So the Peoples Republic of Haven, a military dictatorship of xenophile (yes, phile) fanatical militarists, has recovered from the "surprise Fallen Empire" I had mentioned a few pages back.
Over the next 30 years we have regained all the territories that we have lost to opportunistic empires. The smaller ones we have conquered and integrated into our society, the largest one we have turned into our vassal.
The PRoH grew large, spreading from almost the exact south of our ring shaped universe, where the powerful Fallen Empire blocked passage, to the exact west where we met with the dogged resistance of 2 allied avian nations. We had over 40 planets under our direct control, with almost 15 more under the control of our vassal.
It came as a shock to us when we noticed the signs that some...thing came our way from another universe. We had almost 10 years to prepare ourselves, then the first scouts arrived almost in the center of our Peoples Republic. The capital system and Gaston, our largest shipyard, were attacked, but Capital Fleet (11k combat power) and 2nd Fleet (10k) repelled the attack. 3rd and 4th Fleet were not as lucky and we lost 4 systems when the invaders managed to build orbital fortresses before the surviving fleets could be repaired and sent in to intervene.
Then the main force arrived. There were dozens of fleets, the smallest one as large as Capital Fleet, 2nd Fleet and the 1st Swarm of our vassal combined. The battle was hopeless. We lost system after system, the capital was one of the first, and won only one battle when the survivors of Capital Fleet drew one of the invader fleets into the combined fire of Gastons fortresses.
Thus the great evacuation begann. Thanks to our inproved wormholes we were able to jump past the Fallen Empire blocking the south and into the unsettled space beyond.
As the invaders consumed more and more of our planets we fled. Soon we had settled over 20 systems behind the barrier that was the xenophobic FE.
The invaders slowly consumed most of our old holdings (only the 5 planets closest to the FE survived), our vassal and several of our member races were driven to extinction and even the avian alliance lost most of its territory before the juggernaut stopped.
We have rebuilt, spreaded further into the west and grown again to almost 70 systems. The new capital, it was our 5th or 6th by now, Pollux had 4 habitable planets. 150 years have passed since the invaders appeared (~300 years since the game started). We now have 4 Fleets of over 40k combat power each plus another 40k of fortresses in each Pollux and the gateway system east of the FE. The first empire we met in the west was a gigantic empire of theocratic fox people that we have vassalized after a long and bloddy war, who have around 30k of ships in their own right.
I think we're finally ready to bring war back to the invaders. Or maybe get ourselves a shiny ringworld and connect the eastern and western part of the Peoples Republic.
Decisions in Ironman games are hard.
(I think I didn't enjoy a spess 4X so much since Imperium Galactica 2. I'm already at 45 hours...)