Turns 10 - 18: Clearing the Northern Wastes
It's been many days since my last report, and it feels like things are happening at a much faster pace, whether the case or not, my plans continue to move.
Back at home, an old acquaintance from back home has arrived,
Samuel Mendez's driving skills are legendary so I invite him to join, and just in time since our colonizer mobile vehicle is ready to deploy and claim to the eastern transmission terminal and surrounding area. He will lead the army safeguarding it.
Meanwhile, our scouts have made formal contact with Qi'Volix and convinced them to join us for protection. Their sector lays next to the Spacers dwelling and a teleporter where invasions could come from, so it benefits us both to unite and fortify the area. The Cosmite Rift here is a primary target but it's also heavily guarded.
In the next days, the Spacers contact us: they seem to be winding down their raiding ways, now that the eastern cities are off-limits to them, and so they want us to teach them some of our crafting techniques to become self-sufficient. I redirect some of our researchers to train the Spacers' own; this will slow down our technology acquisition quite a bit, but it's worth it considering that we're on the verge of an alliance with them - having some of their forces join us afterwards will probably seal the deal.
After some consideration and new scouting reports, I decide to leave the Cosmite Rift in the Juvendril sector alone for now, and move north with my army to eliminate any threats that may descend upon our colonies and catch us unaware. First we find another refugee camp in the process of enslavement by dissident Syndicate forces formerly associated with Qi'Volix that were unwilling to join a Vanguard nation.
Afterwards, a series of simple battles take place where we sustain some loses, namely a PUG, but in exchange gain a mechanical construct called a Liquidator; it's form is too arcane for us to replicate, but it's easily integrated and will be helpful in the following battles.
Further east, we attack the Reaper bunker that has been threatening our capital for some time now, sending marauding armies to harass our colonists. The battle is fierce and we sustain painful loses, but the experience from the encounter gives me new insight into synthesis integration and I'll be able to use Override Daemon to control mechanical units from time to time now.
Scouts have also made contact with two new factions, yet another contingent of the Vanguard forces lead by a Johnny Flammz, (I guess it's a nickname).
And one of the Dvar, Gerd Ingotts, likely on some mining or other mission intended to extract resources from this planet for profit. While I share the sentiment that nature has to be tamed and exploited rather than nurtured, I can't say I trust them, they remind me too much of the decadent oligarchies of Earth and what they made it become. In any case they should also not be too hard to deal with if it comes to blows, as our reports indicate they rely even more heavily on mechanical units for combat than even we Vanguard.
Also an interesting tidbit, they may already be in a race for resources down south, as both Ingotts and Valefor seem to have raced for a Cosmite Rift that the Dvar ended up claiming:
This is across a mountain range and a strait from our own lands, so it's not our concern as we still have land for two or three more cities and a respectable five Cosmite Rifts in our vicinity.
