September 11, Year 54.MAP & Diplo data:
It's been almost 35 years since I've met the Union of Gun (GUN or Gun Union for short). Scary looking robots (are they?) with actual guns instead of hands, that were given a chance for friendship. Well, one sided kind of friendship, because I don't trust them.
I get their research data occasionally. In return, I allow them to keep buzzing around Sol in their slow (1.4K km/s) ships. It was hard to find them, but I managed.
I wanted to attack them, many times. But ultimately decided that peace, even though boring, is much more profitable to me. My resource situation is not particularly great (I'll get to that later), so making it any worse before it'll stabilize will not be wise.
Another thing that came into my head was that if I met another empire, and there will be some kind of 3 way conflict, it'll be hard to process turns. But that's a silly excuse, I guess. Or is it?
Things changed in Y54. I did find ruins and wrecks previously. But no additional alien activity. Today, I've found two Jump Gates, which I do not believe were built by GUN. Somebody else built them. They lead to nowhere on one side (EG 45, an empty system), and to almost nothing on the other (EG 290 no habitable planets or any additional Jump Gates).
I'll go into more detail about my current fleets later, but I do not feel that I'm ready for a serious conflict yet.
I have two combat fleets (1x CVL 10x DDG and 1x CV 12x DDG) and some support ships (4x AKE, 4x AO). My plans for a cruiser were postponed previously, because I feel the need for a better (at least 250+K km) gunnery FCS (I want an area defense capability on it). Current engine tech is magneto-plasma, but I feel like I'll be able to produce new generation of ships in just a couple of years. Most tech has already been done.
I'm yet to produce a minelayer (or mines) to place sensors buoys, among other things I'm yet to do. Not sure if the makers of those Jump Gates are still around, but if I'm about to meet them, I don't think this new "first contact" will be as friendly as the first one. I need to prepare more.