The struggle against the Great Khan continues: the first empire surrenders to the Horde...
[This one also hurt on a meta level, as my girlfriend created the Londinum Star Empire, so I naturally make a point of including it in my playthroughs. She doesn't play Stellaris herself, but she enjoys the story/RPG aspects of the game, including creating empires with me, as it's similar to creating characters in RPG's.] Calling them "spineless cowards" for becoming a satrapy of the Khan might be a little unfair, however. They didn't exactly have much of a choice -- or a chance...
[This screenshot doesn't really do it justice (especially since i don't have a "before and after" comparison, unfortunately), but Londinium has lost fully half its territory to the Lavan Horde (the Great Khan), including their capital of Elizabeth. To date, they have -- by far -- borne the brunt of the Khan's brutal expansion.] In the Xikksei's Doom system (formerly owned by Londinium), two of my subject states fight a losing battle against a more powerful Horde fleet. Brave idiots...
[To be fair, this was entirely my fault for forgetting to set my fleets to "Take Point": Without that command, allied fleets go willy-nilly as they wish, which can lead to them ending up in bad situations, like this one.] ...Yet perhaps they're smarter than I was giving credit for. I belatedly realize that securing control of an additional secondary L-Gate system would be a good thing.
Besides, they *are* my vassals, after all. I wouldn't be a very good benevolent overlord if I just let them die...
[GERONIMO!!] Victory!! And a wonderfully lop-sided one, at that.
[Now the *real* battle begins...]