An Extra Primarch

[ilbgar123]

Soul Surgery Omake: Unlocks Soul Surgery discipline, opening new options. +500 to psyker Checks.

[/] Ship Building. Even with the Waagh destroyed and your recent influx of resources, you could always use more ships. Of course, you have an entire rogue planet to rip material out of, and though there's a limit to how much material is there, there's enough for a huge fleet. Chance of Success: 100%. This action may be taken up to 115 times. Will build one Battleship, or 5 Cruisers almost fully, or 10 Escorts fully. The former takes 2 years to complete after the action is taken. Currently 6/115 have been used. One will be taken for free due to Mining Ships. All Dreadnought berths currently full. Cruiser berths currently full. Escort berths empty, but can be constructed by you wholesale. Due to allied berths, 7 sets of berths are now available for each category.

While the first batch of Dreadnoughts will need another year, the first 35 Cruisers roll off the lines fairly regularly, letting you beef up your garrison both at home and among your new worlds.

7/15 Dreadnoughts in progress.

35/125 Cruisers done.

Seeing as that rogue planet isn't going to be in the system forever, and you can build Escorts wholesale now, you rip out enough material for 100 Escorts and carve the ships out. While you could do more, it would be an undue draw on your time that you hadn't planned for.

Gained 110 Escorts. AN: Well, not using that rogue planet while it was here and you had the power to just wave your hands and *poof* Escort seems dumb. So 100 free Escorts per Turn until the planet goes away at the end of Turn 31. Yay. That extra ten is because the Mining Ships had nothing better to do.

Genetic Therapy bonus has increased to 20.

[X][MAJOR] Investigate Glands/Organs. With more in-depth knowledge of your various glands and organs not found in humans, you'd like to work on making versions which can be implanted in people. While they're unlikely to work as well without your incredibly advanced physiology and what you suspect is subconscious biomancy, they should be able to get something out of it. Medicine Surgery and Narcotics Combined with Education: General. Reward: Various bonuses, from PDF to background project rolls.

While you doubt anyone will get anything resembling the performance you do, they might benefit from the glands and organs you possess. As such, you try your hand at reverse-engineering them, with some help from the knowledge gained from the cogitator. The sub-dermal layer which provides so many benefits should be helpful, at least.

Learning: 3 Checks Passed. -300 to Check difficulty.

Combined Check: Medicine: Narcotics & Surgery: 120+ Education: General+Advanced: 240+ 15000(Medicine X 2)+ 2235(Education bonus)=17595. Intellectual knowledge of inner workings of organs gleaned from cogitator reduced Check difficulty by 2 Ranks. Viable Lesser Glands/Organs: 14700. Check Passed. AN: This one's a bit different from most Checks. A segment has to be completed in one go, due to the Emperor's black-boxing. Also because these are really, really complex pieces of bio-engineering, like, almost Tyranid level bullshit. The others aren't like this though.

4370/6200 to Level 53.

While you won't be able to give them anything like the full package, smaller, less potent versions of the various body parts you possess that humans generally don't are entirely possible. While they don't have anything resembling the same level of performance yours do, they do provide a significant benefit to soldiers on the field, and even research projects and the like. There is the sub-dermal layer, which while thinner and weaker than yours, helps improve toughness and reduce blood-loss, as well as the improved resistance to oxygen deprivation, high/low-pressure environments, and radiation. Not to the same extent as yours, but these are some complex organs, which couldn't possibly have evolved naturally. You're happy you managed to make it possible to implant/gene-splice them into regular humans.

There was an unusual gland that the information you received doesn't go into much detail about, and you thus weren't able to copy, called the Immortis Gland. Upon taking lethal damage, it would apparently release something along the lines of super-adrenaline, combined with a purely organic version of your Medi-gel. This would allow you and your siblings to continue fighting after wounds that would have normally killed even you were dealt. It didn't explain the gland's inner workings, unlike the others, as if Father wanted to 'black-box' this one. Well, while you don't have anything at this level for regulars, you are able to extract a small quantity of the chemical, and use that to synthesize a combat stimulant that, while much lesser in quality, is much easier to produce, and perfectly safe to take for regular humans.

Gained: Lesser Astartes Package. While not even comparable to your versions, you have been able to create lesser copies of the glands and organs originally exclusive to you. +50 to PDF rolls. +50% industrial efficiency. +25 to background project rolls. AN: Not even as good as an Astartes, but mass-producible.

Gained: Combat Stimulant. By studying your physiology, you've been able to synthesize a combat drug that sacrifices performance for ease of production. +50 to PDF rolls.

[X][MAJOR] Investigate Cogitator. While the Cogitator looks like a normal computer, nothing from your pod was normal, so you doubted this would be either. Electronics: Wiring, Forging: Gear, Education: General. Reward: Cogitator design.

While it didn't look any different from a regular computer on the outside, it was another story on the inside.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -425 to Check difficulty.

Electronics: Wiring: 75+ Forging: Gear: 200+ Education: General: 240+ 6885(Electronics bonus)+ 4245(Forging bonus)+ 2235(Education bonus)= 13880. 4575 for successful copy. 9575 for copy that doesn't cost any of current performance. Passed. 13880/14575 for Improved Cogitators.

4440/6200 to Level 53.

While it cost some performance, the cogitator's basic difference from a regular computer was a much higher level of resistance to Warp taint in terms of the physical computer becoming contaminated, which helped to some degree in every way. While it wouldn't prevent a Warp Horror from physically entering it and taking control, you wouldn't necessarily need to replace the cogitator after it had been near a Warp Horror. A computer, on the other hand, would likely need to have it's components replaced after being exposed to Warp energy for more than a few seconds. Luckily, you were able to make a mass-production model cogitator that had the same performance as the previous generation of computers. This should prove very helpful in preventing Daemonic Incursions from taking over technology very quickly, or for individual rogue psykers from overriding technology.

Gained: Cogitators. While they fulfill the same function as computers, they are far more resistant to Warp-related shenanigans. Scrap-code and similar technology-focused psychic manipulations gain a -20 Malus to rolls against your technology.

[X][MAJOR] Investigate Psychic Battery. The message from your father involved a projected psychic barrier, via use of a battery of psychic energy. Seeing as a working model of such was currently being researched, slowly, you ought to work on fixing the problem. Psyker: Manipulation, Forging: Gear, Education: Esoteric. Reward: Psychic Batteries.

The Eldar, even with the advances made in psyker gear, cannot draw very deeply on the Warp without having their souls ripped out while they're still alive, which Soul Stones do not protect against. While they can still draw enough energy to make Wraithbone, simply leaving any significant amount of Warp energy in the Materium without some kind of containment is an extremely bad idea. Human psykers, while not in as bad a state, also have limits on how much energy they can safely draw and use in a given span of time, which are usually much, much lower than yours.

Power: 5 Checks Passed.

Control: 3 Checks Passed.

Learning: 3 Checks Passed. -700 to Check Difficulty.

Combined Check: Psyker: Manipulation+Sorcery: 225+ Forging: Gear: 200+ Education: Esoteric: 240 +6025(Psyker bonus) 4245+(Forging bonus) +2235(Education bonus)+3500(Eldar SL)=16970. 9300 for Viable Psychic Battery. Passed. 14300 for Improved Psychic Battery. Passed. 16970/19300 for Somewhat Improved Psychic Battery.

4570/6200 to Level 53.

The Eldar are grateful, as their own efforts would likely have taken another decade, and it should prove helpful for other allied psykers as well. You keep a couple on you at all times so you can draw some extra energy in the event something cuts you off from the Warp, or you can't risk drawing from it. It's not well-known, but psykers naturally generate small quantities of psychic energy independent of the Warp, which they can use to charge these batteries safely, making it extremely unlikely for them to get possessed unless they seek out Warp entities on their own initiative, which you can't really do much about beyond making sure it seems less appealing and taking out anyone who does make a deal.

Gained Improved Psychic Battery. While it doesn't store much psychic energy, it allows for essentially risk-free use of psychic power, as they cannot hold Daemonic entities, and do not draw directly from the Warp. This is extremely useful for psykers, who can charge the batteries up comparatively safely. +75 to allied psyker Checks. Retain use of low-level psyker powers without alerting your unknowing or delicate host in places such as hostile godly domains and fragile pocket dimensions.

[X][MAJOR] Setting Up Psychic Choirs. You've seen people pair up with people they trust to draw more energy from the Warp without being overwhelmed, but the Eldar have something better. A group of psykers linked together. Before the Fall, it was used when they wanted to influence entire solar systems, a group of lesser psykers supporting one of their strongest so they wouldn't get themselves killed with the energies involved. Now they do it to draw any significant amount of Warp energy in a timely fashion. They shouldn't have any trouble teaching it to human psykers. Chance of Success: 60%(90 after Perks). Reward: +100 to allied psyker Checks when in choir. Bonuses to some actions.

While the batteries are helpful, especially to the Eldar, being able to draw more energy from the Warp in the first place would also be of great help. The Eldar had a long-standing tradition of using linked psykers to accomplish this, though they'd been used for much greater amounts of power historically. Humans and other psychic races tended to have paired individuals work together to accomplish something similar, but lesser in scale. Apparently there was a synergistic effect to having multiple psykers working in concert, though similarities between their power, the nature of their power, and/or their personalities helped.

Roll: 27. Success!

While it was more difficult than expected, as the Eldar are still adjusting to their situation which negatively affected their ability to teach the human psykers, in the end, they managed it. While it requires a dozen psykers to get major benefits out of it, a psyker of any degree of power may join with minimal loss of efficiency over an area of 50 cubic meters without a highly specialized ritual or other means of connecting them. It seems the main problem was accounting for humankind's much more varied degrees of psykerness. Eldar were usually roughly the same in terms of psychic power, with the main difference between a teacher and a student being skill and experience, though there were outliers obviously. This was not the case with humans or Celesians, the major psychic races in the sector besides the Eldar (well, the Orks too, but they weren't exactly normal or part of your polity) so some adaptations needed to be made.

Basic Psychic Choirs. While any psyker could join a choir, they could only do so over 50 meters without a specialized ritual, and the choir needs at least a dozen members for any significant benefit. +100 to allied psykers when in choir. +10 to chances of finding brothers or Space Hulks.

[X][MAJOR] Looking For Your Brothers. As your father suggested, you should work to find your brothers. While they don't seem to be the beacons in the Warp you are, you believe you could find them if you really tried. Of course, having some backup would be helpful. Chance of Success: 5%(45 after bonuses, 65 after +20 from liujuin). Reward: Contact with fellow Primarchs.

While normally you would only range so far, as the risk of something coming across your wayward soul and taking a stab at it is not inconsequential as you hit more than 5 sectors distance, with a psychic choir backing you in your efforts, you are able to cast your mind several sectors farther than you would normally risk.

Roll: 57. Success! Rolling for Primarch located: 1d20=13. Contact with Magnus! AN: 1-5 would be Horus. 6-10 would be Rogal. 11-15 for Magnus. 16-20 for Leman. This is representative of their distance rather than how good contacting them is.

On a distant planet, a young man with red skin, in the middle of a fascinating treatise on biomancy, stopped as he felt an unfamiliar presence in the Warp. He could tell it was not malicious, and that it was 'spread-thin' so to speak, so he allowed a telepathic link to form. 'Hello?' he asked.

'Ah, hello. I'm not sure how to do this gently, so I'll just do it fast. I'm Serras Salnus, your sister.' A feminine voice addressed him. Examining the link more closely, he noticed a definite similarity between the psychic power possessed by himself, as well as with Father, though that begged the question:

'Magnus. Strange, I don't remember you from when he made us, and I'm sure someone with your psychic potential would have been able to speak with him too. I'm almost certain Father made only male Primarchs as well. Something about it being easier when they were the same gender, and not having to rearrange all our specialized organs for the female reproductive system.' Magnus questioned. Faking the feel of one's soul was technically possible, but it was incredibly difficult to hide that you were doing so from all but the most rudimentary psykers. That meant that whoever he was talking to was either so much better than him he wouldn't have been able to tell she wasn't who she said she was even if she was in the same room, or she was telling the truth. At least partially. She seemed honest, and compared to his brother, she was probably a terrible liar.

'Wait, you talked to him while you were gestating? You remember things from back then?' she seemed dumbfounded.

'Yes. Souls don't always match one's physical age, and the mind even less often.' He answered.

'Really? That's odd... I have a pod and everything. Either I'm a late-bloomer relative to you, exposure to the Warp did something, or something very strange is going on. By the way, what's he like?' She asked with barely restrained eagerness. To be fair, he'd be curious as to his creator's nature too if he didn't already know it.

'Well, he's a pleasant sort of man, provided you haven't been doing something he finds stupid. If you are, then he's probably going to spend a few minutes explaining why it's stupid, before telling you what you should be doing instead. He means well, but it's incredibly grating. I haven't actually talked to him much since our pods were scattered. He's been busy ever since then.

His plan was to raise us and then have us serve as his lieutenants in retaking human-held territory, starting with the Sol system. Given the power-mad or highly immoral regular human rulers, mad psykers, and hostile xenos ruling over most of the system, I can kind of understand why he needed to take some shortcuts with the Thunder Warriors. Of course, having most of them end up crazed psychopaths only held in check by their absolute loyalty to him kind of makes them a bomb waiting to go off, but if he wants to take back Terra in a way it actually serves as a resource base afterward, he's going to need some level of delegation, seeing as he can't just blow up everything in his path.' Magnus explained.

'Well that's disturbing. If I were making something like us, I would put it under as close to impenetrable security as possible, which means something got past and scattered us all over the galaxy despite whatever he could devise. Which, considering he made us, is probably some pretty substantial security around our pods. Oh, speaking of which, did you check your pod? There was a computer in mine with information on uplifting Feral and Feudal planets, and also the functions of your various organs and the technical details of their inner workings.'

Magnus blinked. 'In retrospect, I probably should have had a look for something like that. Father probably just forgot to mention it with how busy he's been. Knowing what my organs do in general terms is a little different from knowing the specifics. Should help me with my self-biomancy, that's for sure. That other thing is interesting but not really useful in the short-term.' he noted.

'Okay, can you try and convince the leaders of your world to start building up an alliance of some kind with nearby worlds, or step down and let someone more willing do it? I recently had to deal with pretty much every Ork in the sector coming together into a single Waagh. We didn't take many losses, but a lot of that was because I was personally present to clear out their largest ships, and ordered a casualty-averse strategy. Not to mention Father's planning to reunite humanity, and the faster we do that, the less likely a huge horde of Orks is going to overrun entire sectors.'

'That is concerning.' he admitted. 'The Orks don't usually hit sector-wide fleets from what the historical texts tell me, and if they gave a psyker powerful enough to reach me from as far away as you are trouble, then we'll definitely need to band together, if only so their numerical advantage isn't totally overwhelming. Luckily, as I've recently been declared the greatest psyker on the planet, I can work to unite the Councils without anyone being too upset about it.'

'Need any help? I'm not sure I could teleport that far, but I could help with the technology I've developed, and some things I've discovered about the Warp. Spaceships that are a little better than just functional, for one thing.' Serras asked.

'Ah, that sounds useful for after I've gotten my world under control, but a focus on psy-tech would be most helpful for the moment. If I've got a few things they've never seen before, and I'm not completely unreasonable, the Councils are going to be a lot more willing to listen to me.' Magnus proposed.

'Hm, give me a moment.' Serras said, her attention occupied with Warp energy manipulation.

Power Check: 5 Checks Passed.

Control Check: 3 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -700 to Check difficulty.

Combined Check: Psyker: Manipulation+Sorcery: 225+ Psyker: Esoteric+Navigator: 215 +Education: Esoteric+Seer: 240+ 12050(Psyker bonus X 2)+ 2235(Education bonus)= 14965. 9300 required to create grade 1 crystals at great distance. Passed. 14300 for grade two crystals as well. Passed. AN: I figure psyker power is like gravity, it gets a lot weaker over distance.

4700/6200 to Level 53.

Magnus started as small quantities of Warp energy gathered above his desk (nowhere near enough to cause him significant harm, so he gave Serras the benefit of the doubt), before turning into a small shower of crystals. He observed the process closely when it repeated itself on a slightly larger, but significantly more complex, scale. The set of crystals that emerged were slightly different, but still recognizably similar to the originals.

'As impressive as that was, I'm not sure what these are.' He pointed out. Warp manipulation was like gravity. Doing it from further away grew exponentially more difficult, which made even the very minor manipulation she'd managed very impressive. The problem was that he didn't actually know what she'd done.

'Crystallized concepts.' Serras responded, a bit worn out. 'After an incident involving extra-dimensional entities, and I'm not talking about the Warp, my people found these. They represent things like Fire, which is fairly self-explanatory, or Order, which 'stiffens' the Warp, leading to effects similar to a Blank. They're very useful in creating talismans of various kinds, as well as Runes, which represent the concepts the crystals embody through symbols and a language I specifically developed and have similar effects.' She quickly listed off the various types she'd made thus far, and the basics of her runic language.

'I can't help but notice that there isn't a Darkness crystal here.' Magnus stated, examining the crystals. He'd quickly noticed one of the types she'd mentioned wasn't present, and deduced which one was missing via process of elimination. He could sense which concepts they embodied now that he was looking and knew what to look for, and Darkness wasn't there.

'Yeah, remember the extra-dimensional entities I mentioned? They were made of the stuff. Literally. Scans had negative photon readings when we analyzed one of the crystals they left behind.' Serras had a decided edge to her 'voice.'

'That isn't how light works.' Magnus responded, baffled.

'That's what I said. Considering how dangerous those things were, I decided to halt any further experiments, to avoid risking the equivalent of a Warp Horror Incursion, but worse.'

'That bad?' He asked.

'Warp Horrors, Eldar, Orks, xenos, and my soldiers and I worked together, and we were still struggling at times, in part due to their ability to convert fallen allies into more of their number.' She said bluntly.

'I'm going to assume you mean Daemons when you say that, and that is deeply disturbing.' he responded. Daemons? Struggling against something to the point that multiple other parties were working with them, and they were still only barely winning? Considering how the average human performed against them, that was terrifying.

'Glad I got the point across. Now let's never speak of it again.' Magnus couldn't tell if she was joking or not, which was not how telepathic conversations worked either.

'Anything else you think I should know?' he asked, to break the awkward silence.

'Uh, three things are vitally important. First, I've allied with the local Eldar, so please try not to provoke any local Eldar in your section of space, and at least make an effort to try the diplomatic solution with xenos in general, since there are better uses for your resources than fighting people who aren't omnicidal or Warp Horror-worshiping. Second, if you weren't aware, here's how to make adamantium and my designs for nano-assemblers and scalable fusion reactors. The first is a bit of a power hog, but being able to turn random scrap into a tank is totally worth it. The second makes the power issue less so, and is able to fit into vehicles, guns and appliances.' He quickly jotted down her instructions, with a helpful illusion of the schematics provided for him.

A lot of minor psykers lacked the power to stick around a College, and entered the regular workforce instead. It wasn't any fault of theirs, they didn't have any intellectual handicaps (generally, mutations could have serious negative side effects) they just lacked the psychic power to actually hold a position of power or significant prestige. It was discriminatory, but when you were actually more capable, well, people objected less after a few generations. However, the lesser psykers could pursue mundane science just fine, and things like this would leave a lot of jobs suddenly unnecessary.

'Okay, that's different from the way we make it, which I'll have to test later. What was the last thing?' he asked.

'I'm pretty sure that Wa- er, Daemons have a level past Greater Daemon, which serves as their leader, The Eldar created a new one through millennia of excess, which proves that they can exist, at very least.' Magnus had known of Greater Daemons, but he hadn't known about this. Thinking about it, it made sense. Greater Daemons seemed to function more as generals than true leaders, which suggested there was a higher rung up the ladder. Fascinating. Not ten minutes in, and he'd already learned something very interesting.

'Alright. I should be able to talk again soon, but crafting crystals from that far away wore me out.' Serras said.

'Nice to meet you. I hope to talk with you again soon.' Magnus reflexively nodded despite Serras being very unlikely to be able to see it, before the link cut out.

As Magnus gathered up his notes, with a resolution to visit his pod before they dismantled it for resources, Jack wandered in. "Brother, why do you have those rocks, and why do they feel so... odd?" Ah, his trickster brother. He'd chosen an average name, because people tended to assume that an unusual individual would have a similar name. Unlike Magnus, he had a normal skin tone. Well, if you looked closely, there was a hint of grey, but that was still less odd than Magnus' pigmentation.

While Magnus focused on the more esoteric aspects of psykery, though that was relative when you were an Alpha or Alpha-plus (the exact border was kind of fuzzy) Jack focused on self-biomancy and trickery, both mundane and psychic. In terms of psychic manipulation, Magnus was superior. It was just that Jack would never, ever, fight fair. He would probably cut his own arm off before fighting fair if he didn't stand to benefit from it more than fighting dirty. Essentially, Magnus was smarter in terms of book-learning, Jack was more cunning.

"You know how you were twinned off of me when our pods were scattered? Well, I think something similar may have happened to someone else. We apparently have a sister named Serras, and these crystals" He held up the Fire crystal, the first one to appear. "represent concepts, making them excellent tools for making talismans."

"Huh, I did wonder if there was anyone else like me..." Jack muttered. "Well, then I guess we can finally get those over-hyped emos to listen to us when we tell them we can do their jobs better." He wasn't the most diplomatic person when he wasn't going out of his way to be.

"You're never going to let that go, are you?" Magnus deadpanned. Councilor Zergun was an excellent Diviner... but he constantly wore clothes to cover everything but his face entirely, and even that was usually obscured by the shadow of his hood, all in black, and spoke in prose.

"Not at all." Jack stated bluntly.

Magnus sighed. "Well, then at least help me sort through this. I saw the process at work, but the sooner we have it all figured out, the better." Jack nodded and pulled up a chair.

Gained: Contact with Magnus. Jump-started Prospero creating a network of worlds similar to yours. IC information on Emperor and state of Sol system. Gained Magnus SL, currently at 1. Jack SL available at Magnus SL 3. +15 to Education Skills.

Education: Advanced: 40. You're nearing a new tier of knowledge. The new worlds in your alliance considered most of the knowledge you've gained entirely theoretical. Education bonus has increased to 140 for General.

Education: Advanced: 55. You've reached a new tier of knowledge. Even on your home planet, you're making great strides in pushing the boundaries of human understanding forward. Education bonus is now 155 for General.

Education: Cultural Analysis: 40. You make master diplomats seem downright clumsy. Your newest xenos acquaintances proved helpful in field testing this. Can assimilate very friendly xenos cultures.

Education: Cultural Analysis: 55. As long as they aren't actively hostile, bringing humans into the fold is easy, and xenos only somewhat less so. Can assimilate rather friendly xenos cultures.

Education: Seer: 40. You possess the greatest understanding of the Warp of anyone in the sector, or any of the adjacent sectors, and in a large chunk of the sectors adjacent to those. Education: Esoteric bonus has increased to 140.

Education: Seer: 55. You are one of the greatest scholars on the Warp and how it behaves in the nearest 5 sectors outside your own. Education: Esoteric bonus has increased to 155.

Education Advanced All 50. Knowledge Seeker. You've begun to expand upon human knowledge to a noticeable degree. +150 to all Checks. +3 Major Actions. +3 Minor Actions.

4950/6200 to Level 53.

AN: If the psykers are of roughly similar strength, they can get a good feel for each other's personalities during telepathic conversations. It's not mutual with sufficiently powerful or alien beings, obviously, but in this case it was. You could both tell the other was, at worst, unwittingly doing wrong. Also, Serras is still a little naive, and would very much like to assume the best of her family, while Magnus is, while not an idiot, a lot more willing to give Warp-y things a chance, and since Serras explained what the stuff she gave him did pretty directly, he has little reason to be suspicious. As for why she was willing to give him all that, well, she assumes that she'd have to give him that stuff anyway when the Great Crusade reached him, so she doesn't have any major reason not to give him personal attention in their use and technical details now, rather than giving them to a dozen important individuals at once and trying to teach them all. Plus it was unlikely some Warp entity hadn't gotten at least a look at the schematics at this point. As for Zergun, he's haunted by images of planets getting Exterminatus-ed. Including one which looks very familiar....

Before anybody asks, Serras can actually talk from a lot further away, but she had to concentrate on keeping anybody from eavesdropping, which severely limited her range.

[X][MAJOR] Train stats Control x4 AN: I think I'll change it so crystals are used to autopass failed rolls for Control and Combat (also Power but you can't use it for that anymore).
-[X] Use boost and crystals

Roll 1: 98+35(Mentors)+20(Level Perks)-33(Control) =120. Critical Success. Control now 34.

Critical Roll: 9+35(Mentors)+20(Level Perks)-34(Control)+20(Overflow)=50. Success. Control now 35.

Roll 2: 87+35(Mentors)+20(Level Perks)-35(Control)=107. Critical Success. Control now 36.

Critical Roll: 85+35(Mentors)+20(Level Perks)-36(Control)+7(Overflow)=111. Critical Success. Control now 37.

Critical Roll: 42+35(Mentors)+20(Level Perks)-37(Control)+11(Overflow)=71. Success. Control now 38.

Roll 3: 55+35(Mentors)+20(Level Perks)-38(Control)=72. Success. Control now 39.

Roll 4: 50+35(Mentors)+20(Level Perks)-39(Control)=66, Success. Control now 40.

Free Crystal raises Control to 41.

Power automatically rises to 55.

[X][MAJOR] Train stats Learning x2

Roll 1: 30+35(Mentors)+20(Level Perks)-30(Learning)=55. Success. Learning is now 31.

Roll 2: 85+35(Mentors)+20(Level Perks)-31(Learning)=109. Critical Success. Learning now 32.

Critical Roll: 39+35(Mentors)+20(Level Perks)-32(Learning)+9(Overflow)=71. Success. Learning now 33.

[X][MAJOR] SL- Celestine Salnus
[X][MAJOR] SL- General Richards x2
[X][MINOR] SL- Roger Cazanus x3
[X][MINOR] SL- Isker Vagahen x3
[X][MINOR] SL- Meera Yerala x3
[X][MINOR] SL-Percy Clements x3
[X][MINOR] SL- Captain Matt x4
[X][MINOR] SL- Samantha ???: 4 of 10.
[X][MINOR] SL- George Yorev
[X][MINOR] SL- Emily Watts

[X][MINOR] Train Combat Stealth x1 -need this to hit Combat-100

Combat: Stealth: 60. You are above the level expected of the average stealth operative among the Witch Hunters. Difficulty of Evasion and Combat Checks reduced moderately.

Combat: Stealth: 75. You are well above the level expected of the average stealth operative among the Witch Hunters. Difficulty of Evasion and Combat Checks reduced largely.

[X][MINOR] Learn to cook (Vacation!)

Interestingly, you are only 'okay' at baking. While there is a strong element of chemistry here, it's not entirely about that. Certainly, you can make a recipe by rote memory, but to make something really good requires talent or experience. You'd decided to take a little break now that there wasn't an imminent threat. Said break consisted of learning to cook beyond simply dumping carbohydrates into a pot and boiling them. You usually just ate what was provided for you, and even with your seemingly bottomless stomach, your parents didn't have any major trouble providing you with adequate food.

Still, food you made yourself was... different from what someone who really cared about the act of cooking would make. Some sort of resonance with your soul? You know you hadn't put anything particularly odd in there, though you hadn't followed the recipe exactly. You'd notice Warp contamination, but your theory might explain a few things. While psykers had more influence on the Warp than regular humans, it was possible for particularly strong-willed or passionate people to influence it significantly without actual psychic powers. It was a reflection of all emotions, which meant that, while it's influence was usually very small, it influenced everything to some degree, and all soul-bearing beings possessed some influence, even non-psykers. People who devoted their lives to a craft, swordsmasters, Master Herun, etc, were more skilled than they really ought to be. Similarly, combat legends or people who were otherwise famous seemed to gain some level of enhancement from the collective expectations of those around them. Nothing major, but a famous inventor might get a few extra flashes of insight a year, or a Champion might be a little stronger or faster than they ought to be.

Say, come to think of it, is that how the Orks accomplish all their impossible feats? You've never heard of an Ork being corrupted by a Daemon, but they clearly got psychic power from somewhere. Maybe they had a stronger version of what you'd noticed among humans? If things worked because they expected them to work, that would explain so many things. Warbosses getting stronger with larger Waaghs, for one.

Hm, odd that you'd make this connection from baking, but this turned out to be beneficial beyond simply relaxing. Unless that's why you made the connection, as your life had been rather hectic recently. Well, you could investigate further later. Right now, you had some cakes to bake.

Reward: Gained insights into collective consciousness and 'fame' modifiers. AN: I interpret any form of emotion or will as either being or generating psychic energy. That's why most of the Necrons who weren't particularly strong-willed or passionate basically became robots after the C'tan changed them. As such, particularly strong-willed or passionate people will generate excess psychic energy, which tends to end up influencing whatever they're focusing on. Similarly, people who believe in someone will provide some empowerment.

[X][INTEGRATION] Improve Bastion government/policies/administration system x2

While you've established the government's basic structure, a firmer grasp of it's policies and administration would also be helpful.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed. -300 to Check difficulty.

Education: General+Advanced: 255+ Education: Culture+Cultural Analysis: 255+ Tactics: Preparation: 160+ 4170(Education bonus X 2)+ 8460(Tactics bonus)=13300 X 2= 26600. 4700 for Improved Policies. Passed. 9700 for Liked Policies. Passed. 14700 for Practical Policies. Passed. 19700 for Well-Liked Policies. Passed. 24700 for Efficient Policies. Passed. 26600/ 29700 for Popular Policies.

5020/6200 to Level 53.

While Thernus is well-governed thanks to your dad, the other worlds in The Bastion are all over the spectrum. The Bastion's government is treated as being one level higher than the federal level, but it didn't have much in the way of policies that weren't enforced by it's own branches. That's changed now. While your father can govern Thernus effectively with the framework built by his predecessors, he requires a large amount of delegation to be effective at it. Similarly, you delegate large amounts of responsibility for enforcing the policies you've enacted to the local governments, The Bastion only stepping in if the local government is unable or unwilling to enforce the policies themselves. Obviously, the branches of government you've created gain a few powers and a streamlining of authority, but most of the duties of keeping the populace in line are, first and foremost, the job of the planet's government. With the exception of keeping an eye out for cultists, and extreme cases such as Daemonic Incursions, obviously. Keeping the government in check should never be it's own job.

Meanwhile, you set up another department, the Trade Association, meant to facilitate trade both inside your polity and with neighboring worlds, keeping track of what resources a world needs or has an excess of via it's administrative officials and their reports, and recommending a nearby world with the reverse. While it's not perfect, it does allow for worlds to make trade deals more easily, rather than waiting the problem out or suffering for it. They also use the data to predict surplus and deficits, which in turn helps them with their trade duties.

Reward. Gained Policy Established. With your policies firmly established, the government moves more fluidly, problems are addressed more quickly and thoroughly. +5 Free Integration actions. +10 Free Survey actions. +50 to PDF and naval rolls. +50 to morale rolls. +50 to industry. Reduced likelihood of resource imbalances. AN: While replicators can rearrange atomic structure, that doesn't help mineral-poor planets very much, and they still can't make great food.

[X][INTEGRATION] Diplomacy x3. While you've added a number of new systems to The Bastion, there are still a number of polities within the sector that you can reach out to. While you have less information about them than those within your sub-sector, you were going to have to take that plunge some time. 25 systems available for diplomacy. Reward: Depends on Checks passed.

Assessment Roll: 26+20(Level Perks)=46. Neutral.

Thile, the 6th world of the next sub-sector in your path towards dominating the sector, is a peaceful Civilized World, and since they've never weathered a major attack, they see little reason to give up any freedoms in return for protection from nebulous threats.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Speech: Diplomacy Check: 160+ 23135(Speech bonii)+ 500(Goods)- 250(Apathy)= 23545. Information, Non-Aggression Pact, Full Alliance, and Allegiance Checks passed.

5090/6200 to Level 53.

However, you were able to convince them, in part thanks to your technology and comparatively massive fleet. While the planet itself is all but alone in it's solar system, a gas giant at the other end of the system it's only companion besides it's dwarf sun, a large asteroid field exists, likely the result of several cataclysmic collisions in the system's early history, with a few proto-planets forming from the debris. In a million or so years, a few small planets might come to be. However, the Mining Ships were designed for an environment like this, and roughly 100 are quickly constructed to begin work, which has the added benefit of clearing up the weird gravity fields and debris in general scattered across the system, which should prevent some ambitious Ork from stealing a bunch to make Roks out of. A few dangerously large asteroids often pass by the planet, and these are given priority for resource extraction, so as to prevent a potential extinction event.

Reward: Rich asteroid belt under your control. 25 planets in coalition.

Assessment Roll: 18+20(Level Perks)=38. Somewhat Hostile.

Fargul, a Mining World, has had rumors spring up that they'll be driven out of business if you absorb them. While they aren't entirely buying it, it's certainly colored public opinion, which has forced their government to make a show of not immediately accepting your offers, despite the ambassador seeming nervous about upsetting you.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Speech: Diplomacy Check: 160+ 23700(Speech bonii)+ 500(Goods)- 250(Hostility)= 23545. Information, Non-Aggression Pact, Full Alliance, and Allegiance Checks passed.

Apparently, word of how your forces broke a Waagh that had the majority of the Orks from the entire sector in it had also spread amongst the populace, though they were more dismissive of that claim. The government was a bit more canny, and the fact that you can teleport greatly unnerves them, since mundane security might as well not exist as far as you're concerned. You were able to make a good show of 'negotiating' despite the end proposal being agreed on since the first week, which left the planet's population happy, and the government glad a psyker as powerful as yourself was reasonable.

Contrary to their expectations, Fargul's productivity skyrockets as your technology proliferates, which calms all but the most rabidly paranoid. Turns out some of them were cultists, and by some you mean most. It's likely that a Warp Horror tried to sabotage your work here. Luckily you caught it before it got particularly bad.

Reward: 26 planets in coalition. AN: Background rolls got messy here, but it turned out alright in the end.

5160/6200 to Level 53.

Assessment Roll: 42+20(Level Perks)=62. Somewhat Receptive.

The Hive World of Regusia has heard rumors of the improvements you've made to worlds like them, but they're a bit skeptical they're as good as they say.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Speech: Diplomacy Check: 160+ 23700(Speech bonii)+ 500(Goods)+ 250(Interested)= 24045. Information, Non-Aggression Pact, Full Alliance, and Allegiance Checks passed.

5230/6200 to Level 53.

Once you prove that it is, indeed, as good as they say, they jump to join up. Their cultist problems disappear practically over night, while their air, water, and general life quality rise rapidly. They're only 35 billion, which is comparatively little compared to the others, but still quite a few people. A number of tech-priests are drawn from here, as this world has a fairly high average IQ. Supposedly, it started out as a research colony, but over 5000 years, the population exploded, resulting in arcology designs being used. Said designs were lost during the particularly massive upheaval of the Warp just before the storms began to subside, as a number of psykers went mad and began killing/destroying everything in sight. This was particularly devastating, due to the number who awakened specifically because of what you now know to be Slaanesh' birth.

Reward: 27 planets in coalition.

[X][INTEGRATION] Try to make improvements wherever you can whenever you can x2

While you have done much to improve things, you could still do more. At the moment, you focus on ironing out the last few flaws in your current governmental structure.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed. -300 to Check difficulty.

Education: General+Advanced: 255+ Education: Culture+Cultural Analysis: 255+ Tactics: Preparation: 160+ 4070(Education bonus X 2)+ 7435(Tactics bonus)=12175 X 2= 23450+26600=50950. 49700 for Popular Policies. Passed. 50950/74700 for Sound Policies.

5260/6200 to Level 53.

You manage to finish off the governing structure for sector-level governance. At this point, further alterations would be rather redundant, as you do not even occupy this sector fully.

Gained: Policy Established upgrade. With your policies firmly established, the government moves more fluidly, problems are addressed more quickly and thoroughly. +20 Free Integration actions. +10 Free Survey actions. +100 to PDF and naval rolls. +100 to morale rolls. +100% to industry. Reduced likelihood of resource imbalances.

[X][SURVEY] Survey nearby systems x2 +25= 27 total. As the nearby Warp has been forcibly calmed by you, a number of systems have been made available. As there were a number of systems which had either remained free of human touch for some reason, or had simply not been explored, you have quite a few options. 50 systems available for survey. 60% chance of discovering something interesting. (Base 10+20 from Warp Lighthouse+ 20 from Level Perks+ 10 from FBTW). Reward: Varies between colony sites, asteroid belts for mining, xenos or human polities, etc.

Roll 1: 27+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)= 57. Decent Result.

A dim red dwarf, orbited by a series of gas giants, each with rings with asteroids in them. While no lost colony or option for said colony, it's still useful for the large number of large asteroids, and to make sure Orks don't make off with them.

Roll 2: 72+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)= 102. Critical Success.

Critical Success: 84+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)+ 2(Overflow)=116. Critical Success.

Critical Success: 36+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)+16(Overflow)=82. Great Result.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Speech: Diplomacy Check: 160+ 23135(Speech bonii)+ 500(Goods)+ 250(Interested)= 24045. Information, Non-Aggression Pact, Full Alliance, and Allegiance Checks passed.

5330/6200 to Level 53.

You discovered a Forgeworld in a previously uncharted system, Arus. This Forgeworld possessed a number of minor STC patterns obtained by excavating ruins, which had been what had led them to settle this world in the first place. This makes the tech-priests quite happy, as reclamation of ancient technology is likely to do. While no one STC is a game-changer by itself, they have a profound effect together.

Gained new Forgeworld. 28 planets in coalition. Petty STCs. While the Ancients didn't know everything, they knew a great deal. This manifests in a great number of blueprints for everything form car parts, to missile launchers. +50 to PDF rolls. +50% to industry. +50 to morale rolls. AN: This is considered separate from your Minor Works.

Roll 3: 24+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)= 54. Meh.

A new system is discovered, isolated by the swirling currents of the Warp. It lacks any colonizable celestial bodies, but it's asteroid belt is perfectly serviceable.

Roll 4: 63+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)= 93. Great result.

A colony is founded in the Sergis system, reducing the overpopulation of local Hive Worlds very slightly. They each contributed 100 million on average, placing about half a billion on the colony. The warm temperate planet was highly forested, but you find a few barren spots which lacked large quantities of trees (compared to the rest) due to poorer soil quality, which you cleared out without much trouble. Building a few cities, in much the same manner as with Therog, to house the population was the work of a week. You suspect housing a population of more than 3 billion without major ecological damage would require specialized arcologies, but for now there's plenty of room for the population.

Reward: Gained Colony World. 29 planets in coalition. AN: At this point, you're mostly just gathering the colonists in one spot and teleporting them to their new home, though you're going to want a dedicated colony ship at some point.

Roll 5: 24+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)= 54. Meh.

You found another system with little use beyond asteroid mining. You're starting to think you should just design a space station for these specific types of systems and have a few ready.

Roll 6: 33+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)= 63. Good Result.

An alien race, the Squesh, which had just managed to achieve casual inter-planetary travel, is discovered in the Darnub system. They were bipedal humanoids, but astoundingly, had their genetic roots in mollusks. Apparently, they have a significant amount of genetic similarity to a squid. While vulnerable to cutting and piercing blows, they distributed blunt force very well, and they were very good at running fights and anything that required mobility and/or agility. Additionally, the differences between their DNA and human DNA made them very adaptable.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Speech: Diplomacy Check: 160+ 23700(Speech bonii)+ 500(Goods)+ 250(Interested)= 24045. Information, Non-Aggression Pact, Full Alliance, and Allegiance Checks passed.

5400/6200 to Level 53.

You ended up making a deal with them fairly similar to the Celesians. While they have very few psykers, who had been doing a good job of confounding their scientists, they appreciate the insight you bring after hearing the horror stories some among the Witch Hunters share. Not to mention they were much more vulnerable to mutation than humans were, which was a problem for their psykers. The major boost to their average technology level was also a boon for them, allowing them to begin exploring independently of you. Just like the Celesians, they were to remand human colonies to your care, but worlds they found (and could actually put people on) were free game.

Reward: 30 Planets in Coalition. GDE Free actions increased to 6 Integration and 3 Survey.

Roll 7: 84+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)=114. Critical Success.

Critical Success: 23+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)+14(Overflow)=67. Good Result.

In the Cervun system, a temperate planet was found. Not too hot or cold to sustain human life, it was perfect for a colony, and (with some stringent filtering) the local Hive Worlds are glad to send some of their excess population to it to begin a colony. Not before you set up a few cities, as having them start from scratch would be stupid, but they'll be doing most of the work themselves. They elected to keep the name Cervun. The odd thing was, it had 4 island continents almost equi-distant from each other, something that was almost impossible naturally, but you could find no evidence of any tampering.

Gained Colony World. 31 planets in coalition. Population pressure of Hive Worlds slightly reduced.

Roll 8: 13+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)= 43. Little of interest.

Once again, nothing of interest except some asteroids. Well, there was a volcanic hell orbiting a gas giant, but when the crust was apparently turned completely inside out fairly regularly, you weren't planning on putting a colony there. Maybe a space station to research tectonic movements and volcanic activity, but not much else.

Roll 9: 66+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)= 96. Great Result.

Yet another world is colonized. One by the name of Targis. A bit colder than usual, but no Ice World. Another half billion are drawn from your Hive Worlds to populate it. If they didn't have over 30+ billion crammed in, you'd be concerned about major depopulation.

Gained Colony World. 32 planets in coalition. Population pressure of Hive Worlds somewhat reduced.

Roll 10: 63+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)= 93. Great Result.

A world of large continents broken up by super-rivers, Ragil is consistently rainy. There are no true oceans, but less than 50 square kilometers of unbroken land are to be found in any given location, and the rivers are huge and deep. The buildings require deep foundations to avoid sinking into the mud, but the world is otherwise very hospitable. Once again, the Hive Worlds have their excess population moved to a new colony. While about 2 billion had been contributed thus far, less than half a billion had come from any one Hive World, so you weren't too concerned. If the population fell too much, they'd just reverse the population restrictions for the first time in about a thousand years.

Gained Colony World. 33 planets in coalition. Population pressure of Hive Worlds somewhat reduced.

Roll 11: 91+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)=121. Critical Success.

Critical Success: 77+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)+21(Overflow)=128. Critical Success.

Critical Success: 70+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)+28(Overflow)=128. Critical Success.

Critical Success: 22+20(Level Perks)+ 10(FBTW)+28(Overflow)=80. Great Result.

Compared to the Caxis system, Cervun seemed like slim pickings. Caxis had THREE habitable worlds, which, based on the ruined cityscapes, were once human colonies. Of course, 5000 years of no maintenance after a deadly viral bio-war left most of the technology beyond all repair. Luckily, the virus has long since burned itself out (You checked. Thoroughly.) and hadn't done too much ecological damage as it was targeted at humans, so you had no trouble putting some of the cities back together after the tech-priests surveyed the wreckage and sadly shook their heads. Most of the technology was completely unsalvageable after the panic of the final days, and they were forced to go through the rituals roughly equivalent to a mass funeral. It was honestly kind of sad to see them so downcast.

Their mood did an abrupt 180 when an intact Land Raider tank was discovered, hidden from the elements by a supply depot about 5 stories underground. With a tank-scale replicator on hand, they were able to copy the tank without dismantling it, which was cause for celebration among the tech-priests, as they soon discovered this was an unknown variant which was slightly faster, but otherwise identical. They decided to simply call it the Caxis-pattern Land Raider for now. The Machine Spirit had, luckily, retained it's sanity despite millennia of isolation, and had grown powerful with age, causing a visible difference in the performance of the repaired relic and it's modern counterparts produced as test cases. This was especially impressive, as Land Raiders could threaten Titans when several were present according to reports received from Mars upon word of the discovery.

The Ceramite mixed in with the adamantium in it's armor is almost of more interest, however. The ceramic material is to energy and heat what adamantium is to physical force. Thanks to your replicators, you can easily determine it's molecular composition, and make your own. This makes armor capable of resisting both high-heat and extreme force (such as that already on Land Raiders) possible.

Cervun I, II, and III were actually very similar, and you suspected some kind of major, long-lasting terraforming towards a Terra-like environment. At least, what Terra was originally like. With how many habitable worlds there are in the area, you believe that's the reason for them. As another 300 million are drawn from each Hive World, you also suspect that they'll be repealing the population limits for at least a couple years.

Reward: 3 Colony Worlds. 36 planets in coalition. Population pressure of Hive Worlds significantly reduced. Gained Land Raider STC. This tank is designed as both a tank and a troop transport, and possesses powerful weapons and armor. Though not as powerful as a Titan on an individual basis, they were much easier to make in numbers. +100 to PDF rolls.

Ceramite Composition Rediscovered. Ceramite is one of the best insulators known of. Certainly the best that can be produced on any major scale. +100 to PDF rolls. +50% to industry.

Roll 12: 37+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=67. Good Result.

As had become standard procedure upon encountering a xenos race, upon encountering the silicon-based Drezni, you struck the usual deal. They were experimenting with primitive Warp Drives, so they were the most advanced minor race yet encountered. Although they had a leg up by virtue of a surprisingly high number of stable psykers, due to a low-level hive mind allowing them to draw power from each other's souls rather than the Warp. You suppose that supported your theory about gestalt consciousnesses, but they were still individuals, and it seemed less than the degree that Orks presumably possessed as they couldn't break physics nearly as thoroughly nearly as easily. They had a large number of sub-species based on different minerals, which were more suited for different tasks, though it took a very long time to change from one type to another, to the point it was generally easier to just make a new member of their race. As essentially walking rocks, they were effectively immortal as long as nothing destroyed them. Though they were essentially ordinary rocks in many ways, so their durability varied greatly despite a certain degree of reinforcement via psykery, but their gestation process was measured in years, so any losses they suffered would be replaced very slowly.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Speech: Diplomacy Check: 160+ 23700(Speech bonii)+ 500(Goods)+ 250(Interested)-500(Pride)= 23545. Information, Non-Aggression Pact, Full Alliance, and Allegiance Checks passed.

5470/6200 to Level 53.

The Drezni were a proud race, seeing their varied forms as a mark of superiority over other races, but they were pragmatic enough to listen to a psyker as strong as yourself with technology more advanced than their own. They were particularly interested in your crystals and Runes, as they had no equivalent, and your accelerated rate of replacement of losses (while viewed as a sacrifice of quality for quantity very similar to the Orks) was agreed to have it's uses. As their needs were rather different from carbon-based life-forms, they preferred rocky, airless planets, as erosion was less of a problem there. This made them perfect colonists for Dead Worlds, airless rocks with no native life. You found traces of the same sort of tampering you'd detected in Ork bodies, which explained their odd physiology, as the odds of such creatures developing completely naturally when Dead Worlds were their ideal habitat were incredibly small.

Reward: 37 planets in coalition. AN: No, these are not Gems. They're more like golems that get their orders from a hive mind formed from their collective thoughts and opinions. They were intended to garrison the Necron Tombworlds. The Old Ones didn't know the exact location of every single Tombworld, and they couldn't just blow up every lifeless rock that might be one, but the Krorks turned on the Old Ones before they could follow through on it, so they ended up in stasis up until the Age of Strife began and the Warp Storms wore the stasis down.

Roll 13: 97+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=127. Critical Success.

Critical Success: 55+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)+27(Overflow)=112. Critical Success.

Critical Success: 88+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)+12(Overflow)=130. Critical Success.

Critical Success: 77+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)+30(Overflow)=137. Critical Success.

Critical Success: 54+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)+37(Overflow)=121. Critical Success.

Critical Success: 55+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)+21(Overflow)=106. Critical Success.

Critical Success: 15+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)+6(Overflow)= 51. Meh.

You lucked out with another inter-sector, and discovered a collection of worlds that had formed a loose alliance of 12 planets, causing Warp cartographers to have to rewrite a major portion of nearby Warp routes, as the space lanes under the control of The Deterian Confederation (Named after their founder planet of a thousand years before.) opened up a number of possibilities for space travel.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Speech: Diplomacy Check: 160+ 23135(Speech bonii)+ 500(Goods)+ 250(Interested)-500(Large Polity)= 23545. Information, Non-Aggression Pact, Full Alliance, and Allegiance Checks passed.

5540/6200 to Level 53.

The Deterian Confederation was more than willing to join a polity 3 times it's size with as much to offer as yours. They had quite a few petty STCs available from several ruins among their worlds, which they'd used to fend off attacks from a nearby Ork-held world. They'd wondered why the vast majority of said planet's Orks and ships had left, but had capitalized on it to burn out the infestation with orbital bombardment and a garrison. With your tech working in tandem with theirs, they were confident they could mirror the situation on Thernus within the decade.

Reward: 49 planets in coalition, 4 Dreadnoughts, 20 Cruisers, 100 Escorts. GDE Free actions increased to 8 Integration and 4 Survey. Upgraded Petty STCs. While the Ancients didn't know everything, they knew a great deal. This manifests in a great number of blueprints for everything form car parts, to missile launchers. +75 to PDF rolls. +75% to industry. +75 to morale rolls. AN: It would be more, but you have a bunch of these.

Roll 14: 42+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=72. Good Result.

A miniature sub-sector is discovered, centered around a Hive World on a moon orbiting a gas giant in the Deseria system. Originally Deseria II Beta was a Civilized World, but several generations of Governors preferred to try and increase the sustainable population over the morale loss population restrictions would cause. While the Hive World is only 20 billion strong, that's mostly because they lack a lot of STCs, and they've been offloading a lot of their population to the nearby Ice World and mineral-poor Agri-World on the moons of the systems other gas giants, which themselves were nearing capacity. Luckily for them, your arrival drastically reduces their resource shortages and helps quell the budding Chaos cults born of discontent. Well, the most obvious ones at least. You also help them deal with their overpopulation by removing a significant chunk and placing them on a number of new colony worlds while they start working in your technology.

Reward: 52 planets in coalition. GDE Free actions increased to 10 Integration and 5 Survey.

Roll 15: 31+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=61. Decent Result.

In the Questis system, you encountered the Quarian race in a nomadic fleet. A large portion of the race consisted of latent technomancers, which explained their proclivity for tinkering with technology. Their homeworld of Ranoch was subjected to heavy orbital bombardment by their own three-fingered hands, following an 'Abominable Intelligence' uprising. Apparently, they experienced a breakthrough in computing, which led to the creation of artificial intelligences, but it was all because of a badly damaged Man of Iron that had crashed on the planet about 20 years before (50 years before now), which, while too badly compromised to directly destroy the Quarians, was fully capable of manipulating them into accepting corrupted programming and hardware to base their analogues to Men of Stone off of. Of course, these MoS were all connected to their progenitor, and once they reached a certain level of saturation, they were to turn on their creators, utterly annihilating them, and begin spreading beyond the system to do the same to all organic life.

However, a few civilians managed to discover the plan and blow the ruse before it was ready, allowing roughly 500 million Quarians to survive the resulting war, and bombard the planet to the point of essentially overturning the crust. It was the only way to be sure the deepest bunkers were destroyed, and with them the corrupted machines. This led to their current status as a migratory fleet, as their homeworld wouldn't be in any condition to support them any time soon. They actually had environmental tolerances pretty similar to humans, though they preferred it slightly colder.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Speech: Diplomacy Check: 160+ 23135(Speech bonii)+ 500(Goods)+ 500(Very Interested)= 24295. Information, Non-Aggression Pact, Full Alliance, and Allegiance Checks passed.

5610/6200 to Level 53.

Well, the Mechanicus wasn't entirely happy with it, conflicted over whether to applaud them for succeeding in stopping even so damaged a Man of Iron or make their discontent known for almost allowing said horror to be released in the first place, but they agreed to allow the latest race of xenos encountered into the alliance. While the Quarians have delicate immune systems, which were collapsing as they no longer had access to most of the symbiotic organisms they'd had on their homeworld, your medical technology allows you to begin a sort of immersion treatment on their race, allowing them to slowly regain the defenses they were losing.

Similarly, they find jobs as engineers, and sometimes pilots, in many areas, as they excel at this. They'd already been scavenging human technology to try and supplement their own, and they'd crafted numerous theories about the reason behind the disparate human colonies of varying tech levels they'd encountered over the sector. Speaking of which, you obtained a much more comprehensive map of the sector from them in exchange for the garrison around their colony world and he medical tech you'd provided.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Speech: Diplomacy Check: 160+ 23135(Speech bonii)+ 500(Goods)+ 500(Very Interested)= 23730. Information, Non-Aggression Pact, Full Alliance, and Allegiance Checks passed.

5680/6200 to Level 53. Planets all join.

Gained Quarian allies. Next Colony World will be given to them, partially due to drain on Hive Worlds, and partially because they really need a place to settle that they have guaranteed protection from Orks and other hostiles at, or their race risks extinction. Gained Sector Map. A number of human colonies in 'unknown' space have been added due to routes to them and their locations being made known. Gained 4 Hive Worlds, 2 Civilized Worlds, 2 Feral Worlds, 2 Feudal Worlds, 2 Desert Worlds, 2 Ocean Worlds, 2 Ice Worlds, 2 Hell Worlds, 2 Agri-Worlds, 2 Forge Worlds, 6 Colony Worlds (1 already given to Quarians), 2 Dead Worlds (Drezni colonies now) and 2 Death Worlds. Ship berths increased to 12.

Upgraded Petty STCs. While the Ancients didn't know everything, they knew a great deal. This manifests in a great number of blueprints for everything form car parts, to missile launchers. +100 to PDF rolls. +100% to industry. +100 to morale rolls. AN: Really weird rolls here. They haven't mapped the whole sector, so I decided to just give you a lump-sum of the human colonies of a goodly chunk of the unmapped space in the sector. Following Survey actions occurred in still-unmapped space. Current sector holdings kind of look like Swiss cheese.

Reward: Gained 32 planets, 84 in coalition currently. GDE Free Integration Actions boosted to 16. Survey actions boosted to 8. Petty STCs bonus increased to 100%/+100.

Roll 16: 12+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=42. Little of interest.

You discover a black hole in an empty system. Well, there's some asteroids 'swirling around the drain' so to speak, but you doubt this system will be very valuable any time soon, for anybody.

Roll 17: 31+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=61. Decent Result.

The remains of a civilization that nuked itself into oblivion were found in the Feruf system. While inhospitable towards any other form of life, with most of the oceans and atmosphere removed or poisoned by powerful nuclear weaponry, the planet was fairly good for a colony of Drezni, as their bodies were effectively immune to radiation. They were informed of this, and a colony ship guided to the system without any issue, as soon as the tech-priests had made sure this race hadn't suffered a more successful version of the plan concocted against the Quarians, or that other human relics had been being studied before the race killed itself. There's something profoundly sad about it, but you suspect that the original inhabitants wouldn't want their world to lie a forgotten graveyard.

Reward: Drezni gain colony world, improvement in relations. 85 planets in coalition.

Roll 18: 40+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=70. Good Result.

A Forge World is discovered, Peniccan, which, unlike most it's fellows, had focused on technology meant to interface with organics, from farm equipment to medicines and surgical tools. This had begun with the discovery of an STC for a hydroponics bay that was an inherent component of a mega-farm designed for the feeding of Hive Worlds, which had led to the world's settling. Interestingly, the world possessed a database for Petty STCs of the agricultural and medicinal bent, apparently having been intended to function as an Agri-World.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Speech: Diplomacy Check: 160+ 23135(Speech bonii)+ 500(Goods)+ 500(Very Interested)= 24295. Information, Non-Aggression Pact, Full Alliance, and Allegiance Checks passed.

5750/6200 to Level 53.

Your various Agri-Worlds are eager to get their hands on the technology Pennican possesses, while they very much wish to have more regular contact with their fellow Mechanicus followers and access to the varied samples of several thousand years of natural selection among crops to experiment on. It wasn't a hard decision for them.

Reward: 86 planets in coalition. Gained Hydroponic Bay STC. Designed to exist in buildings meant to house large amounts of artificial farms, this STC is very useful for Hive Worlds, making them less dependent on Agri-Worlds. Agri-Worlds, meanwhile, can devote more space to luxury products as the food that is purely necessary for survival can be grown over less square area. Population cap of all planets increased. Civilized Worlds have population cap of 10 billion. Soft-cap hit for Civilized Worlds. AN: Barring major STCs recovered or large numbers of invention actions, populations of more than 10 billion are going to be reclassified as Hive Worlds, as it's impossible to avoid major ecological damage at that point.

Gained High-Quality Air Purifier STC.

Roll 19: 69+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=99. Great Result. AN: Multiple crit background rolls due to bonus from near-crit.

Your explorers discover a system with a grand total of 6 habitable worlds. There are no proper rocky planets, but the 6 gas giants have numerous moons, which now have colonies among their number. While full colonies are not viable on many of them, a number of mining facilities are set up on the nearby moons as the rings begin having their asteroids harvested. The 6 colonies off-load the excess population of your newer Hive Worlds, while the new Caxtun system is predicted to become vitally important, as 6 Civilized Worlds can match a Hive World's population, and their 'jack-of-all-trades' attribute makes it very unlikely they would need outside supplies any time soon. If a massive Warp Storm were to spring up in a decade and cut off this system for 100 years, they'd probably be fine.

Reward: 6 Colony Worlds. 92 planets in coalition. 18 Free Integration actions. 9 Free Survey actions.

Roll 20: 54+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=84. Great Result.

A Colony World is founded in the Sebraxit system, on a planet with slightly warmer conditions than usual, but nothing truly dangerous. You're going to have to slow colonization soon, because the Hive Worlds are starting to be affected by the sharp drop in population.

Reward: 89 planets in coalition.

Roll 21: 61+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=91. Great Result.

A Colony World is founded in the Wegrit system. The moon of a titanic rocky planet, easily ten times the size of Thernus, the sheer gravity of the planet makes it inimical to life, which has prevented it from achieving life much more complex than algae. The colony itself, however, had no such problems, and it's gravity and climate were pretty close to perfect.

Reward: 94 planets in coalition.

Roll 22: 23+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=53. Meh.

Another black hole. It's weird to find so many so close together this far from the galactic core.

Roll 23: 42+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=72. Good Result.

A Civilized World is found, alone of human settlement for several systems. Fermon had to do everything itself for a long time, and did it's level best to do so. Of course, this meant sacrificing high-level performance in favor of avoiding any major deficiencies, but they managed it. They barely held off an Ork fleet a few years ago, and were rather surprised when they didn't experience some kind of follow-up attack, as was the MO of Orks. They were in the process of bombing 'Ead-Smasha' into molten slag when your ships arrived.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Speech: Diplomacy Check: 160+ 23135(Speech bonii)+ 500(Goods)+ 500(Very Interested)= 24295. Information, Non-Aggression Pact, Full Alliance, and Allegiance Checks passed.

5820/6200 to Level 53.

Having been the only human polity that could easily be found for a few thousand years left them eager to not be the only thing keeping a lid on the nearby Ork-world, with a number of nationalist voices shouted down by more rational heads. With a pair of Cruisers and 10 Escorts keeping an eye on the planet under your orders, the people of Fermon could look to their own defenses, and revising their buildings with your technology. Apparently they'd been fighting a see-saw contest with that world for over a thousand years, with at least one Rok showing up per year on average, and usually more like 5. As such, they've grown very skilled at ship-building and naval tactics.

Reward: 95 planets in coalition. Ship berths increased to 13.

Roll 24: 50+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=80. Great Result.

A survey of a system near one of your new colonies, and on the way to Fermon, led to a colony being founded in the Thyrin system, which was less than 10 Light-years from Fermon. This would serve as the main route to Fermon, as it was the shortest distance to other Bastion worlds (mostly human ones). Thyrin II was a bit cooler than usual, a recent Ice Age having just ended, but it was no longer an Ice World, technically. It had harsh winters, but the planet wasn't covered in ice.

Reward: 96 planets in coalition.

Roll 25: 21+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=51. Meh.

A lone Neutron Star, presumably the supernova that occurred during it's creation destroyed or swept away any major celestial bodies.

Roll 26: 29+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=59. Decent Result.

The Hopplytes, 8ft tall, black to bright blue (Methane flame blue) fur, yellow irises, red eyes, evolved on an alpine tundra world called Singidunum from modified Rabbit stock with heightened genetic drift due (presumably) to nearby Warp Storms. They have a preference for Axes and Incisors in melee, Flak Guns in ranged, Threaded Canes in duels of honor and are currently in the industrial age equivalent of Tech. Well, they were at least. They had just begun to see their first instances of psykers when you arrived, which made your negotiations a lot more urgent, as they needed as much help as they could get for that initial hump before a particularly potent psyker went mad and blew up a city.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Speech: Diplomacy Check: 160+ 23135(Speech bonii)+ 500(Goods)+ 500(Very Interested)+1000(Positive Legends)= 25295. Information, Non-Aggression Pact, Full Alliance, and Allegiance Checks passed.

5890/6200 to Level 53.

The Hopplytes had legends about their 'progenitors' who had disappeared in the wake of a primate-aimed bio-weapon being used on the planet, describing them as benevolent beings who had been betrayed by their creations, and they were quite surprised when you contacted them. They were actually very understanding of the racist people, noting that after having almost been destroyed by their own creations, trusting others would likely have been difficult even if most of the other xenos races hadn't either performed worse than they had, or left them to their fate. They were practically asking to join The Bastion before the pitch was over, especially when the psyker gear was mentioned. Seeing as they were well-suited to Ice Worlds, they were soon found in small numbers across your space, setting up small colonies on them.

Reward: 97 planets in coalition. Ice Worlds gain small populations of a race well-suited to living, and by extension fighting, in them, giving a bonus to their rolls.

Roll 27: 34+20(Level Perks)+10(FBTW)=64. Decent Result.

The Worrbills, 5ft tall six-limbed (a pair of talons, a pair of two-thumbed two-fingered hands and a pair of wings worn as a trench coat when not in use) bipedal bird xenos resembling a cross between a Sparrow and a Crossbill that apparently had a polity of several dozen star systems before the Age of Strife around the core of human territory. The Men of Iron were thought to have killed them all, but apparently one of their worlds survived. Currently just old enough that the Plague of Psykers is starting to manifests in their societies at this point in time and it's driving them both towards Witch Hunts and towards the hatred of humans for from their perspective infecting them with Psykers.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Speech: Diplomacy Check: 160+ 23135(Speech bonii)+ 500(Goods)- 5000(Strong Anti-Human Sentiment)= 18795. Information, Non-Aggression Pact, Full Alliance, and Allegiance Checks passed.

5960/6200 to Level 53.

Seeing as the root of their hatred towards humans was the MoI almost destroying their race, with supposed 'infection' being merely the icing on the cake, you make special note of how you'd never do that again unless you could absolutely guarantee they'd never turn on the organic races again, and that while being around psykers made it more likely for a race to develop psykers, they would likely have gotten psykers either way due to it being a feature of soul-bearing races that weren't engineered like the Orks' 'Brain Boyz' had done, which, while needing some convincing, got through. The 30-minute lecture (cough*rant*cough) from a tech-priest on how the Mechanicus recognized the dangers of Abominable Intelligence and sought to prevent them from ever appearing again certainly helped.

The Worrbills ended up accepting the terms of alliance, though it's the closest you've ever come to that not being case. This planet was only spared as the colony had only just been founded when the MoI began their rampage, and their technology had regressed a great deal, as they had to avoid drawing MoI attention by maintaining a society of roughly Middle Ages technology for the first few thousand years to avoid sending out signals that could be detected.

Reward: Worrbills brought into fold before they could become a hostile xenos race. 98 planets in coalition.

[X] Invention list 50
-[X] Continue Human Wraithbone. You were very close to making a human-equivalent to Wraithbone last year. You work to finish the first stage this year.

Power Check: 5 Checks passed.

Control Check: 4 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -650 to Check difficulty. -25000 to difficulty from Wraithbone. Requirements reduced in difficulty by one rank thanks to crystals.

Invention: Practical+Industry: 210+ Psyker: Manipulation+Sorcery: 225+ Forging: Gear: 200+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+ 6025(Psyker bonuses)+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)=21780 X 2= 43560+20880=64440. 24350 for human equivalent of Wraithbone, Orichalcix. Passed. 49350 for Improved Orichalcix. Passed. 64440/74350 for Further Improved Orichalcix.

6100/6200 to Level 53.

As if to make up for your earlier failure (it totally was) you not only managed to create the purple-hued crystal, but improve it beyond simply being 'whole' in terms of psychic design. While the original was only about as tough as steel, the second stage was significantly tougher. While the first stage was much quicker to self-heal than Wraithbone, the second healed at a visible rate even while being continually damaged. It was not as strongly psychically conductive as Wraithbone, but you suspected that was because of the regenerative abilities it possessed, though the relative weakness of most human psykers when compared to Eldar certainly didn't help. It also had a very limited adaptive ability. Assuming it wasn't reduced to powder, it slowly accumulated resistance to what was damaging it. It wasn't as extreme as Ivanor's animals (and plants) but it was definitely noticeable. This made it perfect ablative armor, though it was currently not as easily made as Wraithbone was by Eldar, in part due to it's relative newness and thus that of the techniques used to quickly make it, but also because while it was the equivalent of Wraithbone, it was currently in it's very first iterations, while Wraithbone had had centuries upon centuries of years of tinkering before it was generally considered good enough.

It's main advantage over Wraithbone, however, was that any human psyker can make at least a little if they put some effort into it, even if they had no talent for crafting. Interestingly, it slowly grew if left to it's own devices, unless significant pressure was placed on it. Although, most of the minor psychic races you've encountered can't make either Wraithbone or Orichalcix, and you doubt you could do the same for them as you'd done for humanity either, as they were extremely immature psychic races even compared to humanity, nor were they particularly numerous and thus unlikely to have made a major impression on the Warp.

Reward: Gained Improved Orichalcix. While not as psychically reactive or conductive, nor as strong, Orichalcix is a much faster healer, and will slowly grow entirely independent of psyker input. Assuming a specific hunk isn't totally destroyed, it can slowly gain resistance to the specific form of damage, though not total immunity. +150 to allied psyker Checks and to Combat Checks for allied psykers. X 16 multiplier for Wraithbone Armor increased to X 32.

AN: The Old Ones didn't have something to base the first versions of Wraithbone off of, and they certainly didn't have the crystals to work with, so their first Check was 50000 (thanks to a bunch of Perks related to psychic engineering), which means even they needed to work at getting it to the version they used in the WiH. The Eldar managed to cumulatively work it up another Check, but that took a really long time due to not having a whole lot of need for a better version of their super-material, what with there being nothing to really push them for about 20 million of their 23 million years.

Orichalcix doesn't currently have a Bonesinger equivalent past the very early stages, but greater ease of creation while retaining it's full properties will come as part of the latter Checks.

-[X] Improve Navigator Gear x2. Seeing as you haven't worked on Navigator gear in a while, you decide to take another whack at it.

Power Check: 5 Checks passed.

Control Check: 4 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -650 to Check difficulty. -25000 to difficulty from Wraithbone. Requirements reduced in difficulty by one rank thanks to crystals.

Invention: Necessity+Military: 210+ Psyker: Esoteric+Navigator: 215+ Forging: Gear: 200+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+ 6025(Psyker bonuses)+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)=21770 X 2=43540+8660=52200. 9350 for Greatly Improved Navigator Gear. Passed. 14350 for Greatly Improved Warp Buoys. Passed. 19350 for Further Improved Navigator Gear. Passed. 24350 for Further Improved Warp Buoys. Passed. 49350 for Highly Improved Navigator Gear. Passed. 52200/99350 for Highly Improved Warp Buoys.

Gained 1 Level. Gain 2 Perk points, 12 points in your possession. 70/6300 to Level 54. +5 to tagged Skills.

The talismans you made take a number of advances in psytech and mundane tech into account, but are also significantly better simply in terms of engineering. While this is significant, the changes to Warp Buoys are more far-reaching by virtue of relative numbers.

They give the same coverage over 2 light-years that they once gave over half of one, though they retain the same half-light-year placement for redundancy, and in case of Warp Storms. Speaking of which, they do a much better job of resisting all but the most severe Warp Storms. Guaranteeing at least a week unless the Warp Storm was bad enough to destroy the nearest planet anyway.

Highly Improved Navigator Gear. You have very advanced talismans and equipment for the Navigators, which drastically improves their effectiveness. Navigator bonus improved to 30.

Further Improved Warp Buoys. Your buoys drastically reduce the chance for Warp Disasters. Gain a reroll with a +20 bonus for Warp Disasters in areas with the buoys. Should a ship be caught in transit when a Warp Storm rises up while in areas demarcated by the buoys, automatic Warp Disaster is rerolled with a +10 bonus.

-[X] Improve Plasma Weapons. For much the same reason as Navigator Gear, you turn your attention towards plasma weapons.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 Check difficulty.

Invention: Necessity+Military: 210+ Forging: Gear: 200+ Electronics: Wiring: 75+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+ 6875(Electronics bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)=22480+1135=23615. 4675 for Improved Plasma Weapons. Passed. 7175 for Further Improved Plasma Weapons. Passed. 9675 for Greatly Improved Plasma Weapons. Passed. 14675 for Highly Improved Plasma Weapons. Passed. 19675 for Largely Improved Plasma Weapons. Passed. 23615/24675 for Highly Improved Plasma Weapons.

140/6300 to Level 54.

Due to your micro-reactors, the main problem with your plasma weapons is that the diffusion is much more extreme, making them lose a lot of punch over larger distances compared to lasers. That's one of your areas of focus, while improving the heat-distribution system is another. Keeping the super-heated gas from frying the gun's internals after a certain amount of fire from it is more difficult than simply increasing the power, but you manage it.

Reward: Largely Improved Plasma Weapons. Your plasma guns are significantly better than they were when you first made them. +25 to bonus.

-[X] Improve Lasers. While plasma is better in (relative) close-ranges, lasers stay coherent over much greater distances, which means that artillery and other long-range weaponry is usually better served by lasers.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 Check difficulty.

Invention: Necessity+Military: 210+ Forging: Gear: 200+ Electronics: Wiring: 75+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+ 6875(Electronics bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)=22480+810=23290. 4675 for Improved Lasers. Passed. 7175 for Further Improved Lasers. Passed. 9675 for Greatly Improved Lasers. Passed. 14675 for Highly Improved Lasers. Passed. 19675 for Largely Improved Lasers. Passed. 23290/24675 for Highly Improved Lasers.

220/6300 to Level 54.

With your recent efforts, lasers are much more able to compete with plasma. While only medics, militia members, and other combatants who aren't mainline soldiers tend to use them over plasma, and artillery crews use solid shells most of the time, snipers prefer lasers for the heightened accuracy, and scouts prefer a lot of weaker shots to somewhat fewer stronger shots, as lasers take much longer to overheat, which is useful in forcing their opponents into cover long enough to get away if they happen to be discovered.

Particularly cyborganic tech-priests also put small ones inside their mechanical fingers, and the creepy servo-skulls were surprisingly effective pseudo-turrets with lasers mounted inside them.

Reward: Highly Improved Lasers. Your lasers have caught up to your plasma weaponry. +30 to laser-tech bonus.

-[X] Continue Juvenats. Certainly, the longevity drugs you've developed thus far are something special, but you can do better, and hey, particularly annoying nobles are certainly going to notice if you've bought them another century or so of life, and they might actually treat you with respect for a reason besides the whole 'ridiculously powerful psyker' thing.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Invention: Extravagant+Luxury: 210+ Education: General+Advanced: 240+ Medicine: Narcotics: 60+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+ 2235(Education bonuses)+ 7500(Medicine bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)=21120+18960= 40080. 19675 for Effective Jve-nat. Passed. (75-years). 24675 for Advanced Juve-nat. Passed. (100 years). 40080/49675 for Exceptional Juve-nat.

270/6300 to Level 54.

You succeed in developing Juve-nat to the point where the average citizen can be expected to live 75 years longer, while (competent) administrators receive a full century of having death staved off. While most planets are overjoyed, multiple Hive Worlds are somewhat conflicted. Despite the obvious benefits, their populations have a delicate equilibrium, and even with the drain the recent colonies have caused, people living to 150 with regularity will cause overpopulation down the line. You may want to invest in measures to increase the population limits of your worlds or increase the number of worlds your people can inhabit before further increasing their lifespans, as you can only transport so many people to the colonies before they fill up, and it's going to take a while before they build more room to hold more people.

As for the development process itself, you've started to reach a plateau of sorts in dealing with shortening telomeres, so you've started adding treatments towards other symptoms and causes, such as the protein which tells older cells to die off not being produced and creating 'zombie' cells, which often cause major health problems once their numbers build up. Stem cells, which provide a blueprint for cells to base themselves off of and which help regulate one's metabolism, disappear as one ages, as do several other agents which also help with regulation. You also work to slow or reverse such problems. This somewhat complicates the process for the more advanced variant, but the mass-production model only requires a couple shots every year.

Reward: Advanced Juve-nat. Lifespan of high-ranking individuals extended by 100 years. Regular population gains 75 years.

AN: Yeah, there's a good reason not everyone gets Juve-nat in canon, besides the lack of ability to produce the stuff on that large a scale.

-[X] Improve Gellar Fields by combining them with our Crystals x2. While improving the system itself is good, augmenting it with your crystals/Runes should help push it further along.

Power Check: 5 Checks passed.

Control Check: 4 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -650 to Check difficulty. -25000 to difficulty from Wraithbone. Requirements reduced in difficulty by one rank thanks to crystals.

Invention: Necessity+Military: 210+ Psyker: Esoteric+Navigator: 215+ Forging: Gear: 200+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+ 6025(Psyker bonuses)+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)=21770 X 2=43540. 9350 for Viable Combination of Gellar fields and Order/Purity crystals. Passed. 14350 for Crude Combination. Passed. 19350 for Simple Combination. Passed. 24350 for Basic Combination. Passed. 43540/49350 for Effective Combination.

430/6300 to Level 54.

While too many Order crystals/Runes would slow the ships down significantly, Purity crystals can't be expected to purify the Warp in a time-frame shorter than thousands of years even with every planet seeded with them. However, by arranging the Runes so that the Order crystals have less influence over the extremities of the ship, and progressively more further in where the crew could retreat to in the event of an outbreak of Daemons, while Purity Runes stud the outside of the ship to help stave off the worst of the corrupting energies present of the Warp in the event of a Gellar failure, they prove very effective. In addition, several Grade 4 Time Runes are linked to Balance Runes to help prevent major temporal irregularities. What's more, since there are no major structural changes involved in placing the Runes, it can be applied to every ship without any major refit, though Dreadnoughts take a while.

Reward: Basic Combination. You've designed a placement system for your Order, Purity, Time and Balance Runes, to help ships travel safely through the Warp, which will be necessary as you continue to expand. +40 to Warp Disaster Rolls. +400 to Daemonic counter-boarding rolls.

-[X] Continue Power Armor. With the numerous advances in other areas, you decide to crack open your old research into power armor, now augmented by the examples present in the archives/reliquaries of the Forge-Worlds you've visited.

Combat Check: 2 Checks passed.

Martial Check: 3 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -550 to Check difficulty. Requirements reduced by one rank thanks to exoskeletons.

Combined Score Check: Invention: Extravagance+Luxury: 210+ Forging: Armor: 200+ Electronics: Wiring: 75+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+ 6875(Electronics bonuses)+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)=22480+23320=45800+5000 from Forge-World Power Armor= 50800. 24700 for Legacy Power Armor. Passed. 49450 for Advanced Power Armor. Passed. 50800/74450 for Exotic Power Armor.

550/6300 to Level 54.

While not a massive leap, the powered armor used by both Champions and regular soldiers gains a higher degree of efficiency, which compounds with all the other improvements they've received.

Reward: Upgraded Power Armor. Champions gain Advanced Power Armor. Provides +200 to Champion rolls. Regular PDF gain Complex Power Armor. Provides +150 to PDF rolls.

-[X] Continue Soul Stones/Spirit Stones x3. While Spirit Stones are certainly something you can make, they aren't something that can be made easily, nor are they all that helpful if a Daemon cracked them open (which generally didn't happen in Quenya due to the defenses being made of Wraithbone provided, but was significantly more likely to occur if the Soul Stone wasn't protected to a similar degree) so making them easier to make, and better at protecting the souls within from more active attempts at reaching them.

Power Check: 5 Checks passed.

Control Check: 4 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -550 to Check difficulty. -25000 to Eldar variant from understanding of their souls drawn from Wraithbone. -15000 to Check difficulty for making a stone at all drawn from experience in creating conceptual objects and understanding of souls.

Combined Score Check: Education: Esoteric+Seer: 255+ Psyker: Esoteric+Navigator: 215+ Invention: Practical+Industry: 210+ Forging: Gear: 200+ 2235(Education bonuses)+ 6025(Psyker bonuses)+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)= 24260 X 3=72780+18420=91200. 24450 for Eldar Spirit Stone. Passed. 49450 for human Spirit Stone. Passed. 74450 for Improved Spirit Stones. Passed. 91200/99450 for Protected Spirit Stones.

680/6300 to Level 54.

While non-psykers still can't benefit from the Spirit Stones, anyone who counts as one can, though a minor psyker has a weak enough soul that they would basically need to have the stone on their person, as they don't last much longer than a normal human under most circumstances. Of course, since Eldar were essentially all psykers that meant they were pretty much guaranteed to be able to use them. Unfortunately, the even-more psychically immature (or weird in the Grezni's case) weren't yet able to use them, unless it was a custom job, such as the Prophet's had been.

Additionally, they wouldn't immediately falter under the direct assault of a Warp Horror who'd entered the Materium any more. Well, unless they were a Greater Daemon, but if there were Greater Daemons running around in the alter-type thing the Eldar had set up, or the heavily guarded and Runed compounds set up on other worlds with people who'd been put inside a stone, then there was likely a full Incursion happening, which you're doing your best to prevent.

As you'd expect, the Eldar are practically falling over themselves to thank you, and more than a few psykers who'd long harbored deep fears of being tortured by a Daemon for all eternity practically start worshiping you. You do your best to curb that, seeing as you'd had very few good experiences with religious nuts and a lot of bad ones, but you're pretty sure most of them don't really take your requests not to worship you to heart. As long as they don't start doing sacrifices or anything, you suppose you'll just have to tolerate it. You're not going to hunt them down for worshiping you or something equally stupid.

Reward: Gained Improved Spirit Stones. Psyker humans and Eldar can both use Spirit Stones, which are now something any non-minor psyker can make fairly easily, and can now be expected to resist attacks from Daemons who have entered the Materium to try their luck in the physical realm where the stone's defenses are weaker for a reasonable length of time.

-[X] Shipyard Improvements x2. Before you start building shipyards, you believe you should work to improve the designs, which, much like the ships they build, work, but aren't all that great if you aren't a Forge-World.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -425 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Check: Education: General+Advanced: 240+ Invention: Necessity+Military: 210+ Forging: Gear: 200+ 2235(Education bonuses)+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+3500= 18005 X 2= 36010+5000 from Forge-World Shipyards=41010. 7075 for Crude Shipyard. Passed. 9575 for Simple Shipyard. Passed. 14575 for Basic Shipyard. Passed. 19575 for Complex Shipyard. Passed. 24575 for Advanced Shipyard. Passed. 41010/49575 for Specialized Shipyard.

780/6300 to Level 54.

Sure enough, you were able to provide a great deal of insight towards an improved design, which is about par with what the Forge-Worlds currently use, and the best parts of both sets of designs are used for a final design, which, while not an amazing improvement over what the Forge-Worlds were using, is still an improvement over what everyone else was using, and is noticeable. Overall, you'd say you've boosted ship-productivity by 25% when you adjusted the shipyards to the new design. It wasn't such a massive change that they had to be completely rebuilt in most cases, so it didn't take too long.

Reward: Gained Advanced Shipyard. A much better ship-building facility than what you had before, which promises to drastically increase ship-building capacity. 13 Ship berths per class increased by (3) to 16.

-[X] Continue Ship Designs. With how many ships you're building, it seems wise to improve the design they use.

Administration Check: 2 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -425 to Check difficulty.

Forging: Armor: 200+ Electronics: Wiring: 75+ Invention: Necessity+Military: 210+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+ 6875(Electronics bonuses)+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)=22480 + 23320=45800. 24525 for Largely Improved Ship Designs. Passed. 45800/49525 for Highly Improved Ship Designs.

840/6300 to Level 54.

Your original designs were good, but not so good you couldn't squeeze any further improvement out of them. While the improved design has a better layout and a more efficient use of space, now you work on the systems for damage control. Things that don't use a lot of space (of the ship's total), but that would drastically curtail the effectiveness of boarding operations and how badly damage to anything but the most important sections of the ship affects the rest. Sealable bulkheads, both physical barriers which could be forced closed manually in the event of a power failure, and force fields made from a hybrid of anti-gravity, Ion, and Void shields, which, while power intensive, would require disproportionate force to break through.

In addition, while a liability in the event of an outbreak of Daemons, a small number of turrets are set up to provide fire-support. A mix of physical shells and energy weapons, as different potential boarders would perform differently against different weapons. While Orks were more resistant to physical shells than energy weapons, there was no reason to expect the situation would never be reversed. This comparatively minor change can be applied to existing ships with relative ease. Also, a number of flame-extinguishing substances are placed in receptacles set in the walls at regular intervals, for the crew's use. If everybody was dead, then the explosion that may have caused it would likely have ruptured the receptacle, which, due to pressurization, would have sprayed it's contents everywhere, dampening any extant fires long enough for the crew to respond. The compounds weren't poisonous to most known lifeforms, and obviously flammability was not a problem.

Reward: Largely Improved Ship Design. +75 to fleet rolls, both combat and counter-boarding.

-[X] Continue Simple Combat Simulators. x2. Seeing as your troops now number in the billions, and you are likely to have major operations for them in the future, you work to improve their simulators. Better to do it now than when you have another imminent Waagh.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Education: General+Advanced: 255+ Electronics: Wiring: 75+ Invention: Necessity+Military: 210+ 2235(Education bonuses)+ 6875(Electronics bonuses)+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)=20525 X 2= 34050 +19290=60340. 19675 for Simple Combat Simulators. Passed. 24675 for Basic Combat Simulators. Passed. 49675 for Complex Combat Simulators. Passed. 60340/99675 for Advanced Combat Simulators.

900/6300 to Level 54. 12 Perk points.

With some moderate redesigns, and a whole slew of minor upgrades and environmental controls, you can drastically increase the effectiveness of the simulators. While somewhat more difficult to produce, and you simply can't simulate Deathworld environments accurately because your aren't going to risk the soldiers to that degree during training, they provide a great deal of extra oomph to the effectiveness of their regimens.

Reward: Complex Combat Simulators. While they can't simulate everything, they can certainly help prepare your troops for it. Deathworld Malus halved. Unfamiliar terrain Maluses removed. +25 to PDF rolls.

-[X] Continue Medigel. While Medi-gel is useful, it's really only useful for patch jobs, and that only helps so much when, say, your arm is missing. It's meant for smaller wounds than that, though it can still help. In addition, it's only available in limited quantities for those who lack the skill level of a Champion. You work to change this.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Check: Invention: Practical+Military: 210+ Medicine: Narcotics: 60+ Education: General+Advanced: 255+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+ 7500(Medicine bonuses)+ 2235(Education bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)=21135 +20460=41595. 24675 for Much Improved Medi-gel. Passed. 41595/49675 for Further Improved Medi-gel.

940/6300 to Level 54.

You work to improve the functionality of the gel first, so that your soldiers get more out of the same amount, and so larger wounds can be fully patched than finger-sized. Several advances in the understanding of cells and self-healing are used to do this. The new paste heals a significantly larger area (roughly twice as much as before) and does so more thoroughly.

Reward: Much Improved Medi-gel. A healing paste which allows for the accelerated healing, or at least staunching, of wounds. +150 to Champion rolls. +75 to PDF rolls from eased treatment of injured soldiers. +50 to morale rolls.

-[X] Continue Rune development x2. You couldn't use other Runes alongside your Self Rune currently, and your limit otherwise was still effectively 4. That should be remedied.

Power Check: 5 Checks passed.

Control Check: 4 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -650 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Check: Education: Esoteric+Seer: 255+ Forging: Gear: 200+ Psyker: Esoteric+Navigator: 215+ 2235(Education bonus)+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+ 6025(Psyker bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)=16675 X 2= 33350+35550= 68900. 49350 for Compatibility with Self Rune. Passed. 68900/99350 for 6 Runes.

1070/6300 to Level 54.

While you couldn't use any more Runes than before, being able to combine a Rune of Self with 3 other Runes was very nice. It would also help those following in your footsteps, crafting armors and weapons that had their Self Runes. The applications applied to regular arms and protective suits combined with the bonuses from the Self Rune were enormous, even for people who couldn't manage the craftsmanship you could.

Reward: 3 other Runes may be equipped to armor. Combat bonus increased to 20800.

-[X] Work on combining the Self rune with another. x3. Furthering your ability to combine different Runes with each other only makes sense considering how useful they are.

Power Check: 5 Checks passed.

Control Check: 4 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -650 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Checks: Education: Esoteric+Seer: 255+ Forging: Gear: 200+ Psyker: Esoteric+Navigator: 215+ 2235(Education bonus)+ 4245(Forging bonus)+ 6025(Psyker bonus)+ 1000(Workshop bonus)+3500(Eldar SL)= 17675 X 3= 53025 +68900=121925. 49350 for compatibility between Self Rune and other Runes. Passed. 99350 for 6 Rune Arrangements. Passed. 121925/149350 for 7 Rune Arrangements.

2890/6300 to Level 54. 12 Perk points.

With a level of psychic tinkering similar to what you needed to create Orichalcix, you manage to vastly increase the compatibility of various Runes. Self Runes can be combined with other Runes, provided a Balance Rune is present, but the other Runes no longer needed one, provided you weren't doing something like combining four Fire Runes with a single Ice Rune, or something similarly incredibly unbalanced. The fact that you can combine 6 different Runes now makes it even better.

Reward: Self Runes can now be combined with other Runes, currently 4 X 50 X 32=6400 (due to Self Rune and Blance Rune taking 2/6 slots), which increases the bonus for your Wargear to 22400.

Rune Arrangement (6). Runes may be combined in arrangements of up to 6. Only Self Runes require Balance Runes, provided the arrangement isn't horribly unbalanced. +150 to PDF rolls. +150% to industry. +150 to morale rolls.

-[X] Improve reactors.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Check: Invention: Practicality+Industry: 210+ Forging: Gear: 200+ Electronics: Wiring: 75+ 2235(Education bonuses)+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)=17840 +37380= 55220. 49675 for Immensely Improved Reactors. Passed. 55220/99675 for Advanced Reactors.

1110/6300 to Level 54.

You manage to further improve the performance of your reactors, though it's going to take a lot of work to improve them any further. Getting any further performance out of them without increasing the risk of a containment failure unduly is going to require more advanced material science. For now, you've gained a major boon.

Reward: Miniaturized Reactors. +50% to industry from improved transports. +150 to PDF rolls from effectively unlimited ammunition.

Immensely Improved Reactors. +150% to industry from massive increase to available power. +500 to PDF rolls due to improved vehicles, fighters, etc. +150 to fleet rolls from effective elimination of power issues.

-[X] Improve Replicators. x2.
-[X] Adamantium Mass production. This is a must for countless reasons. Combine with the above action maybe? x2. While Magnus' planet (and quite a few Forge-Worlds across the sector) use slightly different methods from Thernus, adamantium production is roughly the same in terms of difficulty and the toughness of the end result. Currently the process consists of combining the requisite elements and compounds via the nano-assemblers. Seeing as you doubt you can make the process less difficult without compromising on the end product what with several thousand years of experimentation having gone into it in many cases, you work to improve the efficiency of the replicators you use to make it instead.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Check: Education: General+Advanced: 255+ Forging: Gear: 200+ Electronics: Wiring: 75+ 2235(Education bonuses)+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+ 6875(Electronics bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)= 17385 X 4= 69540. 9675 for Energy Efficiency. Passed. 14675 for Somewhat Improved Energy Efficiency. Passed. 19675 for Improved Energy Efficiency. Passed. 24675 for Further Improved Energy Efficiency. Passed. 49675 for Greatly Improved Energy Efficiency. Passed. 69540/99675 for Improved Atomic Rearrangement.

1190/6300 to Level 54.

While the atomic rearrangement was incredibly advanced technology, the device's energy economy left a lot to be desired, so you focused on that first. You grabbed all the low-hanging fruit, but further improvements were going to take some serious effort. This was some seriously advanced science. The Eldar who'd had a look at their inner workings had looked oddly spooked, but refused to say why.

Reward: Greatly Improved Replicator Energy Efficiency. You've drastically improved how well your replicators use their energy, making them much more economical. +100% to industry. +100 to naval rolls due to improved ability to produce adamantium. AN: This is as much from getting a lot more places to draw the materials from as improved efficiency.

-[X] Improve crude teleporter x2. This particular piece of psy-tech is very useful, but you need to expand it's safe range.

Power Check: 5 Checks passed.

Control Check: 4 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -650 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Check: Invention: Necessity+Military: 210 +Psyker: Esoteric+Navigator: 215 +Forging: Gear: 200+ 4245(Forging bonus)+ 7375(Invention bonus)+ 6025(Psyker bonus)+3500(Eldar SL)=21770 X 2= 43540+4330= 47870. 4350 for Minor Teleporter Network (.25km). Passed. 6850 for Short-Range Teleporter Network (.5km). Passed. 9350 for Moderate Teleporter Network (.75km). Passed. 14350 for Medium-Range Teleporter Network (1km). Passed. 19350 for Large Teleporter Network (1.5km). Passed. 24350 for Greater Teleporter Network (2km). Passed. 47870/49350 for Impressive Teleporter Network.

1370/6300 to Level 54. 12 Perk points.

With the teleportation grids increased to 2 kilometers, they are useful on a much larger scale, and are actually rather useful for transporting goods around a city. As they're an example of Warp technology that is notoriously unsafe, despite knowing that it's essentially risk-free unless there's an ongoing Daemonic Incursion, most people tend to avoid using them personally if they aren't in a hurry. Hospital teleporters are frequently busy, however.

Greater Teleporter Network. Your teleporters can send people large distances (on the infantry scale) which is useful for the military and industry. +250 to PDF rolls. Flanking/Ambush bonuses negated for ground battles, except for deep-strike combatants. Also provides a boost to industry. +25% to industry.

-[X] Making a Primarch quality Lab/workshop and/or Tools to aid in our Inventing. While you can use the facilities of regular researchers, you can say without boasting that you're probably the greatest mind in the sector, and you would get more out of a personalized workshop.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -425 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Check: Invention: Extravagance+Luxury: 210+ Forging: Gear: 200+ Education: General+Advanced: 255+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+ 2235(Education bonuses)+3500(Eldar SL)= 18020. 675 for Viable Workshop. Passed. 2075 for Crude Workshop. Passed. 4675 for Simple Workshop. Passed. 9675 for Basic Workshop. Passed. 14675 for Complex Workshop. Passed. 18020/19675 for Advanced Workshop.

1470/6300 to Level 54.

While not some unbelievable wonderland, your workshop is much better than any random laboratory. Certainly, the extremely specialized tools you usually have to cobble together or take with you simply being ready for your use cuts down on wasted time.

Reward: Complex Workshop. A personal laboratory for you to use when making or improving various items. +1000 to innovation actions.

-[X] Anti-corruption measures for our machines/electronics. We know that warp horrors can corrupt machines, and we hope to make heavy use of automation/drones/networking in the future. Make sure that doing so would not be inviting a disaster. Maybe Purity Rune shaped circuits? x2

While the new cogitator does help in preventing corruption, they are by no means immune. They are simply somewhat resistant, which you would like to increase a great deal. Seeing as the best way to improve their resistance seems to be via improving the processes already used by cogitators, so it would be something you could simply roll out, rather than some overly complicated and likely inefficient method.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -425 to Check difficulty.

Electronics: Wiring: 75+ Forging: Gear: 200+ Education: General: 240+ 6885(Electronics bonus)+ 4245(Forging bonus)+ 2235(Education bonus)+1000(Workshop bonus)+3500(Eldar SL)= 18380 X 2=36760. Passed. 14575 for Improved Cogitators. Passed. 19575 for Further Improved Cogitators. Passed. 24575 for Much Improved Cogitators. Passed. 36760/49575 for Greatly Improved Cogitators.

1560/6300 to Level 54.

The improvements to the cogitator nearly double their resistance to Warp manipulations, which in turn increases the security of your networks greatly. Before, city networks were mostly isolated from each other, with a few heavily regulated exceptions. Instances of scrap-code and/or data-based Warp Horrors were to be quarantined, and the network thoroughly scrubbed for several days, which the few connections helped with. Now people can be much freer about sending information electronically.

Reward: Much Improved Cogitators. While they fulfill the same function as computers, they are far more resistant to Warp-related shenanigans. Scrap-code and similar technology-focused psychic manipulations gain a -35 Malus to rolls against your technology.

-[X] Willpower Gauges. While hundreds of people can be scanned with a single scanner, the bowels of a Hive city are difficult to reach and search, partially due to the often hostile or semi-feral inhabitants, and partially because any existing maps weren't usually very accurate due to constant low-level gang warfare and 'tides' of habitation. Greater range and accuracy in identifying the location of candidates will help.

Power Check: 5 Checks passed.

Control Check: 4 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -650 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Check: Invention: Practical+Industry: 210+ Psyker: Esoteric+Navigstor: 215+ Forging: Gear: 200+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+ 6025(Psyker bonuses)+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+1000(Workshop)+3500(Eldar SL)= 21970+21420=43390. 24350 for Further Improved Range. Passed. 43390/49350 for Further Improved Accuracy.

1690/6300 to Level 54.

While originally, the gauges had 100 meter radii, the new versions had 250 meter radii, and weren't much more difficult to produce than their previous counterparts. Of course, this merely made finding out whether someone was nearby who had the potential for Beta-level, a Guidance crystal/Rune was necessary if you wanted to actually reach them in a timely fashion, ad probably some hefty firepower since people who had the potential to withstand Beta-level were often already psykers, and if they lived long enough, they'd often become a gang leader, which tended to breed a strong independent streak. As one would imagine, they didn't usually just give up their current lifestyle in favor of training to become a Beta-level, and for those who truly didn't want the power or would likely abuse it, you usually left them alone after the minimum requirements for training them were met. Breeding resentment in people who'd been empowered to the level of a Beta, or empowering someone who had sadistic or megalomaniacal tendencies seemed unlikely to end well.

Reward: Further Improved Range for Willpower Gauges. Currently 250 meter radii. AN: Just because someone is suited for Beta-level in terms of being able to resist corruption doesn't automatically make them the sort of person you'd want to give that sort of power. This is the main reason why the number of Betas you have is on the low end. They have to pass a number of character tests, and many people fail them.

-[X] Antigravity. While you possess a basic understanding of anti-gravity, enough to produce the effect in vehicles and buildings, you would like to deepen it. This is required if you wish to improve your use of it in a timely fashion.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. Total reduction to Check difficulty of 325.

Combined Score Check: Invention: Practical: 210+ Forging: Gear: 200+ Education: General+Advanced: 255+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+ 2235(Education bonuses)+ 1000(Workshop bonus)+3500(Eldar SL)= 19020+1475= 20495. 9350 for Improved Anti-gravity. Passed. 14350 for Somewhat Improved Anti-gravity. Passed. 19350 for Further Improved Anti-gravity. Passed. 20495/24350 for Greatly Improved Anti-gravity.

1750/6300 to Level 54. Currently possess 12 Perk points.

While you won't be able to weaponize gravity shear any time soon, you are able to improve the efficiency of the devices that generate the fields, which has knock-on effects for your hover vehicles, and your ability to generate regular gravity fields. It also makes setting up domed cities with regularized environments on high-gravity worlds more plausible.

Reward: Anti-grav Vehicles bonus improved to 30%. Greatly Boosted speed of in-system exploitation of colonized systems.

-[X] Last year we were very close to the next tier of the runes we were working on. Finish that up and then work on the Communication rune.

Power Check: 5 Checks passed.

Control Check: 4 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -650 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Check: Invention: Practical+Industry: 210+ Psyker: Esoteric+Navigation: 215+ Forging: Gear: 200+ 7375(Invention bonii)+ 6025(Psyker bonii)+ 4245(Forging bonii)+1000(Workshop bonus)+3500(Eldar SL)=22770 +19420 for first 5 crystal types= 42190. 19350 for Time, Wisdom, Concealment, Purity, and Willpower grade 5. Passed. 24350 for grade 6. Passed. 42190/49350 for grade 7. 22770 +4330 for Communication crystals=27100. 4350 for Communication grade 3. Passed. 9350 for Communication grade 4. Passed. 19350 for grade 5. Passed. 24350 for grade 6. Passed. 27100/49350 for grade 7.

1930/6300 to Level 54.

As you move Time, Wisdom, Concealment, Purity, and Willpower crystals from grade 4 to grade 6, the effect you'd noticed before becomes more and more noticeable. Similarly, the crystals have more and more influence on the physical world, even the lesser ones gaining some more power as the sixth tier comes into being. For the fourth and fifth tiers, the crystals simply grew somewhat easier to make, but having an iteration of the sixth tier actually increased the effectiveness of the lesser crystals very slightly. It was causing a minor panic among the psykers who'd been making it until you informed them of what happened.

Considering what happened when you made the sixth tiers, you're concerned that they might produce some kind of crystal version of a Warp Horror if you advance them further, but so far they've demonstrated no awareness at all, not even the rudimentary ones that form from Warp Horrors that naturally from emotional extremes and ensnared souls. As such, you'll proceed with caution, but feel you can continue advancing tiers.

What's more immediately impressive, is that once a crystal reaches it's fifth tier, the effects can be accomplished with speech, though particularly powerful psykers such as yourself can simply think them. While this is only temporary compared to a Rune, it's a lot easier to do in terms of time and effort. You have to learn how, obviously, but it's entirely possible to do so with the level of knowledge acquired from hitting the fifth tier.

Speaking of which, the grade 6 Time crystal was more than twice as powerful as the grade 4. Taking on a much more stylized appearance, these crystals allow 25% temporal acceleration or deceleration on an indefinite basis, or a 5 minute time-stop in a 50 meter radius, assuming non of those affected were past the Iota level of psykery. Warp Horrors are affected oddly though. Sometimes they're frozen in time for days, sometimes it simply doesn't work. There's some correlation between the type of Daemon and how much they're affected, plague-related Daemons are most likely to be frozen for a long period, while the blue one and those with a particular preference for martial combat are most likely to resist, those under Slaanesh are the most random, but what you'd outlined was more of a guideline than a rule, with exceptions occurring with great frequency. You assume it's to do with the Warp's less than temporally stable nature.

Wisdom crystals, having simply grown somewhat larger than before, had greater effect over a larger area. Even someone who was a poor decision-maker would be at least competent most of the time, though there was a small amount of diminishing returns for the very best decision-makers, most people got about the same amount of benefit from it, gaining insights where they otherwise might not have.

The Concealment crystals, on the other hand, get past their hump of losing their effect upon an attempt on a target's life upon reaching their fifth tier, to some degree. While a blistering series of attacks will keep the effect from working, attacking and then stopping for a few moments will cause the enemy's eyes to slide right past the user again. Psykers are less affected, but they do still have more trouble keeping an eye on their compatriots than they really should.

Purity crystals glow more brightly, though not to the point of being unpleasant to look at, and the fifth and sixth tiers apply over a much larger area than their previous iterations, allowing mass poisonings to be dealt with incredibly easily, for example. Of course, then they had to back in their box before they started causing problems.

Willpower crystals took on the feelings of solidarity provided by ancient mountains and similar formations, though their appearance didn't particularly change. Their full effects spread out to 20 meter radii, with a diminishing effect over an additional 30 meters, and all but the most weak-willed of people are made effectively immune to passive corruption under their aegis.

The Communication Rune advancing to tier 6, however, almost overshadows all of that. It goes from a range of half-light-year, to 10 lightyears, which makes close knit sectors, along with the majority of sub-sectors, able to communicate without problems. It also goes from purely auditory, to possessing the option for transmitting images. While the most isolated systems still need to have someone physically visit them, and to be 100% sure that no one who isn't intended to overhear one must deliver a message personally, relaying messages across the sector is much easier. It would likely make it possible to send messages through Warp storms as well. It wouldn't be a sure-fire thing, and the message would likely be garbled if it got through at all, but something along the lines of a 5% chance is much better than before.

Reward: Sixth-tier Time, Wisdom, Concealment, Purity, and Willpower crystals/Runes. +200% to industry. +100 to PDF rolls. +10 to morale. +100 to scouting and investigation rolls. Huge bonus to dealing with cults and Daemons.

Sixth-tier Communication Runes. 10 LY communication, assuming available Rune/crystal on other end. Barring Warp Storms or Daemonic interference, will not lose communications with forces in the same sub-sector.

AN: In the future, you can create as many basic Runes as you want, but you can only advance 5 at a time. Also, congratulations! You have spells now. Well, they aren't exactlyclassical spells, they're more like a less exact version of Nanoha-verse magic. It lets psykers get more bang for their buck, at the cost of flexibility compared to a psyker that can accomplish the same effect without the 'spell.' Psykers of a much lower level can serve as battle psykers, but their repertoire would be limited to 'spells' granted by 5+ grade crystals.

-[X] Minor Works: Practical. Industry has received less focus from you than the army or happiness of the common man.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Invention: Practicality+Industry: 210+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+800(Workshop bonus)=8385. 80 Checks passed.

2760/6300 to Level 54.

As your knowledge expands, you have a harder and harder time adequately justifying the innovations you propose to people in ways they'll understand. Luckily, industrial leaders trust you to know what you're talking about at this point. Sure enough, a significant boost to industry occurs because of your proposals.

Reward: Invention bonus maxed out at 210 for Practical Industry.

-[X] Improve Education. x2. Seeing as you're the most educated human in the sector, you think you should have a go at altering the curriculum.

Administration Check: 3 Checks passed.

Diplomacy Check: 3 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -575 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Checks: Education: General+Advanced: 255 X 2+ Education: Culture+Cultural Analysis: 255+ 6705(Education bonus X 3)+ 1000(Workshop bonus)= 8470 X 2=16940. 1925 for Improved Education. Passed. 4425 for Somewhat Improved Education. Passed. 6925 for Further Improved Education. Passed. 9425 for Greatly Improved Education. Passed. 14425 for Largely Improved Education. Passed. 16940/19425 for Hugely Improved Education.

3030/6300 to Level 54.

As you suspected, you were able to provide a great streamlining of the curriculum, which translates to a large bonus to productivity, the military, and morale, as it shows that the government cares about the youth of the polity. The Mechanicus seems to be conflicted. On the other hand, initiates from among your schools tend to be better educated, which is a plus, on the other hand, they dislike sharing of high-end information with literally any random idiot who happens to live in your polity. The fact that you don't do things like teach people things like making bombs if they aren't part of the military is only common sense (though a student that actually pays attention can usually be expected to make at least some kind of effort in that direction if they think they're about to die) but that only calms them down so much.

Reward: Largely Improved Education. Your schools do a much better job of teaching people than most of the independent worlds you know of. +25 to PDF and naval rolls. +25% to industry. +25 to morale rolls.

-[X] Improve Psyker Education. x2. Similarly, as the strongest and best educated psyker for several sectors, you think that you should make an effort for that specific subset.

Administration Check: 3 Checks passed.

Power Check: 5 Checks passed.

Control Check: 4 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -775 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Checks: Education: Esoteric+Seer: 255 X 2+ Psyker: Esoteric+Navigator: 215+ 4470(Education bonus X 2)+ 6025(Psyker bonus)+1000(Workshop bonus)+3500(Eldar SL)=15720 X 2= 31440. 1725 for Improved Psyker Education. Passed. 4225 for Somewhat Psyker Improved Education. Passed. 7175 for Further Psyker Improved Education. Passed. 9225 for Greatly Improved Psyker Education. Passed. 14225 for Largely Improved Psyker Education. Passed. 19225 for Hugely Improved Psyker Education. Passed. 24225 for Impressively Improved Psyker Education. Passed. 31440/49225 for Advanced Psyker Education.

3250/6300 to Level 54.

While a greater education on the more mundane world is helpful, a greater understanding of the Warp is also helpful. From what you've seen simply being around a Warp Horror and knowing about them both risk memetic corruption, which makes you suspect that knowing about Chaos itself would be similar, so anyone told of your theory(though Slaanesh' existence is sworn to secrecy. The idea that the Daemons aren't just directionlessly malevolent is terrifying, and the hopelessness of a true victory against such entities might sway some people to their side by simple virtue of how impossible a task truly defeating beings which draw power from things like change and stagnancy, which would cause actions that might hurt one to strengthen another in many cases, would seem.

While it pains you, you avoid informing the general populace about Chaos, though you make no effort to prevent the vilification of Daemons, which should discourage most people from joining their cause, unless they are truly immoral. The psykers who are informed of this are watched especially closely by the Regulators, and have to pass some major trials to have the clearance for it anyway.

Reward: Impressively Improved Psyker Education. A much better education of psykers when it comes to the exact nature of the Warp is very effective in boosting their effectiveness. +75 to allied psyker Checks.

-[X] Psyker Training Tools. While they receive an amazing education compared to even a decade ago, their training tools aren't really up to the task of training these numbers up to the standards demanded of them. That needs to be remedied ASAP.

Administration Check: 3 Checks passed.

Power Check: 5 Checks passed.

Control Check: 4 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -775 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Check: Psyker: Manipulation+Sorcery: 225+ Psyker: Esoteric+Navigator: 215+ Education: Esoteric+Seer: 255+ 12050(Psyker bonus X 2)+ 2235(Education bonus)+1000(Workshop bonus)+3500(Eldar SL)=19480. 4225 for Improved Psyker Training Tools. Passed. 9225 for Somewhat Psyker Training Tools. Passed. 14225 for Further Improved Psyker Training Tools. Passed. 19225 for Greatly Improved Psyker Training Tools. Passed. 19480/24225 for Largely Improved Psyker Training Tools.

3440/6300 to Level 54.

You manage to craft a number of exercises and minor, easily-crafted, talismans to help train psykers. There isn't really a single big fix due to the sheer number of differences in power and talent, not to mention personality, among psykers. There are a number of more general solutions, but nothing universal.

Reward: Further Improved Psyker Training Tools. +20 to allied Psyker Checks.

-[X] Improve Mining Ships X 2 Also make sure that they can work with the Forge ships easily. x2. Seeing as they go through a great deal of the mineral wealth that isn't planet-bound in the systems you occupy, you believe these could use some improvement.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to difficulty of Check total.

Combined Score Check: Practicality+Industry: 210+ Education: General+Advanced: 255+ Forging: Gear: 200+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+ 2235(Education bonuses)+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+1000(Workshop bonus)+3500(Eldar SL)= 19020 X 2=38040+1220= 39260. 2175 for Improved Mining Ships. Passed. 4675 for Somewhat Improved Mining Ships. Passed. 7175 for Further Improved Mining Ships. Passed. 9675 for Greatly Improved Mining Ships. Passed. 14675 for Largely Improved Mining Ships. Passed. 19675 for Hugely Improved Mining Ships. Passed. 24675 for Impressively Improved Mining Ships. Passed. 39260/49675 for Advanced Mining Ships.

3540/6300 to Level 54. 12 Perk points currently.

You provide a huge boost to the efficiency of your Mining Ships, causing a major rise in the metals extracted from non-planetary bodies. Extremely sparse asteroid fields would be picked clean in a matter of months, rather than years, and even the most major would have serious bites taken out of them over the course of a few decades.

Reward: Hugely Improved Mining Ships. Free Ship-Building/Shipyard-Building Action has increased to 8 Free Ship/Shipyard-Building Actions.

-[X] Forge Ships. Massive reactors and replicator bays, meant to resupply our voidships and armies and aid in the technological uplift of planets. x2. Having shorter supply lines is always a plus, and it's very rare a system doesn't have some asteroids in it. Seeing as even with replicators, munitions aren't inexhaustible, and the fact that Feral and Feudal Worlds are something you'll encounter, you think having something ready to extract and hold large quantities of material from local asteroids to use in the process of resupplying/repairing ships and building more modern cities for the use of Feral and Feudal Worlds is a good idea.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to difficulty of Check total.

Combined Score Check: Practicality+Industry: 210+ Education: General+Advanced: 255+ Forging: Gear: 200+ 7375(Invention bonuses)+ 2235(Education bonuses)+ 4245(Forging bonuses)+1000(Workshop bonus)+3500(Eldar SL)= 19020 X 2= 38040. 675 for Viable Forge Ships. Passed. 2175 for Improved Forge Ships. Passed. 4675 for Somewhat Improved Forge Ships. Passed. 7175 for Further Improved Forge Ships. Passed. 9675 for Greatly Improved Forge Ships. Passed. 14675 for Largely Improved Forge Ships. Passed. 19675 for Hugely Improved Forge Ships. Passed. 24675 for Impressively Improved Forge Ships. Passed. 38040/49675 for Advanced Forge Ships.

3650/6300 to Level 54.

The Forge Ships are closer to the size of an Escort than a Mining Ship, due in part to the need to store a large amount of material at once, and are meant more for resupplying munitions and providing materials for building on the surface of the nearest planet lacking in either fortifications or modern technology. Feral/Feudal Worlds and colonies will be supplied with materials to help them build modern cities much more quickly than they could be mined thanks to these ships. They can also serve to provide troops with materials for quality barricades on embattled planets. Most systems will have SOME asteroids after all, and if worst comes to worst, they can cannibalize particularly badly damaged ships from either side. Hopefully from the enemy because somehow you don't think Machine Spirits would take cannibalizing one of their own very well. All in all, you're very happy with these.

Reward: Impressively Improved Forge Ships. These ships are close to Escorts in size, but they're meant to provide for the needs of the military on campaign, or provide materials for newly established colonies/uplifted primitive planets. Low munitions Malus for fleets and ground forces removed assuming they have these and they have the time to resupply. Massive boost to speed at which colonies are built.

AN: I'm going to say these were made before you went out and colonized all those planets so heavily. It only makes sense, as Serras would have known that she'd come across colonizable planets in that time.

-[X] Improve computer programming x2. As you've improved the hardware, improving the software is the next logical step. Rectifying how programming had been falling behind the technology in computers would be good.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to difficulty of Check total.

Combined Score Check: Electronics: Programming: 75+ Education: General+Advanced: 255+ Electronics: Security: 60+ 13750(Electronics bonuses X 2)+ 2235(Education bonuses) +1000(Workshop bonus)+3500(Eldar SL)= 20875 X 2=41750. 4675 for Improved Programming. Passed. 7175 for Somewhat Improved Programming. Passed. 9675 for Further Improved Programming. Passed. 14675 for Greatly Improved Programming. Passed. 19675 for Largely Improved Programming. Passed. 24675 for Hugely Improved Programming. Passed. 41750/49675 for Impressive Programming.

3740/6300 to Level 54.

With the advances in computing technology, a whole host of errors crop up that simply weren't present, because the programming language worked when processors were less than half as good as they are now, not 5 years later. The current language is unsalvageable in the long-term, and won't function for the newest generation of computers for much longer, so you make a brand new one. You're careful to avoid any major errors, and account for significantly greater processing speed than what is currently available, as well as somewhat lower processing speed, as it's unlikely you won't have to interface with less advanced computers at some point. Things like overflow errors are a thing of the past with the new language, though that's not to say it's flawless. It gets a little overly complicated at times, but that's honestly a minor problem compared to what was going on before.

Reward: Hugely Improved Programming. You've worked to improve the programming of the computers in your polity. Well, cogitators now, but still. +50 to PDF and naval rolls, +50% to industry, -25 Malus to enemy rolls against your technology, such as scrap-code and hackers.

AN: I was referencing the problems that cropped up with C when computers got better. You didn't think advancing computers 20+ years without a comparable leap in programming would have no negative side effects did ya?

-[X] Long Range Teleportation. We can now combine enough runes to do this. x2. While you have a shorter range teleporter, a longer-range one is technically possible. It would be a massive power hog in comparison, in part because it's unlikely there'd be a viable counterpart for the teleporter, though the greater distance certainly doesn't help.

Power Check: 5 Checks passed.

Control Check: 4 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks passed. -650 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Check: Invention: Extravagance+Luxury: 210 +Psyker: Esoteric+Navigator: 215 +Forging: Gear: 200+ 4245(Forging bonus)+ 7375(Invention bonus)+ 6025(Psyker bonus)+1000(Workshop bonus)+3500(Eldar SL)=22770 X 2= 45540. 9350 for Viable Long-Range Teleportation. Passed. 14350 for Improved Long-Range Teleportation. Passed. 19350 for Somewhat Improved Long-Range Teleportation. Passed. 24350 for Further Improved Long-Range Teleportation. Passed. 45540/49350 for Greatly Improved Long-Range Teleportation.

3900/6300 to Level 54.

Well, deep-strike mission to decapitate enemy command if they're less than 25 kilometers away is going to be a lot easier with these, but that's about all they're likely to be used for. They're such massive power hogs that it's difficult to justify their use for much else, except maybe rapid evacuations. Still, it could be worth it under the right circumstances, and better to have it, right?

Reward: Further Improved Long-Range Teleportation. You have teleporters for very long distances, though the power cost is exorbitant. +25 to PDF and naval rolls from much better ability to deep-strike enemy commanders, though it's practically guaranteed to be a suicide mission.

AN: For people who didn't read the discussion, I'm going to put the Minor/Major Actions in separate updates from the Invention Actions from now on.

 

[ilbgar123]

Okay, I'll be honest. I was indeed 'covering my ass' and I put in forward an event-chain to do so that I thought sounded cool, but may have been taking the crossover too far in retrospect. So! Voting time.

[ ] Keep Malice as End Boss. Malice will continue to amass power and begin taking over the Eye/Maelstrom. Potential end-game alliance of all other factions against him. Potential for large outbreaks of Heartless across galaxy from Malice cults, which will act like a hybrid of Daemon Incursions and Ork attacks.

[ ] Upgraded Malice. While Malice grows stronger, he is merely a peer to the Four, as he has concern over having his existence overtaken by the Darkness he's calling upon. Chaos Four become Chaos Five, with all that implies.

[ ] Sealed Away. The Four cooperate long enough to seal Malice away. Chaos Gods start nudging large quantities of Orks and similar threats towards you in 5 Turns. Xenos polities have a far higher chance of becoming hostile and/or Chaos corrupted.

I'll give you until noon on Monday to vote.

 

[liujuin]

mind collecting all the Serras pics and drawings into a single pic post? Cause all of them are too awesome and adorable for people to miss.

Click to shrink...

Of course!

Spoiler: original

The original from the character page. Didn't draw this one.

Spoiler: Colored

Spoiler: In Emp's Eyes

Spoiler: Hiding behind Khaine

Spoiler: Rogal Dorn meeting his people

Spoiler: Timetable: All Fucked Up

 

[Shark8]

Seras and the Mechanicus Roadblockbump

Spoiler: Seras and the Mechanicus Roadbump

Leaving the meeting you resist the urge to punch the wall or grind your teeth. The new heads of the Forge worlds allied to Bastion were more than stubborn, since being dispatched from Mars it seemed the ultra-conservative factions had been thoroughly reinforced as the dominant ideologies in the surrounding Mechanicus worlds.

The only bright point was that they weren't unilaterally breaking the alliance off, and instead petitioning for "a more equitable agreement" (really giving an ultimatum) wherein they wanted control over Bastions development and distribution of technology, essentially making Bastion subordinate to the Mechanicus.

It was just so frustrating considering how well relations had been prior to their changes in personnel. From what you had heard and were able to piece together, Bastion's meteoric rise in technology (combined with its general willingness to share it with affiliated polities not under its control) had spooked the leadership on Mars and driven many to become more conservative. Thus, many of the more moderate or liberal factions had either become more conservative or lost members, which ultimately lead to this aggravating personnel change.

You make your way to the quarters they'd provided to mull over the 'proposal' they'd given you, becoming more frustrated at the prospect of losing such a good alliance or losing all the work you'd put into Bastion. — It just wasn't fair, it wasn't fair at all!

Well, if that's the case you can play dirty too! — You begin going mentally over what you knew about the Mechanicus, both from your book-learning and from your personal experiences, mindful not to say or write anything down: you're pretty confident that these guest quarters are bugged.

Eventually you recall the half-hour long rant the tech-priest gave concerning Abominable Intelligence on contacting the Worrbill's civilization — as well as remembering your own promises and reassurances that you would never produce another unless you could absolutely guarantee that they could never turn on organic races again. Part of the rant had included a recitation of the Cult's Warnings, expounding on the doctrines which they underpinned and explained, you recall the Warnings:

1. The alien mechanism is a perversion of the True Path.
2. The soul is the conscience of sentience.
3. A soul can be bestowed only by the Omnissiah.
4. The Soulless sentience (i.e. Abominable Intelligence) is the enemy of all.
5. The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question.
6. The Machine Spirit guards the knowledge of the Ancients.
7. Flesh is fallible, but ritual honours the Machine Spirit.
8. To break with ritual is to break with faith.​

You smile as an idea forms, thinking of how poetic a retaliation it would be to pull a jui-jitsu flip on them using their own religion and make them subordinate to you rather than subjugating you and your work.

It would be great, all you would have to do is put a soul into the Artificial Intelligence and you'd sidestep their whole definition of Abominable Intelligence. You already have a leg up on putting souls into things with your soulstones… and if you couldn't do a direct soul implantation you could cheat by incorporating the soulstone into the computer (or cogitator). Your programming language could use some reworking to make it more suitable for extremely large projects like this… but where would you put this AI?

Something like the replicators would be nice, but doing so might allow it to make non-souled AI directly into the hardware of something. That wouldn't be good. Connecting it to a network as router-control would be good, but that would be singularly unimpressive compared to more flashy roles like a starship's control or the replicators…

Come to think of it, what would be something sufficiently flashy that if you did fail to ensoul the AI would be impressive enough to, well, impress on the Mechanincus that they won't be able to control you, or Bastion, and attempting it would be a bad idea.

You've already made starships from raw materials, and the size of your fleet would make that less impressive than it really was. Raising buildings from Wraithbone or Orichalcix wouldn't be seen as sufficiently technological, but would be impressive… maybe something a bit more mobile and complex.

Recalling the find on Caxis, the Land Raider, and how the tech-priests had turned from their saddened gloom to a joyful celebration you wonder if you could do something similar, you suppose you could, and Land Raiders and/or troop transports would be a good addition for Bastion's PDF, but it would require a lot of your time spent making enough to outfit them in any meaningful numbers, so that was no good… it'd have to be something more, well, unique… something less mass-produced than normal PDF gear, something more like the unique armor you've been providing your allied leaders or your own Wraithbone wargear…

Then the idea flashed in your mind, crystalizing all at once: a Titan, built from the ground up, using Wraithbone and Orichalcix and your ability to make 'junk' into very nice advanced tech, your skill with technomancy would help as well, you could put the AI in the Command and Control computer, thus not touching the weapons or the units own controls (and, even if ensouling was a failure or it was somehow corrupted you could discard the AI unit in favor of a VI unit), you could also make many of the systems on-par or even superior to the Mechanicus's standards.

But what would be a good idea to use for its main-weapons? Plasma or lasers were standard across your PDF, and would probably be expected, so perhaps something a bit more close-range for the mains and relegating plasma and laser to secondary or tertiary weapons? Something like a chainsword would be a good melee-style weapon, and making it on a titan scale would be an impressive feat of mechanical engineering, moreso if you gave the teeth runes to make the chain rip through things better for the live demonstration… and you could further enhance it by incorporating a matrix for your psyker-powers, which would be an excellent way to boost its effectiveness considering your own psychic might.


Hm, perhaps something else to capitalize on your psychic talent for the Titan's other arm? Mehtrya had mentioned an Eldar weapon, the Singing Spear, that could return to its wielder's hand when thrown. That would be really useful, making the Titan's weapon usable at range as well as in melee combat.

For secondary weapons you could have missiles, maybe EMP with some sort of runic boost — like "Overload" — to enhance its operation. Or, maybe a laser-canon with runes and crystals of 'light'. Or maybe an artillery package with runes for accuracy….

You lose yourself in the planning, fleshing out parts of your plan, revising others, and becoming more and more excited about the prospect of enacting it and are startled when the General Richards comes into your room and informs you that you should have been in the meeting twenty minutes ago.

You feel a moment of embarrassed dread wash over you for a moment before teleporting yourself, and General Richards, just outside the meeting room. You take a breath and prepare yourself for soothing the perceived insult your tardiness would be taken as, open the door, and stride into the room.

Ten minutes later you're still soothing their egos, and they finally turn to the business at hand: they lay out their deal, stating the terms are non-negotiable, and insist on a decision-deadline in eight months. After attempting some diplomacy on their terms, which they were steadfast in, you did manage to get the deadline extended to a year, ostensibly so that you could have the time to inform Bastions other allies in the upcoming change in policies and deal with that fallout beforehand…

What they didn't know was that they were giving you the time you'd need in order to actually design your titan, you estimate that it should take two years normally, but you were confident that you could do it in one if you concentrated on it.

— — — — —​

Now that you're in your personal shuttle, returning back to your personal escort, you breathe a sigh of relief and pull out your personal cogitator/dataslate and, after thouroughly scanning it for evidence of tampering (both with mundane methods and psychic), you begin actually working on your Titan, calculating how much time and resources it would take and how to maximize the impressiveness of your work.

When the shuttle berths in the Escort you've come to think of as yours, the Blackbird, you make your way to your quarters, mind still spinning the possibilities together, only to see your notebooks still-open to where you were taking notes on preliminary ideas for a University program — that was another thing the Mechanicus would probably want to control, come to think of it… if you were to set that up, it's be another poke in their eye, so to speak, and while that thought was pleasing it would take time out of making your Titan. Hm, you could lighten your workload by delegating, but that would pretty much undermine the do-it-yourself nature that would really impress the Mechanicus.

You really wanted that University, and the Titan too… well, you could cut out a lot of time if you could get others to create the Singing Spear for you, but it would still need your input, and that of the Eldar if they were willing to assist you (given that you had to tell several groups they shouldn't worship you, that doesn't seem like it would be particularly hard) and then simply saying it's auxiliary equipment, that probably work.

Nodding to yourself you make a note to use your channels with the Eldar to request assistance with the project, and turn your concentration to things like specifications — if you were to develop a more efficient CPU for the Titan you could apply that to computers, cogitators, and boost Bastion's technological standing even if the Mechanicus weren't impressed with your feat, perhaps something a bit more unorthodox could help you improve efficiency, something like reworking from the foundations of electronics and computing…

You pull out a paper and calculate the maximally efficient radix, e… well, you couldn't work with that directly because you need a natural number for states on the wire, but 3 is closer than 2, basing the electronics on base-three would work. The balanced trinary number system was pretty nice, too: as rounding and truncation became the same operation, electronically this was pretty nice as you could calculate everything by having your lowest state as -1, your middle state as 0, and your highest as 1… and you could use a single trace to hold a comparison — less-than, equal, and greater-than — all on a single trace!

Scribbling these notes down, you pull up the specs on your current generation transistors, and… if you placed things just so… you smile, a single transistor inversion-gate, something that would take two transistors at a minimum for binary calculations: this was going to be a fun project.

— — — — —​

Your entire trip back to Thernus is spent filling your notebook and data-slate with notes: the preliminary foundation for a trinary computer core, very rough outlines for the specs of your titan, a crazed hours worth of spitballing a university curriculum, and a to-do list regarding runes had filled the pages and margins.

You couldn't wait to take these to your workshop and work on getting more accurate simulations run so you could finalize what you could do with materials for the titan's superstructure and armor as well as modeling the trinary gates, circuits, and possibilities for the instruction set and architecture of the one hundred twenty one possibilities you'd thought of you'd need to simulate their performances and select maybe seven to research further.

You knew, in your bones, that you were going to utterly impress the Mechanicus. You would not fail, instead you would show them the most amazing feats of engineering both electrical and mechanical, the most amazing psychic weapons, the most amazing armor, the most amazing psychic works, AND ensoul an AI all at once!

I hope you like this Omake guys. (I was working on another one, but it got kinda stalled.)

 

[Shark8]

The Survivor

Spoiler: The Survivor

I wake with a start, I can feel the attack about to happen, just enough time to rouse myself into position to shoot the small but deadly perecona as it burst out of the foliage surrounding the half-clearing our smoldering wreck of a transport had come to rest in, on its side.

The thrown track and ruptured promethium-tank for the external generator had ruptured and caught fire, fortunately this grade of promethium, called kajin, was less volatile than most others and acted almost like hot tallow when it caught fire. The tank rupture also had been a bit of a blessing, all things considering, because it had cleared the grasses from the clearing and allows me to sight in on the wildlife more easily.

I know my home planet, Ivanor, is a Death World, and our transports are built to withstand it, but it's been two days and I don't know when — or if — we'll be rescued. I hope it's soon, because if it's not Mic Mason and Therka will die…

Mic, my dad's research assistant has two broken legs, one with bone protruding, and a severed arm that I'd out a tourniquet on to stop the bleeding. I'm glad that it seems that the bone didn't seem to hit any major arteries or veins, because he'd already be dead then.

As for Therka, he's the youngest member of the Celesian's ambassadorial envoy, a xeno who is apparently related to their Prophet, so it'll be bad if he dies. That was the reason you'd used most of the medigel on him rather than on Mic… or dad.

I take a look at dad's corpse, and the giant gouge on the side of his neck. He'd been insistent that I look after Therka first, and he was dead when I had finished. Looking at the xeno mixed emotions come over me: I feel angry that he'd been so insistent on coming with us to the research post, and a bit resentful that I had to look after him in preference to dad, but weirdly there's also pride that he's still living and that I accomplished dad's dying instructions.

I know he died proud of me, and that's oddly comforting…especially considering the corpse-smell that has come to fill the transport and is a constant reminder of his death.

As the immediacy of the attack wears off, I feel pain again, I'm pretty sure one of my ribs is cracked because it hurts to breathe, or even move really, and my left shoulder was wrenched pretty bad. I'm honestly surprised I can use my left arm to steady the las-rifle, but the attacks that fill me with terror also seem to block pain and give me a strength I shouldn't have.

Adrenaline, if I'm remembering right. That's what it is. The biology class had seemed so useless, certainly not helped by the teacher's monotone, but I finally see its real life use.

I kick myself for distracting myself and make my way to the xeno and look at his wound, it's not bleeding because the medigel took care of that, but that pipe-like support protruding through his chest looks even more painful than how my chest feels. — Seeing him breathing, I relax… I really don't want to have to explain that Therka died while I was responsible.

There's a roar outside that startles me — I think it's a Fentooth, they're huge! Like eat-your-city huge… I'm scared, but it doesn't feel like he's going to come this way.

I wonder about that, I've had feelings about when an attack is going to come ever since we crashed, and sometimes just before something bad happened when I was smaller… what if I'm one of the Psykers? Everyone was afraid of them when I was smaller, 8, but then Lady Serras came and gave us psyker-training tools and Willpower Gauges and they seemed less afraid.

Lady Serras is a psyker, but everybody loves her, so I'm confused about it all. It would be great if I were like Lady Serras, but what if I'm like Miss Velkin who they said made all of Jymmi's family explode and then wouldn't let any of us kids play on the streets for three whole weeks.

I'm getting tired now, maybe I should take a nap. I haven't gotten a good night's sleep since we crashed because I get those feelings when we're going to be attacked and have to wake up. Yeah, going to sleep would be good.

— — — — — — — — — —​

"Aircar thirteen, this is S&R twenty-four… we've found their trail. Over." Stevenson said, relaying your update to the local C&C.

Unfortunately the forest here made aerial searches more of a crapshoot than they ought to be, especially with the way the Xir-trees seemed to eat auspex signals, forcing the pilots to try peering through their dense broad-leafed foliage.

"S&R twenty-four, this is Aircar thirteen, we copy and have visuals on your location." Came the reply over the radio, followed by a pregnant pause, then: "We have visuals on a possible trail, head south by south-west. Over."

You nod at Stevenson, indicating the conversation was over and he keys the transmitter, saying "Wilco. Out."

Flipping your short-range com-link to transmit, you say "Team, this is Davis. Rally-point, now. Over."

The comm is confirmed and a few minutes later you and your radio-man, Kingstown, are on your way to the rally point, keeping your eyes open the whole way because even with your militia-issued armor the wildlife of Ivanor would tear you apart like a cardboard box. (It was a little sturdier than what you had before, which was wet tissue-paper compared to the sheer viciousness of Ivanor's wildlife.)

When you make it back to the rally point almost everyone else is there: Karl, Jungson, Wagensen, Yen… only Percilis and Kavernon were missing. And they walked into view while you were getting everyone's statuses.

The two shambled over to the rally-point, lollygagging and joking as they made their way, and you feel a bit of anger at the two: yes, they were among the best sharpshooters on Ivanor… but they didn't acknowledge much in the way of mission-mindedness. It didn't help that you were a Captain in the PDF before your retirement and held more military expectations for the men in your militia unit, you knew, but their attitude rubbed you the wrong way.

"C'mon, get over here!" You yell, trying not to let your distaste bleed into your voice.

When they finally do arrive, and give you their own status reports, you launch into the next portion without preamble: "Aircar thirteen's spotted some possible trails, so we're heading south and a tad west. The order of march will be Percilis and Kavernon, then Karl and Jungson, followed by myself and Stevenson. Wagensen, Yen, you two are bringing up the rear."

The arrangement was simple according to your reasoning: Wagensen and Yen were reliable and could be counted on to watch the back; Percilis and Kavernon were in point so they couldn't ruin the formation by either dropping out or breaking it up by stalling until the front broke off; with Karl and Jungson buffering the spot between you and them, so that Percilis and Kavernon wouldn't feel like you were watching or babysitting them, though God knows they needed it.

"Take five, relieve yourselves and eat a quick snack, we're moving out in ten minutes." You say, pulling out your canteen and drinking a good pull from it.

— — — — — — — — — —​

I wake with a start, another feeling again… I grab my rifle, check the charge like dad taught me — only seventeen shots left — and I don't think the generator is going to provide any energy for the rifle, especially since when I tried it the first time the kajin had caught fire.

As I open the door again, a style called gull-wing which makes closing the door more difficult considering the transport is on its side, I wonder if they'll find us before I run out of shots for my las-rifle.

Pulling the rifle up to my shoulder, I raise it enough to be ready whin the creature comes into the clearing, another perecona, well several, burst out of the trees and I fire three shots on two even as shots from the other side of the clearing kill a third.

Looking back across the clearing I see militiamen, and as I'm about to call out to them another perecona leaps from the shadows of the trees at the men leading the others. I know it's going to kill them, but somehow my rifle's already in position and I'm firing off the two shots that ensures a perecona's death…

They hit, but that doesn't stop the airborne perecona from slamming into one of the men and knocking him over. It would be funny if the perecona weren't a jumping murder-machine that essentially became a flying mass of claws and teeth.

"Over here!" I hear myself start to yell, just as a loud roar utterly drowns it out and where you once had joy at being found, now you have only dread, looking back and up the cliff you see at its top a fentooth — larger than even your schoolhouse and blotting out the sun you see it coil up and jump… heading straight for the puny little interlopers that dared to intrude on his territory!

— — — — — — — — — —

Your head snaps up and you lock eyes with a Fentooth… and you know your death is here as the massive beast jumps from its perch atop the cliff straignt at you and your men, the massive beast would squash the entire squad into jelly and lick it off his claws.

Time seems stopped, giving your mind ample time to replay everything to you in unnecessarily graphic detail; 'Thanks brain!' you say to yourself before being interrupted by an flash of light and the Fentooth smashing into the cliff and back towards the far end of the clearing in rapid succession the huge armored figure that suddenly appeared rushing it with blinding speed even as fire and lightning poured from the figure's hand in the instant before the sword in the other hand rammed hilt deep into the beast.

The beast roared and took a swipe at the armored figure, only to miss as the figure rolled backward and returned to standing as if their feet were on a hinge anchored to the ground, slamming the sword back into the Fentooth even as a storm of electricity arced from the crossguard of the blade all across the Fentooth filling the clearing with the sound of thunder and the smell of ozone.

The Fentooth lunged at its opponent, snapping with its mighty jaws and tearing the helmet off the armored figure just as she, that was clear now, rolled away and up into the air in something that wasn't a quite a hop but also wasn't quite flying.

The giant girl, Lady Serras you remember from the vidcast years ago, seems wreathed in light as she alights on the ground just in front of you.

"I'll be with you in just a minute." She says, not taking her eyes off the Fentooth, before half-flying/half-running across the sides of the trees to plunge her sword into one of the Fentooth's three eyes bellowing a veritable maelstrom of flame into the middle eye, and swinging around to punch the third, up to her elbow, then shoulder in the creature's eye before the thing convulsed as if having a seizure before collapsing dead.

One person killing a Fentooth… in personal combat — nobody was going to believe it, Heck, you just saw it and you don't believe it!

— — — — — — — — — —​

The fight was quick, one moment I saw the Fentooth jumping and just a few moments l saw the pretty lady standing at its head, its dead body collapsing after it looked like it was being electrocuted from the inside.

She comes towards me and lifts me out of my perch on the seat of the transport and then her sword flies to her hand and she just cuts the transport in half, throwing the top away so she can get to Mic and Therka.

As she lifts Therka out of the transport, I feel a sense of wonder as she quickly pulls the pipe out of his chest and the hole mends itself in mere seconds; the same thing happens with Mic, as his bones recede back onto his flesh and the holes knit themselves up!

I find myrself looking up at my savior wondering if she's an angel… and a moment later the militiamen come up addressing her as Lady Serras, and I finally know why everyone seems to love Lady Serras, I do too after all.

 

[ilbgar123]

[X] Upgraded Malice. While Malice grows stronger, he is merely a peer to the Four, as he has concern over having his existence overtaken by the Darkness he's calling upon. Chaos Four become ChaosFive, with all that implies.

The shadows had merely been a curiosity when Tzeentch had first foreseen them. That changed quickly when he discovered their virus-like ability to spread extended to Daemons, which he assumed extended to the Four. They were profoundly lucky they'd already been keeping an eye on the wrench their actions had created from the ripples they'd made in the Warp when those things had appeared. It only made sense that some things had changed, but now the future was shifting into something unrecognizable from their goal.

Now, they'd contained the shadows, ironically with help from the Eldar, humans, and Orks, along with another set of interlopes that seemed to almost resemble a more optimistic version of the Necrons, but that was not the end of it. Malice had learned to tap into the primordial well of Darkness that spawned the shadows, which by his nature, the relatively minor god was well-equipped to use. He was the excessively negative impulses of the gods, the especially whimsical portions that could cause them to work against themselves.

With the exception of Tzeentch, who'd elected to hang on to the majority of his own self-destructive impulses, the Chaos Gods had ejected these parts of themselves. Unfortunately, this mass of incredibly negative emotional energy had formed into a Chaos God in it's own right. Relatively minor and easily squashed, but incredibly difficult to permanently pin down, due to his nature allowing him to recover from shattering with much greater ease.

Malice had begun learning the intricacies of the dark power he could call upon, and grew rapidly in strength, feeding off of the rough equivalent of the Warp of another universe. Specifically their most negative, self-destructive impulses. The Four had banded together to try and quell him when they learned he was experimenting with the shadows, but recently Malice's insane growth had tapered off. Eventually, they learned the reason why.

Malice had noticed that as he dove deeper into the well of negativity, his thoughts and goals began to... drift from what he'd originally intended. While it didn't have a mind in the way they did, it did have intentions, and Malice was concerned that he would draw too deeply, and the Darkness would use him for it's purposes, instead of the other way around.

While he'd taken over a number of their worlds in the Eye of Terror and the Maelstrom, as the materials called them, he was unlikely to ascend any further. Luckily for reality, he wasn't completely insane. Emphasis on completely, as he was still using the shadows and what he'd learned of the Darkness to boost his Daemons and grant them similar abilities.. Still, now they could focus on dealing with the more slow-burning flames they'd had to ignore while they dealt with Malice. Certainly, they couldn't simply ignore him, but they could devote more than a tenth of their attention to things besides the building universal threat. The Orks and The Bastion were going to be a problem if this continued, so why not have them work against each other?

Chaos briefly worked together to begin nudging the Orks in sectors nearby to the one occupied by The Bastion to attack. While major attacks would take some time to build up, as the Four weren't being very active in their efforts, they did have other matters to attend to. Slaanesh was particularly spiteful towards the bridge between the humans and an enclave of Eldar for what she'd managed to accomplish, and was rather willing to continue the efforts by itself as the other focused on their own pursuits.

Tzeentch, for example, wanted to get his hands on the crystals. They originated from the same universe as the shadows, and they'd all felt the... shift that had recently occurred as more powerful instances of them came into being. He'd like to be sure there weren't any nasty surprises waiting to occur, and there were more immediate benefits to being able to provide a bit more incentive for worshipers.

AN: 15 years until major Waaghs hit from surrounding 9 sectors all at once. Slaanesh is really, REALLY, salty.

 

[Lisafication]

can we not

But malcador wasn't a traitorous ass faggot who turned against a lifetime of service and faith by the daughter of his spirit.

Click to shrink...

This is completely unacceptable language. We do not allow the use of slurs on this forum, especially when used as pejoratives. Take 25 points under Rule 2.

 

[tri2]

@ilbgar123 found some good pics for PDF army armor and future space marine armors

Spoiler: Standard PDF Trooper Power Armor

Spoiler: PDF Champions/Officers Power Armor

Spoiler: Naval Crew Power Armor

Spoiler: Naval Ship Onboard Forces Armor Or PDF Stormtroopers

Spoiler: Devastator Space Marine

Spoiler: Assault Space Marine

Spoiler: Tactical Space Marine

Spoiler: Planetary Militia

Spoiler: PDF Infiltrator/Rangers

 

[ilbgar123]

AN: This is Celestine through Percy's SLs. The others and the 2 Interludes will come later.

[X] SL- Celestine Salnus SL 6->7.

Your mother's been having you take a break from big projects and simply helping her with the twins while you talk about nothing particularly important.

During a lull you ask, "Mother, not that I don't like this, but usually we do things like bio-engineer crops or investigate laser technology." you note as you core and slice an apple for Lily. She loved apples, but she hated the cores, so she'd only eat them this way. Ithera, on the other hand, would try her best to avoid so much as touching bread crust. For some reason, they were perfectly alright with what disgusted the other, which made the differences between them that made them easier to tell apart very helpful.

Lily had platinum-blonde hair, with brown eyes, while Ithera had black hair with purple eyes. Which meant that as long they weren't wearing hats, you could tell them apart without looking them in the eye or checking on their souls, which they could sense as minor psykers, and apparently felt rather similar to what an ant might feel if it could comprehend the enormity of the human it was crawling next to. As you might expect, they didn't like it. Therefore, you avoided doing it whenever possible.

"If you spend all your time working on inventions and world-shaking events, you'll lose sight of what connects you to people. Your cakes are a good start, but maybe try making them entirely for fun, rather than because you feel like you owe someone." Your mother explained.

Karma Check: 1350. Required: 300. Passed. +60 Karma.

You nodded. Talking with people was nice, but you tended to either be working on something together, or learning from them. You didn't really... just talk very often. Between your work in the lab, and your efforts in diplomacy, you simply didn't have a lot of free time unless you specifically set some aside. It wasn't that you didn't want to spend time with people, it was just that you had a whole bunch of fires, both short and long-term, to put out. Still...

Intrigue Check: 3 Checks Passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Perception: People: 200+ 2370=2570. All 4 Checks Passed.

4250/6300 to Level 54.

"Okay, I get what you're saying. If I constantly put off enjoying myself and actually talking with people, I'll never do it. There's always going to be a fire somewhere, but half an hour won't doom the universe most of the time." Barring Daemonic Incursions, you usually had time.

"Exactly." Your mother nodded. "It's a problem I've had, and a lot of my colleagues too. Right after the Ork Rok crashed and Feral Orks started to appear, it was practically an epidemic, but burning yourself out doesn't help anyone."

Celestine Salnus SL has advanced to 7. Karma is now 1410. +15 to Education skills.

Education: Advanced: 55. You've reached a new tier of knowledge. Even on your home planet, you're making great strides in pushing the boundaries of human understanding forward. Education bonus is now 155 for General.

Education: Advanced: 60. You've begun advancing towards another new tier of knowledge. Even on your home planet, you're making great strides in pushing the boundaries of human understanding forward. Education bonus is now 160 for General.

Education: Advanced: 70. You continue to push the upper limits of human knowledge. Education bonus is now 170 for General.

Education: Cultural Analysis: 55. As long as they aren't actively hostile, bringing humans into the fold is easy, and xenos only somewhat less so. Can assimilate rather friendly xenos cultures.

Education: Cultural Analysis: 60. As long as they aren't actively hostile, bringing humans into the fold is really easy, though hostile xenos can be problematic. Can assimilate somewhat friendly xenos cultures.

Education: Cultural Analysis: 70. Many xenos races require your personal intervention to acquire their allegiance to the greater state, but you can assimilate most of them without problems. Can assimilate xenos cultures which are anything more than neutral towards you.

Education: Seer: 55. You are one of the greatest scholars on the Warp and how it behaves in the nearest 5 sectors outside your own. Education: Esoteric bonus has increased to 155.

Education: Seer: 60. You are one of the greatest scholars on the Warp and how it behaves in the nearest 6 sectors outside your own. Education: Esoteric bonus has increased to 160.

Education: Seer: 70. You are one of the greatest scholars on the Warp in the nearest 8 sectors. Education: Esoteric bonus has increased to 170.

[X] SL- General Richards x2 SL 8->10.

You find the general overlooking a map of your new holdings. Local cartographers were seriously considering simply throwing up their hands in disgust and changing the maps bi-annually instead of annually. Considering how much of the sector you'd absorbed, and how quickly you were probably going to spread out your holdings even without actively focusing on it thanks to the government bodies devoted to such, you couldn't say you particularly blamed them.

"Heh, not even 20 years, and the entire sector is effectively under one banner." Richards noted. Not even a decade since you'd started to absorb nearby worlds really.

Technically, you controlled the majority of the sector. While most of the worlds that knew about each other before your exploratory fleets began uncovering other worlds were currently independent, they were frequently 'surrounded' by your newly absorbed/colonized worlds in previously unmapped areas. The cartographers were putting out some of the best maps of the sector since the beginning of the Age of Strife, and the inter-sectors that had been absorbed were being used as springboards for exploration of the edges of nearby sectors in preparation for a repeat of the process that had occurred with this one.

While the plan was to work you way towards Terra, both to reach your father and to connect with Mars, you weren't going to ignore the other directions. Certainly you'd focus on connecting with your father and brothers first, but not to the point of ignoring systems and sectors adjacent to your own outright. That would be dumb.

"Yeah, but we've still got a long way to go." You respond. A single sector was tiny compared to the galaxy as a whole.

"Don't undersell it. An entire sector is no small feat, especially since The Bastion is only going to spread out faster as time goes on." General Richards reprimanded. On the other hand, he had a point. Still, there were some holes in your doctrine you'd like to patch before any further major focus on expansion.

Karma Check: 1410. Required: 400. Passed. +80 Karma.

"Say, I've been thinking, the Witch Hunters have to deal with weird geometry whenever they're dealing with particularly entrenched cults. While it's not something people who aren't psykers can deal with without losing any combat effectiveness, nor something encounter with any real frequency, a few adjustments of tactics for if regular soldiers have to fight on a planet overrun by Warp Horrors should help."

"We haven't run into any worlds like that yet, but it's better to have it." The general agreed.

Martial Check: 3 Checks Passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Tactics Combined Score Check: Tactics: Preparation+Cleverness+Trickery: 395+ 22305(Tactics bonus X 3)=22700. 375, 450, 525, and 600 Checks Passed.

4320/6300 to Level 54.

While large forces didn't usually enter the zones you'd described, it was better safe than sorry. Using the experience gained by the Witch Hunters, the two of you create a series of tactics for the regular armies. As they are a different force, in terms of both size and composition, from the Witch hunters, they required their own set of tactics to deal with the same threats. While they simply can't deal with them as effectively, Daemons and non-Euclidean geometry would provide less of a boon to Daemons and rogue psykers than before.

Gained Warp Horror Strategies for Regulars. Psykers and Daemons, especially in environments they've molded to their purposes, are a difficult foe for those lacking these things. You've done your best to mitigate this advantage. Daemon and non-Euclidean geometry bonuses halved.

AN: The whole 'Daemons being spewed from the walls, the halls rearranging themselves, etc.' commonly found on Daemon Worlds have the bonus they provide Daemon and Chaos psyker rolls mitigated.

Martial Check: 3 Checks Passed.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -550 to Check difficulty.

Combined Score Check: Tactics: Preparation: 165+ Electronics: Security+Programming: 120+7345(Tactics bonus)+ 13750(Electronics bonus X 2)=21380. 450, 525, 600, and 675 Checks Passed.
4440/6300 to Level 54.

Karma Check: 1490. Required: 450. Passed. +90 Karma.

In addition, while the general and yourself were some of the best tacticians, you couldn't 'break in' every general on every planet. You simply didn't have that kind of free time. However, creating a dumb VI programmed with a number of tactical scenarios was possible. It was hard-wired out of any actual network, to the point where it would be easier to simply make a new one and set that loose if you wanted to use it to corrupt/control a network, and it lacked the the ability to learn or change itself, and therefore, was not an AI. It wasn't that you were rabidly anti-AI like much of the Mechanicus, but they weren't wrong about AIs being dangerous.

While Machine Spirits were proto-souls resulting from the age and complexity of the technology in question, they didn't provide the same protection from memetic hazards as a proper soul. This, combined with their much greater speed of communication and 'thought', gave them a far greater ability to spread corruption and take over systems. You suspected that the much greater degree of automation present in the DAoT is the major reason corrupted MoI and MoS were able to cause so much damage (mostly the former). This was presumably the major reason the Mechanicus preferred to use menial labor and servitors over technology when they could, despite their decided preference for steel over flesh.

Gained Tactical Training VI. While certainly no MoS, this VI is equipped with a large number of tactical simulations, and will make intelligent decisions in response to the comander's own. +50 to PDF rolls from standardized minimum quality of tactical officers.

Reward: General Richards SL has advanced to 10. Gained 10 SL Perk. Karma is now 1580. +40 to Tactics Skills. Gained 1500 Karma Perk. AN: You've pretty much done everything he could reasonably ask of you at this point, so there wasn't a whole lot left to talk about.

Richards SL 10 Perk. Coordinated Military. Your military is exceedingly well managed, even to the point it can function with something resembling the same performance without your direct supervision, or even without any supervision. Personal leadership bonus increased to 150. All troops receive high leadership bonus (+100) to rolls when not under direct supervision, and retain +50 to rolls if communication is not possible.

Tactics: Preparation: 165. You've vastly exceeded the pinnacle of preparation for the majority of humans, having plans in place for even effectively impossible scenarios. Absurd chance of traps being successful. Even prodigy commanders will almost always fall for them.

Tactics: Preparation: 170. You've vastly exceeded the pinnacle of preparation for the majority of humans, having plans in place for even effectively impossible scenarios. Absurd chance of traps being successful. Even prodigy commanders will almost always fall for them.

Tactics: Preparation: 180. You've utterly exceeded the pinnacle of preparation for the majority of humans, having plans in place for even effectively impossible scenarios. Ridiculous chance of traps being successful. Even prodigy commanders will always fall for them.

Tactics: Preparation: 190. You've utterly exceeded the pinnacle of preparation for the majority of humans, having plans in place for even effectively impossible scenarios. Ridiculous chance of traps being successful. Even prodigy commanders will almost always fall for them.

Tactics: Preparation: 200. You have achieved the pinnacle of mundane preparatory tactics. Ludicrous chance of traps being successful. Even prodigy commanders will always fall for them.
Tactics: Preparation has advanced to Tactics: Fortification.

Tactics: Fortification: 5. You're at the bottom rung of building fortifications quickly, rather than digging a trench and hoping the artillery misses. More time consuming under most circumstances, but definitely more effective if you can set them up in time.

Tactics: Cleverness: 165. You've completely surpassed the peak of 'winging it' among the vast majority of humans. Difficulty of Tactics Checks reduced absurdly from being able to plan on the fly.

Tactics: Cleverness: 170. You've completely surpassed the peak of 'winging it' among the vast majority of humans. Difficulty of Tactics Checks reduced absurdly from being able to plan on the fly.

Tactics: Cleverness: 180. You've utterly surpassed the peak of 'winging it' among the vast majority of humans. Difficulty of Tactics Checks reduced ridiculously from being able to plan on the fly.

Tactics: Cleverness: 190. You've utterly surpassed the peak of 'winging it' among the vast majority of humans. Difficulty of Tactics Checks reduced ridiculously from being able to plan on the fly.

Tactics: Cleverness: 200. You've reached the pinnacle of purely mundane planning on the go. Difficulty of Tactics Checks reduced ludicrously from being able to plan on the fly.

Tactics: Cleverness has advanced to Tactics: Cunning.

Tactics: Cunning: 5. You've utterly surpassed the peak of 'winging it' among the vast majority of humans.

Tactics: Trickery: 165. You can plan around the plan of your enemy planning around your plan to plan around their plan. Difficulty of Tactics Checks absurdly reduced.

Tactics: Trickery: 170. Most people get headaches simply trying to follow the line of logic you use when making your more complex plans. Difficulty of Tactics Checks absurdly reduced.

Tactics: Trickery: 180. As you might imagine, the headache is useful in negatively affecting their judgement. Difficulty of Tactics Checks ridiculously reduced.

Tactics: Trickery: 190. Even the blue Daemons have some trouble following your plans if they aren't devoting all their attention to it. Difficulty of Tactics Checks ridiculously reduced.

Tactics: Trickery: 200. You are the focus of some tall tales for how tricky your plans can get. Difficulty of Tactics Checks ludicrously reduced.

4640/6300 to Level 54.

Tactics: Trickery has advanced to Tactics: Guile.

Tactics: Guile: 5. You have begun studying tactics of mind-bending complexity.

All 200 Tactics Skill. Two-Star General. As the greatest tactician for sectors around, and an extremely powerful combatant, you are considered the preeminent military authority at any battle you are present for. +200 to Tactics Checks.

1500 Karma Skill. Karmic Armament. The nature of your soul has an effect on your abilities, though some of it is likely echoes from people who've witnessed your deeds. Bonus to Combat Checks equaling Karma times 2.

AN: That frees up three tags.

[X] SL- Roger Cazanus x3

This time, you help Roger in setting up the Watchdogs and their counterparts on your newer additions. While he's set things up to work without his direct oversight, taking this many new worlds in at once slowed the process down quite a bit. He'd decided to work on fixing things up personally to counter this.

Karma Check: 1580. Required: 300. Passed. +60 Karma.

Seeing as this was (sort of) your fault, you decided to give him a hand.

Intrigue Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Evasion: Trickery: 60+2335(Evasion bonuses)=2395. 150, 175, 200, and 225 Checks Passed.

You generally performed the task of providing a distraction. You provide a friendly face for the local governments, and an obvious target for the cults, letting Roger operate with much less impediment. He acts as a ghost, taking out cult leaders in their sleep, finding meeting spots, etc. and throwing them into chaos.

Intrigue Check: 3 Checks passed. -325 to Check difficulty.

Evasion: Trickery: 60+2335(Evasion bonuses)=2395. 175, 200, 225, and 250 Checks Passed.

Of course, this only fools the cults that aren't plot-oriented (and even then, not all of those due to luck or an uncanny ability to discern methods already used on other worlds) so you need to use a different strategy with them.

Karma Check: 1640. Required: 350. Passed. +70 Karma.

You simply switch places on some of the worse worlds, personally carrying out a large number of raids, trading secrecy for crushing the cults under a rapid assault and the weight of their losses. Though you do carry out a couple raids on less badly-off worlds, for nastier dens of cult activity, or simply to throw a wrench in their plans.

This allows you to prevent Roger from coming to any major harm. He gets cut up a couple times, even shot in the shoulder once, but you alone can fix thing like that pretty easily, even without easy access to your medical technology.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Intrigue Check: 3 Checks passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -550 to Check difficulty.

Evasion: Trickery: 60+ Electronics: Wiring: 75+ Forging: Gear: 200 +2335(Evasion bonuses)+ 6875(Electronics bonuses)+ 4245(Forging bonuses)=2395. 200, 275, 350, and 425 Checks Passed.

4900/6300 to Level 54.

Of course, your newer Hive Worlds are difficult to police at the best of times, especially as you go further into their depths, so you set something up to keep them better under control.

While your crystals and Runes are given a heavy focus, to the point many cults forget you actually use regular technology for much besides fighting, simple cameras have their uses. For one thing, it's well-documented that memetic threats aren't as potent when not being directly viewed, though you do make sure that the network is closed to prevent any wider contamination.

Watchdogs are selected for guard duty, and placed in charge of sectors of roughly equal size, with the cameras of a sector all feeding into a room covered in Purity Runes, with the watchers chair covered in a Willpower Rune. Their job being to watch over their sectors and report regular meeting spots and other suspicious activity.

Karma Check: 1710. Required: 400. Passed. +80 Karma.

You do not, however, place cameras in private places (though it's hard to determine the line in some places). In part, this is because of the practical concerns of keeping the cameras from being too obvious, and you lack the manpower to watch people that closely, but it's also because it's a slippery slope you don't want to tread down.

Reward: Gained Hive World Camera Network. Hive Worlds are often wracked by cults and rampant savagery in their lower levels. These help at least police them. Drastic reduction in cult activity in Under-Hives. Roger Cazanus SL has advanced to 9. +45 to Evasion Skills. Karma is now 1790. AN: Yeah, I'm running out of issues to give these guys without making it unbelievable that they managed to become heads of state. Also, the file trouble I had made the skill difficult, so you'll have to settle for the newest descriptions.

Evasion: Lying: 105. You can tell lies better than the instructors who teach people in the Witch Hunters and Watchdogs how to lie. Similarly, you are amazing at discerning the lies of others, as you know very well what to look for. Extreme bonus to Intrigue actions.

Evasion: Dodging: 105. You can dodge numerous projectiles and/or strikes that aren't supersonic, and it's more planned than instinctive. You've even managed to combine conscious actions and reflexes into a seamless whole. Extreme bonus to Combat Checks.

Evasion: Trickery: 105. You can manipulate the vast majority of people into harming themselves or their causes without them realizing, as well as hide small objects on your person, though someone who's really looking has the potential to see through your efforts. Your disguises are equal compared to the experts in the Witch Hunters. Extreme bonus to attempts to hide small objects and disguising your intentions. Moderate bonus to attempts to hide medium-sized objects. Slight bonus to attempts to hide large objects.

Evasion All 100 Perk. Undercover Bartender. It's surprising how loose most people's lips get when they're intoxicated, provided they're still coherent. Seeing as bars are generally gossip-heavy anyway... +100 to Evasion Checks.

5000/6300 to Level 54.

[X] SL- Isker Vagahen x3

Isker wanted to continue the work you'd begun to improve the grenade, now that there was a lull in major combat operations for the forseeable (literally in your case) future. Seeing as you hadn't had much use for city-killer bombs recently, and you'd probably use orbital bombardment if the situation required that kind of destruction.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks. -425 to Check difficulty.

Explosives Combined Check: 180+ 5900(Explosives bonuses)= 6080. Required: 100, 175, 250, 325 Checks. Passed.

5090/6300 to Level 54.

You and Isker manage to further improve the grenade. Not only does it pack more of a punch than before, but it has two variants. A 'breaching charge' type which directs most of it's force in one direction to better pierce armor and other hard targets, in addition to the classic grenade for larger groups of softer targets.

Karma Check: 1790. Required: 300. Passed. +60 Karma.

As it wasn't that difficult, you suspected that a lack of interest was the main problem. As it turns out, the scientific community was busy getting it's new additions in order, and was also having some trouble keeping everyone informed of relevant advances. The system would sort itself out shortly, but until then a number of projects would be left be the wayside. You manage to recruit a couple other scientists with relevant specializations to help out though.

The two of you continue your work on grenades, with some help from the pair you'd managed to enlist for aid.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks. -425 to Check difficulty.

Explosives Combined Check: 180+ 5900(Explosives bonuses)= 6080. Required: 175, 250, 325, 400 Checks. Passed.

5180/6300 to Level 54.

As the two of you work, you improve every aspect of the design, Isker focusing on the chemicals used in the explosion, yourself working on the mechanisms of the grenade, with some help from your aides. These grenades aren't anti-bunker weapons, but they are decent anti-tank weapons.

Karma Check: 1850. Required: 350. Passed. +70 Karma.

You make an effort not to forget about the pair of scientists you commandeered. You know their names because you read their files, but you find it unlikely that you'll interact with them much. They simply aren't the experts in the field that you or Isker are, though they're still decent, just average compared to a prodigy such as yourself and a genius in his field.

That's not to say they're only good for grunt work. Testing the different combinations the two of you come up with is a time-consuming process, and your time is better spent on crafting the grenades in the first place. This requires someone who actually has some knowledge of the explosives to accurately judge what made them work better rather than simply cataloguing their performance relative to the others. It's something you could do yourselves, but these two speed up the process significantly.

You're approaching the limits of what you can create without a dedicated laboratory, so you move the project into your personal laboratory.

Karma Check: 1920. Required: 400. Passed. +80 Karma.

After checking to make sure Isker was fine with it. There was some risk of it being perceived as your project instead of his if it came out of your lab. There were those who would interpret it as you taking pity on someone trying to work past the chaos the scientific community was in right now, and taken up the project yourself. You'd do your best to quell this impression (without lying at least) but Isker just wanted to make a better grenade.

He noted that they were incredibly lucky you were there to predict the Orks' build-up, otherwise Therog would have fallen, and that was the most optimistic estimation. At some point, there would be massed fighting on the ground, if only to reclaim the world manually, due Orks having survived a planet being made into a Dead World before, which required that troops garrison the place to be sure they wouldn't reappear later. Having better weapons and armor could only help. Black-boxing technology didn't really work with Orks, so they had no reason to worry there, and it was unheard of for them to try reverse-engineering. Therefore, there was little risk in having the most advanced equipment on the front lines of the fighting. He was happy as long as he helped out with providing said equipment.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks. -425 to Check difficulty.

Explosives Combined Check: 180+ 5900(Explosives bonuses)= 6080. Required: 175, 250, 325, 400 Checks. Passed.

5270/6300 to Level 54.

The others were rather impressed by your laboratory, though being professionals, they soon got to work. At this point, you and Isker were co-operating closely on the chemicals used for the explosion, and the grenades' innards in general. It was simply too complicated to be accomplished within the span of a week otherwise.

The new grenade wouldn't total a tank from a less advanced nation-state in one shot, but it would likely cripple one, and your own tanks certainly wouldn't shrug them off. It would still take several of them to bring one down reliably, but they were actually a credible threat to armor that wasn't at your level.

Isker Vagahen SL has advanced to 9. Karma is now 2000. Gained Karma 2000 Skill. +45 to Explosives Skills. Gained Significantly Improved Grenades. Packing even more of a punch than before, and with both a normal variant and a directed, armor-piercing variant, these grenades are potent enough to stop tanks less advanced than your own in their tracks. +25 to PDF rolls. Enemy Defenses bonus nullified by 25.

Karma 2000 Perk. Karmic Judgement. Sometimes, a lesson is not enough. There a those who simply refuse to learn, or who just don't care. Adds Karma X 3 to Combat Checks.

Explosives: General: 60. You know more about using explosives than a few who've made a career out of their production and use. Of course, you cheat a little bit with your psyker powers, but who wouldn't use their powers to prevent premature detonations? Medium bonus to use of explosives and prevention of their going off when you don't want them to.

Explosives: General: 70. You know more about using explosives than some who've made a career out of their production and use. Of course, you cheat a little bit with your psyker powers, but who wouldn't use their powers to prevent premature detonations? Major bonus to use of explosives and prevention of their going off when you don't want them to.

Explosives: General: 80. You know more about using explosives than many who've made a career out of their production and use. Of course, you cheat a little bit with your psyker powers, but who wouldn't use their powers to prevent premature detonations? Large bonus to use of explosives and prevention of their going off when you don't want them to.

Explosives: General: 90. You know more about using explosives than most who've made a career out of their production and use. Of course, you cheat a little bit with your psyker powers, but who wouldn't use their powers to prevent premature detonations? Huge bonus to use of explosives and prevention of their going off when you don't want them to.

Explosives: General: 105. You know more about using explosives than many of the teachers of those who've made a career out of their production and use. Of course, you cheat a little bit with your psyker powers, but who wouldn't use their powers to prevent premature detonations? Extreme bonus to use of explosives and prevention of their going off when you don't want them to.

Explosives: Extravagant: 60. You know slightly more than the average official about dealing with pressure plates, timers, and explosives which open vortexes to the Immaterium. Medium bonus to use and dealing with Void munitions, landmines, explosives on a timer, etc.

Explosives: Extravagant: 70. You know somewhat more than the average official about dealing with pressure plates, timers, and explosives which open vortexes to the Immaterium. Major bonus to use and dealing with Void munitions, landmines, explosives on a timer, etc.

Explosives: Extravagant: 80. You know a decent amount more than the average official about dealing with pressure plates, timers, and explosives which open vortexes to the Immaterium. Large bonus to use and dealing with Void munitions, landmines, explosives on a timer, etc.

Explosives: Extravagant: 90. You know a great deal more than the average official about dealing with pressure plates, timers, and explosives which open vortexes to the Immaterium. Huge bonus to use and dealing with Void munitions, landmines, explosives on a timer, etc.

Explosives: Extravagant: 105. You know as much as experts in the field about dealing with pressure plates, timers, and explosives which open vortexes to the Immaterium. Extreme bonus to use and dealing with Void munitions, landmines, explosives on a timer, etc.

Explosives: Preparation: 60. You know how to safely make grenades, provided you have the proper materials, or safely create a makeshift one if you have no other option. Similarly, you can make somewhat larger explosives even without all the proper materials, though not necessarily with utter certainty of their safety. Medium bonus to creation of small explosives. Moderate bonus to creation of large or complicated explosives. Small bonus to the creation of large and complicated explosives. Makeshift small explosives won't explode as you make them. Makeshift medium explosives won't go off at an inopportune moment. Makeshift large explosives are only likely to go off while being made.

Preparation: 70. You know how to safely make grenades, provided you have the proper materials, or safely create a makeshift one if you have no other option. Similarly, you can make somewhat larger explosives even without all the proper materials, though not necessarily with utter certainty of their safety. Large bonus to creation of small explosives. Medium bonus to creation of large or complicated explosives. Moderate bonus to the creation of large and complicated explosives. Makeshift small explosives won't explode as you make them. Makeshift medium explosives won't explode as you make them. Makeshift large explosives are unlikely to go off while being made, provided you have right materials.

Explosives: Preparation: 80. You know how to safely make grenades, provided you have the proper materials, or safely create a makeshift one if you have no other option. Similarly, you can make somewhat larger explosives even without all the proper materials, though not necessarily with utter certainty of their safety. Major bonus to creation of small explosives. Major bonus to creation of large or complicated explosives. Medium bonus to the creation of large and complicated explosives. Makeshift small explosives won't explode as you make them. Makeshift medium explosives won't explode as you make them. Makeshift large explosives are unlikely to go off while being made even without the proper materials.

Explosives: Preparation: 90. You know how to safely make grenades, provided you have the proper materials, or safely create a makeshift one if you have no other option. Similarly, you can make somewhat larger explosives even without all the proper materials, though not necessarily with utter certainty of their safety. Huge bonus to creation of small explosives. Large bonus to creation of large or complicated explosives. Major bonus to the creation of large and complicated explosives. Makeshift small explosives won't explode as you make them. Makeshift medium explosives won't explode as you make them. Makeshift large explosives are only likely to go off when they're not supposed to.

Explosives: Preparation: 105. You know how to safely make grenades, provided you have the proper materials, or safely create a makeshift one if you have no other option. Similarly, you can make somewhat larger explosives even without all the proper materials, though not necessarily with utter certainty of their safety. Extreme bonus to creation of small explosives. Huge bonus to creation of large or complicated explosives. Large bonus to the creation of large and complicated explosives. Makeshift small explosives won't explode as you make them. Makeshift medium explosives won't explode as you make them. Makeshift large explosives won't explode as you make them.

All 100 Explosives Skill. Bomb Producer. You are an expert at producing bombs. +100 to Explosives Checks.

5370/6300 to Level 54.

[X] SL- Meera Yerala x3

This time, Meera had decided to try and improve the designs of the medical scanners used by your field medics to diagnose the condition of their patients. It mostly consisted of powerful hand-held scanners turned towards detecting areas where the human body wasn't performing properly. They were somewhat haphazardly designed, and several of their components were decidedly off from the rest as a result of trying to make a machine that could both safely scan a human and avoid making it too heavy to be carried casually. The relative newness of some of the technology didn't help.

Unfortunately, her area of expertise was more in line with biology than wiring, so she could only do so much on her own, and with the chaos the scientific community was in, she turned to you. Though your prodigious intellect was certainly another reason.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -425 to Check difficulty.

Forging: Gear: 200+ Electronics: Wiring: 75+ Electronics: Programming: 60+ 4245 (Forging bonuses)+ 13750 (Electronics bonuses X 2) =18330. 25, 100, 175, and 250 Checks Passed.

5460/6300 to Level 54.

Karma Check: 2000. Required: 250. Passed. +50 Karma.

You essentially rebuild the device from the ground up. While it was serviceable before, it simply wasn't all that good, more something to get out there so the technology wasn't just going to waste than anything meant to be used long-term. The new med-scanner is user-friendly, to the point where even an untrained bystander could use it. It also contains a database for the likely causes and treatments for the damage it detects, while being only slightly heavier than the previous iteration, allowing even civilians to at least provide basic first-aid.

Meera is mostly happy with the current version, though she'd like to include packages for use on known xenos, or at least versions they can use despite the often drastic differences in their physiology. In part out of general benevolence, and in part because it seems like a good way to help tie them into The Bastion more closely, as humans being able to reliably treat xenos and vice versa would help bridge one of the gaps between their own, more numerous race, and the various others.

Karma Check: 2050. Required: 300. Passed. +60 Karma.

You agreed. At your behest, people tolerated xenos in a general sense, but they were treated more with indifference than any real warmth. That was something that couldn't stand. For both practical reasons, and moral ones. It was doubtful there weren't large sections of the galaxy that belonged to xenos races, which could become enemies if they decided humanity wouldn't be good allies. If you couldn't get along, ignoring each other and hostility were the only options you really had left. That was a waste of resources better used otherwise (fighting Orks, advancing technology, etc.), not to mention that everyone leading pleasant lives was a goal worth striving for in and of itself. Then there was the minor detail of how diversity was the best path to survival, and while humans were excellent generalists, sometimes a specialist was necessary.

In addition, it had been demonstrated that large amounts of suffering did bad things to the Warp, so logically, large amounts of what should have been the results of basic decency towards others might help fix it. So, being generally pleasant towards all beings that weren't actively seeking your death and/or suffering had a logical backing. You weren't sure why people needed a reason, but whatever worked. However, a dedicated push for wide acceptance of xenos races would likely lead to some push-back from the more strongly anti-xeno members of the community, so you'd be more subtle.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -425 to Check difficulty.

Forging: Gear: 200+ Electronics: Wiring: 75+ Electronics: Programming: 60+ 4245 (Forging bonuses)+ 13750 (Electronics bonuses X 2) =18330. 100, 175, 250 and 325 Checks Passed.

5550/6300 to Level 54.

It required a fair amount of research, some consultation with the medical experts of the xenos races encountered thus far (though a Drezni in need of repair would require a dedicated facility for anything beyond a patch-job) and more than a bit of fine-tuning, but you managed to create general med-scanners, which worked on both humans and known non-humans, without any significant sacrifice in terms of weight, speed, or accuracy.

Anti-xenos factions couldn't reasonably protest, as having xenos able to treat humans would likely save human lives at some point, and giving them med-scanners that didn't work for them made little sense. Of course, it wouldn't be as accurate with newly encountered xenos, but it could at least provide generalities considering the variety it currently had access to.

*** Scanning Interlude/ Meera 7->8 SL ***​

"Okay, I think this might be overkill." Meera suggested, glancing between Serras and the high-power sensors she was preparing to scan her body with to get a better idea of the functions of her Immortis gland, and potentially her other organs, but mostly the Immortis gland. Meera's concern was based on the fact that these would cause discomfort in regular humans through sheer intensity.

"Trust me, it's really not." Serras responded. While she knew a great deal about the inner working of her body, both in a general sense via biomancy and much of the specifics thanks to her Father's information. If she wanted to make more progress on reverse-engineering them, she needed a full understanding, not just a working one.

The problem was that ordinary sensors would fail to penetrate beyond an inch or so, and you could only mitigate the problem so much with biomancy.

Karma Check: 2110. Required: 350. Passed. +70 Karma.

This isn't some subconscious issue about how much trust you have in Meera (though you seriously doubt she could hurt you very badly even if she wanted to without being possessed, and that was something you'd detect pretty much instantly) but rather something you suspect Father intentionally engineered in. At the limit of how much you can compromise your defenses, you're only about three times as durable as a normal human, but that's low enough to allow for surgical tools to be used, while still providing some degree of protection. Presumably to make assassination attempts from trusted associates far less likely to work.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -425 to Check difficulty.

Forging: Gear: 200+ Electronics: Wiring: 75+ Electronics: Programming: 60+ 4245 (Forging bonuses)+ 13750 (Electronics bonuses X 2) =18330. 175, 250, 325, 400 Checks Passed.

5640/6300 to Level 54.

In addition, most computers would start smoking, failing to process the psychically-engineered portions to the point it simply burned itself out. You had to personally modify both portions of your current set-up to make this possible. The computers were more in line with what you'd expect a university to use to simulate thousands of different scenarios in a short period of time to test theories and work on projects.

The sensors, meanwhile, were about halfway between common medical sensors and starship-grade sensors. The best compromise you could find between power and finesse. After all, just getting past your 'black-boxing' courtesy of Father wouldn't help much if you got no information out of it, or worse damaged your organs in the process.

"I'm still not sure how good an idea this is." Meera fretted as the scanners started up, gaining an admittedly somewhat ominous glow as they did. You weren't really paying attention to those details during construction, seeing as less than a hundred different people were likely to see this place per decade, but you could see how that would unnerve someone.

"It's perfectly safe for me to use. Now if you were using it, then you'd be right to worry, but I'm a lot tougher than you, even with minimised defenses. I'll be fine." You reassure as you shooed her behind the wall with a mix of lead in the interior and osmium in the exterior, designed to block radiation in all but truly excessive amounts.

The deep-tissue scan caused some discomfort, but it didn't actually take that long. "Okay, you're sure that didn't do anything bad?" Meera continued to fret.

A quick double-check confirmed that nothing was amiss. Your chances of developing cancer or any of the common afflictions that resulted from high quantities of radiation were very low considering your engineering, and your biomancy simply lowered it further. Even if by some slim chance you contracted such an affliction, you'd quickly catch and reverse it. Besides, most cancers were treatable unless they were caught very, very late with your medical technology.

"If you're sure." Meera sighed. "Let's have a look at what the computer's getting out of the scan." She said, turning to the loudly whirring cogitator in question. It was working pretty hard, but didn't seem in danger of burning itself out.

15 minutes later, she was holding her head in her hands. "I don't understand 90% of this." She admits. "I'm getting a headache just looking at this. Whoever designed you was a genius." Admittedly, she wasn't saying anything you hadn't known before.

You had better luck, but your physiology was very complicated. It was far too efficient, and you were pretty sure that there was a lot more psychic engineering involved than you'd thought. You'd been pretty sure it was involved to some degree before, but what you could see indicated that, if anything, your soul was more thoroughly designed than your body.

The computer and sensors weren't really equipped to scan that particular aspect in depth, but they could get enough information and make the gaps obvious enough to make the conclusion obvious if you understood the data. Sort of like having half a puzzle assembled. You couldn't tell exactly what the picture looked like, but you could certainly see how it would generally look.

Of course, this didn't give you a complete understanding of your physiology, but it certainly helped. You were pretty sure you could get to the next level of the super-soldier program you had in the works using your physiology as a basis much more easily now.

Meera, to her credit, did manage a few insights, but staring at what came pretty close (all things considered) to your blueprints gave her a nasty headache. "Sometimes I wonder why you let me hang around you. You're smarter than me, and at this point you can brute-force most of the insight I could give you. I mean, I can barely comprehend what we're looking at, but you don't even seem like you have a headache." She said.

"I'm pretty sure that's because these sensors can't give me the details on the psychic engineering aspect. If they could, I'd probably have a headache too. Sensors I built." You countered. "It took some time to really sink in, but I'm not able to do everything myself, and your insights were helpful. I'm mostly, as you said, 'brute-forcing' my insights compared to you. Your tutoring is helping me reach the point where I can focus that on the really high-end things, like this." You gesture to the data on the computer. "Besides, I like your company."

Meera considers this for a moment. "You know. I'd say that was overly sappy, but it did kind of make me feel better." She admits.

You clap a hand on her shoulder, having figured out the optimal amount of force for Meera some time ago. Enough that she'd feel it, but not enough to knock her down. "Great, now, how about some tea? I've learned some anti-headache recipes, and somehow I don't think you're in the mood for headache medicine." You suggest.

"That does sound nice." Meera agrees. The two of you leave your laboratory, an automated procedure scrubbing the data from the computer. Your memory was virtually eidetic, and Meera was unlikely to provide much more insight, so you had little reason to keep the data in storage. You certainly didn't want this falling into the wrong hands. It would be a threat to both yourself and your brothers. While it wasn't complete, it provided a number of options for high-caliber opponents to use against you and those like you.

Meera Yerala SL has advanced to 8. Karma is now 2180. +45 to Medicine Skills.

Gained General Med-Scanner. This handheld device allow the user to scan a member of multiple species, including humans, and discover the likely causes of their distress, as well as possessing a database on how to treat the problem. Is extremely user-friendly. +50 to morale rolls. Large increase to first-responder and isolated teams' ability to handle casualties. Small increase to level of integration of xenos races, and reputation with them.

Gained Reasonable Understanding of Astartes/Primarch Physiology. You have learned a great deal about your physiology, which in turn, aids you in reinforcing yourself, using your powers, using your physiology to create super-soldiers based on it, and potentially fighting anyone using such super-soldiers, or your brothers, if it ever came to that. +500 to Combat and Psyker Checks. Additional 500 when fighting Astartes/Primarchs. Bonus of 5000 to Score during Check to boost grade of Astartes Package.

AN: Meera is aware that these sensors would probably give a normal human cancer or something, and while she is logically aware that the chances of them causing any long-term harm is effectively nil considering Serras' biomancy, she still worries.

Medicine: Surgery: 60. You can now perform almost all surgeries (removing almost any organ save the brain, implanting replacement organs, c-sections, etc.) on your fellow man. Minor bonus to extrication and/or implantation of pre-existing organs removed. Unlikely to cause damage in the process.

Medicine: Surgery: 70. You can now perform all surgeries (removing almost any organ save the brain, implanting replacement organs, c-sections, etc.) on your fellow man, though not all of them perfectly. Medium bonus to extrication and/or implantation of pre-existing organs removed. Unlikely to cause damage in the process.

Medicine: Surgery: 80. You can now perform all surgeries (removing almost any organ save the brain, implanting replacement organs, c-sections, etc.) on your fellow man, though not all of the more complicated ones perfectly. Large bonus to extrication and/or implantation of pre-existing organs removed. Very unlikely to cause damage in the process.

Medicine: Surgery: 90. You can now perform all surgeries (removing almost any organ save the brain, implanting replacement organs, c-sections, etc.) on your fellow man, though not all of the very complicated ones perfectly. Major bonus to extrication and/or implantation of pre-existing organs removed. Very unlikely to cause damage in the process.

Medicine: Surgery: 105. You have achieved conventional mastery of surgical procedures, performing as well as doctors who've dedicated their lives to the practice. Huge bonus to extrication and/or implantation of pre-existing organs removed. Extremely unlikely to cause damage in the process.

Medicine: Narcotics: 60. You know most of the rare poisons in the sub-sector, and the best ways to deal with them. Chance of misdiagnosing an obscure poison or drug hugely reduced. Hugely increased effectiveness of attempts to cure common poisons.

Medicine: Narcotics: 70. You know the vast majority of the rare poisons in the sub-sector, and the best ways to deal with them. Chance of misdiagnosing an obscure poison or drug hugely reduced. Hugely increased effectiveness of attempts to cure common poisons.

Medicine: Narcotics: 80. You know all of the rare poisons in the sub-sector, and the best ways to deal with them. Chance of misdiagnosing an obscure poison or drug extremely reduced. Extremely increased effectiveness of attempts to cure common poisons.

Medicine: Narcotics: 90. You know most of the common poisons in the sector, and the best ways to deal with them. Chance of misdiagnosing an obscure poison or drug extremely reduced. Extremely increased effectiveness of attempts to cure common poisons.

Medicine: Narcotics: 105. You possess conventional mastery of the production, use, and dosage of various drugs, and the treatments and symptoms of a wide variety of poisons. Chance of misdiagnosing an obscure poison or drug massively reduced. Massively increased effectiveness of attempts to cure common poisons.

Medicine: First-Aid: 60. You know the official medical practices for those with injuries, both external and internal, better than a trained doctor. Can stabilize those with injuries both internal and external, barring extreme maiming, such as loss of entire limbs or total failure of important organs such as the brain.
Medicine: First-Aid: 70. You know the official medical practices for those with injuries, both external and internal, better than a well-trained doctor. Can stabilize those with injuries both internal and external, barring extreme maiming, such as loss of entire limbs or total failure of important organs such as the brain.

Medicine: First-Aid: 80. You know the official medical practices for those with injuries, both external and internal, better than a very well-trained doctor. Can stabilize those with injuries both internal and external, barring instantly lethal maiming, such as total failure of important organs such as the brain, heart, or lungs.

Medicine: First-Aid: 90. You know the official medical practices for those with injuries, both external and internal, better than an extremely well-trained doctor. Can stabilize those with injuries both internal and external, barring instantly lethal maiming, such as total failure of important organs such as the brain, heart, or lungs.

Medicine: First-Aid: 105. You have achieved conventional mastery of first-aid, from minor cuts, to loss of limbs and major organ damage. Can stabilize those with injuries both internal and external, barring instantly lethal maiming, such as total failure of important organs such as the brain, heart, or lungs.

Medicine All 100 Perk. Surgeon. You have steady hands even when someone's life depends on you, and experience in removing and replacing organs. +100 to Medicine Checks.

5740/6300 to Level 54.

[X] SL-Percy Clements x3

Cogitators have just barely settled enough that Percy thinks it'll be alright if you put some focus on improving them. Between your improvements to their hardware and software, they're already a great deal better than they were before, but there's always room for improvement. You decide to work to improve the transistor first, as the programming language is currently doing its job just fine.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -425 to Check difficulty.

Electronics: Wiring Check: 75+ 6875(Bonuses)=6950 +3855= 10805. Required: 4575. Passed. Required: 9575. Passed.

5810/6300 to Level 54.

Greatly Improved Transistors has been upgraded to Majorly Improved Transistors. With the advent of even further improved transistors, computers are ridiculously efficient, both in space and power, allowing for much more advanced designs. +100% to efficiency of industry. +75 to rolls for point defenses and missile launches due to improved targeting. +50 to hacking rolls, both resisting and attempting, due to immense processing power.

Percy, Richards, and Roger are pleased with your latest upgrades, as they provide a massive increase to the effectiveness of computers, including the ones in static defenses, and the ones in the targeting computers onboard missiles, which Richards enjoys for obvious reasons. Similarly, hackers find it far, far more difficult to hack into your computers. They simply can't react quickly enough. Even adaptive and well-programmed viruses have trouble bypassing most firewalls on basic computers, nevermind military hardware, which makes Roger's job easier. The ones operating the computers are more likely to be a problem than the computers themselves at this point.

Karma Check: 2180. Required: 350. Passed. +70 Karma.

Which is not to say that your new designs are infallible, nothing really is, but they're certainly better than before. Many of the more progressive (as in, favoring technological progress) tech-priests appreciated the general rise in standards for their personal cogitators. While the higher-ups had access to far more advanced cogitators (which they generally refused to attempt to reverse-engineer because they weren't absolutely sure they'd be able to put them back together again) the regulars had to work with the average cogitator, personally modified or commissioned by those with a bent towards computational devices.

While the higher-ranked tech-priests only really benefit in that their subordinates are more effective, the lower-ranked tech-priests very much enjoy the general boost to the quality of their devices. The Hive Worlds' 'nobles' enjoy the increase in their ability to enjoy leisure activities, as the masses are entertained with some publicly available (though rigorously scrutinized) games and other forms of entertainment found in buildings where one could rent out some time to browse the selection from the relatively simple computers.

They weren't cutting-edge devices, but they were about halfway between that and the old middle-ground computer. This allowed the Watchdogs to ensure no cultists tried to implant viruses and the like, though the computers were designed not to upload much of anything larger than what was necessary to access the archives where the files for the digital entertainment were stored.

AN: Mostly RPGs and the like. No Youtube or anything like Sufficient Velocity. Too much memetic bullshit on Chaos' part for that to be safe. There are a few government-sanctioned shows, but they're carefully monitored. Karma Check was for allowing those at all, considering how bad even one missed Chaos symbol could be under the circumstances.

You continue working on the computer's hardware, holding off on widespread deployment of the more advanced computers for the moment, as you believe you can further advance them without too much work.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -425 to Check difficulty.

Electronics: Wiring Check: 75+ 6875(Bonuses)=6950 +10805= 17755. Required: 14575. Passed.

5870/6300 to Level 54.

Karma Check: 2250. Required: 400. Passed. +80 Karma.

Majorly Improved Transistors has been upgraded to Hugely Improved Transistors. With the advent of even further improved transistors, computers are ridiculously efficient, both in space and power, allowing for much more advanced designs. +150% to efficiency of industry. +100 to rolls for point defenses and missile launches due to improved targeting. +75 to hacking rolls, both resisting and attempting, due to immense processing power.

Your assumption proves correct, and the computers make another leap forward, though not as much as before. You're approaching the point where even you start to get diminishing returns on your investment of time. That being said, you haven't gotten there just yet.

The personal cogitators are further improved, as are the rentals on the Hive Worlds, with the surveillance-related computers matching them in terms of percentage improved. Considering how much the test cases are being enjoyed, you think people less desperate to ignore the drudgery of their everyday life (pretty much everybody not constantly struggling for survival) will also enjoy them. One more round of improvements should hit the plateau you were expecting, at which point you should be able to distribute the computers without having to worry about rendering them obsolete trivially. You'll want to further improve your programming before your hardware completely catches up to your software anyway.

Administration Check: 2 Checks Passed.

Learning Check: 3 Checks Passed. -425 to Check difficulty.

Electronics: Wiring Check: 75+ 6875(Bonuses)=6950 +17755= 24705. Required: 19575. Passed. Required: 24575. Passed.

5940/6300 to Level 54.

Hugely Improved Transistors has been upgraded to Extremely Improved Transistors. With the advent of incredibly improved transistors, computers are ridiculously efficient, both in space and power, allowing for much more advanced designs. +200% to efficiency of industry. +150 to rolls for point defenses and missile launches due to improved targeting. +100 to hacking rolls, both resisting and attempting, due to immense processing power.

Regular hackers simply fail to accomplish much of anything, as the machines simply react too quickly, while Daemons actually have a little trouble screwing with these machines directly, compared to the passive interference rendering them worse than useless from before. Missiles and point defenses are incredibly accurate compared to their common counterparts, regularly hitting targets that most would expect to avoid them or simply not be in the path of the attacks, while automated industry enjoys a huge boost to their productivity.

Karma Check: 2330. Required: 450. Passed. +90 Karma.

After a small division, similar to the one in charge of the camera network, of the Watchdogs is set up to monitor the content put out, ensuring none of the common memetic hazards used by cultists (pretty much all of their symbols, so something they'd be watching for even without their memetic nature) the pseudo-restaurants charged a nominal fee (even by Hiver standards) for an hour of use of a computer, no charge for the electricity or web access.

It was a reasonably cheap 'bread and circus' type of deal, but technically all of the luxuries you'd developed were, this was just a little more obvious about it. Of course, the average citizen of most other worlds was significantly more likely to have a computer for themselves, but they buy the games produced by the small companies of which a large number of new examples start springing up almost immediately to meet demand.

Percy is alright with computers being used for entertainment, as long as they're treated with some degree of respect. Rather similar to the tech-priests. Seeing as the Hivers don't the computers, they're somewhat forced to do so, or risk being banned for damaging the computer. As such, the tech-priests don't make too much of a fuss of such frivolous use of technology, though you suspect that's at least partially because it's your own design rather than something rediscovered from the Ancients.

Percy Clements SL has advanced to 10. Karma is now 2420. +45 to Electronics Skills. Gained Percy Clements SL 10 Perk. Gained Gaming Cafes. While restricted, these cafes provide some relief from the daily drudgery of Hiver lives. +50 to Morale rolls for Hive Worlds, +10 to Morale rolls elsewhere in your space.

AN: Basically an internet cafe/the free web access of public libraries, though with more restricted content. It's a little bit like an arcade, only with laptops instead of pinball machines.

Percy Clements SL 10 Perk. Electrical Architect. You are Percy's peer when it comes to programming and the designing and building of the physical hardware of electronics. +50 to Electronics, Forging, and Invention Checks.

Electronics: Security: 60. You have learned how to defend against hacking attempts by any besides true masters, and can even attempt it yourself, though only the average defender will fall to you. Medium reduction of difficulty of hacking, both offensively and defensively.

Electronics: Security: 70. You have learned how to defend against hacking attempts by any besides true masters, and can even attempt it yourself, though only the average defender will usually fall to you. Large reduction of difficulty of hacking, both offensively and defensively.

Electronics: Security: 80. You have learned how to defend against hacking attempts by any besides true masters, and can even attempt it yourself, though only the average defender will reliably to you. Major reduction of difficulty of hacking, both offensively and defensively.

Electronics: Security: 90. You have learned how to defend against hacking attempts by any besides true masters, and can even attempt it yourself, though only the average defender will always to you. Huge reduction of difficulty of hacking, both offensively and defensively.

Electronics: Security: 105. You have achieved conventional mastery of both providing and breaching digital security measures. Extreme reduction of difficulty of hacking, both offensively and defensively.

Electronics: Wiring: 75. You can identify almost any problem, aren't stumped if fixing the primary, secondary, and tertiary problems in different orders doesn't work, and you know their weak points inside and out. Moderate decrease in difficulty of Electronics Checks.

Electronics: Wiring: 80. You can identify almost any problem, aren't stumped if fixing the primary, secondary, and tertiary problems in different orders doesn't work, and you know their weak points very thoroughly. Medium decrease in difficulty of Electronics Checks.

Electronics: Wiring: 90. You can identify almost any problem, aren't stumped if fixing the primary, secondary, and tertiary problems in different orders doesn't work, and you know their weak points beyond thoroughly. Major decrease in difficulty of Electronics Checks.

Electronics: Wiring: 100. You have achieved conventional mastery of the construction, diagnosis, and repair of the physical components of electronics, from wires, to circuits, to resistors and dealing with things like heating issues. Large decrease in difficulty of Electronics Checks.

Electronics: Wiring: 110. You are slightly beyond conventional mastery of the construction, diagnosis, and repair of the physical components of electronics, from wires, to circuits, to resistors and dealing with things like heating issues. Extreme decrease in difficulty of Electronics Checks.

Electronics: Wiring: 120. You are a bit beyond conventional mastery of the construction, diagnosis, and repair of the physical components of electronics, from wires, to circuits, to resistors and dealing with things like heating issues. Huge decrease in difficulty of Electronics Checks.

Electronics: Programming: 60. You are beyond the level of the average degree holder, but you are certainly not at your teacher's level. Medium reduction in difficulty of building or destroying digital infrastructure.
Electronics: Programming: 70. You are beyond the level of the average degree holder, but you are certainly not at your teacher's level. Major reduction in difficulty of building or destroying digital infrastructure.

Electronics: Programming: 80. You are well beyond the level of the average degree holder, but you are certainly not at your teacher's level. Large reduction in difficulty of building or destroying digital infrastructure.

Electronics: Programming: 90. You are far beyond the level of the average degree holder, but you aren't at your teacher's level quite yet. Extreme reduction in difficulty of building or destroying digital infrastructure.

Electronics: Programming: 105. You have achieved conventional mastery of the manipulation of digital architecture, from minor edits to a background process, to building an entire new OS. You are roughly your tutor's equal. Huge reduction in difficulty of building or destroying digital infrastructure.

Electronics All 100 Skill. Computer Designer. Well, you still can't make computers out of a tin can and a paperclip, but with actually serviceable materials you can build a perfectly serviceable computer from scratch. +100 to Electronics Checks.

6040/6300 to Level 54.

 

[liujuin]

Can I get some sugar overload please?