Championship Match 0010

This is the public discussion board for Game 23864: Championship Match 0010 You may discuss the game here with the other players.

I see this is set for a 2 turn per week game.  I can understand that but wonder whether people would be up for a 15 turns then 3 turn a week setting? or atleast to kick start the 15 turns at the begining?

Aim of the emperor games was to be approx every 6 months i think? (could go longer) with 2 turns a week we will only be at turn 48 after 6 months...

For me i am ok with any schedule but wanted to put the thought out there.

Halion.

Hi Helen of Troy,

While it would be great to play against you this game is being handled by direct invites from Joshua as it is the Emperor game.

The game is only visible now since the discussion thread is being used.. thus pre-empting the official kick-off of the scorpius war i think ;)

You probably need to make way for the nominated colonial commander once Joshua has confirmed them.

Hope to play with you in another game soon,.

Halion.

I'm sure Joshua can resolve this colony issue easily.

I'd rather not reset anything since most players are in and ready to go.

Argg!  between Admiral and Turssi's responses as well as the 'balance the EE because it's the worst' thread this is not doing a lot for my pre game conference with my officers!

Luckily the EE recruits only from the British officer corps and we love being the underdog so bring it on!

Interesting analysis Admiral......and yes I will 'bite' :)

As Tom says let the politiking begin!

With this analysis I am also worried about a Rebel/Robot/Borg 'non-alliance' since Tom will probably play the middleman between ronnie and obscure :)

By the way it is interesting how you can portray data, you wrote:-
Halion:
- has been allied with thinlizzy in one game
- has been allied with sapcesquad in one game
- currently in a same running game with spacesquad
- currently in a same running game with thinlizzy

This actually adds up to me meeting and playing as a neighbour Thinlizzy in 1 game(spacesquad was in the far side of the map..i never encountered him).

From that I asked ThinLizzy and Spacesquad to form a team with me in an ongoing Team game.

putting this as 4 lines on an analysis per player does interesting things to perception of how intertwined people are....

By the way if the invites went out at a different time(and the leaderboard ranking was slightly different) we would be seeing another full team of 3 from that same team game..imagine the analysis you could do on them all the way down to genetics and ip address usage and we could reopen that other thread again lol!

Excellent I am having so much fun in the championship game before it has even started!

Certainly makes boring conference calls managable at 12.15am :)

No need to apologise Admiral, As I said I enjoy the banter, I merely wanted people to understand what they were reading.. i found it interesting to read so thanks.

I hope we can keep the banter up during the game as it makes it much more enjoyable.

I wonder who the colony player will be.. i was wondering it would be funny if they ended up being a promiscious player and had been in games with all 10 others.. what would you have said about that hehe.

Excellent and we are off!

Welcome Aladrius glad you could join.. looking at your profile.. some impressive games already played :)

Good Luck All

The following is a party political broadcast from the Privateers....

Mesh Hong - Is this thing on? It is?

Pirate Bob - Arrrgh git on we'it yer ponce

MH - Greetings my fellow Echo Clusterons, I just thought that I would extend the hand of commercial friendship to the brave representatives of sentience in our fresh new galaxy. Now I don't know what you have heard about the Privateers, but can I assure you all that we pose no threat to your empires what so ever.

In fact we are here to help with all your shipping and trading needs. Large and small, tech 1 to tech 10, isn't that right Pirate Bob?

PB - Arrrrgh, we're gonna rob ye blind yer scurvy dogs!

MH - No no no Pirate Bob, we are Privateers, not Pirates. Remember that power point presentation I gave you about negative stereotyping?

PB - I've been aving a word with the lads, and we say if yer gonna be King Of The Universe then weeze gonna av te rob everythin tha moves.

MH - Er, well you do realise that we are broadcasting live to the other races don't you?

PB - To tha ships lads....... oh wait we avant built them yet. BUILD THA METEORS LADS!!!!!!

And so ends the first Privateer Party Political Broadcast.

Commodore Halion: What is thy bidding, my master?
Emperor: There is a great disturbance in the Force.
Commodore Halion: I have felt it.
Emperor: We have new enemies, the young Rebel who destroyed our first Death Star has arrived in the cluster and as usual C3P0 has chattered so much that 9 other races have followed him.
Commodore Halion: How is that possible?
Emperor: Search your feelings, Commodore Halion. You will know it to be true. They could destroy us.

Commodore Halion: He's just a boy. Obi-Wan can no longer help him and as for the other races we know little so should assume they are equally weak.....
Emperor: Be warned the Force is strong in them. You must not allow them to grow into their potential.
Commodore Halion: You are right emperor but If some could be turned, they would become a powerful ally?

Emperor: Yes. they would be a great asset but i fear the force has shown there can only be one true master in this cluster.You must make use of these races but always remain clear who is the real power... Can you do it?
Commodore Halion: they will join us or die, my master.

Emperor: Yes they will Commodore Halion otherwise i will have you back piloting that small deep space firghter again, you have been warned, do not fail me in this!
Commodore Halion:Understood Master I shall not let you down, i will triumph or not return!

Commodore Halion: Captain Mannering ready the PL21 Probes we must find out what is out there so we can make our plans.
Captain Mannering: At once Commodore, the first Probe is ready to be dispatched as well speak.
Commodore Halion: Excellent. Proceed

Commodore Halion: Captain Mannering what is the report from our first Probe?.
Captain Mannering: Commodore I'm sorry to say the Probe has not yet left yet...
Commodore Halion: What? we desptached it some time ago? What is the issue?
Captain Mannering: I don't know sir, for some 'Obscure' reason the probe has not HYP'd out yet.
Commodore Halion: This simply won't do, If this happens again I will hold you personally accountable. now get out of my sight!

HAHA love it TL,

By the way I didn't see you on TV but i was out last night and saw some old band.. were you performing?

Commander Mesh Hong enters his starbase’s mess hall after a long day filling out cargo manifests and checking the intergalactic stock exchange rates. It’s an uncertain world but he’s sure that those natives they discovered will need machine parts to upgrade their factories, even if they seem a bit backward.

“At least they’ve discovered fire” he thinks to himself as he nods at Pirate Bob who is talking in hushed tones to an assorted group of ships captains waiting for assignment. They go strangely quiet as he strolls past.

He orders a pint of space ale from the Drink-O-Matic machine and settles down, looking out of the expansive window at the shipyard. “Hmmm, where are all the Large Deep Space Freighters I ordered?” he thinks to himself as he lifts the glass to his lips in anticipation of the cool beverage within.

A loud cheer erupts from the group of captains surrounding Pirate Bob and suddenly Commander Mesh Hongs glass is empty……

“Goddamit we’re PRIVATEERS, not PIRATES!!” he shouts jumping to his feet, “And what did I tell you about allowing parrots to perch on your shoulders?”

“Pieces of eight, rob’em all” squarks Pirate Bob’s red and green avian friend.

General Kota took a shuttle down from the new Star Base to the surface of the world below. It was a beautiful blue green world filled with shallow seas and small continents where the veins of Molybdenum were thick, rich, and shallow.  The natives were skilled in building beam weapons and provided some of the most impressive weapons for parsecs in any direction.

He smiled, knowing that a single day of sweeping mines with a falcon equipped with such weapons would more than pay for the falcon in mines destroyed and frustrations inflicted.

A Duke of the million strong royal family presented the first falcon with the massive, but elegant beam weapons to Kota with a flourish and a toothy grin. Kota suppressed a laugh at the thought of the jokes he had already heard from the rank and file about this planet where every frog was, in deed and in word, a prince.

‘It is a very fine ship, Duke Abrohut.’ Kota said, shaking the damp webbed appendage extended in his direction. ‘It makes me proud to be in business with you.’

Recently at the Starfleet registration centre……

Lieutenant Gwar:  …… I tell you once again Mr. P; I do not care if you are able to code more    then 10.000 lines of HTML or C++.
Mr. P:   You &%$§& I will §$%?$% your §&”§%
Gwar: You noob just don´t understand, its not about Web design, its about Webmine design! Sarge, show him the door.
Mr. P: Don´t &$%$ with me and don´t you touch me you five-legged gimp. Wtf!! “§&%§$. Aua aua mami!
Lt. Gwar:  Thanks Sarge. I really don´t know where they find those civilians.
Sarge: Hm, I could make him a soldier, if you would let me.
Lt. Gwar: I know, I know. But we don´t have time for that, we are at the edge of war.
Lt. Gwar: Lock the door, we are done here, otherwise we will be late for the opening ceremony.

….to be continued.

1st Lieutenant Wilkins couldn't believe his luck.
It seemed like only yesterday that he had completed space flight school and received his pilot wings.
Now here he was given the honour of piloting one of the first probe missions out into the unkown as part of Commodore Halion's new fleet. What an honour.

The first few planets he had visited had been nice enough but the natives were somewhat 'primitive' even for a lonely space pilot looking for some distraction.

But wow what a night last night, how lucky was he to have landed with this great crowd. What a beautiful planet with a modern starbase they were living on and boy did they know how to throw a party, some of the best cheese selections he had seen in a long time.

That Mesh_Hong certainly seemed a nice gent and his suggestions of mutual trade and discourse on commodity prices was very informative if a little hard to follow after a few rums.
Pirate Bob on the other hand was quite strange, he did seem overly intent to keep my glass topped up and he did speak with a horrendous accent that made it almost impossible to understand him. Wilkins got the feelig that while Mr Hong seemed to be in control that behind the scenes Pirate Bob had the power..

Still feeling groggy after the strong drink Wilkins stumbled out of the bar he had spent the nightin He was thinking of how he could plot a return HYP route that meant he could come visit these nice people again.

As he approached the space dock he began to have an uneasy feeling...

Hang on a minute what's happened to my PL21 Probe he'd docked at pier 21?
more to the point where were his keys they are not in his front pocket anymore!  He'd been Robbed!

"oh crap what am I going to tell Captain Mannering, he'll never trust me again after this. My Career is ruined. Thats the last time I follow signposts for 'Australis' I don't care if the advert says it's the '124'th most beautiful planet out of the 500 planet cluster"....

…Meanwhile on the flagship orbiting an unknown planet.
Engine tests have been completed, and the last cargo maneuver is about to end. The airlock opened and a ruby red officer jumped on the bridge.

“Commodore, commodore” he spluttered breathless.
Commodore SpaceSquad: “Easy Lieutenant, take a breath and then tell what you´ve got.”
The officers color changed from ruby to dark red as he could feel all eyes on him.
Communication officer: “Sir, we received a couple of unencrypted alien messages”
SpaceSquad: “From which races?”
CO: “ One from the Empire and one from the Rebels”
The commodore pondered for a second, then he said:
SpaceSquad: “Hmm…., let me guess, the first one claims to be my father and the second felt a disturbance in the Force?
Silence, then the whole bridge starts to guffaw and then turned their attention back to their work. The Officer was stunned until the Commodore said to him calm but serious.
SpaceSquad: “Put the notes on my desk Lieutenant, I will read them later. And don´t worry, these sects just want to spread their religion, I expect more of these in the future”
CO: “ Yes sir, Thank you sir, ehhh, by the way. We also received one of these dingy Lizard newspapers in our spam folder”
The Commodores face changed from serious to curious.
SpaceSquad: “The Vogue or the Time? I can´t afford another of these expensive couture dresses, so burn the vogue before my wife can get it in their fingers. If it is the Time, then put it on my desk as well, I like the crosswords in the back.”
The Officer nodded and turned around. He expected the service on a war ship to be different. But so far everyone seems to be relaxed, no contact has been made so far. Everyone? Not everyone, someone in charge is worried because no contact has been made so far. He knows that some ships do not appear on the usual sensors…..

Finally Lt Gwar got transferred back to the HQ, these days at the registration Center were very weird compared to the HQ now.The Intel briefing just finished so he headed to the canteen “ How will the canteen on one of those big carriers look like?” he thought.“Mhmm yummy, penne al arrabiata” Lt Gwar grabbed a plate and took a seat next to Sarge.

Lt Gwar: “Hey Sarge, are you sober again?”
Sarge: “ Sure Lt! How was your secret Intel meeting, any news?
Lt Gwar: “Ahh, what, no… I don´t know what you are talking about!”
Sarge: “ I mean the meeting you had just a minute ago where they told you that Empire lost a probe to the Pirate and the Pirate Home world coordinates that now everybody knows”
Lt Gwar: “Ahh what?? How do you know?
Sarge: “ Do you remember that Avian Planet we visited a while ago? I took some parrot eggs and sold them on EchoBay to a guy named Bob. He complained that most of the eggs arrived hard boiled. Maybe I shouldn´t have sent it with Onyx Express? Anyway, that guy mentioned, if I ever make it to Australis, he will rob my ship as he did it with the PL21.”
Lt Gwar: “??? I don´t get it”
Sarge: “Anyway, how was the starbase opening party?
Lt Gwar: “Great and a very impressive Base. The high command said they want to build more in the future. The opening speech was a bit odd as all the foreign diplomats attended too. Very strange these aliens. The Lizard ambassador for example was wearing a white disrupted shirt. He said something about HsKrss and the latest fashion, but all others just laughed at him. They laughed even more as later the Klingon ambassador accidently stepped on the Lizards tail and it instantly dropped off. I guess I have to agree to the Colonial ambassador as I also think that the tail was fake. But the Lizard asserts that it will grow again.
Sarge: “ Those crazy guys”
Lt Gwar: “ Wait, wait, it is even getting better. After a some pints of Romulan ale, the Rebel ambassador touched his forehead, felt on his knees and mumbled : I can feel…
Sarge: “… a disturbance in the force! Hahaha, not again.
Lt Gwar: “ Exactly. First everybody rolled their eyes but then we noticed that the Borg was acting strange to. I mean even more than before. The Borg froze, then you could hear this modem sound: Chiiii chrrrrrrklingklingkling. But it seems that the reconnect failed. He couldn´t dial back in to his collective. Then he started walking in circles. The Robot ambassador tried to repair him without success so far.
Sarge: “ Wow, and then”
Lt Gwar: “ Nothing then. He still walks in a perfect circles around there and tries to dial in from time to time.” Our Diplomats are now checking if this runs under warranty or if we can get a new one from the Borg Homeworld. So far they got no reply from the Borg.

*knock knock*

"Who is it this time... " Thrain thought. "Enter!"

Senior officer from the Fleet stepped in and with a firm and excited voice he said: "Admiral, our battlecruiser sent an urgent message that they have spotted an enemy ship approaching their position with warp 9."

"Give me the report, Captain." Thrain answered. After having a quick look at the report Thrain continued: "I didn't expect this to happen so soon, but it's only a Cobol. According to Tal Shiar reports it's only a mk4 version. It's no threat to our Resolutes." was the answer for the Captains question. "Dismissed!"

Admiral Thrain relaxed and sit back on his chair taking a quick sip of his Romulan Ale: "Now it begins... Colonials may be looking for their 13^th colony, Earth... Hah, all they find from Romulan space is death and destruction of their ships. Actually, they'll find it on their own backyard..."

The Robotic Fleet Commander had just left the stardock where he had observed the completion of another Automa Class Baseship.

"A magnificent design" he thought to himself and was pleased that another of his projects had gone unnoticed by the Bios. He had only taken a few steps into a corridor when he encountered his Chief Engineering Officer.

"Ah, splendid, just the robot I was looking for!" exclaimed the CEO. "We had design plans for another ship sent down from the Council of Eight today" he started, "They have come up with plans for a "Merlin Alchemy Ship".

"Oh, good" responded the Commander. "Does it have a lot of fighter bays? Lots of beam weapons? Maybe a great many torpedo tubes?"

"Eh, no... not exactly" stammered the CEO, "it does have space for 8 beam weapons, and a whooping 10 engines...."

"Ok, and?" the Commander burst out.

"It is a so-called Civilian Productivity ship" the CEO continued, "designed to produce minerals from supplies. The weapons banks are purely defensive."

"A Civilian Productivity ship?!!" the Commander thundered. "With 10 engines! Do you know what it will take to build one of those? Civilian Productivity...". Had he possessed the necessary biological glands to produce mucus he would have spat on the floor. Since he did not, he just remained quiet and proceeded towards the Command Center.

"Sir" began his CEO, "there is one other item I wish to make you aware of if I may?"

 "Yes, what is it?" he replied surly.

"The design team you put together.... you know, the ones we are not supposed to let the Council know about? They also submitted a set of new design plans today"

"Yes? What did they come up with? A ship that produces merengue pies from fuel?" he said. The sarcasm upgrade to his neural network was a constant source of amusement to the Commander. Even if the robots he addressed didn't understand it.

"No Sir, they have designed another Baseship. A carrier, with 10 fighter bays, 6 batteries of beam weapons, 8 engines... uses a lot of fuel, but they have put an enormous fuel tank in the design to compensate" the CEO explained, as he seemed almost excited, was he capable of expressing such emotions.

"It has a huge cargo hold so it is capable of producing fighters on its own while carrying significant numbers of fighters at the same time. They call it "The Golem" Sir."

"The Golem" the Commander thought to himself, "I like the sound of that!"

"What shall we do Sir, we need to focus the production capacity on either one of the designs?" his CEO asked.

The Commander left him with with a terse "Let me do some calculations" and proceeded on his way. Civilian Productivity.... A huge carrier..... The Golem.... hiding his activities from the Council was not always easy. He had to consider his next move carefully.

(dup)

Commodore Halion sat back at his desk and reflected on the last month.
What a busy time. So frantic and hardly anytime to update his personal logs on how things have been progressing in his current campaign.

Overall he was pleased with the management reports he was receiving, things were progressing as planned.
Even the external audit by Bondservant PLC had given positive commentary on the status at midgame... a pleasant surprise.

Halion had certainly learnt a few things, this cluster was full of very capable commanders and the rate of expansion and production was prodigious, somewhat limiting his usual production targets but not too much to worry.

The Dark Sense reports kept him well informed on the progress of others and interestingly he had found other commanders very keen to have access to the same info. Amazing the trade opportunities he had managed to set-up. Something to be remembered for future campaigns and also to pass back to the training academy for future Empire commanders.
Halion wondered what else he could bargain for using Dark sense... hmm.

He thought of the young rising star 1st Lieutenant Wilkins that had gone missing early on in the campaign, a strange disappearance. Could it be linked to the appearance of those sleek looking privateer ships that began arriving some time ago? they certainly were unfriendly enough

Not for the first time Halion looked at the Stellar weather charts and thanked his lucky stars that large Ion Storm had appeared when it did. HeHeHe, that must have caught those sneaky privateers by surprise. Seeing the ships in retreat from the storm was a relief.

Even more so was the sight of the significant Empire minefields now overlaying the area in readiness for future privateer visits. Let's hope they decide to head elsewhere....

Commodore Halion thought back to that strange occurance in the ship yards last week. Apparently Captain Mannering reported that there had been an accident in the common ship dock. An accident resulting in the explosion and loss of 3 PL21 probes. 

Something about a gate crashed late night party involving some visiting rebels, lizard and empire officers getting out of hand. Someone had apparently turned up the stereo to 11 and overloaded the powerunit in their PL21 Probe resulting in a chain reaction of explosions taking out 3 brand new probes just off the production line.... hmm well that's what Mannering had said anyway, Halion was less certain.... despite all the semi plausible excuses something seemed fishy to him..

Commodore Halion's musings were interupted by the beep beep of the galactic communicator. What's this? another diplomatic missive?
That's the tenth one I have had this week. Certainly this campaign was proving to be a very complex one diplomatically... now how to respond....

Halion finished the final sentance of his response to the ambassadors message and looked out at the military spaceyard, across the gleaming row of Gorbies and Super Star Destroyers and Frigates.

An impressive fleet and something to strike fear into any who would offend the Empire. Halion pondered the orders he should issue to his captains, what would be the destination? It needed to be decided, now was the time for action.....

Pirate Bob leaned back in the luxurious leather command chair and put his feet up on the broad desk infront of him knocking off a glass of space mead which smashed on the floor and spilled its contents over a once neat pile of status logs. He fished around in a small box and produced a cheese cracker, examined it briefly as the salt crystals caught the light, then offered it to his left shoulder where it was instantly snatched by Mr Beaky, his increasingly fat and increasingly belligerent parrot.

The young and somewhat nervous engineer that stood before him smiled and spoke for a second time, “Orders sir?”

“I be avin no orders son, them captains be knowing which way the solar winds blow”.

This response did not lesson the engineers unease, “Can I ask when Commander Hong will be back?”

“Aye”, Pirate Bob gave the engineer a conspiratorial wink.

“Its just that he seems to have been gone for a long time now. I know you said he is on holiday, but really its been months….”

“Aye lad, he be winnin an all expenses cruise”, Pirate Bob mused, then ate the last cracker himself and looked out of the viewing port smiling, “I’m sure ell be avin a lurrrvly time, and a nice rest. Anyways he’ll be all the better for not know what you lot have been getting up to…….”

“ROB EM ALL! ROB EM ALL!”, added Mr Beaky temporarily deafening his owner.

Quite some time ago……

Commander Hong couldn’t believe his run of luck, he sipped his champagne and looked again at the golden ticket in his hand.

-----------------------

CONGRATULATIONS

You have won first prize in the Echo Cluster Prize Draw!

Soon you will be jetting off to an exclusive 5 star resort for an all inclusive VIP stay at a secret luxury retreat. There you will be afforded the ultimate relaxation and restorative treatments, de-stressing you and reinvigorating every cell in your body.

You will return refreshed and renewed with a new perspective giving you the edge on your competition.

Our discreet and courteous representatives will collect you soon as part of our door to door service.

----------------------

He could certainly use a holiday. At least it would give him a break from the constant sound of squawking and the smell of parrot droppings, those damned avians where getting out of control. Anyway the break would pass the time until the money transfer from that nice Amorphous Prince came through, he’d given him his personal account details and forwarded the 10000MCs as requested that would pay the fee, so the 1000000MCs should be in his account any day now……

A little later…..

Two very clean and tidy men wearing spotless white suits with long jackets arrived and escorted Commander Hong to a private shuttle in a discreet and quiet manner. Some hours later the Commander awoke in a “cosy comfort room”, a ten foot square windowless cubicle with padded and soundproofed walls.

“I’m so lucky” he thought to himself and wondered when he would get breakfast.

Hot rocks falling from the sky and killing everyone. Reminds me of a meteor shower ;)

@all

As an avid diplomat I am so looking forward tosee how this short-mid term partnerships unfold. You are writting the NU history book and this game isgoing the most scrutised and viewed game evah

@lizard /rude ;)

Edit:damm ipad posts without formating :p

(Lizzy, can you upload the latest explosion map?)
I do not care about 1 & 2, but I’m in for 3! :-)

The Intelligence officer stepped out of the central command, leaving another pile of reports on Commodore SpaceSquads desk.

“I need more staff to handle all that paperwork. Thousands of reports, analysis, rumours, propaganda and diplomatic notes to work on and all I got is this superhot long legged. I should have focused more on her skills and not just on her appearance.” Deep in thoughts, the Commodore was staring at his pile of work as a sweet voice came out of the intercom.

Crystal: “Excuse me Supreme Commander SpaceSquad, Sarge would like to see you”
SpaceSquad: “Let him in. And Crystal, don´t call me like that!!! ”
“Damn, I should have never started that title discussion, it´s enough if Bondservant teases me with it, now I have to tease myself in my own role play” SpaceSquad thought.
Sarge stepped in and with a big grin on his face and a cigar in his mouth he said: “ Good morning your highness.”
SpaceSquad: “Easy Sarge Easy! Welcome back. Do you still smoke that stuff, it will kill you one day! How was your test flight?”
Sarge: “ The flight was excellent sir! This Falcon Class is the perfect ship to support our Cruisers at the front with clans, cash and minerals.”
SpaceSquad: “Good; luckily we already own 5 of them. They will be very helpful as we may have to deal with bigger things soon.”
Sarge: “Are you talking about the 7 Carriers that approach our border? Do we need to worry?”
SpaceSquad: “I forgot that you are well informed about those things, even if they are classified as “top secret”.  Such a battle fleet is always something we need to be careful with. Looks like we will get what we deserve! Anyway, let’s deal with that later, for now we should have a drink on your successful test flight.”
He opened a wooden box on his desk but the bottle he took out was empty. He turned to his secretary who was sitting on her desk in front of the open door doing her nails.
SpaceSquad: “ Crystal…..”
She turn around and smiled, still sitting on her office chair.
SpaceSquad: “….could you kindly bring us another bottle…”
Slowly she changed her legs. The Commodore instantly forgot what he wanted  to say and Sarge´s cigar hit the carpet. After an uncomfortable long moment of staring, open mouths and silence Crystal said: “ Another bottle of Romulan ale, sir?
SpaceSquad: “….. yes ….. thank you.... Crystal.
She stood up and left. Quietly they followed with their eyes until she turned around the corner.
Sarge: “Holy sugar, the central command is a candy shop!” He picked up his cigar and stepped on the hole in the carpet to hide it.
SpaceSquad: “No need to lose all the fun in here just because something is not going as planned. As an ancient Borg saying says; enjoy the game, respect the other players, don´t take game diplomacy personal and let the Crystalline win.

Commodore Halion stared across his office at the piles and piles of intelligence reports on the cluster activities. He now had a better view than ever on what was happening and the dynamics of relations based on ship and planet disposition.

He reminded himself to send through a commendation to the hard working Probe commanders for their  tireless intel gathering.

He put down the final report from the Empire Strategic Command think-tank looking at long term projections for his campaign.
It was a hefty piece of work, the analysts had really outdone themselves with the 'game theory' and 'what-if' scenarios.
The secret intelligence reports on recent occurances was equally startling, the seeming disapearance of ships from radar and reappearance, the poorly explained accident in the ship yards, there was a greater plot at work here he was certain, if only he could see it all..

Halion re-read the conclusions again for the fifth time.'sometimes you ask a question and you just might not like the answer'  he shoook his head,  how had he not seen this coming, it was clear from the analysis.
How was he going to extracate himself from this predicament.... What was the right action to take?

Halion closed his eyes and opened himself to the force. As always the feeling of power flowing through him was close to overwhelming.

Yes it was there again that feeling he had experienced almost since entering this cluster, something was not as it seemed, some kind of distrubance.
The path was uncertain and fraught with danger.
If he was to act on his advisors conclusions this would be the biggest decision of his career, the entire fate of his expedition hung in the balance. This had to be his decision and his alone.

Despite all this the flow of force through his concious began to subside and become a calming influence like standing in the centre of a tornado. The answer was clear to him, he had to trust his instinct.

Halion opened his eyes and reached for his communicator to summon his top commanders to a briefing, there was much to do and little time to do it.

The decision was clear in his mind and he knew what he needed to do...........