For a while I do wrestle with my paranoia. I do not trust the Empiant. Should I attack them while there is time? Most of the voices in my head do want me to proceed in such a way. Their story does not add up. Yet two billion years have gone by since their war with the H'riak. Earlier Hausmann did say they were grateful for the information we had been able to give them about their origins and their past. They did also refer to Cronus as their homeworld. And if we are to believe in Navigator Wu's past assesment their ships are incapable of interstellar travel. And they do seem anxious to travel beyond Beta Caeli.
In the end I do decide to trust them. It is possible Malakal is right and they are but a small colony isolated from the empire. It is possible their empire is long since gone. To choose so does mean we have done everything there was to do in Beta Caeli. The only thing that does remain for us to do is to leave Beta Caeli behind.
This does mean I will have to take care of innumerable administrative tasks. I will reconfigure my laboratories almost constantly. I will rebuild JR and I will establish two siphoning stations, one on Zeus, New GeumMi, and one on Poseidon, New ChoA. I will have to establish permanent supply lines to centralize our resource distribution on the Calypso. I will have to constantly move colonists and robots from one corner to the other. I will need to keep an eye on the stockpiles of New Ellin, Jiyeon, Nana, New GeumMi, and New ChoA to send them the resources they need to keep functioning. Of all this I will not write. I will instead focus on the important events.
After defeating Reynold's pathetic rebellion I did focus on establishing the orbital stations needed to syphon energy from Zeus and Poseidon. I did stockpile scientific resources to initiate research on the Spectre Engine and did continue to develop Qri, Soyeon, and Areum. I did also begin to rebuild JR.
Then I was informed Antonelli did want to have a word with me.
Captain, we have some goals to fulfill for the Empiants. We need to get 3,000 units of both ore and energy, as well as 300 robots, out to the colony at Cronus immediately!
The time limit does decide to confirm its existence to me. This does not bring me joy. The Calypso has more than enough ore. If I do turn off New Ellin's laboratories I will also have most of the robots. The Calypso is able provide the rest. The problem does lie with the energy. New Ellin's laboratories were very energy hungry. Up until now I did race to get Soyeon, New GeumMi, and New ChoA developed enough as for them to be able to satisfy New Ellin's energy requeriments before the stockpile on the Calypso did run out. Only a few hundred energy units do remain in both New Ellin and the mothership.
Our colonies do not produce much energy. I send several of our ships to get all that can be obtained from the colonies without hurting them. I do manage to scrape enough. Yet the laboratories on New Ellin will have to remain offline until the factories aboard the mothership do replace the laboratories' robots and until the power plants on the Calypso, Soyeon, New GeumMi, and New ChoA are able to satisfy their demand.
As I wait for the ships to reach the mothership I decide to focus my research on the stabilizer installations the Empiants did want us to design. The requeriments are smaller and we did receive the mission earlier. This does make me fear the time limit to complete it might be shorter. As I was already halfway through satisfying the much higher requeriments of the Spectre Engine proposal I need only a few adjustments to my remaining laboratories I am able to satisfy the stabilizer proposal.
Before long Hausmann does come to visit me with yet another proposal.
We believe we can create a new method of generating energy that is highly efficient. During the process of creating the Shindra Auto-Processor, we noticed that individual quarks were being generated. I think we can build a filter to trap the quarks.
I do check the proposal out of good manners alone. I am presently uninterested on scientific progress. My only care is to satisfy the quest before the time is over.
As I wait for the energy resources from the colonies I do discover we will obtain neither free resources nor free ships from our victory against the so-called rebellion. We do get only the colonists. Right now they are of no use to us. I decide to try and develop Persephone, renamed Kim Goo, yet before long the ore deposits on the colony will run out and I will instead turn everything off and start to ferry the robots and, later, the colonists to other places.
Once the energy units arrive to the Calypso I send them to New Ellin.
Well done, sir! You've successfully manipulated our available colonies to generate and transport the requested amounts of resources to the orbital station at the behest of the Empiants. A hearty congratulations is in order. Now, we must see what they have in store for all of these components.
Thank you. I guess.
I go back to tend to and develop my energy producing colonies. Antonelli decides to drop by for another visit.
The amount of energy we are gaining by siphoning at the gas giants of the system is quite incredible! We can obtain a nearly inexhaustible supply of energy for our needs. We can then shuttle the gas from the orbital sites to any other sites as the need dictates! I'm quite impressed with this 'gas harvesting' ability. Unfortunately, these aliens seem to be very protective of the gas giants. We are under a great strain here - we need the energy, but will we have to destroy them all to protect our own interests? If only we could make them listen to us...
I did break the game. As I did establish the siphoning stations I did complete a quest we did receive before the war with the Empiants did begin. Such was the result.
Time does pass. A long time. I do focus on obtaining the scientific resources we do need for the Spectre Engine. As our energy producing facilities begin to produce enough for me to establish the first few permanent supply lines from them to the mothership I do begin to reactivate New Ellin's laboratories one by one. Slowly. I do not reactivate one until I am sure the mothership has enough of a net gain of energy, either by production or import, as to keep it working indefinitely.
Once the research on the stabilizers is complete the Empiants drop me a call.
Smartmonkeys, we have taken the materials you have gathered from the hard worlds and used your artificial counterparts to build a sky palace that rests between the outer most asteroid ring and the planet you call 'Zeus.' Your counterparts wait at the new structure. We have left an opening in the heart that we will fill with a thought amplification lens when the time is right. You will know all in time.
Please do invest some points in social skills. Let us just say if we were dating I would believe you are cheating on me.
Captain, the Empiants have constructed a new kind of space station that currently lies between the Beta Asteroids and Zeus. I believe that is what they referred to as the 'sky palace.'
What would I do without you, Antonelli?
By our needs, it is fairly useless as a 'real' space station; but, in functionality terms, it can be used as a launch pad of some sort. The 'focal point lens' the Empiants referred to sounds intriguing. I can't wait to see what happens next!
I will spoil it for you. I do attend to administrative tasks for many a hundred turns.
I check the report for curiosity's sake.
I want to check the 'sky palace' next. My fate is instead to bump into Hausmann.
Now that the Empiants have built the superstructure we needed, we can build the four stabilizers and send the CALYPSO to that structure for the Empiants' usage. As long as we haven't overlooked anything in our research efforts, the Empiants should be able to replicate the CALYPSO and merge some of their own technology with it to form a new 'light-speed' vessel.
Ok.
I check the structure. I give it New SoYul for a name. The only thing we can build on it are the stabilizers. Four, one on each corner.
To do so we need to ferry resources first. In the meantime I decide to check on my advisors.
I believe my skills as a navigator warrant me to take on any major tasks the Empiants can come up with. We can't afford mistakes at this point, and I'm unwilling to trust any major assignments to grunts at this point.
It does seem the developers did forget to add a special assignment for you to complete. I am sorry.
All our research labs should be cranked to maximum efficiency, sir. You may want to comb the planets for materials or discoveries that could speed our progress.
You are free to jump on a ship and go comb the planets for materials or discoveries if you believe you can put up with the tedium. I can't.
While our researchers work on the engine, sir, you should consider exploring those worlds we haven't visited yet and creating new colonies.
I fail to see the point. This is it.
This new structure definitely has some advantages. Its sole purpose is a focusing point for their powers and ours to merge into a new form. Quite intense, sir.
I did prepare myself for many things back when this adventure did begin. Magical FTL travel was not one of them.
I am very impressed at the new structural design the Empiants have come up with. In the future, we should consider making more specialized sites such as this one to better adapt to our needs.
The new platform is a most curious design. Obviously, the Empiants are adapting their knowledge and telekinetic prowess to our own. Together, we make quite a powerful team.
You still believe they are helping us and not themselves? Without our ship and our engines they may have been trapped in this system until another unsuspecting race passed by. Now we're just going to give them free passage based on their technology. I don't like it -- not one iota!
Analysis of Empiant powers will take decades, sir. To understand the ability of manipulating matter by mental energy will require us to re-think the basic forces of nature.
The faster-than-light engine has long been a wild dream, but now it appears that we may actually be able to build one.
I'm still a bit leery on the Empiants, sir, especially if we need their help to get the FTL drive to work.
If you know where can we find a few thousand ancient witches, enlightened sages, daoist sorcerers, and the like around here we may be able to do this without their help. Otherwise we are stuck with the jellyfish.
I go back to my small empire. I begin construction of the first stabilizer pylon on New SoYul. I develop the energy siphoning colonies. I set and reset the laboratories. Slowly I turn on more of New Ellin's laboratories. The flow of resources is tended to with care. Then Hausmann comes to visit me in his guise as herald of the everpresent time limit.
We need to be creating the Specter Engine, sir. The proposal is available in the TECH MANAGER; and if it's science resources you're worried about, we need only crank up a few of our high level research labs and we'll be set. I desperately want to invent this new engine. The next phase of our future is at hand!
I check the Tech Manager. We have almost all the resources we need.
I decide to focus all my laboratories first on mathematics and then on electronics. Half of New Ellin's laboratories are still offline. I turn them back online and hope the flow of resources is enough to keep them so until the research is finished. I build four basic laboratories on JR and two more on Soyeon. I upgrade a few of them to level two. In the meantime I keep building the stabilizing pylons.
We do fulfill the requeriment of Mathematics. We are halfway through the requeriment of Electronics when the thing I was expecting to happen since the game did begin does finally come to happen.
Captain! We've had an unprecedented meteor storm at one of our colonies here! The damage has been quite intense. I request emergency relief supplies and any other assistance you can afford to offer.
We had an Energy Pulsor here, sir, but as it was not kept on-line, we were unable to prime its systems and defend ourselves as we needed to. We must keep our defense posture at all times; God knows what else could be out here to harm us.
A disaster. Our first one. Our only one. Long has it been since I last kept the force fields and anti meteor lasers online. None of our newer colonies does even have either system.
I check the damage. No, I lie. I check the laboratories. They are fine. The ship I did keep on Hyomin was lost. I send a new one just in case. I do not check to see the casualties.
Hausmann does come to nag me again. For a moment I daydream of a space exploration game on which the mothership is like Evil Genius' base and you are able to order your crew and officers around the installations. I do also daydream of Hausmann being thrown to the mixer. To the centrifuge. To the bookcase.
Why are you neglecting our research, sir? We need that new engine prototype as quickly as possible! The Empiants are ready for us to deliver the engine via the CALYPSO to the Super Structure. I believe it is unwise to try and anger the Empiants. We are so close to something so incredible, I must insiste we double our efforts and get moving on the Specter Engine's creation. Sir.
To the laboratory laser. To the shooting range. To the biotanks. I smile. I shake my head. Hausmann did already leave.
I begin construction of the last stabilizer pylon. Soon afterwards we fulfill all of the requeriments of the Specter Engine's project. I do order it done without further delay.
New Ellin's laboratories are all set back offline. The remaining laboratories I will use to try and satisfy the requeriments for the two proposals we do have pending. The Calypso's factories are all set to build missiles just in case. A few turns before the engine is complete I am able to greenlight the Monofilament Structure Theory proposal. I do so.
with the new engine design.
Wait. Did they say the Calypso? I do check the report again. Some reports do give more information the second time you do check them. So far nothing of importance did this offer to us. This time it is different.
The Specter Engine allows a human/Empiant crew to travel faster than the speed of light. The telepathic ability of the Empiants bends space-time upon itself, allowing the Specter Engine to punch a temporary wormhole. The exact destination of the ship cannot yet be determined. When we are ready, we need to send the CALYPSO to the special space platform that the Empiants helped us construct. Once there, we shall refit the CALYPSO with the new engine design and be on our way!
The game does not seem to decide whether we will go on the Calypso or not. Maybe this is a way to offer closure both for the players who want a nice ending and to the players who want to move on to free play mode afterward. Or maybe it is a bug. Or an oversight. I do not know. As the Let's Play will not cover free play mode I will asume it is the Calypso.
I order all ships in charge of the resource lanes back to the mothership. I leave but a single ship for every colony. There are fourty ships and more than three and a half hundred missiles in the Calypso when I set the course to New SoYul.
All installations on the mothership are set offline. When only a few turns remain before the Monofilament Structure Theory project is complete we are able to initiate the only proposal that does remain. I check New SoYul. Everything is in order.
Twice does Hausmann nag me during the journey. Twice I do ignore him. Before we arrive at our destination both research projects are done.
We do install these upgrades on all power plants and factories aboard the Calypso. Why? Why not. When only a few turns do separate us from New SoYul I check the station again. I did forget to set the stabilizers offline. The journey was too long. The pylons did already consume most of the resources I did leave there for them. I send three ships from the Calypso. One with a full cargo of ore, one with a full cargo of energy resources, and one with a full cargo of life support resources. Everything is in working order by the time the mothership does arrive.
I am ready.
We are ready.
Join tentacles. Empty your minds.
Aummmmmmm...
Slay your thoughts. Annihilate reason.
...mmmmmmmmm...
Burn down the structure of your minds. Trample the ashes.
...mmmmmmmmm.
Let us begin.
Let us.
I call upon thee, O Prince!
Ia! Ia! The radiant Prince of the eternity of Yetzirah!
I call upon thee, O President!
Ia! Ia! The great President of the third rule of Aquarius!
I call upon thee, O Gaap!
Ia! Ia! Gaap! Ia! Ia! The shining lord of futility!
A coven of floating jellyfish. Should I call you avant garde or quaint?
Better to rule in hell... You do know how it is.
Well said. And I must confess I am quite impressed. I did never imagine I would see a starship built so closely to specification.
These little guys do really know their black magic.
Our psionics, please. We have long since traded superstition for reason.
Ah, yes. You are right. Psionics. Please forgive my mistake.
And the humongous summoning circle? Fantastic.
We are very proud of it.
As you should. There is but a little matter left to attend.
A thousand <air quotes>de-programmed</air quotes> colonists await your arrival on cargo bay delta.
Wonderful. A thorough job indeed. Where shall we sail today, O Captain-Exorcist?
A very good question. If I may so bold as to ask...
How about second star to the right and straight on 'till morning? You can't go wrong with a classic.
I do like that one. Punch it.
Congratulations Captain! With our combined efforts and desires, we've formed a lasting alliance with the Empiants of Beta Caeli. Along the way we've acquired invaluable technological knowledge, and have firmly established mankind's future amongst the heavens. With this new FTL travel, our futures are only light-leaps away! Congratulations, sir, on what I consider a supreme victory for mankind!
Nothing further away from my intention than to rain on your parade but we still have the the Centaurians, the H'riak, and all of their other creations to worry about. Plus an unknown number of crazy sporeships. Plus anything else that might be out there in wait for a canned lunch. If videogames did teach me something is that the universe is full of nothing but assholes, giant monsters, small monsters, medium sized monsters, murderous robots, and space nazis.
Only thirteen out of twenty one cinematics.
Is that bad?
Page seventy three of the game manual. 'Cinematics: These are the movie sequences you trigger in the game. While you don't get points for these, the number you trigger gives you an idea of how many plot elements you've explored.'
That's... terrible.
Cinematic experiences are the root of all decline, citizen. In her wisdom the Captain did protect us from decadent horror.
You do know the boss does think Azura's Wrath is awesome, right?
The Captain is beyond good and evil, citizen.
Of course.
Does the manual say anything on how should I interpretate 'operational victory?'
Page seventy four of the game manual. 'Operational Victory (3,501-5,500 points). Your colonies are thriving and your production base should be adequate to meet the many challenges before it.'
Not bad at all.
The highest ranking does begin at 12,001 points.
Ouch.
I did not need to know that.
And so it was that after she did set the indigenous tribes free from the chains of servitude, did cut open the murderous and terrible tyrant, did brought enlightment and civilization to the amiable jellyfishes, and did save her fallible protegees from a life of heresy and decadence the Captain did by a judicious application of science, SCIENCE!, and space magic part the laws of physics as if a particularly headache inducing red sea they were and led her people to a new future beyond Beta Caeli.