2322-25
01.15 -- Prethoryn armies land on Quannaga Prime. They are estimated to be about three times as strong as ours.
01.25 -- One of the Prethoryn 'fleets' has arrived in Saiph, another of our prime systems in the outer arm.
02.01 -- Combat begins in Bax.
03.01 -- Constructor in Bax eliminated. A couple more have been spotted closer to our home systems, and corvettes are being dispatched to deal with them as quickly as possible.
03.12 -- Terraforming on Hark completed. It's been easy to forget about this with all the recent focus on the invaders.
03.19 -- Quannaga Prime has been overrun by the Prethoryn. Unfortunately the fate of the Architreuthis there, a dozen pops, is not pretty. A campaign of systematic 'purging', aka genocide, has begun. It is estimated that all of them will be wiped out in six months. The Prethoryn really are assholes. Enslaving us would have been bad enough ... it seems they intend to wipe all traces of us from the galaxy.
03.29 -- Weggri Spaceport in the Khagaton system has been destroyed. Unfortunately we can probably expect many more such notices ...
04.01 -- Interesting observation about the constructors: there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to where they 'build' -- often it's in the middle of space, not in orbit or even nearby a planet. They are also much faster than we are at interstellar travel, probably twice as fast. Relocating to their next target system is going to require a fair number of ships to cover all possibilities.
05.05 -- Gwesibor Regime declares war on the Cormathani Star Combine. Clearly they are not overwhelmed by our troubles.
05.13 -- In Tibor, the work was completed before we could eliminate the constructor. The resulting station has been designated a 'Star Hive'. Sensor reports indicate that it is several times more powerful than any starport we have, and has a dozen strike craft in support. It would take a dedicated attack by a sizable portion of our fleet to take one of these down. It will not go well for us if they are able to build very many of these ...
05.26 -- Uldrugg Spaceport in Saiph is the latest to be defeated.
06.05 -- Star Hive completed in Sadalbari as well. So far we've taken out three constructors, but they've got two of these 'stations' up. We need to do better than that.
08.05 -- Constructor eliminated in Jinkath.
09.05 -- Debris analysis finished in Saphiban. We have three other systems to search, but it was not encouraging ... no significant breakthroughs were hinted at.
09.17 -- Constructor in Piddhafir defeated. That's the good news: 5 down, 2 Star Hives built, and no more ongoing construction that we know of. However, we have a name for a new kind of Prethoryn ship: the Infestor. In the outer arm, in the Urallion system, one of them is, as we describe it, 'infesting' an entire planet. Whatever biological material they are using, it is corrupting and spreading at a remarkable rate throughout this tropical world. Once again we estimate a six-month process. Disgusting.
09.25 -- The Prethoryn invasion of Weggri(Khagaton system) has begun.
12.05 -- Debris analysis in Thegglan fares no better.
12.19 -- Weggri ground battle has been lost. As before, the purging begins. Meanwhile, Prethoryn combat fleets have left Tenecca ... but a trio of Infestors have arrived there. A half-dozen corvettes are sent in to 'sanitize' them, if possible. Similarly to the constructors, they have no escorts and do not appear to have offensive combat capabilities.
2323.01.19 -- One of the Star Broods 'investigates'. On second thought, maybe it's time to leave then. A planet in Saiph is being infested as they continue to establish their beachhead, so to speak. There is no sign of any assistance from the rest of the galaxy as of yet ...
03.09 -- Same disappointing results for the Bax debris. Two more to investigate, but not much hope for them.
04.15 -- They've arrived in Rantor, and what few ships we have, are pulled back. It looks like we've reached a new phase in the war. The Prethoryn appear that they are simply going to methodically smash us, one system at a time. We can either keep retreating ... or we can fight. The Fist of Boojie holds at Ovastivum, and will provide what resistance it can when the invaders come here. With the exception of the corvettes scatterred about to hunt down any stragglers that might appear ... though we haven't seen any in months ... the rest of the fleet, including all of the heavy ships, will concentrate there. The best we can hope for is probably to cause significant damage to one of 5 or 6 main Star Broods that are floating around, but even that could cause a delay in their attacks. After that, it would be a matter of rebuilding whatever we can, and hitting them again. What choice do we really have anyway? We either do this, or we might as well surrender. A new battleship with the Arc Emitters is commissioned; Laren-class, in honor of our former Inquisitor.
05.10 -- First contact with the
Xeltek Allied Nations. Umm, who cares? They're a vassal of the
Condeferation of Ir-Vol-Ta, on the opposite side of the galaxy.
05.28 -- Invasion begins on Uldrugg(Saiph system). Once the Scourge is done there, Ovastivum may well be next ...
06.13 -- Debris in Jinkath tells us nothing new.
06.26 -- Rantor Spaceport destroyed.
07.25 -- Uldrugg garrison defeated.
12.08 -- The
Bhenn'Thell declare war on the Gwesibor. Yes, yes, keep fighting amongst yourselves. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
2324.03.24 -- Invasion of Rantor begins.
06.11 -- Rantor occupied. The next lower system in Yssom, and another Star Brood is on its way there.
08.03 -- Whoo'tar Spaceport(Yssom) eliminated.
11.13 -- And here we go. Only two of the new Laren ships are in position. A Star Brood has been detected en route to Ovastivum.
11.20 -- They arrive. It's the largest concentration I've seen yet. We are outgunned more than 3:1.
12.09 -- The Gwesibor Regime's ambassador sends this highly important thought:
"Your sickening species is definite proof that the universe has a sense of humor."
I have better things to do than to reply.
12.28 -- The largest, most desperate battle in the history of our species begins.
2325.01.03 -- We've now researched shields. And we don't really care.
03.20 -- Most of our ships are heavily damaged, but still in the fight. We've taken out about a sixth of the attackers, including at least one of the bigger ships, which appear to be carriers of some kind.
04.10 -- Last of our destroyers goes down. The corvette screening force has been long since annihilated. All of the battleships and most of the cruisers are still around.
06.01 -- Only a few battleships are left. The Fist of Boojie has been annihilated. We've taken down almost half of the attackers, giving far better than we took, but it's not nearly enough.
06.26 -- It's over.
Admiral Garma has been killed, along with the spaceport and every last ship. 44 Prethoryn, though none of their largest, were eliminated. Based on what we've seen, it was between 5 and 10% of their total strength if it were combined that we took down.
Nothing to do now but rebuild as many ships as we can, as fast as we can, and try to find a decent spot for our next stand. There's no question that we are doomed if we don't get help. Before we rebuild though, we'll wait a bit as we're about to get one more toy ...
08.02 -- Precognition Interfaces research finished. There it is.
Rebuilding the biggest fleet we can afford to try and whittle them down a bit more is the next goal, and time is of the essence -- presumably the Prethoryn are going to continue taking over more of our systems as time goes by. Ships smaller than cruisers seem relatively useless against them; those big enough to have significant defenses in terms of armor are far more effective. Our new shields look to be almost as useful as armor, though not quite so. We'll still increase our use of them, as they may prove effective against Prethoryn weaponry and a varied defense seems better than putting all our eggs in one basket. Point defense appears to be fairly important as they do have strike craft all of the larger variants. From an attacking point of view, a mix of raw damage and armor penetration looks to be our best bet. A lot of Arc Emitters with some Proton Torpedoes thrown in are probably best. Plasma Accelerators have better armor penetration but don't do enough damage to really make them worth it.
Current fleet doctrine aims for mostly battleships with long-range ordnance, with a moderate amount of cruisers to screen with point-defense fire. Perhaps the occasional battleship in that role, but not many. Having the hitting power to take out significant numbers of the enemy at range before their strike craft can reach us appears to be as effective as anything.
We also have a huge energy surplus right now while that happens.
Patriarch Glosch intends to embark on a fairly aggressive colonization initiative in the interim. We can't come anywhere close to replacing the numbers we are losing -- but even if all we do is give the invaders more systems and planets they have to take in order to eliminate us, we can still slow them down. The focus will be on larger planets as far away from the path of conquest, which so far has been restricted to the outer arm, as possible. This is viewed at this time as being a useful endeavor whether we find some way to win this war or not.
The new Admiral,
Shugglerm, is known to be unyielding. His fierce demeanor grants a 20% survivability bonus, and one that will be well needed. The cost is that any engagement under his command cannot use emergency FTL retreat -- as a motivating factor, much like Cortes, he has stripped these components from all ships. It goes without saying that advice on these matters from the Collective's leadership is highly valued.