This day, I feel justified pride in the Drengin people. Since the beginning of our race, the All has opened countless obstacles in the path of the Drengin. Our homeworld was a rocky wasteland, the domain of savage enemies. For aeons our own species was riven by internal conflict. Compared to the sub-species, with their lush worlds and lack of natural predators, an unwitting observer might consider us cursed. They would be wrong. Our homeworld was the crucible in which we shaped our Empire. From defeating our first enemies, we learned how to deal with all others. Sub-species fall in chaos, but all Drengin work together as part of the Kl’Oska’Rath – the Body of the Empire. Setback after setback threatened to swallow our rise – the inefficiency of the stargates, the stalemate for 4,000 years against the Arceans – but our rise continued unabated. Now, the All has favored us with the Terran Hyperdrive. Drengin, the galaxy awaits us. Let us reach out and take it.

    -     Address by Lord Kona to the Imperial Assembly

Datasphere file 146364.7078/2

Entered: 102321, 07.01.

Sender: Vilath Magwhar i’Vire, Lord Vire

Addressee: Lord Kona

As you required, the summary of our initial set of colony vessels.

Our vessels in the Nugent and Alshain systems have arrived and established a basic planetary infrastructure. Although morale remains high, the treasury has been severely stressed by the needs of construction. Lord Quoxath informs me that our current rate of expansion cannot be realistically sustained. We managed to offset early losses by exploiting an ore vein located on Nugent II, but the continual construction of new vessels has caused the diminishment of these profits as well.

In addition, we discovered several small marauder vessels at Alshain IV. They posed little threat, and the local administrator initially proposed capturing the crews (a mixture of several different sub-species) to add to the colony’s small number of slavelings. However, I’ve directed her to instead set up communications channels with them – the fact that they have managed to develop hyperdrive-equipped vessels shows an atypical amount of skill, which we could make use of.

Finally, our exploration team has at last proven the existence of the Kona Artifact. Its full purpose remains unclear, and our research team has experienced a high fatality rate attempting to understand the principles behind it. However, our investigation indicates that it appears to drain Aul from sentient beings and use it for what appears to be terraforming. There were a number of debates on how to best make use of the artifact, with Lord Korath recommending the mandatory self-sacrifice of colonists in order to fuel it. However, the consensus decision of the high command was that the benefits didn’t outweigh the cost of Drengin citizens. I have no doubt that individuals whose service to the Empire would be otherwise at an end will gladly volunteer themselves for its use.

These first few posts will be fairly short as I attempt to catch up with my current point in the game.

If anyone thinks the Drengin dialogue is a little stilted, don't fear my writing skills - it's intended to read that way. Psychologically, the Drengin have virtually no sense of empathy and fairly little imagination outside certain areas. Thus, most tend to speak in a pedantic, "Captain Obvious" fashion.

I am still having trouble figuring out how to post my screenshots in thumbnails so they don't take up half the post. Send me a PM if you know how; I'm using Photobucket, not Imageshack.

Hoorah-at last a credible AAR told from the Drengin perspective-good man

As usual Qrtxian this is written in your usual engaging and meticulous style-I will be following this one closely 

I like this! 

Brilliant start long may it continue...