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KHORNE IS A EXCELLENT MEMBER OF SOCIETY!!!-G-Khorne to Serra's Solanus when they met on DOOM WORLD!!!
An Extra Primarch
- Thread starter ilbgar123
- Start date
KHORNE IS A EXCELLENT MEMBER OF SOCIETY!!!-G-Khorne to Serra's Solanus when they met on DOOM WORLD!!!
Stellar Contact Part 1(Noncanon)(+10 to roll of your choice)
I understand some people were looking for a first-contact scenario between the Bastion and some Star Wars factions. I thought I might scratch that itch. Let me know if you see a mistake.
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Magos Explorator Killian-F150 stared down at the world below. His mechanical eyes were able to pick out the various shades of white and blue where organic ones would have seen a uniform color. The planet was mostly covered in ice, though there was a warmer area near the equator. What scans they had taken from orbit indicated glaciers that went down for several dozen kilometers, though a Magos Biologis had reported there were signs of life.
"Magos? The others are waiting for you." That was his assistant. He turned and walked away, leaving the assistant to clean up the workshop he'd been working in.
Exactly 88 seconds later, he sat down at the head of the meeting room table with the other leaders of this expedition.
To the right, General Perriman of the Bastion Security Forces was a balding albino-colored man, whose left arm had been replaced with a mechanical one that ended in a power fist. The 170-year old man had torn apart the cultist who had taken his arm with his chainsword, which hung at his left side. Killian hadn't worked with the man before, so he had no idea what to expect.
On Killian's left was Vinceo Metalus, captain of the Relentless, a Dauntless-class cruiser and flagship of this expedition. The captain was a young 67 years old, so most of his body was still flesh, only the implants to let him command the ship showing. His face held a bored expression. Killian hated his fucking guts. Metalus was here because his father had donated a minor STC to the Mechanicus in exchange for granting his son command of a ship. The man was completely naïve. Worse, he had married that trait to his arrogance. If they came under attack, Killian was already planning to remove him and take command personally of the fleet.
"General. Captain."
"Magos." They both replied.
General Perriman spoke first. "So, how long do you expect this expedition to last?"
"Perhaps three weeks to a month. We will need to set up a base on the word to take deep-planet scans for internal make-up. The first transports will depart in 30 minutes, to give the Biologis time to prepare."
"I'm surprised they weren't prepared before we even left." Commented Metalus.
"They are adding environment protection to the servitors." Killian didn't know why he bothered explaining to Metalus.
"Regardless, I assume construction of the void base will begin concurrently?" Perriman asked.
"Tomorrow. We need to finish scanning the rest of the system, and most of our efforts are focused on the Warp anomaly that we traveled through."
"Still, you'd think Lady Salnus would study it herself if it mattered that much."
"It is not our place to question her, captain. Besides, she is concerned with more pressing issues." Said a voice that had just entered the room, one that made all three of them more cautious."
"The meeting started a few minutes ago, eldar."
Said alien inclined his head slightly. "I cannot simply view the Warp the same way you wake up after sleeping. There are protections on my mind I must re-engage before moving in the material world again." Killian noted in the back of his mind that it wasn't an apology, just an explanation in the same tone as an exasperated teacher.
"Regardless, I assume you have a report on it?" he asked.
"Indeed. Firstly, I will require a larger space."
"Your quarters are not enough? I thought your species lived in rather sparse accommodations." Metalus asked.
"It is not for my own living, but so that I can conduct a Ritual of Perception. For whatever reason, the Sea of Souls is being filtered incredibly, to the point that I can barely make out its greatest fluctuations."
"The Navigators have mentioned their inability to perceive the Warp here." Metalus added.
Killian nodded. "Very well. The Mechanicus area has several rooms we can empty. How large an room do you require?"
"In your measurements…it must be at least 150 meters in every dimension. I do not wish to risk the backlash should an error be made in drawing the appropriate runes."
"Acceptable. Can you begin in seven hours?"
"Yes."
"Very well. I will send a messenger when we are ready for you." Left unsaid was that there would be several servitors and cameras watching over the alien and his apprentice. Killian didn't trust the eldar psyker as much as Lady Salnus did, but he considered it a reasonable precaution considering he wasn't a psyker himself, let alone a psyker easily on par with the Eldar themselves such as the Bastion's leader.
Without anything else, the alien turned and left, no doubt thinking himself too good to be here.
The meeting was over shortly thereafter, with more confirmation about their timetable here.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Captain Bollias of the Righteous Valkyrie sat in his captain's chair. His mind's connection to the ship's cogitators let him feel the condition of his ship in real-time. Not for the first time, he thanked Lady Salnus for her decision to create new ships for the Bastion Navy to use.
The Pioneer-class cruiser was circling around the world to fulfill their orders to scan the other side of the system. It had taken them three hours to do so, the engines moving them at a blistering speed. The older ships he was used to would have taken more than half a day to do so.
The whole ship felt far better in his mind. Its whole design spoke of efficiency, with power generators placed to maximize coverage while also provide redundant power in the event of failure. Three powerful augur banks were placed on the front, middle, and rear of the ship. He could see through the ship's crew through the cameras. Tech-priests checked the inventory of parts on board, while the navigators were currently lounging in their quarters below the ship's bridge.
"Add more power to the engines, I want to scan those asteroids there before the day is done." He commanded. An affirmative response came from the engine bay, and he could feel the ship slowly accelerate.
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"Look at the size of that thing!"
"Shut up, Voss! Go make sure the engines are ready to turn us around as soon as possible!" Brith Spince, captain of the Corellian Corvette Red Rancor, yelled at her first mate.
"On it, captain!"
Spince swore, not for the first time, at her commanders. The Rebel high command had ordered Corvettes like her's to search the Outer Rim for an isolated system to reestablish their base after the Yavin IV battle.
For the last several months, the crew of the Rancor had jumped from system to system, trying to find a planet that was well away from the known hyperspace lanes. They'd been living in the cramped quarters the entire time, not even stepping off ship when refueling.
Hoth had been a coincidence. They'd bought a more detailed star map recently, and it mentioned Hoth's exact location. From the description, it had sounded perfect. So, two hours later, they'd dropped out of hyperspace near a few orbiting asteroids.
That was when everything went wrong.
Firstly, the system wasn't empty.
Second, there was a MASSIVE ship in the system. Data suggested it was nearly six kilometers in length, which was more than three time as long as a Star Destroyer!
Third, it was heading straight towards the field, though at a very slow pace.
What was curious, however, was the shape. It didn't have the Star Destroyer profile, which was the Empire's calling design. Nor did it carry the Imperial Crest adorned on the bridge.
So, who exactly was building dreadnoughts that large? Where had the material and money for such a ship even come from?
Then, the ship shook hard. Spince was nearly thrown off her seat. She grabbed her comm-link and screamed into it. "What the hell was that?!"
"No idea, boss! We think it might be some kind of high-powered scan!"
"All power to the engines! We need to get out of here!"
11 seconds was a long time. In that time, the mysterious dreadnought reached the edge of the smallest asteroid.
In that time, the Rancor also went full power, turned around, and escaped to hyperspace.
Spince decided to report this to her leaders. No doubt their escape had triggered all sorts of sensors, but she'd deal with that later.
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"My lord! The augurs picked up a sudden emission of energy that wasn't there before in those asteroids!"
"What readings did you get?" Bollias asked.
"A fleeting one, my lord, but a somewhat accurate one. Approximately two minutes ago, something near those asteroids gave off a small burst of energy, before giving off a larger one, then disappearing."
"Disappearing? Did they engage in a Warp jump? I thought the Navigators were having trouble seeing here."
"No Warp jump, my lord. We don't know what they did, but we do have their overall profile."
Bollias looked the data streaming into his mind. "Only 150 meters? That's no larger than two starfighters, what kind of ship is this?"
"Sorry, my lord, but we don't know anymore."
"Damn. If someone reported our presence here, we could have just endangered the fleet. Bring us back to the other side, we need to regroup. And tell the astropaths to send a message to the Relentless, they need to know about this.
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"You're sure of this data?" Killian asked grumpily (as grumpily as a heavily modified cyborg could). He'd been taken from managing the outpost construction.
"Only to the extent the Mechanicus installed the augurs correctly. Captain Bollias is a family friend, he wouldn't have come back with this unless he thought it was real." Metalus retorted.
Killian was tempted to stab the fucker in the face for his insult but decided against it. For now. "Fine. We have three Pioneers, yes? Have them spread out and send out starfighter patrols."
"Already done. General, you should prepare your men for possible combat."
"They've been training on stand-by this whole time. They'll beat anyone who comes to attack us."
"Good. I will instruct the tech-priests to fine-tune a few augurs based on this data. We may be able to find any such scouts faster that way."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Once again, Brith Spince, captain of the Red Rancor, cursed at herself for the decision to "stick it to the Empire" and join the Rebellion.
Once she had reported back to Rebel high command for further orders on this new dreadnought over Hoth, some idiot had the brilliant idea of suggesting diplomacy. Diplomacy! Who the hell thought of negotiating with whoever had build a warship that large?
Oh, but they don't have an Imperial identifier! That must mean they're not Imperials! It's definitely not possible to have a secret testing facility. And if it's not the Imperials, they'll definitely like people snooping around their secret facilities/testing ground!
Spince told her brain to shut up, before realizing they were close to the Hoth.
"Drop us out of hyperspace." She commanded. The lines surrounding them dropped away, becoming points of light indicating stars far away.
Here they were, two weeks after their escape, looking to negotiate with whoever commanded those ships.
The scans they had found the dreadnought. Or rather, the nearest one, because the computers suggested there were two six-kilometer dreadnoughts orbiting the planet.
She gulped, before ordering, "Move us towards that dreadnought."
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"Captain! We've got another energy reading! It matches the reading from before! It's also heading towards us!"
"Battlestations, now! Activate the void shields! Have the fighters patrol at four kilometers, I don't want anything to get through!"
He heard several affirmations while feeling the vast amounts of energy flow into the void shield generators and weapon batteries.
What was that ship doing here now?
"And send a message to the Relentless about this."
"Yes, sir!"
"Captain, we have an incoming message! It looks like its coming from the energy source!"
"What? What does it say?"
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"No response yet, captain," Voss said. "We'll let you know once we hear anything."
Spince wondered if they were planning on responding at all, or the signal was just being tracked down to zero in on them with those massive guns she could now see dotting the surface. She wondered what kind of species even decided they needed a ship with guns that large.
"Captain, we have a response!"
Voss played it over the speakers. Spince winced at the high-pitched tone in the background as the words came through.
"Attention, unidentified object. This is the Righteous Valkyrie. Identify yourself or be destroyed. Attention, unidentified object. This is the Righteous Valkyrie-"
"Prepare to send on the same frequency." When Voss waved her on, she said. "Righteous Valkyrie, this is the Red Rancor. We come in peace. We are here to open relations between your group and ours."
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"Red Rancor? Who names a vessel that small?" Bollias asked.
"Shall we respond, sir?"
"Yes. Send the following message: Red Rancor, follow the designated path and land in the hangar bay. Failure to comply will result in termination."
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"Those are our escorts? They're half our own size!" Voss said. "Not to mention they're flying them like fighters."
"We'll find out more once we meet them, I guess," Spince commented. "Get ready, you and I are meeting them together."
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Captain Bollias stood at attention, along with a fifth of the Bastion soldiers on board, as that was all that would fit in the hangar, waiting for the oddly shaped vessel to open up and reveal its inhabitants. He had strict orders to bring them back to the Relentless as soon as possible.
While he waited, he wondered at the design. The engines were large, relative to the size of the ship. Was it reflective of some greater design philosophy that emphasized speed, or merely created as a scout and diplomatic vessel?
An opening appeared on the side, and he stood up straighter, watching a ladder mechanically descend onto the floor.
Two humans stepped out. One was a black-haired woman wearing a white uniform that had a semi-circle that ended upwards in two curved prongs, with one in the middle that split into two small rectangles and a diamond placed between them, all in red. Her companion wore a light brown shirt tucked into his black pants.
Bollias stepped forward as they descended. "Greetings in the name of Lady Salnus. I am Captain Bollias, commander of the Righteous Valkyrie."
The woman spoke first. "I'm Brith Spince, captain of the Red Rancor. This is Perrin Voss, my first mate. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Indeed. Please follow me, my superiors wish to speak to you."
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"Interesting group, aren't they, captain?" Voss commented. They were standing in the Righteous Valkyrie's bridge, looking through an observation window. From here, they could see along the massive dreadnought's length. Massive guns dotted the length on each side, with a massive cannon built along the spine.
They ignored the disturbing image of Bollias in the captain's chair having aides connect thick wires to his head, or the red-robed droids looking over weird displays and computers.
Spince was looking at one such droid, who moved with far more grace than most did. It mechanical tendrils reached forward to connect with the machine, whose purpose she couldn't make out. The screen looked like a map of some sort.
"Boss! Look at that!" Spince turned back around to look at whatever Voss was excited about.
Only to vaguely feel her jaw drop as she looked above the planet.
There, orbiting Hoth, was a ship even larger than the Valkryie. It had an odd shape, like a rectangular prism with rounded edges. The sunlight revealed that it was colored black and blue.
"Why would they need ships that big, boss?"
"Maybe they're from outside the known galaxy? They might need bigger engines to navigate."
As they got closer, Spince could make out more of the bigger ship. She estimated it was half again as long as the Valkyrie. Massive guns, much like the ones on this ship, dotted the surface in an even greater number, while the front was glowed blue. In fact, the front was open, and an air shield protected the atmosphere inside, as far as she could tell. The engines were massive and jutted out behind the ship much like her Corvette's would.
"Excuse me. Please follow me to your transport." They turned to see another crew member, whom they followed towards an internal transport cart that brought them to a hangar on the other side of the ship from where the Rancor was parked.
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Spince and Voss were courteously led into another cart, which quickly brought them from the front-end hangar on the new ship to its bridge. On the way, Spince saw yet another thing that shocked her.
A Star Destroyer had something like 30,000 enlisted people onboard, which included everyone from the captain down to the janitors.
She'd seen more people than that in the first 5 minutes of this journey.
Thousands of men and women worked on some task on the floor below them. Some were cleaning the ship by hand, others were moving heavy equipment by driving grav-carts, and others were even watching over children.
What kind of people were they about to deal with, who had literal families living onboard the ship to clean and move things around? Why didn't they just have those droids do this?
The door to the meeting room was huge, easily taller than a literal Rancor, and encased in literal stonework. It was heavily decorated, with various symbols etched into it. Some were similar to those she had seen on the uniforms of the crew, others that she'd noticed on the red-robed droids.
Spince took all this in stride, as she wasn't sure how much more she could take if she reacted to everything.
Inside, a large wooden table sat in the middle of the room, with more than 20 seats on both sides. On the left side were three people, two humans and one of those droids.
"Ahh, welcome. Please, sit."
As Spince sat, she looked around. The walls were covered in more iconography, which she still couldn't make heads or tails of. Were these people religious fanatics, or did they desire to put their symbols everywhere?
"Welcome to the Relentless." The droid said. "I am Magos Explorator Killian F-150." It gestured to the man on its right, who had white hair, white skin, and brown eyes. He also had holes in him much like Captain Bollias. "This is Captain Metalus, who is in charge of the Relentless." It then waved a hand at the man to its left. "This is General Perriman of the Bastion Security Forces." The balding, scarred albino man nodded at them, his red eyes focused on them intensely. Spince noted his mechanical arm.
"My name is Brith Spince. I'm the captain of the Red Rancor, and here to open diplomatic relations between our groups. This is my first mate Perrin Voss. It's a pleasure to meet you."
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I'll try to do part 2 at some point, but finals are next week.
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Magos Explorator Killian-F150 stared down at the world below. His mechanical eyes were able to pick out the various shades of white and blue where organic ones would have seen a uniform color. The planet was mostly covered in ice, though there was a warmer area near the equator. What scans they had taken from orbit indicated glaciers that went down for several dozen kilometers, though a Magos Biologis had reported there were signs of life.
"Magos? The others are waiting for you." That was his assistant. He turned and walked away, leaving the assistant to clean up the workshop he'd been working in.
Exactly 88 seconds later, he sat down at the head of the meeting room table with the other leaders of this expedition.
To the right, General Perriman of the Bastion Security Forces was a balding albino-colored man, whose left arm had been replaced with a mechanical one that ended in a power fist. The 170-year old man had torn apart the cultist who had taken his arm with his chainsword, which hung at his left side. Killian hadn't worked with the man before, so he had no idea what to expect.
On Killian's left was Vinceo Metalus, captain of the Relentless, a Dauntless-class cruiser and flagship of this expedition. The captain was a young 67 years old, so most of his body was still flesh, only the implants to let him command the ship showing. His face held a bored expression. Killian hated his fucking guts. Metalus was here because his father had donated a minor STC to the Mechanicus in exchange for granting his son command of a ship. The man was completely naïve. Worse, he had married that trait to his arrogance. If they came under attack, Killian was already planning to remove him and take command personally of the fleet.
"General. Captain."
"Magos." They both replied.
General Perriman spoke first. "So, how long do you expect this expedition to last?"
"Perhaps three weeks to a month. We will need to set up a base on the word to take deep-planet scans for internal make-up. The first transports will depart in 30 minutes, to give the Biologis time to prepare."
"I'm surprised they weren't prepared before we even left." Commented Metalus.
"They are adding environment protection to the servitors." Killian didn't know why he bothered explaining to Metalus.
"Regardless, I assume construction of the void base will begin concurrently?" Perriman asked.
"Tomorrow. We need to finish scanning the rest of the system, and most of our efforts are focused on the Warp anomaly that we traveled through."
"Still, you'd think Lady Salnus would study it herself if it mattered that much."
"It is not our place to question her, captain. Besides, she is concerned with more pressing issues." Said a voice that had just entered the room, one that made all three of them more cautious."
"The meeting started a few minutes ago, eldar."
Said alien inclined his head slightly. "I cannot simply view the Warp the same way you wake up after sleeping. There are protections on my mind I must re-engage before moving in the material world again." Killian noted in the back of his mind that it wasn't an apology, just an explanation in the same tone as an exasperated teacher.
"Regardless, I assume you have a report on it?" he asked.
"Indeed. Firstly, I will require a larger space."
"Your quarters are not enough? I thought your species lived in rather sparse accommodations." Metalus asked.
"It is not for my own living, but so that I can conduct a Ritual of Perception. For whatever reason, the Sea of Souls is being filtered incredibly, to the point that I can barely make out its greatest fluctuations."
"The Navigators have mentioned their inability to perceive the Warp here." Metalus added.
Killian nodded. "Very well. The Mechanicus area has several rooms we can empty. How large an room do you require?"
"In your measurements…it must be at least 150 meters in every dimension. I do not wish to risk the backlash should an error be made in drawing the appropriate runes."
"Acceptable. Can you begin in seven hours?"
"Yes."
"Very well. I will send a messenger when we are ready for you." Left unsaid was that there would be several servitors and cameras watching over the alien and his apprentice. Killian didn't trust the eldar psyker as much as Lady Salnus did, but he considered it a reasonable precaution considering he wasn't a psyker himself, let alone a psyker easily on par with the Eldar themselves such as the Bastion's leader.
Without anything else, the alien turned and left, no doubt thinking himself too good to be here.
The meeting was over shortly thereafter, with more confirmation about their timetable here.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Captain Bollias of the Righteous Valkyrie sat in his captain's chair. His mind's connection to the ship's cogitators let him feel the condition of his ship in real-time. Not for the first time, he thanked Lady Salnus for her decision to create new ships for the Bastion Navy to use.
The Pioneer-class cruiser was circling around the world to fulfill their orders to scan the other side of the system. It had taken them three hours to do so, the engines moving them at a blistering speed. The older ships he was used to would have taken more than half a day to do so.
The whole ship felt far better in his mind. Its whole design spoke of efficiency, with power generators placed to maximize coverage while also provide redundant power in the event of failure. Three powerful augur banks were placed on the front, middle, and rear of the ship. He could see through the ship's crew through the cameras. Tech-priests checked the inventory of parts on board, while the navigators were currently lounging in their quarters below the ship's bridge.
"Add more power to the engines, I want to scan those asteroids there before the day is done." He commanded. An affirmative response came from the engine bay, and he could feel the ship slowly accelerate.
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"Look at the size of that thing!"
"Shut up, Voss! Go make sure the engines are ready to turn us around as soon as possible!" Brith Spince, captain of the Corellian Corvette Red Rancor, yelled at her first mate.
"On it, captain!"
Spince swore, not for the first time, at her commanders. The Rebel high command had ordered Corvettes like her's to search the Outer Rim for an isolated system to reestablish their base after the Yavin IV battle.
For the last several months, the crew of the Rancor had jumped from system to system, trying to find a planet that was well away from the known hyperspace lanes. They'd been living in the cramped quarters the entire time, not even stepping off ship when refueling.
Hoth had been a coincidence. They'd bought a more detailed star map recently, and it mentioned Hoth's exact location. From the description, it had sounded perfect. So, two hours later, they'd dropped out of hyperspace near a few orbiting asteroids.
That was when everything went wrong.
Firstly, the system wasn't empty.
Second, there was a MASSIVE ship in the system. Data suggested it was nearly six kilometers in length, which was more than three time as long as a Star Destroyer!
Third, it was heading straight towards the field, though at a very slow pace.
What was curious, however, was the shape. It didn't have the Star Destroyer profile, which was the Empire's calling design. Nor did it carry the Imperial Crest adorned on the bridge.
So, who exactly was building dreadnoughts that large? Where had the material and money for such a ship even come from?
Then, the ship shook hard. Spince was nearly thrown off her seat. She grabbed her comm-link and screamed into it. "What the hell was that?!"
"No idea, boss! We think it might be some kind of high-powered scan!"
"All power to the engines! We need to get out of here!"
11 seconds was a long time. In that time, the mysterious dreadnought reached the edge of the smallest asteroid.
In that time, the Rancor also went full power, turned around, and escaped to hyperspace.
Spince decided to report this to her leaders. No doubt their escape had triggered all sorts of sensors, but she'd deal with that later.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"My lord! The augurs picked up a sudden emission of energy that wasn't there before in those asteroids!"
"What readings did you get?" Bollias asked.
"A fleeting one, my lord, but a somewhat accurate one. Approximately two minutes ago, something near those asteroids gave off a small burst of energy, before giving off a larger one, then disappearing."
"Disappearing? Did they engage in a Warp jump? I thought the Navigators were having trouble seeing here."
"No Warp jump, my lord. We don't know what they did, but we do have their overall profile."
Bollias looked the data streaming into his mind. "Only 150 meters? That's no larger than two starfighters, what kind of ship is this?"
"Sorry, my lord, but we don't know anymore."
"Damn. If someone reported our presence here, we could have just endangered the fleet. Bring us back to the other side, we need to regroup. And tell the astropaths to send a message to the Relentless, they need to know about this.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"You're sure of this data?" Killian asked grumpily (as grumpily as a heavily modified cyborg could). He'd been taken from managing the outpost construction.
"Only to the extent the Mechanicus installed the augurs correctly. Captain Bollias is a family friend, he wouldn't have come back with this unless he thought it was real." Metalus retorted.
Killian was tempted to stab the fucker in the face for his insult but decided against it. For now. "Fine. We have three Pioneers, yes? Have them spread out and send out starfighter patrols."
"Already done. General, you should prepare your men for possible combat."
"They've been training on stand-by this whole time. They'll beat anyone who comes to attack us."
"Good. I will instruct the tech-priests to fine-tune a few augurs based on this data. We may be able to find any such scouts faster that way."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Once again, Brith Spince, captain of the Red Rancor, cursed at herself for the decision to "stick it to the Empire" and join the Rebellion.
Once she had reported back to Rebel high command for further orders on this new dreadnought over Hoth, some idiot had the brilliant idea of suggesting diplomacy. Diplomacy! Who the hell thought of negotiating with whoever had build a warship that large?
Oh, but they don't have an Imperial identifier! That must mean they're not Imperials! It's definitely not possible to have a secret testing facility. And if it's not the Imperials, they'll definitely like people snooping around their secret facilities/testing ground!
Spince told her brain to shut up, before realizing they were close to the Hoth.
"Drop us out of hyperspace." She commanded. The lines surrounding them dropped away, becoming points of light indicating stars far away.
Here they were, two weeks after their escape, looking to negotiate with whoever commanded those ships.
The scans they had found the dreadnought. Or rather, the nearest one, because the computers suggested there were two six-kilometer dreadnoughts orbiting the planet.
She gulped, before ordering, "Move us towards that dreadnought."
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"Captain! We've got another energy reading! It matches the reading from before! It's also heading towards us!"
"Battlestations, now! Activate the void shields! Have the fighters patrol at four kilometers, I don't want anything to get through!"
He heard several affirmations while feeling the vast amounts of energy flow into the void shield generators and weapon batteries.
What was that ship doing here now?
"And send a message to the Relentless about this."
"Yes, sir!"
"Captain, we have an incoming message! It looks like its coming from the energy source!"
"What? What does it say?"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"No response yet, captain," Voss said. "We'll let you know once we hear anything."
Spince wondered if they were planning on responding at all, or the signal was just being tracked down to zero in on them with those massive guns she could now see dotting the surface. She wondered what kind of species even decided they needed a ship with guns that large.
"Captain, we have a response!"
Voss played it over the speakers. Spince winced at the high-pitched tone in the background as the words came through.
"Attention, unidentified object. This is the Righteous Valkyrie. Identify yourself or be destroyed. Attention, unidentified object. This is the Righteous Valkyrie-"
"Prepare to send on the same frequency." When Voss waved her on, she said. "Righteous Valkyrie, this is the Red Rancor. We come in peace. We are here to open relations between your group and ours."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Red Rancor? Who names a vessel that small?" Bollias asked.
"Shall we respond, sir?"
"Yes. Send the following message: Red Rancor, follow the designated path and land in the hangar bay. Failure to comply will result in termination."
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"Those are our escorts? They're half our own size!" Voss said. "Not to mention they're flying them like fighters."
"We'll find out more once we meet them, I guess," Spince commented. "Get ready, you and I are meeting them together."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Captain Bollias stood at attention, along with a fifth of the Bastion soldiers on board, as that was all that would fit in the hangar, waiting for the oddly shaped vessel to open up and reveal its inhabitants. He had strict orders to bring them back to the Relentless as soon as possible.
While he waited, he wondered at the design. The engines were large, relative to the size of the ship. Was it reflective of some greater design philosophy that emphasized speed, or merely created as a scout and diplomatic vessel?
An opening appeared on the side, and he stood up straighter, watching a ladder mechanically descend onto the floor.
Two humans stepped out. One was a black-haired woman wearing a white uniform that had a semi-circle that ended upwards in two curved prongs, with one in the middle that split into two small rectangles and a diamond placed between them, all in red. Her companion wore a light brown shirt tucked into his black pants.
Bollias stepped forward as they descended. "Greetings in the name of Lady Salnus. I am Captain Bollias, commander of the Righteous Valkyrie."
The woman spoke first. "I'm Brith Spince, captain of the Red Rancor. This is Perrin Voss, my first mate. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Indeed. Please follow me, my superiors wish to speak to you."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Interesting group, aren't they, captain?" Voss commented. They were standing in the Righteous Valkyrie's bridge, looking through an observation window. From here, they could see along the massive dreadnought's length. Massive guns dotted the length on each side, with a massive cannon built along the spine.
They ignored the disturbing image of Bollias in the captain's chair having aides connect thick wires to his head, or the red-robed droids looking over weird displays and computers.
Spince was looking at one such droid, who moved with far more grace than most did. It mechanical tendrils reached forward to connect with the machine, whose purpose she couldn't make out. The screen looked like a map of some sort.
"Boss! Look at that!" Spince turned back around to look at whatever Voss was excited about.
Only to vaguely feel her jaw drop as she looked above the planet.
There, orbiting Hoth, was a ship even larger than the Valkryie. It had an odd shape, like a rectangular prism with rounded edges. The sunlight revealed that it was colored black and blue.
"Why would they need ships that big, boss?"
"Maybe they're from outside the known galaxy? They might need bigger engines to navigate."
As they got closer, Spince could make out more of the bigger ship. She estimated it was half again as long as the Valkyrie. Massive guns, much like the ones on this ship, dotted the surface in an even greater number, while the front was glowed blue. In fact, the front was open, and an air shield protected the atmosphere inside, as far as she could tell. The engines were massive and jutted out behind the ship much like her Corvette's would.
"Excuse me. Please follow me to your transport." They turned to see another crew member, whom they followed towards an internal transport cart that brought them to a hangar on the other side of the ship from where the Rancor was parked.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Spince and Voss were courteously led into another cart, which quickly brought them from the front-end hangar on the new ship to its bridge. On the way, Spince saw yet another thing that shocked her.
A Star Destroyer had something like 30,000 enlisted people onboard, which included everyone from the captain down to the janitors.
She'd seen more people than that in the first 5 minutes of this journey.
Thousands of men and women worked on some task on the floor below them. Some were cleaning the ship by hand, others were moving heavy equipment by driving grav-carts, and others were even watching over children.
What kind of people were they about to deal with, who had literal families living onboard the ship to clean and move things around? Why didn't they just have those droids do this?
The door to the meeting room was huge, easily taller than a literal Rancor, and encased in literal stonework. It was heavily decorated, with various symbols etched into it. Some were similar to those she had seen on the uniforms of the crew, others that she'd noticed on the red-robed droids.
Spince took all this in stride, as she wasn't sure how much more she could take if she reacted to everything.
Inside, a large wooden table sat in the middle of the room, with more than 20 seats on both sides. On the left side were three people, two humans and one of those droids.
"Ahh, welcome. Please, sit."
As Spince sat, she looked around. The walls were covered in more iconography, which she still couldn't make heads or tails of. Were these people religious fanatics, or did they desire to put their symbols everywhere?
"Welcome to the Relentless." The droid said. "I am Magos Explorator Killian F-150." It gestured to the man on its right, who had white hair, white skin, and brown eyes. He also had holes in him much like Captain Bollias. "This is Captain Metalus, who is in charge of the Relentless." It then waved a hand at the man to its left. "This is General Perriman of the Bastion Security Forces." The balding, scarred albino man nodded at them, his red eyes focused on them intensely. Spince noted his mechanical arm.
"My name is Brith Spince. I'm the captain of the Red Rancor, and here to open diplomatic relations between our groups. This is my first mate Perrin Voss. It's a pleasure to meet you."
------------------------
I'll try to do part 2 at some point, but finals are next week.
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- Location
- LEO
I don't like this. We aren't technobarbarians who don't understand technology. I was thinking our ships are like scaled up haloverse usnc ships, with the same amount of tech, at least. If we are still technobarbarians, then I want all our votes going to more tech.
Moving guns by hand is such an imperium thing to do. That dosent seem like something a "low tier exotic culture" would be doing. We build a fucking stellar bellows, act like it. We do not yet
live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable.
Going to be writing a Corvette ship design quest
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- Location
- Anchorage, Alaska
consider that we still have allied ships, as well as probably using older vessels as exploratory ships, this makes sense, not to mention at this point we probably haven't installed all the auto-loaders as some points, not to mention I thought the entirety of the empire and such had Anti-Droid idealology going on as well as anti-automation largely due to the CIS during the clone wars. Not to mention during said wars they manned the guns and used allot of "Technobarbarian" techniques like hand-loading and manning the guns needed to fire their side barriers and such.
so starwars has no reason for excuses for the technobarbarin way of fighting in space.
- Location
- LEO
I want to see a team of clones dragging the turret of a venator into position lol.
The explanation of it being an old beat up ship hit me right after I hit post lol. Mabye have the techpriest talk to himself about how this is an ageing ship, not like the newer ships off fighting the orkish threat. It's probably going to be scrapped and replaced with a newer marvel of technology once there is some spare replicator time in a shipyard. He could highlight some aches and pains the ship is going through, and it's approaching retirement. It's last exploration mission before she is laid to rest.
It is a very well written omake tho. I like the character of spince. Really felt like I knew them. I have trouble with writing characters, and get wrapped up I'm technology. Acerak you do good work. It really feels like 40k meets star wars. However not 30k bastion.
It just feels like that line about the turret is trying to show the difference between the bastion and the starwars galaxy. However, manually orientated turrets are not a feature of the bastion. They are an ageing feature being moved out and replaced with new goodies. Will it cause a misunderstanding between the bastion and star wars?
"These guys don't even know how to make motors lol"
The explanation of it being an old beat up ship hit me right after I hit post lol. Mabye have the techpriest talk to himself about how this is an ageing ship, not like the newer ships off fighting the orkish threat. It's probably going to be scrapped and replaced with a newer marvel of technology once there is some spare replicator time in a shipyard. He could highlight some aches and pains the ship is going through, and it's approaching retirement. It's last exploration mission before she is laid to rest.
It is a very well written omake tho. I like the character of spince. Really felt like I knew them. I have trouble with writing characters, and get wrapped up I'm technology. Acerak you do good work. It really feels like 40k meets star wars. However not 30k bastion.
It just feels like that line about the turret is trying to show the difference between the bastion and the starwars galaxy. However, manually orientated turrets are not a feature of the bastion. They are an ageing feature being moved out and replaced with new goodies. Will it cause a misunderstanding between the bastion and star wars?
"These guys don't even know how to make motors lol"
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- Location
- Anchorage, Alaska
watch the beginning of episode 3...the clones ARE manning the gun turrets of a venerator, as well as the droids (go figure...star wars...they be dumber then Warhammer at times! And warhammers excuse is they are facing tech regression as well as demonic threats that are literally REAL)
and yeah I can see the mechanicus getting "agitated" (read: Annoyed to Pissed off) about them mocking the machine spirits of the aging ship.
<Did the ship's spirit not do its service to the machine god?!? Did it not serve in the fullest capacity that its blessed cogs and oiled weapons to unleash its fury upon the enemies of mankind and the desecrators of the wheel of knowledge?
Will it not be atomically torn down and rebuilt In the shipyards? Renewed and reborn into a far greater form to sing its song of war in the void alongside its brethren in the service of mankind and the machine god!?!
These fools dare claim to be better, their machine spirits are...pitiful...weaker...the machines defenses against warp intrusion faulty at best, and soulless at worst.
Not like the Bastion, praise the Omnissiah, for the machines are begin given a Soul, their Blood the blessed Oils, their filters filled with Sacred Incense, and the march of Knowledge is progressed.
Glory to humanity! Glory to the machine god! May the Bastion ever stand righteous against their foes!>
(that turned into propaganda fast...seriously I did not expect to write that!)
Nicholas Brooks
Redeemer and Destroyer
- Location
- United States
Anyone else think that the Bastion will turn into a benevolent Theocratic Constitutional Monarchy just by Serras being that good? She would go on vacation with her brothers for a couple months on some out-of-the-way paradise world and come back to find the Church of Our Lady Serras and the Aeldari Order of the God-Princess have become State-sponsored religions while they eagerly await the return of their democratically-elected Glorious Leader for Eternity.
- Location
- LEO
Yes, they are using joysticks, aiming, calculating double-checking and then firing the gun. They are not yanking on ropes to in large Le Mis style chain gangs. 1750s vs 1950s.
Just the bastion? I'm trying to write a Constitution for the whole emperium. I'm writing an omake where we challenge the emperor to a game of Paradox-Billiards-Vostroyan-Roulette-Fourth Dimensioal-Hypercube-Chess-Strip Poker, and when big E looses he has to agree to a Constitution. Maybe ask a professional yugioh nerd to design Serras a deck.
It's hard to write a multispecies constitutional outside of the very basics. Please feel free to dabble.
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Nicholas Brooks
Redeemer and Destroyer
- Location
- United States
What about the Theocratic part? The Imperium could have a state religion of all the Primarchs, with the Emperor being revered as the Creator-God, but with Serras as the technical "Head" of the pantheon. Sort of like how Zeus was the Chief Deity for the Greeks even though Chronos was his Creator.
- Location
- LEO
My first thought is that it didn't turn out so well for the Greeks lol. On the other hoof, we are going to need some divine firepower to stand up to chaos. I'm torn. Was this what the emperor felt? We would need to be social linked as hell to everyone to even consider it.
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- Location
- Here & There
One problem Emperor would not like that. Like really would not like that. And Serras herself does not like being worshipped.
Nicholas Brooks
Redeemer and Destroyer
- Location
- United States
The Emperor misunderstood Chaos, as he believed that emotion alone is insufficient to maintain their presence. If Lorgar were aware of the Ruinous Powers and told the Emperor "This will be out greatest defense and weapon against the Gods," then he may very well have been more lenient. Besides, it's pretty much an inevitability, especially since Serras is the borderline Messiah of the Aeldari already.
Nicholas Brooks
Redeemer and Destroyer
- Location
- United States
Yeah, that's why it would likely happen when they are busy with Crusading or something. They may not personally want that, but it'll probably still happen. The Imperial Cult existed before Lorgar's book, did it not?
- Location
- LEO
Ya, but how do we unfuck the warp without removing all the good aspects of chaos? [Thonking]
Is atheism a core part of big E? Will he change his mind if he decides it will secure the best future for humans? Because nonbelief won't work, and I'm pretty sure the eldar already know that. Maybe create a god or gods from scratch to protect our people, like the old ones did for the eldar.
Don't go behind thier backs lol. We need to have a family chat before this happens.
- Location
- Here & There
Not trying to start infighting between us and the Emperor for one. He is a hardcore militant atheist with militant being literal considering he wiped out religions on Earth before proceeding to do that as much as possible in the Great Crusade.
In minor cults, Lorgar's book made all the beliefs unified in one bible and gave it the unity to spread like a wildfire.
Nicholas Brooks
Redeemer and Destroyer
- Location
- United States
Even Serras would be surprised. I don't mean that she would plan or even want to be worshipped, but it would happen anyway, because her people aren't just going to look at a benevolent, charismatic, beautiful, genius sorceress and go "Hey, she said she's not a God, guess that's totally true in spite of her continuously displaying the qualities of an incredibly powerful, nearly perfect being."
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- Location
- Here & There
Just saying it was a pretty high bar just to make sure he didn't kill Hydaelyn on the spot even with our careful rhetoric and avoiding the main reasons why he distrusts gods. Anything even more like a state religion most likely would be a tad harder to do, like maybe add a few more 0's or the Emperor just flat out saying "no."
- Location
- UK
It might be possible for us to establish a kind of state religion that doesn't explicitly say that we are gods. Instead, it might be claimed that we are the protectors of mankind, and the embodiment of human skill and virtue.
People would still believe in us, but with the Primarchs as figures to inspire them, and as examples for them to follow. The Emperor would be seen as the protector of mankind, with his near divinity something to strive for as mankind continues its evolution.
There would be prayer and worship, but it would be reconciled with the Emperor's secular and rationalistic Imperial Truth to a large degree. Rather than being a true religion as such, it would be a kind of state philosophy, something like the different strands of 'religious' secular humanism that exist today.
Edit: As an example, the 19th Century French Philosopher Auguste Comte founded the 'Religion of Humanity', which saw humanity as being alone in a cold and indifferent world, enlightened by science and reason.
Religion of Humanity - Wikipedia
People would still believe in us, but with the Primarchs as figures to inspire them, and as examples for them to follow. The Emperor would be seen as the protector of mankind, with his near divinity something to strive for as mankind continues its evolution.
There would be prayer and worship, but it would be reconciled with the Emperor's secular and rationalistic Imperial Truth to a large degree. Rather than being a true religion as such, it would be a kind of state philosophy, something like the different strands of 'religious' secular humanism that exist today.
Edit: As an example, the 19th Century French Philosopher Auguste Comte founded the 'Religion of Humanity', which saw humanity as being alone in a cold and indifferent world, enlightened by science and reason.
Religion of Humanity - Wikipedia
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It is a new ship, to be clear. I specifically chose cruisers from the cruiser omake to highlight the use of new ships.
To explain why they use people:
1. We have not, as far as I am aware, done any autoloader work. We've done weapons, ship designs, and possibly engines (I don't recall about that last one). So while we may have stable plasma weapons, higher powered lasers, longer-ranged macrocannons, and efficient ship design to help in use/maintenance, we don't have better technology to mount, move, or reload ship-scale weapons.
2. The Mechanicum remember well the horrors of the Abominable Intelligence. They don't want the ship's machine spirit to decide to kill the crew/passengers and also have the weapons to do it. No, the less that depends on the spirit, the better chances the Mechanicum have to bring it under control if it rebels.
And to those who would point to the Androids as a counter-proof, think about what happened there. We critted, and all it did was ensure they didn't kill them immediately. The Mechanicum may have grudgingly accepted their existence, but I'm guessing it's a highly controversial topic since they possess souls. Perhaps, with more time, we can make it consensus, but for now, but we're a long way from being allowed to automate that much of a ship. Perhaps we could eventually design machine spirits for ships, but we'd have to do a lot of work, not only in convincing the Mechanicum, but ensuring the spirit is resistant to being corrupted.
That said, there are some improvements in these ships: improved augurs(sensors), better weapons, and better ship design (and possibly engines and batteries, if I remember correctly). In a comparison to 40k cruisers, these are undoubtedly better. But we're a long way, technologically and culturally, from automating these ships.
Also, people are necessary for moving the guns inside the ship, but I imagine the outside ones have some motorized movement. Just not a way to reload or repair.
@ilbgar123 I'd like to use 10 of my points for RER rolls this turn as well. Also, have you considered adding a political capital mechanic in? I think it would be interesting for us to have to prioritize what, if anything, our integration actions would go towards.
We do have anti-gravity vehicle though so wouldn't the use that tech to move heavy stuff. I mean we have anti-gravity trucks or something right. If the ship is big enough so wouldn't it have internal vehicle and logistics based vehicles. Like moving things by hand is stupid. Atleast use things that make it easier. And I would say that efficient ship design probably has autoloader in it cause it's such an easy tech why would serras have to work on it. I mean we have it right now for fucks sake. I mean it's probably one of those background tech that other scientists did it and it didn't need to be mentioned. And if you want to argue that mechanicas has problems with automation, this is a bastion fleet not mechanichas one so I think our design philosophy would be followed.
And even mechanicas must use machines to move heavy stuff cause they aren't tech barbarians and it would be easier to have just a truck or literally anything except manual labor.
- Location
- LEO
By that same logic, we haven't done any work on toilet paper, therefore, nobody in the bastion wipes thier ass.
Lady serras does not need to take time out of her day to design an autoloader. We have lots of engineers from modern worlds who have a tradition of innovation, and they wouldn't even consider not having an autoloader. It would be like a modern day design firm trying to pitch the USA military a muzzle loading black powder weapon. You would be a laughingstock.
Even if we hadnt specifically designes an autoloader, I thought ship design ment the entire ship. Cargo tugs the size of the world's largest dump truck. Cranes to load and unload stuff. Faster tracking on turrets, with built in magizines and autoloaders.
Our ships look like
Edit:The reason the imperim doesn't have autoloaders is one)as a method of control over those not worthy of the secrets of the Omnisiah, and two)because innovation is heresy. Autoloaders are not a complex idea to come up with. Implimenting it is illegal.
Edit the second: in a 40k quest, a primarch might need to yell and shove and kick up a storm in order to get autoloaders on ships. In the 30k bastion, if you tried to design a turret without autoloaders, a real engineer would probably assume you came from an age of sail world, or they would treat it like a children's drawing
"Aww Jimmy that's so nice! Where's the bullets going to go?"
"Slaves are going to drag them into the firing Chambers. By hand. Using ropes."
"That's very nice Jimmy, now, don't you have a toaster to go play with." Proceedes to shred design.
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You are correct. I went back to the invention results and we have indeed developed anti-gravity technology. I will make an edit to the omake to reflect this. However, autoloaders are a bigger thing than you realize. As I said, the Mechanicum are very cautious when it comes to automation on such a large scale. They have to have control over the machine spirit in case it rebels due to scrap-code or daemonic corruption. Autoloaders could let a ship do a lot of damage if it decides to turn on us.
As for ship design, in my mind, that has to do with the layout and structure of the ship itself i.e the layout of wiring throughout the ship, the spread of generators and weapons, etc. It wouldn't account for technology we don't possess or use.
Also, the Mechanicum possess the highest levels of technology in the area, they would be the ones taking care of any technology or ship we possess. It was, if i recall correctly, a condition of the treaty the Emperor made with Mars that the Mechanicum would have a monopoly over humanity's technology. We may not have a treaty like that, but the Mechanicum would insist they be allowed to watch over our tech to make sure it followed the Omnissiah's decrees.
By that same logic, we haven't done any work on toilet paper, therefore, nobody in the bastion wipes thier ass.
Lady serras does not need to take time out of her day to design an autoloader. We have lots of engineers from modern worlds who have a tradition of innovation, and they wouldn't even consider not having an autoloader. It would be like a modern day design firm trying to pitch the USA military a muzzle loading black powder weapon. You would be a laughingstock.
Even if we hadnt specifically designes an autoloader, I thought ship design ment the entire ship. Cargo tugs the size of the world's largest dump truck. Cranes to load and unload stuff. Faster tracking on turrets, with built in magizines and autoloaders.
Our ships look likeThat's why I thought we were at least at USNC level tech. Hell, I'd accept Battlestar Galactica level tech.
Edit:The reason the imperim doesn't have autoloaders is one)as a method of control over those not worthy of the secrets of the Omnisiah, and two)because innovation is heresy. Autoloaders are not a complex idea to come up with. Implimenting it is illegal.
Edit the second: in a 40k quest, a primarch might need to yell and shove and kick up a storm in order to get autoloaders on ships. In the 30k bastion, if you tried to design a turret without autoloaders, a real engineer would probably assume you came from an age of sail world, or they would treat it like a children's drawing
"Aww Jimmy that's so nice! Where's the bullets going to go?"
"Slaves are going to drag them into the firing Chambers. By hand. Using ropes."
"That's very nice Jimmy, now, don't you have a toaster to go play with." Proceedes to shred design.
There's a big difference between toilets and autoloaders. For one thing, the Mechanicum doesn't know how to make an affordable mass-producible auto-loader. Were this 40k, it would also be heresy to even try creating a new design, but we can do it in this quest. But it does have to be a taken action based on the setting we're in. Also, toilets aren't likely to kill people, whereas a ship's machine spirit, if corrupted or rebelling, could cause massive damage to other ships or itself given something like an autoloader. That's a lot of people dead if it happens.
We do have a dreadnought like that, but I specified that these were cruisers from the cruiser omake. A dreadnought would be closer to 8 km in length.
Ship design, in my mind, refers to the layout and structure of the ship itself. We've created a more efficient structure, likely making the ship sturdier, faster, and easier to repair or maintain, but it doesn't account for technology we don't have right now or don't want to use.
Regarding your comment on our engineers, keep in mind the setting we're in. If you created an auto-loader design meant for the weapons the Mechanicum has control over, you' d be lucky to not be arrested for trying to create new technology or designs. We get away with it for being a Primarch who has a proven track-record of discovering how technology works, spreading that knowledge to them, and then designing new things. They know we're a good horse to back if they want to reclaim the knowledge of our ancestors. Any random civilian who designed an auto-loader system without Mechanicum approval would either be ignored or arrested and punished for doing so.
That said, there is a group like you're describing. The Scientific Enterprise works with the engineers and scientists we have, but they work in conjunction, if not watch over by, the Mechanicum. It took our creation of such a group for it to even be possible.
There is exactly one turret I'm aware of that is remote-controlled in canon, the Tarantula Turret. But I don't think we have that (maybe the Emperor does). The turrets we've designed are meant for ground combat, and they are far easier to deactivate or destroy if they go rogue. On a ship, in the middle of combat, a machine spirit with access to autoloaders that the Mechanicum doesn't feel absolutely sure they have under control would be unacceptable due to the danger it could cause if it rebels, or worse, was targeted by Chaos scrap-code or enemy psykers.
- Location
- UK
The thing is though that autoloaders really aren't very complicated. They were first invented during WW2, and entered widespread use during the cold war. Compared to far more complicated things, like targeting and communications systems, life support, engines, and all of that, auto-loaders should be some of the lowest-tech stuff on a ship.