//------------------------------// // Civilization; Beyond Earth, Game 2; Rising Tide // Story: Let's play some games with Leon, Luna, and Eddy // by Fireheart 1945 //------------------------------// "Hopefully this goes better than our previous endeavor," Twilight said as the game began to start. "You mean with the aliens overrunning a bunch of things and destroying them? Yeah," Leon said. "Let's try not to destroy our own civilizations." "Oh, come on," Eddy said, having connected. "If we're not killing aliens, we'll be killing each other. Better to deal with the threat to everyone than with each other." "That assumes that no state of peace can exist," Luna said. "And I seriously doubt that will be the case." "At least we get to start with the new Rising Tide DLC," Rainbow added. "This is going to be epic!" "Indeed. I'll be the host," Luna said. "We'll choose our factions and all that once you've all joined." Leon joined quickly. He chose Franco-Iberia again, along with engineers, an extra population, and the ability to see advanced resources off the bat. Luna had chosen a map with the usual continents, so there would be water and land civilizations. Naval combat had been remodeled. Instead of just carriers and dreadnaughts, there were now submarines and smaller patrol boats that were, in essence, melee units. Cities could be built on water now, and the diplomacy had been almost completely reworked, so it wasn't a copy of Civ 5 diplomacy anymore. There were also new factions, along with a diplomatic currency that could be expended to aid in diplomatic matters or to build units and upgrade the faction. "I'll take the North Sea Alliance," Eddy said. "Britons at last." "Actually, I think they're Scandinavian," Leon said. "Oh what, really? Well, closer, I guess." "I'll be INTEGR," Twilight said. "Brasilia," Rainbow said simply. "Going to pound me some aliens... and any of you that decide to get in my way." "I'll be the Kavithan Protectorate," Luna answered. "Franco-Iberia," Leon finished. "Frenchie going French again." "I swear, Ed, if you twit me about that again-" "That will be quite enough of that," Luna warned. "I'll not start this off by having you both shouting your heads off at each other. This game is going to remain civil, or I'll boot both of you out - with an iron shod hoof, I may add. Is that clear?" "Yes, Princess," Leon and Eddy both mumbled. "Good. Now, to actually get the game rolling." "Any special rules this time?" Eddy asked. "Yes. No attacking another player until 100 turns have passed. This excludes the AI, aliens, and stations. Also, no cursing or bad sportsman - and pony - ship." "And no arrow to the knee jokes," Leon put in. "That's a paddling." Luna laughed. "Just for fun, I'll leave that up there," she said. "Other than that, you may play as you like. I'm starting the game now." Leon waited - impatiently - as the loading screen came up. Although the screens didn't just display random galaxies, stars, and planets anymore, it was still boring. When the green button finally showed up, he hit it without hesitation. His starting location wasn't all that bad; an a ocean tile with algae, with some Chitin and Tubers. He decided he was satisfied, and landed. His city set up immediately, and he chose to start work on an Old Earth Relic; culture was extremely valuable, and necessary to get more virtues. He sent his scout to look around. "Kinda sucks that the scouts never get upgrades, or even experience," Eddy said sadly. "It makes sense, though," Luna replied. "They're really only useful in the first two hundred turns or so. After that, they're just fancy toothpicks. And in this game, the only thing they could upgrade into is a stronger scout, which would still be weaker than the average infantry unit of the same Affinity level." "They'd still be stronger against the aliens." "True. Still, the aliens become less of an issue later on, though, unlike Civ 5 barbarians, they remain in the game until the end." "I've seen barbarians survive until the end of the game," Leon objected. "Usually on ice tiles that you can't invade or settle on, so you can't kill the camp outright, though you can blow up the units on top of them." "Oh, of course. But except for arctic holdouts like them, barbarians fade out. And I wonder what would happen if you nuked the camp. I've never bothered to waste a nuclear weapon on such a camp, but I'm mildly curious to find out what would happen." Leon managed to get a couple of resource pods and finish the OER. He started on a Clinic right away. "Got a couple nests not far from me," Rainbow said. "Can't wait to get started on them." Her hooves made a loud clunk! as they collided. "Please don't kill so many that they turn orange this time," Twilight asked. "Or red." "Hey, no worries." "I always worry when it comes to you in Civillization games." "Excuse me, could anyone tell me what the... er, dickens these ocean plant things are?" Eddy asked. "The Hydrocoral. Um, I think they just block you," Leon answered. "But they won't damage your units except in self defense. "Oh, so just naval range firing range targets?" "Uh, sure. Just don't melee them." "Ah, got it." Leon saw a bit of Hydrocoral not far away from his own capital. Unlike Eddy, though, it wouldn't be a big problem. A couple factions, especially the North Sea Alliance, specifically excelled at naval settlement. Leon could have chosen to settle on water if he wanted to, but in this case, with ample land resources in sight, he wasn't going to make it a priority, though it would be an option he could pursue later if necessary, or if he decided to. Naval exploration would be higher on the list of priorities, but not settlement. He discovered another resource pod, completing a quest and gaining some energy, culture, and science. The bonus was small, but it would still help. "Hold on, why can't we negotiate with each other?" Luna asked, sounding confused. "It's part of the DLC," Leon replied. "Have to physically see each other before being able to communicate, like older Civs." "Oh. That's unexpected, but I suppose it might be more balanced, or at least add challenge to the game. Hoping to see how the new diplomacy works." "There's a new diplomatic currency as well," Twilight noted. "You get it - and can lose it - in diplomatic deals, as well as from certain buildings." "Ah. That will be interesting." "You can use it to improve your own civilization, as well as add certain perks and upgrade them." "Oh, that's very nice. Would you mind showing me how to do it? I'm not yet used to Rising Tide." While Twilight ran Luna through the motions, Leon produced a soldier unit and attacked a Wolf Beetle that had wandered near his capital. The alien unit was reduced to 21 HP with the combination of the unit attack and city bombardment. The alien countered on its own turn by attacking, only to be destroyed. "Interesting. Diplomatic capital. And you say it can improve my faction's unique ability?" Luna asked, still in conversation with Twilight. "Yes. And the diplomacy has received a complete overhaul. Some of the bonus that you choose, which can be domestic, military, and productive in origin, influence the treaties you can make with other factions. You can also sped diplomatic capital to increase or decrease your relationship with them. The lowest you can go is war, the highest is an alliance." "So if I decided to go to, say, Edward or Leon's picture and raise our relationship to 'cooperative', that means..." "You would have increased the options available in the diplomatic process. If you raised the relationship to allied, if you got attacked by anyone, your ally would automatically join you. Of course, the same goes for you." "Hmm. Being forced to fight when it's not my decision to is rather repugnant to me." "I feel that way too. When I'm playing with the AI, I get stuck in some stupid war that I can't get out of. I'm hoping that anyone we choose to ally ourselves with is willing to take that into consideration," Twilight answered, putting emphasis on the last few words. "Oh, I'm sorry, did you say something?" Eddy asked. "Urgh!" Leon found an alien nest with his scout, presumably the one where the Wolf Beetle had come from. He wasn't overjoyed by its existence; a Harmony player might be, but Leon was not a Harmony player. His scout got attacked by the unit defending the nest as well, which did nothing to change his opinion. Sullenly, he withdrew. I'll be back, and next time, you are going down. "Aaah! Siege worm next to my capital!" Twilight cried out. "Ha ha!" Eddy laughed. "Next time build on water!" "That's not funny, Ed," Leon said. "Why no- oh, bugger, Kraken!" "That's why." "Maybe next time you'll think before you start shooting off your mouth," Luna advised. "So, Twilight," she continued, "do the faction leaders have any sort of personality now?" "Oh, yes," the unicorn answered. "INTEGR's leader is impressed with people who have high levels of technology and science, and there's one - Barre or Hutama or somebody - whose respect increases if you're getting a lot of gold per turn." "Hang on, respect?" "Oh, of course, you wouldn't know. There's another side to diplomacy; fear and respect. Respect increases or decreases if you're doing something another faction likes, while fear increases or decreases depending on your military might. Nations with low respect and fear for you will eventually degrade their relationship with you. On the other hoof, or hand, if you guys are listening, someone who has a high level of respect of you will increase, or be more willing to accept an increase, in your relationship. Someone with a high fear of you is more likely not to attack you, and will be more willing to give in to... well, imperialistic or tyrannical demands." "I see," Luna said. "A lot has been added." "Including more alien species," Rainbow put in. I've got these... whatever you call 'ems snooping around my capital." "Scarabs. They're even weaker than the Wolf Beetles," Leon said. "Whatever they are, Rainbow Dash is gonna deal with 'em." "Yeah, you go ahead and do that." A Kavithan unit passed by Le Coeur, Leon's capital. "Hello, Leon," Luna said cheerfully. "Hey." "Good for horses, better for cows," Luna chucked. "And delicious for ponies." "Heh, though considering I've never seen you or Celestia eat it, how would you know?" "The show doesn't display every aspect of our lives. For example, it rarely shows ponies with horseshoes nailed to their hooves, but those are more common than you've been lead to believe. Likewise, the Equestrian royalty does eat hay, though probably less than the general citizenry, and admittedly we do have access to better food, or at least more varieties of it. In the meantime, would you like to sign a cooperative agreement?" "I think that would be agreeable to both of us." Leon signed the agreement that came up, and then searched for sources of titanium nearby; not really for the resource itself, but for the extra production it would provide. He found one, but it had no other resources within the circle of territory the settlement would initially produce. There were more further away, but there were also a couple alien nests in close proximity. To build a city in that location, while somewhat desirable, would yield a lot of short-range frustration, though potential long-range fruit. He decided to skip that spot for now, and looked elsewhere. "Any developments in Canterlot lately?" Eddy asked. "Or in Equestria as a whole?" "Ah, yes. Well, as you know there was a crisis regarding the Changelings and their Queen recently." "Yeah, I remember talking about that." "We've managed to expand on the diplomatic deal we made. A number of ponies and changelings will be, shall we say, trading spaces? Its a sort of cultural exchange program. We see how their society works, they see how ours works." "Isn't that kind of ripping them off? Obviously, they've had access to Equestria before, possibly years or even decades, if not centuries." "It's rather hard to argue that point when Equestria's finest was recently knocking on your front door, guns drawn and ready." "Well, how will you know that the party you send will be safe?" Leon asked. "Oh, we'll have Guards accompany them, and they're to send messages by magic every few hours to make sure they're safe. The changeling party will also have its own escort. And, as I've said, we've recently made a pretty big show of force to Chrysalis, so, while no doubt she'll have some treachery in mind, its unlikely that she'll carry it out." "Yeah, but can't the changelings fake the letters?" "That's the genius of it; the letters will have a secret, invisible stamp on them that will reveal whether or not they were sent by the appropriate party. If they do take the observers prisoner and attempt to fake the letters, we'll know immediately what they've done. Only the Guards know about it, and they wouldn't tell anypony, or anyone, for that matter, even if their lives were at stake. We'll have our army march on them, and this time it will come to war, with a much higher penalty than we imposed initially, with occupation and the removal of Chrysalis, however that might be accomplished, from power." "Okay. But still, that's allowing them to have more access to higher-end technology, like the computers we're currently using." "We - that is to say, Celestia, Cadence and I - have discussed this and other potential, foreseeable troubles. Even though they'll indeed have greater access to technology now, we've have had it and understood it longer than they have, which will leave us with a significant lead. And, might I add, we'll have numbers on our side and remain alert. The Royal Guard isn't going to be caught napping again." "Hmm." "I know, its a controversial deal, and its not popular. But we want to create a lasting peace, and that means both sides have to give a little. And we're not going to wipe out a whole species just to have that peace; that would turn us into the very monsters we were fighting, or even worse." "Twilight, you've been rather quiet during all this; did you know about it?" Ed asked "I did," the unicorn answered. "I wasn't thrilled. But I trust my friends, regardless of how high or low they are in power. I'm not going to protest about it further than I already have unless the changelings go back on their word." Leon didn't answer. He wasn't sure whether this was a good idea, but then, he hadn't been asked. He decided to just keep playing. Another alien chose to come up toward his city; it got blasted by the defenses, and then was rushed by the soldiers near the city. "How long do you think it'll be until they unleash another DLC for the game?" Eddy asked. "I don't know," Leon answered. "The reception of this game was less positive than Civ 5, so its anyone's guess whether or not they're going for another DLC on the level of Rising Tide or if they're working on Civ 6." "Not sure what they could do to make it better than Civ 5. I'd say that game's going to be the favorite for Civ players for a long time." "Of course, when it comes to video games, a game only stays 'cool' for maybe a couple years. Then its on to something new, which is kinda frustrating. I mean, instead of unleashing all these new consoles on the world, why not just release more DLC for games that already exist, and add more gameplay and aspects of gameplay to stuff that's already out there? I want to get Toy Soldiers; War Chest, but means getting an Xbox One, when I have a perfectly good Xbox 360 that could either be upgraded or updated or something." "You could sell the 360." "With all the stuff I've got on it? Nope. I doubt they'll be able to move all the downloaded stuff from my XBL file onto the new console, and even then, how many of the games that I've got are actually going to be able to play on the XB One, backwards compatibility considered?" "Heh, good point. And yeah, it's kind of rubbish to pay a price that high when you've already got a 'Box that works right." "And they waste all that energy making new games when they could just expand the old. I mean, how many Halo games are out there now? They could have just unleashed more DLC for one to expand for half a decade or more, instead of just ditching a good game after a year or two. I'm still ticked that because of the mentality of the video game companies that the whole hacker problem for Call of Duty games is un-dealt with, just because the games in question are a few years old." "Oh boy, don't get me started on them. Played COD 5 the other day, and these guys all came flying, shooting their fingers off and half-way buried in the ground. Seriously, they need to take responsibility for any game people still play, even if its years old. But you're not going to change minds alone, Leo. Game companies tend to be about the money, not the quality or playability of older games." "Hold on, another alien." After zapping it with soldier units, Leon went on, "I guess that's true. Still, I get ticked when I see a perfectly nice game for the Xbox One that I can't get simply because I don't have the right console." "Ah, money, money, money. Always needed, and yet somehow always lacking when needed." "I hope the recession isn't hurting you guys that bad." "...Well, personally my family and I are still well off, but I've seen some poor homeless buggers on the streets, and you know that's a bad sign anywhere." "Yeah. I've seen some too; poor guys. I know that some people out there are faking it, but there are plenty who aren't. The world has plenty of food and money to eliminate or at least severely limit poverty, if only people used it properly. I guess I shouldn't be talking; I mean, if any of us knew how to use money right, then what are we doing here?" "Having a good time as friends," Luna injected. "Though I concede the point. And it's not just your world that struggles." "Don't tell me the recession has spread to you guys?" "No, not really. But Equestria isn't a perfect country either, regardless of how its depicted in the show. I'm glad some of the more recent episodes have picked up on that; as in your lands, there are people and ponies who are homeless and poor, and ponies that are rich and just don't care. Prince Blueblood... I'm almost ashamed to consider him my nephew. Don't get me wrong; I still love him, and he's family, after all, but his concern is for his own status in life, not for those who really need aid. I have hopes that my sister and I can reform him, but it will be a slow and perhaps painful process. In the meantime, we're doing what we can to help, but we cannot be everywhere at once, and we do face opposition; not on the surface perhaps, but rather... oh, how do I put this...?" "Underground?" Leon suggested. "Criminal underworld?" Eddy said. "Sub-surface?" Twilight replied. "All of the above explain it a bit, but without the literal underground that they all suggest. Ponies paint one face, nodding with us on the one hoof, while under that mask they reject our reforms." "Ah, I get it." "The fact is, in this life, we'll always have people who refuse to share their plentiful wealth and resources that could be used to help the world's problems." Leon's hand made its way to the cross hanging around his neck. In this life... "Even so, there are those willing to share what little they have so that others might know some measure of abundance, however little that is." "Rarity gave a sizable amount of bits to an orphanage yesterday," Twilight said. "Not everypony who has money is stingy with it." "No indeed, and I'm grateful to her. But my heart would rest easier if there were more out there like her." Leon got his first colonist unit out, and began moving it to the desired location, guarded by a soldier. "How's her business holding up, anyway?" "Well, its expanded slightly since our first - or at least, first official - contact meeting with humanity," Twilight said. "She's made dresses for human women as well as mares, which has increased profits, albeit not as much as she had hoped." "I see." "Is there any truth to the idea that Equestria is a feminist society?" Eddy asked. "Whoa, Ed, where did that come from?" Leon asked, surprised and a little shocked. "Hey, I've seen females in charge of just about everything, and a couple friends told me to ask, and since we're talking about Rarity only making things for women-." "Certainly not," Luna said, shocked. "The fact that I, my sister, and Princess Cadence are mares is because, for whatever reason, we were born that way. Equestria is not, never was, and I dearly hope never becomes a society as such. There are plenty of stallions in charge of cities and businesses, and if either Celestia or I had been born as one, we would have had equal rights. Naturally, since the show was intended by Hasbro to reach an audience of young girls and early teenage girls, Equestria seems that way. Please rest assured it is not." "Might want to remember that answer in our next livestream," Leon advised. "I think that's a big question people have, or else a misconception we can dispel." "I'll consider it. I suppose its inevitable." Leon chewed up a few more aliens, then collected a couple more resource pods. "Oh, got an artifact," he said with surprise. "A what?" "Oh right, another new thing. Well, if you get three of them and combine them together, it will invent a building that you can then build in your cities. Not sure if what you get is random or not. There are three types; Human, alien and Progenitor. You usually stumble upon human relics in resource pods or get them as a result of a quest, I think. Alien and Progenitor artifacts are found by exterminating nests and searching ruins, respectively." "Oh, so there's a reason to kill alien nests now than for just securing your borders. That's interesting," Luna replied, clearly deep in thought. "Yes, but don't go hog-wild killing aliens," Twilight broke in. "We don't want them to turn orange, or worse, red." "Who cares how ticked the aliens get?" Eddy asked. "More experience! Well, if you have fences in every city, that is." "Not going to answer that. Go ahead with that, if you want to," Twilight answered, clearly a little annoyed. "Just don't get angry at us if we decline to trade with you or anything." "Ah, I don't need anyone else to win! I can go it alone!" "Aha aha, right. Try telling yourself that later." Leon watched the alien nest near the potential city location carefully with his Explorer. "Still say these guys would lose against Civ 5 scouts," he said. "The Explorers?" Luna answered. "In terms of the game mechanics... possibly. But in real life I doubt it. They have guns; scouts have sticks." "But at least they could deal with barbarians and be upgraded," Leon argued. "These guys just move, sit around, and die; no upgrades." "I believe we've talked about this before. It probably won't change." "Alright. Still, it's so infuriating when you're trying to excavate something and aliens just decide to murder you just because an alien nest is nearby." "It is, but my point holds." Leon killed another Scarab unit that was blocking the way, then placed the colonist in its location and hit the button. Now all it was going to take was time... and patience, which was rarely in good supply for Leon. "Another alien nest pulverized," Rainbow announced. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Rainbow," Twilight warned. "Do you want to be swarming with aliens?" "Relax, egghead; I've got one of those fence things up; they can't touch me." "They have other ways of doing damage. Until you get the event for your trade convoys, they'll be in danger, and they be in even greater danger if..." Twilight stopped. "Wait, you didn't go for the +1 range on the fence already, did you?" The silence said it all. "Ugh... Never, ever, ever, ever go with that decision! All it does is keep aliens out of your city's range of tiles that it can use, and your military can do that! now your trade units will be vulnerable forever!" "Ok, so maybe I goofed up... once. It won't happen again." "How many times have we heard that?" While Twilight and Rainbow began to argue, Leon eyed the nearby nest. It was two tiles away from the outpost he'd just founded, and he knew the aliens weren't going to sit around, regardless of his intentions toward them. fortunately, he had a Ranger coming up, though it was a couple turns away, which would help bombard aliens that were actually in range, but until then, the two soldiers - soon to upgrade to marines, once he completed a task that involved an affinity reward - were on their own. Lacking any other real action, Leon looked at the Kavithan side of the map. Luna was doing well; her unique ability allowed her to gobble up tiles faster than other civilizations, and she had already founded an outpost. While there were alien nests nearby, he was confident that she would either clear them out or handle - hoofle? That sounded weird - the attacks. When it was his turn again, he moved his Ranger closer to the outpost, then formed a barrier with the soldiers he had. It wasn't impressive, but it would do. It would have to, considering that a couple Wolf Beetle units had moved into attacking positions. On their turn, they attacked, doing damage to each of the defending units, but the line held out. Leon had both his units heal, which would also place them into a defensive stance. As he fought off the alien attacks, he heard Luna speaking. "Our relations with the buffalo have always been shaky, but the recent meeting has dropped the chances of trouble." "You mean they're not going to stampede all the way to Canterlot and flatten the town?" "Ha ha, Edward. No, they will not try that. But we have to give them some leeway, even if our armies now possess modern weaponry. They have some valid concerns about their land, and our settlements in the south and west. The Crown's control is not as solid there as it is in most of Equestria, and for the simple reasons that those settlements are on the frontier, as far away as the pioneers could settle and still technically be under Equestrian rule." "I'm assuming there are reasons for that," Leon put in, fighting off the aliens again. "They probably don't want to pay taxes, and in frontier towns..." "Well, yes, that's one of the reasons; as I said, our control of those areas isn't solid and grounded as it is in, say, Canterlot, Ponyville, and Manehattan. Another is that the settlers often didn't, and often still don't, check with the local buffalo tribes to make sure the land they plan to settle on isn't a traditional burial ground or stampeding trail." "And you're trying to reassert control over the frontier towns." "That's one of the things we're trying to do, as well as redirect settlement. Unfortunately, some ponies think that if land isn't settled, then it isn't claimed or used right, and they then believe that they have the right to settle where they please. Luckily, I've assured the buffalo that their tribe's land will not be settled, and that if our will in this is disobeyed, we shall force the settlers to move. I may respect their independent spirit, but that doesn't mean I will tolerate direct disobedience." Leon managed to kill off the two aliens attacking his troops, but more would be coming. Another enemy unit spawned in the nest. On the bright side, the ranger managed to get inside the outpost and fire, knocking the aliens' health down. "At least there's some sort of nomadic structure in the game now," Eddy said. "I can move my city wherever I want to." "Just be careful," Twilight advised. "There are a lot of water-borne aliens. As for being nomadic, I'm afraid that the Civilization game engine just isn't made for that. Native American civilization were mostly nomadic, but in the games they have to settle just like every other faction." "Rise of Nations does a bit better," Leon said. "The Lakota can build things on any land that isn't already claimed." "That's still inaccurate, considering that nomads have no permanent structures. Crusader Kings 2 comes closest out of any game I can readily think of for anything close to true nomadic lifestyle." Leon battered the alien guarding the nest with the Ranger again, then crushed it with his soldiers and pillaged the nest. "Finally, a little safety for my outpost." "At the cost of the aliens. Weren't we just talking about the buffalo and Native Americans?" "Native Americans could barter. The aliens can't, and don't. Neither do Barbarians in Civ 5." "It's kind of weird, don't you think, that we come to their planet and call them the aliens?" "I've had that idea before," Luna injected. "Considering that the original word 'alien' means something strange or foreign, I think it fits, though more so if the aliens use the word against us, assuming they have some form of language." "Obviously, they have some form of communication, because they all get mad at the same time if you kill too many of them," Twilight said. "I think it's more the concept of a hive mind, so to speak, as opposed to verbal communication," Luna answered. "Somewhat like the changelings, though the latter can and do use verbal language, including one of their own." "The original game was a lot more hectic," Leon said. "Alpha Centauri, I mean. The aliens were really terrifying then, both in description and in how many would come at you, as well as how powerful they got. Eventually they'd actually grow to be a match for your most advanced military units. The ones in this game are just glorified Barbarians, even if they do cooperate and some of them are powerful. They don't grow as a threat in scale to your military; eventually, your level of alignment just turns them into target practice." "I've played the original game once," Eddy said. "Leo's right; they're scary there. And the random events that happened effected the game more." "How so?" Twilight asked as Leon began building a trade convoy. "There was one where something screwed up communications so you couldn't negotiate with other factions. Another made the aliens reproduce at an insane rate." "Oh, yikes." "Yeah. And that's without all the stuff the other factions got up to. Space China hated everyone." Leon continued to explore, knocking out aliens and recovering resource pods. "How is everyone holding up?" Luna asked. "I'm fine," Rainbow said. "Just have to get more production; my capital is a little bare when it comes to hammers." "I'm doing okay," Twilight replied. "Although I have a lot of miasma to work through, and a lot of forested hills to pass." "Got a few ocean-going aliens, but other than that I'm doing fine," Eddy said. "My navy is up to the task." "Meh, got some aliens to BBQ, but I'm going to be alright," Leon replied. "Ah, very good. I wouldn't get excited yet, though; there are AI factions to meet." "Who cares?" Eddy asked. "I love stomping the computer." "They have been set to a high difficulty standard," Luna warned. "They'll be able to out-produce you even if they can't out-fight you." "More experience. And you only get so much for killing aliens." Leon sent his convoy out to a new settlement that Luna had established. There were no alien nests in the vicinity of the trade route, but he knew they could be roaming around anywhere. He got started on building a hypersonic fence. A faint knock came over the headset. "Yes, what is it?" Luna said, her voice muffled; she'd taken her headset off. A voice answered, too faint for Leon to make out, which went on for some time. There was a faint groan, and then, "Yes, tell my sister I'll be there soon. No, I don't know exactly, just tell her I'm coming." "Oh great," Leon moaned. "I'm afraid so," Luna said, putting her headset back on. "It seems that there has been some trouble in Cloudsdale; a gang of pegasi criminals have been caught and brought to Canterlot for trial; it is my duty, as well as my sister's to oversee and judge the case." "Just deport them and skip the case," Eddy suggested. Luna snorted. "I'm afraid I can't do that. Ours may be an absolute monarchy, but we have laws to follow, and it would be hypocritical for us to ignore laws that we've passed just for the sake of our own convenience." "Why not leave it up to the civil authorities?" Leon asked. "Because this captured gang, or some of its members, anyway, are believed to be responsible for assault and battery against a group of ambassadors, thereby making the case one of national importance." "Oh," Leon replied. "That changes things a bit." "Oh, just a little," Luna answered sarcastically. "Nonetheless, I must go, even though I'd rather stay here and continue playing. I'll save the game, though, so that we can continue at a later date. No promises as to when we'll meet again; it all depends on how this case goes. A fond farewell and good night to you all."