1. Spoiler Alert - I'm playing with several storylines enabled. I'm a relative newbiew and this is my first time getting this far in the game so even I do not know what will happen. If you do not want any story elements spoiled for you, then stop reading.
2. You will see a few mods in effect, mostly cosmetic. Many thanks to all modders.
3. Be patient with story line & progress as I will be juggling still learning along with wanting to *just* play the game, telling you a story and creating an AAR. Also, I play slowly since I'm used to TBS and infrequently due to the RW. Ignore any typos.
Some background...
The Melniboneans are long lived technocracy. Although Zenox are rodents, I will be playing as feline, which are appropriate for melnibonean. Read the Elric books to find out more. We mostly like learning new things even the not so good. We research for research sake and will undertake any such to obtain the knowledge. We don't know what it will lead to but we want it. So far, it has kept us safe. We strive for aloof, but neutral relations with our neighbors primarily through strength.
There are many "others" in the galaxy that we know so far. We believe we know of most. Sometimes new ones appear who either join us or the others. I may not tell about each empire unless it pertains to the story or for clarity in a screenshot.
Very close by, always near, always present, always watching are the annoying old cybernetic entities. All in the galaxy refer to them as Ancient Guardians. They are worse then we are in terms of being melnibonean. At least, they don't have some of our other bad habits such as expansion and mostly stay to themselves. They do get involved but that is another tale. It is a sad tale about losing all of your ships and bases. We resent them but always do we slink away when they pass by.
To our western border are the reclusive squid-faces which are known as Wekkaru Hegemony. Never do they want to want to trade and always want to stay in their pods. We are glad for their shortage as many a cat has cough up a furball trying to parley with them. Their facial appendages are always flapping and usually several cats will have to dart away at the sight of such. We leave them be as long as they do the same plus they make a good fence. Other than that, they look to be good eatings.
Further west, and south-west are the greedy ape-men. They call themselves the Zygirea Conferderacy. They are never satisfied. Always they take over more worlds. More than all others in the galaxy. Most of time, they have been far away from us but now we are neighbors-see spider story below. They fought a long time with the squid-face and took much from them. It seems quiet lately between them. They continue to drive east-wards. When we removed the spider threat, they gobbled up their worlds and added them to their northern border and denying us of our rightful prize. Mostly we try to forgive and forget this but a growl always is heard & felt when the apes are mentioned.
The water men call themselves the Acdarian Territory and are somewhat south of our homeworld. They have remained very quiet and isolated for long time. We tried to talk but never did they answer. We peek often and see them persecuted by the ant-sectoids often. They look good to eat and so we don't want them to disappear. We also feel bad so we aid them when we can which was hard in the beginning as we were beset on two sides. After much aid, lately they wish to trade and are starting to swim more aggressively in the galaxy and against the ant-sectoids. Many feel it is because of our help which we provided in order to keep a fence strong.
Next, to the east and south-east are the ant-sectoids are the Gizurean Consciousness and are always swarming as if at a picnic. Often they came to our worlds and carried off our kittens. We fought many wars with them. Many lives and ships were lost. Never did worlds change from us to them or vice-versa. Often they also kept busy with the water-men so their full attention was never fully on us which was lucky. As often, both the ant-sectoids and the nasty spiders would both seek kitten meat. Lately it has been too quiet. Always we keep an eye and ear open for the chittering ant sounds.
To the north-west were the ravenous spiders. As bad as the ant-sectoids were, the spiders were doubly so. War started long ago, with early memories of them invading from the north. They came often and ate many times. The Tukan system bore the brunt of the assaults and even fell to the spiders but attacks also came to other systems. Ancient ships were recovered, aggressive research and constant armaments building eventually prevailed to tip the tide of the war. In punishment, many spider eggs and hatchlings were put to the torch. Even to the point, that some feline said, "Too much". Secretly the Imperial Marines purred with the thought of putting the spiders on the troop landing pods to fight on the front-line and so they supported the pacifists to ensure that the spiders were "spared" extermination. We stripped them of their sovereignty. We erased their name from history but near total genocide was too much... or maybe not enough. We absorbed Terak Monda & Gundagale and the ape-men grabbed the other 4 systems to the west like low hanging bananas. When the blood growl fury had subsided, peace was restored and any spiders seeking peace was allowed freedom. Time passed, peace flowed and settled like warm sunshine. Many in the region curled, slept and slowly forgetting, little did we remember that there's a reason a spider spins a web...
