The Evon Experience
by Alex Poff

Chapter 10 An Update on Draconis

We last visited Tovam and Keetal many cycles ago with the liberation of Draconis and the establishment of a new second area of space for our Empire. Labon had been finally decided to send Keetal back “north” through two systems (one barren, the other held by our Eolodi allies) to investigate the other “dark” system which lay to the east of the Eolodi system. This time, however, five Colony ships would follow Keetal’s forces, one cycle behind. We did not want to suffer the same fate as we had in Ursa, where almost all of the planets had been colonized by the Eolodi and we now had no presence whatsoever. Keetal would not be taking our most advanced ships, however. Draconis would be covered by Tovam, who would take over the fleet of more advanced Superdreadnoughts, while Keetal would take an older fleet of Dreadnoughts and some 1st generation Superdreadnoughts for the mission. Labon had decided that, based on previous Guardian encounters, Dreadnought class vessels would be more t han enough to do the job. In addition, the system itself was still well within the borders of our Eolodi ally, with no other alien presence anywhere nearby. Outside threats were non-existent at this time.

Upon entering the “dark system”, Keetal found exactly what he expected and was greatly disappointed. The Guardian protecting this system (now called Nazin) was dispatched rather handily, but Keetal had hoped for a more glorious battle. In addition, to his dismay, sensors picked up eight planets in the system, far more than we had planned for, with only five Colony ships en route. Keetal immediately called for three additional Colony ships to be dispatched from Draconis II, but they were three cycles away. Keetal did not expect the Eolodi to take that long. Keetal was correct. One cycle later, when our five Colony ships entered the Nazin system, the Eolodi had already “outposted” every planet in the system. Our five Colony ships were ordered to land immediately and with the next cycle completed we had been successful in colonizing only four of the eight planets. The other four had now been fully claimed by the Eolodi. Once again, the High Council was quite displeased but nothing coul d be done. The Eolodi were a race that our people, rightly or wrongly, did not want to go to war with. They were still quite powerful and we were now at war with the Nommo, Psilons, Trilarians, Meklar and Cynoid races. To add our allies to this long list would, at present, be a calculated risk that Lebak and Labon did not want to press. Instead, we decided to be optimistic about the entire affair. Had we not provided our people with four more beautiful planets to expand to? Indeed we had, and this was the political “spin” that was put on the entire affair and our people rejoiced in the news.

For the time being Keetal would remain posted in Nazin but Labon knew that sometime in the near future he would probably be calling on both he and Tovam to take their place in the fighting, now happening in the southeastern part of the galaxy. He had decided that the next stage of attack would be to the Maestrom system, through the jump lane from Juta. Maestrom still held one Meklar, one Trilarian and four Psilon planets and was still the entry point to the Meklar Empire. Labon was leaning towards complete extermination of the Psilons, and as far as he could tell, Maestrom was the last system held by the Psilons in this area of space. Their remaining systems were scattered in and amongst Eolodi and Tralaifa systems more closely situated near Tapau and Tuscanni. By taking Maestrom Labon would satisfy a two-fold directive; eliminate the Psilons there and establish his foothold in Meklar space. Once done, he could then concentrate on the Psilons final destruction closer to “home”. He gave the orde r to Coilis, now in Juta, to “Attack”. Capture as many useful planets as possible with Kaytapa’s Battleoids and destroy the rest, leaving them for further Empire expansion for our own people. Coilis was thrilled with the opportunity to return to Maestrom and exact more revenge. As they fired up their engines in Juta, he spoke to his friend and tactical officer, Dudam, “They will rue the day they stabbed us in the back. Death is coming, and I am eternal night.”