Slowly, things came together - my freighters teacher their markets, my starbases finished csontruction, and, eventually, people began to visit my territories. The Drengin were finally starting to take me seriously and had deployed a fleet to try and oppose me, which had ultimately been unsuccessful in completing their mission. Okay, not so much unsuccessful as totally wiped out. Really, being a commander made some things too easy at times.
The Korx were starting to notice my presence in the market, but so far, they weren't doing anything about it - probably didn't see me as a threat to their interests. At least, they didn't see me as one yet. In another month, that might change. I made a mental note that I should probably spend some of that time helping the Iridium gain more market influence so that, once the Korx were dealt with, the market wouldn't collapse once I left for the next universe. I'd at least have to show them how to make their products more efficiently, so that the prices could be lowered without an real decrease in profit. Then I could expand on my assistance from there.
My attempts at tourism were going surprisingly well. People were traveling to several of my systems, and they liked what they saw. I guess playing Tropico was paying off. Though, having a race who is naturally friendly and good at being hosts also helps. Even the Yor were interested in visiting my systems, and they seemed to be ok with the fact many had organic inhabitants. Surprisingly, whenever Iconians and Yor tourists met on my colonies, the worst that happened was name calling and maybe one or two punches being thrown. Out of confusion, I scanned each race's records and discovered that, apparently, there was an unofficial truce between the two peoples when they were acting as tourists. Apparently this was the only time they ever had truces with each other, which was surprising, to say the least. Hopefully, that wouldn't change.
Oh, and my kids had apparently started to explore the rest of the systems I'd conquered, and were busy taking in the sights. I think Bianca was drawing pictures of it. I wonder if she drew any pictures for me...nope, none for me.
Not yet, anyway.
The Dread Lords were starting to show their faces and attack me, but so far, they weren't getting any victories. Of course, that was to be expected when your opponent was a Brutally Efficient Self Replicating Mechanism of War. Wins were the exception, not the rule. And while I would eventually become familiar with those exceptions, the rule was still dominant in this universe.
I'll admit there was one thing that surprised me about the Dread Lords: their appearance. In-game, they looked surprisingly human, probably because one of their creators was human. Here, while they still did look human, they also had some squid-like traits. Mostly tentacles, but also suckers and color changing. They also had pointy teeth, but not razor-sharp ones. I wondered if the Arbor were any different.
Turning my attention back to my kids, I quickly checked my internal calendar to see when their birthdays were. I had a feeling that things would be slow going for a while, so it would probably be best if I started preparing for other important occasions before they snuck up on me - wait, a new alert?
...Apparently a new power had shown up in some far off systems and was making a name for itself by taking planets from the Drengin. They appeared to use engineered animals to assist their foot soldiers with their conquests.
...This counted as an alert?
Aliens I knew nothing about had been popping out of the woodwork to battle the Drengin, now that theu saw an opportunity to get back at those cruel wastes of flesh and space. Some used organic technology. These new ones were no different.
...right?
Right.
Back to planning for birthdays. It looked like Bianka's would be the one that would approach the fastest.
So, what should I get for her?
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