[Azatol]

After observing that the AI in the newest Proportions version is lackluster, I decided to take some race ideas I had before and add in the Star Wars Empire to make a four way brawl and get more of a sense of the newer Proportions, as well as a fun story with 4 very different empires. I also used non-stock shipsets for all of them.

Empires:

Metal Collective - These guys are an expansionistic robot civilization, but they support trade as long as they still have room to expand elsewhere. They rely on tons of smaller lower tech ships in war, since they have a heavy penalty to research but nice bonuses to production and construction. Their shipset is composed of all little metal box segments, so everything looks very right angle and geometrical.

Transcyber Initiative - Transcyber gives a different picture of AI, as this civilization is composed of very independent individualistic AIs who live purely in cyberspace. They discovered what we call the real world through controlling programs, and slowly built up an administration. They are masters of everything intellectual, sporting a good bonus in intelligence and research. They use the blackstar shipset which contains red and grey looking vehicles.

D'Anconian Monarchy - The D'Anconian Monarchy relies on centuries of military tradition, and supports training programs for elite infantry, mechs, fighter pilots and ship crews. Ceremony and Pageantry plays a big role in the military and the population is happy for all the focus on magnificent war devices and people. This focus on pageantry detracts from construction and production, but all military units have an advantage over their counterparts, especially in the army. Elite Military traditions and a centralized society are essential to this empire. The Monarcy uses the Niridia shipset which has very visible and colored tips on all the weapons shown.

Palpatine Empire - Emperor Palpatine during the years between ANH and ESB had a scientist working for the empire who discovered time travel and came to him. Palpatine went into the future and discovered that his empire was no longer in existence. He never knew who had killed him off, but he returned from his travel and made a plan. Palpatine and Vader decided to return to the foundations of the Republic in the days before hyperspace travel. They returned to a place before Jedi, and quickly took control of the ancient planet for their own. Even though hyperspace was not developed yet, Palpatine discovered from the inhabitants that wormholes were also a reliable form of travel. Palpatine and Vader direct the operations of this new yet ancient empire, and relying on their memory they design new ships with similar aesthetics to the great ships of the future.

Current Diplomacy in the Galactic Sector:

By the reckoning of the natives of Palpatines new empire, it is the year 2408.5. A war has broken out with the Palpatine Empire on one side and the Metal Collective and Transcyber Initiative on the other.

Only the Metal Collective has contact with the D'Anconian Monarchy, which is on the far side of the sector.

The War:

By the barest skin of their knees, the Initiative successfully fought a guerrila war against troops of the Palpatine Empire. While right now the Imperial troops are still on planet, recruitment efforts of the Initiative have succeeded. Over 200 units of infantry were raised in four months, and though they were lost quickly, they have depleted the invading forces.

Meanwhile, right this moment, the warfleet of the Metal Collective is engaged with the unsupplied and damaged Imperial fleet just a few sectors from the Initiate homeworld.

And yet, this war finds its twist in every battle. Another Imperial ship has arrived, having been delayed in leaving from Coruscant. This is a carrier full of fighters. When they arrived, just before the battle happening now, they were able to exchange supplies with some of the warships.

The fighters swarm around enemy frigates, only taking casualties on lucky shots, but only doing small damage to the enemy. The Heavy Destroyers are using what laser fire could be spared, and then the ramming began. And so the unsupplied Empire fights like a mountain cat cornered.

Three K-04-Kappas, one of them missing a cannon, as well as an Aleph, and a Phi are the last survivers on the side of the Collective among heavy losses, but the Empire has no supply and only a few ships left. The only shock on the side of the AIs is how much damage the wounded Imperial fleet has done.

Desperate against the fighters, a Kappan Corvette captain ordered his ship to be sent against fighters, for ramming. The Collective fleet can be repaired locally since they brought their own construction ships which are biding time nearby. So the Kappa rams the fighters one at a time, watching them smash into the ship, as the others desperately try to manuever. Other ships, learning how well this tactic works, do the same, and the Imperial fighter force is destroyed.

The Plans Archivist, the mild mannered Ruler AI of the Collective, must surely be informed to go all out in constructing a new fleet so the alliance may finish off the warlike Empire.

Meanwhile, the ponderous and heavily wounded Imperial Agressor, a Minesweeping ship, barely gets its propulsion under control and ambles towards the damaged Kappa-class corvette of the Collective. All students of ramming as a military weapon should know that bigger ships do much better. The medium transport ploughs right through the center of the corvette. The ship shakes violently, systems are out all over the place, all thats left is a hull, one engine and a supply compartment.

On the other hand, the Kappa is no more, as both Imperial Adz Laser Heavy Destroyers each try ram the Aleph.

The Adz and Aleph are intertwined as the second Adz backs off from his ramming order. Its hard to tell who will be destroyed by such a ram, the captain of the second Adz says. He sends the last message from the fleet, at 1700 hours, informing Darth Vader that perhaps a new class of ships designed for ramming should be built.

The last systems of the minesweeper explode as the whole thing becomes just more floating scrap metal, meanwhile, to the great surprise of the collective fleet, the Kappa that had been rammed reveals the crew is still alive, it was intertwined with the Aggressor after ramming.

The Local Archivist with the Fleet calls off any more ramming operations, informing them to use cannons and missiles instead. Only one Adz is left mobile on the imperial side. That Adz captain finally decides to ram the hulk that is his brother ship and the Aleph, exploding the Aleph and leaving both Imperial ships mashed together. His engines remain operational, but not for long.

Adz #2, having lost their bridge, regains contact with the first. Once again the Collective is shocked at the resiliency of such a squishy organic race.

The Collective stays out of ramming range and fires upon the two ships. They are both destroyed by missiles.

The Final Tally in ships lost to the battle is 6 Adz II Heavy Destroyers, 1 Active Troop Transport, 1 Aggressor Minesweeper and 1 Annihilator Carrier on the Empire side. The collective lost 3 Kappan Corvettes, 3 Phi Corvettes, and an Aleph Frigate as well as damage to 3 other ships. The Collective fleet returns to the Initiative homeworld, where its own construction ships are busy building the newer Eta class ship, the newest warship in the collective.

Still at this moment, Imperial troops are on the Initiative homeworld, if miracles could happen, they might win the day regardless of the fleet's loss.