The time-density of Things Happening has increased over the last few months of ingame time so my delta-tees are getting a bit smaller. Think of it as a
CFL condition on the AAR.
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Some images:
Bacora, a system very close to Abrigadu-Fos, which you may remember held a large pirate presence. Here a local defence force is defending against a pirate raiding party.
Nemba defence force blowing up an uppity construction ship trying to repair the world annihilator:
Here is a suggestion from my advisors that I offer a bounty mission to blow up the large station at Hunughr to mercenaries. It's an expensive bounty and I'm holding off on it for now (I tried it once before and it failed), but it might be worth later setting this offer up and coordinating with an attack of my own.
Brief window showing my state ship designs. I understand the orange text is not good with regard to resource availability? I'm not building to max size yet, but I think I'll design a capital ship soon. I've also completed phasor research and have outfitted my Apex class destroyer (not visible) with them. Following suggestions I put single railguns on civilian freighters for self-defence purposes. I do also note that in the course of preparing this writeup my destroyers (which are designed as close-in brawlers, armed with railguns) did good work on other vessels and were far less scared of combat. Maybe i have underestimated them. But I'm proceeding with phasor research nonetheless. Next up, 'phasor lances'.
Things are escalating slowly, but they’re escalating alright.
I completed the industrial mining projects in Nemba, though the space station is taking a little longer, and variously moved fleets around to defend assets. The Haunted Daggers are quieting down a bit, and I’ll make sure this trend continues - I’ve spotted some of their mining stations spread through various places, and I can keep this low-intensity war going with them by methodically destroying those stations. They’re poorly defended, and by doing so I’m hitting these pirates where they have the apparent advantage: their economy, giving them that high military strength. If an all-out assault won’t work (for the time being, at least), attrition might. So far so good.
Hello, what’s this?
Is that a Malthur Commonwealth invasion force? Hmm… it’s on its way to try to take Nemba 5…
While I’m absorbing this new development, something different happens. In one very, very brief moment, the galaxy has erupted into war. In particular, it looks like a war has developed between two major alliances. I don’t have a good head for the participants because I’ve really not been paying attention to my neighbors, but this seems to be the situation:
Alliance 1 consists of:
The Malthur, a small civilization whose only colony I know of is at the very galactic north (that blue smear at the very top);
The Ketarov Dominion, whose location is unknown to me;
The Terak Monda Enclave, who are my northeastern ‘buddies’. I know pretty much the complete extent of their civilization; they are, again, the offensive red rash to my northeast.
Alliance 2:
The Dacshii, who have colonies corewards of me;
The Boskara Conformity, grubby little things that they are, whose location is unknown;
The Great Thela Conformity, with two known colonies to me on the far side of the core;
The Gizurea Hive, also unknown location;
The Boskar Collective, which is clearly related to the Conformity up there. Separate but equal, huh.
Everyone else, myself included, are neutral in this conflict. I’m glad to see I’m not caught in the middle of it. I’m a little nervous about the relation between that conflict and this force that’s showing up in Nemba though. I’m a bit worried that if I interfere I’ll get dragged into the war. For sure though, they’re not taking Nemba 5. It’s not happening. I station my local force there and wait for them to arrive.
They do, and I blow them to smithereens.
Some of their troop transports escape the system at the sign of trouble, and hesitantly return to scope out the area. I annihilate them too.
Having a spat doesn’t automatically declare war, so we’re still good for now. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re opinion of me has… yup, they don’t like me. They’re “annoyed”, and the biggest reason
by far is “we’ve had terrible dealings in the past”.
Really?
Well I gotta say, before this moment, the rest of the galaxy was kind of a blank field. Tabula rasa and all that, and I swear I’m using that term correctly. There was a kind of diversity that I sat above because one day I’d simply conquer them all. This is a noble Dhayut view of the galaxy. The downside is that picking a place to start would take some work. I’d have to convince myself I was making a rational decision.
The Malthur have made my decision for me. They’ve put a polarity on the galaxy, and for their attempted assault on my territory, they
will pay for what they’ve done. I’ll still want to do it properly; the Dhayut are known for being hyperviolent, but they’re not idiots. This just gives me a direction. Honestly though, I don’t even need to attack them first, or even their alliance (because it will, for sure, be an alliance-scale war). But I have a purpose now, beyond just enslaving everyone. The Dhayut hold grudges, my friends. They hold grudges.
During this interlude, the Nemba 5 space port has completed. It’s a medium space port, I’ll just retrofit to large size. (Question: do space ports construction yards still construct while retrofitting? Do their docking bays still work?) And then, I’m going to spend all of my scads of money to build a giant fleet and hunt down the Haunted Daggers like it’s a bodily function.