"The early years of the Cartels space exploration had them wondering if they really were the only sentient beings in the galaxy, how wrong that preconception had been. There were much larger and more powerful civilisations on all sides and the very nature of the hyper-lane network meant they were beginning to feel more than a little penned in. What these galactic nations likely didn't realise yet was the Cartel simply viewed this as a challenge, one they accepted all too readily. For better or worse, they would find out soon enough."
Stardate: 25-01-2254
With the victorious first fleet returning to it's home system for repairs I start eyeing up the Uriy Suns to the east. A quick check of the contacts screen and the power gap between us has narrowed considerably, we match them for technology and economy leaving only the power of their fleet being a concern. Better ships is one way to fix that, more ships is another but let's try and do both!
The biggest bottlenecks to improving my military right now are a lack of naval capacity and limited alloy production. Let's see if we can't address both of these to some degree in this part today, as I am planning to quite literally stomp on the Uriy Suns, hard. It also means we are going to need to expand our military capacity with ground troops. Our social division gets us rolling by finishing the terraforming tech, that will be very helpful in the long-run now let's see what they can do for us next.
Two technologies in the selection are for removing planetary tile-blockers, we'll ignore those for now as we aren't short on space and we only have two planets. An energy siphon weapon, gene clinics, extra social research and last but not least, the planetary defence grid tech which unlocks a fortress building but also improves our defence armies. Not a great selection to choose from so I default to more social research.
I can begin to address the alloy production issue right now as Vulpinus has a building slot available so I set an alloy foundry to be built, the minerals to keep it producing are not a problem (in fact I keep having to sell the excess minerals.) For a while not much happens beyond the general ticking over of science ships surveying and investigating anomalies. At least until another power makes contact with the Cartel.
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| The Ziiran Mandate, Democratic Crusaders who hate the Cartel's fuzzy orange backsides, good thing they are on the other side of the galaxy. |
The Ziiran Mandate, they are not as close to me as they first appear being on the opposite of the void at the galactic core. They also hate us so that is probably for the best, they are democratic crusaders, so naturally the very idea of a corporate crime syndicate makes them want to laser me into oblivion. For the Cartel it just means they now have the potential for some long-range business opportunities. The way the branch offices work basically means it's more expensive to establish one the further from your territory it is, good to know for the future but I am better off spending my resources elsewhere for now.
The Uriy Suns border is now right up against mine making me a little nervous as to whether or not their hatred of the Cartel will turn to aggression before I can make my move. Then yet another empire makes contact with us, the Prossnakan Star Hunters, a militaristic race of fanatic purifiers. The Cartel simply tells them to respect our authority or else. A quick look at the galaxy map shows whilst they are technically right next to us the only hyper-lane links are well to the west and around the Yeon Progenitors territory. I know I was going to make a point of this being a campaign of Stellaris filled with battles but I think that turned out to be more prophetic than I would have believed.
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| The Prossnakan Star Hunters, a face of fanatic purifiers who are right next door.. Good thing they'd have to go the long way around to get to us. Yikes. |
At least the physics division manages to cheer up the oligarch by finishing the research on improved ship reactors, let's see what they have for us next. More energy credits from technicians, a building which improves energy credit generation and improved orbital research stations. Last but not least, research complexes, basically improving our current research capabilities so that is a no brainer of a choice. It does mean I may have to start worrying about consumer goods production more as the research labs eat them pretty ravenously.
Then we get yet another alien race making contact with us, the galaxy is getting a mite crowded. The Alvothari Hegemony, basically imperialists who think they are the rightful rulers of the galaxy, they sound fun. Though having said that of all the more typical empires they hate us the least, as I said in a previous part. We need bigger guns.
The Hades colony suffers a little unemployment issue and seems to not have enough amenities so that is an easy fix, a city district should fix that for the short term. Now it's time to send the first fleet off again now they are repaired and take out another system infested with mining drones. As to investigate these supposed shrines to the 'old gods' I'll have to clear these hostile fleets blocking my science ships. We may well get a lot of space battles afterall!
This will be a much closer fight than the last one, the fleet power of the mining drone fleet matches the first fleet, so here is hoping that this doesn't go horribly wrong. They also have the support of a station so it would be best to engage them away from it if I can.
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| The first fleet engages a large fleet of ancient mining drones in the Rixim system. |
Whilst the battle in the Rixim system rages yet another empire makes contact with us, they sure do pick their times to call. It's another megacorp, the Fiiral TransStellar, they seem far too legitimate a business to be any threat to us.
The mining drones, once an early nemesis to the Cartels fledgling military now laid low. The scattered remains of those ancient machines now floats harmlessly through the Rixim system and whilst the battle was far from one-sided it was decisive. A single destroyer and half a dozen corvettes were lost in the battle but the entire fleet of drones and their station were obliterated in kind. So the first fleet gets sent home for repairs and a pay-rise however that brief victory celebration ends on a sour note.
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| The Dyss Marauders start threatening the Cartel for resources on pain of them blowing our stuff up and taking it anyway. |
The Dyss Marauders demand tribute or face them in battle, now the Fox Cartel may be a proud race but they are far from stupid. Defeating old mining drones and angry space crystals is one thing fending off these marauders is quite another. With only a single star-base and no defence platforms plus the first fleet returning for repairs and in need of fresh ships and crews it is decided to offer these upstarts something we have in excess, minerals.
After that it becomes clear to the Cartel that improving their defences was now a more immediate concern. With an ever growing list of potential hostile powers it was decided it was high time a defence platform was designed and deployed.
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| The Gladius-Class defence platform. |
The Gladius-Class defence platform, a light station section and a heavy, the heavy section features a plasma thrower in a large mounting. The light section features 2 smaller plasma throwers and a pair of blue lasers. A full complement of six are readied for construction at Capella star-base to protect Vulpinus. The idea is the heavy section provides the punch against larger targets whilst the lighter section provides the rate of fire and better tracking to counter smaller ships like corvettes. That is the theory at least.
And with that let's draw this part to a close, I was genuinely expecting it to be another quiet session, more planning and building up than excitement but luckily it was anything but. We have a whole host of other empires around us, threats from the marauders and plans to start terraforming in Cartel space whilst building up to take on the Uriy Suns before they get too big for us to challenge.
I do hope you enjoy reading this as always the support, feedback, comments and you just taking the time to read this is greatly appreciated. Until next time, keep a look out for more Fox Cartel fun!
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