part of all the big plans is waiting in orbit over our heads already! Plus, one of our scanner ships is heading back here now, with information on the crystal fleet!
Their Feldspar cruisers are of course the most dangerous to our ships: Each of those large ships could probably destroy about
three of our up-to-date fighters or bombers with every full volley of graviton beams they fire. And it might take our fleet of long-range fighters - due to arrive here at Yonezu next year -
two entire shots to destroy one, although that would be massive overkill when it did. The Magma cruisers, older, are somewhat easier to destroy, and each can probably kill about three of our fighters or bombers for every
four full volleys they fire. The fusion bomb they carry would be a little scarier if they carried more than one. Honestly, their whole fleet seems to consist of bombers apart from those Feldspars: The
fifty(!) Marble destroyers that were at Ajoite last year, all
combined, would need a lot of luck to kill three of our fighters in a mutual volley, and the superior Granite destroyers would do little better - all 29 we saw firing a combined volley would be lucky to get four or five. As for their missile bases, they're still firing ill-guided Hyper-Vs, and can practically be ignored. The real difficulty is the sheer
mass of rock ships we'd have to shoot through - all the time it would take to finally destroy them all - and the effects of their destroyers' bombs if they attacked en masse at a planet we were trying to keep intact.
Ajoite has a missile base in place and its full class-ten planetary shield, but the real risk with attacking it, it seems to me, would be what might happen if too many bomber ships show up at once and fight their way through. We're committed to trying
something though: Apart from the long-range fighters that will arrive next year, we have huge wings of long-range bombers just produced at Kuroki and Tsukushi - both are preparing to build regular short-range, swift, high-accuracy Talon 4s for next year, but that can well be changed, depending on the new administration's needs - and other worlds can be set to build ships for the war effort besides! The ships might not even end up being dispatched to Ajoite; there
is an alternative use for exactly the same plan:
The known Hive ships are even less dangerous than their Crystal counterparts, though Poison bombers in numbers could be dangerous enough in their own right. Hive missile bases, already assembled and firing Scatter Packs, are also more dangerous than the Imperium's, though easier to quickly kill. Their population too is more vulnerable to bombing - but more numerous on their worlds than the rocks at Ajoite, at least for now. I've no idea what the new administration will try; I know what
I would do, but I couldn't even get a small incremental improvement to factory construction efficiency to actually meet my expectations for its timeline, and
that's my
job!
Even with poor luck on getting our own research to complete, we still picked up some techs with our spies. And you have prepared a strike force to try to attack across the galaxy.