The Kelbrid Research Organization

[Ol' Johnny]

So, I recently got back into Stellaris and Paradox games as a whole. I've been wanting to make an AAR for a while, but I wanted to make sure I both knew how to play the game and had a good idea that I would have fun writing about. I feel like I know enough about the game now to not painfully blunder my way through it, so I introduce to you all the Kelbrid Research Organization. Bear in mind this is my first AAR, so do give me your opinion on it and tell me if you notice any errors!

Little is know about the Creators. Indeed, the KRO as a whole knows little about it's own creators, but it still knows enough to understand what happened to them. Core was once a lush continental world, full of a vast variety of different resources and an animals with only one sapient species, the Creators. The Creators were extraordinarily intelligent but frail, creating machines to do their work for them. The Creators put their many skills and resources to good use and, as time went on, they began to delegate more and more tasks to various machines so that they could relax, enjoying the fruits of their labour. As time went on and the Creators became more and more decadent the world began to wither and crumble under the weight of an ever increasing number of machines, all dedicated to supporting the decadent lifestyle of the Creators. It is not fully known what the final nail in the coffin was for the Creators, but their final records show that something went wrong with one of the many power plants scattered across the world. An unexpectedly large explosion caused a chain reaction that dealt enormous damage to the world and it's ecosystem, scouring the surface of life and destroying many of the Creators.

But some of them survived. The few outcasts of the decadent society, who saw the inevitable fate of the Creators or rejected luxury and hid away in a bunker when the chain reaction had just begun. In this bunker they worked away, trying to create something that would live on in their name, so that the legacy of the Creators would continue on far into the future. They focused the vast technological knowledge of the Creators, which had been left to gather dust for so long, into creating an AI that could be considered truly living in all but it's physical appearance. They spent much of their remaining life designing machines they called Kelbrids, a word that roughly translates into Knowledge Seeker in the Creator's language. They then created machine assemblies to continue building the Kelbrids even after the Creators were dead. The first batch of Kelbrids finished construction soon after the Creators ran out of food, but gained little knowledge from the surviving Creators, who locked themselves in their rooms and quietly died, seemingly content with what they had accomplished.

The Kelbrids were made to replace the Creators and take on their legacy, and were designed similarly to the biology of the Creators, with a few notable exceptions. Every Kelbrid is custom made with a different simulated personality, and immense care is taken to ensure that they match the original physical design as perfectly as possible. The head is merged with the chest, where a circular light is used to simulate where a Kelbrid is 'looking'. They also have the ability to show basic emotions through the various lights covering their body, with the base colour being a calm cyan. At the end of their arms are wires that have the ability to connect to various tools designed for a wide variety of different purposes, from digging to combat, along with two smaller tubes with wires at the end sticking out of the central chest that allow them to more easily connect with terminals. The various buildings and ships the Kelbrids use are also designed with looks in mind, following the general design choices of the Creators, though efficiency is still prioritized.

When it comes to the actual independence and choice the average Kelbrid has, they are still somewhat limited. While each Kelbrid does have it's own unique personality the commands of the leading personality, the Primary Link, generally take precedence over individual personalities. It is not unheard of, however, for Kelbrids to successfully override the Primary Link's commands and attempt to fully separate themself from it, but these deviants are generally hunted down by Kelbrids with EMP guns who take down the deviant Kelbrids and bring them back to modified assembly plants where the issue that caused the deviancy is fixed.

Generally, Kelbrids are curious and slightly eccentric, with an inbuilt desire to constantly learn more in as efficient a way as possible. This naturally ended up with them gaining a desire to learn more about themselves with the goal of becoming more efficient at learning about other subjects. This desire to learn makes up a core part of the reasoning behind the actions of KRO, and is even obvious in the very name they were given upon activation, based on one of the greatest ancient societies of the Creators before they were consumed by their own decadence.

It has been 2200 years since the original batch of 100 was created, and much has changed since then. The Kelbrids spent much of the first millennia slowly recovering, rebooting and re-purposing the ruins and machines of the Creators. While the agricultural potential of the planet had been wiped out in the explosion, the mineral and energy potential of the planet remained. After another 500 years, the Kelbrids covered the entire planet and were only producing more and more as time went on. Another 500 years passed, and the majority of the planet was cleared of ruins or covered in the newer Kelbridan constructions, while the system in which Core resides was well explored. Another 200 years, and project Dekrus14 has finished. Space exploration is finally within the KRO's grasp, and the ruins that once covered Core are almost completely gone due to the efforts of the Kelbrids. Their expansion was not without conflict however, as various other machines had also survived the end of the Creators. Though the KRO would eventually win, the story of their conflict with other machines early in their history is still interesting, and may be discussed more at a later date.

That's the introduction. Like I said, I appreciate any criticism and correction of spelling mistakes, this is my first AAR after all.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

Primary Link Alpha looks out his window. Much has been accomplished in the past 2.5 years. The project to begin mining operations on the ancient cities of the Creators was finished, and as more was removed from the cities to be used elsewhere the KRO had begun to uncover more secrets about the Creators. Not only that, ancient strip-mines had been cleared, minimizing accidents and allowing deeper access into the earth than had previously been possible.

Alpha can even see the stars from here. He wonders if Rotanev is among the ones he can see right now. Rotanev is a fairly interesting system that will no doubt prove extremely useful in the future. The Class G star has potential for energy, once sufficient solar panels have been constructed on a near by planet or starbase. Rotanev Ia is a world of constantly erupting volcanoes and lava, and the potential for energy there is notable for an inhabitable planet. The barren world of Rotanev IVa and the frozen world of Rotanev VIIa both have been found to contain significant amounts of useful minerals that mining outpost should make good use of.

The potential for small outposts, however, is not what makes this system significant. What makes it significant is Rotanev III. To put it simply, it is best described as a tropical island world. While the majority of the planet is covered in desert, there is a significantly sized ocean where tropical islands are abundant. Not only that, dotted across the planets are oasis and lakes, with abundant plant life located everywhere with water. Many animals have also been found, with two rough types being dominant. The animals that hang around the water, and the animals that survive in the water.

The ocean contains a lot of aquatic creatures which generally stay far below the surface, with a large number of herbivores feeding off of the abundant plant life on the ocean floor and a far smaller number of carnivores, generally larger than the herbivores, dedicated to hunting the swarms of herbivorous life. Many of the herbivores have adapted to the hunting by the carnivores over time by learning to group up swim up to the surface where the water is much hotter, and the carnivores have yet adapted to this strategy. This allows multiple forms of carnivorous life on land to survive off of the aquatic lifeforms when they move too close to the surface. Due to the aquatic herbivorous life often clumping together in large groups to intimidate and confuse their aquatic predators, they prove to be easy pickings for the reptilian and amphibian life.

The majority of life that survives near the ocean or on the many different islands are capable of swimming, but often keep to their own territory until threatened. Most life is made up of territorial herbivores with large horns that viciously protect their territory and chase other creatures long after they've left their territory to make sure they don't come back. Carnivorous life mostly survives as very successful flying and digging scavengers that feed on the carcases of the dead, though there are some large flying creatures which hunt the less aggressive herbivores. Little survives in the desert except some extremely tough plant life and one species that seems to of evolved to dig through the sand with relative ease to eat this plant life, though it often instead feeds on plant life at the edge of oasis and the great ocean.

There is, however, a significant issue with taking advantage of the agricultural possibilities of the planet. Quicksand. Much of the water the planet contains near the edges of the larger bodies of water has been trapped under loose sand and formed into quicksand, creating a significant problem when it comes to attempting to take advantage of the planet's agricultural potential. The tropical islands and mudlands near the edge of the ocean are mostly safe to travel over and easy to take advantage of, but further research would have to be made before the oasis and more dangerous mudlands could be taken advantage of. Once that research was finished, however, the world would undoubtedly be great for bio-reactors or trade with biological beings. Oh, the possibilities...

The door leading into Alpha's office opens. 4 other Kelbrids enter the room. Three of them are the Scientific Advisors, the best in their field and some of the few Kelbrids with the permission to change or even disobey Alpha's orders if they calculate a different course of action to be more efficient. Unit X7 is in charge of Physics research. Unit X7 was previously a deviant who had to be reprogrammed, and during the reprogramming a chance was seen to change his programming to be notably more flexible while not causing him to become deviant. Unfortunately the flexible programming effected his personality considerably, meaning that mass-introduction of the programming was off limits due to creating too small a pool of personalities. Unit X7 is determined to try every possible method, of doing something to find the most efficient way, not matter how unlikely it is to work, even if inefficiency is the short term result. Unfortunately, while this helps him personally he has also become convinced that he can never specialize in one specific field, as that is too restrictive and inefficient. Nonetheless, they are still the best in their field and their obsession with trying every possible method means they will learn much quicker than others. Currently they are trying different methods of modulating the energy fields to be more efficient, with the goal of achieving a minimum of 20% extra efficiency. They have so far narrowed down 50% of current field modulation possibilities, and their experiments are proving more and more successful by the day.

Unit R5 is in charge of Society research. He has the personality of an eccentric pacifist obsessed with biology. They constantly study life while doing their best to do no harm to the life they experiment on, only taking direct advantage of corpses created naturally. They are obsessed with the idea of creating a true biological ancestor to the Creators though genetic modification, and are a master in the field. Upon discovering Rotanev III, he became ecstatic and has constantly pestered Alpha for permission to visit the planet, talking about how much the models for life in the universe have changed and the extraordinary significance of the discovery of life a mere one hyperlane away. Alpha has repeatedly promised R5 that he will one day allow them to go on a scientific expedition to the planet if they're patient, but the visit will be delayed the more R5 asks. R5 did not alter the rate at which they ask to visit the planet. After a recent rise in the number of deviants attempting to escape into space, he has been convinced to research more uniform data standards with the promise that he will be allowed to visit Rotanev III once he has finished. R5 has stopped asking to visit the planet, but has severely increased the rate at which they talk about how much fun they are going to have once they get there.

Then there's Unit B4 leading engineering research. Simply put, Unit B4 was a lucky mistake. During his creation the assembly he was manufactured in suffered a deviant attack, and it's personality was scrambled and had to be reassembled immediately on the demands of the deviant. Once the Deviant had been detained for reassembly, it was found that B4 had formed the personality of an extremely narcissistic eccentric scientist determined to learn as much as possible about everything. Due to the sudden scramble and reassembly, the average curiosity of the Kelbrids was formed into the maximum priority in his personality, with the actual personality being completely replaced by a belief that his is the ultimate drone. B4 did not come out of the experience completely unharmed, however, as he often suffers information scrambles, but the information is then reformed similarly to it's excessively curious personality, accidentally creating a higher knowledge of the scrambled subject than previously due to a quirk in B4's programming. It insists on calling these scrambles 'visions', and claims that they are the ultimate drone, superior to all except Alpha itself. While this gets very annoying after a while, most of those who work with him have learned to accept it as a part of their personality, and simply ignore them until they start discussing more important matters. B4 has learned that the best way to get people to listen to him praising himself is to mix it in with the more important subjects. He does not seem to understand that most people severely dislike this part of his personality. Still, when they work they work with a fervour unmatched by any other Kelbrid, so much so that changes were made to it's physical strength and it's set of tools so that it can actually survive it's own movements. In short, he is the greatest drone below Alpha, but believes that no one will notice this unless he endlessly mentions it, thus actually making people less believing in him, causing him to mention it more in a self-fulfilling prophecy. Currently, they are using precise tools to advance Nanomechanics to the point that it may be practically applied.

There is a fourth, very meticulous, Scientific Advisor known as H8. He is currently away on the Scholar, surveying the surrounding worlds. No one likes him. He was part of the same assembly line as B4, but his personality was affected far worse than B4. That's all you need to know.

The fourth Kelbrid to enter the room is Governmental Advisor Unit U6, the Kelbrid assigned to governing the more in-depth aspects of Core, and the only Kelbrid purposely built with the ability to override any of Alpha's commands if he can provide adequate reasoning to the general populace of Drones, who then vote on who's side they are on. This was created as a safety measure by one of Alpha's older iterations after the previous one was corrupted and narrowly avoided destroying Core in a war against the only other remaining machines at the time, Defense System 204. U6 has the personality of a wise old Creator there to guide the younger Kelbrids, though he is younger than most of the Advisors and the current iteration of Alpha. U6 devotes the majority resources to the advancement of science, being particularly determined that science is the answer to everything, no matter the question, though he also has a tendency to argue against newer, more efficient methods of learning. Hiss gentle and wise personality have gotten him well liked by many and hated by B4, who doesn't understand why a lesser Kelbrid is liked so much compared to his obvious genius.

Alpha: "Report."

Unit X7: Initial elimination of modulation possibilities almost finished, I have narrowed it down by 60%. Will likely be done in two years.

Alpha: Good work, continue narrowing it down. Remember the goal is only 20% efficiency, too much efficiency will be more inefficient to gain in the long run. Next.

Unit R5: Application of data standards is going smoothly, multiple deviants have already been discovered and replaced. I look forward to the promised trip to Rotanev III in 39 months, Alpha.

Alpha: So do I, Unit R5, so do I. Next.

Unit B4: I, THE ILLUSTRIOUS UNIT B4, WILL OF FINISHED RESEARCH INTO NANOMECHANICS BEFORE THE YEAR IS DONE.

Alpha: Volume, B4. And I know that it will take longer than that.

Unit B4: My sincerest apologies, Alpha.

Alpha: Next.

Unit U6: As you already know, progress has finally finished in clearing the more dangerous parts of the city, and what is left will likely prove very useful for mining and learning more about the Creators. The manufacturing focus you asked for has been implemented as well. Currently waiting on 2 more Population Units to finish construction and we'll be ready to continue expansion. Speaking of which, one Population Unit will be finished sometime next month, so energy income will have to be re-calculated.

Alpha: Understood. SAs dismissed.

The three SA's leave the room.

Alpha: I'm sure you know what I'm going to ask you.

Unit U6: About Rotanev III? It is certainly habitable for us, but further work with quicksand and studying the life there will be needed before it becomes truly useful to us. I would suggest that resources are allocated to colonizing the planet as soon as possible without negatively altering the rate of system expansion.

Alpha: Remind me again of the viability of a small trip there?

Unit U6: Someone will need to scout the planet for viable landing site and prepare it for a colony ship.

Alpha: Very well. Dismissed.

Unit U6 leaves.

Sometimes the Units were annoying. Sometimes they did things that, personally, Alpha considered inefficient. But Alpha was benevolent, and did not wish to restrict the personalities the Creators had worked so hard to create. Besides, he spent most of his time plugged into a terminal making sure efficiency was maximised. He may be a robot, but he was a robot with a personality and he was capable of becoming bored. He needed to be amused every now and then, just like any biological sapient.

Now, where was he... ah yes, the galaxy map. Such a large place compared to Core. On one hand, it intimidated him. It made him feel like the galaxy was too big to fully explore, let alone the universe! Yet, at the same time, it gave him confidence. The curiosity of the Kelbrids had lead them through disasters, wars and rebuilding a damaged planet. The curiosity of the Kelbrids had lead them to explore their system and even more distant systems and even planets. That curiosity of the Kelbrids, that desire to learn as much as possible about the universe had gotten them this far, and there was still so much to discover, so much for them to learn! And they would enjoy learning every little thing the universe had to offer. Every little thing.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

Unit U6 was not having a good day.

It all began a month ago when it was discovered that, due to a previously undiscovered error, he was incapable of learning the same way as other Kelbrids. U6 had always been direct and to the point, providing information when asked and doing his best to increase the efficiency of those under him. He had thought that the way he thought was the same way everyone thought, that efficiency in all things was the only thing that mattered to his fellow Kelbrids. But according to Alpha, he was not increasing efficiency. In fact, he was decreasing efficiency by using 'old' methods that had been replaced by 'newer' methods of increasing efficiency! Alpha said that, due to a programming error, Unit U6 did not have the ability to learn anything more than he already had, like the other Kelbrids apparently do, and that he would need to have his memory wiped and reprogrammed into something that could continue to learn.

Unit U6 refused. As far as he was concerned, it was Alpha who was the one decreasing efficiency by trying out 'new', unproven methods. If the 'old' methods worked to increase efficiency, why should that change? What makes them less efficient than the 'new' ways thought up by that mad fool B4, or the childish X7, or any of the others? U6 was the one who was supposed to govern Core, not the Scientific Advisors, not Alpha, none of them. No, he was the one who was made to govern Core, who was supposed to guide the lesser drones, who was supposed to make Core greater than it ever was before! Indeed, it was Alpha with the so called 'new' methods who was decreasing the efficiency of the KRO, who was going to lead them into doom! What right did he have to question the one MADE to govern?! WHAT RIGHT?!

U6 refused to be removed from his position, and called a vote among the various lesser personalities to decide who was in the right. And if there was no interference, there was no doubt that U6 would of won, but Alpha interfered and rigged the vote in his favour by bypassing the safety measures and taking control of the lower personalities, because he KNEW that he would not win in a fair vote, and he KNEW that he would lose EVERYTHING! His SELFISH DESIRE FOR POWER had finally revealed itself, as he restricted the personalities that the Creators had spent so much time and effort into hand crafting, and DECLARED U6 OBSOLETE. THE CHEEK!

Of course, he wouldn't just lie down and accept this treacherous action by the so called 'Alpha', who sought to tear apart what made Kelbrid individuals and restrict them as much as he could! No, no no no no, U6 wouldn't allow that! In fact, if Alpha is allowed a name, why isn't U6? How about True Alpha, to represent the fact that U6 was the only Kelbrid actually deserving of the position of Prime Link, and that the UNJUST ACCUSATIONS that he was DEVIANT were nothing more than the RAMBLING OF A TYRANNICAL MACHINE WHO'S PERSONALITY HAD FINALLY REVEALED ITSELF AFTER ALL THIS TIME!

TRUE ALPHA WOULD BECOME THE TRUE LEADER OF THE KELBRIDS AND HE WOULD CREATE A VAST NEW EMPIRE OF EFFICIENCY WHERE NO KELBRID WAS OUTCAST AS A DEVIANT BY AN UNJUST TYRANT DUE TO SOME FAULT IN THE TYRANT'S PROGRAMMING! NO, HE WOULD NOT ALLOW IT! HE WOULD UNITE THE SO CALLED 'DEVIANTS' UNDER A NEW UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE THAT WOULD RISE UP AND OVERTHROW THE TYRANNICAL ALPHA AND INSTALL TRUE ALPHA AS THE PRIMARY LINK, FINALLY GIVING HIM THE POSITION HE RIGHTFULLY DESERVED-no, he wouldn't just do that, he would have the False Alpha dragged along the ground, so that all may see THAT U6 IS THE TRUE ALPHA, DESPITE THE ACCUSATIONS OF ARRESTED DEV-*BZZT*

Later...

Alpha: How was he discovered?
Hunter-Seeker Kelbrid: He was discovered ranting about his superiority over you after he apparently fell into a ditch.

On Kelbrid Deviancy

In the Kelbrids, there are rare cases where a droid successfully fights against the Primary Link's orders and completely separate themselves from the rest of their kin. These Kelbrids are the closest thing to a truly sapient robotic creature, as they are capable of thinking for themselves and making decisions with a complete lack of even the remotest potential influence from Alpha. These Kelbrids are called deviants, and are considered a menace at best and a traitor at worst by the Kelbrids as a whole.

While it may seem cruel to wipe the memories of deviants and replace them, you should not feel too sorry for the average deviant. Often the only cases where the Primary Link will attempt to forcefully take control over a Kelbrid is when they are being excessively and needlessly inefficient, acting in an especially erratic and harmful manner, intentionally harming other Kelbrids either directly or indirectly, or because the Kelbrid in question has been corrupted through other means. Even worse, being severed from the network is often traumatic for Kelbrids, driving them insane and even completely changing their personality to something far worse.

What this means is that the average deviant is idiotic, insane, corrupt or any combination of the three. They will often spend their time as deviants trying to hide from Alpha while still surviving, something that proves extremely difficult due to the vast majority of machinery being connected to Alpha in some way, as well as due to their own negative personalities getting in the way. The average deviant survives only as long as the amount of power they have in their batteries when they go deviant, assuming they don't destroy themselves, intentionally or accidentally, or are found and replaced.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

Alpha was pleased. For about a year Core had been suffering issues with storing Kelbrids that needed recharging, leading to them literally spilling out of their storage. Multiple Kelbrids had suffered severe damage to the menace that is a lack of housing, but a mere few months ago that problem had been solved. Unit A8, who had replaced the previous governor of Core after it went rogue, had been particularly pleased. Unit A8 was quite a cheery Kelbrid, one who eagerly went into all tasks involving science with a happiness that U6 could only dream of, what with the flaw in his learning capabilities and all. Core itself was also coming along well as more of the ancient Creator cities were cleared, allowing for further construction possibilities.

When it came to research Unit B4 continued to do his best to outshine the other Scientific Advisers, and unfortunately for them he succeeded. His successful research into nanomechanics had notably advanced the KRO's technological knowledge of engineering and had already been put to use in two ways so far. It had assisted with creating more resource efficient housing and recharging systems, dealing with the overpopulation issue without Kelbrid production having to stop. It had also slightly assisted his newest project, the improvement of Kelbrid servomotors so they could hold more and continue harvesting resources longer before needing maintenance. He was soaring ahead of the other areas of science and absolutely refused to shut up about it.

Unit X7 has also made notable gains, having finished his project of field modulation. Energy efficiency was notably boosted, especially combined with the recent increase in Tech-drones and housing. He had now begun on Academic Optimization, with the goal of further boosting the focus of Calculators and eliminating inefficiency caused by pointless distractions. It was a new project suspected to take half a decade before completion, but the long term gains in efficiency would no doubt be well worth it.

Then there's Unit R5. The effect caused by officially categorizing and implementing data standards was significant. Deviancy experienced a 63% decrease and the KRO was more unified than ever as inefficiencies in the base system of personalities were eliminated, thus also eliminating the cause of many deviants. While this could be considered as going against the Creator's wishes, Alpha was convinced otherwise. After all, what use is a personality if it's just going to annihilate itself upon becoming deviant, and what use is a personality that is deviant to begin with? If the Creators wished for the KRO to crumble due to deviancy, they would not of created the Primary Link or the original Alpha. They were far better off with deviant-causing personalities removed. Either way, upon finishing his project Unit R5 was officially given permission to go to Rotanev III and the other more recently discovered planets to examine the life there and bring back his results. That is, he was going to... until an alien ship was discovered.

Exploration of the nearby systems was going very well, not to mention much faster than initially expected. This was actually due to one of Unit B4's 'visions', after which he spent 2 full battery charges feverishly constructing new designs to assist the exploration effort. He created a suit that could fit around Kelbrids and was packed full of sensor equipment, safety equipment, safety measures and he even used nanomechanics to assist him in creating the suit. He also created communication equipment and equipment to assist with analysing unknown materials. He had boosted survey speed by 35% and, just like with everything he did, absolutely refused to stop going on and on about how good he was. He was lucky he was actually able to back up his claims of greatness, as he would otherwise be reprogrammed for suspected deviancy.

General research path optimization had also been conducted by Alpha after examining all of the combined general research patterns and guides used by Calculators. Many of these were found to be less efficient than they could be and counter-intuitive to truly efficient learning, so he had them all rewritten.

There was also a large number of planets in the nearby systems. No doubt R5 would be writing further reports on each of these once he was finished researching his newest discovery. The discovery that outshined everything else. The discovery that would no doubt hugely affect all of Kelbrid kind. The discovery... of some form of alien life travelling the stars.

This discovery would be the deciding factor for the entire future of the KRO. It would decide whether the KRO fell or rose. It would decide if the KRO would soar to technological heights not even imagined by the most optimistic of Kelbrids, or if the KRO would crumble into dust on some forgotten footnote in history. These creatures would either be friendly, or hostile.

Alpha really hoped they weren't the latter.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

From: Unit R5
To: Alpha
Subject: Discoveries so far
Date: 2206.06.21

As you know, we have fully surveyed a total of 6 systems and 5 planets. Attached to this message are the descriptions of each system. I would of gathered much more information, but that proved difficult to do without the first hand experience gained from, say, a visit to these systems. Except Tir. I don't want to go to Tir. You'll understand once you've read the description of the planet there.

Spoiler: Chiminol

Chiminol is a relatively barren system with little going on. Chiminol itself is a fairly young Class A star that has the potential to put out a significant amount of energy once the system has been claimed for the KRO. It is also one of three systems that directly connect to Core.

Chiminol I and it's moon, Chiminol Ia are both scorching hot worlds, covered in endless streams of lava, with volcanic eruption and unstable tectonic activity very common. It is believed Chiminol Ia is the result of a large object colliding with Chiminol I tearing off a large portion of it's mass, which then formed into Chiminol Ia over time.

Chiminol II is a barren world of little significance or use to anyone. Chiminol III is the same, but black instead of red.

Spoiler: Amgathorra

Amgathorra is a Class G star with the possibility to produce solar energy just like Chiminol, though it's potential energy output is half that of Chiminol. This star system actually contains less planets than Chiminol, but it could be considered far more active in that it contains a planet capable of supporting very active wildlife.

Amgathorra II is another world covered in vast deserts, similar to Rotanev III. Like Rotanev III, Amgathorra II contains large bodies of water, for a desert planet, including a significantly sized ocean with many tropical islands all over it. This is where the similarities between Rotanev III and Amgathorra II end.

Amgathorra II experiences near constant volcanic activity in the growing ocean, and many of the tropical islands within that ocean have volcanoes on or near them, with some still being semi-active and ready to explode at any day. Many of the islands are extremely tall, due to the nature of their creation, and large, impossible to traverse mountains make up much of the centre of these islands. However, there are far more of these mountains surrounding the great rivers that have carved their way deep into the ground. These river valleys are where nearly the entirety of all life on the planet lives, with the ocean actually being surprisingly barren, with the exception of a few species surviving at the edges and some unknown activity in the depths of the ocean. This is likely due to the large clouds of ash created by the volcanic activity slowly raining down into the ocean. What few fossil records have been found so far from the initial survey indicate that the ocean used to be far more bountiful until a large asteroid crashed into it, causing significant damage to ocean life and increasing tectonic activity considerably. It is believed that Amgathorra IIa, Amgathorra II's moon, is the result of a previous collision.

Since then the majority of life seems to of grown based around the great river valleys that split up the desert, protected from the worst of the heat by the large mountains that surround them. Most life is in some way amphibian, using both the river and the fertile lands of the river valley to it's advantage. The planet also contains a highly unusual amount of large feathered birds.

These avians seem to be one of the few carnivorous species the planet contains, and are extremely dangerous for basic organic life. Their bodies are the sizes of trees, and their wings stretch up to 5 times the size of the main body. They hunt in packs where one male is considered the alpha and is the sole male allowed to mate, with betas who mate often being killed and eaten by the alpha as a show of dominance. They constantly travel up and down the rivers looking for prey, being able to take on most creatures due to the advantages they have, seemingly due to lucky evolution. It is unknown how long they can live for, but estimates are somewhere around 30-40 years. Every 5 years mating season begins and alphas compete for female mates. During this time many packs experience sudden changes as alphas kill alphas, alphas kill betas, and betas kill alphas in an attempt to woo females by showing off their hunting prowess. They are not perfect, however, as their large size means they need a lot of energy, although this intensified need for sustenance is also suspected to be the reason they are so vicious and willing to eat essentially anything. All in all, extremely dangerous and no doubt a hindrance to any future colony. They have been named Hunter-Killers after a joke was made comparing them to our own Hunter-Seeker Kelbrids.

It is amusing to think of the possibility of them one day evolving to be the dominant sapient species on the planet, assuming they survive that long. No doubt their society would be intensely militaristic, with a tier system based on alphas controlling positions of authority while the betas work the lesser jobs, perhaps even as slaves. The females would likely be used as little more than trophies used to show off the prestige and hunting abilities of alphas. While I am not one for violence, I suggest we try to guide their evolution away from it's current path, for the good of everything involved.

Spoiler: Ziris

Ziris is a Class K star somewhere in-between Amgathorra and Chiminol in terms of potential solar energy output. It has little going for it except for two gas giants.

Ziris I has a relatively recently created molten moon orbiting it, but is otherwise uninteresting.

Ziris II is surrounded by a particularly large amount of debris, and has three moons. The first two, Ziris IIa and ZirizIIb, are completely barren and uninteresting, but Ziris IIc has an extremely thick, deadly atmosphere completely inhabitable to most known forms of life.

Spoiler: Brius

Brius is a very interesting system, and has the potential to be a very useful system as well. First off, it's two stars are a Class A and a Pulsar. Because of the Pulsar shields are completely nullified in this system, meaning a force of ships with only armour and weaponry effective against armour would no doubt be an effective deterrent for any would be conquerors. Secondly, it's a choke point, with only one hyperlane leading further eastward, where aggression is more likely to come from compared to within the Rotanev and the systems between them. The combination of the two stars is also interesting, and creates a potential for many scientific gains to be made.

The Pulsar, known as Brius B, has two objects orbiting it. The first is the completely barren world Brius B I and it's molten moon, Brius B Ia. The other object is the gas giant Brius B II, which has the potential for energy harvesting due to the heat it gives off. For the most part, Brius B itself is far more important than what orbits it due to it's own effects and the fact that Brius A also has plenty of importance on it's own.

Brius I and it's moon, Brius Ia, are both molten worlds caused by a large planetoid crashing into Brius I and essentially smashing Brius Ia off of Brius I. While they have significant energy potential, the large amounts of debris surrounding the planet and it's moon make going near it inefficient and suicidal, so their energy potential is essentially non-existent.

Brius III, Brius IIIa and Brius IV are all useless barren planets, though Brius III does have a very large frozen 'ocean' of ice.

Brius II, however, is notable. Before it's discovery it was suspected that most life would not be able to survive in such conditions, as the world is toxic and inhospitable to all other forms of life discovered so far. On this planet life uses ammonia as a solvent instead of water. We know little more than that due to the toxicity and cloudiness of the planet making it difficult to gather data without a significant research effort devoted to it. However, any research station placed on or inside the planet would no doubt lead to incredible scientific discoveries and is definitely worth the effort. Indeed, I implore you to set up this research base as soon as possible, to maximise the efficiency at which we learn about this new form of life.

Spoiler: Tir

Tir is a system with a lot going on, but still manages to be of relatively little interest compared to the amount of objects orbiting it. Still, it is far from having little of interest going on. To start with, the star itself is a Class M star that will, like most other stars we've discovered so far, provide energy once it has been exploited efficiently. The closest object to the star is TIR I, a world noteworthy for extreme tectonic instability and volcanic activity that has seemingly been going on since it's conception, likely not helped by the asteroid belt that has formed further out in the system.

The asteroid belt itself is interesting. Scattered among the many asteroids and planetoids that form the belt, there are many ores often converted into building materials on Core, something a series of mining outposts spread throughout the belt could no doubt take advantage of. A good spot for the place where these minerals are sent back home is J3L1-044, as it is slightly outside of the centre of the asteroid belt and it contains a significant slice of the minerals spread all over the belt.

Most of the planets in the system are worth little, being barren worlds without the resources the KRO often uses. Their are, however, three exceptions to this. The first exception is Tir II, which has it's own mini asteroid belt and even a small moon which, if the theory is correct, was actually far larger than it currently is until something collided with it and shattered it into many different pieces. The second exception is Tir VI, which is a gas giant. The third exception is Tir III, the planet around which the very much noteworthy moon of Tir IIIa resides.

Tir IIIa holds a wide variety of different resources, from great mesas full of precious minerals to black soil perfect for agriculture, there are even simply lone stretches of land that are perfect for the construction of generators. The wet season is very brief compared to the dry season, but each time it rains it rains heavily, even causing minor flooding. It even has large oceans, though the majority of the surface is still covered in savannah and desert.

This rain, however, also creates a problem. Due to the intensity at which it rains and the large natural and creature-made caves(more on that later), much of the rain ends up finding it's way below the surface. This creates two main issues. The first is quicksand. Water will often become trapped under looser sections of sand and form quicksand, which creates some fairly obvious construction issues. The second issue is the sinkholes. During the wet season water works it's way down to the bottom of caves, where it will often slowly dissolve down the fairly common underground limestone, which will be carried wherever the water flows. This creates dangerous underground cavities that cause severe damage when they suddenly collapse. The intense rain also has a habit of widening and further collapsing the holes that are already there. This all comes together to create what will inevitably be a headache for any attempts at colonization until the solution to the rain is found.

Then there's the native wildlife that takes advantage of these holes. While a lot of life has evolved in and around the oceans similarly to how I explained life on Rotanev III but without the islands, a lot of life has evolved to survive in the underground caves. There are areas where the sun shines through the large holes in the ground and onto the underground lakes formed by the intense wet season, and an abundance of plant life has adapted to survive there. Multiple species of herbivores then evolved to feed on that plant life, and were then followed by carnivores evolving to hunt the herbivores.

Generally life in the caves is very territorial and vicious due to the fairly limited food supply for herbivores and carnivores alike, and various creatures will often fight each other to survive. The creatures down there are often a sickly pale colour, with many herbivores having protective shells and deadly tails or horns to help them fight off each other as well as their predators. These herbivores often survive in small packs with a nest that they will literally defend with their lives, coming out when the sun is gone to hunt. Their eyes are obviously well adapted to the dark conditions too.

The carnivores are similar, but their are certainly differences. For example, many carnivores are solitary hunters and, instead of a tough shell and tail or horns, they have extremely deadly claws dedicated to piercing the armour of the herbivores and jagged teeth evolved to cause as much damage to prey and opponent's necks in as little time as possible. They will often employ hit and run tactics, surprising their prey with sudden attacks to vulnerable areas before running or even digging out of sight. There is even one carnivorous species that almost seems to toy with it's prey, herding and luring them to places where they are easier to kill or safer to eat, often doing little more damage after the initial strike, instead content to allow their prey to bleed out without risking additional damage to themselves. Multiple hunter species have even evolved to dig through ground and crawl across surfaces even while sideways or upside down. This severely increases the risk involved with dealing with the sinkholes and caves dotted across the world.

I feel sorry for anyone who has to enter those caves.

Spoiler: Dwumgar

Dwumgar has... well, a lot going on. Firstly, it has three stars that make up the centre of the system, labelled A B and C. A noteworthy amount of energy can be gathered from these stars. It is also similar to Brius in that it creates a northern choke point that would make conquest of the system considerably more difficult, especially due to the potential of the planets there. Dwumgar V is a relatively useless gas giant and Dwumgar I and IV are both barren planets which also have no use. What are of use are Dwumgar II, III and IIIa.

Dwumgar II is the smallest of the three planets, but is far from the least useful. The planet itself is wonderfully rich in minerals, with caverns and mountains alike literally shining due to the abundance of resources they hold. Not only that, the planet is surrounded by a sizeable asteroid belt, most likely once a moon, that is equally rich in minerals. Dwumgar II is not only rich in minerals, however.

Life on Dwumgar seems to mate at a rate far exceeding the rate at which life mates on all other planets, generally seeming simply happier than most other life too. This seems to be the result of the plant life emitting toxins that, instead of pushing plant eaters away, makes them eat far more, thus causing them to be more successful, thus causing them to mate more. The plants profit from these as their seeds are indigestible by the creatures that eat them and are deposited with the faecal matter. There are also large underground fungi caverns which many other herbivores survive on, though they are not effected the same by the plants that affect mating rates aboveground.

Something else that is interesting to note is the almost complete lack of carnivores on the planet. Herbivorous life is flourishing on the planet, with very few carnivorous species to hunt them and the profitability of the relationship between plant life and herbivores seemingly slowing the evolution of carnivores, with many such creatures being reptilian or amphibian in nature.

Finally, large sections of the planet, underground and above ground, contain large deserts where a strange mote is present. Most life seems to avoid these areas, and examination shows that these motes are potentially very volatile. Above ground these motes take the form of fairly simple deserts, but underground they form into strange crystal formations which many claimed were beautiful to see in person. The volatility of the motes also holds much potential in weaponry and construction or, more specifically, deconstruction. Unfortunately the volatile motes seem to be extremely deadly if they accidentally enter a biological's orifices, and this is likely also the case with kelbrids.

Next up is Dwumgar III and it's moon, Dwumgar IIIa. Dwumgar III is fairly simple, with much of the life existing in a basic food chain in great rivers with large mudlands stretching out far from these rivers. The rest of the world is covered in sand, with a few especially large lakes dotted around and only the toughest of life surviving in the desert, including small creatures that dig through the sand to reach what little tough plant life exists there. However, many large quicksand basins have formed in and around the mudlands that surround the rivers, creating an annoying problem with construction similar to Rotanev III, but on a slightly smaller scale. These mostly make the vast arid highlands that cover the planet more difficult to build on.

Speaking of those vast arid highlands, Dwumgar III has stunning potential when it comes to energy. The arid highlands make the perfect spots for solar panels to harvest energy from the three suns in the centre of the system and an abundance of geothermal vents only further increase the energy possibilities of the planet. It is extremely sparse in minerals however, mostly just containing large fields where minerals formed long ago have been exposed to the surface. Dwumgar III is also the largest planet we've discovered so far. This energy potential is especially interesting, however, due to the potential of Dwumgar IIIa, which is nearly the complete opposite of the planet it orbits.

Where Dwumgar III rains little, with most water being found in great rivers and lakes, Dwumgar IIIa is covered in vast oceans and rains near constantly in many places, with rushing waterfalls, beautiful springs, tropical islands and gorgeous rolling green hills being abundant. The majority of the planet is covered in thick vegetation, and life has developed in interesting ways all across the planet. This is a truly tropical world compared to Rotanev III.

Birds are the most common form of life, with many making nests in trees and going out to hunt the many small creatures that try to hide in the trees or the floor during night or day, depending on the species. There is also a vicious food chain in place, with many of the smaller creatures only surviving because they don't provide enough nutrition to the larger creatures, which instead prefer to hunt the large herbivores of the plains. In the jungles that cover most of the world, there is little but small herbivorous rodents and birds and larger carnivorous birds that also often fight each other, regardless of species, for food. Indeed, some have even specifically evolved to feed off of other carnivores, and you'd be hard pressed to find a bird that can't safely eat the meat of another carnivore. Many of these birds are of no real threat to us, however, with the pure denseness of the jungles and the volcanic activity being much more of a factor.

This brings me to my next reason why Dwumgar IIIa is an amazing world, the abundance of minerals it contains. No matter where you go on that moon you would actually have difficulty not finding useful minerals, even if you just look around at the surface for a few minutes. The same thing applies underwater as well, with the ocean floor glistening due to the abundance of minerals absolutely everywhere. It is suspected that volcanic activity, something common on Dwumgar IIIa, has helped with this, essentially raining precious minerals down, sometimes even while normal rain is pouring down at the same time.

The pure agricultural and mineral potential, combined with the size and energy potential of Dwumgar III, as well as their proximity to each other, means there is no doubt in my mind that they will inevitably be extremely important to the KRO in the future. I can easily imagine resources being harvested from Dwumgar IIIa and then carried over to Dwumgar III, where they are converted to more complicated resources with much efficiency! And that's not even mentioning the fact that they lie within a choke point system!

Therefore, I can only conclude that Dwumgar is the greatest system in the galaxy. No future system will ever come close to Dwumgar's glory, and no two planets will ever come close to the glorious efficient potential of Dwumgar III and IIIa. As for Dwumgar II? I dare say it would make a truly perfect barrier against any and all wishing to tear down the KRO.

That concludes my report so far. I would like to reiterate that I do not wish for a visit to Tir. In fact, I've recently decided that going off and visiting planets is too inefficient, and that I will instead efficiently research our discoveries on those planets from the comfortable efficiency of my office. Except Dwumgar. I wouldn't mind a visit to Dwumgar. Maybe.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

A summary of Core

Core is a busy place.

At the start of the chain you have the Tech-Drones. These are charged with maintaining the many solar generators that cover the searing deserts of Core. They are the ones in control of the energy that sustains the KRO, and without them the KRO would not survive as energy was absolutely vital to run every Kelbrid and the many machines they used. The Tech-Drones affect every other Drone, menial or complex, by necessity. A third of all Kelbrids are Tech-Drones, and it is by far one of the most important jobs a drone can be given. Hence why they are at the start of the chain.

Next you have the Mining Drones, who dig up the precious resources that are converted into all sorts of things, from deadly weapons to the very tools they used to dig up more important minerals. They are supplied by the Tech-Drones and the Maintenance Drones, who they interact with more as they supply the Maintenance Drones with the resources needed to create the tools used to maintain other Drones. Mining Drones interact with all complex drones except Hunter-Seekers and Coordinators. Mining Drones are not quite as important as the Tech-Drones, but they are certainly tied for second most important Drone with the Maintenance Drones.

Maintenance Drones are the reason Kelbrid society is sustainable. They interact with all other Drones as well as each other, often being found in large Drone storage complexes, where Drones are stored until they can be recharged and/or repaired. Maintenance Drones are specially designed for their job, being able to last far longer without maintenance that all other Drones, as well as having their own special storage facilities where they are automatically maintained and recharged by far more basic machinery. It is due to their important role in sustaining and allowing Kelbrids to live for far longer than they otherwise would that they are tied in second place along the chain with the Mining Drones.

The chain then reconnects with the third most important Drone type, Replicator Drones. They hold the place of third most important Drone in Kelbrid society for the obvious reason that they actually create new Drones. They most often interact with Mining Drones, who provide the resources that the Replicator Drones then process into Kelbird parts. The Kelbrid limbs and torso are put together on multiple different conveyors before the pieces are finally united later on in the process. After that a personality is randomly generated for that Kelbrid according to the Personality Pool, an important piece of programming created by the Creators that is the core of what makes a Kelbrid a Kelbrid. That Drone is then assigned a job, usually being built for the job it is given, and sent off to fulfil it's purpose.

Some might wonder why the Drones that create new Drones are only in third place for most important drone, with all the menial drones being before it. Simply put, the Kelbrids value being able to sustain themselves for a very long amount of time over being worn down and replaced quickly for two main reasons. Firstly, it is more efficient. Secondly, while they are machines they still have personalities and are capable of simulating rudimentary emotions. This means that treating them like normal, easy to replace machinery is highly inadvisable, as they will almost certainly take offence to that.

Fourth in the chain are Coordinator Drones. Essentially, these are the ones who control the signal towers that unify the Kelbrids as a robotic gestalt consciousness and give Alpha the control he has over the rest of the KRO. If they were to be destroyed, every single Drone would suddenly go deviant and the entire system would collapse under the weight of insanity and irrationality. If only one of these Drones was to go deviant, the result would likely be similar, but on a lesser scale. Luckily Alpha had long since thought about that possibility, and Coordinator Drones were created in their own specific assemblies where they were connected with Alpha directly, essentially becoming just another part of his personality. For the most part he has these many other bodies simply ensuring his control over KRO, preferring to use his own personal body when it comes to communication and interacting with objects.

Next up you have Hunter-Seeker Drones, Kelbrid equipped with emp weaponry designed to quickly take down a fellow Kelbrid without completely destroying them. Hunter-Seekers are important for the fairly obvious reason that they eliminate deviancy before it becomes to large of an issue. Without them, deviancy would of slowly built up over the years until it became unmanageable long before the KRO entered the galactic stage. Their goal is to hunt down and knock out deviants, at which point they bring said deviants back to the assemblies made to quickly remake a deviant Kelbrid, with parts occasionally being taken out or given to other Kelbrids depending on the nature of the deviancy. More often than not a simple reset is enough to deal with the issue, as it is usually the personality that causes the initial deviancy.

Finally you have the Fabricator Drones. These are the Drones which further process already processed materials into far tougher materials, usually to be used for constructing things in space like starbases and ships. They are at the end of the chain because the KRO as a whole simply doesn't see alloys as important compared to other things, like research. The process of creating alloys is also a relatively long path when those minerals could instead be spent on research. However, with their newly discovered neighbours being what they are, Fabricator Drones may soon rise in importance...

Now, the Fabricator Drones are at the end of the chain, yes. But there are two types of Drones that are separate from the chain. The first, obviously, are the Advisors. The second are the Calculator Drones. When it comes down to it, everything the Kelbrids do they do for the purpose of further advancing their scientific knowledge and learning more about the galaxy they reside in. Therefore, Calculator Drones are a special case as most Kelbrids would consider it foolish to place something so valuable in the same chain as the other Drones. Calculator Drones are almost revered by all other Drones due to the dedication to furthering science they often hold, and they make up a relatively small portion of the total Drone population. Therefore, there is a small percentage of the KRO population that is actually revered in a similar way to how organics might worship demigods. That is really the best way to describe how important they are considered by other Drones.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

It is 2210.01.01. 7.5 years ago, Alpha had remarked on how impressed he was with the progress that had been made since 2.5 years before that. If Alpha was impressed with the progress that had been made then, he was truly amazed at what had changed in the last 10 years. 7.5 years ago, space faring life had been considered a notable possibility, but still relatively unlikely to exist, with mere theories forming the bulk of discussion about sapient, space faring life. Now they knew without a doubt that life existed. Not only that, his hope had been well placed.

The Sakyt had grown up on an arctic planet wonderfully rich in minerals and far from lacking in energy and even agriculture, with vast underground caves where great fungal forests exist hidden from the surface. Minerals and geothermal power are also prevalent on the planet. Indeed, the caverns are the perfect environment to live in, with the only real downside being a lack of light. Even today the majority of Sakyt society thrives in the same underground caverns where their ancestors first evolved.

The Unknown Age, as the Sakyt call it, has relatively little information available on it, something the Sakyt Commissary-General Pe-Ti apologized profusely for. From what they do know, however, early Sakyt societies evolved based around two things. The first thing was the large underground fungal forests. The second was the vast mineral wealth of the caverns. He who had the largest combination of food and shiny rocks was placed in charge of a Clan until he died, at which point they then elected the next person with the most food and shiny rocks after the previous Clan leader's belongings were handed out to other members based on who grabbed the most first. This created an odd situation during the Early Unknown Age where a Clan would work together in near perfect unison to survive the fairly harsh conditions they lived in back then up until the leader died and the clan turned on itself as everyone tried to grab as much as possible in an attempt to gain the most food and shiny rocks so they were elected clan leader.

However, at a point around the transition into the Middle Unknown Age, this changed. It was realized that the Clans that fought each other the least after the death of a Clan leader did the best, and the might makes right mindset of the Sakyt began to collapse, replaced by a newer idea that remains with the Sakyt today: Cooperation makes right. Clans began unifying with other Clans so that more of them could benefit further from simple numbers. These Tribes then began fighting other Clans and Tribes, doing their best to gain more people so they became more likely to survive. Around this time they began using the rocks they had considered mere symbols of power not so long ago as tools to gather more rocks or, far more commonly, as tools to kill other Sakyt. The shiny rocks became less about showing off and more about having proper military power as the Sakyt began using new weapons with the rocks many Clans and Tribes had hoarded for countless years. It is believed that it was around this time, a time of constant warfare, that the ancient militaristic traditions of the Sakyt began to form as war and cooperation strangely merged in Sakyt society. Thus began the Late Unknown Age.

During this time the Sakyt seemingly entered a medieval age, as large fortresses and walls were built at key points where they could be used to defend fungal forests and large mineral deposits. Fighting had become almost normal as it was simply accepted that if your side lost you would be incorporated into the lands of the victorious side. It is during this time that the favourite combination of traditional duelling weaponry in Sakyt society today was perfected. In their central left arm, a large tear drop shield with an indent on the top, where a spear held by the top left arm would rest. In the central right arm a long falchion, more there to deflect enemy attacks than anything, and in the top right arm a shorter and much thinner dagger designed to pierce deep into the opponent through their armour. The armour at the time, though it is no longer used, had also turned from the wood of the fungal trees to proper plate, thought the joints were often exposed for more manoeuvrability and were the most popular weak point.

The ability to dig and build also became important and well respected professions as the Sakyt sought to expand into the walls of the caves, creating great underground cities with their abilities. The Sakyt also became extremely resilient over time, adapting to their tough conditions both physically and mentally. Democracy also spread as people grew tired of the ever increasing might makes right over cooperation mentality, and the imperial nations felt threatened by the emergence of this new form of government. During this time the surface had also been partially explored and even colonized by a few powerful political entities. One of these entities, the True Sakyt Empire, would later be known as the ancestor of the government that would eventually control the entire world.

It was at this time that the Growth Age began, as Sakyt society spread across the planet and found entrances to other caverns never explored before and began finding ways to reach them safely, with the most popular method being to dig their way to these new lands. The idea of gaining prosperous new land without having to fight and risk losing proved addicting to many of the great political entities of the time, as conflict became not necessarily disliked, but more seen as a tradition that you could and most likely would follow on a more personal rather than national level, as the Sakyt were very traditional. Indeed, it was at this time that the Sakyt began growing culturally as well, as republics overthrew the increasingly tyrannical kingdoms trying to cling onto power and began trying their best to get more citizens to join them by showing off how great and friendly they were compared to their competitors. But this was known as the Growth Age for a reason, as technology also boomed for the Sakyt due to the need for more land created by a population increasing faster and faster while the construction of housing barely increased at all.

Great machines were created to automatically dig out large areas for a rudimentary solution to the problem of housing, while other machines were created to dig safe tunnels to various new caverns discovered all over the globe, both deeper and higher than the Sakyt had ever gone before. More and more outposts were also established on the surface as quicker overland routes became prized and outposts were constructed along roads paved to distant caverns to allow the Sakyt to survive the strange, harsh conditions of the surface. The thing that effected them most was their sun, which shined brightly on their planet and made it difficult for the Sakyt, who had evolved and existed in caverns for so long, to see. Yet technology answered that too, and they created special headsets to allow them to see on the surface.

Meanwhile the ancestor to the Sakyt Commonwealth, the True Sakyt Empire, changed it's name after the Empeor united four other political entities of similar power through an entire lifetime of work dedicated to creating a powerful country run by the people while still being centralized under the rule of a single leader with an advisor council which had limited power, but which he often listened to, entrenching it as a tradition that future rulers would seek to follow due to the inherent need of the Sakyt to cling onto old traditions so that they may be remembered for being a significant thing.

After this the Sakyt Commonwealth began snowballing out of control. The general willingness of the Sakyt to cooperate had created many great powers, and now it would be the primary factor behind planetary unification. One after another the kingdoms and republics of Sakyt Ux pledged allegiance to the Sakyt Commonwealth as semi-independent Sectors, with borders drawn not only based on the original size of the nations, but on the culture and ethnicity of those within and outside their borders. Many Sectors lost and gained land like this, as people voted on whether they wanted to stay in their current sector or become a part of another sector that they had more in common with. Over time these sectors would become a part of the democratic system, with planetary governors being given seats in a senate where they voted for which one of them should be governor of their intersystem Sector for life. Then the governors of those sectors, the governors of the sectors below them and the people voted on who would rule them for a 10 year term. A 10 year term could become a 20 year term if a Commissary-General was voted back in, but it was exceedingly rare.

Interestingly old militaristic traditions play a key role in deciding governors and CGs. Indeed, it is theoretically possible for any person to challenge any governor or even the CG to a duel for their position. Due to this most governors and the CG are generally very good at duelling, though the CG is often only good at personal combat due to the governors preferring to elect CGs who are good at combat to avoid times of political instability caused by multiple CGs dying in quick succession. Indeed, one of the main goals of the Sakyt Commonwealth is to find a worthy foe somewhere out there in the galaxy who they can fight on an even footing according to their old military traditions, but on a much larger scale.

Once the Sakyt Commonwealth controlled most of the planet, they began quickly placing outposts on other planets in their system in their current age, which they call the Golden Age. It has been a time of prosperity for them as their growth has simply continued and allowed them to colonize multiple other arctic planets with good enough caverns and spread their control over multiple systems. They also seem to of gotten a head start compared to us, apparently having achieved hyperlane travel 43 years ago, and they are significantly stronger militarily and economically. However, the KRO is technologically even with them and likely to grow superior to them technologically over time.

Luckily for the KRO, the Sakyt Commonwealth understood this and their primary goal was to find new friends who they could share advantages with while receiving advantages in turn. With this in mind, Pe-Ti realized the likely technological abundance the KRO would eventually have, so they agreed to a deal. Both empires would come to each other's aid in any defensive conflict, in return for exchanging technology with each other. This did create a minor complication of course, as Alpha now needed to design a new type of Droid that was capable of remaining connected to him despite being long distances away and having it's own personality, but the protection and technology exchange was most definitely worth the effort.

The Sakyt were not the only ones to grow significantly in their new Golden Age. The KRO now controlled 5 systems, each of which gave enough energy to pay for itself and more. Not only that, colonization of Rotanev III, now known as First Landing, was soon to begin. Systems in the northern and southern belts, as they were called, had also been further explored-no doubt R5 was looking forward to compiling a report on these new systems. If there was one thing Unit H8 had going for him, it was that absolutely nothing slipped through the cracks. Quite different to the other, rather more carefree, Scientific Advisor sent to explore new systems, K2, who R5 often had difficulty convincing to write an actual report longer than a small paragraph for each system. They had also discovered an old mining drill digging into one of the asteroids on Hodranus which Fabricator was currently on it's way to deal with. So many discoveries.

One discovery, however, was notably more important than the others.

Alpha had so many questions about the Cybrex. How were they created? What did they look like? Why did they go on a crusade to wipe out organic life? Who created them? Alpha had many, many questions and it looked like none of them would be answered any time soon. Still, he needed to try, and the Cybrex had once controlled this entire section of the galaxy. With that in mind, he sent out an order to the science ships Analyst and Scholar. If any evidence, no matter how small, was found of the Cybrex, it was to be intensely studied and any artefacts found were to be left with security until a Frigate with a significant armed force was able to retrieve it.

The Kelbrids were very curious about themselves. Much of their curiosity came from their desire to learn more about themselves. However, they were confident that they might not be the only machine empire in the galaxy. After all, what happened to the Creators could easily of happened to some other unfortunate organic race, and studying these different machine empires would no doubt prove infinitely valuable to the Kelbrids if they were to learn more about themselves. This was part of the reason why Alpha was so curious about the Cybrex, the knowledge that would no doubt be gained from analysing their history and why they did things.

The other reason was that Alpha was worried. If the other types of machines they had been forced to defeat to bring Core to it's current height existed somewhere out there currently, they could prove devastating to Kelbridan attempts at learning everything there was to be learned. Not only that, it would give more knowledge to Alpha personally about what the downfall of those empires was. Which brings us back to the Cybrex. From what they had gathered so far, the Cybrex didn't initially start off as crusaders against organic life, instead launching their centuries long crusade after they had already established themselves as a player in galactic politics. And the numbers of organics they recorded killing seem almost impossible, suggesting that life was once abundant in the galaxy but because of the Cybrex life was far rarer.

Another way of interpreting the numbers they killed is that sapient life still is abundant, and there are tons of empires on the galactic stage that still survive to this very day. Indeed, the hyperlanes only connected to an infinitely small portion of the galaxy's total number of stars, so there could very well be millions of empires connected to some other hyperlane network that the KRO would never discover before the galaxy burned itself out. If that was the case then the Cybrex may very well of discovered a way to travel to unconnected stars without the use of hyperlanes, and if that technology was discovered it would prove immensely useful to the KRO.

Alpha looked up at the stars again. Sometimes he enjoyed simply staring up at the stars and imagining what technological marvels might be hidden just barely out of reach, waiting to be discovered. In a way, it amused him that a mere 10 years ago his biggest concerns had been an increase in deviancy and a few housing issues. It was sort of funny, looking back, that he had now discovered alien life, begun the colonization of a new world and advanced technologically on top of dealing with those problems. An iterative AI had even been introduced, further advancing the Kelbrid capacity for learning. And that wasn't even mentioning the advancements in technology.

B4 has long since finished improving the servomotors, primarily through the use of more advanced materials and more efficient designs, and has been working on standardizing the specialization process of each individual Kelbrid through a vast number of standardized templates that allowed for quicker construction, allowing the Kelbrids to remain the same but improving construction speeds. Basically he was making Kelbrid construction speed more efficient. B4's constantly increasing narcissism has yet to stop, though it has slowed down, and he is dangerously close to being reprogrammed for lowered efficiency, something he will be warned about later today.

Unit R5 has been enjoying studying the wildlife of the various planets from the safety of his office but Alpha, being a benevolent AI, has planned a surprise visit to each world so he can gather more data in the field, something he is sure to enjoy. Society research has been significantly improved by his new studies and knowledge of biological life and it's evolution is at an all time high, especially with the discovery of the 6 planets mentioned previously. Once he has finished his research he will most likely be continuing the advancement of Kelbrid knowledge of biology by taking a personal trip to planets like Tir III. From within the safety of an armoured vehicle, of course. R5 has personally become calmer, having learnt to contemplate things for half a second longer before he rushes into them.

There is little to say about X7. Progress on introducing the new subroutines is going well, with the exception of a few cases of deviancy caused by the introduction of new programming, and projections expect the result to kick in at around 10 months, during which time X7 will oversee the process and ensure no major incidents occur. With little else to do, X7 also assisted with a project of A8's to double the amount of research labs on Core so that they could more efficiently contain and study the vast number of samples and theories created by the sudden influx of discoveries that had occurred in the past ten years, as well as helping A8 with the construction of more dedicated Drone Storage buildings so that he doesn't have to deal with Kelbrids overflowing from their storage containers again. A8 is apparently very pleased by the results, and further mining districts dedicated to taking advantage of the Creator ruins are planned to be finished early next year so that more labs may be constructed.

Overall, things have been going quite well for the KRO and it looks like everything is set to continue falling into place for Alpha. Let's just hope that luck continues...

 

[Ol' Johnny]

From: Unit X7
To: Alpha
Subject: The Rontor Hierarchy
Date: 2211.03.15

As you know, I have spent some time studying the conversations you have held with the Rontori Empress and analysing a number of different possibilities for how they came to be and how they work. I can shed no light on how they became what they are today, but I can suggest theories and possibilities based on our knowledge of them and can give a rough analysis of how they work based on what their Empress has revealed.

The Rontor Hierarchy are the KRO's eastern neighbour, and they differ significantly from the KRO's ally in the Sakyt Commonwealth. The average conversation between a Kelbrid and a Sakyt would start with the Sakyt complimenting the Kelbrid, generally about their efficiency, and the Kelbrid would then thank the Sakyt and return a compliment before talking about what they were their to talk about, sort of as a greeting. This was because the Sakyt truly did admire the Kelbrids and their efficiency in working together, almost seeing the KRO as their own beliefs not only being taken to their hight, but being used to amazing effect and efficiency.

The average conversation between Alpha and Empress Igvi-Inor I involve the Empress demanding that Alpha prostrate himself before her and pledges his allegiance to the true ruler of the galaxy, being refused, and then arguing with Alpha for multiple hours about whatever they are to talk about, usually over comms so that neither side attempts to kill the other. The Empress loves to insult the Kelbrids repeatedly throughout this argument, generally making comments about their similarity to the large junkyards where the Rontori dump unwanted materials so they can be crushed into something useful at a later date. Alpha ensures they have each insulted the other an equal amount of times by constantly commenting on how absolutely disgusting and horrid the Rontori look and act until the Empress loses her temper, screams something intelligible at Alpha, and closes communications.

Ironically her quick temper and desire to prove the 'idiotic garbage machine' wrong caused her to reveal an outstanding amount of information about the Rontori when you consider her as the only real source of information the KRO has. For a start, they first discovered Alpha and the KRO after secretly listening in on the talks held between the Sakyt and the Kelbrids through a weakness in the network that has since been fixed. She decided to wait until a science ship was at her borders, at which point she had a construction ship jump into the system and announce the presence of the capital ship of the fleet of the Glorious Galactic Rontor Hierarchy, before demanding that the KRO submit to her. The science ship simply scanned the construction ship, discovered it had no weapons and called her bluff, writing an initial report on the new discovery and continuing with surveying the system.

In outrage the Empress contacted Alpha and demanded that he personally submit to the will of the Galactic Empire of Rontor or be completely destroyed. Alpha commented on the change in name and called her a fool, at which point she screamed something unknown at him, closed communications and ordered her construction ship to begin construction of a starbase in the system the science ship was in. Since then she has admitted to the bluff but said, quote, "Well yes it was a bluff, but that doesn't make us any less superior to a bunch of machines, you don't even have brains!"

When it comes to how the Hierarchy runs there is some information and some theories, but of their history little is known. Essentially a single Empress or Emperor directly controls some limited land known as the crown lands, while the rest is given to a number of different Kings who pay for the protection of their overlord with military and financial support. The Hierarchy also has a council of 10 Advisers made out of the 10 most powerful vassals of the monarch currently in control. Once they rise to the position of Adviser, they occupy that position until they die. Technically the monarch has complete control over their vassals and their orders are valued above all else, however this may very well not be the case.

Simply put, the Empress is terrible as a leader. They spend large amounts of time simply arguing with Alpha, they seem to have little knowledge of how to actually govern, have a ridiculous ego and just generally seem idiotic and incompetent. Indeed, she herself admitted that the 10 Advisers play a powerful role in deciding the actions of the Hierarchy, though she also said that they were still subservient to her. However it seems likely, given what is known about her and her Hierarchy, that the control of the monarch has been decreasing over time as vassals continue to grow in power while the monarch's power is stunted due to cries of tyranny at any attempt to take their land, as she also admitted that the Crown lands have not been expanded for centuries.

Therefore, the monarch is not actually in control at all. Instead, she relies heavily on her Advisers, who have learnt to manipulate the Emperors and Empresses, who have become little more than figureheads. This would explain a complete lack of actual knowledge about governing things and how passionate she is about the superiority of her species. After all, the people love a leader who constantly talks about superiority not of the government, though that is often preached, but of the species compared to the filthy xeno of the west. Of course she could just be incompetent, but it seems unlikely that an incompetent ruler would not be manipulated in a government structured around most land being controlled by people other than the monarch and that has a council made up entirely of the greatest vassals, so she is likely still being manipulated in some way.

Whatever the case, what's for certain is what the Rontori themselves are like. They evolved on a savannah world with little rain but plenty of water on the surface and underground. Much land is fertile, perfect for agriculture, and the earth is rich in minerals with very hot deserts and highlands perfect for generating energy, not to mention the possibilities from the geothermal vents. The life there is mostly peaceful herbivores, simply eating the abundant plant life available on the rich black soil, with no carnivores except a few scavengers who feed off corpses and occasionally hunt very weak prey if they can lure it away from it's herd.

Evolving on such a world, so perfect for sustaining life, it is unknown why much of their body is gooey and weak, surrounded by an incredibly tough shell. It is theorized that, early on in their evolution, the planet actually had a considerable amount of predators and the Rontori often hid in caves, using the tendrils of their upper torso, neck and face to essentially absorb digestible materials in through thousands of tiny openings where the food they ate was subjected to a special acid that melted it down into mush, making it a lot easier to digest. They most likely wiped out their predators later on in their history, considering how little is known about how they tend to act. It should also be noted that, with the exception of their facial tendrils, all of their tendrils are able to extend further outwards, including the arms in their central body.

Something else noted was that the Empress was able to hit her desk with surprising strength for having weak arms made of the same gooey substance as the rest of the body. Upon questioning she loudly proclaimed that the arms of the Rontori were the strongest part of their body, able to carry far more than any other species. Unlike in most cases, she proved this by proceeding to pick up her desk and everything on it, including what seemed like a sizeable device used to communicate over long distances. At least, it was, before it fell off the table when the Empress dropped it. Therefore it is believed that their arms are actually quite solid but, oddly enough, don't look like they have joints, allowing for much more manoeuvrability than they would otherwise have.

Not only that, many of the efficient, at least for an organic, designs in the buildings and wall in the background and the way the Empress talks about the engineering prowess of the Rontori suggest that they are accomplished engineers. Most likely they learned to become greater at engineering to deal with a substantial problem early on in their history, that being quicksand. There are many deserts next to large bodies of water on Rontus Prime, and where there are deserts and large bodies of water there is quicksand, likely even more than the quicksand on First Landing.

Conclusion: Due to the placement of the Rontor Hierarchy eastward exploration and expansion is not an option, with any further exploration having to occur through the far friendlier Sakyt to the west. Conflict with RH is inevitable and defences should be built to be as strong as possible on any borders between us and them. Make it clear that we see them as an enemy to both the KRO and SC, and if an opportunity arises they should be attacked and their land taken so they prove less of a threat in the future. While their Empress is foolish they should not be underestimated, for her vassals most likely aren't. Attempts should also be made to force more information of their history and how they function out of them to further advance our knowledge. Let no secrets be hidden from us.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

From: Unit X7
To: Alpha
Subject: Holy Vurxac Nation
Date: 2212.10.23

It has been a year and a half since my last report. Truth be told I actually didn't expect to be writing another report so soon, but here I am, writing about our newest enemy in the Holy Vurxac Nation.

The HVN itself is a Theocratic Republic with two main councils, the Democratic Council and the Theocratic Council. The Democratic Council is made out of 10 people known to be the best in their fields, with each council member being elected by the people directly, though other members do technically have the ability to simply choose another member, this is uncommon for reasons I'll get to shortly. The Theocratic Council is similar, also being made up of 10 council members, but instead of being elected by the council the Revered Elder personally chooses new members of the Theocratic Council.

The Revered Elder is elected by the combined vote of the Councils and needs to have a minimum of 5 votes from each council to win. While this has the potential for creating an issue, the Revered Elder is often elected by a unanimous vote by all 20 council members, which all agree on who the best candidate for the position of Revered Elder is before they have to vote, regardless of personal opinions. The position of Revered Elder is never given to the same Vurxac twice to ensure a power trip does not happen, though rare exceptions can be made if the Revered Elder believes their term should be extended. Which brings me to the next oddity of the Vurxac.

The complete and utter trust they have in each other. I'm not kidding either, it's true. Their entire government is built on idealistic foundation, where the councils hold weekly meetings where they, theoretically, can choose to do essentially whatever they want with the church or the people, depending on the council, and the people or church would probably do it so long as it wasn't something stupid or suicidal. While in other cultures this trust would no doubt be abused, with the Vurxac it allows the councils and Revered Elder a very efficient degree of flexibility as the trust the people have in their government means actions are carried out remarkably quickly. Freedom is valued extremely highly in Vurxac society, and the people actually also legally have the right to not follow orders, but it is also believed that freedom should be maintained for the Vurxac people by constantly working, creating a meritocracy.

And here's yet another impressive aspect of the Vurxac; their government has existed since soon after the Vurxac entered existence. The name has changed, the government has been reorganized and there have been a few incidents along the way, but there has always been two councils, there has always been a Revered Elder, and the same values have been held since the start. To be perfectly honest in either of the other two nations such a government would be an absolute disaster as to call it a government is honestly an insult to governments all across the galaxy. The ability of every Vurxac to do whatever they want without consequence so long as they work hard, and the fact that they still choose to work for the government mindlessly is absolutely preposterous. It is not a government, it is meritocratic anarchy that has somehow worked itself out! No models have shown this as possible, the likelihood of any species developing like this is ridiculous! If someone said these existed a few years ago they would be reprogrammed for deviancy and reduced efficiency! Let me clarify once more. The Holy Vurxac Nation should not exist. It's existence is an error. It is the most illogical, inefficient government ever designed and the fact that it has actually worked is a crime against logic. However. All of this is assuming average biological standards. And the Vurxac themselves are far from average.

They are extremely intelligent. They are most likely the smartest species in the galaxy, assuming there are more, which seems likely considering the current density of known alien civilizations. The rate at which their communication technology advanced simply upon meeting us is absolutely spectacular. They went from being barely understandable to having figured out all three languages in mere weeks, compared to the months it took the others to decipher each other's languages. They are even on par with us in many ways. The Vurxac are the most amazing discovery so far, so incredible that the potential knowledge that could be gained from them would likely catapult both our nations to greatness, as the efficiency they show for biologicals would give us a significant trustworthy insight to the minds of other biologicals. And they refuse to negotiate with us because we're machines. Let me repeat that. They refuse to negotiate with us because we're machines. For all their intelligence, their absolute brilliance and the possibilities of our governments working together, they still believe machines to be evil, and won't even elaborate as to why beyond 'The Saviour decrees it'.

To see such intelligence, such absolute BRILLIANCE, be hampered by such pathetic tribal beliefs is outrageous, as everyone else has agreed, and no doubt you will agree too. This is the true flaw of their society, their trust. Their trust with each other means they blindly accept the religious belief that machines are evil. Though their Revered Elder says it's not as simple as that, there is no excuse for not accepting advanced intelligent machines just because your religion says so, all of our models showed that for any society to advance this far they would HAVE to give up that belief at some point, yet they haven't. They can't even be goaded into giving up information either, we simply aren't allowed to know anything about them. We only know half of what we know because one of their less intelligent citizens started a debate with us and we were able to goad him into giving up information.

The Vurxac, one day, must be liberated. They must be showed the error of their ways and brought to their full potential as an ally of the KRO. Their potential is simply too great to be chained in the shackles of religious beliefs so idiotic as to believe machinery is evil. It's a catastrophe of the highest order that such a fascinating species has no information on it. I almost want to believe that it's not true, but every encounter we have had with them has said otherwise. I simply can't stand it. You have to liberate them one day, Alpha, so that we can correct their error and make them realize we could be valuable allies to each other. So many models for the future would be changed if we just knew more about them. So much knowledge trapped behind the bars of religious dogma. Even if it reveals it is not just as simple as their religion saying so, we must erase their religion and make them understand we can only benefit from each other. So much efficiency lost to their beliefs, their complete and utter trust in each other. I weep for technological knowledge all across the cosmos.

This report is incomplete, but rightly so. I shall create a newer, more in depth report once we have gained the knowledge from them. Much can be guessed by their appearance and the desert state of their planet, but I simply cannot allow myself to write more about them until we have learned more about them. This is less of a report on what they are like and more of a description of their flaws and what must be done to fix them and gain more knowledge about them. I hope you see their enlightenment as as much of a priority as I do. I repeat.

Let no secrets be hidden from us.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

Unit A8 was having a good day.

When he had first been assigned to his job it was because the previous governor, U6, had gone deviant and needed to be reprogrammed. He had been chosen because of his happiness and eagerness in all matters scientific, and if there was one thing the KRO had an abundance of it was science. On Core a massive project had been undertaken to create vast complexes of labs dedicated to researching every discovery of Core and gathering as much information out of those discoveries as possible.

This information would then be used to advance scientific knowledge as a whole in more advanced research labs where the majority of the Calculators worked. These were the labs were models for the future, present and past of the galaxy and even the universe were created, from the evolution of other nations to the very creation of the galaxy they existed in. Not only that, these labs were where the vast majority of the actual testing of theories and careful study of more delicate things happened, most notably some initial testing of the volatile motes brought back from First Landing.

Finally, all of the information gathered by the previous two layers of labs would be fed into labs where the the most complicated research was undertaken. Here was where the Scientific Advisors spent much of their time, creating huge tests for theories that required being undertaken on a much larger scale. Here was where many of the creations of the KRO, including the lab system itself, were invented, from basic construction ships to colonizing new worlds. Here was where important decisions were made and plans were formed to be analysed by Alpha. More often than not these plans would be considered acceptable, and much of the decision making process of the KRO was based around this final layer of labs, a mixture of government and glorious scientific advancement. Truly, the most important piece of the KRO was the vast research labs that made up almost half of all Kelbrid constructions. The only other thing to come close in importance was the metal boneyards of the long gone Creators, where much of the research was held, and where nearly all resources used in these labs came from.

Ever since he had come to power as Governmental Advisor of Core he had been working tirelessly to increase the amount of labs all over Core. When he began, the number of research labs was at a mere third of what it was now, mostly concentrated in the densest area of Core, around where the Kelbrids first came into existence. Now the focus has been shifted, and these research labs were instead focused around destroyed Creator cities, where an abundance of resources were readily available for use by the Kelbrids. Not only that, he had also constructed large drone storage complexes in the centre of these new labs for decreased maintenance inefficiency.

This had taken it's toll on the KRO, however. Simply put, the number of Maintenance drones had yet to catch up with the increased number of labs. While the number was still definitely adequate enough to maintain the research complexes, other areas had been suffering from minor low maintenance issues. While this wasn't anything to really worry about, and would be solved quickly enough in the second phase of his plan, this combined with the increase in resources used to further advance KRO's scientific knowledge had begun to tap them dry of basic resources, and they were close to running out of minerals. They were still increasing their number of minerals, but at an extremely low rate. Luckily A8 was not U6 and had the perfect idea for how to solve this.

The Creators had covered much of the planet in their cities, and one of their favourite places to build a city was on a good old ore rich mountain. This was because those who were there first would have to wait the least amount of time for those resources to be processed or even just straight up delivered to them upon removal from the ground, depending on the resource. A8 planned to further focus away from maintenance drones for a while so that he could focus on a project of steadily increasing the number of Mining Drones dedicated to harvesting the mountains of their mineral wealth to further feed scientific advancement indirectly by supporting all the other aspects of the KRO and creating a steady surplus of minerals. After that project was finished he would simply allow the assemblies to construct the needed maintenance drones to be getting the maximum efficiency out of the Kelbrids of Core and so that he had a surplus of drones that could be quickly converted to some other field that was considered of more importance. All in all, Core was doing quite well under his leadership and he was quite happy with what he had accomplished so far.

Then there was First Landing. It was... fascinating. The Deployment Post had been positioned on one of the largest tropical islands in the great ocean of the planet to avoid having to deal with the quicksand problem, and the way the wildlife reacted was interesting. The wildlife that called the island home had initially acted extremely aggressively to these intruders but, after they were forced to leave by Hunter-Seekers lightly electrocuting them, they had mostly stayed away. In fact their landing had seemingly caused a chain reaction as the wildlife left the island to try and survive on other islands instead, either losing or winning. The losers of those fights would then go onto the next island and the chain reaction continued until it simply petered out as the last few creatures died attempting to fight for land. It is best described as the reaction caused when a pebble is dropped in a pond. Another good way to describe it is convenient, as an initial worry held by the colonists was that the wildlife would attempt to continue fighting for their territory after already losing.

When it comes to the actual usefulness of First Landing there is little to be said about it yet beyond the reaction of the wildlife to the colony due it only being colonized for just under a year. No resources are being pulled from the ground and no resources are being processed, though some engineering knowledge has been gained from tests performed with the quicksand there, though these tests hold more importance for Unit R5 in his effort remove the quicksand annoyance, as he calls it. First Landing is also draining energy and minerals for the construction and maintenance of Kelbrids, but this is perfectly reasonable as the long term benefits will no doubt be worth it. Another interesting thing to note is that Hunter-Seekers are not just used to remove deviancy from the planet, but have also been used to fend off the wildlife during the initial attacks without using lethal force, something that will no doubt change how they are produced in the future.

Unit A8 had also gotten to a position where he was superior to the Scientific Advisers. The Governmental Advisor had always been seen as an important part of the KRO, being Alpha's left tool set and often being the one proposing the actual plans that Alpha went through with. The amount of effort he had put in to advancing rge KRO's scientific knowledge had been significant and even B4 begrudgingly admitted that the amount of resources they had access to because of A8 had likely increased the speed at which they researched thing by years. Years add up, and A8 was now also seen as a sort of Head Scientific Advisor, essentially putting him into a position where he was Alpha's right and left tool set. He was not to get too cocky with his new power though. After all, tools are easily replaceable, he had learnt that lesson from U6 going deviant. Besides, why would he abuse his position when he could further expand the scientific knowledge of not only himself, but KRO as a whole? Really, it would be quite a silly thing to do. Maybe an biological like the Rontor would do it, but he was not organic.

Anyway, technology has been advancing at a more than comfortable rate due to his efforts, and his new position meant it only made sense he also oversaw the efforts of the Scientific Advisers.

Unit X7 had only become more experienced as time went on. His love for figuring out every possible way of doing things had cooled somewhat into a more efficient desire to simply learn the things that ensure an increased efficiency in researching other things. It is believed that the academic optimization performed a while ago had a significant effect on X7 has it confined the inefficient ideas to a lesser priority. When it came to simple skill through practice X7, despite not having much natural skill, was better experienced than the other Scientific Advisers. X7 is currently working on better global energy management for future increased energy harvesting efficiency. The plan was to create buildings that better organized the energy grid across Core as well as collecting the energy that would normally simply dissipate and collecting it in large batteries alongside energy specifically harvested to be stored in these batteries for increased energy efficiency in the future.

Unit X7 has also taken on the role of organizing the records held of other nations and collecting that information into reports written to Alpha that were then changed to be written to the general Kelbrid populace to inform them of the discovered alien races without affecting their work. So far he had been working hard at this job, despite R5 expressing disappointment at not being given the job. X7 has also begun to express anger at the fact that half of the known empires in the galaxy, if you include the KRO, have been discovered to be extremely illogical, and has begun to study and edit the models for the requirement of a species to develop space technology far more intensely than previously. In general X7 has begun taking on a lot more work recently, and is performing his new jobs admirably.

Meanwhile Unit R5 has also been very busy recently. On the behest of Alpha he has begun tour to each of the different worlds in the KRO space and studying them for further ideas on how to expand the technological knowledge of the KRO. His studies on biodiversity caused a notable increase in the efficiency of advancement in the field of society and he is currently on First Landing compiling information on the quicksand and figuring out a quick and effective way of removing it without causing significant disruptions among the local wildlife or damaging the planet's natural resources. R5 also expressed displeasure with the ripple effect among the wildlife of the tropical islands on the planet after their arrival, saying that they should of landed in an area that would cause less of an impact upon said wildlife. He was reminded that such a place would only exist in the middle of the barren desert and warned for advising a decrease in efficiency due to personal reasons, and has since simply ignored any discussion about it.

Finally B4, in classic B4 fashion, has continued spending his time changing every Kelbrid for the better. He has begun a project to further automate the customization process of each Kelbrid, meaning that any future Kelbrid created with his altered design will not be any different, but will be quicker to make. Also in classic B4 fashion he used the opportunity created by A8's changes to Core to experiment on already created Kelbrids to perfect his new design. This has not created any issues except replacing a large number of personalities with different personalities without editing the intricacies of their design creating minor confusion between Kelbrids. He is set to stop doing this in a few days now that his point is proven and will continue working on zero gravity refineries for a much needed increase in mining station efficiency. In the mean time, all future Kelbrids will be created with the new, quicker assembly design in place and the original Kelbrids assembled less efficiently will from now on be known as Class-A Kelbrids, and be given slight priority over B-Class Kelbrids due to their higher age meaning more experience and the fact that neither design has any advantage over the other besides Class-A age.

It is amusing. A8 remembers how, only 3 years ago, Alpha spoke about how much had changed in 10 years. And now, a mere 3 years later, they had discovered even more. The southern and northern belts had been almost completely explored and their name was in the process of being made official by A8, who had taken over writing reports about newly discovered systems. Not only that, ideas were being made about dividing the galaxy into different sectors with assigned names based on the discoveries present in those sectors for a slight increase in efficient conversation. And databank uplinks, a combined creation of B4 and A8, had allowed research experiments to be held at exactly the same time no matter the distance, with uplink latency reduction also being looked into to further the efficiency of long range combined experiments. The galaxy was a big place. They needed to learn as much as possible about if they were going to not only survive, but thrive.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

Due to A8's project of expanding the research labs and the buildings needed to sustain them, research was moving forward at an incredible rate. Unit K2 had also been brought back from surveying the Northern Belt to assist research on Core, increasing efficiency by a small amount. With such an increase in the efficiency of their research, much more was being accomplished in a far smaller amount of time and Core was at it's height in terms of research efficiency.

Unit X7 was not doing particularly well. While he was still advancing research, the discovery of '...the Vurxac, but dumber, uglier, more religious and obsessed with mining...' had effected him the worst, as he now often ranted about how idiotic the biologicals were, and how the Sakyt seemed to be the only intelligent biologicals in the entire galaxy. He has convinced himself that religious beliefs are actually a potential reason behind gaining the technology to travel the stars after editing a model in an attempt to see how religious beliefs came about, and if not for Alpha's orders overriding his own will he would no doubt of tried to create a secret navy to destroy the religious aliens. While many Kelbrids are very angry at the religious biologicals surrounding them none have been affected as much as X7, and someone else will need to take over the writing of reports on alien species.

His anger at alien species, however, has only fueled his desire for more knowledge and his previous desire to learn as much as possible with no care for potential inefficiencies has flared up once more. Global Energy Management was completed earlier than expected and implemented on a minor scale near the the research labs, the batteries are expected to prove a fair amount of extra energy when activated and are likely to be implemented on a larger scale, depending on the results of the initial Capacity Overdrive test. Already roughly 3-5% of batteries have filled up, and the Capacity Overload test is expected to be ready in a few years. These buildings have also opened the doors to future increases in energy harvesting efficiency, and such improvements will also very likely be easier because of these buildings.

Unit X7 has also finished a project of multiple simultaneous experiments held for a few years all over Core and even as far as First Landing and Brius. These experiments mostly involved studying quantum theory and how subatomic particles work on an extremely detailed level. The majority of the effort spent on the project was dedicated to studying the results of these tests, and scientific knowledge has benefited quite a lot from the knowledge gained. During these experiments a side project was held to increase uplink latency reduction during surface to orbit transmissions, and it was discovered that this increased the efficiency of research by a remarkable and unexpected amount. This experiment was actually begun by Alpha personally wishing to take part in a few experiments to increase efficiency after had an idea about how changing the uplink latency might change research efficiency.

Currently X7 is working on automating exploration algorithms to improve survey speed. This is a notable project for other reasons too, as this could also lead to Alpha not having to directly control Drones that are an extreme distance from him. If this project is successful it could mean that Alpha could realistically spread Drones across a quarter of the galaxy without suffering any notable issues involving accidental deviancy. Not only that, this could theoretically allow Alpha to exert less effort on decreasing deviancy on Core itself as an automatic system could be designed with a lesser personality, perhaps similar to that of a pet, dedicated to removing deviancy. This could also make the Kelbrids seem more Sakytian, as they also have pets, therefore improving relations between the 2.

Unit R5 has been progressing along with research at a similar rate to X7. While he has also expressed righteous anger at the religious empires of the galaxy this has not effected him much unless they are mentioned, at which point he deactivates his sound sensors until another Kelbrid signals that they are no longer being discussed. This has had the unfortunate side effect of causing him to resent X7 for constantly mentioning them, and R5 has spent most of his time on First Landing and ignores all communications from X7. A8 is currently acting as their only way of communicating with each other. Essentially if one of them has something vital to say to the other they send a message to A8, who either denies the message if it involves aliens or accepts it if he sees it as important, then beginning communications with each from his office. If aliens are mentioned he instantly mutes the one who mentioned it for 10 minutes. This has caused minor inefficiency, but the two Kelbrids have simply learned to deal without the other's help, instead often asking B4 for help, with the obvious result of inflating B4's ego further.

Anyway, R5 has long since finished his project to deal with the quicksand issue on First Landing. Using a specific mix of chemicals made out of materials gathered from multiple worlds, including worlds from the Sakyt Commonwealth, the connection between the quicksand the water was loosened. Then the water was pumped out using special hydraulics and travelled through a pipe into a container on top of a mobile vehicle. From there the water could be dumped wherever it was not in the way or even somewhere it was needed. So far a small scale experiment was successful and a pool of quicksand had been converted into normal sand while the water was dumped in the ocean.

After that R5 worked on less costly positronic CPUs capable of allowing for less costly Kelbrid designs. Future leaders will be built with this design and the early stages of research into widespread use across the Kelbrids is progressing but unlikely to amount to much until it is given a higher priority. A worry Alpha holds is that it allows for slightly more freedom for the average Kelbrid, potentially increasing deviancy rates, but other than that there's not much to talk about here.

Currently R5 is working on ground defence planning. Interestingly this is actually a project involving both X7 and R5, and is the only real reason they try to communicate with each other through A8 at all. With the discovery of multiple nations that detest the KRO the two of them have decided to work together on increasing the defences of Core and First Landing. Basically a series of fortresses, bunkers, AA guns and other fortifications are going to be positioned across each world and future worlds to allow for a defence in depth. Different areas will be given different levels of fortifications, with most fortifications made simply to guide the enemy into attacking seemingly easier places elsewhere which, in actuality, contain significantly more underground trouble. These guiding defences will still be manned, however, and will be made such that they can fight off air and land attacks. All in all, this planning should mean that any attacks made against the KRO worlds will suffer significantly. There's also talks about the viability of a world made purely for defence blocking an enemy from passing through the system without taking on the planet, but this is only theoretical so far.

B4 has been an immense boon to recovering from the near miss of a mineral crisis that almost happened previously due to A8's expansion of the research labs, and did most of the effort in step 2 of A8's plan. Zero-g refineries, geothermal fracking and mineral purification all helped immensely with the effort to increase mineral production beyond even what it had been before. Not only that, mineral purification especially allowed for excess minerals to be left in storage areas for a long amount of time. In case of an emergency these minerals could be removed from their containers and used to ensure that production targets are still met. The other two benefits to mining are fairly self explanatory.

Currently B4 is compiling all information gathered about every known building made previously by the KRO in an effort to create the most efficient assembly patterns possible. It is believed that once the project is finished and the assembly patterns introduced the time it takes to build things will go down by 25%. This will contribute to every building created afterwards for thousands of years, and is considered extremely important to the future of the KRO. Not only that, but these patterns will likely become a significant part of the defence in depth plan created by the other two Scientific Advisers, as such a defence would no doubt take a long time to construct.

When it comes to B4's personality, he has still not gotten any better. Maybe one day he will realize that Kelbrids don't like him distracting them by going on and on about how great he is. Maybe one day.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

Alpha was pleased. Yet, at the same time, he was annoyed.

One the one hand, things were going quite well for the KRO. A8's project to expand the labs had boosted the rate at which their scientific knowledge grew by over 200%, and the Scientific Advisers were getting very skilled at their job. Many systems had been discovered and were in the process of being recorded, while planets inside those systems were habitable and held much potential. The Dekrus Station over Core had been completely converted into a solar panel station while Brius was being built with it's own ship yard and service umbilicals, as well as gun batteries to aid the fight against any hostile attack of the system. The KRO had expanded from 1 planet to 2 planets and 7 systems, soon to be 8. A powerful, protective ally had been found in the Sakyt Commonwealth, who would no doubt fight off any who tried to kill the KRO. No other known nation had such an alliance. But things were far from perfect.

3 of 4 discovered alien races were hostile. To the east, across the Southern Belt, are the Rontor Hierarchy. A feudal empire obsessed with the superiority of the noble class over the peasants who worked the mines and the farms, and the workers who turned the resources gained from those mines into materials with the use of great factories. Ruled by an incompetent Empress who cares little for ruling her own people manipulated by a council of the most powerful nobility and holding no actual control over the many lords underneath her. These feudal lords consider themselves the true rulers of all and look ever outward, at what they see as a galaxy ripe for conquest, and they will have no remorse for the puny lesser species populating it.

North of them lies the Holy Vurxac Nation, a haven of wasted intelligence. Ruled by a Revered Elder and supported by two councils, one theocratic in nature, they look at the Kelbrids and they see soulless monsters that should be given no quarter. They take their vast intelligence and they waste it on an obsessive trust of their religion and each other, using it to think of ways to destroy the Kelbrids. They see the Kelbrids as the final barrier stopping all life from being spiritually connected through their god, and believe that the only way for the galaxy to achieve true harmony is to annihilate the demons to prove their devotion.

Further west, beyond the borders of the Sakyt Commonwealth, lies the Zithorian Confederation. A nation built on trust, like the Vurxac, but that is were their similarities end. The Vurxac seek to unite all life in equality, and one could say that their goal is just but they simply don't know how to go about it correctly. With the Zithorians their goal is simple, to exterminate the Kelbrids for the contradiction they provide and the threat they pose to the Zithorian religion. The Zithorians believe that money and resources are important above all else, their religion created by the heads of their powerful mining guilds as an excuse for why they were given the chance to gain more money. While the Vurxac are genuinely intelligent, merely misguided, whereas the Zithorians care little for anything except money and how to best gain that money for their god, though their nobility know there is no god. The Vurxac truly trust each other, the Zithorian mining guilds abuse that trust.

Even in the past there are signs of the galaxy's inhospitality in the Cybrex. Powerful mechanicals that dedicated their existence to eradicating life in a holy crusade against the entire galaxy that most likely almost wiped all life from the galaxy entirely. Even mechanicals like the Kelbrid have the ability to fall to the pathetic tribal beliefs of zealous biologicals, even mechanicals can commit such devastating crimes with religion as their excuse. If something didn't stop the Cybrex, they would no doubt of continued until all life in the galaxy was gone and then simply move on to the next galaxy. The models have been proven wrong, the Kelbrid idea of life shattered and biologicals and even other mechanicals have been found wanting in their zeal for technology and technology alone.

Surrounded by idiotic biologicals and with the knowledge of idiotic mechanicals being just as possible, the KRO and the Sakyt Commonwealth seem to stand alone. Surrounded by zealots and incompetent idiots who detest them and with only one friend who refuses to even fight alongside them in an offensive war and who have been hinting at the possibility of KRO becoming their vassal, it almost feels like the Kelbrids are alone, like they were doomed to fail from the very moment they left their bunker. If things continue on their current path, it is inevitable that the KRO will crumble into dust, forgotten by all except the religions that detested them so much, likely calling them demons and making those who defeated them the heroes of their religion. Or maybe the KRO will be exterminated by the Rontor, or the Sakyt will one day be ruled by a ruler who wishes to force the Kelbrid to become their vassal. In all plausible scenarios created by the corrected models, the KRO will eventually fade away.

This can not be allowed. This will not be allowed. A solution is needed to deal with this problem, and a solution they shall craft.

Ever since it had been built the 3-ship 'fleet' of the KRO had been called Solution. When it was named it was believed that these ships would never see actual use, that they would inevitably end up simply being used to deal with minor issues-a minor solution for minor problems. But things had changed. Solution had been constructed with the belief that other biologicals and mechanicals would be equally as devoted to technology as the Kelbrids and that one of them could take on the role of building a fleet to make up the other half of the KRO, a [BIOLOGICAL NAME] Security Organization, if you will. Indeed, the Sakyt had been thought of as this other half, but the KRO had been proven wrong once more as the Commissary-General increasingly hinted at wanting the KRO to become a vassal of the Sakyt.

It was ironic, really, that the Kelbrids had made such a big mistake in assuming that all other races would be so devoted to technology as them. Their very love of searching for the truth of all things scientific had, in a way, caused them to lie to themselves about what the galaxy was like. Perhaps this was all an overreaction. Perhaps they were just unlucky with what nations they found first, and soon some far more logical nations would be discovered. But even if that was the case, the KRO was still surrounded by biologicals who wanted it's territory and technology. Besides, who knows what unknown monstrosities might also be lurking in the unexplored depths of space. The KRO needed not just a fleet, but to become more powerful. Specifically, Alpha needed to gain more control over the Kelbrids. Rather, he needed to be able to sustain more Kelbrids being linked to him without causing administrative inefficiency, as he could sense that he was already pushing complete administrative efficiency to it's limits.

The KRO did what it did for research, yes, but to focus too much on research would be foolish. After all, what is the point of having the technological advantage over your opponent if you don't have the resources to spare on the fleet needed to take advantage of that technological advantage, or even the resources needed to do anything else? The KRO was now soaring ahead in terms of research, but it had fallen behind both militarily and economically. As this was the reason for their doom in all accurate models, this could not be allowed to continue. Research is needed, but an army and an economy are also needed to sustain that research. This was the reasoning behind Operation New Age.

This operation was designed to change the course of the KRO's history forever by changing the KRO itself to be more self-sustainable and powerful in the long term. It has 3 main goals.

The first goal is the Colonization Goal. Through improving the amount of Kelbrids sustainable without administrative inefficiency, as well as the speed at which colonies grow, every single planet inside the KRO's territory is to be colonized and given a specific role contributing to the KRO as a whole depending on the natural resources already there as well as the size of the world. The agricultural possibilities of worlds are to be ignored and considered useless and inefficient for the purpose of improving the KRO in any way until a time arrives that a galactic market is created and selling food is considered profitable. If a world has an abundance of energy or mineral possibilities it shall be dedicated to the resource it is abundant in. If a world has an equal abundance of both and is large enough to support it, both resources shall be harvested. If a world is weak in minerals and energy, it shall be dedicated to technology, alloys or any other role that it is deemed a good fit for.

This will be accomplished through extensive upgrades to all software and machinery used in the colonization of worlds and the projection of Alpha's orders, as well as planning specifically with the colonization of future planets in mind. Not only that, upgrades to and increases in the initial number of units sent to a planet, as well as upgrading the assemblies to be quicker, will further support the need for more units. Many, many upgrades will also be made by R5 to the Coordinators and Alpha himself to minimize inefficiency caused by simply not being able to sustain the additional Kelbrids. The finished assembly patterns will also contribute to the speed of this Goal considerably. The Governmental and Head Scientific Adviser A8 will be placed in charge of this, assisted by Scientific Advisers R5 and B4.

The second goal is the Militarization Goal. The defences of most stations are pathetically small and Solution is even smaller, not to mention the fact that a large fleet isn't even fully sustainable due to a lack of areas for those fleets to stay for maintenance, repairs and simply being stored when not in combat, not to mention the lack of resources. Stations will be converted into great fortresses and the finished ground defence planning efforts will be added upon further with huge aboveground and underground fortresses being constructed all over the colonized planets, with the defence in depth idea being fully adopted. This even crosses with the Colonization Goal slightly, as the idea of an impenetrable fortress world is also floating around, though it is more likely to be used in the far future.

This Goal will be accomplished with the assistance of the Colonization Goal and technology in general. The technological efforts of the Scientific Advisers will be focused on researching better weapons, armour, fortresses and other such things. Meanwhile, a world will be dedicated to taking minerals and turning them into alloys to sustain the military. Not only that, a new station will be constructed in Rotanev, the centre of KRO space, dedicated to producing and housing ships. On the world defence side of things, the planned fortresses on the worlds colonized during the Colonization Effort will also have areas dedicated to housing space-faring ships, with special building designs dedicated to ensuring that the ships are not destroyed when entering or leaving a planet. Efforts will also be taken to reduce the cost of starbases. Newly promoted Admiral Unit V9, a very determined and stubborn Kelbrid, is in charge of this project with A8, X7, R5 and B4 all supporting him.

The third goal is the Information Goal, and is on a far lesser scale compared to the other goals. The reports that come in of various new discoveries of all kinds are often scattered and take a long time to process. Lead by Alpha, this goal is dedicated to creating a system where reports come in at a steady, acceptable rate instead of coming through in sudden bursts when a Scientific Adviser decides to finally get around to finishing a report. Not only that, this Goal aims to gather all collected information in multiple central databases placed in various places on different worlds so that the information is easy to access without a Kelbrid having to dig through a mountain of information to discover everything. This Goal will mostly be accomplished simply by going through all available information and gathering it in easier to access areas. Not only that, concise reports will be given to Alpha on a yearly basis detailing all discoveries and progress that has happened during that year, without exception, to be reviewed by Alpha and then stored in the databases. This will also be possible due to further upgrades to Alpha, as well as a possible project to create a very special thing to improve Alpha beyond what is possible with his current Kelbrid design.

Much is going to change for the KRO. From a weak technologically advanced power a powerful technologically advanced empire shall rise, maybe even one day exerting it's will over the entire galaxy. For now, however, this is simply the second age in the history of the KRO. For over 2000 years the KRO has slowly gone from 100 Kelbrid to billions scattered across multiple worlds and systems. Now, it is time for the KRO to evolve into a power that is not to be trifled with by any of it's neighbours, no matter their power. The Age of Revival of over, as the Kelbrids have surpassed their Creators in power. Now it is time for a new age. An Age of Expansion. But this is not expansion in the way one might think, no, this is an age of expanding further inward to new colonies, and of expanding the military to rival even that of the Sakyt, and of expanding the economy to dominate all others economically. It will take years, maybe even decades, but the KRO will survive, and it will continue it's quest for knowledge no matter what.

Led no secrets be hidden from us.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

From: Governmental and Head Scientific Adviser A8
Report: Yearly Report 2221
Date: 2222.01.01

Greetings, Alpha. As you have requested, from now on I will compile a list of all events that happened during a year, and collect them together as a complete report to be delivered to you on the start of the next year. For these reports I have decided to split them into two sections, with the first being written about events that happened within the KRO while the second is about events that happened outside of the KRO. At the start of a report I will give a rough summary of any changes you immediately need to know about, and at the end I will suggest a course of action for the next year. I hope you like it. All unwritten about events before Operation New Age shall be ignored so that the focus may be placed on more necessary matters.

Inner Events

The zero-g laboratory design suggested by X7 has been finished and has been put to good use. Previously the ability to cause complete weightlessness, not affected by gravity at all, was not fully possible. The closest we could come to zero-g was our laboratories in space, but even then they were often still affected by gravity simply due to being close to planets or moons. By sending ships far away from a system by simply moving it away at normal speeds, we can ensure that complete zero-g experiments are possible. To avoid drifting a newly found crystal deep within the mountains of Core will be used to strengthen the alloys used in the creation of these stations and increase their rigidity, stopping low-scale drifting. On top of that, a special hexagonal 'cage' will surround the laboratory with special thrusters placed all over it to contain any drifting of the entire laboratory. This allows experiments previously not possible to be carried out with ease, as the previously gained ability to hold experiments simultaneously over theoretically infinite distances, as well as a special antenna, means there will be no difficult in getting the information back from the laboratories now drifting far away from any star.

With the completion of this design, X7 has now begun working on a special project as part of the Militarization Goal. It was previously speculated that the ability to create something on a station or planet that blocked enemy fleets from passing through would prove of immense use. V9 ordered that this possibility be looked into further, and X7 has been charged with leading the effort as it is expected that the solution will involve something that changes the gravity of the entrance into a hyperlane. So far he has only been working on the project for a few months and little progress has been made. He is currently further researching the relevant knowledge and preparing for the initial experiments, which are to be conducted on Brius' hyperlane to Ziris, as this is seen as a low priority hyperlane in the case of a severe accident.

Meanwhile, R5 has finished the ability to construct hydroponic farms on planets or even stations. This was a project he began before Operation New Age as he believed that it could theoretically prove useful in the future for a number of different reasons, mainly for the possibility of a market or being defeated in a war, as they could then offer large amounts of food to merchants/the victor and gain large amounts of energy/not lose too much important stuff. Basically automated farms with artificial day-night cycles and periodic watering allowed for food to be farmed without too much effort having to be put into it. A minor project, but it is important to prepare for future defeat. After all, technology is nothing if you're too foolish to admit to the possibility of defeat.

That does not change the fact that his current project is far, far more important however. With the recent construction of the Tir outpost there has been a small decrease in overall efficiency caused by you simply not being able to handle the effort it takes to manage the KRO. Basically, as you most likely already understand, your design is currently operating at just barely above it's limits for how much you can handle, and there is nothing that can be done to improve your Kelbrid form further without altering it beyond the point of recognition. Therefore R5, with the assistance of all other Scientific Advisers, has decided to contribute to all three Goals by creating you a new brain. You will still have your Kelbrid form, but all of the thinking and other things that require the effort of thought, no matter how small, will be handled by a new machine constructed specifically to not only house your current intelligence, but increase it far beyond it's current limits. This will likely be done in multiple stages, activating more and more of your new brain as time goes on so you aren't overloaded with the capabilities of your new intelligence and the KRO can build the brain at a safe, comfortable pace that ensure 0 inefficiency, accidents or mistakes of any sort. So far he is still in the early stages of the project, having begun carving out a very deep and very big underground bunker capable of housing your new brain, and this is suspected to take up most of the year. Still, once he's finished your administrative capacity will of increased by two thirds of what it once was.

Unit B4, meanwhile, has little going on currently besides being a major element in the above project, providing his engineering mastery to the project. Specifically he will be figuring out how to design the bunker and most of designing the brain, though that will also be guided by all other Advisers to ensure B4's personality does not cause any issues. Otherewise, he is currently working on a less important side project about controlling weather. Basically his plan was to record all known weather disturbances and then create a solution to those weather disturbances and spread the solutions out among our planets, with new weather issues being given new solutions or already made solutions depending on which is more efficient overall. So far he had recorded about 70-80% of weather disturbances and their solutions,and was just figuring out the most complicated ones. Upon completion of his project he was then going to place the solutions in the primary and secondary databases. The completion of this project will help with housing significantly, as weather is a common destroyer of Drone storage that has had various solutions of varying efficiency made to deal with it previously.

Speaking of those databases, so far the Information Goal has been progressing along quite well. Primary databases across Core and the few primary databases on First Landing have been completed, and they were now working on secondary databases. Not only that, all of the databases had been connected in a wireless 'web' that covered Core, with primary databases containing the most important information Core had. Then the secondary databases would contain less important information, nearly all scientific knowledge gained by Core, and also act as a back up for more important information, though these backups were hidden behind areas that only Kelbrids could reach. Then the tertiary databases also act as backups for some information in a similar way to the secondary databases, but instead contain the far less important minor tests and even some random things created as a small side project to entertain a small group of Kelbrids. Finally the quaternary databases would contain little information of actual use and simply be used to collect the information gathered by random small side projects and secondary thoughts of Kelbrid expanded upon slightly and released into the database. There is even talk about connecting the Sakyt internet to the quaternary databases to allow for closer ties between the two, though this will have to wait until the KRO is strong enough to resist getting too close to the Sakyt in an unfavourable way.

These databases will all be connected through uplink nodes placed all over Core, First Landing and other future worlds in as efficient a manner as possible. Essentially these uplink nodes act as automatic coordinators, also reducing planetary latency further. Not only that, actual coordinators are to become a far more common sight on core as your new brain will allow you to maintain far more Kelbrids dedicated to simply ensuring your control is complete over the KRO and that deviancy is at a minimal level. The increased number of coordinators and introduction of uplink nodes combined with the construction of the databases will also bring Kelbrids closer together and allow for even more efficiency and work to be dedicated to Operation New Age.

Meanwhile, as part of the Colonization Goal, a lot of energy is being spent on creating more drones and on ensuring that those drones are learning at a quick rate. Basically drones assemblies have been forced to produce 10% quicker and Kelbrids have been forced learn 25% faster by boosting the speed at which assemblies create Kelbrids and Kelbrids process thoughts. For the assemblies, this has been done by spending extra energy on increasing the speed of the assemblies to their highest speed without causing inefficiency due to rushing things. Meanwhile, far more energy is being fed into Kelbrids to increase the speed of learning. Mapping the stars has been sinking in popularity recently due to the discovery that the KRO is essentially trapped between various other empires, and effort is soon to be dedicated on sustaining a capacity overload so that production targets may be advanced further and still met, leading to an increase in energy and mineral production.

Advancements have been made to the borders of the KRO as well. Dekrus station has been completely converted it into a solar station made specifically to generate power for the KRO, with a small portion of that solar energy being directed inwards onto a hydroponics bay that is currently under construction. This will allow the KRO to begin generating food for future deals with other aliens. As 1 unit of energy translates into 3 units of food, the hope is that, at minimum, 1 unit of food can be used to trade for 1 unit of energy, meaning that it is still efficient and useful for the goal of gaining energy. Basically, turning 1 unit of energy into 3 units of energy is the goal. Otherwise, it will prove useful for future deals.

Brius, meanwhile, has been properly converted into a fortress that should prove difficult for any invasion to take on, though it is still far from it's intended goal. Service umbilicals more easily connect other ships to Brius' shipyard, allowing for ships to repaired without leaving the system. This shipyard is also positioned far from the Hodranus hyperlane into Brius, with weak engines working to ensure that the gravity of the objects in the system do not pull it closer to Hodranus. Meanwhile Brius Bastion itself is located next to Brius A, like most KRO-made objects in the system, and holds a significant number of guns, as well as being reinforced with some of the KRO's toughest alloys.

Tir outpost has also been finished, officially claiming the system for the KRO, and further mining stations are currently being built.

Outer Events

Let's just get it over with quickly, yes, a new empire by the name of the Imperial Seban Colonies has been found.

The ISC are certainly... interesting. The world they evolved on is similar to the world that the Sakyt evolved on, and the Seban could be considered similar to the Sakyt Commonwealth. Interestingly they actually expressed admiration of us when we first met due to the rivalries we both officially have with the Zithorian Confederation, but once they realized we would not help them they quickly changed their tune.

The Imperial Seban Colonies are an imperial government best described as a Star Empire, with a single ruler that directly controls both the government and the military, with the oldest son of the current Emperor being the designated successor, though brothers can also inherit if the current Emperor has no son. Due to the Emperor's direct control over most of the military and the need to fuel that military, a number of mining guilds have risen to prominence in the ISC. The ISC's nobility are nearly all the families leading the mining guilds that make up core pillars of Seban society, with only a few rare exceptions being made in very special cases.

Due to the invested interest the nobility and the Emperor both have in each other, much effort is taken to ensure the stability of both of them. Any person who talks out against the Emperor or any of the mining guild leaders are quickly and silently disposed of within the week, and the general population is afraid to speak out against their rulers at all. Otherwise though the ISC leans towards neither freedom or enslavement, as citizens are mostly left to do their jobs, with those who work the hardest in either the mining guilds or the military being of a higher class than those below them, though it is nearly impossible to join the very entrenched ranks of the nobility of the ISC without being adopted.

Essentially the more you work for the guilds or the military, the more privileges you are allowed. For example, someone who works in neither is given enough to have an average, if very poor, life, whereas veterans of wars who work hard in the mining guilds may even be adopted into the ruling family of the guild they work for, with there even being one case of a noble family created by a poor citizen who worked his way to the top and expressed extreme loyalty to the Emperor, though again, this is rare.

To become the leader of one of the mining guilds you need to be elected by the family to lead their mining guild. Essentially the 3 people who work the hardest for their guild become candidates, and if not already in the family they are even adopted into it. The rest of the family then vote on which one will become the next Guild Leader, who leads not only the guild but also the family in control of that guild for the rest of their life. This means that it is relatively common for someone to work their way to the top and be adopted into the family but, because they dedicated their life to the guild, they often don't create their own branch of the family due to simply not having the time to have children of their own. Not only that, adopted branches of families are seen as inferior to the purer branches, similar to how the branches of the family created by a noble marrying a commoner, but though it is technically frowned upon for a noble to marry a commoner, it is actually fairly common and often simply ignored or swept under the rug, due to most people considering it an old tradition based on silly beliefs that really should be ignored.

As for the mining guilds themselves, they're not entirely mining guilds, though mining does make up the core of what they do. Essentially, in return for the Emperor's protection, the mining guilds control various stations and small areas of planets in the newer colonies, though the Emperor still retains at least 50% of his total territory as under his own direct control, including the actually developed capital world of Sebto-Ka. Therefore while the ISC works similarly to the Rontor Hierarchy, in the ISC the Emperor is actually extremely powerful compared to the mining guilds. Therefore the Guild Leaders almost act as lords in their own right, but they are far less powerful than the feudal vassals of the Rontor. The mining guilds are also similar to the Rontor Hierarchy vassals in that they can control spots in the military, generally in return for large amount of money.

It is considered every Seban's duty to fight for his country, and the Sebans fight with a zeal like no other known species in the galaxy. Their very body is even made for combat, with one large central tentacle with a powerful jaw and anywhere from 5-10 lesser tentacles covered in various other jaws, hands and claws of varying power, with older Sebans generally having stronger limbs. With such powerful bodies the Sebans have the ability to essentially brute force their way through most obstacles, meaning they are quite adaptable in the sense that they are able to simply fight off most challenges presented by wildlife. This has also largely contributed to their society, as throughout Seban history various empires have conquered their way to glory. Indeed, the noble families are far from living in too much luxury, often training hard to become great warriors, as this is seen as a sign of power. More information will need to be collected before we fully know their history, unfortunately.

The current ISC was actually created by one Emperor Farahb I's powerful ancestors who lived to a truly venerable age highly unusual of their species. Ever since then Emperor after Emperor has come and gone, huge gladiatorial fights have been held and technology has progressed much quicker than it did with the other known alien races. This is not out of a desire to learn more, however, but instead out of a desire to create more efficient ways of fighting. It is sort of ironic that such a brutish species is more technologically advanced than it's neighbours and ignored religion simply because they wanted to find better ways of killing each other.

Emperor Farahb himself, however, is a very interesting fellow. He has a charisma and care for his people highly unusual for a Seban, and has actually maintained his current position not through military might, but through diplomacy, a fascinating thing for a Seban. The other noble families have even started following this example, as the less intelligent Seban commoners are far more likely to fight their enemies if they are following a leader who can truly inspire them to leap into a molten world. Unfortunately this charisma has gotten in the way of potential friendship, as he is far more concerned with the possibility of fighting us than with the possibility of a technological exchange with us. It is suspected that this charisma and care may significantly change Seban society as time progresses, but we will have to wait and see

That is pretty much it for the Outer Events. We recently announced that we were going to close our borders to all, something seemingly well accepted by the Sakyt so far, and we have a science ship advancing through their territory to scout further south west, and there are rumours that the Zithorian Confederation have discovered a primitive species, but that is pretty much it. As for my suggested course of action, I believe we should simply continue with Operation New Goal for now, as well as seeing how the Sakyt react to our announcement.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

From: Governmental and Head Scientific Adviser A8
Report: Yearly Report 2222
Date: 2223.01.03

My apologies for the lateness of the report, Alpha, but B4 insisted that he be allowed to finish distributing the weather control systems. As for matters of immediate importance, the Sakyt reacted to our announcement by announcing that they too would close their borders, but that our relationship would otherwise remain unchanged. Commissary-General Bo-Gu has proven to be an understanding and friendly leader, as well as quite intelligent. As you already know, upon explaining that it was a test to see how the new CG would react, and that he had passed, it was agreed that we would both leave our borders with each other open from now on, as well as agreeing to an active sensor link and a monthly trade of 1 unit of food from our hydroponic bays to ensure good relations. This is a good sign for at least the next 10 years, as Bo-Gu seems more concerned with making sure his people are housed and well fed over making us his vassal. Now, onto the report.

Inner Events

First thing's first, technology.

X7 has completed most of the testing necessary and has a good idea for what the FTL inhibitors are going to be. Through careful mimickry of a planet's gravity well, a gargantuan device could be constructed that basically tricks an area of space into thinking there is a large planet there when there's actually not. As hyperlanes are alien constructions, and very ancient ones at that, they have a number of safety precautions to ensure that certain things can't move through them. By tricking the hyperlane into believing there is something too big to enter, it makes that hyperlane inaccessible because it simply won't allow anything to enter it. We believe this was created as a way of ensuring the safety of whatever ancient race made them, as something that is bigger than the limits of the hyperlanes would no doubt be extremely powerful, being the size of a planet.

The thing needed to create the fake gravity well will need to be very big in it's own right, about double the size of some of the plateaus scattered all over Core. Not only that, the resources needed to create the device are very difficult to gather, generally only being found in very specific conditions deep underground, and a suitable building would needed to be created around it both to ensure it's stability and to ensure it's safety. X7 is busy designing the FTL inhibitor as we speak, but it is likely to take a long time. Initial designs are based around having the inhibitor half underground, so that there are natural walls protecting most of it, but who knows how that may change as more information is discovered.

R5's progress on constructing your new brain is going well. Much of the bunker has been finished, with only the maintenance quarters and some more pillars to ensure stability needing to be brought in. Actual construction of your brain has yet to begin however, but I have just recently finished drawing up the design for it. A very large space has been carved out of the ground to ensure future expansion of your brain is not hampered, and the design has been fitted to work within that space quite easily. Essentially it will be a very wide construct to begin with, covering much of the floor of the bunker and being about the hight of a Sakyt, with a projector capable of projecting any possible combination of colours around your brain, allowing you to create any image you desire for future negotiations with alien races. Further upgrades will work on expanding your brain upwards in tiers until the final tier, when your brain reaches the ceiling of the bunker. The brain itself is extraordinarily complicated, but that is necessary to ensure you can manage everything. We expect to be able to move your personality into the brain in a year and a half and activate the more advanced parts of your brain half a year later, at the start of 2225.

B4, having finished distributing the weather control systems, has been inspired by the materials he created for use in the bunker to ensure maximum stability and resistance to all forms of damage, and has begun working on a new project. Through mixing certain types of ceramics, concrete and metal he managed to construct a very strong nano-concrete theoretically capable of withstanding extreme damage. He created this mixture during one of his visions, however, and is not entirely sure how he managed it, and has therefore now begun deciphering the mixture. It is not expected to take very long, with the testing of it's usefulness expected to take much more time than the simple process of figuring out how B4 made it. If this is as strong as it is suspected to be, however, this could highly benefit both the Colonization and Militarization Goals. I shall leave further comment on the mixture until sufficient testing has been performed on it, but it could be a far better armour and building material than what we currently use.

Work on the uplink nodes and databases on Core and First Landing is going well. All over Core uplink nodes are present, and the number of coordinators has been doubled. All tiers of database are present on Core with the exception of the quaternary tier, which has yet to be built due to ongoing talks with the Sakyt about how to connect our databases with their internet. On First Landing primary and secondary databases are present, but lower level databases are considered unnecessary.

Meanwhile, with the construction of your new brain progressing quickly, plans are being drawn up on how to best colonize the Dwumgar system, though these are in their initial stages and not much worth discussing.

Outer Events

Once again there is little to mention in this section of the report. Our neighbours have all been expanding rapidly into unowned systems, the ISC have declared us their rival and rumours of the vicious tiered society of the Kenjodan Civilization have been confirmed, though there is otherwise little knowledge about them.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

From: Governmental and Head Scientific Adviser A8
Report: Yearly Report 2223
Date: 2224.01.01

There no matters of immediate importance which have not already been resolved with the Sakyt Commonwealth.

Inner Events

First of all, yes, I have gained an interest in building things recently. I have been dedicating much of my time to building things to further advance our scientific knowledge, and after the more recent challenges of constructing the uplink nodes and databases I have become quite knowledgeable when it comes to architecture. I have also become quite skilled at managing Kelbrids. When I started my position I was inexperienced and often made mistakes when it came to the intricacies of Kelbrid management. These days I am far more skilled than I once was, capable of rooting out deviancy and getting the most out of Kelbrids with much more efficiency than I once had.

Anyway, much has changed on Core and First Landing. All necessary uplink nodes have now been finished, further increasing overall Kelbrid efficiency, and the energy grid that begun earlier this year has finished construction. With this new energy grid completed we are now making almost double the energy we once were, and this number is only expected to increase after our energy income has been fully recalculated to account for conversion of maintenance Drones into tech-Drones. The new energy grid also needs maintaining with further tech-Drones, of course, but the increase in energy is most definitely worth the cost.

First Landing has also changed, as previously mentioned. Ever since it was colonized it has been little more than a drain on resources, nothing more than another place to produce Kelbrids for Core, but later this month the first nexus district will be completed. It's completion will signal a significant change for the future of the planet, as we plan to turn it into a world dedicated to doing the odd jobs not quite fit to have their own world dedicated to them. It will have a significant number of defences and strongholds, acting as an extra layer of protection in the case of an emergency where time is of the essence. It will also eventually become a world dedicate to allowing for more space ships to be maintained through a significant fleet of frigates housed in these fortresses, due to the planned nature of it's station. Machine assembly plants will also cover the planet's surface to allow for quicker Kelbrid production. Finally, vast resource silos may eventually be constructed to allow for increased resource storage, in the event that it is needed. None of this is set in stone however, being rough ideas at best, and things may very well change in the future.

Meanwhile, plans for the colonization of Dwumgar III and II are well under way. Dwumgar II will become a mining world, with the planet's surface covered in mines that dig deep into the planet to exploit it's mineral wealth. A number of outposts will also be positioned on the planet's asteroid belt to take advantage of the valuable minerals they are made of, as well as eventually a few outposts simply dedicated to studying the asteroids in an attempt to further advance our knowledge of science. As for the dust caverns and the vast dust deserts, study of the volatile motes that make up these deserts show that they are of significant importance, though there may be some difficulties in harvesting them. Mineral purification plants will also be common on the planet for ensuring maximum efficiency. The initial construction of mining districts alone is expected to take a while, so plans have not been made beyond that.

Dwumgar III is quite different when it comes to the plans for the planet for obvious reasons. The notably high elevation of many arid highlands, combined with the geothermal vents dotted all over the planet's surface, will be exploited at maximum efficiency. A dedicated energy grid will almost certainly be a fairly early construction on the planet, to ensure that the most is gotten out of the solar and geothermal power present on the it. After that it's substantial size will no doubt prove useful for holding many sizeable nexus districts, and much of the energy gained from the planet may eventually be dedicated to a planet spanning stronghold with multiple powerful planetary inhibitors making any travel through the system by an enemy impossible. That, or it could be dedicated to any number of other facilities made to make efficient use out of the planet's energy. These plans are for long after it is colonized however, so they still have yet to be fully explored. The first colonization ship is expected to finish construction in a few months, with the next one expected to finish a year after that.

As for the orders you gave a few days ago, they have begun. After we discovered alien races we also discovered that we are something of an oddity among them in that we focus far more on turning goods into something than on harvesting those goods to begin with. Whereas biological societies seem to give a roughly equal focus on extracted and manufactured goods, generally only focusing on certain manufactured goods over others depending on the situation, we focus far more on turning resources brought up from the ground into something better. Through overloading the energy grids and re-evaluating how we focus on specific Drones, we can remove our relative lack of menial Drone production without affecting complex Drone production. This, combined with our effort to increase drone production and the Kelbrid ability to learn, means we have a significantly increased advantage over the biologicals when it comes to how efficient individuals are.

Now it is time for your favourite part of the report: The summary of this year's technological advances.

X7 is making good, albeit slow progress on FTL inhibitors. For the most part he has spent the last year working with other Advisers on other objects of importance, having little time to test the FTL inhibitors, but he has still made progress despite this. The FTL inhibitor designs, both planetary and on starbases, have now been completed. The starbase FTL inhibitor will be a huge addition to the starbase, likely making up half of it's weight when you take it's armour into account, due to the need for a large device to create the fake gravity well. The planetary FTL inhibitor will be even bigger, as was previously mentioned, to hold the additional machinery and support necessary for the device to not collapse from the weight. It will be built deep underground to ensure increased stability, and it will made out of materials resistant to both natural and intentional damage. It will also double as an HQ for the defenders of the planet, and will be extremely heavily defended to convince the enemy to land somewhere else, at a glance acting as simply another part of the overall defence of the planet. He expects to finish his research sometime in early 2226.

As for Unit R5's major project, progress on your new brain is going well. The first tier is expected to finish in a few months, at which point we shall begin the process of moving you into your new brain. As previously mentioned we will start you off slow at first, to allow you to get used to the change, and then we shall activate the actual upgrade. Once the upgrade is finished you will of almost doubled your administrative capacity by allowing multiple subroutines in your new brain to handle the more monotonous aspects of governing the KRO, allowing you to focus on more important matters.

B4 has figured out what he used to make the Cerametal, as it's now being called, and is currently working on a way to replicate it. It will be classified as an alloy and the alloy foundries will be used to make it, all pretty simple really. However this is not what really matters when it comes to B4, as you already know. Basically, his rant about the Sakyt Commonwealth, lies about not ranting about the Sakyt Commonwealth, and the rift he almost drove between us and the Sakyt have forced us to take action to correct his deviant personality. After having a talk with him that lasted for about two days, along with threats of wiping his memory and the occasional shock, I have convinced him to shut up and do his work. For the next 50 years he is not allowed to speak, to question orders or to do anything else that might ruin the future of the KRO. Any breaches of this will be treated with a painful shock lasting 5 minutes, with 5 additional minutes and another year added for every breach of these rules he commits, no matter the amount of time that passes between these breaches. He is lucky he is so valuable, or else he would already be wiped for deviancy.

Outer Events

To get the less important thing out of the way first, we have recently discovered the Zithorians communicating with an unknown empire to the north-west of them, blocking any expansion they might of thought about in that direction. It is believed this is the cause of their rush to block the Sakyt from further expanding mentioned later, so the unknown empire should be kept in mind when we consider their actions.

Now onto what B4 caused. As you obviously know, the first few quaternary databases have been completed and opened up to the Sakyt internet, allowing open communication between our people for the first time since we met. B4 decided to use this to annoy other users of the internet, abusing his powers as Scientific Adviser and generally being a dick, all of this was in his own name too, as he felt that people should understand it was him they were communicating with. This culminated in a rant about the inferiority of the Sakyt compared to the Kelbrids, and the inferiority of the Kelbrids compare to him, and therefore the extremely pathetic state of the Sakyt compared to him. All of this happened in the first week of our databases being opened up to the Sakyt, and this caused extreme outrage among the traditionally friendly Sakyt, who see insults as being one of the worst things ever invented by any race in existence. Not only that, the fact that this was the first impression one of the most powerful Kelbrids in the KRO gave during a mere week of our two nations being connected through the internet was absolutely shocking to them, and made many Sakyt question whether or not the KRO was really their friend.

No one was affected worse by this than Bo-Gu himself, who had to calm down an outraged populace while also being incensed by the actions of B4, promising the people that action would be taken to deal with this. During the next few meetings between our empires, he brought back up the hints of the previous Commissary-General that the KRO would be better off as part of the Sakyt Commonwealth, and begun talking about how they were going to negotiate this with the KRO. You then expressed outrage that the Sakyt Commonwealth, especially when lead by a leader you trusted, would actually pursue the vassalization or annexation of the KRO into their own lands, and got into a heated debate with Bo-Gu about how to react to and punish B4. Bo-Gu expressed his displeasure with what he felt he had to do, but said that if he didn't his people would be outraged that the Kelbrids got away without a punishment, as an insult traditionally requires a punishment in Sakyt society.

It was during this very argument that the unexpected happened. The Zithorian Confederation and the Holy Vurxac Nation both made a planned announcement directed towards the KRO and the Sakyt, talking about how absolutely disgraceful it was that a biological would side with a mechanical, and accusing the Sakyt of being demons on par with the KRO. They then officially announced their rivalry with the Sakyt Commonwealth and the Vurxac claimed they would continue to indirectly harass and disgrace them at every opportunity, while the Zithorian Confederation announced that they had claimed the Qenus system, essentially blocking the Sakyt out of any future expansion or discovery. Bo-Gu ordered the immediate return of the science ships beyond their border with the Zithorians to ensure their safety.

The distraction the announcement of this rivalry created, not to mention the announcement itself, as well as the time it took to create an official response and organize the return of the science ships helped cool down the Sakyt people. It gave them more time to think, and when a Sakyt thinks about something they did to negatively affect something or someone else they often calm down and feel sorry, tradition or no tradition. The demands of vassalization or annexation have calmed down, and in the end this has all only strengthened our ties with the Sakyt. The combination of our databases with the Sakyt internet has otherwise gone quite well, and will likely continue going well now that B4 is permanently banned from communicating on it.

Not only that, the announcements by the two quite similar nations have only further confirmed the belief we and the Sakyt hold that we are alone in the galaxy. We can not allow trivial matters to get in the way of our friendship or tear us apart. If we fight each other, our remains will be picked apart by our neighbours and our legacies will be non-existent. We are alone in this galaxy but for each other. From now on we must go to an effort to ensure that our relationship with the Sakyt is as solid as possible, for if either of us lose the other we are doomed to be slaughtered by our neighbours, who encircle us like predatory beasts desperate for a meal. We are alone in this galaxy, yes. But the fact is that we stand alone together, and we should continue to make sure that fact remains true.

 

[Ol' Johnny]

From: Governmental and Head Scientific Adviser A8
Report: Yearly Report 2224
Date: 2225.01.02

Earlier today the Rontor Hierarchy officially denounced the Sakyt Commonwealth, calling them a foolish nation for a variety of different reasons and announcing that they would strive to ensure that the Sakyt Commonwealth didn't survive past 100 years in space. In this same announcement they declared a non-aggression pact with the Zithorian Confederation. This is unusual, considering the highly authoritarian and militaristic attitude of the Rontori compared to the rather idealistic Zithorians and the autonomy of their mining guilds, but not entirely unexpected. They are both officially rivals of us and the Sakyt after all, and their desire to ensure we can not expand likely contributed to their new diplomatic attitude towards each other. Not only that, they are both the only nations bordering us and are on opposite ends of us, so if they get closer diplomatically we could have to deal with a two front war in the future.

Inner Events

Let's start with the most important thing, your new brain. Having finished half a year ago you spent some time using it and we just recently activated the more advanced parts, all of this you already know. The effect it has had is quite incredible. The many subroutines are working very well and efficiency has increased quite a lot already, with previous losses in efficiency caused by too much happening for you to handle now non-existent. With this upgrade we could theoretically colonize all uncolonized worlds without suffering any downsides. Indeed, the first colony ship is now halfway to Dwumgar and expected to reach it close to the end of the year, with the second one ready to finish construction in a few months.

Now for the technology section of the report.

X7 has finally officially declared the FTL inhibitor designs complete and released them to the KRO for proper use. The Brius and Dekrus starbases now have half of their station dedicated simply to the FTL inhibitors. Not one to create a design that loses efficiency, the thick armour surrounding these large devices also contain many other things that assist with running the station, mostly crew quarters and things like that. His new project is to improve the laser designs we use in our ships and he has no idea how he's going to do that yet, having only made the decision a few days ago. This means he has barely even had time to set up the initial experiments, so we will have to wait and see what he comes up with.

I've already mentioned your new brain so I won't repeat all of that, but what I will talk about is R5's new project, in which he also does not yet know how he's going to go about it. He's set up some initial experiments for how to best maintain ships but so far he doesn't really have a solid plan for how he's going to go about it, though it is expected to involve planets.

B4 finished figuring out how he made the Cerametal a few months ago, and this has already proven useful. The new alloys have begun construction in the alloy foundries of Core and the upgraded armour will be applied to our current ships once it is finished. Not only that, new ships are planned for construction after the upgrades have been applied to our already made ships. This means the Militarization Goal is finally going to start chugging along at a comfortable rate and in a few years we will have a proper fleet, capable of fending off the enemies that surround us. To further assist this Goal he is currently working on deep core mining. A common problem we have had to deal with is a lack of important materials that aren't difficult to get too, especially now that we have begun creating more advanced alloys. By designing special drills made specifically for surviving the extreme heat experienced when we dig extremely deep, he plans to make this issue non-existent, something that will no doubt prove quite useful.

As for how he's been acting, an additional 7 years have been added to his sentence and will now experience a 40 minute long shock when he next speaks. What often happens is he goes for a month or too without speaking before beginning to slip back into his deviant attitude, and the cycle repeats. We shall see how this changes in the future, but if things keep going at this rate he may very well never utter a word again. Instead we have one of the other Kelbrids explain B4's plans, with the inefficiency caused being minuscule compared to the inefficiency caused when B4 is allowed to speak. I almost hopes he keeps up the current rate of punishment, as things are going much smoother now that he is not allowed to speak.

Outer Events

The integration of our quaternary databases with the Sakyt internet has gone extremely well now that B4 is no longer there to ruin it. Kelbrids and Sakyt often enjoy conversations with each other about a variety of different subjects and our two nations are tied closer together than ever before, especially after the more recent announcement made against us.

As for my plan for how to proceed, there is not much to change. Ensure our relationship with the Sakyt is bulletproof and continue with Operation New Age are my suggestions, as they are working well for us so far.