Vox Vitae: Warhammer AI quest

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N39TUN3 said:
In most smaller cases at least. 11 billion is a lot, but it's only 11 years for a hive of a billion people.
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That'd be a challenge, yeah. If there's a hive that even still has that many people alive left though, then they're subsisting on something, even if it's just keeping them in a slow death spiral. Corpse starch or what-not.

Now, I picked the max heavy cruiser chassis for the earlier calc about how many people we could feed because Neablis suggested that maybe a GC doing runs could feed a small hive, so I just went big. Buuuut, I decided to do some comparisons:

Ship ClassHull CostLengthWidth/heightVolume (pre-overhead)Volume/BP
min Heavy Cruiser
2000 BP​
4500 m​
600 m​
1,620,000,000 m^3​
810,000 m^3/BP​
Max Heavy Cruiser
6000 BP​
6000 m​
1200 m​
8,640,000,000 m^3​
1,440,000 m^3/BP​
Max Light Cruiser
2000 BP​
4400 m​
800 m​
2,816,000,000 m^3​
1,408,000 m^3/BP​

Max heavy cruiser is the most BP efficient cargo hauler, looks like - but surprisingly the max light cruiser comes within a hair's breadth of matching it.

Before I did that calc, I decided to see what routing a food truck around the sub-sector would look like. Using our current abacus tech, you can travel 3 systems an action - assuming that you can stop and unload some cargo at each of those systems, a route where you start at Denva, pick food up from Caldereth, and then bring it to the northwestern branch of the subsector might look a bit like this:
That's with one heavy cruiser, over the course of one turn. With that same hauling capacity instead split between three light cruisers, it'd be trivially feasible for the food shipments to pay a visit to every single system in Zantris, assuming nothing forces them to turn back.

But that's why we'd have scouts going out looking for issues like that while the LCs are picking up food. By then, a more military response to the issue - including Vita herself, possibly, could be mustered. If nothing else, it would be very good to find out if there are any such dangers in our backyard.


Anyways, since it's clear I'm not going to remain awake long enough to make one myself - any plan that wants to set up for this sweep needs to start setting up Caldereth to do algae harvests. I envisioned things as a combination of uplift and a miniature "fix your planet" - Mini because if using OMC operators, the latter stops being so much of an ask because of how many ships each operator could run.

They'd probably be non-machine spirit ships at first? I think we'll be more BP limited than CP limited here, to be honest.

Anyways, tech priests would have to operate some of the first boats until new operators can take over, because an aggressive timeline for running the aid could have the first ships come to pick up food in 2-3 turns; first priority would be getting a military detachment out here to hold the place, but after that, scouting and shipment.

Depends on how much BP we get to play with when we're back at Denva, I suppose.

Oh, right, and "Human Virtual OMC simulations (150 RP)" is worth considering, since it would make it much faster to train new OMC operators, and free techpriests up from boat duty quicker.
 
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KyleDaScourge said:
-[][Necron] Take them.

[] Plan: Enriching Exclave Establishment V3
-[][Orks] Write-In: Try to lure the Orks in via talking and then destroy them once they're too close to successfully run away.
--[] Head towards the Ork ship and attempt to contact the Ork in charge and challenge him to a fist-fight, winner gets the loser's ship. If he seems to be going for it, wait until he's well within medium range and then open up with everything in an attempt to destroy the Ork ship as quickly as possible. If he doesn't seem to be going for it, attempt to pursue and destroy the ship before it can warp away.
-[] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[][TOPIC] Based on your earlier skimmings on the database, both the Inquisition's and that of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the "Ancient Xenos Warbots" are probably Necrons. As you noted decades ago, they weren't known in your time even with the claims of them being millions of years old. That was probably an exaggeration or misintepration of data from the Imperium, so taking a deeper look should reveal some inconsistencies that tell the a different story, right? Right?
-[][Repair Bay]: Remove the medium teleportarium (frees up 180 space, with 170 space free we have 1 free slot), build a psy-shielded captive cell block (38 BP + 250 BP for 50 HP psy-sheilds). Use the cells to store the necrons and various chaos artifacts / bodies. Use remaining capacity to repair combat damage.
--[] Permanently station a detachment of bots here as security.
-[][Stankberg] Write-In: A slight adjustment on the Learn option, instead of just giving them a manufactory and some educational materials, ask them to volunteer as many of there children as possible to attend classes with and possibly outright join the Cogitare.
-[][Cogitare] Get our 20 tech-priests set up in the volcano lair with the goal of beginning the industrialization of the planet, uplifting the locals, and recruiting as many new Cogitare as possible.
--[][Cogitare] The Cogitare should be handed control of the volcano fortress, the new manufactories we're building nearby, 589 Specter Light infiltration bots, 1000 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers, 1000 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots, and a Shuttle.
-[] Construction x1 (600 VBP & 500 LC)
--[] Build 4 Machine Spirit Manufactories near the volcano lair. (480 VBP & LC)
--[] Build 1 Shuttle for the Cogitare staying behind. (20 BP & LC)
--[] Build 1 Set of Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots. (100 BP, 20 CP)
-[] Research x2 (400 + 75 + 20 = 495 RP)
--[] Human Virtual OMC simulations (150 RP)
---[] Anexa assist
--[] Human Design Interfaces (200 RP)
--[] Abacus Manufacturing (100 RP)
--[] Remote Organic-Machine control (45/50 RP)
-[] Travel/Explore: Head back to Denva.
-[] Cia: Active Psyker improvement
-[] Victan Active Action: Assist coordinating with the locals and Cogitare to get the exclave established and their relationship with the locals off the ground.

Version three of my plan with the Ork write-in further detailed and provisions added to create some secure storage aboard and research Necrons in the database. We haven't had any real use for the teleportarium anyway.

I feel like everyone is significantly overestimating the immediate physical threat of the necrons while underestimating the... strategic threat, for lack of a better term.

Even if they all woke up, I don't think they're in any way capable of killing us or preventing us from just destroying them (or at least forcing them to phase out). I'm slightly more worried they'll connect to the Necron "interstitial" communications network, which we don't have the slightest clue how to prevent, and call more Necrons down on us. Even that seems extremely unlikely though.

@Neablis, just for the sake of it, would you mind confirming this is all valid? Particularly the Ork write-in, the database dive, and the local/Cogitare stuff? The database dive in particular I'm iffy about, I'm not totally sold on us making that connection in-character or on the database actually having much of use, and I believe you've said before you're not a huge fan of writing those anyway.
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Yeah, all good to me. The Ork write-in will change what success and failure look like. I want to encourage you to use creativity but ultimately the dice will determine success or failure.

I've already given Vita some knowledge of Necrons (and a warning from the Space Marines that they're active), so she's very much smart enough to put together the clues. There will definitely be a roll to see how much was in the database. Inquisitors love hiding files and being cryptic and shit.
Neablis said:
He sighs in response. "Do not seek out these foes, for they are dire, and fighting them is our purpose, to fulfill the faith of humanity in the Master of Mankind. Even if you do not hold to that Faith, you may be redeemed, and so I give you this warning. A Necron World has awoken to the north, beyond Red Harbor and claimed dominion over many worlds.
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I'm not a fan of writing those when they're irrelevant. I'm trying to discourage people from slowly making me rewrite the majority of the wiki from Vita's point of view. But when it is relevant, it's a good way for me to establish Vita's knowledge and my take on the canon. And I think the Necrons just got relevant. So feel free.

The Cogitare activity is valid, and this is a decent template to follow to establish another cogitare outpost.

DragonParadox said:
Canonically Hives, especially very old and 'developed' ones can have trillions of people, explicitly. They once tried to do a survey of Necromunda, they got as far as the spire, the thing that holds between 0.1 and 1% of the volume of the Hive and they got a billion. People tend to be stacked a lot more tightly as you go deeper. Now @Neablis has a background in biology which means they might have opinions on some of the sillier numbers, but that is what canon looks like.
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Canon 40k can be very silly at times. There's a lot that can be explained by "They have technology from the future" and aggressively waving your hands. The logistics of hives (and generally routine trade through the warp) are one of those things. We're not going to spend too much time on understanding the details of how it works, but I'm going to assume there's at least some amount of in situ food generation. They've probably got microbes that let you stick electrodes in sewage and regenerate nutritional value or something. That makes a lot more sense than the hive being fed entirely from offworld.

Prime 2.0 said:
Now, I picked the max heavy cruiser chassis for the earlier calc about how many people we could feed because Neablis suggested that maybe a GC doing runs could feed a small hive, so I just went big. Buuuut, I decided to do some comparisons:

Ship ClassHull CostLengthWidth/heightVolume (pre-overhead)Volume/BP
min Heavy Cruiser
2000 BP​
4500 m​
600 m​
1,620,000,000 m^3​
810,000 m^3/BP​
Max Heavy Cruiser
6000 BP​
6000 m​
1200 m​
8,640,000,000 m^3​
1,440,000 m^3/BP​
Max Light Cruiser
2000 BP​
4400 m​
800 m​
2,816,000,000 m^3​
1,408,000 m^3/BP​

Max heavy cruiser is the most BP efficient cargo hauler, looks like - but surprisingly the max light cruiser comes within a hair's breadth of matching it.
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Don't put too much stock in these analyses. The scale numbers on the ship are more present to give you a sense than to assign hard numbers. It looks like you don't come to any crazy conclusions here, but in general, I'm going to have vibes triumph over soft numbers like these. When there are mechanics they should be intentional, and the intentional mechanics I have are actions, BP, RP, etc.

Chrestomanci said:
@Neablis Does this design seem valid?
Basic Manned Cargo Ship - Stellar Acendancy
- Heavy Cruiser 32 ship construction slots (6000 BP, 6000x1200 meters) Engines: (4 gravities) for (500 BP). Shields: (light) for (200) Armor: (none) for (0)
- Living Space 1200 BP
- Psychic Shielding 1200 BP
- Warp Drive 600 BP
- Void Abacus 600 BP
- noncombat equipment : Cargo Bay 6000 BP
Total BP cost : 16,300
The Stellar Acendancy could adopt a transportation triad, two unarmed cargo ships with a warship for defence.
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By a brief scan it looks good to me? I will note you can't build void abaci yet, but otherwise it's pretty basic. If you got Efficient Equipment Distribution then the cargo bay could be 6666 BP's worth, so it's able to carry 11% more.
 
Neablis said:
Canon 40k can be very silly at times. There's a lot that can be explained by "They have technology from the future" and aggressively waving your hands. The logistics of hives (and generally routine trade through the warp) are one of those things. We're not going to spend too much time on understanding the details of how it works, but I'm going to assume there's at least some amount of in situ food generation. They've probably got microbes that let you stick electrodes in sewage and regenerate nutritional value or something. That makes a lot more sense than the hive being fed entirely from offworld.
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Makes sense, if nothing else warp travel isn't reliable even when you are not in a warpstorm, there has to be some kind of baseline to make up for normal hiccups in transportation . Also Hives explicitely existed during the Age of Strife which means a isolated Hive should be able to feed itself with the right technology.
 
[Necron] Take them.
They are unarmed and we have both Medium Boarding Preparations and Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers. Killing them is simple enough if they wake up, we don't need any particular preparations to transport them.
They have been moved around before, so they will likely only wake if we roll poorly on a research action.
The real risk is if they contact other Necrons, and if those Necrons decide to attack us. However we selected An Awakened Necron Tombworld (+2 shinies) in character creation, so whatever we choose with these Necrons we will be dealing with other Necrons eventually.

Improved Gellar Fields and a basic vault to transport the Necrons seems like a good idea to reduce the risk of them waking up, but I feel that some people are overestimating the risk of the choice 'Take them'.
 
MrRobot said:
Vita summoning a Imperial saint would be funny, extremely dangerous to even attempt but imagining a Saint having to deal with something that she only even heard in passing and want her there for understand how faith mechanical work would be a storyline allright.


Other similarly funny ideas is summoning a fragment of the greater good.

Or have a solitaire just show up because the space clown decided to play his funny games.
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Or, for the most absurd possible option, accidentally summoning Isha right out from under the idiot's rotting nose
 
Sesparra said:
Or, for the most absurd possible option, accidentally summoning Isha right out from under the idiot's rotting nose
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If that could be done odds are the Eldar would have done it already. Thanks to the Black Library they know more about the warp than any other single faction in the material world. Chaos in general may know more and Chaos Daemons certainly do, but they do no share lore.
 
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Speedemon22 said:
What else should we make progress on? We still need to find a commander and Cia would've been a good candidate but the majority vote was on Cia Focusing on burning stuff
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Possible new sources of command and other specialists are the Drukhari slavery base, since we might get someone useful from among the slaves, Denva should have new people trained up, the Eldar Corsair who gave us his contact data (especially if we can meet some Ynnari through him, those would be fascinating combined with the "make a religion which doesn't suck" research), and any new society we contact might have someone interesting.

Or maybe we can get a liaison officer from the SoB or Space Marines for the lolz option? /notreallyserios


Chrestomanci said:
Machine Spirit Jammers.
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Those only work on tech which uses Machine Spirits, so the Necrons would be immune. But yes, as long as we stick them somewhere secure in individual cells or a pod on the outside of the hull we can just jettison if needed the Necrons shouldn't be that much of a deal.
 
OK completely lost the plot of votes again. I guess it's the old read the votes on the tally and decide which one(s) work for me again.
 
seonor said:
Chrestomanci said:
we have both Medium Boarding Preparations and Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers.
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Those only work on tech which uses Machine Spirits, so the Necrons would be immune. But yes, as long as we stick them somewhere secure in individual cells or a pod on the outside of the hull we can just jettison if needed the Necrons shouldn't be that much of a deal.
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I was not suggesting that we build Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers. I was pointing out that we already have them on our ship in enough numbers to crush the Necrons if they wake up.
Individual cells and a jettison pod would be nice, but unarmed basic Necrons can be killed by thousands of meltagun/plasma guns
 
armentho said:
>get summoned
>"please lets have a theology class while i monitor your warp readings"
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That... actually seems like an interesting plan.
The Froggy Ninja said:
Personally, I want to pursue something like Syll'Esske. Creating a minor god of Vita to symbiotically bond with and make up for our lack of soul.
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Oh hey! That actually seems like an interesting idea! There have been conversations of how to generate a soul to graft onto Vita before, and this seems promising!
Dmol8 said:
OK completely lost the plot of votes again. I guess it's the old read the votes on the tally and decide which one(s) work for me again.
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Good luck. I'll probably engage in a bunch of approval voting, myself.
 
[X] Plan Taking care of the Orks and Bongo at the same time
-[X][repair bays] After the fight remove the medium teleportarium (frees up 180 space, with 170 space free we have 1 free slot), build a psy-shielded captive cell block (38 BP + 250 BP for 50 HP psy-sheilds) and use the cells to store the necrons. Use remaining repair capacity to repair combat damage.
--[X] Permanently station a detachment of bots here as security
-[X][databases] Based on your earlier skimmings on the database, both the Inquisition's and that of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the "Ancient Xenos Warbots" are probably Necrons. As you noted decades ago, they weren't known in your time even with the claims of them being millions of years old. That was probably an exaggeration or misintepration of data from the Imperium, so taking a deeper look should reveal some inconsistencies that tell the a different story, right? Right?
-[X] Construction
--[X] 3000 Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (300 BP)
--[X] 1000 Specters (100 BP)
--[X] 2 Manned Manufactories (100 BP)
-[X] Research X 3
--[X] Demonology (150 RP)
---[X] reserve 50 RP in case of poor rolling here and if unneeded then use that RP for Miniaturized antigrav (50 RP)
--[X] Gravity Weapons (200 RP)
---[X] reserve 45 RP in case of poor rolling here and if unneeded then use that RP for Intelligence Coding (50/400 RP)
--[X] Advanced Technological Research Lab (50RP)
--[X] Machine Spirit Chaos resistance (75 RP)
---[X] reserve 50 RP in case of poor rolling here and if unneeded then use that RP for Machine Spirit-controlled Psychic Shields (50 RP)
--[X] Faith is my shield? (75 RP)
-[X] Anexa's and the Tech Gremlins Research focus
--[X] Faith is my shield?
-[X] Victan passive action: Counterespionage & Alliance-building
-[X] Cia Active: Prepare to repel the Orks if then manage to board us, be ready to put down the Necrons if they wake up (best make sure that she's properly briefed on what we know beforehand) and be on the watch for anything warpy when we research demonology but if these things don't happen then go back to training Psyker powers if there's time.
-[X] [Stankberg] Learn
--[X] make sure that they have plans for both versions of the Ocean Remediation Ship as well as what's normally in the technical primers so that they can produce the tools to fix up their world themselves and if someone comes along who they can sell the seaweed to then they can use the ships for that as well two birds one stone
-[X][Orks] Destroy.
--[X] While the aim is to destroy them if we can cripple their engines and weapons (whether by weapons fire or teleportation strike) leaving them stuck in the void we shall take that so that we can board and loot their ship at our leisure.

[X][Necron] Take them.

[X] Plan: Enriching Exclave Establishment V3
 
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Plan features: quickly and safely solving the Stank, providing Calderath with some resources to bootstrap development; researching Faith; either moving on (so we can get to Denva faster) or staying and getting at the machine-spirit backlog.

Prospects for next turn: if staying, monitor the Stank Be Gone and look into faith building, plus whatever other research/construction we may want to do planetside; if going, depends on what we find, but get closer to navibean and move on quickly if possible.

Remember approval voting! You can vote for multiple plans!

Approval voting:
[X] Plan: 'Ard Boyz, Ready for a Scrap 2.0

My plans:
[X]Plan: Ecology and Theology (Move)
-[X] [Database] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[X] Based on your earlier skimmings on the database, both the Inquisition's and that of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the "Ancient Xenos Warbots" are probably Necrons. As you noted decades ago, they weren't known in your time even with the claims of them being millions of years old. That was probably an exaggeration or misintepration of data from the Imperium, so taking a deeper look should reveal some inconsistencies that tell the a different story, right? Right?
-[X][Stankberg] Learn
-[X][Orks] Destroy (shoot them in space, see if we can get useful readings of their Warp signature)
-[X][Repair Bay]: Remove the medium teleportarium (frees up 180 space, with 170 space free we have 1 free slot), build a psy-shielded captive cell block (38 BP + 250 BP for 50 HP psy-sheilds). Use the cells to store the necrons and various chaos artifacts / bodies. Use remaining capacity to repair combat damage.
--[X] Permanently station a detachment of bots here as security
-[X]Research x2(400RP + 75RP + 20RP
--[X] Calderath Stank-Be-Gone (200 RP)
---[X] Risk profile: no risk of anything our masks can't block
--[X] MICROBES (250 RP)
--[X] Faith is my shield? (75 RP)
---[X] Anexa
---[X] Assumes there is enough synergy to cut down 30 RP
--[X] Overflow: Does In Vitro have anything do do with wine?
-[X]Construction(600 VBP, 500 Lift):
--[X] If problems, spend BP on masks
--[X] Address the locals' priorities (including what manufactories they may want for the Learn option)
--[X] Overflow to defenses the locals can operate.
-[X]Exploration: Explore Aestron
-[X] Victan passive
-[X] Anexa active
--[X] Faith is my Shield?
-[X] Cia active

[X]Plan: Ecology and Theology (Stay)
-[X] [Database] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[X] Based on your earlier skimmings on the database, both the Inquisition's and that of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the "Ancient Xenos Warbots" are probably Necrons. As you noted decades ago, they weren't known in your time even with the claims of them being millions of years old. That was probably an exaggeration or misintepration of data from the Imperium, so taking a deeper look should reveal some inconsistencies that tell the a different story, right? Right?
-[X][Stankberg] Learn
-[X][Orks] Destroy (shoot them in space, see if we can get useful readings of their Warp signature)
-[X][Repair Bay]: Remove the medium teleportarium (frees up 180 space, with 170 space free we have 1 free slot), build a psy-shielded captive cell block (38 BP + 250 BP for 50 HP psy-sheilds). Use the cells to store the necrons and various chaos artifacts / bodies. Use remaining capacity to repair combat damage.
--[X] Permanently station a detachment of bots here as security
-[X]Research x3(600RP + 75RP + 20RP)
--[X] Calderath Stank-Be-Gone (200 RP)
---[X] Risk profile: no risk of anything our masks can't block
--[X] MICROBES (250 RP)
--[X] Faith is my shield? (75 RP)
---[X] Anexa
--[X] Does In Vitro have anything do do with wine? (100 RP)
--[X] Large-scale Machine spirits (70 + RP)
--[X] Overflow: Machine-Spirit Chaos Resistance
-[X]Construction(600 VBP, 500 Lift):
--[X] If problems, spend BP on masks
--[X] Address the locals' priorities (including what manufactories they may want for the Learn option)
--[X] Overflow to defenses the locals can operate.
-[X] Victan passive
-[X] Anexa active
--[X] Faith is my Shield?
-[X] Cia active

Necron vote:
-[X][Necrons] Take them

My lines:
Need stank be gone or a credible plan to get to it; no getting Calderath purposefully assimilated.
 
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meianmaru said:
[] Plan: Preparing to Digest Alien Data
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Link to my latest plan-draft with most of the reasoning. Main goal is to use the write-in Stankberg favor to smooth future integration into the Stellar Ascendancy.

Also, just to remind here that we have a confirmation from Neablis that Advanced Materials is a foundational tech useful studying the living metal of the Necrons. At the very least in the way of giving us bigger discounts from the follow-up techs relating to Advanced Materials.
meianmaru said:
Oh, and pinging @Neablis again, because I think you might have missed me asking if my write-in is valid. Sorry about doing it again, but going to sleep now and I need to know if this valid for my plan before the vote starts (added "Write-in" to make it clear for quest participants it is such, and not one of the default options):
-[][Stankberg] Write-in: Integration.
Encourage Stankberg to at least consider accepting uplift assistance from Denva and later becoming part of the Stellar Ascendancy.
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Neablis said:
Apologies - yes, that's fine.
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Thank you. Plan is a go in that case.

[X] Plan: Preparing to Digest Alien Data
-[X] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[X][TOPIC] Based on your earlier skimmings on the database, both the Inquisition's and that of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the "Ancient Xenos Warbots" are probably Necrons. As you noted decades ago, they weren't known in your time even with the claims of them being millions of years old. That was probably an exaggeration or misintepration of data from the Imperium, so taking a deeper look should reveal some inconsistencies that tell the a different story, right? Right?
-[X][FREE] Primary: Fix any damage from battle.
-[X] Travel: Denva
-[X] Research x3 (400 + 75 + 20 = 695 RP)
--[X] Psychic Encryption (150 RP)
--[X] Gravity Weapons (200 RP)
--[X] Advanced Materials (250 RP)
---[X] Anexa assist
--[X] Intelligence Coding (50/400 RP) -> (145/400 RP)
-[X][ANEXA] Active Action: Research (Advanced Materials)
-[X] Victan passive action: Counterespionage & Alliance-building
-[X][CIA] Write-in: You are bringing presumably dangerous "Xeno Warbots" on to the Spark. Cia's job is to keep the everyone on it safe. Brief her on what you find on the database, as well what you can casually observe before moving to actual lab-analysis. Tell her to prepare for an eventuality where the warbots(?) awaken and are hostile. Primary goal is to protect the crew and the Spark. Capturing the warbots even semi-intact will have a very distant secondary priority in this scenario if opportunities allow it.
-[X][Stankberg] Write-in: Integration.
Encourage Stankberg to at least consider accepting uplift assistance from Denva and later becoming part of the Stellar Ascendancy.
-[X][Orks] Destroy.

[X][Necron] Take them.
 
[X][Necron] Take them.

[X] Plan: Enriching Exclave Establishment V3
-[X][Orks] Write-In: Try to lure the Orks in via talking and then destroy them once they're too close to successfully run away.
--[X] Head towards the Ork ship and attempt to contact the Ork in charge and challenge him to a fist-fight, winner gets the loser's ship. If he seems to be going for it, wait until he's well within medium range and then open up with everything in an attempt to destroy the Ork ship as quickly as possible. If he doesn't seem to be going for it, attempt to pursue and destroy the ship before it can warp away.
-[X] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[X][TOPIC] Based on your earlier skimmings on the database, both the Inquisition's and that of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the "Ancient Xenos Warbots" are probably Necrons. As you noted decades ago, they weren't known in your time even with the claims of them being millions of years old. That was probably an exaggeration or misintepration of data from the Imperium, so taking a deeper look should reveal some inconsistencies that tell the a different story, right? Right?
-[X][Repair Bay]: Remove the medium teleportarium (frees up 180 space, with 170 space free we have 1 free slot), build a psy-shielded captive cell block (38 BP + 250 BP for 50 HP psy-sheilds). Use the cells to store the necrons and various chaos artifacts / bodies. Use remaining capacity to repair combat damage.
--[X] Permanently station a detachment of bots here as security.
-[X][Stankberg] Write-In: A slight adjustment on the Learn option, instead of just giving them a manufactory and some educational materials, offer lessons from and the manufacturing capability of the new branch of the Cogitare that you will be setting up in the volcano lair, while you're not expecting the whole population to jump for it and for some to deem it a waste of time in a population of a million more then enough will see the advantages of participating in lessons on how to operate and build the technology that produces their new masks and rebuilt their city.
-[X][Cogitare] Get our 20 tech-priests set up in the volcano lair with the goal of beginning the industrialization of the planet, uplifting the locals, and recruiting as many new Cogitare as possible.
--[X][Cogitare] The Cogitare should be handed control of the volcano fortress, the new manufactories we're building nearby, 589 Specter Light infiltration bots, 1000 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers, 1000 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots, and a Shuttle.
-[X] Construction x1 (600 VBP & 500 LC)
--[X] Build 4 Machine Spirit Manufactories near the volcano lair. (480 VBP & LC)
--[X] Build 1 Shuttle for the Cogitare staying behind. (20 BP & LC)
--[X] Build 2 Ocean Reclamation Boats for training purposes and to get started fixing the stank. (100 BP, 40 CP)
-[X] Research x2 (400 + 75 + 20 = 495 RP)
--[X] Human Virtual OMC simulations (150 RP)
---[X] Anexa assist
--[X] Human Design Interfaces (200 RP)
--[X] Remote Organic-Machine control (50 RP)
--[X] Abacus Manufacturing (50/100 RP)
--[X] Intelligence Coding (+45 RP -> 95/400 RP)
-[X] Travel/Explore: Head back to Denva.
-[X] Cia: Active Psyker improvement
-[X] Victan Active Action: Assist coordinating with the locals and Cogitare to get the exclave established and their relationship with the locals off the ground.

So to go through my reasoning for each stage of the plan...

The Orks are unlikely to entirely avoid the planet even if they don't notice us, and any Ork interaction with the planet is likely to leave spores resulting in a chronic infestation for the locals and our Cogitare outpost to deal with. Additionally, even if they don't head for the planet, the likely outcome of them totally missing us is that they head deeper into the subsector, and while I'd feel a little bit of schadenfreude if they went and caused some trouble for Ascalon, it'd still be "Orks killing a lot of innocent humans" and them finding Vothryn would be a massacre given the transport ship we have the Cogitare collecting everyone aboard wouldn't stand a chance in hell against even a small ship like this.

So the Orks have to die, and I think the way to do that which is least likely to have them successfully realize how much bigger our ship is and run away is to try and goad them into range of our big guns before burning them out of the void.
There is so much to potentially be gained even from a handful of unarmed and deactivated necron warriors that it really cannot be overstated. At minimum, a discount to Really Good Robotics, which I've discussed before as being an extremely good get, but also potentially materials advances, nanotechnology, AI and computing, there's even a chance we can start figuring out the non-warp-based "interstitial" ftl communications that let tham have instantaneous galaxy wide internet.

I think people are vastly overselling both the likelihood of the Necrons waking up (It's almost certainly only going to happen on something like a Nat 1 roll to research them) and the threat they would pose if they did (They're unarmed terminators with self repair abilities, they're not going to somehow fight their way through all our bots to murder our crew and then blow the ship up).

The only real risks I see are if we run into active Necrons who detect that we have them and take exception or if we do accidentally wake them up and they are able to use Necron "interstitial" communications which we have no idea how to even begin to jam to call for help or something.

With that said, we haven't had any actual use for our teleportarium (And are somewhat unlikely to until we get a bit further into the warp/teleportation tech tree) and it's a free action to retrofit a psy-shielded cell block aboard. Doing so also gives us a place to store the chaos artifacts we found, which we're currently just keeping in a cold room, and any other sketchy shit we pick up in the immediate future. Possible loot from the wreckage of the Ork ship for instance.

Lastly, we've got Neablis' go ahead to do a database dive on the Necrons, which can only help.
So, to directly quote the QM...

Quick comment that this is a valid use of the cogitare. You are very much allowed to pick up technical staff in Denva and sprinkle them around in various systems to build a manufacturing base & uplift the local societies around them. That would be a way to either establish a bunch of strong and advanced societies in this sector of space or make it easy for Denva to incorporate them later with a minimum of difficulty and a maximum of "rapid expansion" energy.

Of course, this would be a major "thing you're doing" and you should expect to spend actions on every planet getting them set up & hooked into the local populations, as you did in Vorthryn.

They're going to mostly be ok with this - you picked them up on a boon and they work for you. This kind of "here's a massive tech-base, go build out a star-system" isn't unappealing to them, especially if you let them do some research at some point down the line. It's a pretty strong ticket to glory and authority, and many of them see education as a holy duty.
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That is exactly what I want and I feel an excellent thing to be doing. This system is going to be strategically important in the mid to long term, if only because of it's position at an entry to the subsector. Getting it started on the process of bootstrapping itself is vital. The Cogitare are willing to do it and it will benefit the Stellar Ascendancy.

The volcano lair provides an excellent place to get the Cogitare established, with several thousand BP of defences and cushy habitation pre-built and ready to place them in control of. The best use of our initial BP investment then, is just a bunch of manufactories for them to start exponentially expanding their industry with. Placing one or more potentially manual manufactories near Stankberg so that they can make their own masks or start producing ships to deal with the Stank is an option, but they wouldn't actually be able to work those manufactories for several turns due to educational and training requirements, so that can wait until the Cogitare have trained up enough people to actually use one at which time they can build it. Until then, concentrating everything beneath the shadow of the volcano lair's anti-orbital guns seems safest and most convenient.

The bots are mostly being given to them in case of some unexpected emergency and to save them from needing to spend industrial output making their own rather than making more industry. The shuttle is going to be necessary to keep them in contact with Stankberg and give them the ability to ferry initiates, students, and goods back and forth conveniently.
I've said before that Organic-Machine Control technology represents a game changer for everyone we give it to. To be honest, I would have very much liked to have unlocked the entire tree along with Companion Cogitators and given it to Denva before we left, but giving as much of it as we can to them as quickly as possible once we get back is the next best thing. Human Design Interfaces are also a vital technology for anyone trying to run an OMC Manufactory in any kind of long term. The ability to design new blueprints cannot be undervalued.

Human Virtual OMC simulations in particular make OMC technology more accessible, easier to learn to use, and more effective for everything it's used for. I consider this to be extremely important. Remote Organic-Machine control won't be finished this turn unless one of the other two further discounts it or something, but it makes everything to do with OMC technology easier and more convenient.

OMC technology isn't as exciting as better weapons or the like, but it's going to completely reshape human civilization and the sooner we get that process started the better.

Abacus Manufacturing is necessary both for our own expansion and to fulfil our promise to Denva.
There's an argument to be made for finishing "the plan" by popping across the border into Aestron, but to be honest I think we've already learned what we needed to from this trip. We should head back to Denva so that we can kickstart the Stellar Ascendancy and do some industrial expansion and upgrades. Ideally we'd also figure out warp communications and leave a way to keep in touch before we head out again, at which point it's only a single travel action to get out to Aestron and explore that, if that's what we decide to do.

That would also be a good time to swing back through the systems we have explored, touching base with everyone, making sure they have the important new tech, and tying them into the communications network.
 
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[X] [Necron] Take them.

[X] Plan: Return to Denva
-[X][Orks] Destroy.
-[X][[Stankberg] Learn
-[X][Repair Bay]: Repair combat damage. Remove 1 Medium Macrocannon and build a 50HP psy-shielded vault, with seperate compartments for Necrons, auramite, saint's hand. Construct the vault and load it just before departure.
-[X] Construction x1 (600 VBP & 500 LC)
--[X] Build 4 Manned Manufactory (100 BP) near/in Stankberg. (400 BP)
--[X] Build 100 Points worth of Trade Goods for the locals. (100 BP)
---[X] Technical primers and educational materials using Victan to help prepare them. Based on Cogitare Exploraratum material, and including Cogitare philosophy/beliefs. Leftover BP are to be used for medical supplies.
--[X] Build 1 Set of Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots. (100 BP, 20 CP)
-[X] Research x2 (400 + 75 + 20 = 495 RP)
--[X] Reliable Gellar Fields (300 RP)
--[X] Blueprint : Advanced Technological Research Lab (50 RP)
--[X] Abacus Manufacturing (100 RP)
--[X] Intelligence Coding (50/400 RP)
-[X] Travel/Explore: Denva
-[X] Cia: Active Psyker improvement
-[X] Victan Active action: support [Stankberg] Learn / Trade Goods
-[X] Anexa active Action: Research - Reliable Gellar Fields

[X] Plan: Explore Aestron
-[X][Orks] Destroy.
-[X][[Stankberg] Learn
-[X][Repair Bay]: Repair combat damage. Remove 1 Medium Teleportarium and build a 50 BP psy-shielded vault, with seperate compartments for Necrons, auramite, saint's hand. Construct the vault and load it just before departure.
-[X] Construction x1 (600 VBP & 500 LC)
--[X] Build 4 Manned Manufactory (100 BP) near/in Stankberg. (400 BP)
--[X] Build 100 Points worth of Trade Goods for the locals. (100 BP)
---[X] Technical primers and educational materials using Victan to help prepare them. Based on Cogitare Exploraratum material, and including Cogitare philosophy/beliefs. Leftover BP are to be used for medical supplies.
--[X] Build 1 Set of Medium Humanized Machine-spirit Infantry Bots. (100 BP, 20 CP)
-[X] Research x2 (400 + 75 + 20 = 495 RP)
--[X] Reliable Gellar Fields (300 RP)
--[X] Blueprint : Advanced Technological Research Lab (50 RP)
--[X] Abacus Manufacturing (100 RP)
--[X] Intelligence Coding (50/400 RP)
-[X] Travel/Explore: Aestron
-[X] Cia: Active Psyker improvement
-[X] Victan Active action: support [Stankberg] Learn / Trade Goods
-[X] Anexa active Action: Research - Reliable Gellar Fields
 
quickly posting my plan before I drive to work, will get caught up on the thread as I have time.

We fight the orks in space and start uplifting these people. We get our bots ready for melee and prep for the projects we want to do upon our return to Denva. We do the terraforming project to fix this planet properly.

[x] Plan: 'Ard Boyz, Ready for a Scrap 2.0
-[x] Free Repairs: Remove the medium teleportarium (frees up 180 space, with 170 space free we have 1 free slot), build a psy-shielded captive cell block (38 BP + 250 BP for 50 HP psy-shields). Use the cells to store the necrons and various chaos artifacts / bodies. Use remaining capacity to repair combat damage.
--[x] Permanently station a detachment of bots here as security
-[x] Research 3x (600 + 75 + 20 = 695 RP)
--[x] Abacus Manufacturing (100 RP)
--[x] Does in vitro have something to do with wine? (100 RP)
--[x] Large-scale Machine spirits (75 RP)
---[x] Anexa Assigned
--[x] Combat Bot Melee Combat (150 RP)
--[x] Calderath Stank-Be-Gone (200 RP)
---[x] Risk Tolerance: 99.99% certainty the bacteria is non-human infectious/transmissible, 70% certain there will not be long term complications
--[x] Intelligence Coding (70 RP)
-[x] Construction (600 VBP)
--[x] Build 4 MS Manufactories; 2x at the palace and 2x at Stankberg (480 BP)
--[x] Build 2 Shuttles for the Planet (40 BP)
--[x] Build 1,000 light humanized machine spirit bots (60 BP) for the planet
---[x] Ask for volunteer from the Cogitare (preferably 10 exactly) to stay behind and uplift the planet. They will be able to recruit and grow the cogitare as they please. Our new palace will be available to them as a base.
-[x][Orks] Destroy
-[x][Stankberg] Learn
-[x] Victan: Passive - Help the uplift get started
-[x] Cia: Active Improvement

[x][Necron] Take them

Approval vote

[X] Plan: Enriching Exclave Establishment V3
 
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Hey, @Haganeko, your plans are not valid when it comes to Necrons:
Haganeko said:
[X]Plan: Ecology and Theology (Move)
-[X][Necrons] Take them
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Haganeko said:
[X]Plan: Ecology and Theology (Stay)
-[X][Necron] Take them
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The Necron vote is completely separate from the plan vote:
Neablis said:

What to do with the Necrons? (separate from plan vote)

-[][Necron] Leave them.
They've been sitting in that display hall for centuries at least. Just leave them there and wash your hands of it.
-[][Necron] Take them.
They're ancient bots from before humanity went to the stars. What kind of technology might they possess? Gain a research option to investigate them.
-[][Necron] Destroy them.
There's bad juju here, you can feel it. Blow them up and they can't awaken and cause problems for you.
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