Update 9: When Dominion Appears on the SceneOne turn passes since last update and Breen reject our trade treaties.
Next turn, and the fleet at Ferenginar had to chase away a Xindi cruiser, and even managed to dent it's hull a bit before it warped away.
This is quite an important message. It means that Miradorn joined the Romulans and in turn had to adopt the 'cold war' stance instead of open hostility. Terraforming and outpost construction continues on our newest borders, but development of Ferenginar is still behind the average.
Because Cpt.Pisskop's group returned from defending our new colony site, this time, the Xindi cruiser didn't escape.
Our breakthrough in Computers also allows us to upgrade our Constellations into Ambassador-class explorers. These are more powerful, better shielded ships that are now capable of traveling at yellow range, instead of green range. Constitution and Bellerophon, under command of Cpt.Cain and Cpt.Hanzoku respectively, are refitted as well. Until the modificatiosn are ocmplete, though, their damage resistance is minimal (in UDM mod, when a ship upgrades, it's HP falls to 10% as if it was damaged in battle. This is a balance thing.)
The Dominion. We're not sure what it is, besides the fact it is the fifth space-faring empire. Caldonians and Yridians admitted being in a brief contact with The Dominion, but are unwilling to divulge any information. Hmph.
Romulans make a monetary demand of 3440 credits, which we will rudely ignore. Romulan fleet now consisits of 39 vessels.
Woah woah woah. I'm surprised. I don't know if it was Dominionese bravery, or skills, or size of coffers, but they're now basically allies of the Klingons. Xindi just joined the Klingon Empire as well.
Nausicaan battle group finished the basic training program. Three of their warships were sent to join Ktarian-Zakdorn group at Xepolite, and the other six went up to reinforce our fleet at Ferenginar.
Next week, Cpt.Ivan sent us an urgent report about strangely high concentration of Trill, Xindi and Klingon ships, mostly small warships and transports, near Yridia. New England's sensors also detected strange gaseous lifeform. We advised Cpt.Ivan to warp away from Klingon border for the time being.
Oh, and we formed a trading treaty with Breen, at last.
One week later...
===
"AUDIO CONFERENCE ONLY."
"This is Captain Ivan speaking."
The President of the Federation pales at the sight of the scanner image, and then shifts in his chair.
"Go on."
"We have detected no less than fifty five starships coming from the eastern parts of our galaxy toward Klingon space. Fifty five, if not more, sir."
"Designation? Size? Allegiance?"
"We canno-" Static rushes through the transmission for a while. "-and I think they're trying to jam our signal, sir. What are your ord-" More static.
President Haspen leans into his chair, his left hand twiching slightly.
"Remain on your position, Cpt.Ivan. Report directly to Starfleet if you get any more information about-"
The signal cuts off abruptly.
===
So basically I've witnessed greatest concentration of warships in this playthrough. The bottom-right question mark has list of 'unknown ships' so long that I can scroll and scroll and it still shows up more ships. I think I've counted fifty five, and I could've missed few, so 55-60 ships is the best guess. Given the size of the armada, we can guess that Dominion is sending help to Klingons.
For what purpose? I think it's better to not think about it...
For comparison, Romulan fleet is 40 ships, mostly destroyers and scouts, and our combined Starfleet is barely 23 ships. God have mercy on us v:
Game loves kicking my ass at random intervals. Because of bad luck, it killed all of the Kenda system population, which means we lost all the buildings there, which means we have to re-colonize the system from scratch. Goddamit.
Same turn we get last of Level-6 techs, the Weapons, which upgrades our Soyuz-class starships to Miranda-refit class. Slight improvements all across the board, but it's still nice thing.
Tellarites joined the Federation! As you can see, they are quite advanced.
Cpt.Ivan's report states that most of the 'grand unknown fleet' is now mostly parked at the system we think is Qo'nos, Klingon homeworld. Few ships are scattered across neighbouring regions, and a group of 4 unknown vessels are currently at Ankaa, the rallying point of any previous Klingon intrusions into Ferenginar system.
Week later we got report from Ivan, again: outpost at Qo'nos vanished, much of fleet scattered, and only the Gaseous Lifeform remains there. Haa!
Benzar is slowly turning into ship-production moloch - we're 2/3 through replicator construction and the industry rank is already at 2k points. Currently, Zakdorn system is producing 3 Ambassadors for Ferengi defenders, +another defense group is in the queue.
This is the only thing of note that happens the next week.
At Turn 111, Ferenginar Defense Fleet pulverizes one of 4 warships that intruded into the system. Soon we learn those belong to Gorn, warlike traders. We find out they are military affiliates of Klingons. A suitable match, one could say.
Uh, triple bad news. At least that comet didn't kill all of the colonists.
From good news, we just finished upgrading mass replicators at Sol, so we should be making new ships in no time.
Time for a break.