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Year 2325, Cash 1437 (+18): New mission, An emergency message is received on Victorious that pirates have been reported in the Antilae star system. These vermin have to be taken out quickly before they sense a weakness and spread. Captain Kermit orders the helm put over and piles on the speed to remove the scourge. Fortunately, Victorious has just left Sol-1, is fully operational, and is not far from the Anitlae system. The question now becomes, that, having neglected starship defenses and firepower for the new colony on Castor IV, will the small scout ship be strong enough to defeat a pirate?
2325, Research project #11, defensive standoffs. Pirates love to use these concussion weapons, and one has to be able to stop them. Ceramic armor is added to the city defenses of Sol-1.
As the Antilae star system comes into view, sensors have no trouble picking up the pirate ship. It is so easy simply because the ship is huge, a corvette  . The pirate ship is scanned, and interestingly, it appears to be in many ways similar to Victorious, with just an extra set of nuclear fighters and generators. Although short a set of fighters, Victorious still has its component of forward pack rockets. Captain Kermit studies his tactical options. The bulk of the corvette is simply too much for Victorious to hope to defeat one-on-one. His ship is currently the entire Amphibian navy fleet, and it will take many years, to build and outfit a 0% combat efficient gunboat sized starship. An even if Amphibia did, the gunboat starship would still be outgunned by the pirate. And pirates left alone have the nasty tendency to spread. He devises a plan. Victorious is at 96% combat efficiency, and will swoop in, fire off a few rounds, and then fly back to Sol-1 for a re-equip, while the pirate slowly loses effectiveness. Kermit determinedly barks out a set of orders, and Victorious boldly enters the fray. Her fighters launch first, and attack, getting in 2 shots, both blocked. The pirate launches its twin set of fighters and they ignore the fighters from Victorious and instead go after the scout ship. In seconds, using just 3 shots, Victorious is hit badly. Her hull is chewed up and is down to 34% survivability, and she is flying all sorts of colored warning flags. Amidst the chaos on the bridge, Captain Kermit orders an action break off. The fighters are recalled, but as they are far from Victorious, they may have to be sacrificed. The tiny scout starts to turn to break off, but the helm is very sluggish. Twenty pirate pilots bore in for the kill. Their concussion weapons open up with deadly accuracy, and the next two hits reduce Victorious to 20% survivability. Captain Kermit recognizes the obvious, and orders, "abandon ship", just before a pair of hits blows Victorious into space junk.
Back on Sol-1, the last transmission is received, and in the ensuing silence, Amphibia high command recognized that the battle was lost. There could be no survivors, as any who made it to the escape pods would be left drifting in space without hope of rescue. A commission is appointed into examining the causes of the loss of Victorious. Unlike most commissions, this one returns its report rather rapidly, with the following conclusions: (1) Captain Kermit actions were bold, if slightly foolhardy, and he is recommended for posthumous appointment to Rear Admiral; (2) the design of Victorious contained numerous flaws. There was inadequate understanding of the roll of shields and armor. Victorious needed shields, particularly laser or plasma shields to defend its hull against the type of weapons commonly used by planetary defenses and the pirate fighters. Behind this layer of shielding, Victorious also needed armor, at minimum, a set of ceramic armor. Had Victorious had these complementary systems in place, it might have survived its swoop and shoot plan. In reality, without these defenses, its hull was left completely vulnerable; (3) Amphibia's high command was also criticized for falling into the "bigger is better" trap. Rather than wait for a technological advance to allow the construction of bigger starships, Amphibia should have build a few more smaller ones. This would have increased the pace of space exploration and the acquisition of Wisdom. And, in the event a large warship invaded Amphibian space, the little ships could form up in a fleet action "wolf pack", quickly surrounding the big slow ship and pounding at its defenses from all aspects; and (4) it was not anticipated the the loss of Victorious would also result in the loss of the complete set of acquired artifacts. The most critical one was, of course, "summon ancient warship". Although there was a natural tendency to hoard this artifact, in fact, it should have been used to eliminate the pirate corvette. Although the Amphibians had gotten off to a slow start in their pace of space exploration, they did have 2 fine colonies, plenty of cash, and plenty of options available to deal with an uncertain future.
This report was read to the Amphibia high command, and afterwards a vote was taken on the fate of the space program. The pro-space party argued that enough cash was available to build a gunboat sized starship and to use it to throw out the pirate. The liberal party argued that it would take 10 years to build the gunboat, and another 12 years to outfit it. Moreover, the cost of such an enterprise would entirely gut the space budget. During the 22-25 years of the construction of this warship, the Amphibian colonies would be sitting in space, completely helpless. Current Wisdom is only at 65%, so even if the gunboat was lucky and took out the pirate, there would still be a long exploration program before the civilization would be able to advance to the next technology level. The results of the voting were announced. It was a complete victory for the liberal party, and as a result, Amphibia soon withdrew from space. The remaining cash in the budget was distributed to third world tadpole farms.
Postscript. I would have liked to have presented a document of battles between starfleets, of spies and alliances, of grand strategic decisions, but unfortunately, was not up to the task. Poor Amphibia never got out of the space exploration starting gate and flopped before its first real challenge. I thank the occasional reader who has followed this story with interest. It was not easy being green, and with some more practice and study, I may try again with a different civilization.
Ensign Oi
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Printable Version
It isn't easy being Green - 
famous Cuttlefish is, I will start this thread about the adventures of the Minervans, a green amphibian race. 
. One purpose is to give the random reader a feel for the game with its ups and downs. I intend to post the details at a rate of about one starship mission per day. 
have discovered rocket drive, and have decided to take the leap and to go into space. It is the year 2200, and their world "Sol-1" has assembled a budget of $4000 to build a scout and to go out and explore their vicinity. Astronomers report that they appear to be in the 11 o'clock position of a rather large galaxy, but only 1 star system is visible nearby. The Sol-1 star system is currently providing a pleasant $11/yr income, but this is peanuts compared the the millions that will be needed to operate a galactic navy. The Amphibian Council determines research project #1 to be a surface mine. Yes, it is not a weapon, or very exotic, but nothing helps the beginning of an adventure like a solid dependable cash flow. (Mines are worth $5/yr, equal to most star systems). 
. Finally a system of merit, and the Captain can only wonder at how well defended these planets must be compared to the struggle for Antilae. Planet one has only a single storm, easily taken out with one shot. Planet 2 is only slightly better defended with a pair of plaque mosses, that provide target practice for a brace of rockets. Planet 3, in contrast, has 4 storms 
. Fortunately for Victorious, they stay separated and the small scout is able to maneuver and shoot, and takes them out with only one spin out. The ship is rewarded with 2 combat maneuvers. Planet 4 has a pair of killer satellites, but now at 27% combat experience, they are as easy as shooting ducks for the forward rocket team. 
. Victorious is awarded 2 combat maneuvers. The second planet contains 3 more of the plasma bugs. Now confident that it can handle these creatures, Victorious aggressively enters their lair. Unfortunately, they form a defensive wedge, and the starship sails right into the worst possible position 
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