Had a dream today wherein I was doing a Stellaris thing. It didn't get the mechanics very right; I had a pretty sizable empire and only one neighbour discovered: isolationist fallen empire that I bordered on but should have been able to take on. For some reason they had stellarite devourers circling all their stars which then suddenly all trekked across my empire and wiped my fleets.

It didn't get the mechanics right, but it did get the feeling of being screwed beyond my control.