United Against The Yawning Abyss
United Against Injustice From Cruelty
United Against That Which Is Inevitable
United Against The Seep Corruption Of Rusting Gears
.... not sure how these would go but ominous and not as I hoped.
Birth Of LIGHT
There Is No Dissent Within One Being
Gears Grinding Guts, Cogs Crushing Centuries
First some sounds like doing a supernova or the like.
second one seems like HiveMind
and... yah no humanity at all. Hell no.
that makes sense and something I saw coming.
...I'm admittedly shocked. They really don't have Alpha Psykers/etc whose entire job is to guard the Exterminatus ships from being targeted by the enemy??
Like, a part of me was sure they'd just shrug and no-sell The Sun, but wanted to try it anyway.
I mean, aren't Alphas the one the Imperium did their best to kill off and rare? I think they would be more thrown against the enemies on the other fronts more then anything. Also we haven't really shown our hand with Psyker stuff, we have done 'small' stuff like breaking a shield generator on Voxx Primus, which may not have gotten back to them, but other then that we haven't done much in Space that would require an Alpha Escort.
If they had one Alpha Psyker that is stable enough to be used by a Dogmatic Faction you would be looking at me screaming at you to leave the Duchy alone the second anyone raised the idea to infiltrate Voxx Primus. Those fuckers 'splode planets as walking talking Exterminatus-grade Wizards.
.... what? Am I missing something here? I got Alpha Plus was a big fucking deal since that's on par with the Emperor and Magnus and Alpha is just below that but its that much of a threat? just a single Alpha Psyker? I heard some of needing an Space Marine chapter to deal with it, able to kill off an army and able to toss a battleship or two. Reason enough to kill on sight before they get boosted by chaos or just sacrifice that Psyker to Big E... is this because at the current size of things that a Single Alpha Psyker is enough to wreck our shit throughly?
Yes, but you have yet to hit the wider Duchy with a The Sun to their faces, so they'll have no idea what that is/was. Most of their defensive new tech is in the Phalanx Doctrine, and you have enough stealth/surpise to hit them with a baker's dozen The Suns before even a paranoid fleet leader would activate that.
The ships the weapons were put on act as any other recorded Lancer/Dauntkess should, with no deviance from either mechanical or psyhic baseline.
(Also, most exterminatus weapons are either hyper-specific techno-wonders, a shit-load of bombs/viruses, or a really big bomb. They have the latter).
Oh right, the only the ones who know are on Voxx primus or dead. We didn't use it on the Dutchy fleet here...yah I think they would need a few battles to figure out what is happening first and maybe panicking as they think we have Beta and Alpha Pykers to pull off that shit.
Oh shit would the Chamleon be able to avoid the Array scan? damn that's good, wasn't sure where it stood in that but glad to see our stealth ship doing work. hmmm maybe we should do a stealth Psy-ship later on when we do some more Psy-tech and use that for offense when we can instead of relying on the Chamleons for deployment.
Also a baker's dozen suns popping off is terrifying. and if this was an actual faction and novel or codex on this, the memes about the Federation and the choirs would explode with so many sun and star memes and jokes.
The best you had was a Gamma.
With that, I am taking 30 to help my grandma in her garden.
HUH!? The highest we ever had was gamma and that was it? I knew you said we did well with taking below Gamma and punching up but I thought.... okay checked the ranking and the top three without going into the Pluses, is Gamma, Beta, and Alpha. So Highest being a Gamma is fine and we are able to make the below Gamma useful and strong through choirs... I would have thought we had a beta or such but it wasn't felt much because of how we group pyskyer in fives and spread out the burden.
Be careful Nurgle didn't sneak any plants from his garden.... or any weird plants that could make exotic and weird drugs and make a pleasure cult.... or find any strange seeds that like off but been there according to some plan... or if the plants start attacking you when they detect blood.
Depends on the bomb used. Most require a specific set if circumstances so narrow that it would be 100% safe to use them as battering rams. Others get looked at funny and explode. No way to tell which these ones are.
...well, there is
one way.
Yah, from what I remember about the limited sources I've heard/read about those type, it requires data and setting up right to activate the weapon or to make it actually able to kill a world. You mess that up and it'll fail or make just a big explosion instead of killing the planet.... or the one that seems like like a contact type of bomb and breathing on it would set it off.
Blowing up the ship normally resolves one of them and stalls the other as the you have to shift through the wreckage to find it.
"Lord Admiral, the...the White Void Ships are hailing us," Flag-Lieutenant Josmellua van der Storm said, standing with some mild confusion hidden beneath professionalism to the right of Lord Admiral Yarndt Al Raha, the man arching a perfectly manicured eyebrow at his second in command, mild curiosity dancing across the glints within his eyes.
"Are they? Peculiar and not a little bit ill-timed. I had just bet fifty thrones on those damned Xenos being unable to understand any amount of Gothic." He sighed, motioning to his second to continue. "Very well, let's hear what threats these pests think will cow us into compliance with their foul plots."
"At once! Voxx! Heightened Anti-Memtics!" van der Storm said with a perfect salute, snapping in the same motion at one of the bridge officers to begin playing the communications, starting up several cogitators deep within the belly of the flagship that began to scrub through the transmission with fine needles and finer teeth to remove any hint of sorcery and memetic dangers contained within. A precaution seldom set aside but one that could be increased in its thoroughness if deemed necessary.
Military men will make bets on anything and very much thinking we are xenos that just attacked humanity because its what Xenos do, no other reason needed. Also shows the universal accepted nature of shit talking, threats, and boasts. Oh right, Memtics are a thing and good on them for doing that because anything else, you can't be too careful in 40k. Just funny it is one of the times that it would be fine and we don't do that.
But, slowly, and only twelve seconds after the order was given, the large hololith that served to allow Lord Admiral Yarndt Al Raha to command his fleet with greater efficiency in the middle of the room began to change. No longer showing ship positions and interception vectors slowly ticking down, the green light coalesced into...Lord Admiral Yarndt Al Raha leaned forward, halting the projection with a raised hand, dozens of eyes staring at the figure shown, though none gasped or spoke out of turn, their discipline too ingrained to break protocol that way.
"Hertiatus," Lord Admiral Yarndt Al Raha growled, the unspoken question loud and clear to the Psyker-Lord of the Van Zandt Free Duchy. Moments passed as his eyes glowed a ghostly blue, mist wafting from the large scepter in his hands as the shut metal eye set within opened, swiveling to behold the fleet racing to meet them.
"I...I can sense no Chaos Corruption within the fleet. Just as I did the last time I spied them. This is either a trick by way of machinery and crafted images or...traitors to humanity." The last part was almost whispered, the idea of such existing near them distasteful, the idea that they had lost three systems to them alongside a dozen others to the damnable Orks and Drukhari burning far more.
Huh, that was fast all things considered, I guess the communications wasn't too long or had much else but still.
Ohhh, they are that surprised by seeing its a human instead of a Xenos considering the near total lack of any information about us. Assuming Chaos Corruption because of it but then finding none... So they jump to either advanced tech to pretend to be human, probably just alongside AI, or Traitors to humanity. To be fair, it makes sense to them as our actions did cause several other systems to fall or just the latest systems lost but this time it was to humans who just wanted more clay.
Or just how the Imperium believes itself the rightful ruler of all mankind and any human polities not are to be brought into the fold or destroyed and if you refused to join you were a traitor.
Moments passed before another raised hand started the projection; the image of a robed man adorned with the sigils and decorations the Mechanicus preferred began to speak. "This is Commodore Lista-34.a of Task Fleet Alpha of the Glimmering Federation to Duchy Fleet 4; hear this and know that you are about to embark on an attempt to kill hundreds of billions by splitting worlds asunder with the weapons you took aboard." Confusion settled amongst the bridge at these words. Lord Admiral Yarndt Al Raha felt his hands tighten as he realized why the cargo he had to hold up the entire operation for had been delivered to the only captains who had not sworn themselves in secret to the Duchy's people but to its rulers. "A crime of such vast scale cannot be allowed to transpire, and we will fight to the last to shield the billions who chose a better path than blind worship to ashes long cooled. Hear this and know that we fight for a better dawn for all humanity, from the lowest to the highest, and we shall not allow you to butcher even those who fight against ourselves out of a misguided idea of honor or spite."
Oh, right the actor and Kil'Drabi are with the SBG's. So this is local Star Mechanicus Magi speaking. I do like how it masks as both sides know the Main fleet is out of the way for now but both have different context and knowledge for that. The Dutchy fleet don't know the reason why its like this and how it might just be because they know its exterminatus are on board and the Glimmering Federation was holding back because of it but they will not if they go through with this use those weapons... of course most of them didn't know about it and how they were gonna kill off the entire Hive World when they found out their forces were still fighting.
Still all things considered I don't really see how-
A hand signal made Flag-Lieutenant Josmellua van der Storm take notice; a whispered word caused her to send notice to three ships, armsmen inserted in secret, diverting from keeping eyes on the captains to seeking the new cargo in swift order. "The Liberation of Voxx Primus and Voxx Secundus were initiated because we could no longer stand aside and allow the vast crimes against humanity perpetrated on these worlds to continue. Know that you face the might of Sub-Sectors united for this purpose: to end the suffering of billions allowed to continue for no reason other than pure malice. Those who have surrendered are treated humanely, and those who have risen for a better future stand side-by-side with us. If you desire information to know these truths, information I have. Let not your blood spill into the void on this day as you seek to end worlds entire for spite alone when words can be spilled instead. You have ten minutes to reply before we will assume that you desire your deaths and will annihilate you where you stand."
One minute.
Two minutes.
Five.
Seven.
"My lord, the teams have reported back," Flag-Lieutenant Josmellua van der Storm whispered, showing her data-slate to Lord Admiral Yarndt Al Raha who read the bare lines upon it within moments.
"Open communications to Commodore Lista-34.a. And notify the three traitors that they are hereby relieved of duty and posting. If they protest, add their lives to that relief."
"At once, Lord Admiral!" Someone said, and a vox-channel began to open, a discussion of history-defining properties in the making.
Wait a Minute.... holy shit did this man really did a coup or arrest of the captains who would exterminatus the Hive World. I guess there is a sharp divide in the factions in the Dutchy and what is allowed. I guess with confirmation of no chaos influence and its humans... it is mostly recoverable as opposed to needing to kill off the Hive World which is what was planned but never told to the other captains or admirals. Part of the problem with masking the true mission and how it is viewed.
Still I'm surprised this happened as, yes for all the memes of the Imperium and the like, there are some who would oppose exterminatusing a world when it is recoverable, I just don't think this will go well back home... Wait, Hold up. This entire mission was just to Deny the Hiveworld to us.. so is this all just to slow us down and throw this fleet away and when we moved away it looked like a chance to free or contest the Hiveworld to keep fighting? Something seems off about this whole thing.
The only question was...what did the Federation want out of this?
(6-Hour Moratorium)
[] A...Ceasefire?
(Diplomats will be sent next Turn, and some stable, long-lasting form of...whatever this is will be hashed out (Requires an Action). May open the path toward silent subversion of the entire Duchy, or create Iconoclastic Break-Away states, may require resource payments, allowing Voxx Loyalists to leave, etc.)
[] A White Peace
(You claim Voxx Primus, Secundus, and Echish for yourself. It will likely not mean anything beyond a temporary ceasefire.)
[] (Write-In)
.... Ahhh did we start a rebellion from that little reveal? I wonder what the knowledge the Dutchy Mechanicus have AI in a single will do once we let them know that bit. Still weird how us saying 'use words instead of killing yourselves in spite' worked, though it was only because of it being an Iconoclast Reformist Admiral pushing for making an attempt to talk to us and the Dutchy needing a a breather for right now. especially after losing the two battlefleets and risking losing another two in this attempt that got cut short. At the very least the dutchy is desperate enough for it.
I would go for Ceasefire. we have a better idea of how to do things now with our learning experience from Voxx and an idea of the capability of the Dutchy. We already know that as we did with the Office of Propaganda and make a Diplomacy Corps to handle Diplomatic actions so that doesn't take up too much as well. I just view it as worth it in the long run and hides how vulnerable we were here.
Oh, and Commodore Lista-34.a doesn't have to die in a heroic last stand, small miracles.
Fog of war is a hella of a thing.
Admiral's Faction Allegiance - (5) - Iconoclastic Reformists
Desperate To Close A Front - (10 - 4(Voxx Invasion) + 2 (Ork Advances) +2 (Diplomacy First) = 10) - Willing To Earnestly Talk
THAT"S WHY! So we have a Iconoclastic Reformist Admiral here who would look upon us favorably for what we said in the message while needing to deal with other fronts and having diplomacy actually be possible.... to a degree. Neither side, us nor the Dutchy, truly believe it will last long after what we did but at the least it'll buy a few decades of peace to sort out the other problems. Also seems like the Orks are moving moves. there would just that desperate to close a front and take things seriously in talking and meaning it... for a time.
Sorry for the brain rot, but we got Imperium Diplomacy before we got GTA 6, that's crazy.
Oh I was thinking that out of all of our first diplomacy actions it was with an Imperium Dogmatic breakaway, wasn't expecting that. it was more the unlikely ones, chaos doesn't count because they seethe at our very existence and wouldn't go with it earnestly.
We got a reformist admiral.
Finally the dice roll in our favor.
I mean, we did get 5 5 dice roll to avoid the Null-Nets, its just back in our favor after the whiplash of luck. Still surprised by that.
The Duchy leadership was trying to wipe out the hiveworld, but didnt actually tell the Admiral leading the suicide charge what they were planning. Instead they handed exterminatus weapons to three loyalist captains who would do the deed without question.
I assume the Admirals job was to escort them to their target and then die in a suitably heroic fashion. I assume parades, statues, possibly even a holy day, would be in order for his noble sacrifice.
I think the mission itself was also something else. As said, the Admiral wasn't told of this at all and was under the impression it was an evac mission or contesting to hold the world longer, given he was an Iconoclast reformist, this might have been done to get him killed in all of this and showed the Dutchy Leadership didn't give a shit about the people.
Add in we can be talked with and at least stalled for a time and aren't doing warcrimes on the people of the planets we took and there are bigger problems I think the Admiral is just done with this whole mission.
Damm it fucking did work, wooooo diplomacy getting picked after Millenia does fell nice, get that Chaos you didn't expect that did you.
HAH, yah and if Ceasefire goes through we will have a reason to a Diplomacy corps similar to the Office of Propaganda and subversion. Just do an action to start it and the Corps just keeps up the maintenance of it. If not we can still do it to start stuff with the Black Ash Clan and the Ashan Familes.
Well, it seems to have adapted to losing it three Turns ago, so...*shrugs*
I'm guessing just upping the tithe for the remaining planets in the Dutchy to make up the difference. Having a Hive World just made it easier to get from one place to recruit from or at least go to refill the ranks and not worrying about how that would impact a world.
They have been repeatedly confirmed to be dead.
I'm guessing with the constant pressure they managed grind them to dust along with using the Null-Nets and Flyssa.... I really hope they don't have an even worst/bigger variants of those things that was held up by them, the Orks, or Dark Eldar.... I think we should invest in some more psy-tech and regular tech and then an expansion of the fleet. We already doubled the SAG's we had.... Oh right more songs we'll be able to make.
OH SHIT, right ahhhhhh Hey QM what would the Lamenters feel about this? they... gonna be alright with the ceasefire? or are they all in on the crusade mentality right now?
Yeah, that's honestly the real worry? The leadership of the Duchy quite blatantly intended genocide and was clever enough to literally hide it from the Admiral, so I'm left unsure how much good faith they will engage in when it comes to negotiations... but at the same time stalling the confrontation in space even for a turn or two would still be valuable even in the worst case scenario.
Oh they did this but also need time to gather another fleet and deal with another front. at the very least they have us stop our seemingly expansion as they didn't know how many other Fleets we could call up. From their perspective we did that once they started to escalate with planet killing weapons and said we would put everything into stopping them. they don't know what's behind Echish. Fog of war and all that.
Even one turn will be enough if we get our SBG's back in place and build more or do some upgrades and songs. I would guess one or two and we'll be watching the maps.
Did... Khorne just blueball himself?
I mean... it really feel like that he did this so we would kill ourselves on the fleet or do mass bloodshed, so the fact we talked and postponed it was irk him like nothing else.
Good thing the Federation sees this as the period where you reload before the firing starts again if they actually pull through!
Really, this is what we have used Diplomacy for the entire time and how the culture we crafted views it as. We really need to tone it down all little.
~15% to ~35% to the rest. And there are about ~530 Billion people alive.
huh, a larger amount then I thought and a lot of neutrals... at the very least it will be easy to relocate the people considering the Howling Gate is ready and with the departure of the dutchy loyalists that reduces the amount of people even more to what we have to move and the like.
Problem is we still need around five or six turns for more worlds to be ready.
If we're gonna do any diplomacy action, it should be to be to setup an official Diplomatic Officer that way we can get a free action for Diplomacy.
Yup, we are gonna want to do that not just for the Dutchy but to be able to do stuff with the Ashan families and Black Ash Clan or even Shipbuilder Alliance. We have options there and at this point its better to just make an Office or Corps for Diplomacy so we freed up actions later on.
But I will say that since we are doing some kind of peace, this could be the chance to reorient ourselves towards the Black Ash Clan. We can make contact and promise to help their righteous crusade against the tyrannical Croaf Hegemony and commit an SBG or two to assist them, then work towards subverting them over time to the Star-Child. Though of course, we should have a stipulation to any agreement for partnership that we'll get custody of whatever Abhumans or Xenos the Hegemony use as Slave Labor, since I believe the BAC have a similar outlook on them as the Imperium.
again, I'm leery about going straight into that considering we will just be recovering. I'd rather not go into this thinking a 'we'll be home by christmas' thing. I'd like to spend an action getting the info we can about the Black Ash Clan as of now and how things are going, make contact with them and use soft power. I think we need to slow roll things instead of doing we tried to do after the 621 war, we need time for these sorts of things.
I think offering to make parts or repair the Knights they had will be a good thing to use and offer. Just need to figure out how to deal with the Matriarchy part considering they think the Emperor is the Empress. and we already dealt with a Rose cult already.
We still didn't reveal the AI.
"That's a surpise tool that will help us later"
also that is something the Dutchy doesn't know about, I'd say we save it for when we need to cause chaos or division.
We just cockblocked khorne
We might have, similar to how instead of killing a world that the Orks controlled via asteroids we sent out a broadcast seeking any survivors and there was a good amount of them, we just went and did it. We asked and made the attempt. a lot just don't bother with it and it worked out for us this time.
That assumes they are monolithic, knew about this, ordered it, condone it, etc. etc. etc.
Like, I showed you that there are (at least) five different factions with pull and power in the Duchy. Assume that carries upwards.
Ahhh so a split in the council, family, etc. One part did it without letting the other know or making a power play and such. yup, based on the dice we have Dogmatics, Iconoclast Reformist and three other factions. probably at each other's throats every other time and the like.
You can reveal it during the talks if you'd like?
hmmmm, it is tempting but we should keep it for now unless we need to leverage it during the talks. having the option is good though.
Yeah. 1 Action, 4 Years. 27 Billion people capacity when colonized.
I'm sorry I think that was wrong, 4 years? after all that happened there? did it die down over the centuries?
makes sense, just a minor thing considering the galaxy at large.
Upped to ~15 Billion.
Nope. 4 Years.
holy shit the Irrita know their stuff and are experts. Maybe try to get them in the Fedeation during the short break.... maybe. still that is impressive.
I'm really just very curious how this whole diplomatic summit is going to go. There's going to be a lot of "How dare you invade us without warning." Followed by us gesturing to how they treated the people in the Hive World and our past experience with Imperial successors.
I mean we are somewhat guilty in that we were subverting and staged a revolution and invaded them. this was mostly for population and clay. I guess a first strike would make sense in context and we could frame it that way after the scouts started coming our way. either way it should be fun to watch.
Hopefully this will lead to our civilization being more willing to try diplomacy before going the whole liberation route. I think that would pretty much always be good to try as long as they aren't willing chaos worshipers or something of similar nature. That being said it is still good to have a plan should diplomacy fail like we did this turn. Even if it doesn't work completely it still gives of the chance of defectors which means less people we have to kill and less people we lose.
PS That being said I'm surprised how well this worked. I expected at most a quarter of their forces mutinying.
We do need to get our faction more on this and holding back, lest this snowball in the future when they take the peace treaty as time to prepare more revolutions and fleet build up. I think we should attempt it with a brain drain via the helping of any Mechanicus who want to invent travel to our territory and the like.
It seems like if negotiations don't work it will just default into the second option of a temporary ceasefire. I think we should remember and learn from
the Ship Alliance negotiations where we came on a bit too strong and took a bit to see the points the Alliance were unwilling to back down from. Although the positions are a bit flipped as now we are the smaller state and have humanitarian and territorial positions we won't give up.
it'll be interesting and at the very least we should have enough time for our SBG's to get back so it fufills that function. We should at least attempt to try diplomacy.
For the Node. The Forge is too toxic.
It only goes to 6, but I like the way you think! *rolls up more factions*
Ah, so even the Irrita can't pull that off. What would it take to start to fix the Forge?
Oh no, QM is making even more faction to make it seem just like the Imperium.
[X] A...Ceasefire?