So the galactic event of the day is the appearance of the 'peacekeepers'.
At first I had the bizarre thought that these peacekeepers would be a good thing. My military was running about half of everyone else's, and they were all at war with each other, so some big gunners cruising atound whacking their warships would be a big help, right?
So when some pairs of dreadnaughts appeared in my space and tried to whack my meager defense forces I was a little irritated, especially since their ships were clearly designed with my missile heavy approach in mind. It would be challenging to deal with them without taking more losses than the Yor would be taking, since the Yor are beam happy and the peacekeepers didn't bother with shields. But I managed to get rid of them fairly quickly.
Can't cross any borders though, since the AI didn't get rid of the ones in their territory, and they have grouped up into fleets of...FIFTEEN dreadnaughts!!! Ooooookay....logistics of 269 will do that for ya. Maybe if I race past and lead them into Yor space the Yor will have to deal with them.
Nope. They won't chase. They just blow up things within range. Okay, fine. I'll stay here, they can keep vaporizing Alterian ships as fast as they get launched. Maybe I'll hit the turn button three hundred times and transcend. But wait...
A fleet of fifteen dreadnaughts crossed the border and proceeded to fly the length of my trade route, blasting little tradeships, unarmed economy bases, and minor orbital garrisons, which of course didn't even scratch their paint.
Good thing these guys came along. No telling what sort of havoc all those unarmed merchants were planning!
With my economy in shambles is it worth a couple hundred turns to develop a fleet of alternatively armed ships?