After I made the mistake of letting
Star Swarm eat the wreckage of 1.4M tons of enemy warships I destroyed (note to self, don't do THAT again), I had to go back and start from an earlier save. This is the current status of my game, starting with the map with some annotations.
January 24, 2045
Terra is largely out of Trans-Newtonian minerals, and other than small and scattered deposits amongst the asteroids, so has Sol. Luna has been fully terraformed and is now a financial hub for the Empire of Man. Rana and Vulcar offer significant mineral sources, but the Empire is growing painfully short of Gallicite and Mercassium. Humanity has been forced to expand into farther systems in the hunt for more, and is rapidly discovering they are not alone.
In the Northwest
Beyond Rana, survey ships encountered the Voulkaria, and a natural border was established, with the Empire claiming Rana as their frontier and the Voulkaria claiming Polaris. The jump between the two systems has intentionally been left un-stabilized by both parties to make invasion more difficult. This peace was upset when the Swarm invaded first Gatria, destroying an Empire survey ship, and then Polaris. The Voulkaria colony there was destroyed, and the Voulkarian fleet and the Swarm are actively fighting over the system. The Swarm has advanced technology which significantly exceed both the Empire and Voulkarian technology. After seeing the Swarm destroy a large Voulkarian fleet and salvage the wreckage, the Empire realized the Swarm is “regrowing”.
Fearing the Swarm could grow to threaten humanity directly if allowed to feed off the carcass of the Voulkarian civilization, the Empire committed to stamping them out. The Empire’s sole battleship (80ktons, particle beams and particle lances with heavy shielding), Raze, escorted by a carrier (60ktons) and several support ships, entered Polaris and attacked the Swarm’s salvage fleet. A Swarm battleship (60ktons), three cruisers (25ktons), and four escorts (10ktons) engaged Raze and the supporting fighter wing. The entire Swarm fleet had a speed advantage of ~500km/s over the Raze, and despite the heavy armament and shielding would’ve been destroyed if not for the carrier’s fighter wing. 40 specially built microwave fighters tore into the Swarm ships and neutralized the enemy battleship, two cruisers and one escort before being destroyed down to the last fighter. Their valiant sacrifice enabled the Raze to disable one or more engines on each ship before they could get out of range, and the Raze ultimately disabled the Swarm battleship and one cruiser and destroyed the rest. A boarding shuttle from the carrier was able to capture both remaining Swarm ships, and they were taken under tow by the commercial tugs traveling with the fleet.
The Voulkarians had warned the Empire several times that they were not welcome in Polaris. As the Empire fleet approached the jump gate back to Rana with their prizes, their sensors picked up a Voulkarian fleet sitting on the gate. The Voulkarians demanded the Empire fleet surrender their prize ships and return to Rana or be fired upon. Rear Admiral Connie McKiver, having just lost every single member of her fighter wing and aware that this was an unprecedented opportunity for the Empire to gain access to advanced technology and learn what made the Swarm tick, was not about to turn over her captured prize ships. She ordered Raze to full speed and attacked the Voulkarians, taking them utterly by surprise. The first volley from the plasma lances cut through the unshielded Voulkarian ships like a hot knife through butter, and two of their cruisers were destroyed when their engines or reactors went high-order. Raze maintained separation from the remaining Voulkarians and retreated back toward the civilian members of the fleet while continuing to fire, absorbing punishing missile volleys on her shields while staying out of range of the railguns known to be carried by the Voulkarians. The outcome was never in doubt, however, and the Voulkarian fleet was destroyed before coming into missile range of the jump tenders, tankers, tugs and Swarm prize-ships. The Voulkarians may never forgive the Empire for that transgression, but the Empire was successful in dragging the (mostly) intact Swarm ships back to Terra.
In the Northeast
Surveyors discovered a ruined colony in the system of Baham. A colony was soon established there to excavate the ruins, and by the time survey ships discovered the already-stabilized jump gate from Baham to Kakkab and a mining colony of the United States of Ammuud on an outer planet, the Empire was too invested in Baham to easily give it up. Soon an ancient construct was unearthed which provided an unexpected 80% boost to Biology research, cementing the Empire’s position that Baham belonged in the Empire. However, the USA had a significant fleet presence rotating in and out of Baham, including a much larger tonnage of 30 to 40kton cruisers than the Empire could afford to dedicate to the region, given the hot conflict with the Swarm and unfortunate hostilities with the Voulkarians. Given the USA claims the system on the basis of their mining colony and rejected our claim despite the temporary presence of the Empire’s sole Ruin-class battleship for a show-of-force, the policy for now must be to avoid antagonizing them by minimizing contact. The system is ~20B km across, after all. A reckoning will come due, but not yet.
In the Southeast
First contact has been made with a small mining colony of the Blaendulais Imperium in the system of Nyayo. While lines of communication are open, they have not shared much about their civilization and we have yet to observe their ships or other colonies. They have seen fit to claim the system, which the Empire has suffered, for now. A survey ship is probing potential gate locations in a search for the Blaendulais’s entry point to Nyayo in a search for their homeworld.
In the West
Two jumps west of Sol lies the pocket system of Media. There are two easily terraformed planets with good mineral deposits there including a precious deposit of Mercassium, so this newest colony of the Empire is a high priority for development.
At Home
Two new Ruin class battleships, to be christened “Rack” and “Ruin”, are nearing completion (ECD March of 2047). Having three battleships will significantly improve the Empire’s ability to project power across the disparate fronts. This has been a weakness of the Empire’s policy of building large (80kton) ships for survivability. They can take on large fleets of enemy ships with no losses (other than occasional armor damage), but they can only be in one place at a time and they take a long time to build.
Lastly, a small automining colony on Vulcar VI Moon 28 is mysteriously… gone. Nothing remains but some lingering dust and radiation, and no one detected any emergency broadcasts. The first clue anything was amiss was when mineral packets stopped showing up at the colony on Vulcar I. Given the sizeable Gallicite deposit (125k at 0.9 accessibility), the Empire will rebuild, now with additional defenses including some PD STOs.
