The following morning Michael arrived at school and his friends were both there talking about their game from the previous night. As Michael showed up their attention shifted onto him. “Michael how were you doing all that research so quickly?” asked Ryan
“Oh it’s really easy, you just click on your planet and then you build research stations in your building slots. Plus research ships help to increase your science as well when you explore new stars and planets,” responded Michael.
“Oh and by the way are you guys still down to play tonight?” asked Michael.
“Yeah, don’t worry, I’m still good to play later. Afterall, I am a man of my word,” said Ryan.
“Eh, the graphing calculator I lent you for ‘just a night’ would say otherwise,” said Michael,
The bell rang, and a few hours later while in his free period, Michael looked up strategies for Nova Galactica. One of the videos caught his eye and he started watching it with an earbud in. The strategy was coined the ‘Cruiser Rush Strategy’ and seemed to line up perfectly with what Michael had already been doing. The strategy required heavy investment into science, and to gather plenty of resources by claiming systems, and putting all resources into constructing space cruisers. With these smaller ships, weak nations can be invaded, and with the exploitation of their resources, larger projects could be funded creating bigger and more powerful ships. Michael took out his notebook and turned to a new page to start writing notes about the strategy. One cruiser takes 60 metals and six months to build, using his metal refineries he could produce 11 metals monthly meaning each metal refinery built could create one cruiser every six months. He loaded up the Nova Galactica Wiki on his phone and used the statistics for buildings, resource requirements, and build times to create a plan for the game with his friends. Before he had realized it the period was almost over and 3 pages of his notebook were filled out with information pertaining to his game detailing a strategy. The bell rang snapping Michael out of his frantic writing, as he went to his next classes.
Immediately after school Michael and his friends joined a call to continue their game from yesterday. Michael received a pop-up detailing the success of his nation’s landing on the alien planet, and with a command sent the first colonists to build a society on the newly discovered frontier. His mission to space had been a success as now he led a successful multiplanetary government. He assigned a governor to the new planet to address local affairs and awarded seats for delegates on the planet for the nation’s council. The discovery of life on another planet prompted further exploration and testing as researchers traveled far and wide to learn about the alien planet and foreign life. The lead scientist embarked on further ventures to make more discoveries of the galaxy, along the way finding a habitable planet called Grylos that had a moon that was also suitable for life. Now with a nation spanning three planets and one inhabited moon the military budget was raised in order to build a few military cruisers. As the research ships ventured further and into another solar system an electromagnetic ping of a foreign ship was picked up from the communications system of the research ship. News of the discovery reached the capital, and the planet was buzzing with the news of other sentient alien life. With this breakthrough and the discovery of foreign intelligent life first contact was established and resources were allocated to translate the Xeno language. The newly discovered Xeno were known as the Tweedles, an avian species with a capital on the outskirts of Tardigrade territory near Grylos. He sent diplomats over to the Tweedles capital, and gained insight into their society. Michael received an intel report and inspected the statistics of the Tweedles.
Upon the arrival of the intel report it was revealed the Tweedles were in a state of disorder, incorporating the poorly organized army and their fleet was far smaller than Michael’s. Seeing the opportunity to expand a fleet of cruisers and destroyers were deployed to the outskirts of The Tardigrade Republic to the spaceport at Grylos. The construction of more cruisers at the edge of the nation continued on. The fleet now consisted of several armadas stationed on the outskirts with logistics organized. With experts determining the Tweedles were highly vulnerable the opportunity was to be seized while it remained available. War was declared and the cruisers left the edge of the nation and entered the Tweedles territory. The overwhelming strength of Michael’s army besieged the Tweedles defenses destroying most of their fleet within a single attack. Afterwards, he would manually bombard the Tweedles planets destroying their land defenses before ground armies landed on the planets capturing major cities. It wasn’t long until a message was transmitted from the Tweedles issuing their surrender. Michael had done it, he had successfully taken over another nation. Following the defeat of the Tweedles, the Astrotech Party for Progress and Innovation (A.P.P.I.) had a party split. This was the first time the Tardigrades had interacted with a foreign nation, and their first actions were aggressive. About half of the A.P.P.I. joined Democratic Unity, while the others formed a new faction known as the Tardigrade Sovereign Imperium, a faction with militaristic guiding ethics, and the goal of aggressive expansion across the galaxy, and a belief in Tardigrade supremacy.
Rather than micromanage each aspect of the newly captured planet he opted to use a game feature that would automate the planets. He assigned governors who landed to lead over the newly captured planets so that he wouldn’t have to do it all himself. The governors were assigned to lead a colonial government. The captured Tweedles planets were to be exploited of natural resources, and the Tweedles themselves would work to either extract raw resources or to produce finished consumer goods which were sent back to the mainland. Not long after the successful colonization of the Tweedles, electromagnetic waves were detected once again, and more Xeno ships were located. Within a few years in the game, several contacts were made between various nations, and Michael’s nation alongside his friends were invited to join the Intergalactic Council. The Intergalactic Council was an alliance of several space nations led by the Itki Interplanetary Alliance.
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Looking through the list of other nations’ intel another target was identified as being weak, so much so that military experts were certain they could be overrun. The Meru had only two inhabited planets both within the same solar system, and due to the weak strength of their navy, the decision was made to attack them. However, the faction that supported the war was in the minority. The Tardigrade Sovereign Imperium were major supporters of the aggression, but since the other factions wouldn’t form the declaration it was left until the results of the election to decide what would happen. The People’s Front proposed a coalition between them and Democratic Unity in order to prevent the Tardigrade Sovereign Imperium from getting a majority in the next election, but leaders of the Democratic Unity party rejected the proposal. What resulted was a victory over the government as The Tardigrade Sovereign Imperium achieved a majority.
Following this victory Michael could freely declare war on other states as the majority would vote in favor of any initiative. A fleet mobilized and readied their attack of Meru and the past repeated itself again as the Tardigrade dominated The Meru much like what happened to the now defunct Tweedles nation. With the arrival of ships in Meru’s home system their defenses were struck and obliterated. The army general had created plans on how to deal with foreign planets. After the enemy fleet had been destroyed ships and armies swept through The Meru’s planets taking valuables, from works of art, to rare resources. After the plundering of valuables had been completed a space laser was constructed, and with the use of the beam the planet could be erased. This choice was made by several bureaucrats as they decided the planet produced too little value, and would require too much maintenance and resistance to occupation. Indeed the planet was not valuable Michael thought, most of the resources have already been exploited, and a thick smog conceals the sky. The space beam had finished constructing on the moon satelliting the Meru’s capital planet. With energy harvested from deep-crust power the beam was able to take out the planet with one surge of energy.
Soon after the news had got out about the destruction of The Meru’s capital planet the Intergalactic Council responded by announcing military intervention to stop the Tardigrades from further expansion.
“Well looks like we’re at war Michael.” said Ryan.
“What? You declared war on me?” asked Michael.
“I’m at war with you too. Just following the orders of the Intergalactic Council.” said Trey.
“Wait, the whole Council is at war with me. It turns out my generals planned an attack after I gave the order, and it was enough to anger the whole Intergalactic Council,” said Michael with surprise.
Realizing his new predicament, Michael worked swiftly to develop stronger destroyer spaceships. His generals planned offensives against smaller members of the Intergalactic Council in order to control more territories. He planned deliberate attacks on nearby solar systems, and proper resource management as the army had begun construction of hundreds of new fleets. Midway through an attack, the power abruptly went out as the circuit breaker was triggered by Grandma vacuuming downstairs and her excessive power use. Even after hearing the circuit breaker flick the screen stayed on for a second or two before flickering off. Michael took out his phone to message his friends.
Michael: Hey, sorry guys, my power went out so I was disconnected from the game. Would one of you two mind saving?
Trey: Done, I saved when I saw that you left the game.
Michael: Well, I think we were at a good stopping point anyway. Do you wanna call it a night and we can pick it up tomorrow? Normally I would stay up a bit later since there’s no school tomorrow, but I’m feeling unusually tired for this time of night.
Trey: That’s okay, I’m fine playing tomorrow
Ryan: I’m pretty sure you were gonna attack me anyway, so I guess this’ll give me time to strategize.
Michael: Okay, sounds like we’re all on the same page. See you both tomorrow