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In which I play Realms Beyond Orion Imperium 28 Chapter 2: Mooco Polo, in Which the farr-Flung Human Starr Empyre ventures on further Voiages of Discoverie, and Colonyzes New Worlds, and Exploits the vast Naturall Neutronyum Deposits of the East, and Seiks ye North-west Passage to the Indus, and Generally All But Wyns the Game
2400: The first century is over. Let's take a quick survey of how things are going in the Human empire:
 The galaxy map you've seen. 2401: GNN droid rates space fleet strength, and the result is fairly unsurprising: Klackon, Sakkra, Darlok, Bulrathi, Psilon, and Human, in that order. 2406: Great.
 I up my missile base spending a bit. Also, I doublecheck to find that the bears and lizards are no longer allies. 2408: Class IV Deflectors finally hit. I select Repulsor Beam over Class V Deflectors. I also up FF tech spending a bit as that's a very, very useful tech to have in the tree. 2409: Scanners pick up a bear fleet coming in:
 2410: Looks like it's headed to Primodius. I max spending on bases there and pour my meager reserve balance into the colony. I move the scouts there to Sol. 2412: This is what the bears are bringing.
 I have Class IV deflectors but no planetaries, Hyper-X rockets but no scatter packs yet. Ick. Their heavy blast cannons can get through for a few points of damage each turn, but it isn't nearly enough force to beat the seven missile bases I've hurriedly erected:
 I destroy the fleet, except for the colony ships, which retreated. I need an armor upgrade, though. My bases still only have 50 hit points a piece. Planetary shields would be super, but I have no source of those in sight. (Maybe the Psilons can be my white knight and secret arch-nemesis at the same time?) Controlled Toxic is in the percentages. I take a few clicks from that and put it into Weapons. I love me some Scatter Packs. 2418: Controlled Toxic comes in. I make the unlikely choice of Controlled Radiated over IT+40. We also make contact with somebody new:
 (Darlok, Xenophobic Ecologists) Charming fellow. Lots of Ecologists this game. I guess the idea was to encourage them to get to Controlled Radiated (yes, I think this scenario was deliberately and maliciously crafted to be mean at this point). I do the usual Human thing: arrange for 375 BC/year trade and sign a NAP. I attempt trading technologies, they offer me Controlled Dead and Hyper-V. Eh, no thanks. The shifters are allied with the bears. With Controlled Toxic I can finally build a colship to settle Ryoun, the barren planet in the east. My guess is that this will bring me into contact with the Klackon. Things could get interesting shortly. In four years Sol will finish my first, and quite likely last, X2 COLONY (toXic warp 2) ship. 2422: Colship built. Three turns to Ryoun. T-minus three... 2423: two...
 VGA SEAN CONNERY USES JUST FOR MEN 2424: one... 2425: ...we have contact.
 (Klackon, Erratic Ecologist) Just as I feared. Erratic bugs. What fun. Did I say fun again? Sorry. The bugs are at war with everybody, except me and maybe the Psilons (only enough room in the report to show three parties). They are no longer allied with the eggheads, but it's clear that they used an alliance to get all the way up here. I arrange a 400 BC trade contract, a NAP, and a minor tech trade:
 I received this for Range 7, which conveniently came in this turn as well. (I chose Fusion Drives over Warp Dissipator.) The bear diplomat will talk to me, so I take this opportunity to sign another NAP with them. My Ultra Poor colony to the north will seed some population into Ryoun. Here's a shot of the galaxy with the Darlok and the Klackon worlds filled in:
 The Psilon have those worlds inbetween the two parts of Klackon space and to the east of my scouts. That is not too much of a sprawl, but unless a healthy number of those worlds are asteroids that's a better than good position for the brains. I am working on quite a few important techs: Improved Space Scanner (at 4%), Repulsor Beam, Controlled Radiated, and Scatter Pack Vs (at 6%). But Controlled Radiated is absolutely, positively, absoposilutely a must have. I know of two Rich and one Ultra Rich star, and all three are within range without reserve tanks now. I should definitely grab the Rich in my backyard, and will most likely get the Rich just east of Helos. But the Psilon might nab that Ultra Rich right near their territory... As you can see, I have a slight tilt towards Planetology research spending at the moment:
 As techs pop I'll be adding still more to the Planetology pot. I have to make my best effort to grab the UR world. Quite an eventful turn. 2426: Scatter Pack V pops. I take Hard Beam over Fusion Beam. 2428: Our "pacifistic" friend has ants in his pants?
 Sol and Primodius complete a Class V planetary shield. The lizards have Ion Cannons and Fusion Bombs. Only Collassa, Primodius, Sol and Helos are in range of the lizards (they have 6). Helos is certainly the least-well defended target, as it lies in a nebula, and if the lizards pull in a big fleet they will take it. The others are pretty safe, as they either have their planetary shield or will get it very shortly. 2430: Collassa finishes its Class V Planetary Shield. I note that the Klackons are allied with the Psilons again. 2431: Berel gets its planetary. Oooh, Repulsor Beam is in the percentages. Seriously, if I can build a few repulsor ships at Helos I'll look pretty good there, too. 2432: Firma gets its planetary shield. 2433: Improved Space Scanner comes in. Fine, fine. IRC 4 is the obvious choice. Also, this:
 The only worlds currently in bug range are Denubius (ultra poor) and Ryoun (barren). Neither has a planetary shield or missile base yet. If they get a fleet over they can take either (unless on some unthinkable chance they don't have any Controlled tech, but figure the odds on that.) More worrisome is that the bugs are BFF with the brains, although I don't think they can sour relations between us when we aren't even yet in contact. Everybody I know is at war with the bugs, it's my turn now. I boost my spying efforts and set them to espionage. 2434: YES.
 See, VGA SEAN CONNERY came by to save the day. Ships with these can help defend my point worlds. I choose Class X Planetaries as my next research target, over Absorption Shields. Here's a quick design:
 Some missiles, some beams. It will take 4 turns for Sol to build one of these. Here is the other design:
 A medium ship with a repulsor beam, nuke engines, and nothing else on it (I can't fit anything else on.) Their job will be to simply keep ships away from the planet and wait out the clock, which may be enough. If my opponents bring some missiles or heavy beams to the party it won't be pretty, though. I can build two of these a year from Sol. I RELOC them to Ryoun, I need to have something over there stat. Fortunately, I have ISS now and can F8 every turn to see incoming threats. And this is early enough in the game that I should have at least a little time to react. 2436: I get my first glimpse of a Psilon fleet.
 It's zooming in to scout Endoria. 2438: Controlled Radiated is in the percentages! 6% right now, in fact. The lizard diplomat is back, so I sign another NAP. Really don't want to be fighting on two fronts right now. I also trade IIT 8 to the Bulrathi for Anti-Missile Rockets. 2439: YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES etc. etc.
 I select Cloning over IT+40, just to keep this moving forward. I don't need to be ticking anyone off due to my size just yet. There aren't any Council votes. I equalize the tech fields and put a slight emphasis on Computers and Force Fields. At this point there are Keepaways at both Primodius and Ryoun, and two Repulsor 2s have rolled off of Sol's assembly lines. But constructing radiated colony ships is the #1 priority right now. In two turns the first R2 COLONY will be built and RELOCed to Ryoun, hopefully to reach Ultra Rich Crypto shortly thereafter (and bringing me into contact with the Psilons finally, as well.) Also this turn, I steal Range 6 tech from the bears. Wasn't caught. 2440: A look at bug tech:
 They have Controlled Radiated as well. They had the planetaries I desired, but besides that... and do they really think it's wise to fight most of the galaxy with Gatling lasers? Really? 2441: My first radiated colony ship is built! Off it flies to Crypto, zoom zoom! And the GNN robot has this to say:
 2443:
 First cleanup tech of any sort. Three more turns. Three more turns until the radiated colony base reaches Crypto. Will I make it? 2444: Two more turns. Sol builds another radiated colship, this one heads straight to Rich Draconis. Four turns away. 2445: One more turn! 2446:
 Gee, I don't know. Let me think about this for a minute...
 Guess who?
 (Psilons, Honorable Technologists) 450 BC and a Non-Aggression Pact immediately... I also ask the brains to declare war on the Klackons. Certainly don't want the bugs dragging the Psilons into their so-far fake war.
 Done, done, done! Incidentally, this means that the Psilon are at war with everybody except me. Ahh... I wonder... Ultra Poor Denubius sends a bunch of colonists to max out Ultra Rich Crypto. Another, final, radiated colship from Sol. This one flies to Dunatis. Thought about RELOCing to Firma or Berel but it's a total of four turns no matter what way I go. 2447: Reduced Industrial Waste 60% comes in. IIT 6 is my only choice.
 Sure, okay. Don't think I'm calling off the espionage, however. One more turn to Draconis. 2448:
 Hot diggity dog. But no sooner do I found it but I notice a Klackon fleet coming in to Draconis... two turns away. How about that. Twenty larges! How will I deal with this little complication?
 I won't, of course. We just signed a peace treaty. The bugs should turn back from Draconis once they arrive. By the time they decide to no longer honor our treaty I should at least have a repulsor ship or two in orbit (there is one en route now), and soon after that I will have missile bases and a planetary shield running. Rich worlds are fast to stand up. I send some colonists over from Helos. Also in the news... Ryoun completes its planetary shield. The repulsors guarding that colony have to guard Crypto now. 2449:
 Hmm. BC 4/DSS versus Ion Rifle/Gatling Laser. Eh, Weapons. I might have to get into ground pounding. I pull (of course) Gatling Laser, the goat behind the curtain. I get a diplomat warning. 2450: Dunatis (Radiated Rich 30) founded in the northwest. Poor Firma seeds it. I have colonized both of the Rich worlds and the Ultra Rich world! Let's not celebrate until I get them properly defended, however... And over at Draconis:
 Whew, the Klackon fleet has indeed turned back, honoring our peace treaty. Good news. That is a Repulsor 2 coming in from the northwest. It's the year 2450 now. That means that random events could occur any turn now. Goody goody gumdrops.
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