My spies report back and tell me that the Drengin currently have a logistics rating of 10:

However, by next week they will have completed research on Enhanced Logistics, so I might as well say it's 16.  Since there's nothing further that I want to find out at this point, I recall my spies.

Eventually the moment I have been waiting months for arrives:

Now on the one hand, there's nothing I would love more than to grind the Thalans into space dust for their unprovoked aggression.  However, I am content to stand by and watch the other races do the job for me.  Yes, I graciously accept your terms, Hithesius.  It's too bad that you didn't think about the cost of war before you started shooting.

Finally, perhaps prompted by the numerous wars being fought in this galaxy, there's a disturbing rise in xenophobia:

Obviously this will be bad for tourism, but fortunately I'm not dependent on tourism income just yet.

With the war over, I'm diverting some of my funding back to social production to add some more Trade Centres.  That's not on all planets, so I will still have plenty of fighters being made.

In another fascinating development, those pesky archaeologists have dug up a super special awesome Precursor artifact for the Altarians:

Well to be honest, I'm not too worried about being enslaved by the Altarians.  But I'm not so complacent that I won't send in some spies to see just how powerful this artifact is, and whether the Drengin are for once going to be the ones pleading for help.

Meanwhile the lack of influence I have in some sectors is hurting the loyalty of my mining operations, so I've set up a starbase nearby to help solidify my hold:

It has the added bonus of being able to slightly boost production on the nearby colony of Ivey III.

The United Planets convenes to discuss passing an anti-aggression law:

Having been on the receiving end of such aggression, I decide it's in my best interests to support this law.  The vote is overwhelmingly in favour, which is not too surprising.

Predictably, with the rise in Drengin military might, they have decided that I'm a prime target for extortion:

Although I am loath to hand over the credits, especially when they can just call up and ask for more, or just declare war anyway, it's not a good idea to butt heads with the Drengin right now.  They have way more ships than I do, a shocking lead in research, and they're at war with the Thalans anyway so the way I see it, this is hurting Hithesius without actually needing to be at war with the Thalans. I'm not overly happy about it, but I can't win by suicide.

Besides, I now have other concerns:

This intelligence report on the Altarians shows that the artifact that I reported on earlier has already had a significant effect on their development.  They are still behind the curve as far as weapons are concerned, requiring 37 more weeks to perfect Technology Progression I and then start on Space Weapons research, but if their abilities continue to grow and the Drengin don't get round to invading them soon, there's a very real possibility that they could overtake everyone.

I'm steadily creating more trade routes:

This one goes to a an Iconian world populated by 14 billion on the other side of the galaxy, but it's still a fairly safe route.

Yet another minor race is discovered:

You would think what with all the major races making war on everyone, they would try and keep themselves hidden.

Meanwhile, the Iconians have decided that they can't beat the Drengin, and have signed a peace treaty:

I think it's possible that they conceded one of their planets to make it happen, since they're now down to eight.  But I guess they could also have squirrelled away some credits for an occasion such as this.

I thought I had a big surplus of credits, but the Torians by far have the largest:

That's easily a hundred thousand credits, just sitting there!

Fortunately, I'm just able to achieve my objective:

Now unfortunately this fighter is going to lack for range, but that's all right.  I just need to fend off the waves of Drengin fighters, I don't need to take the fight to them.  Not yet anyway.

I also don't know how I will safely upgrade all my fighters with Drengin squadrons buzzing about.  As it turns out, I would need more credits to do that all in one go anyway, so what I'm going to do is upgrade them piecemeal.  I'm also setting my spending to 83M:17R to crank out as many of these new ships as I can.  I'm going to research Impulse Drive so that I'm not going to be outmanoeuvred so easily, but with such a small budget it will take almost five months.

Initial engagements have centred around the economy starbase that was constructed near Ivey III:

The starbase is damaged but still operational.  If I send a constructor out to repair it, I should be able to keep it that way.

Unfortunately I still have some serious problems staying on top of my spending.  Ship maintenance has climbed because I have spent a fair amount of credits upgrading my ships.

Therefore I sign an economic treaty with the guys who hate the Drengin almost as much as I do:

They're even willing to throw in some credits up front to seal the deal, how nice of them.

That puts me in a more reasonable financial situation, with 222bc surplus per week.  It's not great, but it will have to do.

The Altarians have been busy.  They've leaped ahead since last I checked on them, and have now started working on Enhanced Rail Guns.  They're months away from becoming any sort of real threat, but at least they aren't going to be defenceless.

The Drengin focus their attacks on the mining starbase near Quendor II, and on the planet Vizzard II, but I am able to repel their attacks, and with fresh ships close at hand I should be able to continue wearing them down.  However, if they choose to attack a different target, it'll only be luck if I manage to see them before they strike.

So after I've finished with Impulse Drive, I will be looking into Sensors, in the hopes of putting together a better early-warning system.

Just how many people are the Drengin at war with, now?

Since I could really use a bit of help, I decided to look up the LMT Corporate.  They agreed to make war on the Drengin for a small fee:

They have built up a military, but I'm not sure what good it will be against the Drengin.

So anyway, while I was running from the horde of corvettes and occasionally getting nipped in the bum, I had an idea.  Well actually I sort of stole the idea from Lord Kona.

You see it's simple, corvettes cost nothing to make because they're created by the Super Dominator ability, but they are (thanks to the mod) a very inefficient way of moving firepower around the galaxy in terms of logistics.  So if I were to create my own horde of fighters for the corvettes to run into, they would be torn apart.  The thing is, I have to manufacture my ships, so it's not much of an idea until I have a lot more missiles to bring to the fight than this.

Just when I finally put together enough firepower, I managed to lose the Drengin squadrons. They apparently diverged to attack other targets.

However I have learned a few things.  First of all, just because a fleet has the icon for a dominator corvette, doesn't mean I should assume that they are all corvettes.  I did get hit a few times by squadrons that were a mixture of corvettes and tough-as-nails heavy fighters, so I should always check the combat strength for all incoming hostiles.  Second of all, losing hostiles in the fog is silly, and Sensors are a vital piece of technology.  Finally, it's never good idea to park reinforcements too close to the planet they're supposed to reinforce.

The Drengin have conquered the Paridians:

Unfortunately it seems that my luck has run out:

I just learned that it's in a fleet heading for Ivey III:

While I am actually in the enviable position of having great firepower on the defensive, you can see here that the Drengin are able to put together fleets that are fairly hard to kill and have average firepower.  And they can manufacture more of these ships, if they have the credits to support them.

The Drengin are willing to call off their attack if I transfer a large number of credits.  Analysis of the intelligence data on the Drengin shows that they have more expenses than they have income, in part due to the cost of maintaining their huge fleet, and because they're spending almost as much as that on... wait is this right... spies?

I've had to stop spending on espionage because I just can't spare the credits, but the Drengin are blowing well over 1300bc a week recruiting new spies.  If they really needed the credits, they could dial this back.

Even if I did sign a peace treaty with them, I can be sure that they would be asking for more credits or declaring war whenever they feel like it.  Unless I actually managed to reach a state of technological superiority.  Right now that is not looking all that likely.

If I just consider that frigates are essential to continue fighting the Drengin then, in order to unlock the Medium Hull Building tech I first have to research Technology Progression II, then Invention Matrix:

Even at 100% research spending, I'm looking at nearly 55 weeks.

What I will need to do is dial back my military spending, not so far that I can't maintain the strength of my squadrons, but not so little that I'm going to just finish research on Medium Hull Building when the Drengin are rolling out their first battleships.  And I can't just leave spending as it is and hope for the best, I will need to adjust it according to the strength of the forces the Drengin are sending my way and what I need to hold them off.  I'm going to start at 51M:49R and see how it goes.

I decide that waiting for the Drengin to gather those squadrons together is a bad idea.  So I send four squadrons of my Hornet II fighters from my staging point near Vizzard II to take them out:

Of course, it will take three weeks to get them into position to make an attack run.

As it turns out, those Drengin squadrons fly off for some other target.  But that's all right.  I've picked up some of their other forces closing on my position:

These heavy fighters are generally quite well-armed, but they lack the HP modules of earlier models, so they aren't as sturdy.  However, HP modules are fairly costly to add to each ship, and guns are cheap.

They're also making a move on my friends:

I have two squadrons ready to smash the Drengin to bits here, but I won't be able to stop them attacking Aegeus IV first.  I sorta hope that the leader of the LMT Corporate will be all right with that.

What I didn't know, but probably should have expected, was that there would be a second squadron lying in wait:

So, there goes that plan.

Luckily, when I send my fleets back to take up defensive positions at Vesta I, only one of them gives chase and is decimated, the other picks a new target far far away.  Cowards.

Noticed something odd when checking out the espionage report on the Drengin:

Apparently I get a single + for Military Strength.  Don't know why, I'm still well below their strength.  Maybe it's because we're at war and I keep destroying lots of his ships.

No, unfortunately the Yor are entrenched in the Drengin's ba- er, they have a treaty an alliance with them and won't betray the Drengin.  I suppose it's a good thing that they haven't declared war on me for being at war with the Drengin (totally not my fault).

The Arceans are down to their last two colonies.  They won't be able to put up much of a fight now, even though they've managed to get frigates before even I have.  I will miss them when they're gone.