I decided to continue exploring and mapping the galaxy, ignoring the Zeveult for now. I ended up coming upon some more Lutin and Automata colonies before encountering a new alien, the Balathide. At first, the system looked empty, but upon probing it I was met by a rather disgusting looking grub like being. It asked me to lower my shields, and refused to engage further until I did. Reluctantly, I agreed. As soon as I had done so how ever, the repulsive alien informed me that it had put its grubs into my engine to incubate, and they would hatch out of my ship in several million years. I asked that it remove them, but it refused. Efforts by me to remove the grubs myself also proved fruitless. Wow, I find another free race and they’re totally useless.

I gave up and attempted another avenue. They had nothing to trade and would not sign a peace treaty, but they did have some information. They told me that each slave species is controlled by an enforcer, and the slave could be freed by destroying a certain enforcer base which I already knew. However, they went on to say that the Automata would cease to serve the Zeveult if given a Philanthropy Circuit, that I should not trust the Vorc, and that the Arch Zeveult could only be destroyed by a canon powered by a Neutron Secondary and are immune to all else.

Since I had gotten all I could out of them and could not seem to remove the grubs, I decided to abandon ship and take the escape pod back to base. After receiving my new ship, the Trailblazer 2, I set out once more.

After finding more Zeveult and Automata bases, I came upon the Trajan, who resemble a horde of ladybugs. They explained that they did not like their world, but lacked interstellar travel. So, they asked me to take them to another planet, specifically Rill Colony 2. Incidentally, the Trajan are slaves of the Zeveult and are controlled by the Rill. I agreed, but since I haven’t even met the Rill yet we’ll have to see how that goes. Sure enough, the entire Trajan race piled into my Trailblazer like I’m their goddamn colony ship. At least they’re not clogging up the engine room like the Balathide. What is with insectoid aliens taking such an interest in my ship? At least they traded with me first. But, after probing their now abandoned world, I found a habitable planet! Sweet! Humanity’s new home.

The next alien I encountered was the ZOR, strange block like creatures with a god complex who are Zeveult enforcers. They asked me to sacrifice to them, but it was kind of hard to understand because they spoke in biblical talk. “Thou hast yada yada.” They also looked the same on the communications screen as their ships do in space, so I believe that IS them and they’re just big enough to fight a battleship. I asked for a peace, and I think he returned my ship to its starting configuration in exchange, he gave me a boon of a Neutron Secondary in exchange for all the components in my weapons slots, (The ones he just GAVE me! What a dick!), and he asked me to destroy a Lutin base for some other reward. Cool, now I can blow up the Arch Zeveult if I find one, although I have to repair the ship first. There wasn’t much I could do with him after that, so I departed.

After encountering another Lutin base, I then came upon the Halicot, an alien race of cute little dogs. Like the Acari and Fel, they’re slaves of the Zeveult through the Automata, so they can’t trade or sign a peace treaty. They did mention the Philanthropy Circuit the Balathide mentioned that will make the Automata break free from the Zeveult’s control, but asked me to destroy Automata Colony 3 first to free them before they would give it to me. Hey dumbass, if you give me it now I could just free them without having to blow up their base first! Stupid little dogs. Ah well, I guess it’s never that easy. But hey, at least they let me refuel for free. I’ll have to come back when I’m strong enough to take on the Automata.

In the next system, I found the Rill, a rhinocerous like race who are another Zeveult enforcer and spoke in an odd slang that made them hard to understand. They didn’t have any information, and when I asked to trade they demanded a trade permit that I don’t have because I didn’t destroy the Acari ship for the Zeveult earlier.

Since I didn’t want to fight, I left. But I did notice this is Rill Colony 2, so at least I know where to bring the Trajan later.