6.0.01: Special Forces command posts on Kuer, Senow and Micvarape all mysteriously explode. When asked what happened, the sub-commanders shiftily eye the Mk. 5 snipers and say 'It's cathartic, innit'.
6.01: With three of the ion cannons down, 20 Mk. 2 scouts decide to take a jaunt through the AI homeworld to Murdoch. They almost make it.
6.02.30: The three scout starships are pulled from their current tachyon duties. 33 brave souls make the jump through the Desenan wormhole, hoping for sight of a land previously unknown.
6.02.52: The core heavy beam guard post sitting next to the wormhole to Murdoch annihilates them all.
6.05: Five transports are created. The reincarnated scouts, along with all 5 scout starships, split into two groups. Each enters a transport.
6.06.06: A full cap of railpods and younglings jumps into the Desenan system, with orders to raise hell.
6.08.08: The transports slip in right behind them, and make a dash for Murdoch.
6.06.20: Grav drones catch four of the transports. One, however, with 18 scouts aboard, is nearly at the Murdoch wormhole. It explodes, taking the first hit from the core beam guard post. 6 seconds before it reloads.
6.06.24: Desperately struggling amid rapidly failing cloaking superboost, the scouts reach the Murdoch wormhole. One solitary starship makes it through. The other transports are wiped out, with no survivors. A reprisal wave is announced. But if we have more, new, vital information about the AI then their sacrifice cannot have been for nothing.
OH COME ON!
I just ... seriously ... I left the game paused, and had to just walk away for a few minutes. The RNG has been kicking me in the teeth the whole time, but is really taking the piss.
When I came back, to stare blankly at that solitary remaining scout starship, I at least noticed this.
So, at least I know there's an ARS and an armored golem. Although them showing up by hovering over the cloaked ship list is probably a bug.
6.07.36: 10 spacedocks. 20 Mk. 2 engineers. Railpod (and tiger!) rail cannon is online. Everyone jumps into the AI homeworld.
6.07.47: Scouts report 2,800 ships on planet. Including the entire strategic reserve. Let's see if we can't run this salvage up to reprisal level 2.
6.08.04: I don't think the tigers are even getting a shot off before getting wiped, so I pause them. Just the railpods this time!
6.08.50: 461 cloaked ship reprisal. Scout starships are rapidly repurchased for tachyon support duties.
6.09: Aaand 978 armor ships incoming.
6.09.25: 8,177 ship CPA announced. Well, at least it isn't syncing with the other two waves I guess. At this point I'm fairly sure this CPA has got to be the vast majority of AI ships remaining in the galaxy. On the plus side, I'd rather have the strategic reserve come to me rather than have to fight it on the homeworld.
6.10: Operation railpod is suspended to build up metal reserves as much as possible. Docks are rebuilt at the edge of the grav well, where they can be used defensively. Scout reports from Desenan indicate there are now 200 more ships there than when we started. I'd estimate 2,300 or so are strategic reserve, so draining some of that strength would be welcome.
6.11: 698 cloaked ship wave to sync with the CPA.
6.13: Literally every possible regular ship has been built. Even the three raids, which are likely to be only marginally useful on the defensive. 5 lightning warheads are arrayed near the command station, just in case, and the Martyr stands sentry at wormhole waiting to wipe the first few thousand ships. 1,556 threat. 8,862 incoming wave.
6.14: Railpods are harassing the threat. Merc docks are online and set to build etherjet tractors once metal goes over 500,000. Every little helps.
6.15.03: Half hearted attempt at a rope-a-dope. Surprisingly, the AI takes the bait.
6.15.27: 24 seconds, 1,500 threat removed. With just 4 minutes before the CPA hits too, plenty of time to rebuild. I notice that the attack still isn't beelining for the command station - I realise that the off-centre placement of the mini-forts and rally post is drawing them off to one side. Moving those.
6.17: 2 minutes to CPA. Minefield and some force fields still rebuilding, but should be back up in time. Mini-forts and main fleet are now positioned behind the command station, in a line with the wormhole exit. Lightnings and enclaves under the command station shields. Lyudmila and the sentinal frigates are at the edge of the grav well, also in line. If things go badly here there'll be no escape for her this time.
6.18.59: All defences are back online. A fleet of 950 ships, every single one I can build bar super expensive mercs, waits to take on a force of 8,800. 175,000 excess power from matter converters, although 100k of that will go straight to Lyudmila. I expect fleet losses to have levelled that out by the time the energy collector on Micvarape goes down though.
6.19.00:
- 1,677 Mk. II ships
- 122 Mk. III ships
- 1078 Mk IV ships
- 330 Mk V ships
- and 4,970 Mk. 2 ships from the strategic reserve.
This will be bad. I'm expecting to lose the command station early on, I'm just hoping I can keep them away from the railpod fab.
6.19.14: Hang on. There's only 6,415 threat. The CPA was declared for 8,177. I was right, the AI is quite literally sending
EVERY SINGLE SHIP IN THE GALAXY after me.
9.19.45: 5 mercenary etherjet tractors sit quietly in the middle of my fleet. I don't think they quite know what they've signed on for.
6.20: A scout moves towards Desenan to scope the situation. Every single dock in the galaxy is paused, except for the 10 on Micvarape building railpods. 20 engineers stand by next to them, under the forcefields surrounding the core sniper turret controller and railpod fab.
6.20.21: The teleport battlestation space dock comes back on. I like teleport battleships, both for their super fast reinforcement speed and their AoE minor electric attacks. Just a shame those 2 ARSes only gave me the one set of ships.
6.20.30. Wave hits. 650 odd eyebots, for 7,100 total threat.
6.20.37: Scouts report only 1,500 of it on Desenan so far. Railpods go to disrupt the carriers. I've got the cash to rebuild them.
6.21.06: Threat is now at 7,101. That was not as effective as I'd hoped.
6.21.20: 16 seconds to rebuild all 192 core railpods. 16 seconds for 18 million damage. Let's just hope the money supply holds out.
6.22.26: Scouts report 2,800 threat on Desenan. It looks like it's moving towards the wormhole.
6.222.39: Contact. By the time all the carriers pop and the initial mines and railpods blow, 1,000 ships are missing within a second. I think I can save the Martyr for now.
6.22.52: 470 attack. 5,272 threat. Not bad for 13 seconds. 20 remains rebuilders start constructing - I should have had these guys ready to repair the minefields.
6.23: 1,000 attack. 391 of which are zenith sieges. This is worth a Martyr.
6.23.10: 670 attack. Cancel that. I'll hold it back for now. I do, however, edge it and the lightning missile the cloaker also hides closer to the wormhole.
6.23.13: Another carrier pops. 1,600 attack, 1,400 of it next to the wormhole. Martyr approaches again.
6.23.17: Oh hell. 4 carriers come in. Combined they have over 3,000 ships. 4,393 attack. 684 threat. Okay, plan. In a couple of seconds, the Martyr will pop. That'll wipe 1,500 ships. The lightning is then there for a follow up if I feel the situation warrants.
6.23.18: Martyr pops. 1,300 kills. Not as many as I would have liked.
6.23.21: My fleet is down to 500 ships. I suddenly realise Lyudmila has been sitting at the edge of the gravity well, switched off. Don't know how I could forget about her.
6.23.37: 2,000 attack. I wave the lightning missiles off. I don't care if the command station goes down, so long as the fabs are okay.
6.23.43: Attack hits the tractor turret wall. And semi-stalls. Unfortunately carriers aren't affected, so stroll past and start disgorging units on the other side.
6.24.02: 1,200 attack on planet. A poll of my forcefields shows an average of 80% on the ones around the home command. A wave announcement - 1,487 missiles frigates in a minute and a half.
6.24.19: Eyebots. 600 eyebots. That was the remaining threat. Luckily all 5 scout starships and 2 decloaker drones are positioned to catch them as they come in.
6.24.50: It's done. The last attackers on Micvarape are down. So why does it still say 198 attack?
6.24.51: Oh hell. 127 eyebots on Kuer, the rest on Senow. Scout starships to the rescue.
6.24.58: Looks like they're all heading for Senow, scouts catch most of them along that path.
6.25.34: 300 fleet ships on Senow, plus all 5 scouts. 83 eyebots. I've got a scout next to the command station, one sitting on the wormhole and the other three desperately scouring the gravity well. Where on earth are they.
6.25.51: They make a run for Kuer. Half get decloaked and die. Everyone lunges after the escapees.
6.26.18: 5 make it to Zarpar. My home planet.
6.26.27: Caught by the 7 remaining tractor turrets on my homeworld, more than one apiece, I laugh as they die. 3,000 scrap metal drifting through the void.
6.27: You'd hardly know I just stopped 7,000 ships. Starship wise I only lost one raid, one enclave and 3 riots, and defences are back at 75% capacity already. Just time to turn the docks back on now to rebuild the triangle ships. Command station forcefields never went below 50%, no power loss and no command station loss.
6.29: Lyudmila is immune to blackholes. Lyudmila fires energy bursts, which I don't think are officially classes as sniper rounds. How did I not see this before.
6.30: A cloaker starship warily leads the 4 unused lightning warheads to the edge of the gravity field. 192 railpods prepare to warp into the AI homeworld, to see just how atrophied the strategic reserve are.
6.30.06: Bar 40-odd guardians and starships, the only things on Desenan are the 1,500 missile frigates from earlier. The strategic reserve don't even twitch. Seems like the perfect time to attack.
