[inigma]

2407.9

As predicted during the Planning, the Imperium was faced with war on every front by now. Even the friendly Phong up in the northern systems had turned murderous.

Warp ships have been sent, and the Master Plan is being carried out perfectly.

The EEE on the southern Imperium border are being slowly isolated. The backdoor to their allies, the J'renar has finally been closed by another cloaked warpship, the IWS Horsehead, finally forcing the more powerful J'renar to take years to reach the Imperium war front. The lone J'renar colony which shared room with the EEE in the system, was glassed by a captured EEE carrier, the ICS Baron.

Reconaissance satellites have finally been put in orbit around every single star in the 5 systems that border Imperium space, and those systems are the target of First Isolation which will be an attempt to manipulate the southern empires into a protracted war.

In the Second Isolation, not yet commenced, the Imperium will cut off its access to those systems in favor a controlled warp point traffic system, defended by a gravitationally shielded empire, while isolating itself from the rest of the galaxy long enough for its Golden Age to produce some impressive results.

As the EEE are being isolated from the J'renar, system T116 is being left open as the only route to Imperium space that the EEE can take, and eventually T116, though full of rich but uncolonized planets, is expected to become the forced focal point for the four southern empires.

As the J'renar are now cut off from their backdoor through EEE space and to the Imperium, they are were now forced to reroute their ships on the long journey to T116.

The Amonkrie, directly east of the J'renar Empire, and far south of the Imperium, as the second most powerful empire in the galaxy, they are also being forced to reach the Imperium through T116, although the journey for its warships is still far too long for them to reach Imperium space to begin with.

The Master Plan dictates that T116 will become the focal point for the EEE and their allies, the stranded Praetorians. Reopening the warp point between T116 and Vrenolan would ensure their mutual competition for the planets in T116, and a handy coms mimic will do nice to ensure that the competition isn't all that friendly.

Also, with T116 being the destination of the J'renar to reach Imperium space, their chances of running into the xenophobic Amonkrie, who were also headed for that area, are quite high.

As you can guess, Emperor Kylan III ordered the establishment of the Ministry of Intelligence a few months ago, for the sole purpose of starting wars between the four southern empires. The longer those empires can be engaged in wars, it is reasoned, the more time the Imperium has in developing and building gravitational generators to ensure the success of the Second Isolation before it completes.

By 2407.4, the northern empire, the Phong, had been glassed to half their size, with only one system remaining, and by 2407.9, the last of the border system recon satellites were getting into place, to provide the Imperium with advanced warning of any enemy warp ship development along its border empires. It is expected that in the spring of 2408, that the Second Isolation will commence and complete, as Imperium space is made secure and finally isolated for its predicted Golden Age.

Confortably, the Imperium is protected from the rest of the galaxy by a 400+ly void directly to its east.

The Golden Age is expected to last 3-5 years, as 225k+ of research points are used to learn every possible science available to study, as well as finish the building and construction of two of the Imperium's crown jewels: the former Zosma and Rudrig asteroid belts, now being fully converted to heavily guarded monolithic resource production centers. Furthermore, the capstone of the Golden Age will be the clearing of the Iota Cet nebula, the creation of a star, and the building of a sphereworld.

Upon the controlled ending of the Golden Age, and the beginning of the Age of Conquest, Imperium explorers will be quite eager to see what the shape of the political landscape of the galaxy is like when it emerges from its protected cocoon.