Warming (and/or Burning) Up Again

[RefSteel]

Yeah; it's nice to have at least some activity going on around here, even if in my case, the updates have been covering very short timeframes!

(Note the derelict event also gave the Silis Hand Lasers and NPGs; it's just that the former were instantly obsoleted by their also getting ion rifles and the latter may or may not see direct use on AI fleets.)


- 2366 -

I'm definitely worried that I rushed this attack too much: Once my spies reported what the rocks had taken from the derelict ship, we could have and probably should have soared in readiness for a year or two or three or four, building our strength before we drew our wings in and dove at the enemy. It's going to take us years to conquer the Rayden system anyway - the best this can do is to soften it up in the meantime, cutting into its production base and potentially taking out those missile bases that are already present before future technology and further support makes them much harder targets ... which would be more promising if our spies hadn't already told us that the Silicoids are redesigning their entire forcefield and weapons research infrastructure, practically starting over from scratch, to take advantage of things they learned from the derelict they found. We might get in ahead of their computer and construction research, but since we don't know what they're pursuing in those fields or how far along they are, I'm skeptical of the value there. The biggest threat to our battle plan is really that they might trade some of their derelict technology to the Klackons for a planetary shield - or that their agents might steal something like it from them or from the Psilons - and get it built before we can hit them. In any case, it does no good to second-guess ourselves at this point: We have bombers and millions of soldiers already in hyperspace, due to arrive in the Rayden system within the next two to three years, and all I can do is to give our forces a chance at victory.



(I could really use another scanner ship or two, but that's had to bow to more-urgent needs.)

After the Klackon laser fleet retreated from our lone missile base at Blazing Sky, the Silicoid Attack Colony Ship reached Ashen Nest and the bulk of our own attack fleet, which ... is frankly not impressing anybody on defense since nearly 90% of our ships here are either scouts are bombers. Fortunately, we have very good pilots, and after a brave scout pilot sacrificed his life to draw fire away from our combat ships, our fighters closed in and took no further losses in blasting the enemy ship to bits. We also got some good intelligence on the Silicoid Attack Colship: It must mount a battle scanner to account for its rapid reaction times, but probably no other targeting computer or it would have gotten more hits in against our swift combat ships than it did. It mounts neither missiles nor heavy weapons, but does have one or more ion cannons and gatling lasers - again probably just one of the gatling mounts or even with just the scanner, it would have killed another ship or two at least. The old Dart fighters had a lot more trouble getting damage in than our new Reactor fighters with their shield-piercing neutron accelerators, so my guess is they were mounting a deflector shield of the most-primitive variety still extant in the galaxy. You know: The kind that was our state of the art until two years ago. I don't know if they carry bombs, and I'm glad we didn't have to find out. So from all of this, my best guess is that we were a little lucky not to lose more than a single scout ship in that fight: Lucky to have such brilliant pilots, exceeding themselves in their astrobatic flying, dancing around enemy fire! We'll fortunately have many more of the new Reactor fighters by the time the first real fleet comes in ... but I do still worry it may not be enough. For one thing, the whole idea of striking before the Silicoids finish their own research projects...



(On the other hand, if they're going back for ECM1 or something, striking a little sooner might still make the difference. Oh, and they're no longer allied to the bugs. That's a little bit hopeful at least.)

...is already half obsolete. Their new battle computers will double their missile bases' accuracy against our current bombers and reverse the advantage our spies had over theirs for a few too-brief years, and their work crews might still show up with duralloy plating to add to their missile bases any year. Still, we're not defeated yet, and I plan on doing everything I can to give us a shot at claiming some of their newly-researched or salvaged Ancient technology!



(We're still sending something from everywhere remotely close by, but Pyre itself had a bunch of transports coming in last year, so it's continuing to contribute heavily.)

We're committed to this attack now, and it's going to go through if we can possibly make it work, but with those four Silicoid cruisers due to arrive at Ashen Nest and Rayden simultaneously, I'm in a serious dillema about how to deploy our forces. I know none of them use post-derelict technology since I saw the two now on an attack vector before it was ever found, but beyond that, I have no idea if they're overloaded with gatling lasers, decades-old heavy laser cruisers, nuclear missile boats, bombers, or any combination, with ion cannons possibly thrown into the mix. I know what to hope for, and I know what to fear, but that's about it. My plan for now is to meet them with just our bombers and the Hawk, meeting a lone scout in case it can help out, while the fighters remain on station to help defend Ashen Nest, but there's still a chance of something happening within the next year that would change my plans radically!



(And with this, just like the Silis, they've now picked up a (slight) edge on our espionage rolls. Won't stop me from trying!)

The Klackons in the meantime have developed robotic controls technology equal to what our computer scientists are hoping to someday devise themselves - with none of our budget allocated to them so far with all our wartime priorities - and developed industrial technology so advanced that even their robotically-enhanced factories can be built as cheaply as our more-primitive versions. We're in several different races here, and I'm worried about losing them all, but I am at least trying to focus on one we can - hopefully! - win!

[haphazard1]

The bugs are looking a bit worrying, with IRC3, cheap factories, and shields. Fortunately they don't have much weapons tech. Their alliance with the rocks dissolving is good news, as hopefully the two races will not trade techs.

Good luck with the upcoming battles!

[WingsofMemory]

A lot hope is riding on those Alkari pilots and their neutron pellet guns lol.

[RefSteel]

Agreed about the bugs:  For now, they're mostly contained, but one missile base on Blazing Sky is not a long-term solution.  We still have a mountain to climb here - or maybe three.


- 2367 -

At this point, it's almost eyond question that we should have delayed our attack, showing more patience and coordinating everything.  We hoped to get in ahead of new Silicoid technology, but unless they research counter-measures to electronic guidance systems - or steal them from us - it's already too late for that on all counts.



(This is actually close to the worst case scenario in terms of Silicoid research:  Their new battle computer doubles their missile hit rate, their new armor increases their bases' survivability by 50%, their class 4 shields mean our NPGs can't hit the planet and reduce our bombers' damage output by more than a third, and with duralloy and ion rifles, their ground combat advantage on defense went from +10 to +25 in the space of just four turns, more than doubling our expected casualties on the ground!  Fortunately, there's more to Orion than tech though....)

Duralloy armor will make all their ground forces harder to take down for our bombers and soldiers alike.  If we hadn't prepared for the worst we could think of, we might well have had to write off the invasion as a lost cause.  There is one ray of hope for us however:  For reasons best known to the Silicoids themselves, they are shipping eleven million Raydenites - almost a third of the population - away from us, perhaps toward their Willow colony, but perhaps more likely toward a Klackon world where they had a fleet stationed during their alliance - and of which they took advantage when Igneous decided to break the alliance because it no longer liked words with double ls.  I don't expect anything to come of the invasion - except that it does mean fewer Silicoid troops on Rayden 5-ii itself, which is desperately important since in light of their entrenchments and advanced combat technology, we're projecting losses against them in factory-to-factory fighting at catastrophic rates:  The eleven million Silicoid warriors departing on those transports would likely have killed nearly forty million Alkari if they had stayed!  At this point, we have to face the fact that with their new advances, we can't afford to keep up our battle with the Silicoids beyond Rayden and at perhaps one other world unless and until we can develop better personal defenses of our own.  The cost in lives is terrifying, and I regret the hasty decision to take the fight to them at Rayden - though I fear I would have regretted any other course even more!

Meanwhile, I haven't forgotten the Klackon front:  Another fleet is expected to hit Blazing Sky within two years, and though our defensive base can handle it without trouble, the colony is spending the year laying foundations and preparing armaments and subsystems for a second base in secret:  We saw the impact of saboteurs at High Crag, and if a similar group is able to take out the lone missile base at our most-productive world, we need to be able to get a new one out to replace it on short notice if necessary!


- 2368 -

The fateful year has come - the first of the fateful years - when Silicoid battle fleets meet ours.  In future years, on the ground, I fear we'll crash against Silicoid troops like birds trying their beaks and talons against rocks, but now at least we fight in space, with room to maneuver - and to fly!  Our attack fleet drops out of hyperspace at Rayden first, meeting the flagship of our fleet, a lone scout sent to assist in any way it was able, and whatever the Silicoids were able to muster at their rich forward outpost.



(Still just five bases, and in spite of enough factories for the current population and those sent off in transports two turns back combined, no terraforming as of last year!  Were they doing research here or what?  Maybe trying to put a huge ship together, in which case sending those transports away (and some of our transports showing up ASAP) will hopefully help ensure they can't finish it before it's too late....)

It seems we're facing what they had on hand or know to be en route last year - and still nothing more!  The cruisers are both old designs as well:  The Whale has no equipment that we couldn't have built at the turn of the century - just a battle scanner, primitive targeting computer, and heavy laser turrets - and the Mako isn't much more advanced, still relying on lasers and the same computer systems, though it does mount a shield and has far greater close-in firepower against shieldless ships like ours with its nine gatling arrays.  Ultimately though ... it doesn't matter to a fleet like ours.  Their planetary bases, spewing fifteen nuclear missiles per volley with twice the cruisers' fire control efficiency, are by far the biggest threat to our ships here, and even they just can't hit hard enough fast enough to impress our bomber wing.  They even make the mistake of firing on the Hawk - which does force our flagship to retreat on a hyperspace microjump, taking it out of the rest of the battle, but it doesn't matter:  It's done its job, and the Gulls handle the rest, burning the missile bases from the surface with nuclear fire, destroying all the guidance systems so their dying volley of rockets careens aimlessly across space, and bluffing an approach for a third bombing run, leading the enemy captains to surrender, promising to jump out of the system if we spare the colony.



(Just to reitterate:  Those 112 transports, spread out over several turns should be enough to take the 23 Silicoid troops on the ground and start to repopulate the world, but to turn it around as quickly as I want to, we need more!  Also note the losses from just two volleys of bombs:  2 million rocks and eight factories!)

I have a suspicion Igneous wouldn't have approved of his forces making that deal, but we agreed to drop no further bombs there so long as no one takes up arms against us, and both sides are honoring the agreement so far, with the Silicoid ships jumping out toward Paladia, and our starforce remaining on station but making no further attacks.  I'm curious to see if the informal, one-system, limited cease-fire can survive even a full year.  If it does, the battle for the colony will be renewed not with bombs but with troops on the ground - where the Silicoid advantage remains overwhelming, so I can well understand why their ship captains would agree.  For one thing, they knew what we could do to them if they tried to hold onto Rayden long enough for us to reach them with the rest of our fleet:  Theirs wasn't the only space battle between our peoples this year!  At Ashen Nest, an identical Silicoid fleet, backed up by an armed Colony cruiser, met our main space superiority force:  One scout to fly interference for our fourteen surviving Dart laser fighters and over fifty Reactors with their powerful neutron pellet weaponry.



(In Orion as in life, it sometimes seems there aren't many things you can count on.  But in Orion as in life, there actually are many such things ... and in Orion in particular, two of them are indeed Alkari pilots and NPGs!)

Alerted by our flagship about the load-out of the enemy fleet, we were able to plan the battle carefully, with another Scout pilot bravely sacrificing her life to potentially save one or more front-line combat ships ... but apart from such small benefits as these, the tactics were almost unnecessary.  The Darts showed their age, but thanks to higher maneuverability were able to finish off the older Whale heavy laser cruiser once the Reactor fleet had cut it down to size, en route to also destroying the Mako gatling cruiser, taking it out even faster than the Darts could finish off the Whale.  The Reactors nearly destroyed the colony ship as well and had an opportunity to finish it as it tried to retreat to hyperspace, but I gave the order to stand down and let it flee.  There is going to be terrible carnage at Rayden V-ii before long, and we don't need the deaths of two million helpless colonists on our talons in advance just because they're being carried around in an armed ship - not when it's getting ready to flee.  Our friends might have been more impressed had we destroyed that ship as well, but actually it would cost the Silicoid war machine nothing, and in fact the needless destruction of colonists trying to escape might only inspire the launch of another armed colony ship pre-dispatched on an attack vector instead of retreating toward the star where we're planning to send our main fleet anyway.  And after all, our friends are very pleased with the damage we're doing to the enemy already!



(As with everything we do with the Psilons, we might well regret this ... but probably not.  If they want a star, we don't have the force to contest it while fighting the rocks and bugs simultaneously!)

Convinced by the damage we did to the Silicoids this year that our request for a mutual war was not a cry for help but a true offer to cooperate together against the most-widespread faction in the galaxy, Tachaon was open to further negotiation, and agreed to my proposal that we formally ban military conflict between our forces, promising to send no fleets or troops to one another's worlds while the agreement holds, and to refrain from fighting in neutral space.  One advantage of this agreement is that in case we both send an attack force to an enemy world simultaneously, we can each engage the enemy without fighting for the right to control the battle in space.  The disadvantage, of course, is exactly the same thing:  If we feel prepared to conquer an enemy world and the Psilons decide to blow up our target from orbit, we won't be able to warn off their fleet without breaking the pact we've established here.  In all honesty though ... given what the Silicoids have now, even if we do manage to take Rayden, at what point are we ever going to feel prepared to conquer another enemy world?

[haphazard1]

Some good news, and some less than good news. Still, if you have to fight on the ground against an enemy with superior ground tech, the slow-growing rocks are the best race to fight against.

Thanks for the update!

[WingsofMemory]

Excellent work taking that planet! If we can bomb out that many missile bases, then I think we're in a good way.

[RefSteel]

A very good point haphazard, which I'll discuss further in the report. And thanks for the encouragement, WingsofMemory ... but let's not count our full-grown Alkari until they're hatched: We haven't taken the planet yet! So, still taking this slow-but-steady, let's finally get up through 2370:


- 2369 -

It's quiet for now - the calm before the next storm, perhaps, especially at Rayden - and ever since winning the major battles last year, we've been trying to take advantage of the momentary lull to forward our planetology research much more seriously. We still have key colonies assembling engines, bulkheads, titanium hull plates, hyperspace-hardened electrical components, and all the other ship materials we can gather, ready for assembly in orbital spaceyards, but I'm quietly hoping that some of those parts can be used to build new colony ships instead of yet more fighter fleets - or bombers to take on more-heavily defended colonies. Five missile bases at a rich world the size of Rayden V-ii is still pitifully few - compare the thirty-five bases that Kholdan was bristling with when our Scout did a fly-by a few years back! - but the Silicoids are indeed still spread thin across their many worlds, and if our soldiers or spies could capture or steal their personal shield technology - especially if we could get their ion rifles too, and duralloy either from them or from their Klackon ex-allies - we might even be able to maintain pressure on their near periphery with the material we have. Without that though, the cost in Alkari lives would be devastating no matter how limited Silicoid space defenses may be!



(Apart from one group just arriving to reinforce Ashen Nest, that whole cloud of green transports is en route to Rayden. Sending them in slow stages like this is usually a costly mistake, especially against Sakkra: Your first wave hits a fully-populated world, and their population starts regrowing faster and faster as each inadequate wave chips away at their population and you end up having to fight many more soldiers than you would have if you'd bunched everybody up into a single delayed wave. Here though, we've got Silis! Not only do they regrow slowly, but the planet was underpopulated - right in the fattest part of the growth curve when we first arrived - so killing even just a few of them in each early wave actually slows their population growth - though the benefit is small until they get down below about 15 million. More importantly, since we're not speeding their population growth this way, it's very worthwhile to keep cutting down on their production capacity!)

Of course "quiet" is a relative term: The Klackons did make another run at Blazing Sky with over a hundred laser fighters, mostly of their latest design, but they took one look at the base, turned around, and flew back home. There were no new bases at Rayden, no new ships - nothing at all but the Silicoid population running just two thirds of the planet's factories. We still don't know what they're doing down there, but the planet is so rich in minerals, it seems impossible that they could be doing nothing with all those freely-available high-value metals and rare earths literally strewn under their rocky pseudopodal outgrowths. I keep dreading there are plans for some gigantic death ship that they've been working on for years - perhaps even since the war began - and that might come to fruition at any moment! The transports slowly arriving from across our space should slow the work down, whatever it is, as Silicoid soldiers fight and slowly fall under laser fire once it eventually manages to get through their advanced armor and shields, all while their ion rifles pick our own soldiers out of the sky. If all goes well, nothing they build there will be able to trouble us anymore when we take control of the colony in just a few years - if we do. I still don't know what we're going to have to face in the meantime!

Or rather, I don't know what we're going to be facing in detail. In the wider view of the galaxy, I've been anticipating this for more than a decade, and in some sense since the first moment I read our intelligence reports on Saurak the Mad:



(And while our ambassadors promised peace with anyone who would be peaceful with us, Emperor Phoenix prepared for war against everyone who had already declared war on us. But I'm pretty sure that isn't the kind of thing this lizard means.)

I really feel for the Sakkra population: We've seen their merchants valiantly trying to hold the peace together and scrape together a living on our tiny trade deal, always reluctant to return to Sakkra space. We've seen the ambassadors of which Saurak is so glibly speaking here, struggling to walk a narrow diplomatic tightrope, trying to appease the Silicoids without quite getting involved in every one of the wars in which Igneous is embroiled. I can only imagine what it's like for the population of their worlds, overcrowded, undernourished, constantly ordered back and forth and in wild circles in accordance with the gyrations of Mad Saurak's kaleidoscopic fantasies. Now the merchants and diplomats all have gone as well - all but a few at Dry Thermal who begged for asylum from their murderous tyrant and after long debate were granted it: Sakkra who preferred to live on the ground far beneath the clifftop cities of an avian people on a dry world than to serve under their emperor, even knowing that they might never again be permitted by their ruler to return to their homeworlds or to trade or converse on their people's - their ex-people's - behalf. I would like to give them some form of hope, but I don't know how to say - without the appearance of sarcasm at least - that it is entirely possible, in case Saurak changes what passes for his mind again and eventually agrees to peace with me, that they will be permitted to resume their former jobs as though nothing had happened. The horrors that Saurak has perpetrated on his people - and attempted to on ours - are neither continuous nor consistent; he has accrued so much personal power that his willingness to perform unspeakable acts is all it takes for him to do so, and he has demonstrated that he does wish and choose to from time to time - but as often as not, he doesn't: The only thing we can rely upon from Saurak is his unreliability.


- 2370 -

I've been wondering for years what Rayden was doing with only five bases all this time, and with no effort to make use of the Silicoids' advanced terraforming technology. I speculated and worried ... and now I know: The face of an entire mountainside on Rayden 5-ii gave way, collapsing or falling open amid a rockslide of cataclysmic proportions, fortunately far from the world's population centers and surface industry, revealing a chasm of incredible size: A secret underground hangar of which our only suspicion had been the knowledge that the Raydenites must be hiding something down there! And out of the hangar, roaring ponderously toward the sky, emerged the answer to my question: A Polaris battleship, larger and more powerful than any starships we've ever seen in the galaxy before. Its targeting and shields match the very best that we could field now even in theory, and it's designed for absolute space superiority, with two dozen heavy ion cannons to hammer targets at long range, plus an equal number of short-range beams with eight smaller ion mounts and four quad-fire gatling arrays. It was a devastating weapon, more than a match for our entire fleet...



(The bombers (and Hawk) in position to attack the planet at the end was sheer coincidence: We didn't fire on the planet even once.)

...if its crew were not so clueless about tactical planning! Its superior firepower was largely wasted against our tiny ships with their exceptional maneuverability, but it could still have defeated our Reactor fighters by steady attrition while shrugging off the laser fire of our other space combat ships and daring our bombers to do what they might. Instead, it fired on the bombers almost exclusively - the one set of ships that could do it no harm - and our brave bomber pilots permitted it, doing rapid fly-bys to draw its fire in spite of taking heavy casualties, leaving our Reactors free to blast through its shields with storms of neutron pellets while our Darts assisted in both roles, drawing fire and firing on it in turn as they had the opportunity. Even the flagship dared the battleship once or twice, swooping in on the chance of helping out with its few laser beams, until finally the Reactors finished the job, breaching the main reactor on the Polaris and sending the gigantic ship raining down on Rayden 5 in a thousand burning, melting pieces. More than forty brave Alkari pilots lost their lives, most of them among the Gull bombers whose only role in the battle was to bluff and feint in attempts to draw fire or drive the battleship away, but the bulk of our fleet survives, including all the Reactors - all that we've ever yet built except the four lost a few years back in the battle at Ashen Nest. As long as they continue thus, I now have every confidence that we can finally take the Rayden system. The battles on the ground have been grisly and will surely get worse; I dread them ... but at least, at last, I am convinced we will prevail.

[haphazard1]

Lot of fire power on that Polaris. But at least it is very slow. Blasting it to bits sends a huge chunk of rock production to the slag heap.

The lizards are going to be more trouble. But hopefully not in time to prevent you from grabbing Rayden. Good luck, and hopefully your brave soldiers can loot some useful tech.

[WingsofMemory]

Is it that the Polaris crew was too foolish to make use of their ship effectively in combat, or was it that the desperate Silicoids that built it, and the desperate Silicoids that manned it, did so with the express purpose of eliminating the threat of nuclear annihilation by orbital bombs?

Perhaps there was a gentlemen's agreement between your admirals and theirs not to bomb the planet, but the marooned inhabitants Rayden perhaps have less trust in strange carbon based lifeforms than the (at least what must be in their eyes) cowards who left them there to die. Granted, great for us. That thing had some serious heavy firepower on it.

Sucks about the Sakkra, they might be able to screw up our backline something fierce. Considering our bombers now, and our neutron blasters, might be worth taking a detour after conquering Rayden to mercy kill them. Although that will really screw up our diplomacy tainting ourselves with a genocide.

How many ships can we make a turn? I'd say our tech is serviceable right now, and espionage and ground invasions can hopefully close the gap a bit if we have strong enough ships to conquer planets.

Well, thanks for the update! Good luck!

[RefSteel]

Thanks for the encouragement, I'll try to keep things moving ... though several real-life concerns are converging that may cause more delays. That's part of the reason I'm reporting so little game time at a time here, though there are also big changes happening practically every turn in-game (as perhaps you've noticed) - not all of them because of anything I'm doing myself!

On the Polaris crew vs. terrified Silis: It could be both! I like the picture of the Polaris crew desperately firing on the bombers, just trying to get rid of them at any cost, not caring that in the long run, they could better protect the planet by taking down the space superiority ships first - because they just want to minimize the number of bombs dropping right now! But ... sadly, they didn't even get that part right. Instead of closing to turn all their firepower on the Gulls at every opportunity, they tried cowardly (and pointless, with no repulsor and all my ships twice as fast as theirs) long-range sniping at the bombers with just their heavy beams, allowing us to control the engagement, so they expended their short-range batteries on our bombers only because we chose to fly them within range to "clear the way" for our starfighters instead of going around. Then after getting hit by dozens of neutron pellet bursts and a handful of laser beams, they'd chug slowly away to repeat the process all over again, sometimes even positioning themselves next to the Dart laser fighters and wasting their short-range shots on them. (I made sure with my tactical positioning that they couldn't do the same to the Reactors or the Hawk as long as the bombers were their primary target.) I'm absolutely with you though that the rocks on the ground are not happy about the huge cloud of nuclear bombers in their skies - especially after the bombing runs that wrecked their missile bases ruined eight of their factory-cities and killed two million of their people as collateral casualties. We claim we're not going to bomb them again, and we won't - the claim is true - but they don't know that, especially with all the anti-bird propoganda they've presumably been fed since Igneus first declared this war.

We can probably build about 40 fighters per turn empire-wide right now (more if they're bombers, fewer if they're fighters) if we do nothing else outside of Overgrowth, but I have some pre-builds already in place and I haven't decided what's next for sure (and we're not on all-out shipbuilding; we're still pushing research for Controlled Dead and building some more factories). The Sakkra worlds are out of range right now, but that might change if we can hold Rayden. If so, I don't plan to go all the way to extermination, but I might try to conquer Ssssla and leave the lizards with a one-planet empire at the corner of the galaxy. That's just a possible future, though; right now I need to focus on the rocks!


- 2371 -

Our earlier, smaller landings on Rayden were able to take advantage of flaws in their deployment of ground troops and fortifications by stealthy approaches and clever feints, working with valleys and crater rims among which our comparatively small numbers could remain concealed. Thanks to the courage and will of our soldiers in the face of an enemy wielding utterly-terrifying combat technology, they survived long enough to bring down about half their number in battle before being slain in turn. I can sing their praises now for their noble sacrifice even as my stomach turns at the thought of their so many deaths ... but this year is a whole different story. When our transports reached Rayden 5-ii, we outnumbered the Silicoids on the ground by more than two to one: Not enough for any realistic expectation of victory - it would be too much to expect forty-four full batallions could take the Silicoids by surprise from any angle at all! - but enough to reduce the enemy to a small cadre if all went well.



(The ghosts of the dead haunt the battlefields of Rayden.)

It didn't; on the contrary, I was punished at last for demoting ex-General Emukick and sending him to the front lines ... instead of demoting him and sending him to work in a spacetanium mine on High Crag, as far from the front as it's possible to get. Though stripped of all official authority, PFC Emukick still apparently had the respect of General Nightjar - more respect than Emukick showed for the lives of anyone in the galaxy - and consulted him on deployment of his forces. Our transports disgorged their troops among the mountains and craters of Rayden 5's largest, richest barren moon, out of range of the colonial fortifications, and a careful assault was planned, taking full advantage of the terrain for cover, concealment, and such tactical advantage as we could gain against a dug-in but therefore primarily stationary enemy. When PFC Emukick declared that this plan was "stupid" and "too slow" and insisted that all forty-four battalions should just "scare the [coprolite] out of those dumb rocks" by lining up and charging en masse at the Silicoids' main positions, "Then fly up and tear them apart with our bare talons," General Nightjar did protest that the troops couldn't fly in the Rayden 5-ii's almost complete lack of atmosphere, but Emukick insisted, "Of course we can fly! We're birds, aren't we? Unless you're a ... chicken! Chicken chicken CHICKEN!" Incredibly, instead of using PFC Emukick in or as a diversionary suicide attack force, Nightjar apparently assumed Emukick had some ingenius, secret knowledge of battle tactics - or was an easily-manipulable imbecile - and ordered the attack exactly as Emukick suggested. Unsurprisingly, it was a massacre - but I must honor the memory of Lieutenant Bennetti of 26 corps and the divisions that followed his lead, refusing to leave their hand lasers behind as Nightjar ordered at Emukick's insistence, and taking up make-shift rallying and covering positions around the raised rim of what we're now calling Bennetti's Crater to ensure our forces at least accounted for some of the Silicoid troops. Even so, it was a bloodbath - barely even adulterated with magma - as we barely managed to take out a quarter of our own numbers before the last of Bennetti's holdouts, Corporal Sandpiper of E division, was brought down by the Silicoid survivors. Thanks to the heroics of Bennetti's cohort and the sheer numbers of the troops who joined it after the realities of the direct frontal assault became clear, we did ultimately reduce the enemy forces to less than half of what they had been, but not without suffering casualties at a rate of worse than four to one. The last Alkari soldier to die on that world, after Corproral Sandpiper fell to ion rifle fire, was PFC Emukick: As best we can tell from the transmissions of his suit's camera and vitals monitoring, his hiding place under a mid-sized rock was discovered by a Silicoid patrol, part of the perimeter sweep they performed after the battle, as observed from the Hawk in low orbit, while Emukick's pulse and heartrate were still elevated in ongoing panic reaction until the moment he was blasted to bits.



(We'd have to double our bomber count to take Sssla even if it were in range. That's doable, but it gets a lot worse if they develop the right (wrong) new technology between now and then.)

There's not much better news from the Sakkra front, where one of our agents was found and killed almost immediately after sending in this first report. It's only now, in fact, reading over it, that it occurs to me that the report might still be incomplete! There is no definite information on Sakkra relations with the Klackons, which I passed over the first time I saw it since I know Sakkra and Klackon fuel cells are too limited for them to have meaningful diplomatic contact, but how to explain then the ongoing - though purely nominal - Sakkra war against our Psilon friends? It could be that under the terms of an alliance like the Silicoids and Sakkra had, the parties must even declare war on one another's enemies - in theory, upon request - when one of the parties has never met the putative enemy ... or it could be that the alliance somehow established contact ... and that the reason for Saurak's blank, uncomprehending stares each time I tried to sound him out about the Klackons during our period of peace were not that he'd never heard of them, but that they were at war already! I know of no way to find out for sure, especially since those stares may have meant nothing except that Saurak was ignoring me, lost in an inner world filled with carnage or possibly anagramatically dirty limericks or Camembert cheese.

What we do know for sure about the Sakkra is that they excel at planetological research - we'll be able to survive on dead worlds as they ca soon, with our scientists already reporting 30% odds of a breakthrough by year's end, but I fear I deeply covet their advanced terraforming techniques, which the Silicoids should match any year now but appear to have eschewed in favor of purely-military technology - and have slightly better range for their starships than we do, though they still achieve it with the same primitive interstellar engines that seem to be in use by the entire on-again-off-again alliance between the bugs and the bug-house. Apart from that, though they've achieved it in slightly different (and worse) ways, they seem to have roughly matched our own technological development.

They also, of course, have an attack fleet headed our way. But given what we've just learned about their tech, especially since they're still running a little two-planet empire in their corner of the galaxy and actively at war with Durash IV and Humankind...



("Goblins" is about right for Saurak's military.)

...it's not an attack fleet that actually worries me. The Silicoid ships converging on Rayden - two colony ships and a single as-yet-unscanned Shark cruiser, all due to arrive just ahead of our next major transport cloud next year - would be more concerning for me ... if we hadn't just destroyed the best the Silicoid fleet has to offer last year!