Greetings!  Welcome to the first season of Galactic Civilizations III AARs.   Long ago, I used to write stories regarding Galactic Civilizations II.  With the release of Galactic Civilizations III 2.0, I am proud to bring you a new generation of stories based on Stardock's epic 4X strategy game.

This is just one story...your story will be completely different.

We have detected something...

Just beyond Jupiter's orbit, something was noticed.  Something massive but previously undetected.

The Imagineer is sent out to investigate.  Scientists determine that it is some sort of relic from a long lost, space-faring civilization.

The United Planets meets

The recently constructed international Shipyard has already produced the Discovery which was originally slated for Mars.    Now, a new ship, called the Andromeda, is quickly constructed and sent out to begin investigating other interstellar phenomenon.

This hodge-podge ship is equipped with the new Hyperdrive engine along with a primitive laser system to clearing debris, a set of Stinger missiles and a railgun all designed with the idea of breaking apart asteroids and comets.  With new excitement, the Andromeda is told to head towards Alpha Centauri.

First Contact

A little over a year later, the Andromeda makes first contact with an alien civilization.

Are they hostile? We have no way to communicate with them.

A new world

Meanwhile, the Imaingeer, following a signal sent from the artifact found outside of Jupiter, has found a new planet.  Was there something here before?  The Discovery, rather than going to Mars, is refitted with Hyperdrive.

The planet is named Lacroix in honor of Professor Dennis Lacroix of the Hubble IV research center.  It was he that invented the technology to trace these subspace signals.

The Discovery, now called the Terran Alliance Ship Discovery, is now outfitted with Hyperdrive.  It is huge beyond imagination. 

With 45,000 citizens on board the massive craft, it is the ideal size to start out a new world.

A few months later, the Discovery detaches its massive colony pods that provide the base of the new colony. 

Lacroix is a beautiful planet and to the delight of the scientists on board, the planet contains the artifact that was communicating with the massive Jupiter artifact.

The artifact is a thinking machine of some kind.  Its artificial intelligence is simple but deeply rooted to this world.  Does it feel pain? Is it aware? The question at hand is what should we do with it?

The military wants it moved to Earth.  The scientific community wants open access to it.  After a great deal of debate, it is determined that since tax payers funded the Discovery, private companies should have to pay to access it.

Scientists from around the world (Earth) begin to migrate to Lacroix to study this ancient technology.

The Second Contact

The Andromeda (now renamed the TAS Andromeda) has encountered a second alien civilization.  We still cannot communicate with them.

Meanwhile, the Terran Alliance has constructed their first major extra-earth space station.  Called Athena, it  has been placed near the alien relic for study.

The relic seems to be some sort of machine, similar to the one on Lacroix but far more alien in nature.  Very little is understood about it at this point.

Back on Earth, Professor Dawkins has researched a way for  us to talk to other civilizations.

The Interstellar club

With the Universal Translator now installed on board the TAS Andromeda, humans quickly make contact with several other civilizations.  Our little corner of the galaxy is quite busy.

The first aliens we met are called the Torian Regime.  They, in turn, put us in contact with the Altarian Republic and the Irridium Corporation who apparently have ties with a company that provides intergalactic mercenaries for hire.

The Soren Corporation on Earth leases the International Shipyard to construct Earth's very first interstellar trade ship.  Dubbed "The Adam Smith" it has been tasked to bring ginger to the Torians who seem to crave it.

Seven months later, the Adam Smith arrives at the planet Toria, home of the Torian Regime.

Toria is doing some interesting things such as mining nearby asteroids which had not been a fiscal priority of Earth's.  They are also focusing much more on research than Earth is which creates something up an uproar during the Fall election.

Post-Election controversy and the Precursor worlds

For the first time, the member nations of the Terran Alliance agree to change the spending priorities across the globe.  The United States, the European Union, the Russian Federation and United China make sweeping changes to their economy in order to boost research. 

In some countries, coercion is used to reach the targeted goals.  But overall, research output is increased from 22 to 35 on the "meta patent" scale.

The main driver for the sudden interest in technology has to do with the two alien worlds that are of a quality far beyond any that we've seen but whose atmosphere is full of lead due to industrial waste that was placed in them long ago by the Precursor civilization.

Because Earth was late to the interstellar club, it lacks the colonies that some of the older civilizations have.  Thus, a priority is placed on researching technology that will allow humans to clean up these worlds and colonize them.

However, this prioritization on planetary colonization is considered to be risky by members of the intelligence community.  Earthy, they point out, is defenseless.  The Terran Alliance does not even have an armed interstellar craft unless you count the excavation equipment on board the Andromeda.    Others, however, point out that no other civilizations appear to be creating militaries (as far as they can tell).   For now, it is full-steam ahead on environmental engineering...

"They were wrong!"

The sensor probe near the border of the Drengin Empire went silent at 11:34am GTM August 5, 2243.   That afternoon, a subspace message from Lord Kona, leader of the Drengin Empire informed us that they intended to make Earth a colony of the Drengin Empire.  The unarmed Terran Alliance was at war.

All research worldwide quickly began to focus on defensive related technology.

This "Drengin Empire" destroyed a mining outpost near Lacroix (which had cost 500 billion credits to construct).  Its only weaponry appeared to be a particle beam and its defenses were intestellar chaff.  Our weaponry would not focus on missiles for the near term.

Using the trace amounts of anti-matter that had been collected, the Terran Alliance created the Fury Prototype.

All focus being placed on producing a defense force of Furies.

Our starbase was destroyed but on its way out, a single nuke took out 3 of the enemy ships.  The Drengin would hopefully learn something that the humans would not go down without a fight.

The Fury program also takes the battle back at the Drengin.  Lightly armed, the Furies have point defenses to counter the Drengin's missile system. 

The Drengin respond with the Slarv, a bigger ship that has deflector shields to counter our particle beams and in this case, a prototype mass driver which bypasses our chaff.

In response, we created the Redeemer.  The Furies had kept the Drengin at bay for a time but the Redeemer would be our new home defense platform.

Now it was time for turn about.  The Terran Alliance sent the TAS Retribution and the TAS Justice into Drengin space to destroy their asteroid mining bases.

While we cultivated friendships in trade, the Drengin paid the Yor to attack us.

The malevolent Yor, synesthetic beings of unknown origin had launched a sneak attack against Mars.

Desperate times

The Yor exterminated all humans on Mars.  Over 15 million humans vaporized.  Worse, they destroyed the Athena research station that was investigating the very relic that had taken humans into the stars.

Panic gripped earth.

Earth was surrounded.

The Peace Treaty of 2245

The Drengin and Yor agreed to forestall their cleansing of Earth in exchange for all of the technology of the Terran Alliance along with recognition that Mars was now part of the Yor Singularity.

Aftermath

In time, the Terran Alliance became a minor power in the Orion arm and a reliable servant of the mighty Drengin Empire.  

While other civilizations looked at Terran Alliance as a "minor race", humans were proud of their accomplishments and were recognized as the velvet that covered the Drengin Empire's iron fist.