(Large Map – everything abundant - Masochistic – no Ctl +N – no tech trading). This is the story of how the Altarians conquered the galaxy but lost their soul.
Part 1 – The Crossroads of Fate.
The election had been a landslide, our Popularist policies of free love and understanding (which we knew would boost our population and morale beyond all previous levels) had found almost unanimous approval with a cynical electorate.
Our first day in office was a swirling sea of data from a variety of sources as military, scientific, economic and industrial advisors clamoured to be heard.
We already knew that Alteria had no special regions to boast of. We saw our neighbouring planet of Wisp, cold and inhospitable, yet so close at hand. Our "free- love" policy would create overcrowding problems really quickly. We had to expand and expand quickly. Our foreign policy advisor pointed to the 9 other races we had knowledge of. A crude chart on the wall showed a rough coloured circle where we believed they were based.
The most striking feature was that our circle was not at circle at all. Only a semi-circle of turquoise showed on the map, the other half was white. It appeared that the Iconians were in the very next sector to our North. Together ,we were in the top left segment of the galaxy with all the remaining races to our south and east. The closest of these others were the Yor directly to the south and the Drengin to the South East. Both had fierce reputations of being dictatorships of the worst kind.
Our mood blackened. These races would not let us live in peace in our little corner of the galaxy, they would soon come calling for tribute, threatening death. Surely we had to protect our people against this threat.
We would soon crushed into dust if we didn’t come up with a plan. We looked again at the map. We must expand and take what planets we could to live on and to thrive. But then again surely the other races would be doing the same. The picture was very bleak. We had only 3 systems in range which we would be able to reach first whilst the other races look as though they will be able to get 6 or 7.
Our thoughts turned to our neighbour. The Iconians are an ancient race, who share many of our values, maybe we could ally with them and together be stronger to fight the menace to the south. Our meagre resources amount to one colony ship and our flagship. We set the flagship to survey the galaxy while we set about deciding our way of establishing a foothold. It does not look good.
It was only our first day in office but already we looked doomed. If only we could reach more planets. But the Iconians are so close that they will surely reach all of the planets to our North before we can get there.
Crisis meetings ensued, what course could we possibly take? Orders were sent to design better ships, we began to research technologies which would in turn allow us to research other spheres more quickly, and we spent heavily in buying factories (queuing many more) and the newly designed ships to colonise those 3 systems we could reach first.
However as dusk settled, it was obvious this was never going to be enough. There would be wolves at our door before we could tool ourselves and with their greater resources we would never withstand the invasions from the south.
Together with our closest advisors we hatched a plan that would save us but would damn our souls for eternity.
Part 2 – The beginning of the slide
It was clear we were doomed if we sat there and waited for the Dregnin and the Yor. It was suggested that we met them head on but their reputation as fierce warriors meant that the direct attack would be suicide. It pained us but we decided the only way to cope with the threat to the south was to secretly research "planetary invasion" and take our idealistic neighbour’s land to the north. Such a plan was only justifiable as a desperate measure.
It would take nearly a year to research that if we were to do so immediately. So we set about establishing a research network. We increased our production to the maximum, (where it would stay for the remainder of our time in office). Our taxes were reduced to the barest trickle so that our people would flourish, and everyone was happy, blissfully unaware that our civilization stood on a precipice.
We colonised Wisp, a district there would give an industrial complex twice its normal production, so we rushed a factory onto it and queued a starport and another factory (filling all of the planet’s usable land). This planet was forever set to build constructors and helped build the infrastructure of the empire.
With our second colony ship, we headed for the nearby system of Nero. Nero was a small system in a direct line with the Iconians capital. Our ship arrived in the system one month after setting out to find 2 planets orbiting a strange purple sun. Nero II was like nothing we had ever seen. It was paradise. Whilst the smaller Nero III was still a wonderful planet by Altarian standards.
We settled both planets in quick succession. Nero III had many features which made research easy two districts in particular had a beneficial affect on the research buildings built there. We built two factories before turning most of the rest of the planet over to research (later we were to build the tech capital here). Nero II would be our economic centre, after 3 factories we set about building markets, farms and entertainment for the population. Our policies would soon fill this planet with willing (or not so willing) tax payers.
Meanwhile in secret our research was nearing completion. We switched all attention to research for 2 weeks to complete our shameful technology. Then switched all our resources to making improved transports. Our plan was to fall on them with a surprise attack before they knew what had happened.
The Iconians had colonised 6 planets by this time, but we knew that it would be the homeworld that held the key. So stealthily 3 full transports were loaded and headed for New Iconia. The result was slaughter. 6 Billion Iconians died with less than 500M casualties on our side. (Much better than our analysts had predicted and it allowed two of the transports were re-loaded to take future planets). The Iconians were a peace-loving race and their troups had no way to fight back against our soldiering strength. We snatched the technology of Impulse Drive II from them (a hugely beneficial advance that merely speeded their demise).
Week after week, transport after transport came from our homeworld and invaded the defenceless worlds populated by the Iconians. More technologies, ironically including laser and minaturization technologies, were stolen as the planets fell like dominoes. The Iconians kept trying to colonize even as we invaded their more established planets. Their pacifism could not comprehend our aggression. Our cause was greater. Our only chance to fight evil was to become strong.
Euphoria swept our empire as ample room was created to expand into. Taxes were raised (since we had been running in deficit only propped up by our survey ship finding space debris). Each captured planet was set to work, many as pure revenue earners with three factories, a starport, a farm, an entertainment building and lots of markets. However those on our southern border were held to production only, aware that these simple victories were merely the fore- runner of a much greater and deadlier battle to come.
At this point we had hardly any military and with what ships we had in the far North mopping up the Iconians. However, even before darkness fell on the Iconians, the moment we feared arrived. The Yor and Drengin demanded money that we simply could not afford. Two weeks later they simultaneously declared war. Our sensors picked up their fleets, purple and red dots littered our borders, we were surely doomed.
To be continued…
