The attack on Dictator Yuri Grom’s forces last cycle left his power with negative Command Capital (CC), allowing all nineteen turmoiled systems the freedom to revolt and become fully independent. Grom’s reduced system count has lowered his overheads in remaining systems, making him more resilient against further attack. While his power is still at a deficit, only three systems are in turmoil at the moment. GalNet shows increased fortification efforts from Grom’s forces and at this stage predicts a positive CC result at the end of the cycle which would end the turmoil, although there is still fierce fighting in many systems, and the situation is extremely fluid.
The other powers in the Galaxy lost no time in wooing the newly-independent systems to join their causes. Grom’s long-time adversary Pirate King Archon Delaine has launched a massive offensive, investing 140,000 merits in the preparation of Madyanmana. Simguru Pranav Antal is preparing Alrai Sector HR-W c1-13 with a rather more modest investment of 9,000 merits. Both preparations target Grom’s old Boga control system. As they are within 15 ly of each other, only one can succeed. A successful expansion by the Kumo Crew here will contest Utopia for 18 CC.
President Zachary Hudson took advantage of Grom’s loss of BD+43 2989 in the previous cycle to prepare NLTT 46403, and is expanding hard there with a current lead of nearly 100,000 merits. He is currently preparing Rho Capricorni with an investment of 14,000 merits. All these ex-Grom systems are extremely profitable, and as most of the other powers have yet to make significant moves in preparation, we may see some fierce preparation races develop in the next few days over these newly liberated systems.
Elsewhere in the Galaxy, Hudson successfully expanded to the system of Ptah, costing him 33 CC, but also removing 38 CC from Denton Patreus and blocking further fighting in that bubble for the time being. Li Yong-Rui’s disastrous and expensive expansion to Tsongoris, suspected by many to be the work of saboteurs, was defeated by a strong last-minute opposition. Shadow President Felicia Winters expanded to the marginally profitable HIP 39908 without significant opposition, and is currently expanding to the slightly more profitable Belgitan with a lead of 120,000 merits.
Despite a fierce offensive, Zemina Torval’s attempted weaponised expansion to Areklici was defeated by 38,000 merits, a move that would have cost her 70 CC and Winters 39 CC. She also has an expansion underway to Mado, with nearly identical costs to herself and Winters. This is the second attempt at this expansion, and she is currently trailing the opposition by 25,000 merits. Torval also faced a barrage of undermining last cycle that left her perilously close to turmoil, giving her only 76 CC to spend on preparation this cycle which will severely limit her options.
As always, much can change in the last few days of the cycle, so keep your eyes on GalNet.
Sagittarius Eye Breaking News team