Re: Etheirian Ascendancy
Note on game setup:
--SE4, Carrier Battles 1.6b
--Large, AI friendly quadrant.
--Low frequency, catastrophic severity events.
--Low Technology start, High Technology costs, with Applied Intelligence disabled.
--1 average planet, low resources start.
--2000 racial points, High number of AI players (WITHOUT neutrals).
--Etheirian Technotheocracy AI empire manually added (using EEE AI files)
--AI has medium difficulty and no bonus settings.
--Sim move game.
My empire, the Etheirian Ascendancy:
--Berserker culture, Bloodthirsty happiness type
--Advanced traits: Xenoarcheologists, supply misers, and propulsion experts
--Characteristics: Trade is bottomed out, intelligence is maxed out, cunning is bottomed out. All the resource attributes took a small hit, as did reproduction.
--Homeworld location: SW corner of the galaxy
A New Dawn
2400. Twenty four years and seven months since we last heard the Warppoint-distorted distress calls from Sigma. Jumar and Alpine had already been ravaged; Sigma was our last connection to the Technotheocracy Homeworld, and it was just barely within range of our communications gear. Sigma is 7 jumps from here, far beyond our immediate reach; we couldn't have sent any ships to assist them even if we'd been allowed to. I suppose it's just as well. If we HAD broken quarantine (and managed to repelled the attack), 2/3 of US would probably have died from the Great Calamity, as well. We would also have drawn unwanted attention from our so called “friends”. Bah! Friends indeed. We opened our markets to them, GAVE many of them gifts of ships, blueprints of highly efficient engine designs... And how is our generosity repaid? In our hour of need, our “friends” turned on us like rabid iricolirs, taking anything they thought they could pry from our disease-crippled Technotheocracy. Our glorious machines that we put so much faith in ...turned against us by our “friends”.
2400. A new millennium. A new dawn for the Etheirians. We scavenged our own ships for parts, for raw materials. We turned Egoria X, this lonely, forgotten military outpost, into New Haven, a world capable of sustaining us. With our sweat and blood we turned this planet into a home. Every last available military asset had to be scrapped to make it work, but we did it. Thankfully, no one has poked their noses around; as far as we can tell, our “friends” don't even know we're here. If they did, we would have undoubtedly suffered the same fate as Sigma IV and the countless other colonies that were simply too far away for us to pick up their distress calls.
2400, first cycle. Twenty four years and seven cycles since we've had contact with the Technotheocracy, and the first month that we shall venture into the stars once more. The first month that we shall visit our “friends” anew, and remind them of what they've done, of the promises that they've broken. The first month that we shall bring vengeance to the lost ideals that were the Technotheocracy.
I don't know if anyone is left on the Homeworld. I don't know if there is still a Technotheocracy to find. Frankly, I don't care. They abandoned us out here, just as surely as our “friends” cut us off from them. The Administrators knew what was coming; it was plain for all to see. They could have broken the quarantine, could have recalled us back to the core systems to help shore up the defense grid. But they didn't. Instead, they severely punished anyone who broke quarantine. The shuttle of 15 refugees that tried to make their way home weren't even responded to. I listened to my friends and comrades plead for mercy, plead to simply be allowed to travel into the core systems to see their families. They were willing to risk the Great Calamity, just to see their loved ones again. But the Jumar defense grid simply shot them down, without a word in reply. They shot down their own brother's-in-arms that just wanted to get home!
No, not even the Technotheocracy, if there still is one, shall be spared. Her ideals died with Sigma IV. Trust and Friendship lead only to ruin; we understand that now. “Friends” are not to be trusted. If the Technotheocracy hasn't learned that lesson, then they will be nothing but a hindrance to us. None shall be spared our wrath. It's time that our “friends” learned what it's like to have a treaty broken over their backs. It is time for the Etheirians to rise from their own ashes, and bring the galaxy to heel.
The first order of business, of coarse, is to find out where our enemies are, and where WE are. We don't even know what the surrounding systems look like; all of our star charts were lost in the Dark Years after the Great Calamity. Hopefully there will be some planets worth exploiting, and hopefully the Traitors are not nearby. We need to get a Space Navy up and running, and go find our enemies in whatever dark holes they're hiding in. And we need to improve our Sciences; much of the Technotheocracy's vaunted technology was lost during the Dark Years. We sacrificed much to survive, and now it's time to rebuild what was lost.
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