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A Qorten AAR! This is a fortunate opportunity since it's a rare moment when we get to comment on him instead of him commenting on us! :cool: :p

Wonderful beginning and it's always engaging to find the First League! To infinity and beyond!!
 
A useful little starting pocket of space.
 
I never had the Zroni. I always wonder, does RNG generate precursors while it generating Galaxy or after you trace first precursor site.

I do know that before 2.0 came out, the Precurser you got was governed by your homeworld's physical location in the Galaxy. (Cybrex are in one corner, First Leauge in another region and so on) I think that system got phased out, though, and I have no idea what's replaced it. RNG most likely.
 
Three science vessels, three destinies
ISS Hubble::Ship's Log::2214/08/06
Eduardo de la Guardia::Captain's Log

Well, these benefactors or whatever they are really have us going over the whole solar system. Finish up one site, get the coordinates for the next. It's like a treasure hunt.
Two digs in the Jupiter system and now we are off to Neptune.
Should I get tired of this career I'm set for life. Weylandt Pictures has bought the rights to make a movie of the Hubble's endeavours. They'll get access to the censored ship's logs. I better start being more mindful what I write in these.


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In 2210 Wei Shen was reelected for a second term as Consul of the Commonwealth. Meanwhile the Hubble continued it's archeological work around Jupiter.
The site on Callisto was finished in August 2211. It was an underground facility consisting of four chambers. Three of them contained riddles that, once solved, caused a hologram of the solar system to lighten up, indicating a new site on Ganymede, along with information on materials technology that would strenghten human corvette hulls.

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The dig on Ganymede turned out be exactly that: a straightforward dig towards an armoured chamber deep in the icy crust of the moon. In 2214 the underground chamber was breached by the Hubble crew. Inside they found leads to another alien site at Triton, as well as insights on production techniques which would prove useful in streamlining corvette production.


While Eduardo de la Guardia and the ISS Hubble were doing their digging in the Sol system, the new science ship Gagarin had reached it's final destination in the Scutum-Centaurus Arm without incident. The closest hyperlanes connecting the Perseus and Scutum-Centaurus Arms had been surveyed. Captain Ekwensi was ordered to return to the Perseus Arm and survey the stars north of Sirius in December 2213.


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The oldest of the three science vessels, ISS Ptolemy was still on it's original orders from 2200, although the crew could see the end of the line. While the Gagarin began it's return journey Maria Quadrini and her companions where surveying Theemin, with only Barnard's Star left to finish their loop around Sol.
In the Theemin system they encountered a moon of special interest. A fairly large body orbiting around Theemin 3, it was as tectonically active as Io. However research found it was possible to stop this hellish churning with the right amount of energy and good timing and it would turn this moon into something that might be habitable, if not immediately then in the future with the right technology.
In October 2214 the first successful terraforming project was conducted by the Solar Commonwealth. The moon was turned into a sweltering world, starved for water, yet capable of hosting permanent life.

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Barnard's Star didn't reveal anything out of the ordinary. After a stop at Terra for some rest and some replacement crew in early March 2215 Captain Quadrini received new orders. The Ptolemy had a long journey along the hyperlanes south of Terra ahead, with the end point just south of where the Gagarin had entered the S-C-Arm.

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@volksmarschall : I know I had the First League before, but I can't for the life of me remember how it went. I will be surprised once more.

@The Number 9 : Thank you! I hope I can carve out some decent space for the Commonwealth and keep it growing for a long time to come.

@Specialist290 : I did check out the Wiki to see what I could expect. I figured for an AAR it's best I know beforehand that it would somewhat fit. Now it's just a surprise which of the endings it'll be.

@stnylan: Indeed. I'll try and keep it growing in an interesting manner.

@youstas : Ah, the Zroni, I'm sure I never had those before. Were they in the game from 1.0, or were they added with Federations?

@Macavity116 : Didn't know it used to depend on the location. Nice to have you around and following!
 
I just want to acknowledge the irony of the ISS Ptolemy sailing the solar system! :D
 
Progress is slow but steady. The "surgical terraforming strike" is a definite scientific achievement, if not one easy to duplicate at this stage; at the very least, it shows that controlled climate engineering is a possibility.

@youstas : Ah, the Zroni, I'm sure I never had those before. Were they in the game from 1.0, or were they added with Federations?

I don't remember if they were added with Federations or the update immediately prior, but the Zroni are definitely newer -- they were added with the same update as the Baol.
 
Too bad the terraforming did not result in an immidiately habitable world...
 
Interesting to see the "Shoulders of Giants" origin progress.
 
Contact with the Cydran Stewards
ISS Gagarin::Ship's Log::2215/12/14
Afiya Ekwensi::Captain's Log

I just heard the news from Earth. Apparently we've had 'first contact' that really matters. Quadrini and the Ptolemy encountered a space ship in the Theemin system. Terra is still figuring out what they got from the transmissions between the ships. Meanwhile I'm three hyperjumps over surveying a godforsaken junkyard! Relegated to a footnote in the history books as the first human to hop over to another galactic arm.


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One of the most important dates in human history is December 14, 2215. That was the day the Ptolemy science vessel encountered a vessel from another spacefaring race. It took seven months, until July 2216, to decipher their communications and establish meaningful contact with the 'Cydran Stewards'.
They were a robotic race, governed by a central processor on their homeworld Shazuu in the Shazka system.
Relations between the two star nations grew quite sour right from the start. The Cydrans closed their borders almost immediately after the Solar Commonwealth made contact with them. The dislike of the Commonwealth for the machines stemmed from the fact that they were essentially a robot race who oppressed their biological creators (who made their robots more or less in their own image). Although the Shaz were treated and cared for very well, they were not allowed to make their own choices. The Cydran robots and their central processor ran everything on the ocean planet Shazuu, down to the reproductive rights of the biologicals in their care.
The Commonwealth did not close borders for them until 2240, when both had grown a lot in size and closing borders meant cutting off an exclave from the machine empire.


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Earlier in 2215 the second colony of humans was established in the Sirius system. Tian Yi (named after a famous Chinese eunuch during the Ming dynasty) was mostly settled by Chinese, although smaller settlements were set up by other nationalities.
Months after the initial colonization contact with the Cydran was made and the fears of the Commonwealth about individual Terran nations taking over colonies were mostly laid to rest. In the months following the discovery of the machines several differences between national governments and the Commonwealth were solved. Unsurprisingly, most agreements were in the Commonwealth's advantage. The influence of Terran nations on the space government was greatly lessened. The Commonwealth would forever be the single entity representing humanity on the galactic stage. Much like the small and disorganized Greek city states were relegated to the past when the Diadochi and Rome became the big players in the Mediterranean, now the nation states of Terra were relegated to the past as a viable form of interstellar government.


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Two more (potentially) habitable worlds were discovered in the systems lying between Terra and the Cydrans by the Gagarin and the Ptolemy. One of them, a mountain world that would take scientific advancement to settle, was is in a chokepoint system called Uran Tokh. Both the Cydran Stewards and Solar Commonwealth bordered it. For the Commonwealth it was absolutely necessary to occupy this system as soon as possible or the humans would be cut off from one side of the southern reaches of the Perseus Arm. In May 2218, a little less than two years after it was surveyed, Uran Tokh was home to a human outpost, which was immediately being upgraded to an actual starbase, only the second in Commonwealth space.

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I just want to acknowledge the irony of the ISS Ptolemy sailing the solar system! :D
Better the Ptolemy than the Icarus. :p

Progress is slow but steady. The "surgical terraforming strike" is a definite scientific achievement, if not one easy to duplicate at this stage; at the very least, it shows that controlled climate engineering is a possibility.

I don't remember if they were added with Federations or the update immediately prior, but the Zroni are definitely newer -- they were added with the same update as the Baol.
Too bad the terraforming did not result in an immidiately habitable world...
Well, that would have been too much luck. The rest of the game would be doomed to balance out.

Interesting to see the "Shoulders of Giants" origin progress.
It's a nice journey. It's a lot of archeology at the start of the early game and then there are more developments at the start of the midgame, if I understood the wiki correctly.
 
Rogue Servitors always make intriguing neighbours - one must be aware of mandatory pampering.
 
Hopefully later civilizations discovered will be more friendly.
 
Always unfortunate when the new neighbors don't want to play nice...
Indeed, although I think I'll be the one attacking them rather than the opposite. They just want to pamper me.

Rogue Servitors always make intriguing neighbours - one must be aware of mandatory pampering.
:p
Never had them as neighbors before actually.

Hopefully later civilizations discovered will be more friendly.
More are coming and I must say, it wasn't promising at first, but it might turn out okay after all.


First I have another archeology update for you guys, finishing the early game part of the 'On the Shoulders of Giants'-origin.
 
On the Shoulders of Giants - End of Part 1
ISS Hubble::Ship's Log::2217/01/17
Eduardo de la Guardia::Captain's Log

Well, we are heading down a dark rabbit hole now. We first imaged the underground facility from topside before starting the dig on Triton. All corridors on 90° angles. One open space at the very bottom, but a lot of cave ins in between. So we start our digging, reach the corridors and the walls are full of inscriptions. Literally every square centimeter is covered in them, but our xenolinguists can't crack the language. The only possible explanation: they are names. The walls of this complex are covered with millions of names.
Then we get to the lower chamber. All that's there is an eerie recording about the makers of the complex being attacked and beaten by some as yet unknown foe. The Relentless, the builders call them. And about the builders fearing that the Relentless will find their wards. It is widely presumed that's us. But nothing else. It feels wrong that there is nothing else. I'm ordering another search of the complex this afternoon, top to bottom.


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Simultaneous with the push to claim the Uran Tokh hyperlane chokepoint. The ISS Hubble and it's crew made important discoveries in their ongoing research into the sites left behind by the 'Benefactors' or 'Builders' as they became known by the Terran population. Research at the Triton-site was largely finished by January 2217. It turned out to be a memorial for the 'Benefactors', built by what might have been the last of their species. Inside were found references to the 'Relentless', the species that had attacked and defeated them, as well as to their intention to affect a change on the cognitive abilities of their 'wards', the human species.

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A building on Titan, clearly several thousands years old, was the next stop for de la Guardia and his crew on the Hubble. It was the first and only 'Benefactor'-site not built underground. The crew determined quickly that this had been a staging area and research site for the intended mind-altering of their species.
Several digital archives were found from which the researchers could extract snippets of information. The 'Benefactors' plan had succeeded. The human race had been set back a thousand years. They had been given the basics of agriculture and masonry, but their knowledge and memories had been taken.
It was also clear the 'Benefactors' had resented their actions towards their human 'wards'.

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The last in the string of 'Benefactor'-sites unearthed was the cave on Mercury. It turned out to be a natural cave, repurposed by the last of the 'Benefactors' to store their last industrial supplies, to be used by their 'wards' when they found that site, as well as a recording, explaining why the 'Benefactors' had done the mindwipe. From this recording humanity learned the name the 'Benefactors' gave themselves and the name of the 'Relentless': respectively the Thwaa'Phyr and the Vemetosha.

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Giantspawn, those who went before shall soon like minnows seem.
 
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