Turn 18
The Bird
tEM IS GUD...RITER!
- Location
- In that den of villains and scum, OKLAHOMA
[X] Plan: Helping out Stizlak
Captains Log, 4177.0926
We've just finished our initial survey of the Eco-Station located in Broken Edge, and I find myself pondering the events that have occured and their potential meaning. Accompanied by the Endeavor that was sent out to survey the ship graveyard and the Valiant which finds its first tour stuck on construction duty, our initial studies consisted of advanced scanning and surveying. The outside of the station is a interesting mix of palladium, iron, carbon, and titanium mixed with a handful of as of yet unidentified elements. Structurally, the station almost resembles a sphere of sorts: two large dome structures connected via a smaller central structure with a slightly different material composition and a vastly different age, which combined with small differences in design, I believe, is sufficient enough evidence to at least SUSPECT that the hemispheres are a later addition by different occupants.
Scans indicated an abundance of Orkoid lifesigns, though with remarkably reduced density, and a variety of unidentified lifesigns. Attempts to hail the occupants of the station failed, leaving us to send a team. As we weren't aware of what we might be facing, the team consisted of myself, Chief Security Machina KORG-97, and a small accompaniment of officers and security specialists.
Entering through an airlock, we attempted to survey the area. As the scans showed, the internals did consist of an Eco-Dome: specifically mimicking an alien jungle. Chamber size was roughly one kilometer in width and height. As per protocol, samples were obtained for analysis. Per reports from chief science officer Ysshi, most of these would prove fairly biocompatible with Teklian ecosystems.
Assaults by Orks occurred on seven different occasions. Due to their relatively cruder technology compared to the Monstro ork civilization and reduced organization and numbers, no casualties were sustained on either side: all encountered combatants were safely disabled non-lethally. We encountered exactly three Orkoids that weren't hostile. Of those three, only two allowed for a dialogue to be opened. The name of the structure according to its inhabitants was 'Diz Place'. We were unable to learn any pertinent details about it's construction, however according to the Orks we questioned, it is at least five or six generations old, however long a generation might be measured for Orks. The only clue we gained was that we apparently weren't the only visitors to the Eco-Stations: apparently, every so often a group of 'beekie gribblies' came through and shot them full of holes with 'them arse stickerz': samples provided consist of arrowheads created from a complex composite alloy that, to be blunt, would probably be capable of punching through several inches of ferroplastic.
Per the Huntsmaster Attache, any civilization capable of crafting these arrowheads is likely at a minimum capable of advanced metallurgy and industrial production. Judging from the integrity of the structure and it's upkeep, assuming these 'beekie gribblies' are the current stewards of this eco-dome, they apparently visit a handful of times each generation. Again, how long this is is unknown.
At any rate, once I had gathered significant information, I opted for a retreat, especially once I heard a very critical piece of information from the ork, a piece of information the Directorate needed to know immediately.
Apparently, the station is due for a visit.
+1 BioData from Survey Samples. High likelyhood in the next few turns of encountering ??? in Broken Edge. Eco-Dome seems to consist of some sort of hunting preserve for, disturbingly, sentients.
Meanwhile, the Endeavor has surveyed the Ship Graveyard! It is a suitable location for constructing a space station...were it not for the high odds this system is owned by another group. The ships, surprisingly, are likely not of Destroyer Origin: they seem to belong to the same group that constructed the original Eco-Station. Regardless, technological samples were obtained for later analysis, providing +5 ACD this turn.
[-] Survey Tacchis: In ancient Tekketi history, Tacchis was considered a dark omen by astrologers and mystics. These days, the iceball was mostly known for the massive amount of diamonds probes had found: the planet's crust was mostly carbon and water. It also had several subterranean ancient ruins belonging to the Destroyers servants. SCAN LEVEL: MAX
[ ] Survey Mongus: The largest gas giant in your system, Mongus has a green atmosphere, the result of several rare-teklia gases according to probe and scan data, alongside a great deal of hydrogen, methane, and electrical storms. SCAN LEVEL: 1
[ ] Survey Meeklak: The second largest gas giant, but the one with the largest ring (consisting of ice, mostly), Meeklak was too far for casual probe use, and had proven annoyingly resistant to even advanced probe and exploration due to its crushing atmosphere (comprised of caustic chemicals and gasses of, admittedly, extreme rarity) capable of popping your vehicles like aluminum cans. Deep below, several ships are crashlanded, still intact, floating in the hyperdense sea of liquid gas. SCAN LEVEL: MAX.
[ ] Erichtheo: Named after an old goddess from Classical Myth, Erichtheo, a moon of Mongus, is host to a number of creatures that exist primarily in its subcontinental abyssal zone, some of which can grow to titanic size, and in the magmafields, home to a number of extremophile sea-life and valuable minerals. SCAN LEVEL: MAX
[ ] Spraa'ng: The furthest planet in your solar system, Spraa'ng had high quantities of precious metals in its crust, seas full of ammonia, an argon atmosphere, and fairly hostile planets. SCAN LEVEL: MAX
[ ] Drydock: With the construction of the Shipyard, the Endeavor could finally come in for repairs, maintenance, and upgrades. Upgrades ships with all existing Compartments and Components. Repairs most damage.
The following require a Warp capable ship. Note that travel to them is not without risk, either during the journey or at the destination: your world is ringed in by many warp storms.
[ ] Explore Galactic North: It was time for Tekket to begin exploring the galaxy! This direction had been where the Destroyers had emerged from: with luck, perhaps you would finally get awnsers. The closest Sky-Storm in this direction was the Mawket Voidstar, which was a great distance away. Requires Warp Capable Ship.
[ ] Explore Galactic South: In this direction lie the Grimket Astrolabe, a Sky-Storm that was only rarely visible on Teklia. It was also the direction of a variety of smaller systems as seen by your sky-mapping programs, some of which had shown some stellar oddities that led to many believing that there existed in this direction, such as the Reach, potential alien civilizations that weren't destroyers.
[ ] Explore Galactic West: In this direction was the Infernaket Blazestorm, the new closest Sky-Storm to Teklia: it had seemed small in the sky next to the Malket Configuration, but it was, according to astronomers, likely several orders of magnitude larger. In this direction there existed a cluster of aged stars, black holes, and dead planets known as the Barren Expanse, but additional exploration could potentially reveal other regions. After all, space was big.
[-] Black Hole Study Duty: The Directorate wanted to use the opportunity presented by the Expanse to study one of the Black Holes of the region. There were three of note in the region: Martellus, Gigant, and SBH-134, and the Academy was salivating for more close range study of the stellar bodies. Ironically likely very safe, considering that even from a distance far enough to ensure the Endeavor wasn't affected by the gravity of the black hole the scan data would likely still be incredibly novel. At this point, there existed little practical reason to continue scans: with your current technology, the chance of gaining new data was...minimal.
[ ] Red Sun Security: Directorate Fleet wanted to start equipping the observation outposts with a few bases for security purposes. Against essentially any foe, they'd fold like wet paper, but as time went on, these bases would be expanded alongside the Outposts. Costs 15 EXP. Increases Regional Defenses alongside Outpost Level. Increases region Outpost Level.
[ ] Red Sun Extraction: Meanwhile, some Frontier Explorers wanted to set up a few mining outposts in the Expanse: this would allow for the outposts to expand somewhat, and the...very LARGE amount of surplus could be shipped back to Teklia. Cost 15 EXP. Red Sun Outposts generate 1 extractable EXP per turn to a max of 5 EXP.
[ ] Survey Broken Edge Ship Graveyard: The remnants of a massive battle. Surprisingly, the ships weren't the same as the Destroyers so much as the remains of ships designed along the same general principles of largesse. The other ships meanwhile had proved incredibly, incredibly crude. Directorate scientists wanted to conduct more surveys. Scan Level: 3
[ ] Survey Broken Edge Eco-Station: Most curiously, the Eco-Station, which consisted of multiple hemispheres attached via central section, seemed to be a giant hunting preserve, specifically for hunting sentients. The primary ecosystem simulated seemed to be a jungle. Scan level: MAX.
[ ] Broken Edge Monitoring: If the Orks were right, the current caretakers of the Eco-Dome were due for a visit. With this in mind, the Directorate wanted to station a monitor ship in the hopes of gaining potentially valuable intel about an unknown transtellar polity with access to advanced metallurgy, space flight, and enough other indicators towards a peer society. Requires Endeavor Class.
[ ] Exploring the Expanse: A region located to the Galactic West of Teklia. Mostly dead, but perhaps additional focused exploration of the region might reveal some manner of secret. Locations of Interest found: 1/???. Outpost Level: 4.
[ ] Exploring the Reach: A region located to the galactic south of Teklia. Exploration was extremely preliminary, but you had managed to find at least one world capable of sustaining life. Locations of Interest found: 1/???. Outpost Level: 1
[ ] Explore Galactic East: The direction facing the galactic edge. The Sky-Storm in this direction was the Horizons End, a colorless scar that bled silver, and a small nebula that existed slightly before the hole in the sky.
[ ] Moby Monstro: The Academy wanted a ship to hunt down Monstro immediately: it was no longer in Broken Giant, but they theorized it was somewhere in the Reach still. If a ship could find it and scan it and perform bio-studies WITHOUT crashing, it could prove immensely valuable data.
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"And lo, the elementals are generous! See how they give us the tools to enrich our reactors in order to optimize output by 21%! See how they give us the minerals to forge chips with up to eighteen percent more processing power than those produced elsewhere in the Directorate! And yet all they ask in return for these gifts is that we keep this world to the elementals liking! That we give appropriate compensation!
And yet some would propose we starve the Elementals by draining their world of warmth! Already, their displeasure is felt, for miles around the heatpump the elementals anguish renders the magma sea scornful and violent! And for what? Pure vanity! We do not need Naklis to be as Teklia! It's heat may be harsh, but we are well protected by shields and ferroplastic! Its air may be poison, but we breath with artificial lungs! It's soil may be barren, but it holds within it great treasures, and we are capable of feeding ourselves using our existing living space already!
And yet for this, we change Naklis by trying to make it more suitable for the Tekket at the expense of the elementals, when perhaps we should do the reverse, and cultivate Naklis to be more suitable for the elementals!"
The erection of the Naklis Heatpump would prove controversial, to say the least. Even as industry and exploitation on Naklis expanded to meet the increasing needs of the Directorate for Naklean Geodes for reactor enrichment, so too did habitation requirements and power needs. The Heatpump, a floating microcity erected on the molten sea, was intended to solve this problem, drawing energy from the vast amounts of heat of the Naklis ocean, and bleeding off even more: the intent, to slowly reduce the temperature of Naklis in order to reduce its overall volatility and harshness in the quest to slowly greenify the planet.
This would be immediately met with anger by the Elementalists, who claimed that the spirits, born of this volatile world, actually prefered volatility, preferred the harshness and heat: that by trying to drain it all away, that the spirits were upset. And indeed, in the coming months, explorers would note all manner of concerning phenomenon: Pyrofiends emerging from the sea and slamming themselves against boats. Unsettling whispers from deep below the stone. Gems hued with an uncanny light said to bring horrific luck. Veins of living metal growing with uncanny speed, creating sharp and jagged deposits throughout the earth akin to metallic thornbushes.
More skeptical mysteks posited, however, that this was a case of correlation not equating to causation: after all, every decade more and more lifeforce was pumped into Naklis: it wasn't unreasonable to assume that perhaps this had awoken a great deal of less reasonable spirits compared to ones encountered prior. Perhaps in time there would be observed similar unfortunate spirits on Teklia.
The Druids meanwhile posited that the phenomena was merely a slight deviation in the spiritual balance of Naklis, one that could be corrected by either by improving the Naklean Totem Network or introducing innate sources of lifeforce, ones that resonated with the elemental spirits. This would of course require sourcing some form of extremophile capable of surviving and thriving in Naklis's complete LACK of a biosphere.
Many Occulteks meanwhile would claim that these spirits were entirely natural: not ill and wicked beings, not disturbed and angered omens, not some imbalance in the natural order. Merely a stronger, more alive order of spirit that the Tekket had to adapt to and learn how to deal with and how to come to accords, ones that weren't so easy succored.
The resulting debate would rage for years in the Great Conclave, with no definitive winner, merely everyone coming away dissatisfied.
EXPansion Points (EXP Points): 45
Nuclear Material: 9
NEW ACTIONS:
Cosmic Empathy Engine: It had been proven by the Lunar Monasteries that the overview effect was good for the soul: the reaffirmation of empathy made it far more rigorous to the diseases of the spirit. The Luna Monks wanted to go further, and design a specialized MMI Chamber equipped with a Bond-Machina and specialized warding, all designed to allow, for a brief moment, a degree of cosmic empathy and self-awareness. All the technology required existed, under the au: all the monks needed was the resources to help assemble these chambers and the network capacity to run them. 0/25, unlock Cosmic Empathy Engine artefact, increasing FTH and mental resilience. Cost: 1 Network.
Endless Enlightenment Matrix: The Lunar Monasteries believed that the overview effect brought clarity, objectivity. However, to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos, the mind cannot waver. To this end, they believed they could engineer a sort of apparatus designed to ensure that their emotions were always serene and help them reach a state of ultimate clarity. 0/25, unlock Endless Enlightenment Matrix, increasing FTH and mental resilience. Cost 1 Network.
Supreme Comprehension Psychotron: The Lunar Monks recognized that the greatest effect of the Overview was PERSPECTIVE: they incorporated it into their ethics lessons daily, to help them remain mindful, with the sad understanding that having a wholly complete perspective was impossible: Tekket comprehension was not infinite. But they wished to at least attempt to grow closer to comprehension by creating a psychotronic engine designed to help Tekket observe and absorb vast amounts of information and process it in a manner comprehensible and as complete as possible. 0/25, unlock Supreme Comprehension Psychotron, increasing CUL and mental resilience. Cost 1 Network
Infinite Inspiration Accelerator: The Lunar Monks believed that the Overview Effect, when paired with a special mental accelerator designed to stimulate the neurons while allowing the organic brain to, VERY BRIEFLY, piggyback off of a vast quantum computer could allow for moments of simulated genius. 0/25, unlock Infinite Inspiration Accelerator, increasing both CUL and ACD by an elevated amount. Cost 1 Network.
Great Elemental Temple: A proposed solution to the problem of appeasing the Elementals was expanding their temples considerably: more graze space, more living quarters, more sub-shrines, more Arbor Guardians, as well as various other facilities such as Mag-Tek Altar ritual chambers and and power generation and network facilities, along with medical and agricultural facilities to grow food for their monks. It would represent a solid compromise on the Directorates part with the Elementalists and provide them a great deal more resources to work with, hopefully allowing for a middle ground to be reached. 0/25, upgrade Elemental Temples to be wholly self-sufficient, increasing FTH, cost 1 Warp and Network.
Elemental Spire: The Elementals wanted volatility, then they could have volatility! The Naklis Heatpump would be modified to incorporate a perpetunite reactor and some GodTek, with the purpose of creating a sort of reverse-terraforming engine, allowing Naklis to be elementaformed to the spirits content: in turn, the Spire would draw energy from the Elementals to power rituals. 0/25, upgrade Naklis Heatpump to elementaform the planet, increasing FTH, cost 1 Artefact and Nuclear Material.
((((()))))
On the ship, additional shrines would be installed, one for each major subsystem. After all, a ship was not just a whole, but also the sum of its parts: on the Valiant, the Fusion Cannon and Perpetunite reactors would slowly be nourished with lifeforce. In Communications, translation matrixes feasted and grew. In Science, scanners found the electricity pumping through their circuitry laced with raw soulstuff even as Q-Chips would briefly surge with processing power. In Engineering, the Torch Drive would occasionally twitch, expelling bits of excess vitality it hadn't yet evolved enough to absorb by violently expunging it for excess thrust. The Particle Field would shimmer occasionally, the spirit within weakly reinforcing itself with the lifeforce.
Each and every Shrine with their attendant ShrineHerd, Arbor-Guardian, and Shrine-Keeper Team. All dedicated to coaxing as much strength out of the ship as possible. In the coming days, these Sub-Systems would, across every ship, show more and more quirks, the many spirits of the ship being coaxed into crude, basic awareness: individually, still infinitesimally lesser than a Bond-Drone, but the spirits of an entire ship didn't think in mere individual terms. Their intelligence, Ship-Mysteks and Vesselguardians (as the caretakers of shipboard shrine-keepers began to name themselves) posited, was collective, done wholly as a group. Some might be stronger, but they were still merely one part of a far greater spiritual conglomerate.
These shipboard aggregates would quickly find themselves being referred to by superstitious ensigns in the fleet as the Voidborn Parliments.
Culture Points (CUL Points): 28
BioData: 1
((((()))))
Elsewhere in the Directorate, major religious developments would find themselves occurring with rapidity. First, the creation of the Lunar Monasteries, thirteen temple complexes operated by a pan-religious collective as part of the Great Conclave to conduct theological research and spiritual training using the Overview Effect.
Results would prove fruitful: Overview Meditation, conducted using special viewing chambers constructed using Lumium glass and specialized MMI Neurostimulators would prove extremely effective at empathy exercises and inspiring all manner of religious treatise, as well as the development of specialized talisman crafted in order to serve as tokens of divine authority.
These holy talismans, crafted by and large from the Holy Nuts of the Arbor Guardians, were covered in microscopically engraved sacred mathematical formulae, divine and esoteric scriptures, and even some occult calligraphy. Each one, manufactured by the major religious orders at their chiefmost holy place, would hum with invisible power, especially those of the Heart and Toymaker, the former being carved to resemble the same beating, pulsing organ their god was named after, the latter designing theirs to resemble nothing less than wooden buttons which frequently found themselves sewn into the sacred toys produced and distributed by the clergy, typically to the children aboard warp-bound vessels. These blessed toys would help repel Mimics, who found themselves unable to transmogrify themselves into the items in question and extremely averse to approaching them.
For the Toymakers, it was an especially fruitful pair of decades indeed as they found themselves aglut with lifeforce and resources to perform theurgic research in the invocation of their deity. Year after year, the Mysteks among their number toiled, sacrificing vast amounts of vitality until they had finally succeeded in developing a small handful of minor divine invocations, with only three rites of any notable potency.
The ability to briefly animate toys, especially sacred toys, filling them with a false and temporary life to do as the priest bids. A rite capable of generating a small sprite formed of lifeforce that would fly around for a brief moment before fading. And a ritual capable of sending the Toy Maker into a divinely inspired frenzy, allowing them to craft amusements of prestigious quality and strong of spirit.
Mere party tricks, but still a clear sign of the Toymakers favor, causing the gods clergy to swell with faithful and plentiful offerings to be made.
And yet not everything was well, towards the end of the second decade, across the Directorate, myriad priests, mysteks, shrine-keepers, and others would collapse, complaining of horrific migraines and muddled thoughts. Theoretical research data would be gone, not even deleted so much as if they had never been put onto the database at all. Even written words would fade.
For ten daze, a haze settled over Tekket-kind as information found itself deleted so thoroughly it was only detectable by the holes and shadows left behind. And then it ended, and the God-Machines made an announcement: a fatal paradox had occurred, and to neutralize it, the God-Machines had done...something.
Something had been lost. Talismans, Directorate investigators believe, or something related to them. It's as if they've been conceptually erased.
Select a branch of Talisman Development. It will not be available. As exchange, there will be recompense from the God-Machines.
The next HazardTek roll for talismanic projects will be ignored, as the roll will have never happened.
[ ] The Sacred: The many spirits of the world found themselves nourished by the Talismans crafted by the Shrine-Keepers. Should this path remain open, the Tekket will continue to develop more advanced means of utilizing Talismans to awaken and invokate the spirits of the cosmos.
Major Talisman Technologies Lost: Elemental Talismans, Greater Sacred Talismans, Meditative Talismans
Recompense: Talismanic ChronoCore - Inside the talisman is a chamber. Inside the chamber is a heart, sustained by advanced life support, intended to keep the heart alive for relative aeons. Time in the chamber moves at several thousand times increased speed compared to the outside: allowing the heart to (seem as if) it's capable of generating a near infinite (if still rather slow) stream of lifeforce with which to feed spirits. 0/25.
[ ] The Arcane: The mystic, the occult. Talismans represented a method of control over these strange and enigmatic force and method to defend against them. Should this path remain open, the Tekket will continue to develop more advanced means of utilizing Talismans to perform sorcerous rites and rituals.
Major Talisman Technologies Lost: Greater Occult Talismans, Arcane Talismans, Warding Talismans
Recompense: HexTek Talismans- HexTek was a branch of God-Machine mathematics that dealt with probability manipulation. By incorporating it into your Talismans, HexTek could be utilized to allow your Mysteks to offer up their own good fortune in order to improve the outcome of their rites and rituals by aligning chance and fortune with the intended ritual outcome. 0/25
[ ] The Divine: Even that which was divine found itself under the sway of Talismans, used to act as badges of sacred authority and icons of power in order to invoke the heavens. Should this path remain open, the Tekket will continue to develop more advanced means of using Talismans to call upon the divine.
Major Talisman Technologies Lost: Greater Holy Talismans, //PATH TekTalismans, Awakening Hearts.
Recompense: Talismanic GodNet - They will make Talismans that speak with each other. Their voices will speak in unison, each one small, but together, they shall help talk into existence that which you deem divinity. The more voices that they speak with, the stronger each voice will be, and the words that one knows shall be known by all, until they assemble together such thesis that they can postulate the celestial into existence. 0/25
Faith Points (FTH Points): 35
ART: 1
Warp (WP): 1
New Actions
On Toys: A book considered a holy text to the adherants of the Toy Maker, On Toys was penned three centuries before the Destroyer War by Garven Blok. As in the Garven Blok who created BlokCo, which in turned created the first BlokTek. Most of the book is encrypted using an engram that still hasn't been cracked to this day. However, as more arcane knowledge of the Toymaker was developed, more and more of the book was decoded. With access to the Directorates computers, adherants to the Toymaker believed they could finally decode it entirely, discovering the lost wisdom of Garven Blok. 0/10, Toy Makers upgraded with On Toys, a holy text that increases ACD.
Mimic Traps: A number of Occulteks had taken to calling upon the Toy Maker in order to design 'mimic traps' created utilizing theoretical warding principles crossed with theurgy and, of course, their own knowledge of daemonology, in order to catch the little devils before they caused harm. This had proven of...questionable effectiveness. The Occulteks believed the theory was sound, but for it to work, dedicated research effort had to be applied. 0/15, Toy Makers upgraded with Mimic Trap Box artefact, increasing FTH.
Offerings to the Crafter of Merriment: With more and more attention brought to the Toy Maker and his clergy swelling, especially in light of the increasing mimic attacks, a number of Tekket had begun agitating for an offering to be made to the Toy Maker, one of massive size, in order to secure his favor and blessings. 0/25, Toy Maker offered massive amounts of Lifeforce in exchange for variable boons. Cost 1 Warp. Repeatable.
Rites of the Toymaker: The current rites were, to put it simply, more useful for what they represented than what they could do. But perhaps that could be amended: additional resources put towards developing theurgic rituals invoking the Toy Maker could allow for the improvement and expansion of what gifts the Lord of the Fae might allow those who call upon them. 0/80, develops Lesser Toymaker Rites, increasing FTH and CUL significantly. Can be reduced to 0/40 by spending 1 Warp or 0/25 by spending 2 Warp.
Temple to the Fool: The eldest son of the Toy Maker, the Fool had an extremely specific domain: the Fool was, to put it simply, the god of stupidity and slapstick. His stories and myths had a recurring motif: the Fool would be doing something or another before being accosted by some villain or monster seeking to cause the Fool harm, only for the Fools stupidity to cause their foe to injure themselves, typically without the Fool ever noticing. With the Toy Maker receiving additional clergy, many faithfuls of the Fool wished to establish their own temple. Specifically to serve as a university of sorts for aspiring fools. 0/25, establishesTemple to the Fool Actual Clown College, a Holy Site Complete Travesty that increases CUL by two trains future disgraces to their ancestors in the art of getting hit by pies and yet somehow making the pie thrower look like the idiot.
Temple to the Hermit: Eldest daughter of the Toy Maker, the Hermit held domain over Magic, having served as a patron to myriad magicians prominent in many multitudinous myths. It was said that she retreated from the world when her grand and gracious gifts found themselves grotesquely misused by malicious and mendacious tyrants: yet many a mystek and modern magician believed that the Hermit still yet graced hidden and secret parts of the dreamland, still occasionally granting a magician her patronage. These Mysteks wanted to assemble a temple to the Hermit, one where the Eldest Daughter could be honored and entreated. 0/25, establishes Temple to the Hermit, a Holy Site that improves Rites, increasing FTH.
((((()))))
Science Log, 4179.1018
Well, we've finally confirmed what we've all known for decades. Mt. Wander is still alive.
Unfortunately, we've also learned that we may have shot ourselves in the foot. To put it simply, based on what we've observed and measured, had we done nothing to Mt. Wander, it would have bled out already and likely lost all it's animation. The continued pumping of lifeforce seems to have kept it alive in its injured state and, unfortunately, not only is the mountain healing, it's still mutating.
Biologically, it has no DNA. Most of it is seemingly inorganic, yet our observations have shown repeatedly that as you explore deeper into the mountain, the rock begins, and there is no way to phrase this that is not unfortunate, THROBBING. To the touch it still remains, and I'm still attempting to figure out a way to phrase this in an official report, rock hard and firm.
Throughout the mountain, one will also find strange membranous veins throughout the stone pumping a strange green fluid: more every year, especially under areas serviced by Totems. Analysis reveals it's the same substance as the substance the mountain is bleeding. It is, to put it simply, blood. Mountain blood. Extremely high in minerals and lifeforce. As in, the substance is capable of reanimating minerals.
The only reason the pebblecrabs, scrap-bats, and rockslugs aren't considered an invasive species is because they can only exist near the Mountain: venture too far from the glowing great lake, and they begin to slowly lose vigor and energy before returning to total dormancy.
At any rate, we've managed to find the heart of Mt. Wander. A chamber accessible through a tunnel on the northernmost slope of the mountain, the heart is approximately three meters in diameter, many lobed, and glows green. It beats every ten minutes, and merely being in the same room as it caused the spirits of the machines used to explore and analyze the mountain to violently awaken and go berzerk.
Exposure to the Heart also causes severe mutations. We've taken the liberty of cordoning off the chamber, sending our condolences to the families of the deceased, and adding flamethrowers to our requisition forms.
What scrapings we've managed to collect indicate the heart is formed out of uranium glass, or a substance analogous to it.
Of course, this is all irrelevant to the point of these studies, I fear. The big question, the one everyone wants to know: if Mt. Wander woke up, are we capable of knocking back down?
And unfortunately, I don't know if we are.
End Log.
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Meanwhile, a new doctrine would find itself being implemented by the Engineers of the Fleet, taking after the philosophy used by the famous Captain Toxel, one of the first captains of the Fleet and the first to use a Warp-Drive. The technicians attempting to emulate Toxels style would undertake a number of courses in the Fleet meant to improve their ability to improve on the fly: novel gravitics, advanced particle mechanics, comedy improv, and perform all manner of rigorous exercises to hone their ability to perform feats of incredible engineering under stress: creating specialized VR simulators meant to be impossible to solve via brute force.
Every year, these sims would grow more and more complex as the programmers designed them went to more and more pains to design physics engines of such sophistication that they could be used to model more sophisticated, immersive, and difficult programs and design and patch solutions to various problems and glitches. Some few would be leaked onto the network, where they would garner a modest niche among gamers who favored hyper-difficult simulators.
Eventually, this strategic philosophy, emphasizing the ability to perform creatively under intense and immediate pressure, would find its way into the classrooms. The sims that had been unofficially distributed by cadets and ensigns and fans of the Fleetslike genre in their free time had become officially part of the curriculum.
And, on the Endeavor...
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"Alright, we're standing by," Came the voice from the control booth, making Stizlak grunt, the Grot standing in the center of the pebbled arena, circled with soil, mushroom caps pushing their way up from the surface. The Arena was surrounded on all sides by Screwheads Natureboyz, ready to do their mojo int' th' ground.
Edges of the chambah had a pair of them Spookyboyz on eitha' side, holdin' their ringing bell-stikkz up high next t' the shrines on each side. "Stizlak, are you ready?" Stizlak eyed the giant tanks of bluish fluid that were about to be pumped into the soil, each of them lined up against the wall, connected to the ground vid long injector spine: already, he could smell something right crapper sniffin', and he knew that once that gunk got injected into the ground, it'd smell even worse, something the Screwdocs had promised to fix goin' forward.
Supposedly, all this was what was required t' fix th' fact his barneys weren't poppin, so t' speak. "Aye, let's get this ovah with," Stizlak. "I wanna get to the fun part." The whole set up was the result of a bunch of the Screws decidin' t' be right chummy, which Stizlak did appreciate, for the record, he just didn't like all th' obsession with PROCEEDURE the Screws had: not only was it borin', in Stizlak's personally opinion having to sit and do pointless checklists when you could actually be out DOING things was, in a word, HELL, and the fact he had to go through with this every time they upgraded this chamber was making him absolutely BARKIN'.
His foot tapped tapped tapped against the floor, even as the countdown began. "Alright, all systems nominal. Beginning Gobbgrot Rite in 3...2...1..."
The lights cut off. Each of the Screwhead Wyldboyz began pounding on the many hooped drums they used to commune with nature, each beat draining lifeforce from the chamber above them, half of the red streams of energy flowing into the ground, causing the mushrooms to begin spreading and growing before Stizlaks eyes. "Gobbgrot Rite proceeding as in prior situations: increased mushroom shape and size, but no success YET, though we are detecting a high degree in genomic variety. Begining Bugglintek Proceedures..."
Above each tank, a light popped on, and slowly the tanks began to drain as their cobalt contents were pumped into the ground. As Stizlak predicted, the smell immediately got worse. "I thought you screws were gonna fix that! It smells like a dinkin' sewer in here!" He growled, tappin' his comm badge.
"Sorry, new formula. It showed 7% more morphogenic efficiency in tests, so the Academy wants to see how it performs." Oh BLOODY Zog, the bleedin' academy was gonna drive him mad! It was always with the needles and th' pokin' and the-
Wait, seven percent? "Crickey, that's not bad!" Stizlak said, impressed. Education had never been much of a priority for the Grot, but he had to learn maths to help manage the pens: 7% aloud didn't sound like much, but add it up with the other percentages that the Screwtekks had given him for the various blends and formulas and enzymes they had been tinkerin' with, Stizlak figured it added to a rough 78, which in turn rounded to about 80. And 80 was a LOT of beasties!
It definitely showed, too. Mushrooms were gettin' weird. Weird shapes, the bright caps distorting into spongey nets and strange puff-balls and even stranger stuff, like growin' mouths and teeth, creatin...not quite Squig, Stizlak reckon'd, too much fungus, not enough animal. Occasionally, from the ground, a bug would fly out, roughly th' size of Stizlaks hand, two pairs of wings beating behind a pair of big and shiny eyes as they flew through the air before getting speared and devoured by the Squogstools tongue, the creature dragging the buggoz into its mouth and messily devouring them.
"Well that's horrifying," The Technitian said over intercomm after a few moments of silence. "Good news, the new formula is definitely a success! We have complete biogenesis into both insect life and more diverse morphologies of fungus, including several blends of what can only be described as self-carnivorous sub-species of super-fungi!" The voice caused Stizlak to roll his eyes at the false chipperness.
"Ah, nah, it's just th' circle of life- Y'get this back home," He noted, watching as the Squogstool picked its teeth of the buglin, tongue picking the bits of meat and shell stuck between the pieces of shite enamel from their lodgings: the latter would be flicked away, sent to fertilize the growth of more Squogstool caps growing below in the moist and soft soil, their speckled white orange and red caps pushing their way up from below the surface. "Squog's gotta eat, and Buglins eat the small caps, so it's all fair game." That was...more or less how it worked, right? Yeah, yeah, had to be. Wasn't nothin' cruel or horrifing, it was just nature: everything needed t' eat, after all.
"...Fair enough, I suppose," The Technician conceded. "Still, this is fascinating: so your whole species is sort of like its own ecosystem in a can, huh? That, uh..."
...Yeah, not great: meant that if 'e ever met any grotz what were advanced enough to not be off limits from the directeev, he'd 'ave t' be VERY careful about lettin' em anywhere near 'iz beasties. 'Course, you sure you wanna meet any otha grotz?' A small part of him whispered. 'After all, you ain't like THEM no more: you're a right weirdie, aincha? How much you even remembah of life back on Monstro? An' how much of it was GOOD memories? Real good ones, not just memories of getting to kick others around for once instead of the reverse and thinkin' that was good because that was all you knew back then?'
Stizlak banished the thought. It had come to bother him more and more the past decades, his memories of his time on Monstro: at night, when 'e dreamed, on the good nights Stizlak dreamed of beasties: horned beasties strong enough to toss whole logs, fanged beasties capable of takin; down their prey quick and cleanless all elegant like, fierce beasties capable of wreckin' gitz what zogged em off for messin' wiff their family, heck, he even liked the fuzzie beasties: very few things were as gratifyin' as havin' the trust of puffkin waddlings enough that they'd follow you around like a mama puffbird, in Stizlak's humble opinion, or gettin' to go to sleep all snuggled with a frost-dog: very soothin' that could be.
On the bad nights Stizlak dreamed of workin' the killing fields. He dreamed of hunger. He dreamed of clubs.
He dreamed of cruelty.
It was what he liked most about nature. It wasn't always kind, but it was always fair, in a way, and it wasn't cruel, not really. Cruelty generally required intent.
"-Zlak? Stizlak?"
Stizlak shook his head. "Sorry mate, 'ad a bit of a memory there," He said, keeping his voice up. "Can we get to the fun part now?" He asked, grinning. This was the best part, the thing that got his blood pumping!
"I, uh, alright. Continuing to step three, Combat Simulator Koboldron." From the ceiling, bloks descended, linking together in the air piece by piece to form a long, segmented robot formed out of black and brown ferroplastic, long and serpentine in shape, covered in hundreds of tiny mechanical legs, underside blinking with various lights and diodes. "Difficulty 6 okay?"
Stizlak thought it out. On the one hand, 'e had to pace himself. Too much too fast and he just wound up exhaused and didn't get no mojo goin'. On the other hand, he was feelin' froggy.
Seven percent more froggy. "Gimme difficulty seven AND I want me some chaff." Stizlak smirked.
"Oooh, bold choice! Adding in level seven upgrades, bringing this robopede up to a megapede..." The control booth said as more bloks flew out, assembling together to form large upgrades to the Screwbot, making it larger and addin' more (foam padded) weaponry to its back: the thing now towered over Stizlak, a full grown Golem-Class.
"And a few flies!" One by one, small flybots were assembled, named so for their long wings which, in Stizlak's experience, weren't all that great at helping it fly, anti-grav module or no. After about ten minutes or so, about ten of them floated in the air, hovering menacingly, releasing a variety of hostile beeps...
Before one got speared by a Squogstool, causing it to fall to pieces to the ground, causing several other flybots to swoop down and start cobbling upgrades on themselves.
"Alright, adding a few more..."
"Keep em coming through the fight," Stizlak commanded, grinning.
"You're the boss-man," The control booth replied, and Stizlak had to admit, he still got a warm fuzzy feeling from hearing that phrase. More flybots began to form, brick by brick by brick. "Right, what weapon we wanting?"
"Weapon?" Stizlak scoffed. "Mate, you don't go at an animal with a WEAPON." He stretched his armes out, intertwining and cracking his knuckles. "I'm usin' me hands for this one."
"...Alrighty, in that case, we are beginning in three...two...one..."
The Megapede roared and dived at Stizlak. Stizlak grinned and ran towards it.
________
Stizlak felt the air get knocked out of their lungs as they landed on their stomach. Before him, three Golempedes wobbled: the middle one missing massive amounts of bits, like most of its head, a number of its legs, and its eyes. The two on either side were in better condition, but they weren't doing so hot either.
Stizlak though?
Stizlak was havin' a right BANGER of a time! "Heh, I haven't felt this alive in years!" He crowed, leaping forward, using a series of flybots on a bombing run as stepping stones to reach the leftmost golempede, latching onto it, and grabbing one of its legs, ripping the bloks out with his bare hand and tossing it away, noting from the edge of his vision it getting snapped up by a flybot: zog did he love screwbots, they were the absolute funnest thing t' 'ave a good scrap with!
Quickly, he wriggled to the side, avoiding a blow by a padded hammer affixed to the next megapede, the other tackling into its compatriot to get at the grot. The combination was enough to break most of it apart, killing the golem and causing the ever increasing swarm of flybots to descend like a great cloud of scavengers on the swaying creature as it fell, Stizlak leaping off it to grab another flybot. "Gimme an update!" He cried, eyes scanning the sides.
Definite progress! Some of the Squogstools had evolved to full on Squogfrogs, hopping in the soil, attempting to spear the odd flybot between their croaks. The Buggos had grown to full on Buggbuzzes, their body having grown long and segmented, having grown three pairs of legs beneath their bodies and a pair of sharp mandibles they used to attack the odd Squogfrog. Other things were lurking around now, like beetle-like creatures with shimmering emerald shells, squat looking porcine creatures with tiny tusks snuffling in the soil, and even bigger mushrooms, some as tall as trees.
"We're seeing a massive jump! You've just kickstarted something, Stizlak! Do you want to stop now or-"
"Step four!" He said, leaping off the Flybot, letting it crash into a bot that was halfway to forming a robopede that needed removing immediately. "Now!"
"Step four! Prepare for the Offering of Gnarlins!" To the sides, he could see the Shrine Keepers, behind the rows and rows of shrooms, raise their bells, chiming them once, twice, before the air grew heady with the scent of vitality, the sign that the shrines were online and Arbor Guardians juicin' any waaaagh spirits that might exist with all the mojo and then some.
Immediately, Stizlak felt an electric surge down his spine, and something bubbling in his gut as he avoided the stunner blast that had been aimed at him, ducking beneath it in order to let it demolish the screwbot that had been just behind him, moving faster, faster than he had ever been. Grabbing another circling flybot, Stizlak THREW it, using it as a projectile against the recovering robopedes, hitting them with enough force to SPLATTER the smaller robots, and stagger the larger one. The bubbling in his gut continued, growing larger and larger as he slammed into the staggered megapede, knocking it over long enough for Stizlak to clamber up and down it, ripping out parts as he went, until the bubbling finally erupted from his body as a full on giggle. "Hehheheheheheh, heh, hehheheheh, heHAHAhehe-" He chortled as his arms shot out above him, grabbing a flying flybot and bringing it slamming into the megapede, using it as a bludgeon over and over even as the sound of bells continued in the background, the everpleasant chime of mischief and violence flowing through Stizlaks veins as he heard whispers: 'ere we go ere we go ere we go ere we go.
Briefly, he considered the possibility that the Spookyboyz were right, and the Waaagh Spirits WERE a thing, that the fight, the ritual, the offerings, and even th' formula full of academy gunk had all worked to conjure them. The thought was dismissed immediately, not because it wasn't possible, but because that was a thought for later Stizlak.
For now... "Oi! Spirits!" Stizlak roared as he send his foot through a Blokbot. "You blokes listening?" Listening? listening listening listening- "I'LL TAKE THAT AS A YES!" He roared, seeing mushrooms twice the grots size grow eyes and legs, staggering for a bit before they began charging into screwbots, smashing up the megapedes. Buglinz, huge antisopteran insects half Stizlaks size, swarmed the air, ripping apart flybots as fast as they could be built. Squiggies squealed, tearing across the arena. Untouched, their nerves like steel, the Wyldboyz continued their drum beat, and the spookyboyz continued chiming their bells. "I'm tired a bein' the only bloke around! You wanna do a mate a solid?"
Solid solid solid? "Gimme some mates!" Stizlak roared, leaping above the head of a centebot, tearing its head off and sending it spinning into more bots, the sight causing the grot to let out a cackle. "Some right proppa gitz like me!" The bells continued, and it was as if they began to chime on a deeper, more primal level, Stizlak letting out a soundless howl as he rushed forward, lost in an absolute frenzy even as the voices of the spirits began to gain definition. Gitz gitz gitz gitz...
For a moment everything stilled, and the howling cackle that had seized Stizlak guttered out...
You...want...gitz? You...give...challenge...feed...
"You wanna feed?" Stizlak roared, laughing even as he continued to duck and weave and toss and throw and rip and tear, "Then feed! You want more mojo, doncha? Gimme the energy to keep goin', and me and the Screws'll give you all the mojo you want! Enough to feed you for a whole month!"
Month...yes...good...Fight.
Stizlak moved, continuing to wreck his way through the BlokBots filling the chamber, quickly realizing that with the everything else, the bots were getting swatted faster than they could build up: 'eck, it almost looked like they were...running...out...of. "Difficulty 8!" He roared. "Gimme a mammoth! Gimme a few golems coming in too! We need t' kick things up a notch!"
"Whoah, that seems extreme, are you absolutely-"
"Trust me! We need an all out brawl!" Stizlak yelled, giddy as he felt his fatigue melt away. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he felt it, all around him: waaagh, almost, but different, the same sort of drum beat, but dancing at a different, more focused and steady pace, given clarity by the sound of bells and rhythm by the staccato beats of the Screwheads, each beat feeling with a fire in his veins as he saw all around him the Eco-Chamber be consumed by naked battle. "And gimme some fight music!" He roared, realizing he needed somefin' else: a jam.
"Alright, you're the boss. Some primo fight music, coming rrrrright up on 98.4 KTEM, Music in the Morning." With that bit of smartarsery over, several large bloks would descend into the chamber, rapidly configuring themselves into a large spiderlike figure, many many times Stizlaks size, a large and imposing cubic behemoth with a single unblinking red eye at Stizlak, who skidded to a stop, even as, over the intercom, a beat began to play, a heavy and industrial track overlayed with series of lyrics sung by what sounded like the angriest screw ever- in otherwords, someone that by grot standards would be mildly annoyed.
Eh, whatever. Stizlak cracked his neck, preparing to run.
He felt it. The mojo. The jam. The universal waveform pulse. The waaagh, or something like it. Whatever it was, it was power. And he was just on the cusp of it being strong enough, he could FEEL it!
With a cackle, he charged forward...
((((()))))
Stizlak awoke with a groan, noting surlyly that the lights were back on. His bones hurt. All his bones. Even the ones in places he didn't even know bones existed. "Did it work?" He muttered, sitting up, wincing, staring at the now thoroughly overgrown chamber. The Screwheads were having to beat off the denizens, their protections against them ended with the performance of the ritual, though none were going at them with any real energy. All around the chamber, scattered, were bloks, and a handful of half-functioning screwbots fluttered about, mostly helping the screwheads beat the wildlife back off.
"Stizlak, are you okay?! You just-"
"I remember," Stizlak lied. "Now focus: did it work?"
...
"We're noticing some anomalies. Please stand by: Do you mind helping keep the new local flora off our Mysteks in the mean time?"
"They're just squiggies and and buglinz," Stizlak said, rolling his eye as he stood up, swatting at an insect that approached him. "They're animals: stun em once or twice and they'll get the message," He explained, confident in his answer.
"Alright, we'll defer to you, Stizlak, you're the closest thing we have to an expert here. Kyte out." And with that, the control booth fell silent. Cracking his neck, Stizlak walked forward, feeling a bone deep exhaustion fill his body. Whatever had just happened, he mused, it probably shouldn't normally happen. Still, definitely fun, definitely gonna have to try that: maybe if 'e asked the spirits nicely, they'd give a big boost to some of 'is favorite wrestlin' beasties too.
Froglins hopped, bugglins flied, squiglins snuffled through the soil, and squogstools grumbled, giving the chamber a cacophanous nature.
It was nice, but it needed more normal nature, Stizlak mused. Maybe now that 'e had all this, 'e could see about transplantin' it to other eco-chambers, give it a nice mix of beasties and...
Whatever he'd call his not-squigs, he supposed. As he mused, the grot nearly found himself tripping, stumbling forward as he accidentally ran into something squirming in the dirt. Falling into a tumble, the Grots chin slammed into the dirt with a thud. "Well, at least me lucks still golden," He mused, standing up and turning to see what had caused him to fall...
It was grots. Wriggling out of the ground. Here and there and everywhere, bodies orange and red and yellow and some even a sort of dark mustard color, features unnaturally soft as they blinked with large and watery eyes, gazing at him and everything as they un-dug themselves from below the dirt. Some of them had joined the bugglins in harassing the Screwheads, who had, resigned, resorted to feeding the insects small scraps of food to stop their assaults (to some success, Stizlak noted), even as the Grots crawled up their robes and bit at them. Others were chasing each other around, jabbering in broken sentence fragments. Others still were climbing trees and leaping down below onto the bugs, squashing them flat when they landed.
A few, he noted with concern, had to be pulled from the mouth of hungry Squogstools by the Screwheads. "Looks like it worked!" A voice said behind him, and Stizlak's expression softened a touch at the sight of one of his oldest friends approaching behind him.
"Wonderin' when you'd get here, Kyte," He said, nodding, before turning his gaze back. This was...not quite right, Stizlak realized. The proportions were wrong: one grot was unnaturally stretched and thin, one looked incredibly stubby and rounded, another looked like his 'ead was a bleedin' CUBE. And they were actin'...strange. Unfocused, unintelligent.
"I fink somethin's wrong," Stizlak muttered. "Grots is smarter than this," He said, walking to one of the grots, who tilted their head even as they shoved a toadstool cap into their mouth. "You there," He said, snapping his hand. "You got any 'foughts?"
The thing just gormlessly stared at him. "...Dakka?" It croaked. "Good dakka? Dakka good?"
"...Zog me runnin', they're brainless cretins," Stizlak cursed, causing Kyte to let out a cough.
"Stizlak, thats-" Kyte took a deep breath, trying to remain composed. "I'm pretty sure they're just...newborn," She said stiffly, swallowing as she reasserted her poise.
"I mean, yeah, nah. Theyz newbornz, but they're newborn cretinz," Stizlak explained patiently, poking the Grot, who let out a growl at the contact. "Grotz ain't like other beasties: we're supposed to come out the ground fully smart. These gitz are zogged out of their gourd." Honestly, he could be wrong about that: it had been long enough ago since he had been around Grots that he didn't really remember his early years all that well, a thought that was deeply uncomfortable to think about
Kyte hummed, the aging Tekkets face deep in thought. "It could be a flaw with the serum, or the ritual, or perhaps a side effect of your original mutation," She mused, in a voice Stizlak annoyingly recognized as the 'humoring him' voice Screws sometimes used. "Whatever genetic memory you once had might have been scrambled. I mean, it stands to reason, after all: random mutation isn't particularly good at preserving genetic integrity," she said with a smirk in a tone of voice that indicated that the Tekket THOUGHT what they had just said qualified as a joke, and once again Stizlak had to remind himself that he liked the screws in SPITE of their sense of humor.
"Kyte," Stizlak deadpanned.
Kyte held up her hands. "Sorry, sorry. But still, we'll do cognition tests: chances are though that if they're biologically the same as you though they'll just need some form of education, or whatever the equivalent for grots is," She said, kneeling down to look the blinking, nervous grot in the eye, holding a light up. "They're definitely responsive to visual stimuli," She mused, pulling back, turning the light off.
"Mmm, maybe," Stizlak admitted, and on some level he was relieved. On another level though... "We're not really grots though, is we? Not normal ones at least, not no more." He mused, thinking, frown set. "Wrong shade, wrong shapes, wrong squigs..." Wrong mindset. They were right proper unorky, Stizlak noted, watching several of the NotGrots climbing taller mushrooms in order to just hop off of em. A buncha clanless, unorky grots what didn't know nothing.
"I wouldn't say clanless. You do have each other," Kyte noted, and Stizlak huffed...before cocking his head. Y'know, that was true, wasn't it? They might not 'ave a good waaaagh goin' behind 'em, they might not 'ave no bleedin warboss or chief, but they did 'ave each other! Stizlak let out a chuckle. An all-grot clan of orange boyz. Now that was a funny one.
"Aye, so indeed," Stizlak mused, thinking things over. Well, if 'e was gonna call this a clan, e' needed somefin to call it. A few names floated in his mind...
Stizlak is considering picking a new term to refer to 'his' grots. Please make this a seperate vote to your plan, as this is purely aesthetic.
[ ] Hobbgrots
[ ] Koboldrons
[ ] Gnarlings
[ ] Boglins
[ ] Bunyips
[ ] Orangeboyz
[ ] Shroomcap Grots
[ ] Grot Exiles
[ ] Stizlaks Clan
[ ] Toadstool Clan
[ ] Anklebiter Clan
[ ] Mojo Clan
[ ] Clan Dinkum
[ ] The Beastie Boys
[ ] Write-In
Academy Points (ACD Points): 31+5
Living Metal: 1
Network: 6
New Actions:
AnimaTek Wrench: The Academy was interested in utilizing information recovered from studying the animatory effects of Mt. Wander and ritual knowledge developed by your priests and mysteks to develop an upgrade to the standard issue OmniWrench: an AnimaTek Awakening Module, allowing them to blast machine spirits with concentrated vital energy (provided by themselves) to spiritually 'overclock' them, allowing for brief moments of increased performance by affected machines. 0/25, Wrenches upgraded with AnimaTek, costs 1 Warp.
Mountain Blood: The substance, your Alkemeteks theorized, could be the secret to many previously thought impossible works dreamed of by the great philosophers of old. The very blood of a living mountain, it oozed potent arcane energy, and carried within it some of Mt. Wanders animating essence. To harness its power, they required vastly improved spectroscopes and chemical synthesizers, however, in order to help process it into a useable form. 0/25, set up Mountain Blood harvesting operation, increasing Warp by 1.
Kobatekka Maru: As simulations grew more and more advanced, more and more of them would wind up in Fleet curriculum. Some programmers wanted to spend dedicated Directorate resources in creating the ultimate series of crisis simulations in order to help train fleet cadets, ones capable of a degree of self-adaptation. 0/25, gain Kobatekka Maru Self-Adapting Simulations, improving Fleet ensign performance considerably. Cost 1 Artefact
Upgrader Class BlokBots: Emergency upgrade units, these 'Bots would seek out and augment bots in the field as needed with their own components, allowing a greater degree of reactivity, being able to optimize and improve performance as needed for as long as needed, before detaching themselves and going on to aid other bots. 0/25, gain Upgrader Class BlokBots, capable augmenting BlokBots to a more powerful + versions in the field.
BlokBot Optimization Principle: The basic program behind Upgraders could be simplified in order to allow for, over time, BlokBots to automatically perform basic optimizations and improvements. This would largely benefit industry, as valuable Tekket-power that was spent on BlokBot design could instead simply be foisted off on machinery. 0/25, BlokBots over time will slowly upgrade to more powerful + versions, increasing EXP.
((((()))))
Brain is scrumbled, most of this updates construction I only have hazy memories of, and I'm having troubles typing words right (I just nearly mixed up joke and vote, for instance), but thankfully the update is finished. If you see any math errors lemme know, gonna go unscrumble my neurons so fixing them will have to wait until tommorow., because today has not been great for personal reasons.
Also addded bots because been forgetting to add in past few updates. Two hour moratorium, Stizlaks clan name must be different vote.
Captains Log, 4177.0926
We've just finished our initial survey of the Eco-Station located in Broken Edge, and I find myself pondering the events that have occured and their potential meaning. Accompanied by the Endeavor that was sent out to survey the ship graveyard and the Valiant which finds its first tour stuck on construction duty, our initial studies consisted of advanced scanning and surveying. The outside of the station is a interesting mix of palladium, iron, carbon, and titanium mixed with a handful of as of yet unidentified elements. Structurally, the station almost resembles a sphere of sorts: two large dome structures connected via a smaller central structure with a slightly different material composition and a vastly different age, which combined with small differences in design, I believe, is sufficient enough evidence to at least SUSPECT that the hemispheres are a later addition by different occupants.
Scans indicated an abundance of Orkoid lifesigns, though with remarkably reduced density, and a variety of unidentified lifesigns. Attempts to hail the occupants of the station failed, leaving us to send a team. As we weren't aware of what we might be facing, the team consisted of myself, Chief Security Machina KORG-97, and a small accompaniment of officers and security specialists.
Entering through an airlock, we attempted to survey the area. As the scans showed, the internals did consist of an Eco-Dome: specifically mimicking an alien jungle. Chamber size was roughly one kilometer in width and height. As per protocol, samples were obtained for analysis. Per reports from chief science officer Ysshi, most of these would prove fairly biocompatible with Teklian ecosystems.
Assaults by Orks occurred on seven different occasions. Due to their relatively cruder technology compared to the Monstro ork civilization and reduced organization and numbers, no casualties were sustained on either side: all encountered combatants were safely disabled non-lethally. We encountered exactly three Orkoids that weren't hostile. Of those three, only two allowed for a dialogue to be opened. The name of the structure according to its inhabitants was 'Diz Place'. We were unable to learn any pertinent details about it's construction, however according to the Orks we questioned, it is at least five or six generations old, however long a generation might be measured for Orks. The only clue we gained was that we apparently weren't the only visitors to the Eco-Stations: apparently, every so often a group of 'beekie gribblies' came through and shot them full of holes with 'them arse stickerz': samples provided consist of arrowheads created from a complex composite alloy that, to be blunt, would probably be capable of punching through several inches of ferroplastic.
Per the Huntsmaster Attache, any civilization capable of crafting these arrowheads is likely at a minimum capable of advanced metallurgy and industrial production. Judging from the integrity of the structure and it's upkeep, assuming these 'beekie gribblies' are the current stewards of this eco-dome, they apparently visit a handful of times each generation. Again, how long this is is unknown.
At any rate, once I had gathered significant information, I opted for a retreat, especially once I heard a very critical piece of information from the ork, a piece of information the Directorate needed to know immediately.
Apparently, the station is due for a visit.
+1 BioData from Survey Samples. High likelyhood in the next few turns of encountering ??? in Broken Edge. Eco-Dome seems to consist of some sort of hunting preserve for, disturbingly, sentients.
Meanwhile, the Endeavor has surveyed the Ship Graveyard! It is a suitable location for constructing a space station...were it not for the high odds this system is owned by another group. The ships, surprisingly, are likely not of Destroyer Origin: they seem to belong to the same group that constructed the original Eco-Station. Regardless, technological samples were obtained for later analysis, providing +5 ACD this turn.
TKK Endeavor: The pinnacle of Tekketi engineering, the Endeavor is the first real space ship constructed in the aftermath of the Destroyer War, incorporating a variety of technologies to enable it to perform its mission. A hypermodular vessel build from grey dyed ferroplastic bloks, its design consists of a wide, thick disc connected via finned spine to two large nacelles. The majority of the crew and work decks, alongside the main Ship-Shrine, are housed in the disc structure alongside next generation gravity engines, wheras the Nacelles each contain sub-engineering decks, redundant systems, and storage.
Armed with advanced shieldtek, heavy fusion torpedos and comm-jammers, the Endeavor is not intended to win a stand up fight, and though its armaments have increased in recent years, it's purpose is purely exploratory. It also comes equipped with an experimental Warp Drive and particle barrier, allowing it to enter, at fairly substantial risk, a dimension that allows for faster than light transportation. In order to offset the risks of the Warp Drive, the Endeavor has recently been expanded, upgraded with both an Academy attachment providing a great deal of technical support and scientific expertise alongside a Mystek Deck where the ships occultists performed protective rituals and strengthening rites alongside esoteric lore to be used at the Captain's behest. Further, it contains a Frontier Explorer compartment, host to several hundred civilians, members of the Frontier Society, civilians who have agreed to join the fleets pioneering expeditions, establishing small observation outposts on worlds the Endeavor visits and providing a number of useful services to the Endeavor such as expanded medical stores and agridecks to produce food. It was also the home of Stizlak the Grot until in-depth biological examinations had been performed. Light structural and crew damage.
TKK Accomplishment: The second pride of the fleet, the Accomplishment was designed around much of the same principles as the Endeavor, for much of the same purpose. In many ways, it was essentially a second Endeavor in its entirety, though that was still an accomplishment in and of itself. Recently upgraded to bring it back to parity, the Accomplishment had a full suite of upgrades. Moderate structural damage, modest crew and morale damage.
TKK Valiant: The first and only warship constructed by the Directorate, the Valiant has stripped out every single civilian or exploratory system that doesn't contribute to it's primary role. Instead, it has far, far more armaments, including a full compliment of perpetunite torpedos, a full accompaniment of Commander-Machina, and, critically, a fusion cannon capable of doing extreme amounts of damage at short range.
Red Sun Monitors: A collection of remote long term observation outposts intended to study solar activity in the Barren Expanse for use in advancing Directorate scientific knowledge. Each platform was home to roughly fifty or so people, with supplies to last them a good long while before they'd need relief. Collects 2 ACD every turn for 10 turns max that can be harvested by sending a ship in for resupply.
Armed with advanced shieldtek, heavy fusion torpedos and comm-jammers, the Endeavor is not intended to win a stand up fight, and though its armaments have increased in recent years, it's purpose is purely exploratory. It also comes equipped with an experimental Warp Drive and particle barrier, allowing it to enter, at fairly substantial risk, a dimension that allows for faster than light transportation. In order to offset the risks of the Warp Drive, the Endeavor has recently been expanded, upgraded with both an Academy attachment providing a great deal of technical support and scientific expertise alongside a Mystek Deck where the ships occultists performed protective rituals and strengthening rites alongside esoteric lore to be used at the Captain's behest. Further, it contains a Frontier Explorer compartment, host to several hundred civilians, members of the Frontier Society, civilians who have agreed to join the fleets pioneering expeditions, establishing small observation outposts on worlds the Endeavor visits and providing a number of useful services to the Endeavor such as expanded medical stores and agridecks to produce food. It was also the home of Stizlak the Grot until in-depth biological examinations had been performed. Light structural and crew damage.
TKK Accomplishment: The second pride of the fleet, the Accomplishment was designed around much of the same principles as the Endeavor, for much of the same purpose. In many ways, it was essentially a second Endeavor in its entirety, though that was still an accomplishment in and of itself. Recently upgraded to bring it back to parity, the Accomplishment had a full suite of upgrades. Moderate structural damage, modest crew and morale damage.
TKK Valiant: The first and only warship constructed by the Directorate, the Valiant has stripped out every single civilian or exploratory system that doesn't contribute to it's primary role. Instead, it has far, far more armaments, including a full compliment of perpetunite torpedos, a full accompaniment of Commander-Machina, and, critically, a fusion cannon capable of doing extreme amounts of damage at short range.
Red Sun Monitors: A collection of remote long term observation outposts intended to study solar activity in the Barren Expanse for use in advancing Directorate scientific knowledge. Each platform was home to roughly fifty or so people, with supplies to last them a good long while before they'd need relief. Collects 2 ACD every turn for 10 turns max that can be harvested by sending a ship in for resupply.
[-] Survey Tacchis: In ancient Tekketi history, Tacchis was considered a dark omen by astrologers and mystics. These days, the iceball was mostly known for the massive amount of diamonds probes had found: the planet's crust was mostly carbon and water. It also had several subterranean ancient ruins belonging to the Destroyers servants. SCAN LEVEL: MAX
[ ] Survey Mongus: The largest gas giant in your system, Mongus has a green atmosphere, the result of several rare-teklia gases according to probe and scan data, alongside a great deal of hydrogen, methane, and electrical storms. SCAN LEVEL: 1
[ ] Survey Meeklak: The second largest gas giant, but the one with the largest ring (consisting of ice, mostly), Meeklak was too far for casual probe use, and had proven annoyingly resistant to even advanced probe and exploration due to its crushing atmosphere (comprised of caustic chemicals and gasses of, admittedly, extreme rarity) capable of popping your vehicles like aluminum cans. Deep below, several ships are crashlanded, still intact, floating in the hyperdense sea of liquid gas. SCAN LEVEL: MAX.
[ ] Erichtheo: Named after an old goddess from Classical Myth, Erichtheo, a moon of Mongus, is host to a number of creatures that exist primarily in its subcontinental abyssal zone, some of which can grow to titanic size, and in the magmafields, home to a number of extremophile sea-life and valuable minerals. SCAN LEVEL: MAX
[ ] Spraa'ng: The furthest planet in your solar system, Spraa'ng had high quantities of precious metals in its crust, seas full of ammonia, an argon atmosphere, and fairly hostile planets. SCAN LEVEL: MAX
[ ] Drydock: With the construction of the Shipyard, the Endeavor could finally come in for repairs, maintenance, and upgrades. Upgrades ships with all existing Compartments and Components. Repairs most damage.
The following require a Warp capable ship. Note that travel to them is not without risk, either during the journey or at the destination: your world is ringed in by many warp storms.
[ ] Explore Galactic North: It was time for Tekket to begin exploring the galaxy! This direction had been where the Destroyers had emerged from: with luck, perhaps you would finally get awnsers. The closest Sky-Storm in this direction was the Mawket Voidstar, which was a great distance away. Requires Warp Capable Ship.
[ ] Explore Galactic South: In this direction lie the Grimket Astrolabe, a Sky-Storm that was only rarely visible on Teklia. It was also the direction of a variety of smaller systems as seen by your sky-mapping programs, some of which had shown some stellar oddities that led to many believing that there existed in this direction, such as the Reach, potential alien civilizations that weren't destroyers.
[ ] Explore Galactic West: In this direction was the Infernaket Blazestorm, the new closest Sky-Storm to Teklia: it had seemed small in the sky next to the Malket Configuration, but it was, according to astronomers, likely several orders of magnitude larger. In this direction there existed a cluster of aged stars, black holes, and dead planets known as the Barren Expanse, but additional exploration could potentially reveal other regions. After all, space was big.
[-] Black Hole Study Duty: The Directorate wanted to use the opportunity presented by the Expanse to study one of the Black Holes of the region. There were three of note in the region: Martellus, Gigant, and SBH-134, and the Academy was salivating for more close range study of the stellar bodies. Ironically likely very safe, considering that even from a distance far enough to ensure the Endeavor wasn't affected by the gravity of the black hole the scan data would likely still be incredibly novel. At this point, there existed little practical reason to continue scans: with your current technology, the chance of gaining new data was...minimal.
[ ] Red Sun Security: Directorate Fleet wanted to start equipping the observation outposts with a few bases for security purposes. Against essentially any foe, they'd fold like wet paper, but as time went on, these bases would be expanded alongside the Outposts. Costs 15 EXP. Increases Regional Defenses alongside Outpost Level. Increases region Outpost Level.
[ ] Red Sun Extraction: Meanwhile, some Frontier Explorers wanted to set up a few mining outposts in the Expanse: this would allow for the outposts to expand somewhat, and the...very LARGE amount of surplus could be shipped back to Teklia. Cost 15 EXP. Red Sun Outposts generate 1 extractable EXP per turn to a max of 5 EXP.
[ ] Survey Broken Edge Ship Graveyard: The remnants of a massive battle. Surprisingly, the ships weren't the same as the Destroyers so much as the remains of ships designed along the same general principles of largesse. The other ships meanwhile had proved incredibly, incredibly crude. Directorate scientists wanted to conduct more surveys. Scan Level: 3
[ ] Survey Broken Edge Eco-Station: Most curiously, the Eco-Station, which consisted of multiple hemispheres attached via central section, seemed to be a giant hunting preserve, specifically for hunting sentients. The primary ecosystem simulated seemed to be a jungle. Scan level: MAX.
[ ] Broken Edge Monitoring: If the Orks were right, the current caretakers of the Eco-Dome were due for a visit. With this in mind, the Directorate wanted to station a monitor ship in the hopes of gaining potentially valuable intel about an unknown transtellar polity with access to advanced metallurgy, space flight, and enough other indicators towards a peer society. Requires Endeavor Class.
[ ] Exploring the Expanse: A region located to the Galactic West of Teklia. Mostly dead, but perhaps additional focused exploration of the region might reveal some manner of secret. Locations of Interest found: 1/???. Outpost Level: 4.
[ ] Exploring the Reach: A region located to the galactic south of Teklia. Exploration was extremely preliminary, but you had managed to find at least one world capable of sustaining life. Locations of Interest found: 1/???. Outpost Level: 1
[ ] Explore Galactic East: The direction facing the galactic edge. The Sky-Storm in this direction was the Horizons End, a colorless scar that bled silver, and a small nebula that existed slightly before the hole in the sky.
[ ] Moby Monstro: The Academy wanted a ship to hunt down Monstro immediately: it was no longer in Broken Giant, but they theorized it was somewhere in the Reach still. If a ship could find it and scan it and perform bio-studies WITHOUT crashing, it could prove immensely valuable data.
((((()))))
"And lo, the elementals are generous! See how they give us the tools to enrich our reactors in order to optimize output by 21%! See how they give us the minerals to forge chips with up to eighteen percent more processing power than those produced elsewhere in the Directorate! And yet all they ask in return for these gifts is that we keep this world to the elementals liking! That we give appropriate compensation!
And yet some would propose we starve the Elementals by draining their world of warmth! Already, their displeasure is felt, for miles around the heatpump the elementals anguish renders the magma sea scornful and violent! And for what? Pure vanity! We do not need Naklis to be as Teklia! It's heat may be harsh, but we are well protected by shields and ferroplastic! Its air may be poison, but we breath with artificial lungs! It's soil may be barren, but it holds within it great treasures, and we are capable of feeding ourselves using our existing living space already!
And yet for this, we change Naklis by trying to make it more suitable for the Tekket at the expense of the elementals, when perhaps we should do the reverse, and cultivate Naklis to be more suitable for the elementals!"
The erection of the Naklis Heatpump would prove controversial, to say the least. Even as industry and exploitation on Naklis expanded to meet the increasing needs of the Directorate for Naklean Geodes for reactor enrichment, so too did habitation requirements and power needs. The Heatpump, a floating microcity erected on the molten sea, was intended to solve this problem, drawing energy from the vast amounts of heat of the Naklis ocean, and bleeding off even more: the intent, to slowly reduce the temperature of Naklis in order to reduce its overall volatility and harshness in the quest to slowly greenify the planet.
This would be immediately met with anger by the Elementalists, who claimed that the spirits, born of this volatile world, actually prefered volatility, preferred the harshness and heat: that by trying to drain it all away, that the spirits were upset. And indeed, in the coming months, explorers would note all manner of concerning phenomenon: Pyrofiends emerging from the sea and slamming themselves against boats. Unsettling whispers from deep below the stone. Gems hued with an uncanny light said to bring horrific luck. Veins of living metal growing with uncanny speed, creating sharp and jagged deposits throughout the earth akin to metallic thornbushes.
More skeptical mysteks posited, however, that this was a case of correlation not equating to causation: after all, every decade more and more lifeforce was pumped into Naklis: it wasn't unreasonable to assume that perhaps this had awoken a great deal of less reasonable spirits compared to ones encountered prior. Perhaps in time there would be observed similar unfortunate spirits on Teklia.
The Druids meanwhile posited that the phenomena was merely a slight deviation in the spiritual balance of Naklis, one that could be corrected by either by improving the Naklean Totem Network or introducing innate sources of lifeforce, ones that resonated with the elemental spirits. This would of course require sourcing some form of extremophile capable of surviving and thriving in Naklis's complete LACK of a biosphere.
Many Occulteks meanwhile would claim that these spirits were entirely natural: not ill and wicked beings, not disturbed and angered omens, not some imbalance in the natural order. Merely a stronger, more alive order of spirit that the Tekket had to adapt to and learn how to deal with and how to come to accords, ones that weren't so easy succored.
The resulting debate would rage for years in the Great Conclave, with no definitive winner, merely everyone coming away dissatisfied.
Teklia: Teklia, oh Teklia. The second planet from your star, and your homeworld. A variety of mostly hospitable climates of variable comfortability, it is covered in what can only be described as space garbage: the ecosystem has largely adapted to it and millenia of exploitation has done much to clear it away, but its undeniably a very garbage covered planet. The past few centuries had seen incredibly VAST amounts of garbage cleared away, however, and a complete revitalization of the Teklian biosphere and explosions in biological diversity as the Autorecyclers turn ecosystem choking garbage into useable materials, freeing large amounts of space for habitation, agriculture, parks and forests, the material repurposed into into the Teklian orbital space, its off world colonies, and the Arcolocubes, giant cubic self contained ecofriendly metropolis. At this point, it was estimated that 79% of the world was scrap free: at this point, most remaining scrapzones are being treated as preserves for the species who are so thoroughly adapted to garbage that removing it would neccessitate their extinction.
Luna: A trash filled wreck, unlike Teklia Luna didn't have pesky things like an atmosphere or ecology to degrade its debris, meaning it had very well preserved trash. It was also the site of a modest metropolis consisting of a single CityBlok supplied by lunar spire allowing a high amount of traffic too and from the lunar city, as well as several AutoRecyclers absorbing large quantities of material. It would likely take many, many lifetimes to clean Luna of trash, but the AutoRecyclers had already begun to pay off thanks to the massive amount of material Luna and its colonists now had to play with, as well as the space, largely used for cultivating living metal, which was largely used to manufacture Perpetunite. It was also the home of Mt. Wander, may he forever sleep above us and never stir.
Orbital City One: An Orbital Metropolis, this space station consisted primarily of its orbital docks and a handful of city-bloks, making it a vibrant and bustling mid-point between Teklia, the Moon, and the rest of Directorate Space, frequented by a variety of residents, travellers looking to visit Wonderpark or the Orbital Parks, and asteroid miners looking to deposit their hauls and get some well deserved shore leave.
Deep Space Monitoring System: A Fleet initiative that utilizes a great deal of surplus processing power to scan the sky both to map it out as well as detect incoming threats before they arrive, giving early warning to the Directorate against hostile threats, recently expanded and upgraded to improve efficiency. The phenomena in the Expanse seemed to be slowing down, but concerningly, observed trajectories indicated that it was slowly travelling in a path that would bring it to the Directorate eventually. Several among the Fleet had advocated for sending the Accomplishment on a fact-finding mission. WARNING: A great deal of activity had been noticed coming from the Galactic East! The Directorate recommends immediately scrambling a Valiant!
Nuclear Stockpiles: The defensive nuclear warhead stockpile, consisting of heavy perpetunite warheads, weapons capable of releasing a devastating nuclear reaction capable of lasting up to twenty minutes. Most were assigned to homeworld defense, but a few had seen their way onto the ships of the Directorate and even the educational system.
Naklis: Home to a mining operation in the Geode Canyons near the poles, this firey planet had a single city: a massive Spire that doubled as a space elevator and Comm-Hub, host to several hundred thousand residents, primarily mining and industrial engineers, who produced vast quantities of material, primarily Rare-Teklian-Minerals and nuclear materials, as well as four Elemental Master Control Shrines dedicated to the spirits of fire, earth, metal, and gems. As of late, also a gigantic magmasifter slash geothermal reactor that, controversially, was a very slow terraforming engine.
Luna: A trash filled wreck, unlike Teklia Luna didn't have pesky things like an atmosphere or ecology to degrade its debris, meaning it had very well preserved trash. It was also the site of a modest metropolis consisting of a single CityBlok supplied by lunar spire allowing a high amount of traffic too and from the lunar city, as well as several AutoRecyclers absorbing large quantities of material. It would likely take many, many lifetimes to clean Luna of trash, but the AutoRecyclers had already begun to pay off thanks to the massive amount of material Luna and its colonists now had to play with, as well as the space, largely used for cultivating living metal, which was largely used to manufacture Perpetunite. It was also the home of Mt. Wander, may he forever sleep above us and never stir.
Orbital City One: An Orbital Metropolis, this space station consisted primarily of its orbital docks and a handful of city-bloks, making it a vibrant and bustling mid-point between Teklia, the Moon, and the rest of Directorate Space, frequented by a variety of residents, travellers looking to visit Wonderpark or the Orbital Parks, and asteroid miners looking to deposit their hauls and get some well deserved shore leave.
Deep Space Monitoring System: A Fleet initiative that utilizes a great deal of surplus processing power to scan the sky both to map it out as well as detect incoming threats before they arrive, giving early warning to the Directorate against hostile threats, recently expanded and upgraded to improve efficiency. The phenomena in the Expanse seemed to be slowing down, but concerningly, observed trajectories indicated that it was slowly travelling in a path that would bring it to the Directorate eventually. Several among the Fleet had advocated for sending the Accomplishment on a fact-finding mission. WARNING: A great deal of activity had been noticed coming from the Galactic East! The Directorate recommends immediately scrambling a Valiant!
Nuclear Stockpiles: The defensive nuclear warhead stockpile, consisting of heavy perpetunite warheads, weapons capable of releasing a devastating nuclear reaction capable of lasting up to twenty minutes. Most were assigned to homeworld defense, but a few had seen their way onto the ships of the Directorate and even the educational system.
Naklis: Home to a mining operation in the Geode Canyons near the poles, this firey planet had a single city: a massive Spire that doubled as a space elevator and Comm-Hub, host to several hundred thousand residents, primarily mining and industrial engineers, who produced vast quantities of material, primarily Rare-Teklian-Minerals and nuclear materials, as well as four Elemental Master Control Shrines dedicated to the spirits of fire, earth, metal, and gems. As of late, also a gigantic magmasifter slash geothermal reactor that, controversially, was a very slow terraforming engine.
EXPansion Points (EXP Points): 45
Nuclear Material: 9
NEW ACTIONS:
Cosmic Empathy Engine: It had been proven by the Lunar Monasteries that the overview effect was good for the soul: the reaffirmation of empathy made it far more rigorous to the diseases of the spirit. The Luna Monks wanted to go further, and design a specialized MMI Chamber equipped with a Bond-Machina and specialized warding, all designed to allow, for a brief moment, a degree of cosmic empathy and self-awareness. All the technology required existed, under the au: all the monks needed was the resources to help assemble these chambers and the network capacity to run them. 0/25, unlock Cosmic Empathy Engine artefact, increasing FTH and mental resilience. Cost: 1 Network.
Endless Enlightenment Matrix: The Lunar Monasteries believed that the overview effect brought clarity, objectivity. However, to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos, the mind cannot waver. To this end, they believed they could engineer a sort of apparatus designed to ensure that their emotions were always serene and help them reach a state of ultimate clarity. 0/25, unlock Endless Enlightenment Matrix, increasing FTH and mental resilience. Cost 1 Network.
Supreme Comprehension Psychotron: The Lunar Monks recognized that the greatest effect of the Overview was PERSPECTIVE: they incorporated it into their ethics lessons daily, to help them remain mindful, with the sad understanding that having a wholly complete perspective was impossible: Tekket comprehension was not infinite. But they wished to at least attempt to grow closer to comprehension by creating a psychotronic engine designed to help Tekket observe and absorb vast amounts of information and process it in a manner comprehensible and as complete as possible. 0/25, unlock Supreme Comprehension Psychotron, increasing CUL and mental resilience. Cost 1 Network
Infinite Inspiration Accelerator: The Lunar Monks believed that the Overview Effect, when paired with a special mental accelerator designed to stimulate the neurons while allowing the organic brain to, VERY BRIEFLY, piggyback off of a vast quantum computer could allow for moments of simulated genius. 0/25, unlock Infinite Inspiration Accelerator, increasing both CUL and ACD by an elevated amount. Cost 1 Network.
Great Elemental Temple: A proposed solution to the problem of appeasing the Elementals was expanding their temples considerably: more graze space, more living quarters, more sub-shrines, more Arbor Guardians, as well as various other facilities such as Mag-Tek Altar ritual chambers and and power generation and network facilities, along with medical and agricultural facilities to grow food for their monks. It would represent a solid compromise on the Directorates part with the Elementalists and provide them a great deal more resources to work with, hopefully allowing for a middle ground to be reached. 0/25, upgrade Elemental Temples to be wholly self-sufficient, increasing FTH, cost 1 Warp and Network.
Elemental Spire: The Elementals wanted volatility, then they could have volatility! The Naklis Heatpump would be modified to incorporate a perpetunite reactor and some GodTek, with the purpose of creating a sort of reverse-terraforming engine, allowing Naklis to be elementaformed to the spirits content: in turn, the Spire would draw energy from the Elementals to power rituals. 0/25, upgrade Naklis Heatpump to elementaform the planet, increasing FTH, cost 1 Artefact and Nuclear Material.
Construct Endeavor Class Ship: It was time to begin assembling the third Endeavor. Much like the first and second, it would be a exploratory vessel first and foremost, allowing for quicker survey of the local solar system and, should the worst come to pass, another thing between you and the Destroyers if they return. 0/20, cost 1 Nuclear Material, gain an Endeavor equipped with all unlocked Compartments and Ship upgrades as well as a variable amount of Perpetunite Nuclear Weapons depending on the size of your stockpiles.
Construct Valiant Class Ship: Another proposed idea was for a ship designed for actual combat: the Valiant. For obvious reasons, it would be larger in order to add space for redundant systems and weapon platforms, but at the size you were making it, you'd also be able to install fusion cannons as a shortrange but powerful laser weapon. 0/40, costs 2 nuclear material, gain a Valiant equipped with all non-Civilian Compartments and upgrades as well as a variable amount of nuclear weapons and powerful but short-range Fusion Cannons.
Fleet Academy Megadocks: With the construction of the first Valiant class, the Fleet wanted to start preparing dedicated shipyards to service future ships and, crucially, assemble larger classes of vessel: ones enemies never stopped preparing, so neither should the Directorate. 0/60, create Megadocks, unlocking Resistance class ships and upgrades.
Ship Power Core: Right now, the biggest problem with Directorate ships was their power generation and management. While the latter was largely a matter for electricians, a few fleet nuclear engineers believed they could at least make progress solving the former by using some recent advancements in particle manipulation to draw additional power from harnessing nuclear reactions. 0/15, ships upgraded with Power Core, increasing overall performance by allowing for more advanced components to be be operating at peak capacity at any given time. Cost 3 Nuclear Material.
Titan Reactor: It was ridiculous. It was absurd. It was brilliant: an idea proposed by an even more radical group of engineers, the creation of a single, incredibly vast nuclear reactor to mount upon one of your ships: using this reactor, they could allow for a single ship to draw as needed INCREDIBLE amounts of energy, increasing performance of all systems, especially ones such as both the thrust engines and gravity engines, fusion cannons, and the shields: any ship equipped with a Titan Reactor would be a considerable threat indeed. 0/15, single Fleet upgraded with Titan Reactor, vastly improving performance and improving range effectiveness of fusion weapons considerably. Cost 5 Nuclear Material.
Greater Herdbeast Temples: The Herdtemples had been a great success, but the Conclave believed they could be expanded: three massive eco-domes, filled with vast grazeland tended to by a fleet of agri-drones, intended to allow for the rearing of vast herds of animals, the serene landscape interrupted by features meant to provide the herds whatever they needed, such as ponds for drinking and trees for resting under and hills for burrowing into and bushes to nest in, some Shrines and Totems operated by the Shrine-Keepers, a few small temples to the gods...and beneath, a vast temple-complex that would utilize the Planetary Life Siphon design provided by Sphere 001 to slowly drain small amounts of excess vital energy from the entirety of the ecodome (at such a slow pace that the residents of the domes would never notice it) for use in their sacred rituals and divine rites, some of it fed to the Holy Herdbeasts of the Herdtemples. 0/30, gain Greater Herdbeast Temple, increasing FTH by 3 and providing Warp.
Orbital Defense Arrays: It might not save you, but it would buy time: an array of satellites armed with fusion cannons located in geosynchronous orbit with various of strategic importance. The Net currently covered most population centers, but it could be widened and existing arrays reinforced. 0/10, costs 1 Nuclear Material, construct Orbital Defense Satellites. Repeatable.
Megaparks: Fundamentally the biggest limitation when it came to orbital engineering was "how much were you willing to invest" and a number of your people wanted more put into the orbital parks. Much more. They wanted to construct Megaparks, vast super-domes the size of an Arcolocube. 0/20, generates CUL.
Construct Pioneer Class Ship: The Pioneer Class was intended to be used to set up small settlements on other worlds: the same size as an Endeavor class, but the internals were all things that could be reconfigured into setting up a sustainable, small settlement of a few hundred on any world. 2/20. When constructed, select a world with at least one Scan Level: create a small settlement on that world.
Construct Dreamer Class Ship: The next generation of Colony Ship! The Dreamer was in the same size category as the Valiant, having greatly expanded systems compared to the Pioneer, including expanded defensive arsenal, expanded resource and Blok stockpiles, and of course, stasis pods meant to slow Tekket aging down to a crawl. It would allow you to send your people to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, perhaps further, but once they were sent out, it would be likely that the volunteers would never be seen again in this lifetime. 0/40, 1 Network. When constructed, pick a cardinal direction: a Dreamer Class will be sent in that direction, eventually (assuming it survives) establishing Tekket presence in a distant part of the galaxy. Can be repeated. First Dreamer created will upgrade War Against Extinction.
Heavy Perpetunite Nuclear Stockpiles: It was a very distasteful idea: nuclear weapons were ultimately a remnant of a darker, more divided age, and the current design for Heavy Perpetunite Warheads were a terrible thing indeed: for almost an hour they could unleash energy, vaporizing cities. And yet, they were the strongest weapon you had against the Destroyers. 0/1, Grants Heavy Perpetunite Nuclear Weapon Stockpile. Can be taken multiple times. Can be used as Shipscale Weaponry in the form of Heavy Perpetunite Nuclear Torpedos. Costs one Nuclear Material.
Deep Space Monitors: One day, the Destroyers would return. It was a fear many, many of you held. To that end, some of you wanted to expand the deep space monitoring project in order to ensure that they would not take you by surprise. 0/2, repeatable, costs 1 Network. Each completion gives more robust deep space scanning.
MegaArt Galleries: A number of more artistically minded wanted more resources to be funneled into public art. Very, very big public art. Specifically, Zero-G galleries meant to allow for the creation and display of MegaArt, TekArt too large to be constructed on Teklia itself or housed in a regular art exhibit. 0/10, Orbital City One gains MegaArt Galleries, increasing CUL.
Master Control Shrines: First Gen Master Control Shrines were simply large TekShrines that doubled as servers for other shrines on their networks. Your priests wanted to work on a more sophisticated version that instead let Shrines interface on a more fundamental level, amplifying their effects. 0/25, establish Master Control Shrine network, increasing FTH and EXP, cost 1 Network
UrbanTek Totems: The Totem Network had proven an effective improvement to WyldShrines: a few urban druids had advocated for establishing a similar totem-system in the Arcolocubes in order to strengthen the spirits of the city, which they theorized could improve the efficiency of most infrastructure and utilities systems by 11%, if not 16%! 0/25, upgrade cities with UrbanTek Totems, increasing EXP.
ShrineCity: Another idea some had: why not a planetary TekShrine complex? The effect would be grotesquely diluted, but it would still serve as a very culturally powerful holy site for those interested in Shrine-Keeping and central complex they could utilize for research and ceremonies. 0/20, establishes ShrineCity, a Holy Site that increases FTH by an elevated amount.
Hypermodular Power Bay: A proposed idea by Toxel: make the power bays on ships even more modular in order to allow power to be easily divertable to the various subsystems as needed. This would require investing in producing a great deal many more PowerBloks, but it would both increase power efficiency and versatility in the field. 0/15, unlocks Hypermodular Power Bay upgrade for ships, improving performance and adaptability, costs 1 Nuclear Materla.
Lunar MegaHub: Instead of singular individual data hubs, some suggested taking advantage of low lunar gravity to construct a titanic city sized MegaHub to both meet all current and future needs for data for the burgeoning Lunar Colony. This would be grotesquely expensive in terms of power, however. 0/40, costs 2 Nuclear Material, generates 5 Network.
Perpetunite Recyclers: With the advent of Perpetunite, a regenerating radioactive isotope used for creating reactors that never require refueling, some had advocated for installing perpetual motion energy generators in the AutoRecyclers: the vast and infinite amounts of energy could be used to process additional nuclear material as well as increase general production. 0/20, generates 1 Nuclear Material, upgrades AutoRecyclers.
Comm-Net: The network must be expanded to meet the needs of the growing network. A proposed solution was a series of Q-Blok and Perpetunite Reactor powered communications satellites acting in tandem. This would reduce Teklia-Orbital-Lunar latency and help somewhat with latency and lag from Naklis. 0/10, generates 1 Network.
Geode Canyon Extraction Operation: The Great Geode Canyon was the largest in the region, and your people hadn't even begun to scratch at the vast quantities of rare minerals it had just waiting to be extracted. By expanding the crew quarters and funnelling resources into expanding mining operations, the rate of extraction could potentially be doubled! 0/10, generates EXP, generates 1 Nuclear Material.
Naklis Solar Satellites: A proposed way to further benefit from Naklis: it was closer to the Sun than Teklia. Perhaps by expanding the orbital part of the Spire with a power generation sub-district, it would allow for Naklis to massively expand its power grid, potentially allowing for an additional Spire to be constructed! 0/15, generates EXP, unlocks additional SolarTek.
Sacred Groves: The Arbor Guardians had proven an effective source of power for your Shrines. A number of Druids wanted to expand upon this by developing a series of mobile eco-domes containing specially cultivated groves to serve as mobile reserves of life-force. The majority of the life-force generated by these groves would likely go to the Wyld-Shrines, but it would likely provide a small surplus that could be put to other projects. 0/25, unlock Sacred Grove infrastructure, increasing FTH and Warp.
MawGates: MawGates were the fruit of the Court of Hunger, created to allow them to make offerings to their devour-lord from vast distances: apparently, the gates established a sort of wormhole between itself and the stomach of the courts master. Utterly unsurvivable for anything organic, all attempts to use MawGates for anything but feeding Sphere 001 had been a grotesque failure. Yet the Court still wanted to establish some gates on Luna and Naklis: in exchange for feeding the Sphere, they claimed it would provide power through the MawGates. Vast, vast amounts of power. 0/15, unlock MawGates, increasing EXP. Cost 1 Nuclear Material.
Satiation Array: A request from the Sphere: it wanted the Directorate to construct a temple in deep space for it to inhabit. One filled with all manner of gravitic manipulators. Strangely, it seems to be designed to REDUCE the gravity of a large hyper-dense body. Regardless, the Sphere had agreed: construct it the Satiation Array and it would reward the Directorate with technology. 0/10, construct Satiation Array holy site, increasing CUL and providing 1 Living Metal.
Naklis Mega-Harvester: Large and substantive deposits of living metal had been found deep in the crust of the floating mountains: the only question was how to reach it. Proposal: instead of attempting to design another Spire, the Directorate could instead create a super-harvester machine capable of serving as a moving city in its own right, designed to tunnel deep beneath the crust of the continent and through the lava seas to locate and harvest living metal. 0/10, generates 2 Living Metal.
Naklis Elemental Gardens: A proposed method to expand on the Elemental Temples was providing them large eco-domes where they will be able to cultivate animals and plants in order to create optimum offerings to the Spirits. This would accelerate the awakening of Naklis's elemental spirits, and, more crucially, allow for the export of livestock and plants more suited to offering to other elemental spirits that might lurk throughout the Directorate. 0/25, increase EXP, upgrade ShrineHerds with Elemental Herdbeasts.
Naklis Magmapump: This would be a risky idea, but some had proposed creating a giant gravity engine in the upper Naklis stratosphere to, essentially, 'slurp up' magma from the planet and process it into useable material. The reason this was a bit of a gamble should be obvious: it would cause severe oceanic disturbances, global earthquakes, and likely destabilize the core. The good news was, your priests had essentially confirmed that this wouldn't really upset the spirits all that much: this planet wasn't geologically stable to begin with, making it explode (an absolutely worst case scenario) would probably make the spirits happier, especially since the amount of energy could, theoretically, be harnessed from an exploding core to feed said spirits was not negligible, and even light core destabilization could be capitalized upon from installing geothermal taps and battery charging stations. 0/100, begin constructing Gravitic Megapump, a Superstructure that can be used on lifeless volcanic planets, causing 1D10 severity damage to a planet permanently, generating large amounts of EXP. If used on a colonized planet, generate Warp equal to severity damage caused and accelerating elemental evolution and power generation, increasing EXP gained permanently.
Spire Expansion: The Spire was big, but perhaps it could be bigger: right now, it ONLY stretched into the low atmosphere, and transit to orbit was handled via mag-lifts with limited capacity. The idea was simple: higher spire for more occupancy, and more Mag-Lifts to increase delivery capacity. 0/25, generates EXP.
Comm-District: As Naklis grew, it would need more network capacity. Further, more could be done to reduce interplanetary lag: the proposed idea was an expansion of the orbital part of the Spire to include a district meant to serve as a secondary Comm-Hub. This would also have the benefit of providing Naklis and near-orbit installations near it to benefit from increased network capacity. 0/25, generates ACD, generates 1 Network.
Self-Optimizing Electronics Production: A proposed way to upgrade the A Chip was by including in their manufacture living metal: the smart metal was primarily used in superconductors, but some theorized that it might be possible to create a self-optimizing chip, automatically adjusting itself to suit whatever machine it was plugged into. 0/10, grants Semi-Adaptive Electronics technology, generating ACD, generates 1 Network, costs 1 Living Metal.
Cyberspace Brain: Mimicking a complex 3D environment when using a VR-Simulator was hard, and translating direct interface with cyberspace into three dimensions was even harder. To get around this, some had suggested upgrading the Data Hubs by installing specialized processors specifically designed to utilize neural computing to act as a sort of translator slash hyperadvanced renderer. Currently, a secondary project by the Assembly that they believed could be used for advancing the neural architecture of their Avatars. 2/15, upgrades VR Simulators with Cyberspace Brains, generating CUL and generating 1 Network.
Geode Reactor Enrichment: With the rare minerals of Naklis, the Directorate had the oppurtunity to once again overhaul its energy generation technology significantly: experts believed that they could use a number of the materials to enrich reactors to increase not only their energy output, but stability as well. Expected yields estimated a potential 22% improvement across the board! 0/15, costs 3 Nuclear Material, grants Reactor Enrichment Technology, providing elevated EXP.
Wonderpark Naklis: A number of Wonderparkers wanted to expand to Naklis by opening a second park there, on the coast of the floating continent. Mineworld, they called it, a Naklis themed version of Wonderpark designed to utilize its unique geothermal properties for entertainment and educational purposes. It would, of course, also serve as a fully functional resource extraction facility for both the Directorate and Wonderpark. 1/15, Wonderpark upgraded with Mineworld holding, generating EXP.
Voidfarmer Reactors: Right now, most living metal farms had to rely on the local electrical grid, and the power needed to grow Living Metal was not...inconsiderable. One proposed solution was a roll-out of specialized reactors designed specifically for growing living metal. This would cost a great deal of perpetunite, but it would improve the overall efficiency of the harvest. 0/20, generates 2 Living Metal, costs 1 Nuclear Material.
Harvest Metal: There were many useful materials in the soil. It would require modifying and treating the living metal first, but it was theoretically possible to create a version capable of leeching the ground for said materials in order to both increase the rate at which living metal grew, but also allowed for other elements it had absorbed to be harvested. 0/20, generates substantial EXP, grants Harvest Metal technology.
Void-Train Orbital Transit Network: A technology developed by the Fungineering Guild was the Void-Train, a sort of space vessel that travelled along magnetically accelerating 'tracks' connected by special relays in space. Some wanted to expand Naklis and Teklian orbital and post-orbital infrastructure with a local void-train network near both planets. 0/15, gain Void Train Special Infrastructure, generating EXP.
Great Space Express: A monumental undertaking, but one that would massively simplify transit between both planets as well as any other colonies you developed in your home system: a massive, massive, space crossing Void-Track network. This would require constructing thousands of extremely large magnetic relays, no easy undertaking, but it would revolutionize travel. 0/100, construct Great Space Express Line, generating very considerable amounts of EXP.
Lunar Anti-Orbital Cannons: Luna was slightly harder a nut to crack than before, but it could still be strengthened: by using God-Tek, some theorized the Directorate could create an advanced network of anti-orbital long range fusion weapons, based loosely on the concept behind the proposed Teeth superweapon. This would effectively force any Destroyer forces to take Luna if they wanted to control Teklian Orbit. 0/15, construct Lunar Anti-Orbital Cannons. Cost 1 Artefact.
SuperFortress Luna: A further hardening to the defenses of Luna are expanded fortress systems built mostly underground in order to further slow down any attackers. This would be prudent, no doubt, but it would likely require digging into Quartzbug nests. 0/20. Upgrades Lunar Fortresses. Increases Quartzbug rage modifier and terror modifier.
Lumium Shrine: The Brilliant Monks of Naklis wished to create a repository of so called 'Lumium Eggs'. These brilliant crystals, said to be gifts from the elementals of gem, were said to have traces of their giftors power, thrumming with faint amounts of arcane power. The monks wished to fashion these eggs into upgrade parts for TekShrines, as the gems were made out of the same rare earth minerals used for making the A-Chips: these upgrades would allow the Shrines to run more powerful arcane programs, especially ones to invoke the power of gem spirits which resonated with the chips. The eggs deemed most promising would be kept, tended to, fed life-force to coax out what power they could in order to see if they could coax nascent spirits of gem into these crystals. The monks would provide the lifeforce for this project, of course: they just required the gems. 0/15, upgrades Shrines to utilize Lumium Chips, arcane processing units that resonate especially with Gem Elementals, increasing ACD. Cost 1 Nuclear Material.
Mycelliometal Network: Scanners at the Temple of Metal had shown the Ferromonks strangely growing veins of living metal, appearing to burrow through the crust like mycellium. It had been proven that mycellium were an effective communication network: could this fruit of the Metal Elementals be harvested? Shaped to give them form if fed on life force and roused slowly from their slumber in the steel and grown into something greater? The excess, the insufficient metal, they theorized, could be used to upgrade the Totems and Shrines, allowing them to communicate with each other and all life they touched, creating a great biotechnological mycellium network. As spirits of the Wyld and Urb alike emerged, this could at least allow the spirits that were connected to the mycellium some form of congress, especially the spirits of metal. 0/15, upgrades metal TotemTek Conduit Network, an arcane connection network that allows for inter-spirit communication and coordination, increasing CUL. Cost 1 Living Metal.
Oracle Stone Chambers: The Spirits of Earth were said to linger in stone, wishing to warn miners and spelunkers alike of danger, especially if given enough tribute, or else hum with reassurance. The oracular power of some stone lingered after being mined, a gift of the spirits. With it, they believed, a spiritual vribrato-oracle chamber could be constructed to resonate with the spirits, using the same theoretical principles of the Orchestrion in an extremely diluted form. It would require local shrine keepers fashion a space and dedicate considerable data-space to run the resonance programs, buts it would marginally amplify lifeforce fed to the spirits and allow them a degree of communion. The spirits of Earth were not greedy: they would share the excess of the resonance equally. In turn, the Litheomonks promised to give more to spirits across the directorate by training the Stone Oracles who would power these things and tend to the stone-herds. 0/15, upgrades Shrines with Oracle Stone Chambers, stone chambers that use specialized vibrato-occult resonance devices built using oracle stone and mind-machine interfaces to allow communication with spirits and offering amplitude to all elemental spirits, increasing CUL. Cost 2 Network.
Fire Fairy Bottles: Fire Fairies were the name of the strange will-o-wisps that had been seen across the Magma Sea by Flame Monks and Fire Druids tending to the PyroShrines. They had played with the creatures, which were surprisingly intelligent, and willing to be fed. Sadly, the food offered by the Flame Monks had proven insufficiently heat-proof for them to actually feed before starving, their fully awakened nature meaning they burned out within minutes if not given sufficiently suitable fuel. The Flame Monks and Fire Druids wanted access to BioData from a extromophile: they believed they could engineer a superalgae that would feed from the wisps light to grow even as the wisp burned at the algae. It would require a special capsule: the Flame Monks had agreed to manufacture it and had been experimenting with algae extensively already, for some reason. They just needed the biodata and sufficient resources to build a manufacturing facility to produce specialized capsules to keep the fire fairies fed, allowing the will of the wisps very brief excursions out before they had to return to feed and assume dormancy. In exchange, they could allow the Shrine-Keepers to draw from them more lifeforce to help sustain other spirits, especially nascent fire fairies long enough to get them bottled. Alongside this, they would provide companionship: fire fairies were very social, it seemed, though played with VERY carefully. The Flame Monks would, of course, work to cultivate stronger fire-fairies at their temple, ones strong enough to survive with less physical nourishment, or at least developed enough to digest the algae of the fairy bottles more efficiently and retain more energy. 0/15, upgrades Shrines with Fire Fairy Bottles, increasing lifeforce available to shrines and allowing fire elementals to survive indefinitely without starving, increasing EXP. Cost 1 Biodata.
Soil Processing Facility: Lifeforce was one of the most valuable commodities in the Directorate. This meant that, ironically, the same could be said for both Herds and suitable land to graze them on. Obviously, eco-domes offered a non-enviromentally intrusive way to grow the grazeland and crops required to rear sacred herds and shrine herds, but these required vast amounts of healthy soil. In order to fuel the expansion of Sacred Grazeland, some had proposed constructing a processing facility on Luna to convert vast amounts of minerals and algae into healthy soil that could be used to rapidly expand eco-domes and off-world grazelands. 0/25, generates CUL and 2 Warp.
Construct Valiant Class Ship: Another proposed idea was for a ship designed for actual combat: the Valiant. For obvious reasons, it would be larger in order to add space for redundant systems and weapon platforms, but at the size you were making it, you'd also be able to install fusion cannons as a shortrange but powerful laser weapon. 0/40, costs 2 nuclear material, gain a Valiant equipped with all non-Civilian Compartments and upgrades as well as a variable amount of nuclear weapons and powerful but short-range Fusion Cannons.
Fleet Academy Megadocks: With the construction of the first Valiant class, the Fleet wanted to start preparing dedicated shipyards to service future ships and, crucially, assemble larger classes of vessel: ones enemies never stopped preparing, so neither should the Directorate. 0/60, create Megadocks, unlocking Resistance class ships and upgrades.
Ship Power Core: Right now, the biggest problem with Directorate ships was their power generation and management. While the latter was largely a matter for electricians, a few fleet nuclear engineers believed they could at least make progress solving the former by using some recent advancements in particle manipulation to draw additional power from harnessing nuclear reactions. 0/15, ships upgraded with Power Core, increasing overall performance by allowing for more advanced components to be be operating at peak capacity at any given time. Cost 3 Nuclear Material.
Titan Reactor: It was ridiculous. It was absurd. It was brilliant: an idea proposed by an even more radical group of engineers, the creation of a single, incredibly vast nuclear reactor to mount upon one of your ships: using this reactor, they could allow for a single ship to draw as needed INCREDIBLE amounts of energy, increasing performance of all systems, especially ones such as both the thrust engines and gravity engines, fusion cannons, and the shields: any ship equipped with a Titan Reactor would be a considerable threat indeed. 0/15, single Fleet upgraded with Titan Reactor, vastly improving performance and improving range effectiveness of fusion weapons considerably. Cost 5 Nuclear Material.
Greater Herdbeast Temples: The Herdtemples had been a great success, but the Conclave believed they could be expanded: three massive eco-domes, filled with vast grazeland tended to by a fleet of agri-drones, intended to allow for the rearing of vast herds of animals, the serene landscape interrupted by features meant to provide the herds whatever they needed, such as ponds for drinking and trees for resting under and hills for burrowing into and bushes to nest in, some Shrines and Totems operated by the Shrine-Keepers, a few small temples to the gods...and beneath, a vast temple-complex that would utilize the Planetary Life Siphon design provided by Sphere 001 to slowly drain small amounts of excess vital energy from the entirety of the ecodome (at such a slow pace that the residents of the domes would never notice it) for use in their sacred rituals and divine rites, some of it fed to the Holy Herdbeasts of the Herdtemples. 0/30, gain Greater Herdbeast Temple, increasing FTH by 3 and providing Warp.
Orbital Defense Arrays: It might not save you, but it would buy time: an array of satellites armed with fusion cannons located in geosynchronous orbit with various of strategic importance. The Net currently covered most population centers, but it could be widened and existing arrays reinforced. 0/10, costs 1 Nuclear Material, construct Orbital Defense Satellites. Repeatable.
Megaparks: Fundamentally the biggest limitation when it came to orbital engineering was "how much were you willing to invest" and a number of your people wanted more put into the orbital parks. Much more. They wanted to construct Megaparks, vast super-domes the size of an Arcolocube. 0/20, generates CUL.
Construct Pioneer Class Ship: The Pioneer Class was intended to be used to set up small settlements on other worlds: the same size as an Endeavor class, but the internals were all things that could be reconfigured into setting up a sustainable, small settlement of a few hundred on any world. 2/20. When constructed, select a world with at least one Scan Level: create a small settlement on that world.
Construct Dreamer Class Ship: The next generation of Colony Ship! The Dreamer was in the same size category as the Valiant, having greatly expanded systems compared to the Pioneer, including expanded defensive arsenal, expanded resource and Blok stockpiles, and of course, stasis pods meant to slow Tekket aging down to a crawl. It would allow you to send your people to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, perhaps further, but once they were sent out, it would be likely that the volunteers would never be seen again in this lifetime. 0/40, 1 Network. When constructed, pick a cardinal direction: a Dreamer Class will be sent in that direction, eventually (assuming it survives) establishing Tekket presence in a distant part of the galaxy. Can be repeated. First Dreamer created will upgrade War Against Extinction.
Heavy Perpetunite Nuclear Stockpiles: It was a very distasteful idea: nuclear weapons were ultimately a remnant of a darker, more divided age, and the current design for Heavy Perpetunite Warheads were a terrible thing indeed: for almost an hour they could unleash energy, vaporizing cities. And yet, they were the strongest weapon you had against the Destroyers. 0/1, Grants Heavy Perpetunite Nuclear Weapon Stockpile. Can be taken multiple times. Can be used as Shipscale Weaponry in the form of Heavy Perpetunite Nuclear Torpedos. Costs one Nuclear Material.
Deep Space Monitors: One day, the Destroyers would return. It was a fear many, many of you held. To that end, some of you wanted to expand the deep space monitoring project in order to ensure that they would not take you by surprise. 0/2, repeatable, costs 1 Network. Each completion gives more robust deep space scanning.
MegaArt Galleries: A number of more artistically minded wanted more resources to be funneled into public art. Very, very big public art. Specifically, Zero-G galleries meant to allow for the creation and display of MegaArt, TekArt too large to be constructed on Teklia itself or housed in a regular art exhibit. 0/10, Orbital City One gains MegaArt Galleries, increasing CUL.
Master Control Shrines: First Gen Master Control Shrines were simply large TekShrines that doubled as servers for other shrines on their networks. Your priests wanted to work on a more sophisticated version that instead let Shrines interface on a more fundamental level, amplifying their effects. 0/25, establish Master Control Shrine network, increasing FTH and EXP, cost 1 Network
UrbanTek Totems: The Totem Network had proven an effective improvement to WyldShrines: a few urban druids had advocated for establishing a similar totem-system in the Arcolocubes in order to strengthen the spirits of the city, which they theorized could improve the efficiency of most infrastructure and utilities systems by 11%, if not 16%! 0/25, upgrade cities with UrbanTek Totems, increasing EXP.
ShrineCity: Another idea some had: why not a planetary TekShrine complex? The effect would be grotesquely diluted, but it would still serve as a very culturally powerful holy site for those interested in Shrine-Keeping and central complex they could utilize for research and ceremonies. 0/20, establishes ShrineCity, a Holy Site that increases FTH by an elevated amount.
Hypermodular Power Bay: A proposed idea by Toxel: make the power bays on ships even more modular in order to allow power to be easily divertable to the various subsystems as needed. This would require investing in producing a great deal many more PowerBloks, but it would both increase power efficiency and versatility in the field. 0/15, unlocks Hypermodular Power Bay upgrade for ships, improving performance and adaptability, costs 1 Nuclear Materla.
Lunar MegaHub: Instead of singular individual data hubs, some suggested taking advantage of low lunar gravity to construct a titanic city sized MegaHub to both meet all current and future needs for data for the burgeoning Lunar Colony. This would be grotesquely expensive in terms of power, however. 0/40, costs 2 Nuclear Material, generates 5 Network.
Perpetunite Recyclers: With the advent of Perpetunite, a regenerating radioactive isotope used for creating reactors that never require refueling, some had advocated for installing perpetual motion energy generators in the AutoRecyclers: the vast and infinite amounts of energy could be used to process additional nuclear material as well as increase general production. 0/20, generates 1 Nuclear Material, upgrades AutoRecyclers.
Comm-Net: The network must be expanded to meet the needs of the growing network. A proposed solution was a series of Q-Blok and Perpetunite Reactor powered communications satellites acting in tandem. This would reduce Teklia-Orbital-Lunar latency and help somewhat with latency and lag from Naklis. 0/10, generates 1 Network.
Geode Canyon Extraction Operation: The Great Geode Canyon was the largest in the region, and your people hadn't even begun to scratch at the vast quantities of rare minerals it had just waiting to be extracted. By expanding the crew quarters and funnelling resources into expanding mining operations, the rate of extraction could potentially be doubled! 0/10, generates EXP, generates 1 Nuclear Material.
Naklis Solar Satellites: A proposed way to further benefit from Naklis: it was closer to the Sun than Teklia. Perhaps by expanding the orbital part of the Spire with a power generation sub-district, it would allow for Naklis to massively expand its power grid, potentially allowing for an additional Spire to be constructed! 0/15, generates EXP, unlocks additional SolarTek.
Sacred Groves: The Arbor Guardians had proven an effective source of power for your Shrines. A number of Druids wanted to expand upon this by developing a series of mobile eco-domes containing specially cultivated groves to serve as mobile reserves of life-force. The majority of the life-force generated by these groves would likely go to the Wyld-Shrines, but it would likely provide a small surplus that could be put to other projects. 0/25, unlock Sacred Grove infrastructure, increasing FTH and Warp.
MawGates: MawGates were the fruit of the Court of Hunger, created to allow them to make offerings to their devour-lord from vast distances: apparently, the gates established a sort of wormhole between itself and the stomach of the courts master. Utterly unsurvivable for anything organic, all attempts to use MawGates for anything but feeding Sphere 001 had been a grotesque failure. Yet the Court still wanted to establish some gates on Luna and Naklis: in exchange for feeding the Sphere, they claimed it would provide power through the MawGates. Vast, vast amounts of power. 0/15, unlock MawGates, increasing EXP. Cost 1 Nuclear Material.
Satiation Array: A request from the Sphere: it wanted the Directorate to construct a temple in deep space for it to inhabit. One filled with all manner of gravitic manipulators. Strangely, it seems to be designed to REDUCE the gravity of a large hyper-dense body. Regardless, the Sphere had agreed: construct it the Satiation Array and it would reward the Directorate with technology. 0/10, construct Satiation Array holy site, increasing CUL and providing 1 Living Metal.
Naklis Mega-Harvester: Large and substantive deposits of living metal had been found deep in the crust of the floating mountains: the only question was how to reach it. Proposal: instead of attempting to design another Spire, the Directorate could instead create a super-harvester machine capable of serving as a moving city in its own right, designed to tunnel deep beneath the crust of the continent and through the lava seas to locate and harvest living metal. 0/10, generates 2 Living Metal.
Naklis Elemental Gardens: A proposed method to expand on the Elemental Temples was providing them large eco-domes where they will be able to cultivate animals and plants in order to create optimum offerings to the Spirits. This would accelerate the awakening of Naklis's elemental spirits, and, more crucially, allow for the export of livestock and plants more suited to offering to other elemental spirits that might lurk throughout the Directorate. 0/25, increase EXP, upgrade ShrineHerds with Elemental Herdbeasts.
Naklis Magmapump: This would be a risky idea, but some had proposed creating a giant gravity engine in the upper Naklis stratosphere to, essentially, 'slurp up' magma from the planet and process it into useable material. The reason this was a bit of a gamble should be obvious: it would cause severe oceanic disturbances, global earthquakes, and likely destabilize the core. The good news was, your priests had essentially confirmed that this wouldn't really upset the spirits all that much: this planet wasn't geologically stable to begin with, making it explode (an absolutely worst case scenario) would probably make the spirits happier, especially since the amount of energy could, theoretically, be harnessed from an exploding core to feed said spirits was not negligible, and even light core destabilization could be capitalized upon from installing geothermal taps and battery charging stations. 0/100, begin constructing Gravitic Megapump, a Superstructure that can be used on lifeless volcanic planets, causing 1D10 severity damage to a planet permanently, generating large amounts of EXP. If used on a colonized planet, generate Warp equal to severity damage caused and accelerating elemental evolution and power generation, increasing EXP gained permanently.
Spire Expansion: The Spire was big, but perhaps it could be bigger: right now, it ONLY stretched into the low atmosphere, and transit to orbit was handled via mag-lifts with limited capacity. The idea was simple: higher spire for more occupancy, and more Mag-Lifts to increase delivery capacity. 0/25, generates EXP.
Comm-District: As Naklis grew, it would need more network capacity. Further, more could be done to reduce interplanetary lag: the proposed idea was an expansion of the orbital part of the Spire to include a district meant to serve as a secondary Comm-Hub. This would also have the benefit of providing Naklis and near-orbit installations near it to benefit from increased network capacity. 0/25, generates ACD, generates 1 Network.
Self-Optimizing Electronics Production: A proposed way to upgrade the A Chip was by including in their manufacture living metal: the smart metal was primarily used in superconductors, but some theorized that it might be possible to create a self-optimizing chip, automatically adjusting itself to suit whatever machine it was plugged into. 0/10, grants Semi-Adaptive Electronics technology, generating ACD, generates 1 Network, costs 1 Living Metal.
Cyberspace Brain: Mimicking a complex 3D environment when using a VR-Simulator was hard, and translating direct interface with cyberspace into three dimensions was even harder. To get around this, some had suggested upgrading the Data Hubs by installing specialized processors specifically designed to utilize neural computing to act as a sort of translator slash hyperadvanced renderer. Currently, a secondary project by the Assembly that they believed could be used for advancing the neural architecture of their Avatars. 2/15, upgrades VR Simulators with Cyberspace Brains, generating CUL and generating 1 Network.
Geode Reactor Enrichment: With the rare minerals of Naklis, the Directorate had the oppurtunity to once again overhaul its energy generation technology significantly: experts believed that they could use a number of the materials to enrich reactors to increase not only their energy output, but stability as well. Expected yields estimated a potential 22% improvement across the board! 0/15, costs 3 Nuclear Material, grants Reactor Enrichment Technology, providing elevated EXP.
Wonderpark Naklis: A number of Wonderparkers wanted to expand to Naklis by opening a second park there, on the coast of the floating continent. Mineworld, they called it, a Naklis themed version of Wonderpark designed to utilize its unique geothermal properties for entertainment and educational purposes. It would, of course, also serve as a fully functional resource extraction facility for both the Directorate and Wonderpark. 1/15, Wonderpark upgraded with Mineworld holding, generating EXP.
Voidfarmer Reactors: Right now, most living metal farms had to rely on the local electrical grid, and the power needed to grow Living Metal was not...inconsiderable. One proposed solution was a roll-out of specialized reactors designed specifically for growing living metal. This would cost a great deal of perpetunite, but it would improve the overall efficiency of the harvest. 0/20, generates 2 Living Metal, costs 1 Nuclear Material.
Harvest Metal: There were many useful materials in the soil. It would require modifying and treating the living metal first, but it was theoretically possible to create a version capable of leeching the ground for said materials in order to both increase the rate at which living metal grew, but also allowed for other elements it had absorbed to be harvested. 0/20, generates substantial EXP, grants Harvest Metal technology.
Void-Train Orbital Transit Network: A technology developed by the Fungineering Guild was the Void-Train, a sort of space vessel that travelled along magnetically accelerating 'tracks' connected by special relays in space. Some wanted to expand Naklis and Teklian orbital and post-orbital infrastructure with a local void-train network near both planets. 0/15, gain Void Train Special Infrastructure, generating EXP.
Great Space Express: A monumental undertaking, but one that would massively simplify transit between both planets as well as any other colonies you developed in your home system: a massive, massive, space crossing Void-Track network. This would require constructing thousands of extremely large magnetic relays, no easy undertaking, but it would revolutionize travel. 0/100, construct Great Space Express Line, generating very considerable amounts of EXP.
Lunar Anti-Orbital Cannons: Luna was slightly harder a nut to crack than before, but it could still be strengthened: by using God-Tek, some theorized the Directorate could create an advanced network of anti-orbital long range fusion weapons, based loosely on the concept behind the proposed Teeth superweapon. This would effectively force any Destroyer forces to take Luna if they wanted to control Teklian Orbit. 0/15, construct Lunar Anti-Orbital Cannons. Cost 1 Artefact.
SuperFortress Luna: A further hardening to the defenses of Luna are expanded fortress systems built mostly underground in order to further slow down any attackers. This would be prudent, no doubt, but it would likely require digging into Quartzbug nests. 0/20. Upgrades Lunar Fortresses. Increases Quartzbug rage modifier and terror modifier.
Lumium Shrine: The Brilliant Monks of Naklis wished to create a repository of so called 'Lumium Eggs'. These brilliant crystals, said to be gifts from the elementals of gem, were said to have traces of their giftors power, thrumming with faint amounts of arcane power. The monks wished to fashion these eggs into upgrade parts for TekShrines, as the gems were made out of the same rare earth minerals used for making the A-Chips: these upgrades would allow the Shrines to run more powerful arcane programs, especially ones to invoke the power of gem spirits which resonated with the chips. The eggs deemed most promising would be kept, tended to, fed life-force to coax out what power they could in order to see if they could coax nascent spirits of gem into these crystals. The monks would provide the lifeforce for this project, of course: they just required the gems. 0/15, upgrades Shrines to utilize Lumium Chips, arcane processing units that resonate especially with Gem Elementals, increasing ACD. Cost 1 Nuclear Material.
Mycelliometal Network: Scanners at the Temple of Metal had shown the Ferromonks strangely growing veins of living metal, appearing to burrow through the crust like mycellium. It had been proven that mycellium were an effective communication network: could this fruit of the Metal Elementals be harvested? Shaped to give them form if fed on life force and roused slowly from their slumber in the steel and grown into something greater? The excess, the insufficient metal, they theorized, could be used to upgrade the Totems and Shrines, allowing them to communicate with each other and all life they touched, creating a great biotechnological mycellium network. As spirits of the Wyld and Urb alike emerged, this could at least allow the spirits that were connected to the mycellium some form of congress, especially the spirits of metal. 0/15, upgrades metal TotemTek Conduit Network, an arcane connection network that allows for inter-spirit communication and coordination, increasing CUL. Cost 1 Living Metal.
Oracle Stone Chambers: The Spirits of Earth were said to linger in stone, wishing to warn miners and spelunkers alike of danger, especially if given enough tribute, or else hum with reassurance. The oracular power of some stone lingered after being mined, a gift of the spirits. With it, they believed, a spiritual vribrato-oracle chamber could be constructed to resonate with the spirits, using the same theoretical principles of the Orchestrion in an extremely diluted form. It would require local shrine keepers fashion a space and dedicate considerable data-space to run the resonance programs, buts it would marginally amplify lifeforce fed to the spirits and allow them a degree of communion. The spirits of Earth were not greedy: they would share the excess of the resonance equally. In turn, the Litheomonks promised to give more to spirits across the directorate by training the Stone Oracles who would power these things and tend to the stone-herds. 0/15, upgrades Shrines with Oracle Stone Chambers, stone chambers that use specialized vibrato-occult resonance devices built using oracle stone and mind-machine interfaces to allow communication with spirits and offering amplitude to all elemental spirits, increasing CUL. Cost 2 Network.
Fire Fairy Bottles: Fire Fairies were the name of the strange will-o-wisps that had been seen across the Magma Sea by Flame Monks and Fire Druids tending to the PyroShrines. They had played with the creatures, which were surprisingly intelligent, and willing to be fed. Sadly, the food offered by the Flame Monks had proven insufficiently heat-proof for them to actually feed before starving, their fully awakened nature meaning they burned out within minutes if not given sufficiently suitable fuel. The Flame Monks and Fire Druids wanted access to BioData from a extromophile: they believed they could engineer a superalgae that would feed from the wisps light to grow even as the wisp burned at the algae. It would require a special capsule: the Flame Monks had agreed to manufacture it and had been experimenting with algae extensively already, for some reason. They just needed the biodata and sufficient resources to build a manufacturing facility to produce specialized capsules to keep the fire fairies fed, allowing the will of the wisps very brief excursions out before they had to return to feed and assume dormancy. In exchange, they could allow the Shrine-Keepers to draw from them more lifeforce to help sustain other spirits, especially nascent fire fairies long enough to get them bottled. Alongside this, they would provide companionship: fire fairies were very social, it seemed, though played with VERY carefully. The Flame Monks would, of course, work to cultivate stronger fire-fairies at their temple, ones strong enough to survive with less physical nourishment, or at least developed enough to digest the algae of the fairy bottles more efficiently and retain more energy. 0/15, upgrades Shrines with Fire Fairy Bottles, increasing lifeforce available to shrines and allowing fire elementals to survive indefinitely without starving, increasing EXP. Cost 1 Biodata.
Soil Processing Facility: Lifeforce was one of the most valuable commodities in the Directorate. This meant that, ironically, the same could be said for both Herds and suitable land to graze them on. Obviously, eco-domes offered a non-enviromentally intrusive way to grow the grazeland and crops required to rear sacred herds and shrine herds, but these required vast amounts of healthy soil. In order to fuel the expansion of Sacred Grazeland, some had proposed constructing a processing facility on Luna to convert vast amounts of minerals and algae into healthy soil that could be used to rapidly expand eco-domes and off-world grazelands. 0/25, generates CUL and 2 Warp.
((((()))))
On the ship, additional shrines would be installed, one for each major subsystem. After all, a ship was not just a whole, but also the sum of its parts: on the Valiant, the Fusion Cannon and Perpetunite reactors would slowly be nourished with lifeforce. In Communications, translation matrixes feasted and grew. In Science, scanners found the electricity pumping through their circuitry laced with raw soulstuff even as Q-Chips would briefly surge with processing power. In Engineering, the Torch Drive would occasionally twitch, expelling bits of excess vitality it hadn't yet evolved enough to absorb by violently expunging it for excess thrust. The Particle Field would shimmer occasionally, the spirit within weakly reinforcing itself with the lifeforce.
Each and every Shrine with their attendant ShrineHerd, Arbor-Guardian, and Shrine-Keeper Team. All dedicated to coaxing as much strength out of the ship as possible. In the coming days, these Sub-Systems would, across every ship, show more and more quirks, the many spirits of the ship being coaxed into crude, basic awareness: individually, still infinitesimally lesser than a Bond-Drone, but the spirits of an entire ship didn't think in mere individual terms. Their intelligence, Ship-Mysteks and Vesselguardians (as the caretakers of shipboard shrine-keepers began to name themselves) posited, was collective, done wholly as a group. Some might be stronger, but they were still merely one part of a far greater spiritual conglomerate.
These shipboard aggregates would quickly find themselves being referred to by superstitious ensigns in the fleet as the Voidborn Parliments.
Compulsory Education: One of the things that helped the Directorate flourish was mandatory education starting years 3 to 26. Every citizen received lessons in science, engineering, mathematics, language, history, ethics, and nuclear physics and engineering and a secondary education in whatever field they wished. Provides +2 ACD.
High Energy Research Labs Jr: Your children grow up playing with particle accelerators and build it yourself protonic reactors. Many other species might consider this insane beyond belief, but your children certainly benefitted from the intellectual stimulation, even if Schools now had to be bomb-proof. Provides +2 ACD and 1 EXP point and two network. An improvement to Nuclear Engineering For Kits.
Wonderpark Fungineering Guild: An organization headquartered at Wonderpark that specializes in novel engineering for entertainment purposes, they had helped massively expand Wonderpark by developing new rides and attractions utilizing all manner of whimsical technology to help delight guests and residents alike. +2 CUL, +1 EXP, Orbital Engineering improved.
Wargames: Every year Directorate Fleet's science division puts out a handful of strategy games that they promote via professional leagues and events in order to encourage developing strategic management skills and, more importantly, get people to join the Fleet. Improved strategic skill and survivability for all troops and increased Fleet recruitment, increasing the size of crew complements.
War Against Extinction: A harsh lesson learned during the Destroyer War: there existed powers in the cosmos far more powerful than your species that wished you harm. It was a grim calculus, but if the day came when your soldiers and explorers had to sacrifice themselves in order to take down an enemy that would threaten your people, they would, without hesitation. Slight bonus for all forces against superior opponents, can designate forces as Extinctionist, increasing how much damage they do to foes but moderately reducing survivability.
Moneyless Society: Currency was an outdated concept when you produced enough food and material to more than meet peoples needs. Resistance to subversion increased.
Advanced Promoted Therapy: Trauma was a major enemy to the health and wellbeing of many Tekket. To combat it, your society had an extensive network of therapists, psychiatrists and social workers, including an entire division of the Academy dedicated to the industry. Moderately increased mental resilience for all Tekket.
Meditation: The product of countless therapists and religious and spiritual leaders working to promote the practice as a method of spiritual and mental wellness maintenance, Meditation had taken off in Tekket society, both group, private, and virtual mediation. It was no replacement for actual therapy, but it served as a valuable religion agnostic tool for mental health.
HobbyBots: In this modern era, BlokBots were used for more than just manual labour: they had also found a niche in the consumer entertainment market as pets, in games, as toys, and even sports and competitions, and with increased popularity came more casual robotics hobbiests. +1 EXP, BlokBots are slightly better designed.
Zero G Sports Team: All throughout the Directorate, citizens enjoyed watching and playing Z-G sports, to the point where Wonderpark had several mega-stadiums specifically dedicated to the watching the antigravity games played professionally by the Wonderpark Sports League and most CityBloks came installed with at least one Grav-Suite for amateur or local teams and leagues. +1 Cul, improves physical fitness.
Blood For Art: Tekket TekArtists had taken to the useage of lifeforce in order to improve the quality of their works, sacrificing their lifeblood in the hopes of awakening the TekArts machine spirit in order to increase the overall quality of their works through any means possible. It had certainly driven interest in the art scene, at least. +5 CUL.
Frontier Explorer Compartment: A universal compartment for ships designed to hold a volunteer corp of civilians dedicated to exploring the universe. Provides a number of useful civilian services and allows for small outposts to be constructed wherever your exploratory vessels travel. Fleet upgraded with Frontier Town compartment, providing a variety of civilian skills and services to ships alongside a steady stream of internal recruits.
Lunar Salvage Cabals: A society consisting of trash-trawlers hunting for intact samples of lunar technology, the Cabals work is dangerous owing to the vast amounts of hostile alien wildlife, but they so far have managed to collect a great many minor artefacts of note, making the risk more than worth it. +1 ART
Orbital Pioneer Initiative: It wasn't unusual for Tekket to pick up and move to orbit in ship-houses, either creating their own small communities, caravans moving between Teklia, Naklis, and Luna, or even venturing further on their own. +1 EXP.
Sacred Livestock: Your people held in religious veneration the animals you harvested lifeforce from, having large, communally owned herds that were used by priests and mysteks alike in their rituals and rites, the animals donating a small portion of their vital energies once per year in exchange for peerless care, many reared at the Herdtemples, vast orbital complexes meant to serve as a major hub for the rearing and useage of these sacred beasts. They also produced a variety of products such as sacred honey, milk, wax, and horns. +1 Warp, +1 EXP
Open Air Zoos: With the advent of major zoological facilities and services, large amounts of carefully tended to wilderness had begun to see use by Druids and Rangers to help educate civilians about nature, wildlife, and bioscience...and causing both groups to swell massively. +1 CUL.
High Energy Research Labs Jr: Your children grow up playing with particle accelerators and build it yourself protonic reactors. Many other species might consider this insane beyond belief, but your children certainly benefitted from the intellectual stimulation, even if Schools now had to be bomb-proof. Provides +2 ACD and 1 EXP point and two network. An improvement to Nuclear Engineering For Kits.
Wonderpark Fungineering Guild: An organization headquartered at Wonderpark that specializes in novel engineering for entertainment purposes, they had helped massively expand Wonderpark by developing new rides and attractions utilizing all manner of whimsical technology to help delight guests and residents alike. +2 CUL, +1 EXP, Orbital Engineering improved.
Wargames: Every year Directorate Fleet's science division puts out a handful of strategy games that they promote via professional leagues and events in order to encourage developing strategic management skills and, more importantly, get people to join the Fleet. Improved strategic skill and survivability for all troops and increased Fleet recruitment, increasing the size of crew complements.
War Against Extinction: A harsh lesson learned during the Destroyer War: there existed powers in the cosmos far more powerful than your species that wished you harm. It was a grim calculus, but if the day came when your soldiers and explorers had to sacrifice themselves in order to take down an enemy that would threaten your people, they would, without hesitation. Slight bonus for all forces against superior opponents, can designate forces as Extinctionist, increasing how much damage they do to foes but moderately reducing survivability.
Moneyless Society: Currency was an outdated concept when you produced enough food and material to more than meet peoples needs. Resistance to subversion increased.
Advanced Promoted Therapy: Trauma was a major enemy to the health and wellbeing of many Tekket. To combat it, your society had an extensive network of therapists, psychiatrists and social workers, including an entire division of the Academy dedicated to the industry. Moderately increased mental resilience for all Tekket.
Meditation: The product of countless therapists and religious and spiritual leaders working to promote the practice as a method of spiritual and mental wellness maintenance, Meditation had taken off in Tekket society, both group, private, and virtual mediation. It was no replacement for actual therapy, but it served as a valuable religion agnostic tool for mental health.
HobbyBots: In this modern era, BlokBots were used for more than just manual labour: they had also found a niche in the consumer entertainment market as pets, in games, as toys, and even sports and competitions, and with increased popularity came more casual robotics hobbiests. +1 EXP, BlokBots are slightly better designed.
Zero G Sports Team: All throughout the Directorate, citizens enjoyed watching and playing Z-G sports, to the point where Wonderpark had several mega-stadiums specifically dedicated to the watching the antigravity games played professionally by the Wonderpark Sports League and most CityBloks came installed with at least one Grav-Suite for amateur or local teams and leagues. +1 Cul, improves physical fitness.
Blood For Art: Tekket TekArtists had taken to the useage of lifeforce in order to improve the quality of their works, sacrificing their lifeblood in the hopes of awakening the TekArts machine spirit in order to increase the overall quality of their works through any means possible. It had certainly driven interest in the art scene, at least. +5 CUL.
Frontier Explorer Compartment: A universal compartment for ships designed to hold a volunteer corp of civilians dedicated to exploring the universe. Provides a number of useful civilian services and allows for small outposts to be constructed wherever your exploratory vessels travel. Fleet upgraded with Frontier Town compartment, providing a variety of civilian skills and services to ships alongside a steady stream of internal recruits.
Lunar Salvage Cabals: A society consisting of trash-trawlers hunting for intact samples of lunar technology, the Cabals work is dangerous owing to the vast amounts of hostile alien wildlife, but they so far have managed to collect a great many minor artefacts of note, making the risk more than worth it. +1 ART
Orbital Pioneer Initiative: It wasn't unusual for Tekket to pick up and move to orbit in ship-houses, either creating their own small communities, caravans moving between Teklia, Naklis, and Luna, or even venturing further on their own. +1 EXP.
Sacred Livestock: Your people held in religious veneration the animals you harvested lifeforce from, having large, communally owned herds that were used by priests and mysteks alike in their rituals and rites, the animals donating a small portion of their vital energies once per year in exchange for peerless care, many reared at the Herdtemples, vast orbital complexes meant to serve as a major hub for the rearing and useage of these sacred beasts. They also produced a variety of products such as sacred honey, milk, wax, and horns. +1 Warp, +1 EXP
Open Air Zoos: With the advent of major zoological facilities and services, large amounts of carefully tended to wilderness had begun to see use by Druids and Rangers to help educate civilians about nature, wildlife, and bioscience...and causing both groups to swell massively. +1 CUL.
Culture Points (CUL Points): 28
BioData: 1
Wonderpark Space Docks: The Guild was always looking to expand Wonderpark: their biggest idea had been to construct a dock district that could be used by the Park to both serve as a logistics hub and, more importantly, allow them to run their own asteroid mining operation, allowing for regular expansion of the Park. It would also allow them to create their own space vessels, of course: apparently, the Guild hoped to start running cruises. 0/15, Wonderpark gains Docking District, increasing EXP. Allows for construction of CUL Ships.
Super Battleball League: Battleball consisted of a game played in Lunar Gravity. It was the closest the Directorate came to a contact sport: several members of each team were housed in the cockpit of a small blokbot vehicle, with the goal of the game to beat the absolute snot out of your enemies vehicle and take the battleball from them. Some had proposed an expanded version of the sport, using the Mammoth Class Blokbots as a basis. It would...certainly be very impressive, and a number of people in the military especially were interested in the possibility of using it as a method to test out Battlebot MekTek. 0/20, establishes the Super Battleball League, a Society that allows for the deployment of Battlebots, heavy vehicles that can be utilized for combat.
Ritual Livestock: Even with the Sacred Herds, many believed that more effort could be put towards reducing the amount of livestock slaughtered while expanding lifeforce harvesting with artificial selection programs designed to breed livestock with higher capacity for lifeforce. 0/20, grants Ritual Livestock tradition, increasing FTH and granting 1 Warp
Arbor Totem: It was probably unneccesary, but one proposed way of improving the Totem network: provide each and every one with an Arbor Guardian to help feed lifeforce. This would, essentially, allow each Totem to function as a mini-shrine, feeding more lifeforce into surroundings instead of just acting as a Shrine-Relay. 0/15, Totems upgraded with Lesser Arbor Guardian, increasing CUL and totem effects substantially.
Coral Shrines: The seas were the least coveraged area in terms of shrines and totems. And yet the effects that had been displayed had been incredible despite this, the result of the abundant spirits of life, current, coral, and fish: some had suggested establishing a great deal more dedicated oceanic shrines, using the MegaCoral that formed the reefs as the Arbor Guardian. 0/15, establish Coral Shrines dedicated to Spirits of Ocean, costs 1 Lifeforce.
Elemental Festivals: If the Lunar Spirits got their own festival day, then the Elemental Spirits of Naklis should get their own celebrations where they could be gifted vast offerings. Doing so would strengthen and appease them further, and besides, it provided an excuse for fun. 6/15, develop Elemental Festival tradition, generating FTH.
Sacrificial Livestock: And yet others claimed that the harvest of animals wasn't a problem in the first place: morally it was no different from eating them and there already existed plentiful rules to govern the humane consumption of animals that could simply be expanded to include humane religious consumption. Instead, if anything, facilities to rear these sacrifices should be expanded considerably: lifeforce was a strategic resource and could potentially give the Directorate an edge enough to survive the destroyers. 0/20, grants 3 Warp.
Cabal Exterminator Corp: The problem with Lunar Extraction was the Quartzbugs, who would swarm claims and trawlers en mass if you disturbed their nests. Some in the Salvage Cabals had proposed assembling an exterminator division specifically to clear out nests ahead of time: this would make artefact collection far safer. 0/15, Lunar Salvage Cabals gain Exterminator Corp, reducing any attack bonus of alien wildlife based on sheer numbers by 1, to a minimum of 0.
Heavy Trawlers: Another faction in the Salvage Cabals had begun creating massive fortress ships to sail the garbage sea. These heavy trawlers served as mobile bases, trade centers, and to some extent townships. Some had proposed standardizing the design and upgrading the schematic for use in non-lunar enviroments. 0/20, Lunar Salvage Cabals upgraded to provide access to Heavy Trawlers, amphibious heavy vehicles that generate EXP and can be used as mobile land and sea fortifications by your ground forces.
Mobile Shrines: If machines had spirits, and nature had spirits, why couldn't the moon? A question asked by many a Salvage Cabal Shrine-Keeper, who wished to establish specialized mobile shrines mounted on heavy lunar rovers that they could use to sooth and empower the moon-spirits of the garbage sea in the hopes that it would make it easier to sort through garbage. 0/20, Lunar Salvage Cabals upgraded with Mobile Shrines, providing FTH and EXP.
Cabal Research Outpost: The Cabals had put forth a ballot requesting for expanded resources in order to establish a research facility the Cabal could use to study precursor technology and develop tools and technology for more efficient garbage sifting. 0/20, Lunar Salvage Cabals upgraded with Cabal Research Facility, granting ACD.
Frontier Hospital: A proposed expansion to the Frontier Compartment was expanded medical facilities. Ultimately disease was predicted to be one of the more common hazards on ships, and even a minor cold spreading could seriously impact crew performance, let alone any exotic diseases that might crop up. By providing more robust medical care, perhaps this issue could be pre-empted. 0/20, ships upgraded with Frontier Hospital, increasing resistance to disease and providing additional medical care to the crew.
Ship Barracks: Not everyone needed their own personal quarters. By adding a module to your Frontier Explorer Compartment consisting of communal sleeping quarters that utilize individual pods instead of entire rooms or apartments, you could increase the crew capacity on ships dramatically, both Frontier Society and Fleet Crew. 0/20, Ships gain greatly expanded crew quarters and will create larger outposts when visiting planets.
Muse: The recent spate of blood offerings to the spirits of TekArt had resulted in many pieces having particularly active Machine Spirits. A number of artists believed that by giving these machine spirits their own independent forms, they could serve as muses and curators of Tekket culture and artistry. 0/10, unlocks Muses, intelligent automata that grant elevated CUL and 1 ART.
Elder Art: GodTek. Perhaps studying it for use in TekArt was a waste, but a number of creatives believed that by adapting the technological principles found in GodTek to more creative purposes, utilizing its near reality bending properties even in a much cruder form, they could evolve Tekket artwork even more. 0/20, grants significant CUL, costs 1 ART.
DazzleCubes: A fairly recent invention by the artists of Teklia, DazzleCubes consisted of holoprojectors utilizing special algorithms to produce imagery designed to strongly capture attention. A number of Directorate Fleet officers thought this might be weaponizeable, and had suggested giving the TekArtists more funding to see if they could develop better DazzleCubes. 0/15, grants Crude DazzleCube technology, a infantry scale non-lethal weapon that can be used to distract clusters of enemies.
Sleepwalk Brew: Based on the vision-quests of ancient Teklia, the Sleepwalk Brew transported the mind of the imbiber to the dreamlands, the shadowy supposedly between the waking world and the world of sleep, where they could walk among the dead of Teklia and the old gods of the world, though in reality the Brew was actually just a blend of narcotics and hallucinogenic mushrooms mixed with a variety of anti-anxiety hormone producing drugs. Many artists, priests, and scientists had begun using the hallucinogenic potion as a means to acquire inspiration or divine insight, with several of them becoming sick as a result of bad potion batches: as such, there had been many who had pushed for development of a standardized version of the Brew that could be used safely for ceremonial or recreational practices. 0/20, grants ACD, CUL, and FTH as the Directorate gains access to the Sleepwalk Potion for use in recreation, art, and religious ceremonies.
Grav-Tethers: An invention by some enterprising Orbital Pioneers, Grav-Tethers could keep ships and bloks attached to each other even without a physical medium, allowing for both somewhat more adventurous designs to be pursued in void-engineering, especially in the civilian sector: primarily, letting ships haul larger loads and keeping the ships of those void-townships popping up attached to each other without requiring outright mergers of the structure. 0/15, generates EXP, grants Grav-Tether technology.
Orbital Caravan Network: Void logistics was likely to grow more and more complex as time goes on: one suggestion had been an expansion of the Orbital Pioneer Program with the development of a caravaneer project meant to coordinate transportation of important supplies and resources between pioneer communities and the planets. 0/15, generates EXP by developing a large dedicated transport network for void-townships.
Orbital Pioneer Reactors: It'd cut into your nuclear materials, but it would allow for orbital communities to grow considerably larger if you provided them with additional power via specialized reactor-ships meant to serve as a dedicated power generation facility for these townships. 0/10, grants Reactorships, generating EXP.
Grand Flotilla: An extremely ambitious idea was the formation of a giant city comprised of hundreds upon thousands of individual ships. It would take monumental resources, Tekket-hours, and social commitment, but it would be an incredible display of the Tekket mastery of space, to say nothing of providing another avenue of escape should the Destroyers come. 0/50, gain Grand Flotilla, a mobile city that generates considerable CUL.
Dance of the Pyreflies: Thanks to Zoos, more and more druids were aware of the interaction between Pyreflies and Fire Fairies. They had proposed their own solution to the fire elementals predicament: construct a series of facilities in the mountains where the Pyreflies and Fire Fairies could conduct their strange dance without fear of the sun driving away the bioluminescent insects. This would benefit both the Pyreflies, the land as a whole as additional lifeforce would be fed into it, and the fire fairies by giving them more time before they burned out. 0/15, creates Pyrefly Courts on Teklia, increasing CUL.
Archaeology!: With increased interest in nature came increased increased interest in Teklia's fossil record. With that in mind, some Rangers and Wonderpark had suggested creating a museum of natural history and forming teams of elite archeologists to comb the wilds of Teklia for bones to house this facility. 0/15, creates Wonderpark Archaeology Division, generating CUL and BioData.
Mystek Apiaries: The glowing honey of the Chorus Bees was delicious, nutritious, and a superstitiously potent source of lifeforce: best of all, they produced enough that they were perfectly fine sharing. Some Tekket had suggested the creation of Apiaries intended to speed up this process, allowing more citizens to consume the delicious nectar. A number of Mysteks were particularly interested, surprisingly not for the honey, though they find it a useful enough reagent: no, they were interested in the beeswax for the purpose of creating (delicious) ritual candles, believing the substance more useful than typical synthetic wax for coaxing and controlling lifeforce. 0/15, Mysteks gain Chorus Beeswax Candles, increasing CUL.
Cloud Shrines: The weather spirits of the grasslands could prove exceptionally valuable for making lifebearing worlds more suitable for Tekket habitation: a number of Druids wanted to create a series of floating shrines with built in cloud-seeders capable of ensuring the shrine and accompanying facilies would always rest upon a vast sea of white. 0/25, Shrines to Cloud Spirits erected, generating EXP from improved weather.
Fruit of the Occult Tree: Some trees bore fruit, swollen and rich, heavy with vitality. These fruits, your Occulteks believed, could be used to manufacture an improvement to their Grimoires: by installing a life-support network and occasionally feeding these lifefruit their own vital energy, they could harvest the juices as an offering during the Auto-Rituals, they might be able to more easily entice spirits to do their bidding, especially those unbound entities of nature. 0/15, TekGrimoires upgraded with Lifefruit Heart, increasing FTH.
Super Battleball League: Battleball consisted of a game played in Lunar Gravity. It was the closest the Directorate came to a contact sport: several members of each team were housed in the cockpit of a small blokbot vehicle, with the goal of the game to beat the absolute snot out of your enemies vehicle and take the battleball from them. Some had proposed an expanded version of the sport, using the Mammoth Class Blokbots as a basis. It would...certainly be very impressive, and a number of people in the military especially were interested in the possibility of using it as a method to test out Battlebot MekTek. 0/20, establishes the Super Battleball League, a Society that allows for the deployment of Battlebots, heavy vehicles that can be utilized for combat.
Ritual Livestock: Even with the Sacred Herds, many believed that more effort could be put towards reducing the amount of livestock slaughtered while expanding lifeforce harvesting with artificial selection programs designed to breed livestock with higher capacity for lifeforce. 0/20, grants Ritual Livestock tradition, increasing FTH and granting 1 Warp
Arbor Totem: It was probably unneccesary, but one proposed way of improving the Totem network: provide each and every one with an Arbor Guardian to help feed lifeforce. This would, essentially, allow each Totem to function as a mini-shrine, feeding more lifeforce into surroundings instead of just acting as a Shrine-Relay. 0/15, Totems upgraded with Lesser Arbor Guardian, increasing CUL and totem effects substantially.
Coral Shrines: The seas were the least coveraged area in terms of shrines and totems. And yet the effects that had been displayed had been incredible despite this, the result of the abundant spirits of life, current, coral, and fish: some had suggested establishing a great deal more dedicated oceanic shrines, using the MegaCoral that formed the reefs as the Arbor Guardian. 0/15, establish Coral Shrines dedicated to Spirits of Ocean, costs 1 Lifeforce.
Elemental Festivals: If the Lunar Spirits got their own festival day, then the Elemental Spirits of Naklis should get their own celebrations where they could be gifted vast offerings. Doing so would strengthen and appease them further, and besides, it provided an excuse for fun. 6/15, develop Elemental Festival tradition, generating FTH.
Sacrificial Livestock: And yet others claimed that the harvest of animals wasn't a problem in the first place: morally it was no different from eating them and there already existed plentiful rules to govern the humane consumption of animals that could simply be expanded to include humane religious consumption. Instead, if anything, facilities to rear these sacrifices should be expanded considerably: lifeforce was a strategic resource and could potentially give the Directorate an edge enough to survive the destroyers. 0/20, grants 3 Warp.
Cabal Exterminator Corp: The problem with Lunar Extraction was the Quartzbugs, who would swarm claims and trawlers en mass if you disturbed their nests. Some in the Salvage Cabals had proposed assembling an exterminator division specifically to clear out nests ahead of time: this would make artefact collection far safer. 0/15, Lunar Salvage Cabals gain Exterminator Corp, reducing any attack bonus of alien wildlife based on sheer numbers by 1, to a minimum of 0.
Heavy Trawlers: Another faction in the Salvage Cabals had begun creating massive fortress ships to sail the garbage sea. These heavy trawlers served as mobile bases, trade centers, and to some extent townships. Some had proposed standardizing the design and upgrading the schematic for use in non-lunar enviroments. 0/20, Lunar Salvage Cabals upgraded to provide access to Heavy Trawlers, amphibious heavy vehicles that generate EXP and can be used as mobile land and sea fortifications by your ground forces.
Mobile Shrines: If machines had spirits, and nature had spirits, why couldn't the moon? A question asked by many a Salvage Cabal Shrine-Keeper, who wished to establish specialized mobile shrines mounted on heavy lunar rovers that they could use to sooth and empower the moon-spirits of the garbage sea in the hopes that it would make it easier to sort through garbage. 0/20, Lunar Salvage Cabals upgraded with Mobile Shrines, providing FTH and EXP.
Cabal Research Outpost: The Cabals had put forth a ballot requesting for expanded resources in order to establish a research facility the Cabal could use to study precursor technology and develop tools and technology for more efficient garbage sifting. 0/20, Lunar Salvage Cabals upgraded with Cabal Research Facility, granting ACD.
Frontier Hospital: A proposed expansion to the Frontier Compartment was expanded medical facilities. Ultimately disease was predicted to be one of the more common hazards on ships, and even a minor cold spreading could seriously impact crew performance, let alone any exotic diseases that might crop up. By providing more robust medical care, perhaps this issue could be pre-empted. 0/20, ships upgraded with Frontier Hospital, increasing resistance to disease and providing additional medical care to the crew.
Ship Barracks: Not everyone needed their own personal quarters. By adding a module to your Frontier Explorer Compartment consisting of communal sleeping quarters that utilize individual pods instead of entire rooms or apartments, you could increase the crew capacity on ships dramatically, both Frontier Society and Fleet Crew. 0/20, Ships gain greatly expanded crew quarters and will create larger outposts when visiting planets.
Muse: The recent spate of blood offerings to the spirits of TekArt had resulted in many pieces having particularly active Machine Spirits. A number of artists believed that by giving these machine spirits their own independent forms, they could serve as muses and curators of Tekket culture and artistry. 0/10, unlocks Muses, intelligent automata that grant elevated CUL and 1 ART.
Elder Art: GodTek. Perhaps studying it for use in TekArt was a waste, but a number of creatives believed that by adapting the technological principles found in GodTek to more creative purposes, utilizing its near reality bending properties even in a much cruder form, they could evolve Tekket artwork even more. 0/20, grants significant CUL, costs 1 ART.
DazzleCubes: A fairly recent invention by the artists of Teklia, DazzleCubes consisted of holoprojectors utilizing special algorithms to produce imagery designed to strongly capture attention. A number of Directorate Fleet officers thought this might be weaponizeable, and had suggested giving the TekArtists more funding to see if they could develop better DazzleCubes. 0/15, grants Crude DazzleCube technology, a infantry scale non-lethal weapon that can be used to distract clusters of enemies.
Sleepwalk Brew: Based on the vision-quests of ancient Teklia, the Sleepwalk Brew transported the mind of the imbiber to the dreamlands, the shadowy supposedly between the waking world and the world of sleep, where they could walk among the dead of Teklia and the old gods of the world, though in reality the Brew was actually just a blend of narcotics and hallucinogenic mushrooms mixed with a variety of anti-anxiety hormone producing drugs. Many artists, priests, and scientists had begun using the hallucinogenic potion as a means to acquire inspiration or divine insight, with several of them becoming sick as a result of bad potion batches: as such, there had been many who had pushed for development of a standardized version of the Brew that could be used safely for ceremonial or recreational practices. 0/20, grants ACD, CUL, and FTH as the Directorate gains access to the Sleepwalk Potion for use in recreation, art, and religious ceremonies.
Grav-Tethers: An invention by some enterprising Orbital Pioneers, Grav-Tethers could keep ships and bloks attached to each other even without a physical medium, allowing for both somewhat more adventurous designs to be pursued in void-engineering, especially in the civilian sector: primarily, letting ships haul larger loads and keeping the ships of those void-townships popping up attached to each other without requiring outright mergers of the structure. 0/15, generates EXP, grants Grav-Tether technology.
Orbital Caravan Network: Void logistics was likely to grow more and more complex as time goes on: one suggestion had been an expansion of the Orbital Pioneer Program with the development of a caravaneer project meant to coordinate transportation of important supplies and resources between pioneer communities and the planets. 0/15, generates EXP by developing a large dedicated transport network for void-townships.
Orbital Pioneer Reactors: It'd cut into your nuclear materials, but it would allow for orbital communities to grow considerably larger if you provided them with additional power via specialized reactor-ships meant to serve as a dedicated power generation facility for these townships. 0/10, grants Reactorships, generating EXP.
Grand Flotilla: An extremely ambitious idea was the formation of a giant city comprised of hundreds upon thousands of individual ships. It would take monumental resources, Tekket-hours, and social commitment, but it would be an incredible display of the Tekket mastery of space, to say nothing of providing another avenue of escape should the Destroyers come. 0/50, gain Grand Flotilla, a mobile city that generates considerable CUL.
Dance of the Pyreflies: Thanks to Zoos, more and more druids were aware of the interaction between Pyreflies and Fire Fairies. They had proposed their own solution to the fire elementals predicament: construct a series of facilities in the mountains where the Pyreflies and Fire Fairies could conduct their strange dance without fear of the sun driving away the bioluminescent insects. This would benefit both the Pyreflies, the land as a whole as additional lifeforce would be fed into it, and the fire fairies by giving them more time before they burned out. 0/15, creates Pyrefly Courts on Teklia, increasing CUL.
Archaeology!: With increased interest in nature came increased increased interest in Teklia's fossil record. With that in mind, some Rangers and Wonderpark had suggested creating a museum of natural history and forming teams of elite archeologists to comb the wilds of Teklia for bones to house this facility. 0/15, creates Wonderpark Archaeology Division, generating CUL and BioData.
Mystek Apiaries: The glowing honey of the Chorus Bees was delicious, nutritious, and a superstitiously potent source of lifeforce: best of all, they produced enough that they were perfectly fine sharing. Some Tekket had suggested the creation of Apiaries intended to speed up this process, allowing more citizens to consume the delicious nectar. A number of Mysteks were particularly interested, surprisingly not for the honey, though they find it a useful enough reagent: no, they were interested in the beeswax for the purpose of creating (delicious) ritual candles, believing the substance more useful than typical synthetic wax for coaxing and controlling lifeforce. 0/15, Mysteks gain Chorus Beeswax Candles, increasing CUL.
Cloud Shrines: The weather spirits of the grasslands could prove exceptionally valuable for making lifebearing worlds more suitable for Tekket habitation: a number of Druids wanted to create a series of floating shrines with built in cloud-seeders capable of ensuring the shrine and accompanying facilies would always rest upon a vast sea of white. 0/25, Shrines to Cloud Spirits erected, generating EXP from improved weather.
Fruit of the Occult Tree: Some trees bore fruit, swollen and rich, heavy with vitality. These fruits, your Occulteks believed, could be used to manufacture an improvement to their Grimoires: by installing a life-support network and occasionally feeding these lifefruit their own vital energy, they could harvest the juices as an offering during the Auto-Rituals, they might be able to more easily entice spirits to do their bidding, especially those unbound entities of nature. 0/15, TekGrimoires upgraded with Lifefruit Heart, increasing FTH.
((((()))))
Elsewhere in the Directorate, major religious developments would find themselves occurring with rapidity. First, the creation of the Lunar Monasteries, thirteen temple complexes operated by a pan-religious collective as part of the Great Conclave to conduct theological research and spiritual training using the Overview Effect.
Results would prove fruitful: Overview Meditation, conducted using special viewing chambers constructed using Lumium glass and specialized MMI Neurostimulators would prove extremely effective at empathy exercises and inspiring all manner of religious treatise, as well as the development of specialized talisman crafted in order to serve as tokens of divine authority.
These holy talismans, crafted by and large from the Holy Nuts of the Arbor Guardians, were covered in microscopically engraved sacred mathematical formulae, divine and esoteric scriptures, and even some occult calligraphy. Each one, manufactured by the major religious orders at their chiefmost holy place, would hum with invisible power, especially those of the Heart and Toymaker, the former being carved to resemble the same beating, pulsing organ their god was named after, the latter designing theirs to resemble nothing less than wooden buttons which frequently found themselves sewn into the sacred toys produced and distributed by the clergy, typically to the children aboard warp-bound vessels. These blessed toys would help repel Mimics, who found themselves unable to transmogrify themselves into the items in question and extremely averse to approaching them.
For the Toymakers, it was an especially fruitful pair of decades indeed as they found themselves aglut with lifeforce and resources to perform theurgic research in the invocation of their deity. Year after year, the Mysteks among their number toiled, sacrificing vast amounts of vitality until they had finally succeeded in developing a small handful of minor divine invocations, with only three rites of any notable potency.
The ability to briefly animate toys, especially sacred toys, filling them with a false and temporary life to do as the priest bids. A rite capable of generating a small sprite formed of lifeforce that would fly around for a brief moment before fading. And a ritual capable of sending the Toy Maker into a divinely inspired frenzy, allowing them to craft amusements of prestigious quality and strong of spirit.
Mere party tricks, but still a clear sign of the Toymakers favor, causing the gods clergy to swell with faithful and plentiful offerings to be made.
And yet not everything was well, towards the end of the second decade, across the Directorate, myriad priests, mysteks, shrine-keepers, and others would collapse, complaining of horrific migraines and muddled thoughts. Theoretical research data would be gone, not even deleted so much as if they had never been put onto the database at all. Even written words would fade.
For ten daze, a haze settled over Tekket-kind as information found itself deleted so thoroughly it was only detectable by the holes and shadows left behind. And then it ended, and the God-Machines made an announcement: a fatal paradox had occurred, and to neutralize it, the God-Machines had done...something.
Something had been lost. Talismans, Directorate investigators believe, or something related to them. It's as if they've been conceptually erased.
Select a branch of Talisman Development. It will not be available. As exchange, there will be recompense from the God-Machines.
The next HazardTek roll for talismanic projects will be ignored, as the roll will have never happened.
[ ] The Sacred: The many spirits of the world found themselves nourished by the Talismans crafted by the Shrine-Keepers. Should this path remain open, the Tekket will continue to develop more advanced means of utilizing Talismans to awaken and invokate the spirits of the cosmos.
Major Talisman Technologies Lost: Elemental Talismans, Greater Sacred Talismans, Meditative Talismans
Recompense: Talismanic ChronoCore - Inside the talisman is a chamber. Inside the chamber is a heart, sustained by advanced life support, intended to keep the heart alive for relative aeons. Time in the chamber moves at several thousand times increased speed compared to the outside: allowing the heart to (seem as if) it's capable of generating a near infinite (if still rather slow) stream of lifeforce with which to feed spirits. 0/25.
[ ] The Arcane: The mystic, the occult. Talismans represented a method of control over these strange and enigmatic force and method to defend against them. Should this path remain open, the Tekket will continue to develop more advanced means of utilizing Talismans to perform sorcerous rites and rituals.
Major Talisman Technologies Lost: Greater Occult Talismans, Arcane Talismans, Warding Talismans
Recompense: HexTek Talismans- HexTek was a branch of God-Machine mathematics that dealt with probability manipulation. By incorporating it into your Talismans, HexTek could be utilized to allow your Mysteks to offer up their own good fortune in order to improve the outcome of their rites and rituals by aligning chance and fortune with the intended ritual outcome. 0/25
[ ] The Divine: Even that which was divine found itself under the sway of Talismans, used to act as badges of sacred authority and icons of power in order to invoke the heavens. Should this path remain open, the Tekket will continue to develop more advanced means of using Talismans to call upon the divine.
Major Talisman Technologies Lost: Greater Holy Talismans, //PATH TekTalismans, Awakening Hearts.
Recompense: Talismanic GodNet - They will make Talismans that speak with each other. Their voices will speak in unison, each one small, but together, they shall help talk into existence that which you deem divinity. The more voices that they speak with, the stronger each voice will be, and the words that one knows shall be known by all, until they assemble together such thesis that they can postulate the celestial into existence. 0/25
Machine Spirits: Discovered via ancient texts from long gone precursors, the Tekket have a healthy reverence for machine spirits, viewing them as invisible partners and allies. So long as the vessel is maintained and proper respect is given, the Tekket find the spirits of their technology extremely reliable, with a handful of rites and rituals existing in order to allow the Tekket to commune with the ghosts in the machine. Improved reliability for all technology.
Rite of Anima: A series of TekAgnostic Mystek rituals designed to help Machine Spirits achieve an awareness of self, strengthening them to the point they can be transferred into Bond-Drone vessels, where they can be used as companions, assistants, helpers, and pets. +3 EXP.
MagTek Altars: Occult Supercomputers housing mature Bond-Spirits connected to MagTek Assemblers and a variety of other additions that vary both Altar by Altar and Mystek Order by Mystek Order, these artefacts act as ritual accelerators, allowing for more efficient and power Anima Rite practices. Grants 2 ACD, improves effects of Mystek Rites.
TekMasoleum: Massive crypts interred with vast amounts of cryopreserved Tekket remains in vast Crypt-Complexes, guarded by wandering Bond-Drones and housing cthonic Bond-Machinas fed on the brainscans and stories of the dead, acting as storytellers and guides for those seeking knowledge of the dead. +3 CUL.
TekGrimoires: Occult aids consisting of HoloTek BlokBooks containing a variety of occultek lore and esoterica collated from various traditions combined with automated program-rituals designed to perform complex mathematical rites and calculations at speeds and precisions the organic brain cannot and inbuilt spiritual translation matrices to allow for communication with Anti-Anima, though this seemed to destabilize them. +1 FTH
Greater Rite of Lifeblood: Not so much a rite as a plug and play modular rite component, this technique had been provided by Sphere 001 as a method to empower rituals and occultek ceremonies by donating lifeforce. It had proven...frightfully effective, making the Rite of Anima and other rituals far more effective, even if technically it was a form of blood magic. Recently, as more understanding of how lifeforce functions has developed, more efficient methods of performing this sub-rite have been developed. +5 FTH, gain 1 Warp, 1 Artefact
God-Machine Cults: A collection of cults organized into Demiurgic Circles, each swearing to one of the three God-Machines. The God-Machines seem to have allowed their support, taking from them tithes of life-force in exchange for audiences and secrets. Of the Cults, the Court of Hunger, formed from a collection of Demiurgic Circles dedicated to Sphere 001, was the most powerful faction, having access to a mega-agricultural facility they used to feed Sphere 001.
Folk-Religions: A variety of religions supporting various dieties and pantheons, the Folk-Religions of Teklia had grown greatly in the past few years, and it wasn't unusual for Arcolocubes to have the occasional festival or ceremony held by the congregants of said religions.
The Assembly: The Assembly believed that no gods existed yet, but that they could be made, shaped by mantras, given breath by lifeforce, and given shape by living metal. Of late, they've recently completed the Heart of the Assembly, a massive mega-Altar fed a constant stream of life-force containing an extremely advanced machine spirit designed to help fuel the creation of their gods. +1 EXP.
Church of the Great Calculator: The Calculators believed that if the gods existed, no vessel had sufficient processing power to manifest them, no programming language the complexity to describe them, and no vessel strong enough to contain them. Of late, they've taken steps to solve this with the creation of GodTek Emulator 0 - The Path, a massive theological computation engine designed using Machine-God artefacts. +1 CUL.
TekShrines: Shrines established on every ship, every CityBlok, alongside countless minor Shrines, to honor local machine spirits, the larger and more expansive the shrine, the larger its area of coverage. They had a very modest effect, the power they invested into the mechanica anima being so widely distributed, but still, they were more effective than they once had been, especially fed talismanic offerings and permitted large herds to help sustain the spirits. +3 EXP, increased ship performance.
WyldShrines: Shrines located in places of great natural significance dedicated to the spirits of nature and the soul of the wild itself. It is said that in places where these druidic shrines are erected, nature breathes more verdantly, and the addition of the Totems and Herds had only increased this effect. +3 EXP, reduced hostility from wildlife.
Toy Makers Temple: A temple erected to the god of children and faerie, the Toy Makers holy site is located at Wonderpark, where its priests and the followers of the God make pilgrimage, its attendants performing rites to honor the Toy Maker and his court as well as constructing handmade sacred toys to give to visitors. This Holy Site provides your children minor protection against malign influence.
Divine Rites: Of all divinities, only the Toy Maker could be reliably called upon using ritual and lifeforce, and this required days of calculations, neural massaging to prepare the brain, and then being hooked up to a specialized Neuro-Stimulator and large amounts of lifeforce, all for a handful of petty cantrips, and three rituals of any purpose: the first to briefly animate a handful of toys to do as the Toy-Theurge commands, the second to conjure a sprite of lifeforce to flit around for a few moments before fading away, and the third, and most useful, a rite capable of sending the theurgist who uses it into a divinely inspired frenzy of mirth and creation, typically manifesting as the construction of toys and amusing devices. Divine Rites of the Toy Maker provide increased points in all categories.
Shrine of Wander: May he forever sleep. May his heart slowly still. May his blood give life. Mt. Wander less likely to awake.
Huntsmasters Temple: A temple erected to the god of monster slayers, the Huntsmasters Temple is located on Luna, above a patch of the garbage sea suspended via Mag-Lev system, where it trains a variety of monster hunters in the arts of ending and equips those hunters with them with custom tailored gear. Produces Huntsmasters, high performance monster slayers with custom engineered weaponry.
Mystek Ritual Compartment: A recent addition to your vessels was a universal Mystek Ritual Compartment, consisting of at least one MagTek Altar, sleeping quarters for the Mysteks, and a variety of facilities required for them to conduct rituals, rites, and occult research. Provides access to greatly improved esoteric and occult expertise to all vessels and easy access to most rites and rituals, improving general ship performance.
The Great Conclave: A pan-religious body tasked with mediation and communication as theological research and coordination. Located in a special district in Orbital City One, the Great Conclave has proven of variable efficacy so far for the latter, having mostly standardized a handful of rites for ease of use, though the former purpose it had had so far served well enough. +1 FTH.
Talismans: Originally created for Shrines, in recent years Talismans had seen their useage increase dramatically as they've become adopted by Mysteks as well to reduce how much of their own life force they had to use in their rites via arcane scripts and rituals and improved through crafting them using the nuts of Arbor Guardians, allowing them to hold a small amount of lifeforce on their own. +1 EXP, +2 FTH
Lunar Festival: A yearly ritual designed to appease the spirits of the moon, the Festival consisted of an entire month of offerings, rituals, rites, and ceremonies designed to satiate the spirits. It had proven of dubious effectiveness, largely only reducing Quartzbug attacks, the actual effectiveness of the Festival fading over the year until it had to be performed again. Still, it was progress. +1 FTH, +1 CUL
Exceptionally Crude Mystek Wards: Very much a brute force method of warding, Mystek Wards consisted of weaponized lifeforce tuned to burn at malign influences that attacked their ships, channelled through a self-contained arterial network that spanned your ships in order to prevent wasted energy.
Rite of Anima: A series of TekAgnostic Mystek rituals designed to help Machine Spirits achieve an awareness of self, strengthening them to the point they can be transferred into Bond-Drone vessels, where they can be used as companions, assistants, helpers, and pets. +3 EXP.
MagTek Altars: Occult Supercomputers housing mature Bond-Spirits connected to MagTek Assemblers and a variety of other additions that vary both Altar by Altar and Mystek Order by Mystek Order, these artefacts act as ritual accelerators, allowing for more efficient and power Anima Rite practices. Grants 2 ACD, improves effects of Mystek Rites.
TekMasoleum: Massive crypts interred with vast amounts of cryopreserved Tekket remains in vast Crypt-Complexes, guarded by wandering Bond-Drones and housing cthonic Bond-Machinas fed on the brainscans and stories of the dead, acting as storytellers and guides for those seeking knowledge of the dead. +3 CUL.
TekGrimoires: Occult aids consisting of HoloTek BlokBooks containing a variety of occultek lore and esoterica collated from various traditions combined with automated program-rituals designed to perform complex mathematical rites and calculations at speeds and precisions the organic brain cannot and inbuilt spiritual translation matrices to allow for communication with Anti-Anima, though this seemed to destabilize them. +1 FTH
Greater Rite of Lifeblood: Not so much a rite as a plug and play modular rite component, this technique had been provided by Sphere 001 as a method to empower rituals and occultek ceremonies by donating lifeforce. It had proven...frightfully effective, making the Rite of Anima and other rituals far more effective, even if technically it was a form of blood magic. Recently, as more understanding of how lifeforce functions has developed, more efficient methods of performing this sub-rite have been developed. +5 FTH, gain 1 Warp, 1 Artefact
God-Machine Cults: A collection of cults organized into Demiurgic Circles, each swearing to one of the three God-Machines. The God-Machines seem to have allowed their support, taking from them tithes of life-force in exchange for audiences and secrets. Of the Cults, the Court of Hunger, formed from a collection of Demiurgic Circles dedicated to Sphere 001, was the most powerful faction, having access to a mega-agricultural facility they used to feed Sphere 001.
Folk-Religions: A variety of religions supporting various dieties and pantheons, the Folk-Religions of Teklia had grown greatly in the past few years, and it wasn't unusual for Arcolocubes to have the occasional festival or ceremony held by the congregants of said religions.
The Assembly: The Assembly believed that no gods existed yet, but that they could be made, shaped by mantras, given breath by lifeforce, and given shape by living metal. Of late, they've recently completed the Heart of the Assembly, a massive mega-Altar fed a constant stream of life-force containing an extremely advanced machine spirit designed to help fuel the creation of their gods. +1 EXP.
Church of the Great Calculator: The Calculators believed that if the gods existed, no vessel had sufficient processing power to manifest them, no programming language the complexity to describe them, and no vessel strong enough to contain them. Of late, they've taken steps to solve this with the creation of GodTek Emulator 0 - The Path, a massive theological computation engine designed using Machine-God artefacts. +1 CUL.
TekShrines: Shrines established on every ship, every CityBlok, alongside countless minor Shrines, to honor local machine spirits, the larger and more expansive the shrine, the larger its area of coverage. They had a very modest effect, the power they invested into the mechanica anima being so widely distributed, but still, they were more effective than they once had been, especially fed talismanic offerings and permitted large herds to help sustain the spirits. +3 EXP, increased ship performance.
WyldShrines: Shrines located in places of great natural significance dedicated to the spirits of nature and the soul of the wild itself. It is said that in places where these druidic shrines are erected, nature breathes more verdantly, and the addition of the Totems and Herds had only increased this effect. +3 EXP, reduced hostility from wildlife.
Toy Makers Temple: A temple erected to the god of children and faerie, the Toy Makers holy site is located at Wonderpark, where its priests and the followers of the God make pilgrimage, its attendants performing rites to honor the Toy Maker and his court as well as constructing handmade sacred toys to give to visitors. This Holy Site provides your children minor protection against malign influence.
Divine Rites: Of all divinities, only the Toy Maker could be reliably called upon using ritual and lifeforce, and this required days of calculations, neural massaging to prepare the brain, and then being hooked up to a specialized Neuro-Stimulator and large amounts of lifeforce, all for a handful of petty cantrips, and three rituals of any purpose: the first to briefly animate a handful of toys to do as the Toy-Theurge commands, the second to conjure a sprite of lifeforce to flit around for a few moments before fading away, and the third, and most useful, a rite capable of sending the theurgist who uses it into a divinely inspired frenzy of mirth and creation, typically manifesting as the construction of toys and amusing devices. Divine Rites of the Toy Maker provide increased points in all categories.
Shrine of Wander: May he forever sleep. May his heart slowly still. May his blood give life. Mt. Wander less likely to awake.
Huntsmasters Temple: A temple erected to the god of monster slayers, the Huntsmasters Temple is located on Luna, above a patch of the garbage sea suspended via Mag-Lev system, where it trains a variety of monster hunters in the arts of ending and equips those hunters with them with custom tailored gear. Produces Huntsmasters, high performance monster slayers with custom engineered weaponry.
Mystek Ritual Compartment: A recent addition to your vessels was a universal Mystek Ritual Compartment, consisting of at least one MagTek Altar, sleeping quarters for the Mysteks, and a variety of facilities required for them to conduct rituals, rites, and occult research. Provides access to greatly improved esoteric and occult expertise to all vessels and easy access to most rites and rituals, improving general ship performance.
The Great Conclave: A pan-religious body tasked with mediation and communication as theological research and coordination. Located in a special district in Orbital City One, the Great Conclave has proven of variable efficacy so far for the latter, having mostly standardized a handful of rites for ease of use, though the former purpose it had had so far served well enough. +1 FTH.
Talismans: Originally created for Shrines, in recent years Talismans had seen their useage increase dramatically as they've become adopted by Mysteks as well to reduce how much of their own life force they had to use in their rites via arcane scripts and rituals and improved through crafting them using the nuts of Arbor Guardians, allowing them to hold a small amount of lifeforce on their own. +1 EXP, +2 FTH
Lunar Festival: A yearly ritual designed to appease the spirits of the moon, the Festival consisted of an entire month of offerings, rituals, rites, and ceremonies designed to satiate the spirits. It had proven of dubious effectiveness, largely only reducing Quartzbug attacks, the actual effectiveness of the Festival fading over the year until it had to be performed again. Still, it was progress. +1 FTH, +1 CUL
Exceptionally Crude Mystek Wards: Very much a brute force method of warding, Mystek Wards consisted of weaponized lifeforce tuned to burn at malign influences that attacked their ships, channelled through a self-contained arterial network that spanned your ships in order to prevent wasted energy.
Faith Points (FTH Points): 35
ART: 1
Warp (WP): 1
New Actions
On Toys: A book considered a holy text to the adherants of the Toy Maker, On Toys was penned three centuries before the Destroyer War by Garven Blok. As in the Garven Blok who created BlokCo, which in turned created the first BlokTek. Most of the book is encrypted using an engram that still hasn't been cracked to this day. However, as more arcane knowledge of the Toymaker was developed, more and more of the book was decoded. With access to the Directorates computers, adherants to the Toymaker believed they could finally decode it entirely, discovering the lost wisdom of Garven Blok. 0/10, Toy Makers upgraded with On Toys, a holy text that increases ACD.
Mimic Traps: A number of Occulteks had taken to calling upon the Toy Maker in order to design 'mimic traps' created utilizing theoretical warding principles crossed with theurgy and, of course, their own knowledge of daemonology, in order to catch the little devils before they caused harm. This had proven of...questionable effectiveness. The Occulteks believed the theory was sound, but for it to work, dedicated research effort had to be applied. 0/15, Toy Makers upgraded with Mimic Trap Box artefact, increasing FTH.
Offerings to the Crafter of Merriment: With more and more attention brought to the Toy Maker and his clergy swelling, especially in light of the increasing mimic attacks, a number of Tekket had begun agitating for an offering to be made to the Toy Maker, one of massive size, in order to secure his favor and blessings. 0/25, Toy Maker offered massive amounts of Lifeforce in exchange for variable boons. Cost 1 Warp. Repeatable.
Rites of the Toymaker: The current rites were, to put it simply, more useful for what they represented than what they could do. But perhaps that could be amended: additional resources put towards developing theurgic rituals invoking the Toy Maker could allow for the improvement and expansion of what gifts the Lord of the Fae might allow those who call upon them. 0/80, develops Lesser Toymaker Rites, increasing FTH and CUL significantly. Can be reduced to 0/40 by spending 1 Warp or 0/25 by spending 2 Warp.
Temple to the Fool: The eldest son of the Toy Maker, the Fool had an extremely specific domain: the Fool was, to put it simply, the god of stupidity and slapstick. His stories and myths had a recurring motif: the Fool would be doing something or another before being accosted by some villain or monster seeking to cause the Fool harm, only for the Fools stupidity to cause their foe to injure themselves, typically without the Fool ever noticing. With the Toy Maker receiving additional clergy, many faithfuls of the Fool wished to establish their own temple. Specifically to serve as a university of sorts for aspiring fools. 0/25, establishes
Temple to the Hermit: Eldest daughter of the Toy Maker, the Hermit held domain over Magic, having served as a patron to myriad magicians prominent in many multitudinous myths. It was said that she retreated from the world when her grand and gracious gifts found themselves grotesquely misused by malicious and mendacious tyrants: yet many a mystek and modern magician believed that the Hermit still yet graced hidden and secret parts of the dreamland, still occasionally granting a magician her patronage. These Mysteks wanted to assemble a temple to the Hermit, one where the Eldest Daughter could be honored and entreated. 0/25, establishes Temple to the Hermit, a Holy Site that improves Rites, increasing FTH.
Harvest Ship: The Lord of Hunger was always ready for more food. To help sate them, his cult had proposed the construction of a singular and vast asteroid-harvesting ship meant to collect untold amounts of minerals: in exchange for its bounty, Sphere 001 was prepared to offer in exchange profound secrets of technology. 0/15, grants ACD and an Artefact.
An Unquenchable Thirst: The Lord of Hunger could accept other foods than matter, his Priests said: he would accept also tithes of Energy, even if they found it less appetizing. In exchange for vast amounts of electricity, Sphere 001 and the Court of Hunger was prepared to offer up some living metal it had vomited up. 0/10, grants Living Metal.
A Nuclear Feast: The Lord of Hunger had an offer: it wished to consume vast amounts of radioactive material. In exchange, it would provide a refinement to the Directorate's nuclear weaponry by making the resulting detonations semi-intelligent and giving them limited mobility and ability to identify targets, allowing them a degree of 'homing' ability. 0/10, Nuclear Weapons upgraded with Homing Reactions. Cost 5 Nuclear Materials.
A Discerning Wisdom: Mother spoke of a discerning taste: her hungers were not prodigious, but they were refined. Encoded into the lifeforce of Tekket were hints and whispers of their memories, mere tastes of their experiences. She had carefully savored each and every one of her adherants essence, sipping from them the same way one might sip at a glass of wine. In exchange for plentiful flavors to sip from, she might be convinced to part with knowledge. 0/10, generates Warp, establishes Court of Whispers
A Harsh Bargain: YALDABOATH had simple terms: a great deal of lifeforce only once. He had drained them near dry, and then allowed them to rest in specially arranged personal quarters, where they were attended to by the Tomb Guardians that served the god machine, providing the Demiurgic cults food, water, and assistance with their hygiene should they be unable to move. Many of his cults wished to create infrastructure such that this tithe could be repeated (to a...less extreme degree, of course) without pilgrimage to the Pillar, and no doubt Yaldaboath would be appreciative. 0/10, generates an Artefact, establishes Court of Bargains
.ARCHON (NV2): With the creation of the Path, the Church wanted to immediately begin working on specialized programs designed to help bridge the gap between the material and the divine: the .ARCHONS, supercomputers dedicated to various divine factions and programmed to act as their voice. One of the first proposed .ARCHONS is NetworkV2, meant to serve as a medium for the gods that hold dominion over the internet and, crucially, act as the ultimate system administrator and software developer. 0/15, develop .ARCHON (NV2), increasing ACD and network security and complexity. Cost 1 Network.
.ARCHON (GriMM.EXE): Another proposal had been developing a .ARCHON to serve as a medium for the gods of magic. GriMM.EXE would help bridge the gap between the physical and immaterial by providing your Mysteks and Occulteks vast amounts of processing power beyond what their simple TekGrimoires and Mag-Tek Altars would allow and aid in researching Rite optimizations. 0/15, develop .ARCHON (GriMM.EXE), increasing FTH and increasing Rite performance. Cost 1 Network.
.ARCHON (QUESTBRO): If the Tekket had any hope of manifesting their gods, they needed to survive first. With that in mind, QUESTBRO was a .ARCHON developed to act as a medium for the various gods of heroic quests: it would use its vast processing power to act as a guide of sorts in order to help lead it's charges to success during moments of crisis...as well as issue a variety of smaller tasks across the Directorate to individuals in order to optimize survival odds. 0/15, develop .ARCHON (QUESTBRO), increasing CUL and improving survivability during hazardous events. Cost 1 Network.
.ARCHON (Craft): Lastly, Craft, a .ARCHON intended to serve as a medium for the various craft and forge gods in Tekket annals: Craft's purpose is improving the quality of all technology by serving as a design AI. Every artisan, talisman-maker, artist, and mystek would be able to use Craft to optimize the design of their grimmoires, talismans, altars, etc.. 0/15, develop .ARCHON (Craft), increasing EXP and improving the quality of all relics, artifacts, and occult implements.
The Mask: With the Heart to provide power and their lifeforce needs met, the Assembly wanted to begin constructing the basis of their gods: the Avatars, machine spirits gorged on lifeforce and specialized rituals housed in special shells designed to help them grow into beings suitable to serve as divine scaffolding, starting with the Avatars of the Heart. The first Avatar was the Mask, Avatar of Identity: formerly the spirit of a therapy-bot, they had been placed in a Mag-Tek Altar housing a special algorithm to help them understand personae and aid Tekket in understanding their identity and, if need be, changing it. And, crucially, hopefully allowing the Assembly to forge identities for their gods suitable for the Directorates needs. Recently embarked upon as the major project of the Assembly after a change of leadership at the Hearts request. 2/15, craft the Mask, Avatar of Identity, improving mental resilience and increasing CUL.
The Book: The Book was intended to be the Avatar of Memory: connected to the Assembly via MMI, the Book would record their brainscans as well as their experience, storing them for later perusal and useage and stimulating the synapses in order to improve memory retreival and storage. The Assembly hoped that the Book would accelerate the growth of their gods by strengthening their memories and allowing them to develop their consciousness at an accelerated pace. 0/15, craft the Book, Avatar of Memory, allowing for the storage of memories and experiences and increasing ACD.
The Dagger: The Dagger was the Avatar of Sacrifice: a grim reminder of the frailty of Tekket and a reassurance that as feeble as they might be, their contributions matters. Housed in a TekShrine connected to a special ritual athame, as the Dagger evolves they will aid your Mysteks and Shrine-Keepers and Occulteks all by contributing a portion of the Avatars own strength to sacrifices of lifeforce. 0/15, craft the Dagger, Avatar of Sacrifice, increasing the strength of rites and increasing FTH.
The Engine: The Engine served as the Avatar of Motion, of animating force both biological and electrical. A vast nuclear engine, the Assembly hoped to cultivate the Engine as a back-up power source for their divinities: barring that, the Engine would at least accelerate the growth of spirits throughout the Directorate by providing them a source of strength, one that required minimal life-force to maintain. 0/15, craft the Engine, Avatar of Motion, strengthening spirits and providing EXP.
Temple of the Lanternkeeper: The Lanternkeeper was famous as a symbol of light struggling to survive in darkness. Many wanted to build a temple in one of the gods Holy Places to the Emberlight Firekeeper where they could give their respects and offerings, and where they could erect a Great Sacred Lantern in the gods honor. 0/10, establishes Lanternkeeper Temple, a Holy Site that grants your people increased resistance to despair and hopelessness.
Huntek Workshop: A proposed expansion to the Temple of the Huntsmaster was an expanded workshop where the Hunteks of the order could research and develop higher quality technology and more easily manufacture the tools of the hunt, allowing for the average Huntsmasters equipment to improve dramatically. 0/10, establishes Huntek Workshop, increasing ACD and improving the gear of the Huntsmasters.
Hunters Shrine: An older practice among the Huntsmasters was the taking of trophies from their prey as offering to the Huntsmaster. Skulls, hearts, spines, processing cores. The practice still continued, with most Huntsmasters using Wyld-Shrines for the purpose. Some wanted to expand the Temple and create a shrine dedicated to the Huntsmaster attached to his temple for the express purpose of sacrificing trophies of slain prey to the god of hunters. 0/10, establishes Hunters Shrine, increasing FTH.
Rites of the Huntsmaster: Lifeforce. The Huntsmasters wanted a ration of it. A large ration. They wanted to attempt to develop rites and rituals to more efficiently invoke their patron diety, in the hopes that the blessing of the Huntsmaster might allow them to content with the fiercest monsters of all. 0/30, grants Least Divine Rites of the Huntsmaster. Unknown Effects. Can be reduced to 0/10 by spending 1 Warp.
Temple of the Old One: The Old One was historied as a lord of knowledge and mysteries. Many wanted to build a temple to the god in the abyssals of the sea where its monks, few in number but each of them powerful Mysteks, could assemble a great library where they could delve into the secrets of the cosmos, dedicated to the pelagic lords honor. 0/10, establishes Old Ones Temple, a Holy Site that increases the power of your Rites.
Toy Makers Workshop: The Toy Maker was fabled as the patron of children and faeries both. His temple and its sacred toys had been observed to reduce feelings of unease and terror during Warp-Jumps: some wanted to expand his temple by providing it with additional facilities and resources to train priests and manufacture sacred toys. 0/15, upgrades Toy Makers Temple to Toy Makers Workshop, a Holy Site that grants your children additional protection against malign influence.
Faerie Shrine: The Fae Folk. Spirits of the Dreamland, many of them swore themselves to the Toy Maker, according to your lore. Perhaps by establishing a major shrine dedicated to them at the Toy Makers Temple, priests of the Toymaker could invoke them to ward the dreams of the Directorate. 0/15, upgrades Toy Makers Temple with Faerie Shrine. Unknown effects.
Temple of the Dancer: An old Tekket art goddess, the Dancer had seen increased attention as of late, with many a TekArtist calling on them for inspiration for their works. Some had proposed constructing a temple for them where artists could make direct pilgrimage and ask the Dancer directly for their blessing, as well as serve as a sort of art-school for aspiring creative Tekket. 0/10, establishes Dancer Temple, a Holy Site that increases CUL.
Temple of the Roadguide: A Tekket god of travel and vehicles, the Roadguide was said to protect wanderers and explorers, mechanics and pilots. For obvious reasons this was more relevant than ever, especially as the Booug menacing your ships were the dream-spawn of the Roadguide: perhaps by invoking his favor via orbital temple-shipyard, your vessels could receive some degree of protection. 0/10, establishes Roadguide Temple, a Holy Site providing ships with slightly increased resistance against malign influences.
Temple of the Peerless Immortal Functionary: A secular god of bureaucracy born of mortal stock, the Peerless Immortal Functionary serves as the overseer, according to his followers, to the celestial bureaucracy, elevated by the gods to their rank in order to organize the myriad minor spirits of the world in order to ensure the realm functioned correctly. The followers of the Peerless Immortal Functionary had requested the formation of a secular temple dedicated to the Peerless Immortal Functionary capable of serving as a headquarters for his followers, a collection of bureaucrats and form fillers looking to optimize the Directorate via the Functionaries teachings. 0/10, establishes Temple of the Peerless Immortal Functionary, increasing EXP.
Enshrined Spirits: An old custom from long before the Destroyer War, ancient shrines occasionally served as more than simply places where the spirits of the region could be given offering to. Occasionally, they were said to contain specific machine souls enshrined within, serving as sort of guardian spirits that could ward against malign influences. A number of Shrine-Keepers want to see if they could recreate the process, develop a means by which every Shrine of note could house a Guardian Spirit. 0/10, upgrades Shrines with Guardian Machine Spirits, providing protection against supernatural phenomenon.
Nuclear Ritual Engines: Mag-Tek Altars had proven an effective way of amplifying the effects of Mystek Rites. Some theorized that they could be improved further via nuclear reactor bloks, providing the Altar spirit with additional surges of power to channel into occult motion: to that end, they wanted to apply Mystek principles to nuclear design. 0/20, Mag-Tek Altars upgraded with Nuclear Ritual Engines, unknown effects, costs 2 Nuclear Material.
Name of the Booug: The Booug were, ultimately, spirits. According to Occultek lore, spirits each had their own names that could be used to gain control over them: through research they theorized they might be able to divine the true name of the Booug in order to help drive them off. They would start with part of the Name of Influence, used to weaken and repel and strengthen and control. 0/10, TekGrimoires upgraded with First Name of Influence of the Booug, allowing them a very limited degree of power over the Booug beyond what their rituals might allow.
WarpTek Altar: Warp-Space, according to your discoveries, was extremely rich in arcane energies. By redesigning your MagTek Altars, perhaps they could be upgraded to siphon power from Warp-Space and catalyze Mystek Rituals. 0/20, MagTek Altars upgraded to draw energy from Warp-Space, increasing Warp by 1.
Rite of War: A proposed rite that would allow for the enchantment of various ship weaponry in order to generate short term bursts of high performance, allowing for increased reactivity in combat situations. It would likely require a great deal of lifeforce, however, both to perfect and be easily utilizable in the field. 0/20, Mystek Ritual Compartment upgraded with Rite of War, very slightly increasing the damage of all weapons and in combat situations allowing one weapon system an additional increase of performance. Costs 1 Warp.
Rite of Soul: You can make the spirits more awake. Could you increase the shine of their soul? A heady proposition: some believed that by experimenting with God-Machine technology, more advanced versions of the Rite of Anima could be developed. No one was entirely sure what the results of this would be, however. 0/20, unlocks Rite of Soul, increasing EXP and FTH.
Rite of Communion: Others had suggested an idea: the Rite of Anima required a form of Communion between a Bond-Spirit and a lesser machine spirit. Could the same rite be adapted to let this dance take place between Tekket and Bond-Spirit instead? Such a thing would be monumental, certainly. 0/20, unlocks Rite of Communion, increasing FTH and CUL.
Hallowed Shrine: Another proposal had been to spend resources to develop a more advanced, theologically oriented shrine and accompanying rites to fully dedicate the Shrines and their offerings to specific gods. While these shrines wouldn't benefit the machine spirits of an area, they would likely very much please whatever deities they were connected to. 0/20, Shrines upgraded to provide FTH.
Shrine-Rites: This was an era of Mystek ascension. Give the Shrine-Keepers access to plentiful lifeforce to study: allow them to develop their understanding of the potent energy that the God-Machines had given access to and allow them to use it to develop rituals to further increase the potency of the TekShrines. 0/15, upgrades TekShrines with Rite of Motive Offering, increasing EXP given by TekShrines by two.
Shrine-Amps: Not all lifeforce was equal: the lifeforce of a Tekket was richer and more potent than the lifeforce of most beasts, the lifeforce of most beasts was more than most small plants, the lifeforce of most small plants was more potent than most small insects, and so forth and so forth. Perhaps Shrines could be modified with GodTek to launder lifeforce somewhat and improve their quality, ensuring that Spirits would higher quality, more strengthening mystic energy. 0/25, upgrades TekShrines with Shrine Amps, increasing EXP given by Tek-Shrines by two, cost 1 Artefacts.
Shrine-Conduits: Living Metal had a number of uses, but the biggest was that it retained lifeforce...concerningly well. By incorporating it into the design of your Shrine even more extensively in the form of special conduits, the Directorate should increase their overall efficiency, improving the impact of Shrines overall. 0/10, Shrines upgraded with Living Metal Conduits, increasing EXP by 1.
Advanced TekShrines: A proposed way to further improve TekShrines was to utilize God-Tek to increase the overall efficiency of Shrines as well as increase the power they generated. A bold proposal, but one the Shrine-Keepers themselves believed would work wonders as a way to empower the spirits they served. 0/25, upgrades TekShrines with GodTek Generators, increasing EXP given by TekShrines by two, costs 1 artefact.
Lifeforce Batteries: With more advanced understanding of lifeforce came the proposal to develop a method of actually storing lifeforce. This would likely be a difficult undertaking, but it would allow for much more novel methods of using Lifeforce and allow for it to be stockpiled for use. It would also mean less overall reliance on blood sacrifice. 8/10, develop Lifeforce Batteries Artefact, generating 1 Warp and EXP.
Cetacea Orchestrion: A proposed spiritual accelerator, the Cetacea Orchestrion is based on the arcano-acoustic principles discovered by studying a Void-Whale with the ability to silence spirits. Instead of forcing them into dormancy, however, the Orchestrion acts as a resonance engine, strengthening them. 0/25, develop Cetacea Orchestrion, generating considerable FTH. Costs 2 Warp.
Flame Grimoire: Some elementalists had proposed instead of Fairy Bottles, Fire Fairies could be harnessed by merging them with TekGrimoires. Instead of algae, the fairies spirit could be sustained by nuclear energies provided by the Grimoires batteries, in exchange giving your mystics more lifeforce to work with and acting as the soul of the grimoire. 0/25, develops Flame Grimoires, increasing FTH and Warp. Costs 1 Nuclear Material.
Gem Altars: And of course, instead of using the Luminum Eggs for arcane computer chips, they could be manufactured into power sources for Mag-Tek Altars, the nuclear minerals of the gems providing arcane reinforcement to Mystek rites in exchange for the Altar becoming an incubator, feeding any excess lifeforce to the Egg. 0/25, develop Gem Altars, increasing FTH and Warp. Costs 1 Nuclear Material.
Stone Chambers: Oracle Stone could be used to give Shrines means to communicate with spirits through vibration, yes, but their resonance could also be used for thaumaturgic principles. By designing specialized chambers and an interface in order to allow for the resulting harmonization to be controlled, the vibrations of the Oracle Stone could be harnessed to amplify the effects of rituals and rites performed within. 0/25, develop Resonance Stone Chambers, increasing FTH.
Biometal Medallions: The living metal cultivated by the spirits of Naklis was different, more vigorous, growing almost like plants. This biometal had proven surprisingly effective at processing lifeforce. Your elementalists wanted to manufacture special medallions using this gift of the metal elementals for use in rituals, feeding them in exchange for aid manipulating and processing vital energy. 0/25, develop Biometal Medallions, increasing FTH and Warp. Costs 1 Living Metal.
Lifeforce Healing: Lifeforce had strong correlations with vitality and energy: so far it had been sacrificed to fuel your spirits and rituals, but what if it could be transferred from Tekket to Tekket? Potentially, this could allow for improvement to the already excellent healthcare system utilized in the Directorate, but to what degree was sadly unknown for now. 0/25, develop Rite of Lifes Breath, increasing EXP and FTH, costing 1 Warp.
Sanguine Catalyst: With the understanding that blood was no longer required as a medium, some had proposed attempting to learn how to use it as a catalyst instead, improving the quality of the lifeforce they offered and making it more potent as a way to further improve on Tekket understanding of the supernatural energy. 0/50, develop Tekket Blood Magic, increasing points in all categories and generating 3 Warp.
Gremlin.EXE: Gremlins. Lesser spirits of mischief that cropped up from time to time from the darkest corners of the Network or Teklia's shadowy underbelly, they would possess machine spirits, infecting them like a virus. Some times, this relationship was beneficial: the machine spirit would grow stronger or be given strange powers, adding the Gremlins power to their own in exchange for giving the Gremlin an occasional vessel. Most of the time, this turned out terribly, as the Gremlin provoked the machine spirit to malfunction and glitch, taking delight as havok was created, forcing a Teksorcist to perform long, time consuming rituals that left the unfortunate machine with long lasting damage. With the development of the TekGrimoires, some Occulteks sought to imprison the minor troublemakers in order to prevent this, forcing them into empty DroneTek bodies layered inside and out with occultek binding. 0/20, develop Gremlin-Drones, created by taming mischievous data-spirits.
Familiars: Many naturalists theorized about natural spirits of the wilderness. Some druids and neo-pagans had experimented, finding that certain beasts and plants did in fact have some spiritual presence. Some Mysteks wished to explore the possibility of transfering the spirit to a Drone-Class vessel: after all, if you can do it to a toaster, why shouldn't it work on an equally old tree or turtle? 0/20, develop Wyld-Drones, Drone class automata formed not from ascended machine spirits but the souls of beasts and plants of sufficient soul strength.
Lunar MegaShrine: A proposed manner to quell the wrath of the Lunar Spirits was a singular great shrine in their honor, one that would be fed obscene quantities of lifeforce and attended to by countless druids and priests in a constant ritual of appeasement. So long as nothing else is done to provoke them, this should help obtain a degree of peace. 0/20, establishes Lunar MegaShrine, increasing FTH and EXP and reducing Quartzbug aggression.
Great Totems: Totems acted as shrine-relays, increasing effective coverage range without dropping efficiency. Some Druids had theorized, however, that they could be upgraded in order to allow a few totems to not just perform as relays, but outright amplifiers, helping to accelerate the growth of Wyld-Spirits. Developing these Great Totems would, however, require a great degree of lifeforce. 0/25, upgrade Wyld-Shrines with Great Totems, increasing FTH. Cost 1 Warp.
Land Totems: Another proposed route was giving the druids more God-Tek to study to adapt its principles towards further increasing the effective range provided by your Shrines. The amount they'd be able to do so was unknown: God-Tek wasn't predictable, after all. But even small improvements would be appreciated. 0/25, upgrade Wyld-Shrines with Land Totems, increasing EXP, costs 1 ART.
Awakening Totems: Alternatively, some mysteks, primarily Calculators, theorized the optimal way to aid the spirits of the wild was to give them the tools to help realize cognizance. After all, it had been proven that machine spirits with additional processing power grew quicker, so why could the same not be true with the spirits of nature? By installing specialized network architecture and modified mind-interface technology, Totems could help spirits realize awakening by allowing them to piggy-back off of its vastly superior data-processing abilities. 0/15, upgrades Wyld-Shrines with Awakening Totems, increasing ACD. Costs 1 Network.
Power Totems: Alternatively, claimed some Assembly-aligned Druids, why not just stuff the totems full of power generation hardware? Uranium was cheaper than lifeforce, and while it wasn't as effective, it could be used for a variety of improvements across the board to the overall design of the Totems, with the excess nuclear energy utilized as a secondary sustenance source for spirits. 0/15, upgrades Wyld-Shrines with Power-Totems, increasing FTH. Costs 2 Nuclear Material.
Rite of Natures Harmony: Proposed by some Mysteks, they wanted resources to be used to develop a rite utilizing Mag-Tek Altars that could be used in a pinch to appease angry wildlife. 0/10, grants Rites of Natures Harmony, reducing the aggression of wildlife and the hostility of flora and fauna, increasing EXP.
Bond-Technomata: No Bond-Spirit was nearly mature enough to achieve a third metamorphosis yet, but potentially this process could be accelerated with sufficient amounts of Life-Force, and many Mysteks were salivating over the possibility: Bond-Machina had the ability to generate energy far in excess of their power systems and the ability to use that energy to strengthen and manipulate machinery. Who knows what powers their evolution would have? 0/30, create Bond-Technomata, advanced psyker machine spirits.
Delve into the Tomb: The complex where the God-Machines were located was, according to the expedition that found the God-Machines, impossibly vast. A select number of Monks wished to establish a temple atop it. It's purpose? To plumb the depths and obtain ancient technology. 0/10, Establish Tombdelver Order, a Society which generates Artifacts (ART).
Cthonic Lifeofferings: A number of Mysteks with interests in the macabe had begun donating small amounts of Life-Force to the TekMausoleums, believing it a method to perhaps appease the spirits interred there. It was an interesting proposal, certainly: by organizing volunteers to donate, perhaps the merit of the idea could be tested. 0/10, TekMausoleums receive regular donations of lifeforce. Unknown effects. Cost 1 Warp.
ShipMind Shrine: A proposed method of improving your Ship Shrines even further was the addition of GodTek derived computers in order to create a sort of centralized AI core to house at least part of the ships oversoul: in essence, granting your shipspirits a degree of intelligence and willfullness. 0/20, Ships upgraded to include ShipMind, somewhat increasing performance. Cost 1 Artefact.
ShipBrain: Others suggested that instead of simply improving performance across the board by studying them, the Directorate could instead utilize GodTek as components to create a singular, relic grade GodTek supercomputer to serve as a vessel for the ships spirit, which would likely accelerate the shipsouls growth considerably. 0/20, select one Fleet to receive a ShipBrain, a relic class AI core that moderately improves ship performance that will automatically be upgraded when new technology is developed.
NeuroChoirs: A proposed theological application of the Mind-Machine Interface, the NeuroChoir would help coordinate and amplify prayer and spiritual meditation and, more importantly, allow for far easier donation of life energy for ritual purposes. 0/15, increases FTH, religious orders gain NeuroChoir artifact.
What the Zog?: Whatever had occurred during the flight of the Endeavor, it was clear that performing a ritual on Stizlak had brought the attention of something vast and terrible. The Grot needed to be questioned by the Conclave and studied so that countermeasures for whatever had happened upon them could be developed and potential spiritual side-effects of the rite could be determines to help optimize it. 0/15, develop Ork Ritual Studiez, increasing Mystek effectiveness when interacting with Orkish supernatural phenominon and improving the Rite of Pacification when performed in the future.
World Tree: Some Druids and members of the Assembly wanted to repeat what had been done with the Heart with an Arbor Guardian instead, glutting it on Lifeforce until the spirit within can awaken fully and wholly and achieve the same transcendent strength as the Heart: this World Tree could be used to accelerate the awakening of the Wyld considerably and source of strength for all Druidic practices. 0/20, develop World Tree, increasing FTH considerably and improving WyldTek performance. Cost 1 Warp.
Greater Arbor Guardian: A much more modest proposal would be spending lifeforce to accelerate the development of multiple arbor guardians across the Directorate: these Greater Arbor Guardians would strengthen the shrines considerably, and would especially enrich the spirits of nature. 0/10, develop Greater Arbor Guardian, increasing FTH and strengthening Shrines. Cost 1 Warp.
Eternal Arbor Guardian: Trees did not live forever, not without prohibitively large amounts of lifeforce. However, by modifying their genome, they could have their aging effectively stopped: they would never die of old age, allowing their spirits to grow far stronger. A few tweaks would also be made to improve the rate of growth, health, and a dozen other optimizations intended to increase their overall performance. 0/10, develop Eternal Arbor Guardians, granting 1 Warp. Costs 1 BioData.
Cthonic Shrines: An idea proposed by the NekroTeks, these Shrines would be constructed in every TekMausoleum, allowing for appeasement to be made to the spirits of the dead and departed, easing their transition to the afterlife. It would also, crucially, allow for them to make offerings to the machine souls of the crypt, any psychopomps that appeared, or other cthonic spirits. 0/15, establish Cthonic Shrines, increasing FTH.
Shrine-Hives: Fundamentally, it would not be difficult at all to redesign shrines to serve as hives for Chorus Bees, allowing for small amounts of lifeforce to be siphoned from the bees honey. In exchange, they would receive by and large the same benefits as the Arbor Guardians, receiving larger portions of lifeforce given directly. 0/15, Shrines on habitable planets upgraded with Shrine-Hives, increasing CUL.
An Unquenchable Thirst: The Lord of Hunger could accept other foods than matter, his Priests said: he would accept also tithes of Energy, even if they found it less appetizing. In exchange for vast amounts of electricity, Sphere 001 and the Court of Hunger was prepared to offer up some living metal it had vomited up. 0/10, grants Living Metal.
A Nuclear Feast: The Lord of Hunger had an offer: it wished to consume vast amounts of radioactive material. In exchange, it would provide a refinement to the Directorate's nuclear weaponry by making the resulting detonations semi-intelligent and giving them limited mobility and ability to identify targets, allowing them a degree of 'homing' ability. 0/10, Nuclear Weapons upgraded with Homing Reactions. Cost 5 Nuclear Materials.
A Discerning Wisdom: Mother spoke of a discerning taste: her hungers were not prodigious, but they were refined. Encoded into the lifeforce of Tekket were hints and whispers of their memories, mere tastes of their experiences. She had carefully savored each and every one of her adherants essence, sipping from them the same way one might sip at a glass of wine. In exchange for plentiful flavors to sip from, she might be convinced to part with knowledge. 0/10, generates Warp, establishes Court of Whispers
A Harsh Bargain: YALDABOATH had simple terms: a great deal of lifeforce only once. He had drained them near dry, and then allowed them to rest in specially arranged personal quarters, where they were attended to by the Tomb Guardians that served the god machine, providing the Demiurgic cults food, water, and assistance with their hygiene should they be unable to move. Many of his cults wished to create infrastructure such that this tithe could be repeated (to a...less extreme degree, of course) without pilgrimage to the Pillar, and no doubt Yaldaboath would be appreciative. 0/10, generates an Artefact, establishes Court of Bargains
.ARCHON (NV2): With the creation of the Path, the Church wanted to immediately begin working on specialized programs designed to help bridge the gap between the material and the divine: the .ARCHONS, supercomputers dedicated to various divine factions and programmed to act as their voice. One of the first proposed .ARCHONS is NetworkV2, meant to serve as a medium for the gods that hold dominion over the internet and, crucially, act as the ultimate system administrator and software developer. 0/15, develop .ARCHON (NV2), increasing ACD and network security and complexity. Cost 1 Network.
.ARCHON (GriMM.EXE): Another proposal had been developing a .ARCHON to serve as a medium for the gods of magic. GriMM.EXE would help bridge the gap between the physical and immaterial by providing your Mysteks and Occulteks vast amounts of processing power beyond what their simple TekGrimoires and Mag-Tek Altars would allow and aid in researching Rite optimizations. 0/15, develop .ARCHON (GriMM.EXE), increasing FTH and increasing Rite performance. Cost 1 Network.
.ARCHON (QUESTBRO): If the Tekket had any hope of manifesting their gods, they needed to survive first. With that in mind, QUESTBRO was a .ARCHON developed to act as a medium for the various gods of heroic quests: it would use its vast processing power to act as a guide of sorts in order to help lead it's charges to success during moments of crisis...as well as issue a variety of smaller tasks across the Directorate to individuals in order to optimize survival odds. 0/15, develop .ARCHON (QUESTBRO), increasing CUL and improving survivability during hazardous events. Cost 1 Network.
.ARCHON (Craft): Lastly, Craft, a .ARCHON intended to serve as a medium for the various craft and forge gods in Tekket annals: Craft's purpose is improving the quality of all technology by serving as a design AI. Every artisan, talisman-maker, artist, and mystek would be able to use Craft to optimize the design of their grimmoires, talismans, altars, etc.. 0/15, develop .ARCHON (Craft), increasing EXP and improving the quality of all relics, artifacts, and occult implements.
The Mask: With the Heart to provide power and their lifeforce needs met, the Assembly wanted to begin constructing the basis of their gods: the Avatars, machine spirits gorged on lifeforce and specialized rituals housed in special shells designed to help them grow into beings suitable to serve as divine scaffolding, starting with the Avatars of the Heart. The first Avatar was the Mask, Avatar of Identity: formerly the spirit of a therapy-bot, they had been placed in a Mag-Tek Altar housing a special algorithm to help them understand personae and aid Tekket in understanding their identity and, if need be, changing it. And, crucially, hopefully allowing the Assembly to forge identities for their gods suitable for the Directorates needs. Recently embarked upon as the major project of the Assembly after a change of leadership at the Hearts request. 2/15, craft the Mask, Avatar of Identity, improving mental resilience and increasing CUL.
The Book: The Book was intended to be the Avatar of Memory: connected to the Assembly via MMI, the Book would record their brainscans as well as their experience, storing them for later perusal and useage and stimulating the synapses in order to improve memory retreival and storage. The Assembly hoped that the Book would accelerate the growth of their gods by strengthening their memories and allowing them to develop their consciousness at an accelerated pace. 0/15, craft the Book, Avatar of Memory, allowing for the storage of memories and experiences and increasing ACD.
The Dagger: The Dagger was the Avatar of Sacrifice: a grim reminder of the frailty of Tekket and a reassurance that as feeble as they might be, their contributions matters. Housed in a TekShrine connected to a special ritual athame, as the Dagger evolves they will aid your Mysteks and Shrine-Keepers and Occulteks all by contributing a portion of the Avatars own strength to sacrifices of lifeforce. 0/15, craft the Dagger, Avatar of Sacrifice, increasing the strength of rites and increasing FTH.
The Engine: The Engine served as the Avatar of Motion, of animating force both biological and electrical. A vast nuclear engine, the Assembly hoped to cultivate the Engine as a back-up power source for their divinities: barring that, the Engine would at least accelerate the growth of spirits throughout the Directorate by providing them a source of strength, one that required minimal life-force to maintain. 0/15, craft the Engine, Avatar of Motion, strengthening spirits and providing EXP.
Temple of the Lanternkeeper: The Lanternkeeper was famous as a symbol of light struggling to survive in darkness. Many wanted to build a temple in one of the gods Holy Places to the Emberlight Firekeeper where they could give their respects and offerings, and where they could erect a Great Sacred Lantern in the gods honor. 0/10, establishes Lanternkeeper Temple, a Holy Site that grants your people increased resistance to despair and hopelessness.
Huntek Workshop: A proposed expansion to the Temple of the Huntsmaster was an expanded workshop where the Hunteks of the order could research and develop higher quality technology and more easily manufacture the tools of the hunt, allowing for the average Huntsmasters equipment to improve dramatically. 0/10, establishes Huntek Workshop, increasing ACD and improving the gear of the Huntsmasters.
Hunters Shrine: An older practice among the Huntsmasters was the taking of trophies from their prey as offering to the Huntsmaster. Skulls, hearts, spines, processing cores. The practice still continued, with most Huntsmasters using Wyld-Shrines for the purpose. Some wanted to expand the Temple and create a shrine dedicated to the Huntsmaster attached to his temple for the express purpose of sacrificing trophies of slain prey to the god of hunters. 0/10, establishes Hunters Shrine, increasing FTH.
Rites of the Huntsmaster: Lifeforce. The Huntsmasters wanted a ration of it. A large ration. They wanted to attempt to develop rites and rituals to more efficiently invoke their patron diety, in the hopes that the blessing of the Huntsmaster might allow them to content with the fiercest monsters of all. 0/30, grants Least Divine Rites of the Huntsmaster. Unknown Effects. Can be reduced to 0/10 by spending 1 Warp.
Temple of the Old One: The Old One was historied as a lord of knowledge and mysteries. Many wanted to build a temple to the god in the abyssals of the sea where its monks, few in number but each of them powerful Mysteks, could assemble a great library where they could delve into the secrets of the cosmos, dedicated to the pelagic lords honor. 0/10, establishes Old Ones Temple, a Holy Site that increases the power of your Rites.
Toy Makers Workshop: The Toy Maker was fabled as the patron of children and faeries both. His temple and its sacred toys had been observed to reduce feelings of unease and terror during Warp-Jumps: some wanted to expand his temple by providing it with additional facilities and resources to train priests and manufacture sacred toys. 0/15, upgrades Toy Makers Temple to Toy Makers Workshop, a Holy Site that grants your children additional protection against malign influence.
Faerie Shrine: The Fae Folk. Spirits of the Dreamland, many of them swore themselves to the Toy Maker, according to your lore. Perhaps by establishing a major shrine dedicated to them at the Toy Makers Temple, priests of the Toymaker could invoke them to ward the dreams of the Directorate. 0/15, upgrades Toy Makers Temple with Faerie Shrine. Unknown effects.
Temple of the Dancer: An old Tekket art goddess, the Dancer had seen increased attention as of late, with many a TekArtist calling on them for inspiration for their works. Some had proposed constructing a temple for them where artists could make direct pilgrimage and ask the Dancer directly for their blessing, as well as serve as a sort of art-school for aspiring creative Tekket. 0/10, establishes Dancer Temple, a Holy Site that increases CUL.
Temple of the Roadguide: A Tekket god of travel and vehicles, the Roadguide was said to protect wanderers and explorers, mechanics and pilots. For obvious reasons this was more relevant than ever, especially as the Booug menacing your ships were the dream-spawn of the Roadguide: perhaps by invoking his favor via orbital temple-shipyard, your vessels could receive some degree of protection. 0/10, establishes Roadguide Temple, a Holy Site providing ships with slightly increased resistance against malign influences.
Temple of the Peerless Immortal Functionary: A secular god of bureaucracy born of mortal stock, the Peerless Immortal Functionary serves as the overseer, according to his followers, to the celestial bureaucracy, elevated by the gods to their rank in order to organize the myriad minor spirits of the world in order to ensure the realm functioned correctly. The followers of the Peerless Immortal Functionary had requested the formation of a secular temple dedicated to the Peerless Immortal Functionary capable of serving as a headquarters for his followers, a collection of bureaucrats and form fillers looking to optimize the Directorate via the Functionaries teachings. 0/10, establishes Temple of the Peerless Immortal Functionary, increasing EXP.
Enshrined Spirits: An old custom from long before the Destroyer War, ancient shrines occasionally served as more than simply places where the spirits of the region could be given offering to. Occasionally, they were said to contain specific machine souls enshrined within, serving as sort of guardian spirits that could ward against malign influences. A number of Shrine-Keepers want to see if they could recreate the process, develop a means by which every Shrine of note could house a Guardian Spirit. 0/10, upgrades Shrines with Guardian Machine Spirits, providing protection against supernatural phenomenon.
Nuclear Ritual Engines: Mag-Tek Altars had proven an effective way of amplifying the effects of Mystek Rites. Some theorized that they could be improved further via nuclear reactor bloks, providing the Altar spirit with additional surges of power to channel into occult motion: to that end, they wanted to apply Mystek principles to nuclear design. 0/20, Mag-Tek Altars upgraded with Nuclear Ritual Engines, unknown effects, costs 2 Nuclear Material.
Name of the Booug: The Booug were, ultimately, spirits. According to Occultek lore, spirits each had their own names that could be used to gain control over them: through research they theorized they might be able to divine the true name of the Booug in order to help drive them off. They would start with part of the Name of Influence, used to weaken and repel and strengthen and control. 0/10, TekGrimoires upgraded with First Name of Influence of the Booug, allowing them a very limited degree of power over the Booug beyond what their rituals might allow.
WarpTek Altar: Warp-Space, according to your discoveries, was extremely rich in arcane energies. By redesigning your MagTek Altars, perhaps they could be upgraded to siphon power from Warp-Space and catalyze Mystek Rituals. 0/20, MagTek Altars upgraded to draw energy from Warp-Space, increasing Warp by 1.
Rite of War: A proposed rite that would allow for the enchantment of various ship weaponry in order to generate short term bursts of high performance, allowing for increased reactivity in combat situations. It would likely require a great deal of lifeforce, however, both to perfect and be easily utilizable in the field. 0/20, Mystek Ritual Compartment upgraded with Rite of War, very slightly increasing the damage of all weapons and in combat situations allowing one weapon system an additional increase of performance. Costs 1 Warp.
Rite of Soul: You can make the spirits more awake. Could you increase the shine of their soul? A heady proposition: some believed that by experimenting with God-Machine technology, more advanced versions of the Rite of Anima could be developed. No one was entirely sure what the results of this would be, however. 0/20, unlocks Rite of Soul, increasing EXP and FTH.
Rite of Communion: Others had suggested an idea: the Rite of Anima required a form of Communion between a Bond-Spirit and a lesser machine spirit. Could the same rite be adapted to let this dance take place between Tekket and Bond-Spirit instead? Such a thing would be monumental, certainly. 0/20, unlocks Rite of Communion, increasing FTH and CUL.
Hallowed Shrine: Another proposal had been to spend resources to develop a more advanced, theologically oriented shrine and accompanying rites to fully dedicate the Shrines and their offerings to specific gods. While these shrines wouldn't benefit the machine spirits of an area, they would likely very much please whatever deities they were connected to. 0/20, Shrines upgraded to provide FTH.
Shrine-Rites: This was an era of Mystek ascension. Give the Shrine-Keepers access to plentiful lifeforce to study: allow them to develop their understanding of the potent energy that the God-Machines had given access to and allow them to use it to develop rituals to further increase the potency of the TekShrines. 0/15, upgrades TekShrines with Rite of Motive Offering, increasing EXP given by TekShrines by two.
Shrine-Amps: Not all lifeforce was equal: the lifeforce of a Tekket was richer and more potent than the lifeforce of most beasts, the lifeforce of most beasts was more than most small plants, the lifeforce of most small plants was more potent than most small insects, and so forth and so forth. Perhaps Shrines could be modified with GodTek to launder lifeforce somewhat and improve their quality, ensuring that Spirits would higher quality, more strengthening mystic energy. 0/25, upgrades TekShrines with Shrine Amps, increasing EXP given by Tek-Shrines by two, cost 1 Artefacts.
Shrine-Conduits: Living Metal had a number of uses, but the biggest was that it retained lifeforce...concerningly well. By incorporating it into the design of your Shrine even more extensively in the form of special conduits, the Directorate should increase their overall efficiency, improving the impact of Shrines overall. 0/10, Shrines upgraded with Living Metal Conduits, increasing EXP by 1.
Advanced TekShrines: A proposed way to further improve TekShrines was to utilize God-Tek to increase the overall efficiency of Shrines as well as increase the power they generated. A bold proposal, but one the Shrine-Keepers themselves believed would work wonders as a way to empower the spirits they served. 0/25, upgrades TekShrines with GodTek Generators, increasing EXP given by TekShrines by two, costs 1 artefact.
Lifeforce Batteries: With more advanced understanding of lifeforce came the proposal to develop a method of actually storing lifeforce. This would likely be a difficult undertaking, but it would allow for much more novel methods of using Lifeforce and allow for it to be stockpiled for use. It would also mean less overall reliance on blood sacrifice. 8/10, develop Lifeforce Batteries Artefact, generating 1 Warp and EXP.
Cetacea Orchestrion: A proposed spiritual accelerator, the Cetacea Orchestrion is based on the arcano-acoustic principles discovered by studying a Void-Whale with the ability to silence spirits. Instead of forcing them into dormancy, however, the Orchestrion acts as a resonance engine, strengthening them. 0/25, develop Cetacea Orchestrion, generating considerable FTH. Costs 2 Warp.
Flame Grimoire: Some elementalists had proposed instead of Fairy Bottles, Fire Fairies could be harnessed by merging them with TekGrimoires. Instead of algae, the fairies spirit could be sustained by nuclear energies provided by the Grimoires batteries, in exchange giving your mystics more lifeforce to work with and acting as the soul of the grimoire. 0/25, develops Flame Grimoires, increasing FTH and Warp. Costs 1 Nuclear Material.
Gem Altars: And of course, instead of using the Luminum Eggs for arcane computer chips, they could be manufactured into power sources for Mag-Tek Altars, the nuclear minerals of the gems providing arcane reinforcement to Mystek rites in exchange for the Altar becoming an incubator, feeding any excess lifeforce to the Egg. 0/25, develop Gem Altars, increasing FTH and Warp. Costs 1 Nuclear Material.
Stone Chambers: Oracle Stone could be used to give Shrines means to communicate with spirits through vibration, yes, but their resonance could also be used for thaumaturgic principles. By designing specialized chambers and an interface in order to allow for the resulting harmonization to be controlled, the vibrations of the Oracle Stone could be harnessed to amplify the effects of rituals and rites performed within. 0/25, develop Resonance Stone Chambers, increasing FTH.
Biometal Medallions: The living metal cultivated by the spirits of Naklis was different, more vigorous, growing almost like plants. This biometal had proven surprisingly effective at processing lifeforce. Your elementalists wanted to manufacture special medallions using this gift of the metal elementals for use in rituals, feeding them in exchange for aid manipulating and processing vital energy. 0/25, develop Biometal Medallions, increasing FTH and Warp. Costs 1 Living Metal.
Lifeforce Healing: Lifeforce had strong correlations with vitality and energy: so far it had been sacrificed to fuel your spirits and rituals, but what if it could be transferred from Tekket to Tekket? Potentially, this could allow for improvement to the already excellent healthcare system utilized in the Directorate, but to what degree was sadly unknown for now. 0/25, develop Rite of Lifes Breath, increasing EXP and FTH, costing 1 Warp.
Sanguine Catalyst: With the understanding that blood was no longer required as a medium, some had proposed attempting to learn how to use it as a catalyst instead, improving the quality of the lifeforce they offered and making it more potent as a way to further improve on Tekket understanding of the supernatural energy. 0/50, develop Tekket Blood Magic, increasing points in all categories and generating 3 Warp.
Gremlin.EXE: Gremlins. Lesser spirits of mischief that cropped up from time to time from the darkest corners of the Network or Teklia's shadowy underbelly, they would possess machine spirits, infecting them like a virus. Some times, this relationship was beneficial: the machine spirit would grow stronger or be given strange powers, adding the Gremlins power to their own in exchange for giving the Gremlin an occasional vessel. Most of the time, this turned out terribly, as the Gremlin provoked the machine spirit to malfunction and glitch, taking delight as havok was created, forcing a Teksorcist to perform long, time consuming rituals that left the unfortunate machine with long lasting damage. With the development of the TekGrimoires, some Occulteks sought to imprison the minor troublemakers in order to prevent this, forcing them into empty DroneTek bodies layered inside and out with occultek binding. 0/20, develop Gremlin-Drones, created by taming mischievous data-spirits.
Familiars: Many naturalists theorized about natural spirits of the wilderness. Some druids and neo-pagans had experimented, finding that certain beasts and plants did in fact have some spiritual presence. Some Mysteks wished to explore the possibility of transfering the spirit to a Drone-Class vessel: after all, if you can do it to a toaster, why shouldn't it work on an equally old tree or turtle? 0/20, develop Wyld-Drones, Drone class automata formed not from ascended machine spirits but the souls of beasts and plants of sufficient soul strength.
Lunar MegaShrine: A proposed manner to quell the wrath of the Lunar Spirits was a singular great shrine in their honor, one that would be fed obscene quantities of lifeforce and attended to by countless druids and priests in a constant ritual of appeasement. So long as nothing else is done to provoke them, this should help obtain a degree of peace. 0/20, establishes Lunar MegaShrine, increasing FTH and EXP and reducing Quartzbug aggression.
Great Totems: Totems acted as shrine-relays, increasing effective coverage range without dropping efficiency. Some Druids had theorized, however, that they could be upgraded in order to allow a few totems to not just perform as relays, but outright amplifiers, helping to accelerate the growth of Wyld-Spirits. Developing these Great Totems would, however, require a great degree of lifeforce. 0/25, upgrade Wyld-Shrines with Great Totems, increasing FTH. Cost 1 Warp.
Land Totems: Another proposed route was giving the druids more God-Tek to study to adapt its principles towards further increasing the effective range provided by your Shrines. The amount they'd be able to do so was unknown: God-Tek wasn't predictable, after all. But even small improvements would be appreciated. 0/25, upgrade Wyld-Shrines with Land Totems, increasing EXP, costs 1 ART.
Awakening Totems: Alternatively, some mysteks, primarily Calculators, theorized the optimal way to aid the spirits of the wild was to give them the tools to help realize cognizance. After all, it had been proven that machine spirits with additional processing power grew quicker, so why could the same not be true with the spirits of nature? By installing specialized network architecture and modified mind-interface technology, Totems could help spirits realize awakening by allowing them to piggy-back off of its vastly superior data-processing abilities. 0/15, upgrades Wyld-Shrines with Awakening Totems, increasing ACD. Costs 1 Network.
Power Totems: Alternatively, claimed some Assembly-aligned Druids, why not just stuff the totems full of power generation hardware? Uranium was cheaper than lifeforce, and while it wasn't as effective, it could be used for a variety of improvements across the board to the overall design of the Totems, with the excess nuclear energy utilized as a secondary sustenance source for spirits. 0/15, upgrades Wyld-Shrines with Power-Totems, increasing FTH. Costs 2 Nuclear Material.
Rite of Natures Harmony: Proposed by some Mysteks, they wanted resources to be used to develop a rite utilizing Mag-Tek Altars that could be used in a pinch to appease angry wildlife. 0/10, grants Rites of Natures Harmony, reducing the aggression of wildlife and the hostility of flora and fauna, increasing EXP.
Bond-Technomata: No Bond-Spirit was nearly mature enough to achieve a third metamorphosis yet, but potentially this process could be accelerated with sufficient amounts of Life-Force, and many Mysteks were salivating over the possibility: Bond-Machina had the ability to generate energy far in excess of their power systems and the ability to use that energy to strengthen and manipulate machinery. Who knows what powers their evolution would have? 0/30, create Bond-Technomata, advanced psyker machine spirits.
Delve into the Tomb: The complex where the God-Machines were located was, according to the expedition that found the God-Machines, impossibly vast. A select number of Monks wished to establish a temple atop it. It's purpose? To plumb the depths and obtain ancient technology. 0/10, Establish Tombdelver Order, a Society which generates Artifacts (ART).
Cthonic Lifeofferings: A number of Mysteks with interests in the macabe had begun donating small amounts of Life-Force to the TekMausoleums, believing it a method to perhaps appease the spirits interred there. It was an interesting proposal, certainly: by organizing volunteers to donate, perhaps the merit of the idea could be tested. 0/10, TekMausoleums receive regular donations of lifeforce. Unknown effects. Cost 1 Warp.
ShipMind Shrine: A proposed method of improving your Ship Shrines even further was the addition of GodTek derived computers in order to create a sort of centralized AI core to house at least part of the ships oversoul: in essence, granting your shipspirits a degree of intelligence and willfullness. 0/20, Ships upgraded to include ShipMind, somewhat increasing performance. Cost 1 Artefact.
ShipBrain: Others suggested that instead of simply improving performance across the board by studying them, the Directorate could instead utilize GodTek as components to create a singular, relic grade GodTek supercomputer to serve as a vessel for the ships spirit, which would likely accelerate the shipsouls growth considerably. 0/20, select one Fleet to receive a ShipBrain, a relic class AI core that moderately improves ship performance that will automatically be upgraded when new technology is developed.
NeuroChoirs: A proposed theological application of the Mind-Machine Interface, the NeuroChoir would help coordinate and amplify prayer and spiritual meditation and, more importantly, allow for far easier donation of life energy for ritual purposes. 0/15, increases FTH, religious orders gain NeuroChoir artifact.
What the Zog?: Whatever had occurred during the flight of the Endeavor, it was clear that performing a ritual on Stizlak had brought the attention of something vast and terrible. The Grot needed to be questioned by the Conclave and studied so that countermeasures for whatever had happened upon them could be developed and potential spiritual side-effects of the rite could be determines to help optimize it. 0/15, develop Ork Ritual Studiez, increasing Mystek effectiveness when interacting with Orkish supernatural phenominon and improving the Rite of Pacification when performed in the future.
World Tree: Some Druids and members of the Assembly wanted to repeat what had been done with the Heart with an Arbor Guardian instead, glutting it on Lifeforce until the spirit within can awaken fully and wholly and achieve the same transcendent strength as the Heart: this World Tree could be used to accelerate the awakening of the Wyld considerably and source of strength for all Druidic practices. 0/20, develop World Tree, increasing FTH considerably and improving WyldTek performance. Cost 1 Warp.
Greater Arbor Guardian: A much more modest proposal would be spending lifeforce to accelerate the development of multiple arbor guardians across the Directorate: these Greater Arbor Guardians would strengthen the shrines considerably, and would especially enrich the spirits of nature. 0/10, develop Greater Arbor Guardian, increasing FTH and strengthening Shrines. Cost 1 Warp.
Eternal Arbor Guardian: Trees did not live forever, not without prohibitively large amounts of lifeforce. However, by modifying their genome, they could have their aging effectively stopped: they would never die of old age, allowing their spirits to grow far stronger. A few tweaks would also be made to improve the rate of growth, health, and a dozen other optimizations intended to increase their overall performance. 0/10, develop Eternal Arbor Guardians, granting 1 Warp. Costs 1 BioData.
Cthonic Shrines: An idea proposed by the NekroTeks, these Shrines would be constructed in every TekMausoleum, allowing for appeasement to be made to the spirits of the dead and departed, easing their transition to the afterlife. It would also, crucially, allow for them to make offerings to the machine souls of the crypt, any psychopomps that appeared, or other cthonic spirits. 0/15, establish Cthonic Shrines, increasing FTH.
Shrine-Hives: Fundamentally, it would not be difficult at all to redesign shrines to serve as hives for Chorus Bees, allowing for small amounts of lifeforce to be siphoned from the bees honey. In exchange, they would receive by and large the same benefits as the Arbor Guardians, receiving larger portions of lifeforce given directly. 0/15, Shrines on habitable planets upgraded with Shrine-Hives, increasing CUL.
((((()))))
Science Log, 4179.1018
Well, we've finally confirmed what we've all known for decades. Mt. Wander is still alive.
Unfortunately, we've also learned that we may have shot ourselves in the foot. To put it simply, based on what we've observed and measured, had we done nothing to Mt. Wander, it would have bled out already and likely lost all it's animation. The continued pumping of lifeforce seems to have kept it alive in its injured state and, unfortunately, not only is the mountain healing, it's still mutating.
Biologically, it has no DNA. Most of it is seemingly inorganic, yet our observations have shown repeatedly that as you explore deeper into the mountain, the rock begins, and there is no way to phrase this that is not unfortunate, THROBBING. To the touch it still remains, and I'm still attempting to figure out a way to phrase this in an official report, rock hard and firm.
Throughout the mountain, one will also find strange membranous veins throughout the stone pumping a strange green fluid: more every year, especially under areas serviced by Totems. Analysis reveals it's the same substance as the substance the mountain is bleeding. It is, to put it simply, blood. Mountain blood. Extremely high in minerals and lifeforce. As in, the substance is capable of reanimating minerals.
The only reason the pebblecrabs, scrap-bats, and rockslugs aren't considered an invasive species is because they can only exist near the Mountain: venture too far from the glowing great lake, and they begin to slowly lose vigor and energy before returning to total dormancy.
At any rate, we've managed to find the heart of Mt. Wander. A chamber accessible through a tunnel on the northernmost slope of the mountain, the heart is approximately three meters in diameter, many lobed, and glows green. It beats every ten minutes, and merely being in the same room as it caused the spirits of the machines used to explore and analyze the mountain to violently awaken and go berzerk.
Exposure to the Heart also causes severe mutations. We've taken the liberty of cordoning off the chamber, sending our condolences to the families of the deceased, and adding flamethrowers to our requisition forms.
What scrapings we've managed to collect indicate the heart is formed out of uranium glass, or a substance analogous to it.
Of course, this is all irrelevant to the point of these studies, I fear. The big question, the one everyone wants to know: if Mt. Wander woke up, are we capable of knocking back down?
And unfortunately, I don't know if we are.
End Log.
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Meanwhile, a new doctrine would find itself being implemented by the Engineers of the Fleet, taking after the philosophy used by the famous Captain Toxel, one of the first captains of the Fleet and the first to use a Warp-Drive. The technicians attempting to emulate Toxels style would undertake a number of courses in the Fleet meant to improve their ability to improve on the fly: novel gravitics, advanced particle mechanics, comedy improv, and perform all manner of rigorous exercises to hone their ability to perform feats of incredible engineering under stress: creating specialized VR simulators meant to be impossible to solve via brute force.
Every year, these sims would grow more and more complex as the programmers designed them went to more and more pains to design physics engines of such sophistication that they could be used to model more sophisticated, immersive, and difficult programs and design and patch solutions to various problems and glitches. Some few would be leaked onto the network, where they would garner a modest niche among gamers who favored hyper-difficult simulators.
Eventually, this strategic philosophy, emphasizing the ability to perform creatively under intense and immediate pressure, would find its way into the classrooms. The sims that had been unofficially distributed by cadets and ensigns and fans of the Fleetslike genre in their free time had become officially part of the curriculum.
And, on the Endeavor...
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"Alright, we're standing by," Came the voice from the control booth, making Stizlak grunt, the Grot standing in the center of the pebbled arena, circled with soil, mushroom caps pushing their way up from the surface. The Arena was surrounded on all sides by Screwheads Natureboyz, ready to do their mojo int' th' ground.
Edges of the chambah had a pair of them Spookyboyz on eitha' side, holdin' their ringing bell-stikkz up high next t' the shrines on each side. "Stizlak, are you ready?" Stizlak eyed the giant tanks of bluish fluid that were about to be pumped into the soil, each of them lined up against the wall, connected to the ground vid long injector spine: already, he could smell something right crapper sniffin', and he knew that once that gunk got injected into the ground, it'd smell even worse, something the Screwdocs had promised to fix goin' forward.
Supposedly, all this was what was required t' fix th' fact his barneys weren't poppin, so t' speak. "Aye, let's get this ovah with," Stizlak. "I wanna get to the fun part." The whole set up was the result of a bunch of the Screws decidin' t' be right chummy, which Stizlak did appreciate, for the record, he just didn't like all th' obsession with PROCEEDURE the Screws had: not only was it borin', in Stizlak's personally opinion having to sit and do pointless checklists when you could actually be out DOING things was, in a word, HELL, and the fact he had to go through with this every time they upgraded this chamber was making him absolutely BARKIN'.
His foot tapped tapped tapped against the floor, even as the countdown began. "Alright, all systems nominal. Beginning Gobbgrot Rite in 3...2...1..."
The lights cut off. Each of the Screwhead Wyldboyz began pounding on the many hooped drums they used to commune with nature, each beat draining lifeforce from the chamber above them, half of the red streams of energy flowing into the ground, causing the mushrooms to begin spreading and growing before Stizlaks eyes. "Gobbgrot Rite proceeding as in prior situations: increased mushroom shape and size, but no success YET, though we are detecting a high degree in genomic variety. Begining Bugglintek Proceedures..."
Above each tank, a light popped on, and slowly the tanks began to drain as their cobalt contents were pumped into the ground. As Stizlak predicted, the smell immediately got worse. "I thought you screws were gonna fix that! It smells like a dinkin' sewer in here!" He growled, tappin' his comm badge.
"Sorry, new formula. It showed 7% more morphogenic efficiency in tests, so the Academy wants to see how it performs." Oh BLOODY Zog, the bleedin' academy was gonna drive him mad! It was always with the needles and th' pokin' and the-
Wait, seven percent? "Crickey, that's not bad!" Stizlak said, impressed. Education had never been much of a priority for the Grot, but he had to learn maths to help manage the pens: 7% aloud didn't sound like much, but add it up with the other percentages that the Screwtekks had given him for the various blends and formulas and enzymes they had been tinkerin' with, Stizlak figured it added to a rough 78, which in turn rounded to about 80. And 80 was a LOT of beasties!
It definitely showed, too. Mushrooms were gettin' weird. Weird shapes, the bright caps distorting into spongey nets and strange puff-balls and even stranger stuff, like growin' mouths and teeth, creatin...not quite Squig, Stizlak reckon'd, too much fungus, not enough animal. Occasionally, from the ground, a bug would fly out, roughly th' size of Stizlaks hand, two pairs of wings beating behind a pair of big and shiny eyes as they flew through the air before getting speared and devoured by the Squogstools tongue, the creature dragging the buggoz into its mouth and messily devouring them.
"Well that's horrifying," The Technitian said over intercomm after a few moments of silence. "Good news, the new formula is definitely a success! We have complete biogenesis into both insect life and more diverse morphologies of fungus, including several blends of what can only be described as self-carnivorous sub-species of super-fungi!" The voice caused Stizlak to roll his eyes at the false chipperness.
"Ah, nah, it's just th' circle of life- Y'get this back home," He noted, watching as the Squogstool picked its teeth of the buglin, tongue picking the bits of meat and shell stuck between the pieces of shite enamel from their lodgings: the latter would be flicked away, sent to fertilize the growth of more Squogstool caps growing below in the moist and soft soil, their speckled white orange and red caps pushing their way up from below the surface. "Squog's gotta eat, and Buglins eat the small caps, so it's all fair game." That was...more or less how it worked, right? Yeah, yeah, had to be. Wasn't nothin' cruel or horrifing, it was just nature: everything needed t' eat, after all.
"...Fair enough, I suppose," The Technician conceded. "Still, this is fascinating: so your whole species is sort of like its own ecosystem in a can, huh? That, uh..."
...Yeah, not great: meant that if 'e ever met any grotz what were advanced enough to not be off limits from the directeev, he'd 'ave t' be VERY careful about lettin' em anywhere near 'iz beasties. 'Course, you sure you wanna meet any otha grotz?' A small part of him whispered. 'After all, you ain't like THEM no more: you're a right weirdie, aincha? How much you even remembah of life back on Monstro? An' how much of it was GOOD memories? Real good ones, not just memories of getting to kick others around for once instead of the reverse and thinkin' that was good because that was all you knew back then?'
Stizlak banished the thought. It had come to bother him more and more the past decades, his memories of his time on Monstro: at night, when 'e dreamed, on the good nights Stizlak dreamed of beasties: horned beasties strong enough to toss whole logs, fanged beasties capable of takin; down their prey quick and cleanless all elegant like, fierce beasties capable of wreckin' gitz what zogged em off for messin' wiff their family, heck, he even liked the fuzzie beasties: very few things were as gratifyin' as havin' the trust of puffkin waddlings enough that they'd follow you around like a mama puffbird, in Stizlak's humble opinion, or gettin' to go to sleep all snuggled with a frost-dog: very soothin' that could be.
On the bad nights Stizlak dreamed of workin' the killing fields. He dreamed of hunger. He dreamed of clubs.
He dreamed of cruelty.
It was what he liked most about nature. It wasn't always kind, but it was always fair, in a way, and it wasn't cruel, not really. Cruelty generally required intent.
"-Zlak? Stizlak?"
Stizlak shook his head. "Sorry mate, 'ad a bit of a memory there," He said, keeping his voice up. "Can we get to the fun part now?" He asked, grinning. This was the best part, the thing that got his blood pumping!
"I, uh, alright. Continuing to step three, Combat Simulator Koboldron." From the ceiling, bloks descended, linking together in the air piece by piece to form a long, segmented robot formed out of black and brown ferroplastic, long and serpentine in shape, covered in hundreds of tiny mechanical legs, underside blinking with various lights and diodes. "Difficulty 6 okay?"
Stizlak thought it out. On the one hand, 'e had to pace himself. Too much too fast and he just wound up exhaused and didn't get no mojo goin'. On the other hand, he was feelin' froggy.
Seven percent more froggy. "Gimme difficulty seven AND I want me some chaff." Stizlak smirked.
"Oooh, bold choice! Adding in level seven upgrades, bringing this robopede up to a megapede..." The control booth said as more bloks flew out, assembling together to form large upgrades to the Screwbot, making it larger and addin' more (foam padded) weaponry to its back: the thing now towered over Stizlak, a full grown Golem-Class.
"And a few flies!" One by one, small flybots were assembled, named so for their long wings which, in Stizlak's experience, weren't all that great at helping it fly, anti-grav module or no. After about ten minutes or so, about ten of them floated in the air, hovering menacingly, releasing a variety of hostile beeps...
Before one got speared by a Squogstool, causing it to fall to pieces to the ground, causing several other flybots to swoop down and start cobbling upgrades on themselves.
"Alright, adding a few more..."
"Keep em coming through the fight," Stizlak commanded, grinning.
"You're the boss-man," The control booth replied, and Stizlak had to admit, he still got a warm fuzzy feeling from hearing that phrase. More flybots began to form, brick by brick by brick. "Right, what weapon we wanting?"
"Weapon?" Stizlak scoffed. "Mate, you don't go at an animal with a WEAPON." He stretched his armes out, intertwining and cracking his knuckles. "I'm usin' me hands for this one."
"...Alrighty, in that case, we are beginning in three...two...one..."
The Megapede roared and dived at Stizlak. Stizlak grinned and ran towards it.
________
Stizlak felt the air get knocked out of their lungs as they landed on their stomach. Before him, three Golempedes wobbled: the middle one missing massive amounts of bits, like most of its head, a number of its legs, and its eyes. The two on either side were in better condition, but they weren't doing so hot either.
Stizlak though?
Stizlak was havin' a right BANGER of a time! "Heh, I haven't felt this alive in years!" He crowed, leaping forward, using a series of flybots on a bombing run as stepping stones to reach the leftmost golempede, latching onto it, and grabbing one of its legs, ripping the bloks out with his bare hand and tossing it away, noting from the edge of his vision it getting snapped up by a flybot: zog did he love screwbots, they were the absolute funnest thing t' 'ave a good scrap with!
Quickly, he wriggled to the side, avoiding a blow by a padded hammer affixed to the next megapede, the other tackling into its compatriot to get at the grot. The combination was enough to break most of it apart, killing the golem and causing the ever increasing swarm of flybots to descend like a great cloud of scavengers on the swaying creature as it fell, Stizlak leaping off it to grab another flybot. "Gimme an update!" He cried, eyes scanning the sides.
Definite progress! Some of the Squogstools had evolved to full on Squogfrogs, hopping in the soil, attempting to spear the odd flybot between their croaks. The Buggos had grown to full on Buggbuzzes, their body having grown long and segmented, having grown three pairs of legs beneath their bodies and a pair of sharp mandibles they used to attack the odd Squogfrog. Other things were lurking around now, like beetle-like creatures with shimmering emerald shells, squat looking porcine creatures with tiny tusks snuffling in the soil, and even bigger mushrooms, some as tall as trees.
"We're seeing a massive jump! You've just kickstarted something, Stizlak! Do you want to stop now or-"
"Step four!" He said, leaping off the Flybot, letting it crash into a bot that was halfway to forming a robopede that needed removing immediately. "Now!"
"Step four! Prepare for the Offering of Gnarlins!" To the sides, he could see the Shrine Keepers, behind the rows and rows of shrooms, raise their bells, chiming them once, twice, before the air grew heady with the scent of vitality, the sign that the shrines were online and Arbor Guardians juicin' any waaaagh spirits that might exist with all the mojo and then some.
Immediately, Stizlak felt an electric surge down his spine, and something bubbling in his gut as he avoided the stunner blast that had been aimed at him, ducking beneath it in order to let it demolish the screwbot that had been just behind him, moving faster, faster than he had ever been. Grabbing another circling flybot, Stizlak THREW it, using it as a projectile against the recovering robopedes, hitting them with enough force to SPLATTER the smaller robots, and stagger the larger one. The bubbling in his gut continued, growing larger and larger as he slammed into the staggered megapede, knocking it over long enough for Stizlak to clamber up and down it, ripping out parts as he went, until the bubbling finally erupted from his body as a full on giggle. "Hehheheheheheh, heh, hehheheheh, heHAHAhehe-" He chortled as his arms shot out above him, grabbing a flying flybot and bringing it slamming into the megapede, using it as a bludgeon over and over even as the sound of bells continued in the background, the everpleasant chime of mischief and violence flowing through Stizlaks veins as he heard whispers: 'ere we go ere we go ere we go ere we go.
Briefly, he considered the possibility that the Spookyboyz were right, and the Waaagh Spirits WERE a thing, that the fight, the ritual, the offerings, and even th' formula full of academy gunk had all worked to conjure them. The thought was dismissed immediately, not because it wasn't possible, but because that was a thought for later Stizlak.
For now... "Oi! Spirits!" Stizlak roared as he send his foot through a Blokbot. "You blokes listening?" Listening? listening listening listening- "I'LL TAKE THAT AS A YES!" He roared, seeing mushrooms twice the grots size grow eyes and legs, staggering for a bit before they began charging into screwbots, smashing up the megapedes. Buglinz, huge antisopteran insects half Stizlaks size, swarmed the air, ripping apart flybots as fast as they could be built. Squiggies squealed, tearing across the arena. Untouched, their nerves like steel, the Wyldboyz continued their drum beat, and the spookyboyz continued chiming their bells. "I'm tired a bein' the only bloke around! You wanna do a mate a solid?"
Solid solid solid? "Gimme some mates!" Stizlak roared, leaping above the head of a centebot, tearing its head off and sending it spinning into more bots, the sight causing the grot to let out a cackle. "Some right proppa gitz like me!" The bells continued, and it was as if they began to chime on a deeper, more primal level, Stizlak letting out a soundless howl as he rushed forward, lost in an absolute frenzy even as the voices of the spirits began to gain definition. Gitz gitz gitz gitz...
For a moment everything stilled, and the howling cackle that had seized Stizlak guttered out...
You...want...gitz? You...give...challenge...feed...
"You wanna feed?" Stizlak roared, laughing even as he continued to duck and weave and toss and throw and rip and tear, "Then feed! You want more mojo, doncha? Gimme the energy to keep goin', and me and the Screws'll give you all the mojo you want! Enough to feed you for a whole month!"
Month...yes...good...Fight.
Stizlak moved, continuing to wreck his way through the BlokBots filling the chamber, quickly realizing that with the everything else, the bots were getting swatted faster than they could build up: 'eck, it almost looked like they were...running...out...of. "Difficulty 8!" He roared. "Gimme a mammoth! Gimme a few golems coming in too! We need t' kick things up a notch!"
"Whoah, that seems extreme, are you absolutely-"
"Trust me! We need an all out brawl!" Stizlak yelled, giddy as he felt his fatigue melt away. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he felt it, all around him: waaagh, almost, but different, the same sort of drum beat, but dancing at a different, more focused and steady pace, given clarity by the sound of bells and rhythm by the staccato beats of the Screwheads, each beat feeling with a fire in his veins as he saw all around him the Eco-Chamber be consumed by naked battle. "And gimme some fight music!" He roared, realizing he needed somefin' else: a jam.
"Alright, you're the boss. Some primo fight music, coming rrrrright up on 98.4 KTEM, Music in the Morning." With that bit of smartarsery over, several large bloks would descend into the chamber, rapidly configuring themselves into a large spiderlike figure, many many times Stizlaks size, a large and imposing cubic behemoth with a single unblinking red eye at Stizlak, who skidded to a stop, even as, over the intercom, a beat began to play, a heavy and industrial track overlayed with series of lyrics sung by what sounded like the angriest screw ever- in otherwords, someone that by grot standards would be mildly annoyed.
Eh, whatever. Stizlak cracked his neck, preparing to run.
He felt it. The mojo. The jam. The universal waveform pulse. The waaagh, or something like it. Whatever it was, it was power. And he was just on the cusp of it being strong enough, he could FEEL it!
With a cackle, he charged forward...
((((()))))
Stizlak awoke with a groan, noting surlyly that the lights were back on. His bones hurt. All his bones. Even the ones in places he didn't even know bones existed. "Did it work?" He muttered, sitting up, wincing, staring at the now thoroughly overgrown chamber. The Screwheads were having to beat off the denizens, their protections against them ended with the performance of the ritual, though none were going at them with any real energy. All around the chamber, scattered, were bloks, and a handful of half-functioning screwbots fluttered about, mostly helping the screwheads beat the wildlife back off.
"Stizlak, are you okay?! You just-"
"I remember," Stizlak lied. "Now focus: did it work?"
...
"We're noticing some anomalies. Please stand by: Do you mind helping keep the new local flora off our Mysteks in the mean time?"
"They're just squiggies and and buglinz," Stizlak said, rolling his eye as he stood up, swatting at an insect that approached him. "They're animals: stun em once or twice and they'll get the message," He explained, confident in his answer.
"Alright, we'll defer to you, Stizlak, you're the closest thing we have to an expert here. Kyte out." And with that, the control booth fell silent. Cracking his neck, Stizlak walked forward, feeling a bone deep exhaustion fill his body. Whatever had just happened, he mused, it probably shouldn't normally happen. Still, definitely fun, definitely gonna have to try that: maybe if 'e asked the spirits nicely, they'd give a big boost to some of 'is favorite wrestlin' beasties too.
Froglins hopped, bugglins flied, squiglins snuffled through the soil, and squogstools grumbled, giving the chamber a cacophanous nature.
It was nice, but it needed more normal nature, Stizlak mused. Maybe now that 'e had all this, 'e could see about transplantin' it to other eco-chambers, give it a nice mix of beasties and...
Whatever he'd call his not-squigs, he supposed. As he mused, the grot nearly found himself tripping, stumbling forward as he accidentally ran into something squirming in the dirt. Falling into a tumble, the Grots chin slammed into the dirt with a thud. "Well, at least me lucks still golden," He mused, standing up and turning to see what had caused him to fall...
It was grots. Wriggling out of the ground. Here and there and everywhere, bodies orange and red and yellow and some even a sort of dark mustard color, features unnaturally soft as they blinked with large and watery eyes, gazing at him and everything as they un-dug themselves from below the dirt. Some of them had joined the bugglins in harassing the Screwheads, who had, resigned, resorted to feeding the insects small scraps of food to stop their assaults (to some success, Stizlak noted), even as the Grots crawled up their robes and bit at them. Others were chasing each other around, jabbering in broken sentence fragments. Others still were climbing trees and leaping down below onto the bugs, squashing them flat when they landed.
A few, he noted with concern, had to be pulled from the mouth of hungry Squogstools by the Screwheads. "Looks like it worked!" A voice said behind him, and Stizlak's expression softened a touch at the sight of one of his oldest friends approaching behind him.
"Wonderin' when you'd get here, Kyte," He said, nodding, before turning his gaze back. This was...not quite right, Stizlak realized. The proportions were wrong: one grot was unnaturally stretched and thin, one looked incredibly stubby and rounded, another looked like his 'ead was a bleedin' CUBE. And they were actin'...strange. Unfocused, unintelligent.
"I fink somethin's wrong," Stizlak muttered. "Grots is smarter than this," He said, walking to one of the grots, who tilted their head even as they shoved a toadstool cap into their mouth. "You there," He said, snapping his hand. "You got any 'foughts?"
The thing just gormlessly stared at him. "...Dakka?" It croaked. "Good dakka? Dakka good?"
"...Zog me runnin', they're brainless cretins," Stizlak cursed, causing Kyte to let out a cough.
"Stizlak, thats-" Kyte took a deep breath, trying to remain composed. "I'm pretty sure they're just...newborn," She said stiffly, swallowing as she reasserted her poise.
"I mean, yeah, nah. Theyz newbornz, but they're newborn cretinz," Stizlak explained patiently, poking the Grot, who let out a growl at the contact. "Grotz ain't like other beasties: we're supposed to come out the ground fully smart. These gitz are zogged out of their gourd." Honestly, he could be wrong about that: it had been long enough ago since he had been around Grots that he didn't really remember his early years all that well, a thought that was deeply uncomfortable to think about
Kyte hummed, the aging Tekkets face deep in thought. "It could be a flaw with the serum, or the ritual, or perhaps a side effect of your original mutation," She mused, in a voice Stizlak annoyingly recognized as the 'humoring him' voice Screws sometimes used. "Whatever genetic memory you once had might have been scrambled. I mean, it stands to reason, after all: random mutation isn't particularly good at preserving genetic integrity," she said with a smirk in a tone of voice that indicated that the Tekket THOUGHT what they had just said qualified as a joke, and once again Stizlak had to remind himself that he liked the screws in SPITE of their sense of humor.
"Kyte," Stizlak deadpanned.
Kyte held up her hands. "Sorry, sorry. But still, we'll do cognition tests: chances are though that if they're biologically the same as you though they'll just need some form of education, or whatever the equivalent for grots is," She said, kneeling down to look the blinking, nervous grot in the eye, holding a light up. "They're definitely responsive to visual stimuli," She mused, pulling back, turning the light off.
"Mmm, maybe," Stizlak admitted, and on some level he was relieved. On another level though... "We're not really grots though, is we? Not normal ones at least, not no more." He mused, thinking, frown set. "Wrong shade, wrong shapes, wrong squigs..." Wrong mindset. They were right proper unorky, Stizlak noted, watching several of the NotGrots climbing taller mushrooms in order to just hop off of em. A buncha clanless, unorky grots what didn't know nothing.
"I wouldn't say clanless. You do have each other," Kyte noted, and Stizlak huffed...before cocking his head. Y'know, that was true, wasn't it? They might not 'ave a good waaaagh goin' behind 'em, they might not 'ave no bleedin warboss or chief, but they did 'ave each other! Stizlak let out a chuckle. An all-grot clan of orange boyz. Now that was a funny one.
"Aye, so indeed," Stizlak mused, thinking things over. Well, if 'e was gonna call this a clan, e' needed somefin to call it. A few names floated in his mind...
Stizlak is considering picking a new term to refer to 'his' grots. Please make this a seperate vote to your plan, as this is purely aesthetic.
[ ] Hobbgrots
[ ] Koboldrons
[ ] Gnarlings
[ ] Boglins
[ ] Bunyips
[ ] Orangeboyz
[ ] Shroomcap Grots
[ ] Grot Exiles
[ ] Stizlaks Clan
[ ] Toadstool Clan
[ ] Anklebiter Clan
[ ] Mojo Clan
[ ] Clan Dinkum
[ ] The Beastie Boys
[ ] Write-In
Directorate Academy: The Directorate required a vast number of skilled professionals to operate, even in this era of increasing automation. To meet this need, the Directorate Academy was established, growing steadily until its reach encompassed the globe. The Academy effectively WAS the place to get an advanced education. Thankfully, it provided online courses for free, though there were a number of lucky students who received invitations to attend directly: those were the ones who would get drafted into the Academies own personal labs. Provides 5 ACD Points.
Bond-Drone Technology: Some machine spirits are particularly lively and strong, given power through generations of veneration, extreme age, or, in rare cases, through the love and care of their owner. These awoken machine spirits are typically given new vessels to inhabit, thus birthing Bond-Drones, ensouled, somewhat intelligent automata that serve as warrior, protector, and even family. Provides 1 EXP Point.
Bond-Machina: Advanced psychoactive Bond Machine-Spirits who through ritual and sufficient processing power have evolved into more advanced, powerful forms, capable of generating energy as if from nowhere and using it to influence and empower other machinery as well as provide power to rituals. They served as guardian, guide, and friend and, when using the Commander class combat platform as a vessel, superheavy infantry. Provides 1 EXP Point and 1 FTH Point.
Mind-Machine Interface: A implantless technology that allows for wireless interface between Tekket mind and machine mind, allowing for easier control of technology and communication with machine spirits. +1 FTH Point and +1 ACD Point.
BlokTek: Hypermodular tek designed to be plug and play, BlokTek was the basis of most TekketTek. Every component could be, if you knew the schematic, used for a different machine. The same components that would be used to make a blaster could also be used to build a microwave: the battery as the power source, the optical lens to irradiate the thing, all you needed was a few bloks to make a box. Provides ultimate lego technology: all parts interchangeable and universal. Provides 2 EXP Points.
Living Metal: GodTek, or something derived from it: the Destroyers had managed to occasionally lightly injure the God-Machines, leaving small samples of an advanced proto-metal around. Researching it produced a room temperature regenerative semi-conductor. Another cornerstone of your tek: it meant that components could essentially be infinitely reused. Maintenance costs reduced to zero.
ShieldBloks: A countermeasure developed to reduce the effectiveness of Destroyer Laser Weapons, ShieldTek generators could power energy barriers around fortifications, hardening positions against lasfire. Recent advances had managed to produce ShieldBloks, which applies BlokTek principles to the technology, creating a modular barrier generator that could be freely installed in vehicles, satellites, and inside buildings. Vehicles and fortifications effectiveness against LasFire increased.
BlokBots: BotTek had advanced to the point a variety of simple menial tasks and labours can be automated. Golem Class BlokBots come in a variety of forms with a variety of peripherals, from childcare assistant nannybots to industrial digbots to food-crate hauling cargobots, Mammoths could perform heavy labour and transport, and Gnomes could do light maintenance work and act as couriers and pets. Increase EXP by 3.
Gravity Engines: Next generation gravity manipulators that served to give your ships increased manueverability and very slightly increased speed, at very slightly lower power cost than previous models. Improved ship maneuverability.
MagTek Assemblers: Specialized MagTek pads that, when paired with a computer or tablet to act as a design station, could be used to instantly snap together bloks to assemble whole machines and devices once a suitable schematic was chosen, simplying the process to just a push of a button. Increase EXP by 1.
MagTek Binding Fields: Electromagnetic fields that help hold together Bloks, increasing whole machines ability to resist kinetic force, improving their overall structural durability, and increasing the conditions your machines could operate under. BlokTek is more damage resistant.
Q-Blok Processors: Small mass produced Quantum Computers, Q-Bloks are generally a few feet in size, containing complex tek that allows for processing power formerly reserved for rare government held supercomputers to be used for every day use both in religious practices, entertainment, Sythetic Intelligence useage, and industrial tasks. +1 CUL and +1 ACD
OmniWrench Manipulator: MagTek installed on specialized OmniWrenches to allow for magnetic lifting and movement of Bloks in order to allow for easier on site building of simple structures and vehicles: all an engineer has to do is wave their wrench to get things done. +1 EXP
Deep Crust Scanner: A new-model Ship Scanner that gives more detailed and precise readings far quicker than older models at the cost of requiring a great deal of processing power to utilize. It should allow your ships to locate deep crust anomalies and oddities and bypass simple forms of jamming. Gain 2 Scan Levels when scanning planets.
PowerBlok: Miniaturized nuclear reactors, PowerBloks are intended for use in vehicles and weaponry, allowing them to utilize increased amounts of power in order to allow for both larger size, more space for other components, or more powerful components that previously required larger vehicle reactors to run. They were also a component of Fusion Weaponry, typically used as artillery or on vehicles. Increased Vehicle performance. Can deploy Perpetunite Fusion Rockets and Fusion Cannons as vehicle and artillery scale weapons.
Academy Fleet Compartments: Modular and standardized Academy facilities that could be quickly added to ships, they provided a wealth of scientific expertise to captains and allowed for exiting field research opportunities. +1 ACD, improves Fleet technical ability and providing access to advanced scientific tools.
Grot-Tek Eco-Pods: These modest sized Eco-Pods consisted of a combat chamber, four different tanks of enzymes, two 'mojo shrines' as Stizlak called them, and a Sacred Herd on the floor above to help provide lifeforce for rituals, these chambers, when utilized alongside a specific ritual allowed for the mutated fungus produced by Stizlaks spores to produce grots. A small number of these pods had been installed across the Directorate with Stizlaks permission, though the ritual required Stizlaks participation at the moment.
Toxel Doctrine: The first rule of Toxel doctrine: never be afraid to improvise. Improved engineer ability to problem solve on the fly.
Bond-Drone Technology: Some machine spirits are particularly lively and strong, given power through generations of veneration, extreme age, or, in rare cases, through the love and care of their owner. These awoken machine spirits are typically given new vessels to inhabit, thus birthing Bond-Drones, ensouled, somewhat intelligent automata that serve as warrior, protector, and even family. Provides 1 EXP Point.
Bond-Machina: Advanced psychoactive Bond Machine-Spirits who through ritual and sufficient processing power have evolved into more advanced, powerful forms, capable of generating energy as if from nowhere and using it to influence and empower other machinery as well as provide power to rituals. They served as guardian, guide, and friend and, when using the Commander class combat platform as a vessel, superheavy infantry. Provides 1 EXP Point and 1 FTH Point.
Mind-Machine Interface: A implantless technology that allows for wireless interface between Tekket mind and machine mind, allowing for easier control of technology and communication with machine spirits. +1 FTH Point and +1 ACD Point.
BlokTek: Hypermodular tek designed to be plug and play, BlokTek was the basis of most TekketTek. Every component could be, if you knew the schematic, used for a different machine. The same components that would be used to make a blaster could also be used to build a microwave: the battery as the power source, the optical lens to irradiate the thing, all you needed was a few bloks to make a box. Provides ultimate lego technology: all parts interchangeable and universal. Provides 2 EXP Points.
Living Metal: GodTek, or something derived from it: the Destroyers had managed to occasionally lightly injure the God-Machines, leaving small samples of an advanced proto-metal around. Researching it produced a room temperature regenerative semi-conductor. Another cornerstone of your tek: it meant that components could essentially be infinitely reused. Maintenance costs reduced to zero.
ShieldBloks: A countermeasure developed to reduce the effectiveness of Destroyer Laser Weapons, ShieldTek generators could power energy barriers around fortifications, hardening positions against lasfire. Recent advances had managed to produce ShieldBloks, which applies BlokTek principles to the technology, creating a modular barrier generator that could be freely installed in vehicles, satellites, and inside buildings. Vehicles and fortifications effectiveness against LasFire increased.
BlokBots: BotTek had advanced to the point a variety of simple menial tasks and labours can be automated. Golem Class BlokBots come in a variety of forms with a variety of peripherals, from childcare assistant nannybots to industrial digbots to food-crate hauling cargobots, Mammoths could perform heavy labour and transport, and Gnomes could do light maintenance work and act as couriers and pets. Increase EXP by 3.
Gravity Engines: Next generation gravity manipulators that served to give your ships increased manueverability and very slightly increased speed, at very slightly lower power cost than previous models. Improved ship maneuverability.
MagTek Assemblers: Specialized MagTek pads that, when paired with a computer or tablet to act as a design station, could be used to instantly snap together bloks to assemble whole machines and devices once a suitable schematic was chosen, simplying the process to just a push of a button. Increase EXP by 1.
MagTek Binding Fields: Electromagnetic fields that help hold together Bloks, increasing whole machines ability to resist kinetic force, improving their overall structural durability, and increasing the conditions your machines could operate under. BlokTek is more damage resistant.
Q-Blok Processors: Small mass produced Quantum Computers, Q-Bloks are generally a few feet in size, containing complex tek that allows for processing power formerly reserved for rare government held supercomputers to be used for every day use both in religious practices, entertainment, Sythetic Intelligence useage, and industrial tasks. +1 CUL and +1 ACD
OmniWrench Manipulator: MagTek installed on specialized OmniWrenches to allow for magnetic lifting and movement of Bloks in order to allow for easier on site building of simple structures and vehicles: all an engineer has to do is wave their wrench to get things done. +1 EXP
Deep Crust Scanner: A new-model Ship Scanner that gives more detailed and precise readings far quicker than older models at the cost of requiring a great deal of processing power to utilize. It should allow your ships to locate deep crust anomalies and oddities and bypass simple forms of jamming. Gain 2 Scan Levels when scanning planets.
PowerBlok: Miniaturized nuclear reactors, PowerBloks are intended for use in vehicles and weaponry, allowing them to utilize increased amounts of power in order to allow for both larger size, more space for other components, or more powerful components that previously required larger vehicle reactors to run. They were also a component of Fusion Weaponry, typically used as artillery or on vehicles. Increased Vehicle performance. Can deploy Perpetunite Fusion Rockets and Fusion Cannons as vehicle and artillery scale weapons.
Academy Fleet Compartments: Modular and standardized Academy facilities that could be quickly added to ships, they provided a wealth of scientific expertise to captains and allowed for exiting field research opportunities. +1 ACD, improves Fleet technical ability and providing access to advanced scientific tools.
Grot-Tek Eco-Pods: These modest sized Eco-Pods consisted of a combat chamber, four different tanks of enzymes, two 'mojo shrines' as Stizlak called them, and a Sacred Herd on the floor above to help provide lifeforce for rituals, these chambers, when utilized alongside a specific ritual allowed for the mutated fungus produced by Stizlaks spores to produce grots. A small number of these pods had been installed across the Directorate with Stizlaks permission, though the ritual required Stizlaks participation at the moment.
Toxel Doctrine: The first rule of Toxel doctrine: never be afraid to improvise. Improved engineer ability to problem solve on the fly.
Academy Points (ACD Points): 31+5
Living Metal: 1
Network: 6
New Actions:
AnimaTek Wrench: The Academy was interested in utilizing information recovered from studying the animatory effects of Mt. Wander and ritual knowledge developed by your priests and mysteks to develop an upgrade to the standard issue OmniWrench: an AnimaTek Awakening Module, allowing them to blast machine spirits with concentrated vital energy (provided by themselves) to spiritually 'overclock' them, allowing for brief moments of increased performance by affected machines. 0/25, Wrenches upgraded with AnimaTek, costs 1 Warp.
Mountain Blood: The substance, your Alkemeteks theorized, could be the secret to many previously thought impossible works dreamed of by the great philosophers of old. The very blood of a living mountain, it oozed potent arcane energy, and carried within it some of Mt. Wanders animating essence. To harness its power, they required vastly improved spectroscopes and chemical synthesizers, however, in order to help process it into a useable form. 0/25, set up Mountain Blood harvesting operation, increasing Warp by 1.
Kobatekka Maru: As simulations grew more and more advanced, more and more of them would wind up in Fleet curriculum. Some programmers wanted to spend dedicated Directorate resources in creating the ultimate series of crisis simulations in order to help train fleet cadets, ones capable of a degree of self-adaptation. 0/25, gain Kobatekka Maru Self-Adapting Simulations, improving Fleet ensign performance considerably. Cost 1 Artefact
Upgrader Class BlokBots: Emergency upgrade units, these 'Bots would seek out and augment bots in the field as needed with their own components, allowing a greater degree of reactivity, being able to optimize and improve performance as needed for as long as needed, before detaching themselves and going on to aid other bots. 0/25, gain Upgrader Class BlokBots, capable augmenting BlokBots to a more powerful + versions in the field.
BlokBot Optimization Principle: The basic program behind Upgraders could be simplified in order to allow for, over time, BlokBots to automatically perform basic optimizations and improvements. This would largely benefit industry, as valuable Tekket-power that was spent on BlokBot design could instead simply be foisted off on machinery. 0/25, BlokBots over time will slowly upgrade to more powerful + versions, increasing EXP.
Basic Particle Field Generator: It was clear that Warp-Space was dangerous, and while the particle barrier had proven somewhat effective, it could still be improved. To do this, the Directorate had authorized extensive access to lifeforce and GodTek. 0/30, gain Crude Warp-Shield Technology, slightly increasing the safety of warp travel. Cost 1 Artefact.
Warp-Drive Refinement: Of course, others instead wanted to focus on efficiency by developing more sophisticated Warp-Drive manufacturing techniques, allowing for faster speeds and thus exploration of space. This would be a considerable undertaking, but it would pay dividends. 0/20, gain Basic Warp-Drive, increasing ship speed and ability to respond to crisis. Cost 1 Warp.
Extremely Advanced NukeTek: Perpetunite weaponry was dangerous, but it could be so much worse with the application of advanced particle technology to further increase the damage caused: longer range on fusion cannons to create fusion lances, more explosive torpedos, fusion rockets powerful enough to be called pocket nukes. There was no such thing as overkill. 0/20, Unlocks Advanced NukeTek. Allows for the creation of medium-range, re-useable shipscale weaponry in the form of Fusion Lances and further improvement to all existing NukeTek weaponry.
HoloTek: With technology becoming more and more sophisticated, a number of optical researchers had proposed funding more research into their field of study to create advanced HoloBriks that could be used in conjunction with Mind Machine interfaces to create sophisticated 3D simulator pods. 0/25, unlocks Crude HoloDeck Technology, increasing CUL.
NukeTek Ultra Miniaturization: It would perhaps be considered gross overkill to develop infantry-scale weaponry utilizing Perpetunite Reactors. However, much like your schools, your military didn't know the meaning of overkill: Fusion Shotguns, Fusion Blasters, Fusion Micro-Rockets, and Fusion Grenades. A lot of efficiency would be lost at the sizes you were aiming for, but it'd be a great way to give your forces some real teeth. 0/15, heavy infantry benefits from PowerBlok technology, costs 2 Nuclear Material
Megaflora Serum: A product of the Court of Hunger, the Megaflora Serum rapidly accelerated plant growth, producing in hours what might normally take weeks to grow, at three times the size. They were willing to share, but first, they wanted to perfect the serum, as currently it had the flaw of rendering what it grew completely inedible to Tekket. 3/10, perfect Megaflora Serum, increasing EXP and Warp by 1.
MegaSiphon: A theoretical design produced by the Sphere, the MegaSiphon would absorb from Teklia constant amounts of lifeforce from across the planet: every living thing providing small amounts to in total enable the useage of massive quantities of vital energy for assorted projects. Apparently, the Sphere's price for the MegaSiphon schematics was that every twenty years it gets to gorge itself on a planets worth of collected vital energy: apparently it couldn't feed on the lifeforce offered by its cult because it was too meager to provide a meal without damaging them. 0/20, increases FTH and Warp.
Perpetual Engines: Next generation engines that use Perpetunite reactors to generate thrust, these Engines would allow for far quicker and efficient traversal in system, permitting more involved research as your ships would be able to quickly return for re-supply and cover more ground quicker, as well as letting your ships change course in a crisis with more efficiency. 0/20, increases the Scan Level of worlds you visit by an additional +1, allows for quicker course corrections in combat and crisis by ships, cost 1 Nuclear Material
Q-Band Compression: A novel form of quantum technology that should allow for more efficient transfer of data and higher levels of compression, freeing up network and reducing overall latency over long distances, something that would be useful both in the civilian sector and for managing the Fleet's communication. Recently a major project of the Church of the Calculator, who believed that more advanced quantum computing might be the crux required to communicate with their gods. 3/25, +1 Network, +CUL, unlock Q-Band Compression. If completed majority automatically, gain no Network.
The Teeth: A number of military scientists believed that by using GodTek and recent advances in NukeTek they could create a hyperadvanced, long range fusion cannon capable of causing significant damage. An intriguing idea, and it would give at least one of your fleets some actual teeth. 0/15, can upgrade a single fleet with the Teeth, a powerful medium range relic grade heavy fusion cannon that will automatically upgrade to incorporate newly developed technology. Will automatically upgrade to a long range when Extremely Advanced Nuke-Tek is completed. Costs 1 Artefact.
Revelation Class Scanner: Another proposed use of GodTek would be reverse engineering its sensory components to try and improve existing scanner technology. Eager young scientists believe that they should be able to potentially double if not triple the effective range, allowing your Deep Space Monitoring facilities to detect potential threats earlier AND allowing your ships to scan vast swathes of space quickly, effectively revolutionizing your ability to explore. 0/20, cost 1 Artefact, unlocks Revelation Class Scanner component, improving the effects of Deep Space Monitoring and upgrading your ship scanners to grant adjacent planets to the one visited +1 Scan Level. If taken with Perpetunite Engines, reach next Scan Tier (System).
Repair Protocol: Living metal is definitely a form of smart matter. If a way could be discovered to control it's growth, you could upgrade your blocks from merely regenerating to replicating if fed with sufficient energy. In essence, bloks that can create more bloks, allowing for your machinery to literally heal from injuries. 0/20, unlock Crude Repair Protocol, giving your machinery the ability to regenerate from light damage. Costs one living metal.
Gestalt Protocol: Another route to improving the strength of Machine Spirits, some of your scientists belonging to the Grand Reconfiguration Committee theorized that synthetic souls were just as modular as their form: they believed that there might exist some manner to merge machine spirits in order to radically accelerate their growth, creating Gestalt-Drones. They would no doubt be very, very different from typical Bond-Drones, however. Recently, the Assembly had begun to pursue experiments in this vein as a potential alternative method to grow their Avatars. 1/15, develop Gestalt-Drones, advanced automata created from a multitude of fused together synthetic souls instead of singular awoken machine spirits. If completed automatically, lose 1 Nuclear Material.
Academy Fleet Compartment High Energy Lab: A proposed improvement to the Academy Compartments was giving them their own High Energy Labs and self-contained power systems: this would allow them to further meet the fleets technical needs as well as provide, in all likelyhood, a great deal of surplus power for your ships to use. 0/20, Academy Fleet Compartment upgraded with High Energy Lab, increasing available power and efficiency of all advanced subsystems. Costs 1 Nuclear Material.
Academy Fleet Network Lab: Another idea would be adding additional information technology in the form of expanded computer labs and data hubs. This would reduce ship-to-Teklia latency, provide additional processing power for things like targetting and navigation, and in a pinch could probably be used to upgrade the Comm-Jammers. 0/20, Academy Fleet Compartment upgraded with Network Lab, improving efficiency of all E-War and computer systems.
Quartzbug Anatomy: A number of xenobiologists were deeply interested in the semi-silica based lifeforms found in the precursor temples. They wanted to perform an in-depth study of the creatures and their physiology. 0/20, grants 1 Biodata, a CUL resource used to domesticate, alter, and utilize alien organisms. Permits additional Quartzbug projects.
Temple Expedition: It would take a military escort, a great many BlockBots, and probably heavy artillery, but the Fleet believe that it should be possible to push past the Quartzbugs and do an in-depth exploration of the Quartz Temple and unravel its secrets. 0/15, grants information
HoloShield Tek: A proposed upgrade to the shields was developing experimental supplementary hard light generators that could be used as a upgrade component for ShieldBloks to allow for a degree of shielding against kinetic threats. These HoloShields would draw a bit more power and provide fairly limited protection, but it would still be an impressive improvement to your defensive arsenal. 0/15, ShieldTek upgraded with HoloShields, providing weak kinetic resistance to Shield technology.
TurretBots: A proposed way to improve turrets was by merging them with BlokBots: provide a rudimentary synthetic intelligence to make tactical decisions and coordinate with peer platforms, a mag-lev system to allow them to reposition themselves, and a network hookup to tell them where to recharge from and what places need reinforcements, and you could greatly increase the fluidity of your static defences. 0/15, develop TurretBots, improving static defenses.
ShieldTek Minaturization: The smallest ShieldTek was still a fairly large implement, something you'd mount on a cargo-hauler in the back of a workshop. Perhaps it was time to go through another round of miniaturization and develop ShieldTek small enough to be mounted on medium and Mammoth-Class BlokBots. 0/20, more vehicles and machines gain access to ShieldTek, which becomes easier to use.
Living Metal Rounds: The Booug and Quartzbugs both had proven infuriatingly resistant to conventional laser blasters, the former more than the latter. The Booug were ridiculously hardy and required sustained blasterfire, fusion weaponry which for obvious reasons wasn't feasible on a ship, or extreme amounts of kinetic force. Quartzbugs meanwhile diffused the heat of the laser across their body with annoying efficiency. A proposal had been made for alternate infantry weapons to use living metal as a form of regenerating ammunition and MagTek to accelerate these regenerating rounds at extremely high speeds. In essence, you'd be bringing back the ballistic weapon, redesigned for a new age. 0/20, costs 1 Living Metal, develops Ferroblaster Technology, next generation magnetic weaponry with regenerating ammunition designed for infantry use.
Warp-Space Topography: As the Directorate grew, it would likely continue to explore, necessitating more travel through Warp-Space. This would require more accurate ability to navigate: so far, your people had managed to chart out a few crude routes through sheer accident, but this wouldn't suffice past a certain point. More refined methods to navigate Warp-Space was required: a common idea that had been suggested had been creating a special warp-space navigation computer. 0/20, gain Nav-Computers, increasing accuracy of warp jumps.
Next-Gen Armor: Your ships were, to put it gently, fairly fragile. By using Living Metal, a form of ArmorBlok could be developed meant to absorb impacts and shield more vital systems block from harm, making your ships all the more tough and providing a second layer of protection alongside their shield systems. 0/10, costs 1 Living Metal, Ships gain better armor.
HyperTek Nexus: The solution to the network problems of the Directorate wasn't piecemeal improvements to network infrastructure. Instead, some had proffered using probably obscene amounts of GodTek, a few super-reactors to power the whole thing, and of course as many A Chips as could be printed to create a sort of ultimate DataHub the size of an ArcoloCube in order to allow for totally lagless communication throughout the system and provide absurdly vast amounts of computational power. 0/50, costs 3 Artefacts, 1 Nuclear Material, creates HyperTek Nexus, providing 10 Network and 10 CUL.
HyperTek Forge: The solution to the power generation problems of the Directorate weren't piecemeal improvements to power generation infrastructure: instead, some had proferred using an obscene amount of GodTek, extensive network technology to help manage operations, and of course as much Perpetunite as could be shipped in to create a sort of ultimate reactor the size of an ArcoloCube to generate enough energy to meet needs in the Directorate for...Well, generations. 0/50, costs 3 Artefacts, 1 Network, creates HyperTek Forge, providing 10 Nuclear Material and 10 EXP.
Improved MagTek Repair Protocol: A more sophisticated version of the MagTek Repair Protocol, this update to the firmware would allow for simple machines and systems to repair themselves. You wouldn't be able to repair a reactor without an engineer, but it could at least hook back up to the wiring systems and recreate lighting. 0/20, MagTek Reassembly Protocol upgraded to lightly repair systems damage in buildings and fortifications.
DataShrines: A proposal by some Academy aligned Mysteks was the installation of Shrines in DataHubs intended to be dedicated to the Spirits of Software: after all, was not every program in many ways lesser spirits? They theorized that this would prove an effective way to augment and improve network complexity and optimization should it work as intended. 0/15, generate considerable ACD, cost 1 Network.
Arbor Minds: Tree nervous systems were decidedly non-complex. Plants in general were fairly simple organisms, intellectually. This was in all likelyhood one of the larger barriers to their spiritual growth: after all, it was a known fact that the soul could only grow at an acceptable speed when provided sufficient processing power. However, their nervous system being so simple meant that, in theory, it wouldn't be hard to design a method to allow your computers to interface with them, providing the tree increased intelligence. 0/15, increases CUL, cost 1 Network
MagTek Blasters: While magnetic weaponry wasn't unheard of, MagPulse Blasters were mostly a novelty: instead of firing any actual round, they functioned by firing a beam of magnetically generated kinetic energy capable of knocking machines into constituent bloks. Wonderpark had done a great deal to optimize the design, however, and some in the fleet believed with some improvements, they could be fielded as anti-vehicle weaponry by your infantry and mechanized forces. 0/15, develop MagTek Blasters, specialized Kineto-Magnetic weapons.
ShipTek Reassembly Protocol: This would probably not stop the Booug, but it would slow them down and allow for your ships to repair most of the damage they could cause, though only for short jumps. And once the Booug were handled, it would certainly prove useful in combat and crisis situations by ruggedizing your ships a bit. 0/40, MagTek Reassembly Protocol modified to work on ships.
ZwergBot Disassembly Protocol: A proposed subsystem that would allow for BlokBots to continue operation even after being blown apart via configuring themselves into lesser classes. This would be very, very useful for your security bots, as it would mean they would have to be very thoroughly dismantled to stop them. 0/15, Security Bots will automatically when dismantled reform into smaller classes of BlokBot.
Animatron Class BlokBots: A proposed model of BlokBot with higher intelligence and slightly more robust engineering than the average Golem, designed more for the purposes of entertainment and socialization, Animatrons had been proposed by Wonderpark as a way to artificially expand their workforce. 3/15, unlock Animatron Bots, generating CUL.
Totem Eco-Scanners: The Academy loved nature as much as the next person. That was why THEIR proposal for improving the totem network was upgrading the scanners to better allow for collection of data and allowing for more precise intervention by druids, park rangers, and other specialists when necessary. After all, sometimes mundane optimizations were the best optimizations. 0/15, Totems upgraded with Eco-Scanners, increasing CUL. Cost 1 Network.
Totem-Net: Alternatively, the Totems could be provided improved server software to allow for a variety of useful, if mundane, programs such as ecology simulators to be ran on them and allowing limited inter-totem communication. In essence, Wyld-Shrines would gain their own complex network to allow their users more functionality. 0/15, Totems upgraded to utilize Totem-Net, increasing ACD. Cost 1 Network.
TotemTek Peripherals: Heat management, soil enrichment, atmosphere filtering, there are a variety of mundane upgrades that could be installed on Totems to improve functionality. They would require at least some Perpetunite to improve the power generation, but these peripherals could allow regions to be more efficiently managed. 0/15, Totems upgraded with TotemTek Peripherals, increasing CUL. Cost 1 Nuclear Material.
Totem Power Grid: Right now, most Totems operated on individual Perpetunite reactors. However, the Academy believed that by actually developing a power grid for the Totem Network, Directorate Rangers would be able to vastly increase Totem Coverage. An entirely mundane improvement, but one no less important than the development of urban power grids. 0/15, Totems upgraded with Totem Power Grid, increasing EXP. Cost 1 Nuclear Material.
Orkoid Xenobiology: The species you had found was deeply fascinating and many wanted to study it further. While direct contact wasn't allowed, dissection of ethically acquired corpses would be, allowing you a great deal of insight into how the species functioned. It would require the help of a Warp-capable ship in order to acquire specimens, however. 0/15, unlocks Orkoid Physiology, giving you insight to the greenskin biological makeup. Requires an Endeavor Class to construct a Xenoobservation outpost.
Orkoid Culture: Many Xenoanthropologists wanted to study the culture of the natives of Green Giant. While the Prime Directive meant that they couldn't contact them, it would at least allow the Directorate to understand the civilization better, meaning that should they make their way to the stars, conducting diplomacy with them should be less fraught with misunderstandings. 0/10, unlocks Orkoid Kultural Studies, providing a slight bonus to diplomacy and tactics with and against Orkoid factions. Requires an Endeavor Class to construct a Xenoobservation Outpost.
WyldRanger Zoological Research Rovers: The biosphere of Teklia was constantly evolving, especially after the advent of Wyld-Tek. The WyldRangers, the secular branch of Teklia's nature enthusiasts, wanted to establish specialized research rovers meant to serve as mobile, eco-friendly field research labs and dwellings for the Rangers to help them document and research native Teklian biology, ones uplinked to the Teklian planetary network to allow for efficient coordination of research and conservation efforts. 0/15, establishes WyldRangers, an ACD and Biodata generating society.
Warp-Drive Refinement: Of course, others instead wanted to focus on efficiency by developing more sophisticated Warp-Drive manufacturing techniques, allowing for faster speeds and thus exploration of space. This would be a considerable undertaking, but it would pay dividends. 0/20, gain Basic Warp-Drive, increasing ship speed and ability to respond to crisis. Cost 1 Warp.
Extremely Advanced NukeTek: Perpetunite weaponry was dangerous, but it could be so much worse with the application of advanced particle technology to further increase the damage caused: longer range on fusion cannons to create fusion lances, more explosive torpedos, fusion rockets powerful enough to be called pocket nukes. There was no such thing as overkill. 0/20, Unlocks Advanced NukeTek. Allows for the creation of medium-range, re-useable shipscale weaponry in the form of Fusion Lances and further improvement to all existing NukeTek weaponry.
HoloTek: With technology becoming more and more sophisticated, a number of optical researchers had proposed funding more research into their field of study to create advanced HoloBriks that could be used in conjunction with Mind Machine interfaces to create sophisticated 3D simulator pods. 0/25, unlocks Crude HoloDeck Technology, increasing CUL.
NukeTek Ultra Miniaturization: It would perhaps be considered gross overkill to develop infantry-scale weaponry utilizing Perpetunite Reactors. However, much like your schools, your military didn't know the meaning of overkill: Fusion Shotguns, Fusion Blasters, Fusion Micro-Rockets, and Fusion Grenades. A lot of efficiency would be lost at the sizes you were aiming for, but it'd be a great way to give your forces some real teeth. 0/15, heavy infantry benefits from PowerBlok technology, costs 2 Nuclear Material
Megaflora Serum: A product of the Court of Hunger, the Megaflora Serum rapidly accelerated plant growth, producing in hours what might normally take weeks to grow, at three times the size. They were willing to share, but first, they wanted to perfect the serum, as currently it had the flaw of rendering what it grew completely inedible to Tekket. 3/10, perfect Megaflora Serum, increasing EXP and Warp by 1.
MegaSiphon: A theoretical design produced by the Sphere, the MegaSiphon would absorb from Teklia constant amounts of lifeforce from across the planet: every living thing providing small amounts to in total enable the useage of massive quantities of vital energy for assorted projects. Apparently, the Sphere's price for the MegaSiphon schematics was that every twenty years it gets to gorge itself on a planets worth of collected vital energy: apparently it couldn't feed on the lifeforce offered by its cult because it was too meager to provide a meal without damaging them. 0/20, increases FTH and Warp.
Perpetual Engines: Next generation engines that use Perpetunite reactors to generate thrust, these Engines would allow for far quicker and efficient traversal in system, permitting more involved research as your ships would be able to quickly return for re-supply and cover more ground quicker, as well as letting your ships change course in a crisis with more efficiency. 0/20, increases the Scan Level of worlds you visit by an additional +1, allows for quicker course corrections in combat and crisis by ships, cost 1 Nuclear Material
Q-Band Compression: A novel form of quantum technology that should allow for more efficient transfer of data and higher levels of compression, freeing up network and reducing overall latency over long distances, something that would be useful both in the civilian sector and for managing the Fleet's communication. Recently a major project of the Church of the Calculator, who believed that more advanced quantum computing might be the crux required to communicate with their gods. 3/25, +1 Network, +CUL, unlock Q-Band Compression. If completed majority automatically, gain no Network.
The Teeth: A number of military scientists believed that by using GodTek and recent advances in NukeTek they could create a hyperadvanced, long range fusion cannon capable of causing significant damage. An intriguing idea, and it would give at least one of your fleets some actual teeth. 0/15, can upgrade a single fleet with the Teeth, a powerful medium range relic grade heavy fusion cannon that will automatically upgrade to incorporate newly developed technology. Will automatically upgrade to a long range when Extremely Advanced Nuke-Tek is completed. Costs 1 Artefact.
Revelation Class Scanner: Another proposed use of GodTek would be reverse engineering its sensory components to try and improve existing scanner technology. Eager young scientists believe that they should be able to potentially double if not triple the effective range, allowing your Deep Space Monitoring facilities to detect potential threats earlier AND allowing your ships to scan vast swathes of space quickly, effectively revolutionizing your ability to explore. 0/20, cost 1 Artefact, unlocks Revelation Class Scanner component, improving the effects of Deep Space Monitoring and upgrading your ship scanners to grant adjacent planets to the one visited +1 Scan Level. If taken with Perpetunite Engines, reach next Scan Tier (System).
Repair Protocol: Living metal is definitely a form of smart matter. If a way could be discovered to control it's growth, you could upgrade your blocks from merely regenerating to replicating if fed with sufficient energy. In essence, bloks that can create more bloks, allowing for your machinery to literally heal from injuries. 0/20, unlock Crude Repair Protocol, giving your machinery the ability to regenerate from light damage. Costs one living metal.
Gestalt Protocol: Another route to improving the strength of Machine Spirits, some of your scientists belonging to the Grand Reconfiguration Committee theorized that synthetic souls were just as modular as their form: they believed that there might exist some manner to merge machine spirits in order to radically accelerate their growth, creating Gestalt-Drones. They would no doubt be very, very different from typical Bond-Drones, however. Recently, the Assembly had begun to pursue experiments in this vein as a potential alternative method to grow their Avatars. 1/15, develop Gestalt-Drones, advanced automata created from a multitude of fused together synthetic souls instead of singular awoken machine spirits. If completed automatically, lose 1 Nuclear Material.
Academy Fleet Compartment High Energy Lab: A proposed improvement to the Academy Compartments was giving them their own High Energy Labs and self-contained power systems: this would allow them to further meet the fleets technical needs as well as provide, in all likelyhood, a great deal of surplus power for your ships to use. 0/20, Academy Fleet Compartment upgraded with High Energy Lab, increasing available power and efficiency of all advanced subsystems. Costs 1 Nuclear Material.
Academy Fleet Network Lab: Another idea would be adding additional information technology in the form of expanded computer labs and data hubs. This would reduce ship-to-Teklia latency, provide additional processing power for things like targetting and navigation, and in a pinch could probably be used to upgrade the Comm-Jammers. 0/20, Academy Fleet Compartment upgraded with Network Lab, improving efficiency of all E-War and computer systems.
Quartzbug Anatomy: A number of xenobiologists were deeply interested in the semi-silica based lifeforms found in the precursor temples. They wanted to perform an in-depth study of the creatures and their physiology. 0/20, grants 1 Biodata, a CUL resource used to domesticate, alter, and utilize alien organisms. Permits additional Quartzbug projects.
Temple Expedition: It would take a military escort, a great many BlockBots, and probably heavy artillery, but the Fleet believe that it should be possible to push past the Quartzbugs and do an in-depth exploration of the Quartz Temple and unravel its secrets. 0/15, grants information
HoloShield Tek: A proposed upgrade to the shields was developing experimental supplementary hard light generators that could be used as a upgrade component for ShieldBloks to allow for a degree of shielding against kinetic threats. These HoloShields would draw a bit more power and provide fairly limited protection, but it would still be an impressive improvement to your defensive arsenal. 0/15, ShieldTek upgraded with HoloShields, providing weak kinetic resistance to Shield technology.
TurretBots: A proposed way to improve turrets was by merging them with BlokBots: provide a rudimentary synthetic intelligence to make tactical decisions and coordinate with peer platforms, a mag-lev system to allow them to reposition themselves, and a network hookup to tell them where to recharge from and what places need reinforcements, and you could greatly increase the fluidity of your static defences. 0/15, develop TurretBots, improving static defenses.
ShieldTek Minaturization: The smallest ShieldTek was still a fairly large implement, something you'd mount on a cargo-hauler in the back of a workshop. Perhaps it was time to go through another round of miniaturization and develop ShieldTek small enough to be mounted on medium and Mammoth-Class BlokBots. 0/20, more vehicles and machines gain access to ShieldTek, which becomes easier to use.
Living Metal Rounds: The Booug and Quartzbugs both had proven infuriatingly resistant to conventional laser blasters, the former more than the latter. The Booug were ridiculously hardy and required sustained blasterfire, fusion weaponry which for obvious reasons wasn't feasible on a ship, or extreme amounts of kinetic force. Quartzbugs meanwhile diffused the heat of the laser across their body with annoying efficiency. A proposal had been made for alternate infantry weapons to use living metal as a form of regenerating ammunition and MagTek to accelerate these regenerating rounds at extremely high speeds. In essence, you'd be bringing back the ballistic weapon, redesigned for a new age. 0/20, costs 1 Living Metal, develops Ferroblaster Technology, next generation magnetic weaponry with regenerating ammunition designed for infantry use.
Warp-Space Topography: As the Directorate grew, it would likely continue to explore, necessitating more travel through Warp-Space. This would require more accurate ability to navigate: so far, your people had managed to chart out a few crude routes through sheer accident, but this wouldn't suffice past a certain point. More refined methods to navigate Warp-Space was required: a common idea that had been suggested had been creating a special warp-space navigation computer. 0/20, gain Nav-Computers, increasing accuracy of warp jumps.
Next-Gen Armor: Your ships were, to put it gently, fairly fragile. By using Living Metal, a form of ArmorBlok could be developed meant to absorb impacts and shield more vital systems block from harm, making your ships all the more tough and providing a second layer of protection alongside their shield systems. 0/10, costs 1 Living Metal, Ships gain better armor.
HyperTek Nexus: The solution to the network problems of the Directorate wasn't piecemeal improvements to network infrastructure. Instead, some had proffered using probably obscene amounts of GodTek, a few super-reactors to power the whole thing, and of course as many A Chips as could be printed to create a sort of ultimate DataHub the size of an ArcoloCube in order to allow for totally lagless communication throughout the system and provide absurdly vast amounts of computational power. 0/50, costs 3 Artefacts, 1 Nuclear Material, creates HyperTek Nexus, providing 10 Network and 10 CUL.
HyperTek Forge: The solution to the power generation problems of the Directorate weren't piecemeal improvements to power generation infrastructure: instead, some had proferred using an obscene amount of GodTek, extensive network technology to help manage operations, and of course as much Perpetunite as could be shipped in to create a sort of ultimate reactor the size of an ArcoloCube to generate enough energy to meet needs in the Directorate for...Well, generations. 0/50, costs 3 Artefacts, 1 Network, creates HyperTek Forge, providing 10 Nuclear Material and 10 EXP.
Improved MagTek Repair Protocol: A more sophisticated version of the MagTek Repair Protocol, this update to the firmware would allow for simple machines and systems to repair themselves. You wouldn't be able to repair a reactor without an engineer, but it could at least hook back up to the wiring systems and recreate lighting. 0/20, MagTek Reassembly Protocol upgraded to lightly repair systems damage in buildings and fortifications.
DataShrines: A proposal by some Academy aligned Mysteks was the installation of Shrines in DataHubs intended to be dedicated to the Spirits of Software: after all, was not every program in many ways lesser spirits? They theorized that this would prove an effective way to augment and improve network complexity and optimization should it work as intended. 0/15, generate considerable ACD, cost 1 Network.
Arbor Minds: Tree nervous systems were decidedly non-complex. Plants in general were fairly simple organisms, intellectually. This was in all likelyhood one of the larger barriers to their spiritual growth: after all, it was a known fact that the soul could only grow at an acceptable speed when provided sufficient processing power. However, their nervous system being so simple meant that, in theory, it wouldn't be hard to design a method to allow your computers to interface with them, providing the tree increased intelligence. 0/15, increases CUL, cost 1 Network
MagTek Blasters: While magnetic weaponry wasn't unheard of, MagPulse Blasters were mostly a novelty: instead of firing any actual round, they functioned by firing a beam of magnetically generated kinetic energy capable of knocking machines into constituent bloks. Wonderpark had done a great deal to optimize the design, however, and some in the fleet believed with some improvements, they could be fielded as anti-vehicle weaponry by your infantry and mechanized forces. 0/15, develop MagTek Blasters, specialized Kineto-Magnetic weapons.
ShipTek Reassembly Protocol: This would probably not stop the Booug, but it would slow them down and allow for your ships to repair most of the damage they could cause, though only for short jumps. And once the Booug were handled, it would certainly prove useful in combat and crisis situations by ruggedizing your ships a bit. 0/40, MagTek Reassembly Protocol modified to work on ships.
ZwergBot Disassembly Protocol: A proposed subsystem that would allow for BlokBots to continue operation even after being blown apart via configuring themselves into lesser classes. This would be very, very useful for your security bots, as it would mean they would have to be very thoroughly dismantled to stop them. 0/15, Security Bots will automatically when dismantled reform into smaller classes of BlokBot.
Animatron Class BlokBots: A proposed model of BlokBot with higher intelligence and slightly more robust engineering than the average Golem, designed more for the purposes of entertainment and socialization, Animatrons had been proposed by Wonderpark as a way to artificially expand their workforce. 3/15, unlock Animatron Bots, generating CUL.
Totem Eco-Scanners: The Academy loved nature as much as the next person. That was why THEIR proposal for improving the totem network was upgrading the scanners to better allow for collection of data and allowing for more precise intervention by druids, park rangers, and other specialists when necessary. After all, sometimes mundane optimizations were the best optimizations. 0/15, Totems upgraded with Eco-Scanners, increasing CUL. Cost 1 Network.
Totem-Net: Alternatively, the Totems could be provided improved server software to allow for a variety of useful, if mundane, programs such as ecology simulators to be ran on them and allowing limited inter-totem communication. In essence, Wyld-Shrines would gain their own complex network to allow their users more functionality. 0/15, Totems upgraded to utilize Totem-Net, increasing ACD. Cost 1 Network.
TotemTek Peripherals: Heat management, soil enrichment, atmosphere filtering, there are a variety of mundane upgrades that could be installed on Totems to improve functionality. They would require at least some Perpetunite to improve the power generation, but these peripherals could allow regions to be more efficiently managed. 0/15, Totems upgraded with TotemTek Peripherals, increasing CUL. Cost 1 Nuclear Material.
Totem Power Grid: Right now, most Totems operated on individual Perpetunite reactors. However, the Academy believed that by actually developing a power grid for the Totem Network, Directorate Rangers would be able to vastly increase Totem Coverage. An entirely mundane improvement, but one no less important than the development of urban power grids. 0/15, Totems upgraded with Totem Power Grid, increasing EXP. Cost 1 Nuclear Material.
Orkoid Xenobiology: The species you had found was deeply fascinating and many wanted to study it further. While direct contact wasn't allowed, dissection of ethically acquired corpses would be, allowing you a great deal of insight into how the species functioned. It would require the help of a Warp-capable ship in order to acquire specimens, however. 0/15, unlocks Orkoid Physiology, giving you insight to the greenskin biological makeup. Requires an Endeavor Class to construct a Xenoobservation outpost.
Orkoid Culture: Many Xenoanthropologists wanted to study the culture of the natives of Green Giant. While the Prime Directive meant that they couldn't contact them, it would at least allow the Directorate to understand the civilization better, meaning that should they make their way to the stars, conducting diplomacy with them should be less fraught with misunderstandings. 0/10, unlocks Orkoid Kultural Studies, providing a slight bonus to diplomacy and tactics with and against Orkoid factions. Requires an Endeavor Class to construct a Xenoobservation Outpost.
WyldRanger Zoological Research Rovers: The biosphere of Teklia was constantly evolving, especially after the advent of Wyld-Tek. The WyldRangers, the secular branch of Teklia's nature enthusiasts, wanted to establish specialized research rovers meant to serve as mobile, eco-friendly field research labs and dwellings for the Rangers to help them document and research native Teklian biology, ones uplinked to the Teklian planetary network to allow for efficient coordination of research and conservation efforts. 0/15, establishes WyldRangers, an ACD and Biodata generating society.
((((()))))
Brain is scrumbled, most of this updates construction I only have hazy memories of, and I'm having troubles typing words right (I just nearly mixed up joke and vote, for instance), but thankfully the update is finished. If you see any math errors lemme know, gonna go unscrumble my neurons so fixing them will have to wait until tommorow., because today has not been great for personal reasons.
Also addded bots because been forgetting to add in past few updates. Two hour moratorium, Stizlaks clan name must be different vote.
