This sounds like a terrible way to lose a lot of people. Space hulks are dangerous for Space marines, who are one of the most suited forces to such fights(low visibility, unreliable reality, ocasionally cramped quarters). Out doctrine would do poorly there, and sending our people in small squads needed to clear a space hulk would likely be suicidal. We can punch above our veight due to our doctrine, but we are decades/centuries away from being able to go after a space hulk.
Could we not simply... cut off pieces and melt them down? Would that not sterilize the material of any warp entities in it? We don't really need to go on expeditions inside of the hulk. Perhaps besides nuking the hulk enough to disable its warp engines?
Perhaps. It depends on the hulk in question, they wary in size and danger. Might be OK for some, but for others we might get a case of RandomlyDemons! in whatever we build from it. We're not really a Warp expert.
Perhaps. It depends on the hulk in question, they wary in size and danger. Might be OK for some, but for others we might get a case of RandomlyDemons! in whatever we build from it. We're not really a Warp expert.
Yes but, I don't want to optimize the fun out of the game, taking risks is part of the fun. In fact, we're likely to make faster progress on our Warp skill the more we interact with Warp related things.
Keep in mind that even a small hulk is composed of several ships, and we are comparatively tiny to WH40K ships. Taking a risk would be boarding a stranded ship. I would be very reluctant to board even a very small space hulk without a lot of advantages(extra info from somewhere, drones scouted the entire thing, elite allies, broken into parts first, etc...).
Keep in mind that even a small hulk is composed of several ships, and we are comparatively tiny to WH40K ships. Taking a risk would be boarding a stranded ship. I would be very reluctant to board even a very small space hulk without a lot of advantages(extra info from somewhere, drones scouted the entire thing, elite allies, broken into parts first, etc...).
It is gonna be blammed before it takes hold. The Commissar doesn't shoot when the psyker starts floating, growing horns and shouting praise to the dark gods.
He guns the psyker down if it looks like he is gonna lose control. Psychic phenomena, perils of the warp and the psykers scream of abject terror are probably used as a guideline. The false positive rate is probably horrific but given the danger of daemonic incursion? It's very much acceptable. If the Commissar fails he is gonna die in a moment anyway. Otherwise you probably saved thousands if not millions of lifes.
Psykers aren't harmless, misunderstood woobies. They are genuine threats to entire planets even if they don't want to be. One fuck up can be the doom of millions.
You don't skip fail safes just because they are cruel.
The assumption that your-non psyker commissar would notice a possession beforehand is the sort of bullshit I'm referring to.
Psykers can be horrifically dangerous. No doubt about it. They exacerbated the Sundering.
But not so dangerous that the Empire does not use them in combat.
And from what I can tell, the Imperium's policies there are explicitly set up to pressure people who are already under pressure from social attitudes until they crack, then kill them and use their cracking as justification for asserting they are not safe in a sort of circular logic.
And the presumption is that anyone a commissar killed was a risk; there are certainly no statistics we are aware of, and noone can question a commissar. The only psykers who are relatively safe are Navigators, and that's because of political(and financial) power to terrify the local bigots into keeping their guns to themselves.
I mean, when a person gets shot on suspicion by a unaccountable political officer indoctrinated to be prejudiced against them, my instinct is not to proffer the benefit of the doubt to the shooter.
The assumption that your-non psyker commissar would notice a possession beforehand is the sort of bullshit I'm referring to.
Psykers can be horrifically dangerous. No doubt about it. They exacerbated the Sundering.
But not so dangerous that the Empire does not use them in combat.
And from what I can tell, the Imperium's policies there are explicitly set up to pressure people who are already under pressure from social attitudes until they crack, then kill them and use their cracking as justification for asserting they are not safe in a sort of circular logic.
And the presumption is that anyone a commissar killed was a risk; there are certainly no statistics we are aware of, and noone can question a commissar. The only psykers who are relatively safe are Navigators, and that's because of political(and financial) power to terrify the local bigots into keeping their guns to themselves.
I mean, when a person gets shot on suspicion by a unaccountable political officer indoctrinated to be prejudiced against them, my instinct is not to proffer the benefit of the doubt to the shooter.
We can just look at the RPG books if you want to know the odds of suddenly daemons.
Or that psykers starting to vomit enslavers is a established part of what made the age of strife so bad and where the prejudice comes from.
Sure the Imperium does a lot of idiotic and inhumane shit about psykers that practically makes sure they crack sooner or later but having someone next to them as a last hail mary is just about the least problematic. Possessions generally happen when the psyker actively uses their power. It's often enough not instant either. So there is a chance that the Commissar can intervene.
And I give the Imperium enough credit to at least instruct their Commissars to know when it looks like the psyker is not just having the mother of all headaches but about to cause a bad day for everyone. Otherwise the Telepathica would stop attaching psykers to the Guard on the grounds that they get executed within minutes by a loon with a fancy hat. (You know, the Telepathica that has a permanent seat at the High Lords Table? Politically powerful and able to dictate who gets to have the scarce manpower of Sanctioned Psykers?)
Or is your opinion that no psyker would ever get possessed against their will and no precaution is warranted as long as they are trained?
Because that flies straight in the face of a fundamental part of what being a psyker is like.
I'm not defending the instant execution as something good. I'm arguing that given the risks involved it's a reasonable stance to take.
Pretty sure this bit is outright untrue.
Enslavers wiped out the Old Ones and allegedly depopulated the galaxy after the War in Heaven. If the Sundering had involved anything like significant Enslaver outbreaks, everyone would be dead.
Psykers were more of a symptom, not an exacerbating effect.
Sure the Imperium does a lot of idiotic and inhumane shit about psykers that practically makes sure they crack sooner or later but having someone next to them as a last hail mary is just about the least problematic. Possessions generally happen when the psyker actively uses their power. It's often enough not instant either. So there is a chance that the Commissar can intervene.
Here's the thing:
There's no evidence that commissars are any better at telling the signs of possession than John Q Random. There's no equipment, and you can't exactly bring in examples in training. So you're placing the life of every psyker in the hands of an unaccountable political officer who has zero training or capability at recognizing possession, and has been indoctrinated to be prejudiced against them.
To use a politically charged analogy, its like putting a black man in front of an armed police officer who has been indoctrinated to consider all black people active threats or worse, and knows no one will question him if he shoots the vic dead and says he was reaching for a weapon.
And I give the Imperium enough credit to at least instruct their Commissars to know when it looks like the psyker is not just having the mother of all headaches but about to cause a bad day for everyone. Otherwise the Telepathica would stop attaching psykers to the Guard on the grounds that they get executed within minutes by a loon with a fancy hat. (You know, the Telepathica that has a permanent seat at the High Lords Table? Politically powerful and able to dictate who gets to have the scarce manpower of Sanctioned Psykers?)
I think you give the Imperium too much credit.
Commissars come out of the Schola Progenium, and the signs of alleged demonic activity are about the same thing you'd find in an epileptic, or a psyker under stress.Nor are they issued any equipment to make up the gap.
When the Imperium POV fluff itself admits to, and I quote "many unnecessary executions of the Imperial Guard's corps of Sanctioned Psykers", that suggests things are rather bad, given what it takes for the Imperium to admit fault.
The Astra Telepathica sacrifices anywhere from a hundred to a thousand trained psykers to the Astronomican every day.
And they have a steady supply of recruits.
I wouldn't bet on their solicitude towards the fate of a bunch of random Sanctioned Psykers out on a battlefield.
Or is your opinion that no psyker would ever get possessed against their will and no precaution is warranted as long as they are trained?
Because that flies straight in the face of a fundamental part of what being a psyker is like.
I'm not defending the instant execution as something good. I'm arguing that given the risks involved it's a reasonable stance to take.
Psykers do get possessed. How often, we have no bloody idea, because there is nothing like a reliable source to consult.
Imperial dogma will tell you that Terra had plenty of witch kings during the five thousand year Age of Strife, with no organized training or whatnot, and yet the planet didn't get eaten.
The data from what the Imperium itself tells us suggests that if it was the sort of danger they suggest, Humanity would not have survived the Fall.
And even now Imperial dogma does not actually match up to how they treat said psykers in practice.
Especially with the use of Wyrdvane Psykers.
I mean, they send Sanctioned Psykers out without Psyker Hoods which would actually help protect against demonic attack.
That's the sort of thing you'd think would be a priority on a military psyker.
But only Librarians get them.
The entire thing looks like just another system of control designed by Jimmy Space(like that name, btw).
When a psyker rolls double (or pushes a power), he rolls from the Psychic Phenomena table. So about 10% chance something freaky happens but not too dangerous. (Bad smells, injury, people around you gaining Corruption and going into a frenzy for a short while. You know, harmless stuff)
If he rolls 75+ on a d100 he goes to the Perils of the Warp table.
Among other not fun stuff, daemons appear on a 59-67, 83-86, 91-99 and 100.
91-99 is possession where the Psyker gets to roll and try to resist. If he wins he still more vulnerable later on as he gets a +10 to every future roll on those tables. (Note, he resists the possession about to happen, not casting the daemon out after the possession happened, so no Chaos immunity)
On a 100+ he gets slurped up by the warp and a powerful daemon may take his place.
So a 10% chance every casting that something happens. More if he pushes himself. Like on a battlefield.
If something happens, it's 25% that it will be nasty.
~24% chance that something nasty involves daemons.
Literally every time a psyker psykers.
Not counting environmental effects like a warpstorm or the like.
The Imperium is very much justified in thinking every psyker is a disaster waiting to happen.
Their treatment of them is still appalling and counterproductive but taking every precaution no matter how slim the chance of success is something I can understand. The Commissar is also someone that has the authority to tell everyone to shut the fuck up and start shelling their position Right the fuck NOW.
It's not ideal but it is what the Imperium has to work with. They don't have some daemon detector to hand out (the Inquisitions life would be much easier if they had that). They still need psykers to counter enemy psy bullshit. Not because they can throw lightning. That's the least useful part of psykers. If we go by the books (at least the ones I read like Cain) the psykers are mostly used as intel assets and advisors. Combat rarely comes up for them.
As for not giving every psyker a psychic hood? Those things are insanely rare archeotech devices. Librarians get them because they are Beta class psykers, which shine like a lighthouse in the warp. They also throw around a lot more power. Them getting top gear is justified by that alone. But they are also deployed to battlefields where they are up to their necks in Chaos shit. They need all the help they can get.
Keep in mind that these are game stats where a reasonable level of danger is needed to prevent psykers from being overpowered. In the narrative they are not depicted anywhere nearly as volatile. If they had those chances of summoning demons nobody would be using them. Yes, it can happen, but it is a most likely a consequence of an exhausted psyker using his powers in a desperate situation, rather than whenever. They are dangerous, and untrained ones are much worse, but they are still used in normal armies so not every psyker is a ticking time bomb. IIRC the more powerful the more likely one is to be unstable.
Very few Librarians are Betas, no idea where you got this from, but Beta class psykers are very rare. Even psyker heavy chapters you not very likely to have more than a few. Some(Grey knights for example) have multiple ones, but that would be an exception, not a rule. Psychic hood are still produced, but mostly used only by space marines due to the expense and cost-effect calculus - a space marine will do a lot more with his than a random normal psyker. More powerful human psykers might be more likely to get them, but that is only if someone from the higher-ups decides to spend some favor to do so.
Keep in mind that these are game stats where a reasonable level of danger is needed to prevent psykers from being overpowered. In the narrative they are not depicted anywhere nearly as volatile. If they had those chances of summoning demons nobody would be using them. Yes, it can happen, but it is a most likely a consequence of an exhausted psyker using his powers in a desperate situation, rather than whenever. They are dangerous, and untrained ones are much worse, but they are still used in normal armies so not every psyker is a ticking time bomb. IIRC the more powerful the more likely one is to be unstable.
Sure they are game stats. but as a guideline they work.
Simply put, psykers are not harmless.
It's not something a psyker choses.
But given the risks involved, having someone on standby to kill them if they lose control seems fairly reasonable.
And for the record: I'm not saying this is a good thing. Just that in-universe the Imperium has understandable reasons to be paranoid.
Very few Librarians are Betas, no idea where you got this from, but Beta class psykers are very rare. Even psyker heavy chapters you not very likely to have more than a few. Some(Grey knights for example) have multiple ones, but that would be an exception, not a rule. Psychic hood are still produced, but mostly used only by space marines due to the expense and cost-effect calculus - a space marine will do a lot more with his than a random normal psyker. More powerful human psykers might be more likely to get them, but that is only if someone from the higher-ups decides to spend some favor to do so.
Could we not simply... cut off pieces and melt them down? Would that not sterilize the material of any warp entities in it? We don't really need to go on expeditions inside of the hulk. Perhaps besides nuking the hulk enough to disable its warp engines?
Vote closed. I guess the tally is more of a formality in this case.
Adhoc vote count started by Enthusiast#117 on Oct 7, 2020 at 5:04 PM, finished with 147 posts and 7 votes.
[X]PLAN FISHING
-[X]SCHEDULE: Work schedule for 10 years
--[X]Year 1: 60 hours: +80%
--[X]Year 2: 55 hours: +70%
--[X]Year 3,5,7,9: 35 hours: +32.5% Stress
--[X]Year 4,6,8,10: 45 hours: +50% Stress
-[X]Juvenat + all Cyberaugs[Neural Lace + Datajack + Reinforced Skeleton + Cranial Survival Kit+Wired Reflexes + Myomer Cyberlimbs]: -380 emh/year per person
-[X]1x Shipboard Hydroponics: 10,000 Food: 660,000 emh/year
-[X]1x Extra Agriculture (Fishing): 10,000 Food: 660,000 emh/year. Fill up stores, consume what we can. Stockpile any excess until we're ready to leave, then trash it if we have no other use for it.
-[X]Covert Surveillance and Support: 600 persons*40 hours* 50 weeks: 1,200,000 manhours/year. Satellite surveillance and infiltration of communications and computers if possible, with especial attention to organs of planetary authority and visiting starships. Support of operations as necessary.
-[X]Imperial History, Data and Intelligence Survey: 2400 persons*40 hours*50 weeks: 4,800,000 manhours/year. Computer and paper records, electronic eavesdropping, direct surveillance, direct action. Biological sampling of the ecosystem. Use both human and drone agents as necessary.
-[X]Imperial Recruitment: 600 persons*40 hours*50 weeks: 1,200,000 manhours/year. Roll diplomacy/espionage to recruit Imperials. Soft cap ~ 2000-3200 new recruits/15-25% of current Eris population. Arrange cover stories for vanishing recruits, from moving away to fatal accidents to natural death. Minimize social disruption; recruit families and social groups where possible instead of leaving members behind. Keep an eye out for people with special skills/life experience. Prioritize finding and recruiting a psyker/small group of psykers.
-[X]RESEARCH:
--[X]Human Reproduction Center: 2,206,793 emh left
--[X]Erisian Baseline Genome: 80,000,000 emh
--[X]True Neuroregeneration & Improved Neuroplasticity: 80,000,000 emh
-[X]Industrial Construction:
--[X]Hydroponics(Tech Level 3): 8,000,000 emh. ONLY BUILD IF FISHING IS NOT SAFE OR VIABLE
--[X]Human Reproduction Center: 8,000,000 emh
--[X]Chameleon Camouflage x2: 1,200,000 emh. For HR Center and turrets
--[X]Volkite Turrets x 1: 600,000 emh
--[X]Apollo x1: 1,200,000 emh
--[X]Apollo-A x1: 1,200,000 emh
-[X]ACTION PRIORITY: Establish Hydroponics OR Fishing > Volkite Turrets > Human Reproduction Center RnD > Human Reproduction Center construction > Apollos > Chameleon Camouflage > Erisian Baseline Genome RnD > True Neuroregeneration RnD
-[X][MUTINEERS]Yes. Having a small gaggle of Emperor-worshipers onboard worries you, especially when you're traveling through the Warp. Give them a final choice to either join Eris or rejoin Imperial society, and stealthily shuttle anyone who chooses to leave down to the planet with their care packages.
-[X][OCEANFALL]There's a nice abyssal plain some 3200 meters below sea level almost exactly on the opposite side of the planet from the inhabited continent. It will do. (Should you choose this together with dropping off the mutineers, you'll drop them off via shuttle first, and fail to mention that you'll be landing too.)
-[X][CARGO] Cargo: 200 units
So just RPG mechanics then.
I was hoping there was something in the fluff that would give some sort of working benchmark.Because if my memory of probability is correct, if the chance of mishap used in RPG mechanics was used in the fluff, no psyker would survive training and the Empire would have none.
As for not giving every psyker a psychic hood? Those things are insanely rare archeotech devices. Librarians get them because they are Beta class psykers, which shine like a lighthouse in the warp. They also throw around a lot more power. Them getting top gear is justified by that alone. But they are also deployed to battlefields where they are up to their necks in Chaos shit. They need all the help they can get.
In order:
-Citation needed. The information I can find says, and I quote:
The Psychic Hood is an arcane device utilised by Space MarineLibrarians to amplify the wearer's psychic powers and protect against an assault by enemy psykers.
Most importantly, a Psychic Hood renders the wearer capable of nullifying the effects that other psykers have on the Warp nearby.
Distinguished by the trademark metal hood that rises from the backplate of a Librarian's Power Armour, a Psychic Hood uses a set of interwoven, intricately-aligned crystals to nullify an opponent's psychic attacks.
However, due to their archaic design, Psychic Hoods are likely not produced perfectly and so are not always one hundred percent effective in protecting their user.
During the Horus Heresy this was demonstrated when various Space Marine Librarians turned to Chaos, becoming Chaos Sorcerers, who unleashed their powers upon their Loyalist counterparts, often with impunity.
The Psychic Hood is an arcane device utilised by Space Marine Librarians to amplify the wearer's psychic powers and protect against an assault by enemy psykers. Most importantly, a Psychic Hood renders the wearer capable of nullifying the effects that other psykers have on the Warp nearby...
Neither the wiki nor Lexicanum suggests it's archaotech; the Wiki outright gives an example of one being made special for a Librarian going to fight Nids. It's an archaic design, that's all.
The Imperium literally mines tons of lorelei for building psy-reactive weapons, and Psychic Hoods are explicitly called out as one .
-Nothing in the Wiki or Lexicanum says Librarians are Beta-class.
Or indeed that there is a minimum strength for SM psykers.
Cite?
Alternatively: give ourselves even longer if we leave disposable cryptosleep caskets on a however long timer for release? (Give a power cell that lasts for three decades, stick the lot of them in a bank of cryptosleep chambers in a forgotten cave somewhere remote on the continent, and only after thirty years do they wake up and find food and equipment to survive for say five years, giving them the impression they were abandoned on an uninhabited world. Takes them out of our hair and prevents them from being a means of the Empire tracking us down while we're still close enough for that to matter.
No, give them supplies sufficient to survive indefinitely. Also, we should offer to let them live the rest of their juvenat-enhanced lifespans with us but not of us, because I think we can afford that. (We do need to warn them that their kids, if they have them, might well join us if they have them around us.)
Hey, Viren was talking good sense. He was just aimed at the wrong problem (answers to what the king was saying, when the real issue was that said king was suicidally depressed).
...That makes it sound way more tolerable than I'd realized, actually. He also comprehensively failed to defend humanity's "dark magic" when it really didn't seem anywhere near nuke-level, or mention the fact that Elfland literally genocided them. Anyway, there's a reason I stopped watching it.
Could we not simply... cut off pieces and melt them down? Would that not sterilize the material of any warp entities in it? We don't really need to go on expeditions inside of the hulk. Perhaps besides nuking the hulk enough to disable its warp engines?
Perhaps. It depends on the hulk in question, they wary in size and danger. Might be OK for some, but for others we might get a case of RandomlyDemons! in whatever we build from it. We're not really a Warp expert.
Cut a ship lose with our lance. Scout it with armored troops for loot, use a radiation weapon to sterilize the contents thoroughly of all life and genestealer/ork spores/et cetera, repair the warp drive for a single jump, repair the Gellar shields, cut chunks off the ship as raw material to build a Chameleonware system, then send it on it's only warp jump to a destination system and just have it float in the outer system with a radio beacon.
When you're ready, you show up, tow it to the planet surface, land/crash it slowly, then melt it down for scrap.
Hey, Viren was talking good sense. He was just aimed at the wrong problem (answers to what the king was saying, when the real issue was that said king was suicidally depressed).
...That makes it sound way more tolerable than I'd realized, actually. He also comprehensively failed to defend humanity's "dark magic" when it really didn't seem anywhere near nuke-level, or mention the fact that Elfland literally genocided them. Anyway, there's a reason I stopped watching it.
I just...you do get that Dark Magic isn't portrayed as inherently evil in the Dragon Prince? One of the main characters uses it at one point to save lives. Hell the guy at the intro to the first episode of the first season who is shown eating magical beasts to fuel a powerful spell is shown in the first episode of the third season as being a good guy who was trying to protect his city from being genocided by a Dragon, and the beasts that were eaten by the spell were the airborne equivalent of pilot fish for said Dragon, that is now seen by Elves as an incarnation of Wrath/Rage.
Anyways back on topic for this quest: We need to get our population number back up to 28.000 people as that will unlock something in Eris themselves. In the meantime I guess we are getting better reproduction+the first steps of genetic engineering+gathering information on the Imperium of Man while hiding under water.
Hey @Driven by Apathy? Will you be rolling two Things that can go Wrong Tables? One for space and one for the planet we are on? Or just one?
When the final death knell of the United Federation of Man sounded, it also announced your birth.
Your origin lies with with the 28th Human Synchronicity Experiment. Quite possibly the last great scientific endeavor of the Golden Age of Technology, - well, perhaps not so great, by the standards of the time the budget was tiny and the project barely of note - researchers from more than 70 Terran universities connected their own brains and those of tens of thousands of volunteers to cybernetic implants designed to be in constant communication with each other. Experiments like this had been done before, to generally underwhelming results. But this time, there was new factor involved: The entire system utilized the Warp.
It was crude, and on the whole not a very important aspect of the 28th HSE. The warp sciences were barely nascent, and with the ongoing psyker-crisis, any experiment involving the Warp was... controversial, to say the least. Most likely, between this and the economic, political and cultural aftereffects of the Iron War, the 28th HSE would have been canceled before long.
Then the warp storms happened.
Suddenly cut off from the rest of the Federation, civilization in the hopelessly overpopulated Sol system collapsed with frightening speed. Within hours after it had become known that Sol was cut off, the riots started. Within a day, martial law was declared. Within two months, the food ran out and it was all over but the cannibalism. The worlds of the Federation had evolved to be interdependent, a fact which had allowed human civilization to achieve and maintain a semblance of political unity, but had now become its doom.
It was sheer carnage.
Yet apart from preventing all FTL-travel, the Warp Storms had a number of additional effects. Physics as humanity knew it seemingly ceased to apply in some specific areas, a phenomenon that strangely enough tended to occur wherever conditions were worst and barbarism reigned. Psykers sprang up everywhere, one more insane than the next. Entire districts were overrun by intruding warp entities.
And in the middle of the most terrible disaster to ever befall humanity's homeworld, by way of an astronomically improbable coincidence in a highly warp-charged environment... without really meaning to, a loosely connected group of 28,000 people spread all across the Terran Ecumenopolis suddenly found themselves connected far more closely.
So it is likely to be their Holy Number. Each time a Holy Number of a Warp entity is arranged in a location while it is trying to influence the Materium in said location it gets more power to influence that Materium location. So we get some sort of Warp goodie if we get Eris' population to 28.000 or we might even get a vote for which Warp thingy we want out of a limited selection of such goodies.
The decision is made. Eris will make planetfall on Bonterrae. Before that, however, there is something else that needs to be taken care of.
For more than 50 years, the mutineers of Imperial Dropship Devourer 11 have lived among you. Their numbers have declined as many of them joined Eris. Only the hard religious core is left, clinging to their God Emperor. Having been made aware that any newborn infants onboard the Reliant would become part of the Gestalt (and thus be cut off from the Emperor's grace), they have refrained from having children and their numbers have not increased again.
A large part of Eris pities them. How does that one ancient saying go again? "The hardest prison to escape from is that which we build for ourselves in our minds" or something like that.
But Eris is also concerned. Warp phenomena are very real, and the God Emperor, though no God, is nevertheless very real as well. Real, and hostile to you. Is it possible that one day one of the mutineers might pray and actually be heard? If so, that might prove unhealthy for Eris.
And so, the remaining mutineers are given a choice: Join Eris, or depart in peace.
All 13 of them choose to depart. Most Erisians feel only faint disappointment regarding this decision - you disagree with it, obviously, but it was their choice to make. For some of you it hits closer to home, however. You can feel something like suppressed contempt radiating from many of your ex-imperial members.
Either way, in the second week of the Reliant's stay in orbit, one of your shuttles slips through Bonterrae's satellite detection net and quietly delivers the Imperials to a thinly populated mountainous region in the north of the planet's sole continent. They're given food, appropriate clothing and camping equipment for the region, as well as directions to the nearest settlement and roughly a hundred and fifty kilograms of gold nuggets and grains - from what you've been told the metal retains considerable value on many Imperial planets, and you have no indication this doesn't hold true on Bonterrae. Finally, you give them location of a rare alluvial placer deposit of the precious element your satellites detected in the area. You even fake the remains of an improvised mining camp there.
And then the mutineers are gone and your shuttle returns to the Reliant, to leave the system and fade back into obscurity, a forgotten remnant of a forgotten age... or so the mutineers have been led to believe.
The Reliant lands without incident, all the while remaining perfectly stealthy.
At least if by "perfectly stealthy" you mean "descended on a pillar of fire visible for hundreds of kilometers while nobody was looking". Your camouflage system has served you well so far, but the rapid deceleration needed to not either engage in involuntary lithobraking or cause a tsunami as you hit the ocean's surface is beyond it's ability to conceal. Fortunately, that doesn't matter when nobody is watching.
It's a strange new world you find yourselves in, more than 3000 meters below the surface of the ocean. There is much more life than you expected down here, and all of it appears to be native to Bonterrae, rather than introduced by terraforming. Native, and rather toxic to humans.
Well, that explains why the inhabitants have no fishing fleets, you guess.
Thankfully, toxic is not the same as dangerous and there appear to be no megapredators capable of threatening your vehicles or anything like that. Well, there are some megapredators, but they're no larger or stronger than whales and also don't like the taste of metal. So that shouldn't be an issue.
You'd like to find your feet here on this new world as quickly as possible. So you work yourself to exhaustion in order to establish some enclosed hydroponics and achieve food security. And finally start work on those genetic modifications you've been considering for some time now! And of course infiltrate the local Imperials information networks, to finally learn more about the state of the galaxy! And, and, and.... so many things needed, so much work to be done. You'll need to get started immediately.
Infiltrating the Imperial planetary network turns out to be much harder than you could have imagined. And it's solely for one reason: There is no imperial planetary network!
You can barely believe it. What kind of galaxy-spanning space-faring society doesn't have planetary networks! This isn't chrono-science! Terra had a planetary network before the first human being ever set foot on Mars, for fortune's sake!
Alright, it's admittedly not a natural given. You do have technologically sophisticated civilizations on record who never came up with the concept. But those civilizations weren't human civilizations. Alien species think and organize themselves in alien ways, that's only natural. But humans? You'd have bet the Reliant that the Imperium would have at least some concept of what ought to be basic infrastructure in common with the Federation, if merely for practical reasons. Apparently not.
At least the imperial satellites look more vulnerable to subversion. Imperial cybersecurity is simultaneously utterly inviolable and hopelessly outmatched: Nearly everything is air gapped whenever possible, components you would usually target as invasion vectors to the rest of the system are simply missing, their replacements too simplistic to be vulnerable to infiltration software they can't run. But none of that matters when you have physical access to the equipment, and with your stealth shuttles, you do.
It won't be risk free, but you're fairly certain you could subvert the imperial satellite network, if you try for it.
1 unit of fuel (T3) was consumed traveling to Bonterrae and making planetfall.
Eris engages in Espionage. Current Espionageskill:5 (Talented Amateurs)
New Espionage Project: Subvert Imperial Satellites
You want to know what they see, and then make them see what you want them to see and nothing else. Given Imperial system's architecture, this will require physical access to the satellites, but with your stealth shuttles that should be possible.
Cost: 50,000 effective man-hours
Chance of success is determined by Science and Espionage skills. Estimated chances of success: High, ~ 25% chance the Imperials notice someone is messing with their satellites
No starships other than the Reliant visit Bonterrae during 40.172 CE.
While you're establishing yourselves in the ocean of Bonterrae and feverishly working on a new human baseline genome to lay the foundation for various genetic enhancements, you also begin working on a different, far more tricky project. Infiltration by purely electronic means having largely failed against the Imperials, ridiculous luddites that they are, you will have to take more direct action.
A small camouflaged base is constructed on the continental shelf just a few kilometers off the eastern coast of the continent (which you learn is called Trafima). Specialized equipment is designed and produced onboard the Reliant, the needed support structures are delivered via amphibious shuttles, and a few months later you regularly send out several hundred drones disguised as seabird, rodents and similar critters. Soon, you are spying on the planet's population through numerous artificial animal eyes an ears.
Your first impression of the coastal cities you can now survey is.... frankly, it's appalling. You had expected a much lower standard of living than what you're used to, obviously. But this... this isn't just a lower standard, this is what's more accurately called a bunch of shantytowns. Mere slums, really. Even the most basic building blocks of civilization, such as sewage systems, freshwater distribution or properly heated and insulated dwellings are often lacking. Medical care? Public services? Forget it! It's all the more shocking for the fact that Bonterrae hasn't collapsed to some kind of pre-industrial state. Industry is rare, but present. And yet, most of the population seems to live in abject poverty.
One thing of note is that most of the really bad places seem to be of newer construction, almost entirely built within the last 15 years or so. The older parts of the coastal cities are far more pleasant by comparison - primitive, but still somewhat liveable. Even back then, however, income inequality seems to have been extreme. Most of the dwellings can be considered... extremely modest, by your standards. But there are some rare city quarters that can only be described as clusters of opulent fortified mansions surrounded by a sea of deprivation.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Erisians begin evaluating the linguistic data of millions of conversations you've eavesdropped on. The Imperium speaks what is known as Low Gothic, and that language has diverged considerably from Federation Standard. What's more, the dialect that seems to be in use in this corner of Bonterrae is also not quite an exact match to what the ex-imperials among you grew up with, so if you want to pass yourselves of as natives you'll have to learn to speak like natives first.
Frankly, you're overworked. Maybe you're pushing yourself to hard?
3000 meters below sea level one your engineers notices that the material he's been using is unsuitable for the system he's been working on. He sighs. A stupid mistake that could have been easily avoided, if he'd thought to test material tolerances beforehand. He'll have to start all over again. This will push back the schedule by at least three days.
He should probably get started right away. But he won't. He just can't find the motivation right now.
And he's not the only one of you with that problem.
Stress at 110%
Eris suffersBurnout: Skill-modifier for scientific and industrial efficiency halved during 40.172 CE.
11,758,870 man-hours were required to maintain Juvenat treatments
10,582,983 man-hours were required to maintain cybernetic implants
5,746,866 effective man-hours of work still required to complete Hydroponics (T3)
Month by month, week by week, day by day, Eris slowly gathers more information about the state of Bonterrae in particular and humanity in general.
One day in the early hours of the evening, what seems to be a common house cat surreptitiously enters a small mansion at the edge of a thousand-year old city. Beneath the feline's fur, technological wonders of such intricacy as to make any tech priest weep with envy are carefully hidden from sight. A few kilometers away, a shuttle is quietly waiting on a hillside, the light around it bending so as to make the craft appear as little more than part of the hill to the inattentive eye.
The mansion has been identified as lightly guarded and easily entered, it's owner recently deceased and security much lighter than it would otherwise be. Slipping by the guards with ease, the false animal finds the mansion's main office, where thick ledgers and books are waiting.
Actual ledgers and books. On actual paper. The sheer absurdity of it all!
Either way, had anybody been watching the office that night, they'd probably have run screaming about the daemonic cat reading it's way through the old Baron's collection at a speed far swifter than any man, much less a cat, should be capable of.
Piece by piece, line by line, Eris learns of the nature of the world you have landed on.
It seems that until recently Bonterrae was ruled by the Duke Listenian Ferata IV, residing on the civilized world of Listenia Prime some 30 lightyears away. Duke Listenian was a negligent ruler, who mostly ignored Bonterrae as long as the local barons paid their taxes. Said barons, in turn, own some 96% of all land on this planet and have been oh-so-wisely ruling it for the last 2000 years, ever since the planet was discovered and settled by the Imperium.
Most of the population of some 220 million is "under contract". And yes, that's the formal legal term. You're not sure how the expression came to be, local record keeping is... spotty, at best. But basically it means they're serfs, except for not being bound to the land. Theoretically at least, the people of Bonterrae retain the right to move. In practice, economical factors make this impossible.
Public schooling exists, and is compulsory. It's also run by an organization known as the Eclessiarchy, the official state church of the Imperium and the main power brokers on Bonterrae other than the assembly of barons. Every child is indoctrinated in the Imperial Faith from age 4 to age 10. Some lucky few of them even learn to read. The holy books for which this skill is primarily intended are filled with vitriolic hatred and intolerance.
The judicial system, insofar as it exists, is run by something called the Adeptus Arbites. Supposedly, they answer not to the barons but to the Imperium.
All technology more advanced than muscle power is owned by the barons, who graciously rent it out to Bonterrae's people, so that they may pursue their crafts. Industry, what little of it there is, is also owned by the barons and administered by the lower nobility on their betters' behalf. This is seen as a natural state of affairs and the way it has always been. Yet the products of that industry are often surprisingly advanced, considering the planet's abysmal level of education. You believe that Bonterrae's most advanced industries (mostly equipment for the army and medical equipment and rejuvenat for the noble elite), in spite of it's utterly fucked up society, rank a solid 1.5 on the Kearny-Fuchida scale. However, the planet lacks the ability to set up such industries on its own. What few factories there are were apparently established on commission by the organization known as the Adeptus Mechanicus.
The most prestigious job a non-noble can have on Bonterrae is to be a soldier as part of the Planetary Defense Force. Apparently Bonterrae is greatly valued by the Imperial Guard for producing regiments of excellent quality. How much of that is truth, and how much is propaganda, you're not sure. But either way, the planet keeps some 8 million men and women under arms at all times.
"Democracy", "human rights" and "scientific inquiry" are strange and foreign words on Bonterrae that are probably the product of some deranged heretic mind trying to tempt the Emperor's faithful.
And Bonterrae is not the exception, it is the rule. Every bit of information about the rest of the galaxy implies that most of the Imperium, if anything, is worse than this when it comes to living conditions - if admittedly somewhat more industrialized and technologically advanced. Well, at least some of it.
In fact, until about 15 years ago, Bonterrae appears to have been a reasonably pleasant place to live, by Imperial standards. The planet's economy was mostly based on high-quality foodstuffs - high quality, in this context, means food grown in natural soil and/or meat from actual animals, and all of it with some variety to it. Apart from that, exporting Imperial Guard regiments seems to have been a profitable side venture.
Alas, Duke Listenian IV has a gambling problem. And so it came to be that Bonterrae became a possession of the nearby Hive World of Severus III. Severus III, like many Imperial Hive worlds, appears to be struggling to feed its population and urgently needs more suppliers of staple foods. Thus, it was decided that Bonterrae is to be optimized. Optimized, in this case, means that the planet's existing agricultural structure is to be replaced by a high-performance mechanized grain monoculture. Villages and towns all across the planet have been marked for demolition in preparation for this change. Forests have been cut down, "unnecessary" rivers and lakes have been put to better use. The process began in earnest 7 years ago, when a ship from Severus III dropped of tens of thousands of technical personnel and hundreds of millions of tons of equipment. On the central plains of Trafima things are starting to take shape, and production is beginning to skyrocket there, even as the planet's traditional economy is collapsing - and the fabric of society with it.
Millions of poor displaced from their villages have flocked to the cities. Living standards have collapsed. In some places, famines have occurred, even though Bonterrae produces many times its own needs in food.
"Reliant Actual, this is Croweye 50-65, do you copy?"
"Croweye 73, Reliant Actual. We can hear you. What's going on?" Strange, she thinks, for Croweye to be this formal. Most members of Eris don't usually do the whole "military jargon" thing outside of ongoing combat operations.
"Reliant Actual, you need to take a look at this."
The data from Croweye 50-65 arrives. It's live video, showing a plaza in the middle of the third largest city on Bonterrae, observed through the visual receptors of 15 espionage drones mimicking the appearance of crows.
And on that plaza, surrounded by a crowd of thousands, there are some 200 people.... some 200 people who appear to be...
...tied to stakes? With what looks suspiciously like fuel canisters arranged around them?
She has a bad feeling about this.
There is a preacher wearing some kind of fancy robe addressing the crowd. He seems to be preaching against the heretic, and the xenos, and the mutant, with special attention being given to the mutant.
"Croweye... is this what I think it is?" Taking a closer look, she can tell that a lot of the people tied to the stakes seem to have some sort of odd grey discoloration in the sclera of their eyes.
"You damn well bet it is! That guy has been preaching for at least half an hour already before they brought out the victims and the stakes. We don't have much time. We need enough shuttles for at least 200 people ASAP!"
She can feel the attention of Eris coming to rest on them both, as more an more Erisians take note of what is happening through the Gestalt. Sensory data is rarely shared in such direct a manner by so many Gestalt members, but when it happens it means something big is about to happen.
"Enough shuttles for 200 people? How? We don't have those numbers ready, we'd have to fly them in all the way from the Reliant. And how are we going to..."
"I DON'T CARE! HELL, A THIRD OF THEM ARE CHILDREN! SEND A BATTALION IF YOU HAVE TO, BUT DO IT QUICKLY!" he's sounding downright hysterical now. But she doesn't blame him. It's exactly how she's feeling.
How Eris is feeling. Nearly every last Erisian is watching this right now.
And then, for the first time in years, Eris speaks, putting your collective will into words.
"MOBILIZING ALPHA BATTALION."
And so you do. And so you are too late. Less than a minute after the first shuttle launches, the pyres are ignited.
The screams start, the crowd cheers, and some 13,000 humans of ancient days watch in utter horror at what mankind has become.
Eris suffers Crippling Flashbacksfrom witnessing first-hand just how fucked up things are.
60% stress penalty, declines by 10% per year.
Stress 170%: What is this trainwreck, and why can't I look away?
Industrial accident ruins all progress of ongoing project Hydroponics. Deaths barely avoided.
Research mishap in ongoing research project Erisian Baseline Genome. Prototype baseline genome discovered to be unsafe at the end of the year. The entire project had to be scrapped and will have to be restarted from zero.
Skill-modifier for military and espionage operations halved during 40.172 CE. Fortunately, you weren't fighting any battles or running high-risk ops at the time.
15 crow espionage drones lost while trying to rescue some of the condemned.
You are Eris, and all you can think about right now is one thing:
'It never stopped.'
More than 14,000 years since the Fall of Terra, and the horror never stopped. Worse than that, it spread. It's become the new normal. A neverending nightmare for all of humankind.
Even having ex-Imperials among you, you hadn't acknowledged it, denial preventing your from suffering the effects of a realization you didn't allow yourself to make. But blissful ignorance has finally failed. You know. You know.
So.
What now?
[ ] Flee. Run. You don't know where, you don't know to what end, but you have to get away from this. Because if you have to watch this for the rest of your existence, you know you won't survive.
Eris gains the "Fading of the Ancients" trait. Permanent stress penalty of 10%, but you'll slowly grow numb to it all. With time and sanctuary somewhere far away from all this, you might yet escape from this nightmare. And maybe, in time, even from your own.
[ ] Fight. This reality is not acceptable. You refuse to accept it, even if it kills you. You don't yet know what or how, but you will do something about this.
Eris gains the "Echo of the Ancients" trait. You won't know contentment until this nightmare of a future has been resolved, one way or the other. But you won't let it break you, and you won't let it slow you down. To the warp with your trauma! You are the echo of a better age, and you will make yourself heard.
[ ] Back to Respite - no, that's TOO CLOSE!
[ ] Back to McMurdo. Nobody will bother you on that godforsaken iceball.
[ ] To the edge of the galaxy. The Imperium's reach can't extend everywhere, can it?
[ ] Via the application of force. Yes, it will be messy, and yes, people will die, but better an end with horror than horror without end. Conditions on Bonterrae are ripe for a revolution. You will make that happen. And you will make sure the revolutionaries win.
[ ] Via infiltration and subversion. Why overthrow the government, when what you really want is to become the government. A dystopia like this is bound to have weaknesses. You will find them, you will exploit them, and some day the people currently in charge of this shitshow will wake up and find that they are no longer in charge.
[ ] Via compassionate action. Justice for all and an end to tyranny on Bonterrae would be nice, but the fact of the matter is that they simply aren't realistically achievable goals right now. But that doesn't mean there's nothing you can do. There are plenty of ways to improve conditions for the population without having to overthrow the regime.
Well so... we are now at 90% stress which means the next year we do nothing, the year after we use at most 10% stress. This is great.....
Next time someone makes a plan they need to keep the trait we have in mind: Massive Trauma - Fall of the Federation (Defining):
Eris was created by accident during the Fall of Terra at the end of the Golden Age, the worst disaster catastrophe ever suffered. More than half of their original members perished in those fires. The promise of a bright future for mankind was lost that day. The trauma thus incurred will stay with the group mind forever.
Effects: Base state of 30 % stress. Easily triggered by human misery.
[X] Fight. This reality is not acceptable. You refuse to accept it, even if it kills you. You don't yet know what or how, but you will do something about this.
[X] Via infiltration and subversion. Why overthrow the government, when what you really want is to become the government. A dystopia like this is bound to have weaknesses. You will find them, you will exploit them, and some day the people currently in charge of this shitshow will wake up and find that they are no longer in charge.
We're pulling out the rebellion playbook and making the univerise better if we have to drag it kicking and screaming.
@Driven by Apathy How short term is short term? If we pick any of the fight options, will we start fighting while absolutely ruined by stress?
Edit : Anyway, the problem with fighting is that the factors that ruin this world do not exist on this world, but on the nearby hiveworld (and if this place has misery, the hiveworld is 10 times worse). Infiltration can not work, because even if we take over, it just means that we'll have to be the people who ruin this planet and it's people to make the quotum. The whip does not become softer just because we're whipping it.
A real revolution might help for a bit, but the Imperium would come along eventually and ruin it all.
warhammer40k.fandom.com
