Into that Vast and Unrelenting Darkness (40K Xeno Civilization Quest)
- Thread starter The Bird
- Start date
- Mature Sci-Fi Fantasy
- Location
- barking
at the rate we are going we will be getting blood thristers to be babby sitters.
Remember ka'banda they have to be in bed by 7/s
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- Location
- colombia
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
Funnily enought, that's possible. The Leagues of Votann use 'Ironkin Wayfinders' that number crunch routes through the Warp without needed psychic senses.
I might be wrong, because I dont read the source material and only really quests. But isn't warp travel really inconsistent. Like you could arrive before you left. Or you could arrive hundreds of years afterwards. (I've only ever seen it in 1-2 stories, But its also the only one that I saw that explained it.
And if the above is true, then Using potentially slower but more consistant travel would honestly be better for majority of strategic use.
Warp travel is obscenely fast. You're looking at years of cruising for Alcubierre drives for whats a week's kip over via Immaterium.
It guarantees you lose against factions willing to take the cost of losing their ships to the Warp now and then
jwolfe_beta
Semi Genre-Savvy Overlord
- Location
- Canada
That depends on what sort of Warp jump you're doing. When doing long-range Warp jumps, the Imperials can have.....variable results due to the methods and limited technology they use.
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Turn 7: Flair and Panache
The Bird
tEM IS GUD...RITER!
- Location
- In that den of villains and scum, OKLAHOMA
[X] Plan: EXP Is The Name of The Game
The exploration had started off so well, Toxel thought, rigging at a giant machine behind him even as his team kept the swarms of quartzbugs approaching their position at bay with sustained pulse-blaster fire, set to maximum lethality. It had all started with him swinging the Endeavor around to Luna to do some additional scans: the results had been mostly promising. They had finally managed to figure out the source of the EM anomalies thanks to more advanced sensor-tek that had been developed since the last major exploration of Luna.
Ziggurats. Crystal ziggurats, vast and stepped pyramids carved from pale lunar quartz, buried under millennia of trash and garbage, lacking any form of Tek from the outside or even any signs of toolwork that the ships archeological attache could find: hundreds upon hundreds of perfect cubes arranged into a vast structure, and that was just the outside!
The inside still weren't mappable through conventional means, the EM signatures growing stronger exponentially once you passed the entrance. And so Toxel had ordered a ground team investigate one of the complexes, hoping that they could figure out what inside the temple was causing the anomalies, or at least get more information about the history of the moon and who the hell made this place: carbon dating put it pretty damn close to the same age as the Tacchis ruins, meaning there was non-zero odds the complexed were Destroyer facilities, though the architectural differences made that unlikely. .
At first, things had been going okay: his team had managed to establish a basecamp near the entrance and begun exploring using a MagTruck for transportation: documenting the iconography and such as they delved deeper and attempted to create a map of the immediate surroundings, the remnants of whoever once ruled this place hanging around and above them, enameled hieroglyphs serving as a record of whoever or whatever had once ruled this place. Most of it consisted of blocky glyphs etched into tiles placed on the walls in an unknown language that seemed to consist of thick, rigid lines and hard right angles. Above them, dancing across the ceiling, were murals of silhouettesque creatures, enameled a dark pitch black, almost shapeless dancing shadows against the paleness of the lunar stone with gems that almost glowed in the gleam of the survey teams lights.
At some point, Toxel and his team had passed some unknown threshold, and the passage back had suddenly closed, a stone wall coming down and preventing them from retreating. He had immediately tried reconfiguring the teams communication equipment and the truck to send out a distress signal, and while it had managed to get through briefly enough for the Endeavor to have a rescue team en route, it had turned out that the temple wasn't as empty as hoped. Out of hidden holes in the ceiling began swarming hundreds of large, minifridge sized eyeless arthropods with a single, armored pod shaped body, chitin being replaced by pale lunar stone, each of the four legs of the creature resembling pieces of jagged crystal, and mouths that consisted of hungry, silently screaming beaks containing a throat ringed by jagged gleaming crystal spines.
Toxel was referring to them mentally in his head as quartzbugs. And they were probably going to kill Toxel and his team before the rescue team got here, at least if they didn't let up: for whatever reasons the things lacked any sense of self-preservation, considering how many of them his team were blowing up, the security BlokBots standing between slowly getting overwhelmed by the the bugs, who would bring the automata to the floor under sheer weight of numbers.
They needed a way to drive off a lot of hostile wildlife at once using only a few trucks worth of supplies. Luckily, that was all Toxel needed: a couple of PowerBloks, some MagLev Generators, some Particle Scanners, and the power regulators from some ShieldBloks, and he had all the tools he needed to save the day.
"Captain, they've breached the first perimeter!" Security Officer Hakk said, his voice coming in through the radio of Toxels EV suit.
"I just need five more minutes!" Toxel yelled, keeping his hands steady as he rapidly slotted in a series of small, thumb sized bricks into the control panel of the machine, the bricks lighting up to signal that a circuit had been formed even as Toxel began plugging in Calculator Q-Bloks into an array next to the circuit. "Keep them back five minutes!"
He didn't have time to hesitate or turn his head, and the silence of the void meant that he couldn't even hear how the battle was going behind him unless they kept him fed updates: if the battle was lost before he finished his work, his only warning would wind up being when one of those things tackled him. Good incentive to hurry, Toxel thought, immediately moving to pick up a large, boxy Particle Drive, lifting it to the top of the machine and plugging it in with a clunk.
"Second perimeter breached! We're running out of time, Captain! We only have the wall-line now!" Hakk cried, stress in his voice as Toxel moved to the side, plugging in a a series of thick cables and quickly, holding the other end, dashing to a row of large turbine shaped device, plugging in the other end into one, powering it up and causing its diagnostic lights to flick on even as, at each of the four corners of the turbines base he plugged in a series of MagLev stabilizer blocks. Quickly, with no wasted motion or energy, Toxel repeated the process, plugging each and every cable into a turbine and outfitting them with stabilizers.
"I'm done! Everyone, behind the turbines, quick!" Toxel said, scurrying as fast as he could to the control panel, turning to watch his subordinates literally run for their lives, only Hakk and his security team making a measured and slow firing retreat so as to cover the non-combatants. Gritting his teeth, Toxel waited for the right moment as the bugs got closer, closer, closer...
The moment the last of his people were moved, he flipped the switch, and the machine lit up, the turbines connected to it shaking and straining against the stabilizers, barely staying hooked to the ground. The quartzbugs weren't so lucky: at first their momentum slowed down as they struggled to move. Then?
Then they began to fall horizontally down the tunnel shaft, every single one, as if the long passage had been flipped on its side and turned into a bottomless hole. From the bugs perspective, Toxel mused, it technically had. A few minutes later, he heard a crunchy impacting noise: presumably the quartzbugs hitting a wall at terminal speed: good thing too, Toxel mused, turning off the switch. Those stabilizers probably would have failed after too much longer. Sure, a few trucks might have been all you needed to make a gravity inverter, but there was a vast realm of difference between a gravity inverter and a GOOD gravity inverter.
Luna further explored! Located Quartz Temple, which seems to be a nesting ground for Quartzbugs, a species of aggressive lunar arthropod.
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, flat disc connected via finned spine to two large nacelles. The majority of the crew and work decks are housed in the disc structure, alongside most civilian installations, wheras the Nacelles each contain sub-engineering decks, redundant systems, and storage. Lightly armed with only fusion torpedos and comm-jammers, the Endeavor is not intended to win a stand up fight: it's purpose is purely exploratory.
[-] Survey Luna: Luna was already fully surveyed. SCAN LEVEL: MAX
[ ] Survey Naklis: The planet closest to the sun, and Teklias closest neighbor. It had two major features: an ocean comprised of churning molten ore, and a handful of mountains and floating landmasses atop said ocean. A number of useful minerals had been discovered in the Molten Sea and geological surveys of the mountain indicated that it had deposits of liquid metal. SCAN LEVEL: 1
[-] 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. COOLDOWN: 1 turns, SCAN LEVEL: 1
[ ] Survey Meeklak: The second largest gas giant, but the one with the largest ring, Meeklak was too far for casual probe use, meaning it and its ring were largely unsurveyed.
[ ] 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 seem to be able to grow several miles in diameter. It also had extremely extensive sources of potential geothermal power. SCAN LEVEL: 1.
[ ] Spraa'ng: The furthest planet in your solar system, very little is known about Spraa'ng due to its absurd distance. You're unlikely to find anything interesting before requiring a return trip, but it would certainly be a good way to test your engines.
[ ] 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.
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Elsewhere, the cities of Teklia began an ambitious venture: the construction of the first seven BlokTek Arcolocubes, vast self-contained hypermodular cities, designed to resemble gargantuan sized, brightly colored cubes hued red, blue, green, or whatever shade the cities residents preferred most, hyper efficient and optimized, with zero wasted space, all designed to create a truly self-sufficient and self-contained society and preserve Teklian nature. What wasn't used for industry, housing, agriculture, or other vital infrastructure was used for recreation, the entirety of the structures divided into assorted cubic, three dimensional districts known as CityBloks, with a variety of metros, trams, elevators and Mag-Lev shuttle-tunnels to serve as public and personal transportation.
On the top layer, the roof of the arcology, the open space was used for parks, forests, educational facilities, and even farming, lending a sort of pastoral and rural atmosphere to the region, known collectively as Top Zones. And dangling off the sides of the BlokTek Arcolocubes were all manner of smaller communities, self contained, open air hanging villages connected to the walls of the arcology by MagTek binding fields.
It was a new era of urban planning: no more sprawl, no more encroaching on wilderness: even if their population suffered a never ending boom in growth and ceased exploring the stars, it would take hundreds of thousands of years to reach full capacity on Teklia, according to most projections.
Available Planets and Special Infrastructure:
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 century had seen incredibly vast amounts of garbage cleared away, however, and a revitalization of the Teklian biosphere 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.
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 small research colony, a little more than a thousand people.
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.
EXPansion Points (EXP Points): 24
Nuclear Material: 4
Construct Endeavor Class Ship: It was time to begin assembling the second Endeavor. Much like the first, 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.
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, starting with major population centers. 0/10, costs 1 Nuclear Material, construct Orbital Defense Satellites. Repeatable.
Orbital CityBloks: A number of people wanted the Orbital Shipyard expanded with habitation bloks that could serve as civilian living quarters, effectively creating a sort of city-station to serve as a midpoint between Luna and Teklia: it wasn't like there wasn't demand, and it would certainly allow for an alternative to the arcologies. 0/15, generates EXP.
Asteroid Harvesting Facilities: You still had a century or so before Teklia was depleted of salvage and easily accessible nuclear resources, but it was never too early to begin preparing for the eventuality. With that in mind, some of your industrial technicians had proposed creating the beginnings of asteroid harvesting operations by creating a series of specialized shuttle to gather and process space junk into useable materials. 0/20, generates EXP, grants 1 Nuclear Material.
Living Metal Farming: A number of people on the Moon had taken to starting 'living metal' gardens, growing the smart-matter in lieu of plants. After all, Living Metal didn't require atmosphere or even water: just energy, and could be used to construct all sorts of Bloks. Some lunar colonists had proposed using some of the freshly cleared land to set up facilities expressly for the purpose of metal farming, which would help expand the production of the substance and provide a nice surplus of the material. 0/20, grants 1 Living Metal
Perpetunite Production Facility: It would require dipping into your Living Metal stocks, but a fairly popular ballot was to create expanded Perpetunite manufacturing facilities on the Moon in order to meet expanding demands for nuclear materials in Directorate space: because of its position, there were little concerns about radiation like there would be for planet-side facilities. 0/20, grants 5 Nuclear Material, costs 1 Living Metal.
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. 0/20, costs 1 Nuclear Material. When constructed, select a world with at least one Scan Level: create a small settlement on that world.
Perpetunite Nuclear Stockpiles: It was a very distasteful idea: nuclear weapons were ultimately a remnant of a darker, more divided age. Further, Perpetunite nuclear weapons are even worse: while eventually the Perpetunite exhausts itself, this can last for over twenty minutes. A twenty minute long nuclear explosion. Yet it may be the only thing that even dents the paint on your foes warhachine. 0/1, Grants Perpetunite Nuclear Weapon Stockpile. Can be taken multiple times. Can be used as Shipscale Weaponry in the form of 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.
Lunar Spire: A proposed expansion to Luna Base, the Lunar Spire is a massive transport hub intended to allow for expanded transport of goods and people to the Lunar Surface. It wouldn't make the place any more self-sufficient, but it would mean it would be easier to ship in material to make it self-sufficient. 6/10, generates EXP, establishes Lunar Spire.
Lunar Monasteries: A number of monks and holy men wanted to establish pan-religious monasteries on the Moon, believing that the Overview Effect and lunar silence would be conducive towards theological research and meditation. There existed a few good sites, mostly in the Lunar Craters. 0/10, Construct Lunar Monasteries, generating FTH.
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 AutoRecycler: There existed more than enough material on the moon to fuel several AutoRecyclers, but for now, only one was needed to fully meet the colonies native need for industrial capacity: the rest could be put towards expanding the Directorate industrial capacity. 0/10, Construct Lunar AutoRecyclers, generating EXP, generates one Nuclear Material.
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 increase processing power to allow for further data expansion, and the best part was, it could all be made groundside! 0/10, generates 1 Network.
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At the same time, the TekMausoleums continued to grow, adding vast expansions to their data processing infrastructure and upgrading every CryoCrypt module with their own built in storage mediums. The purpose? A vast, vast repository of brain scans, taken by Tekket believing that by storing a complex copy of their neural structure, they would in some way preserve themselves, a philosophy preached by NecroTeks, a brand of mystek taking the name of the ancient occultists of ancient Teklia, who would emerge over the decades consisting of those interested in the cthonic arts and the treatment of the dead.
You could not prevent an ending, but you could at least leave something behind for those who were left, they whispered, feeding the TekCrypts machine spirits on data of the dead and their own lifeforce: the handful that would rise to the level of Bond-Drones were tasked with serving as digital guardians for the dead, keeping their tombs and records in fine order as they were transfered into new bodies, resembling black, rectangular walking coffins on spindle-brick legs. The Bond-Machina, the overseers of the Mausoleum, would be gorged on the information and scans: morose and humorless, these massive and rare Bond-Spirits would serve as librarians and storytellers of sorts, using the fed data to minister to the grieving and those seeking the wisdom of the departed.
Meanwhile, up above, on Luna and in Wonderpark, arenas were erected: Zero-G Tossblock. Lunar Obstacle Races. Rocket races. Gridiron Battleball. Expansive hippodromes where thousands upon thousands of fans watched from the stands cheering as a variety of professional teams and athletes squared off, competing in all manner of games streamed to millions across Tekket space.
Each and every game would be, of course, optimized to cause as minimal long term strain as possible: this wasn't the 3800's, after all, no one was psychotic or callous enough to have athletes participate in severely damaging sports and destroy themselves over their career for entertainment purposes. Safety gear and extensive rules about contact would ensure injuries were rare.
And of course, as interest in the sports of the future increased, so too did general public health and physical fitness as more people adopted sports as a hobby, inspired by the various initiatives meant to drive interest. On Teklia itself, smaller ameteur sports teams would form in the various arcologies, creating small Grav-Suites to practice the art, forming a variety of smaller Inner-Arcolocube teams and leagues.
Culture Points (CUL Points): 12
Orbital Pioneer Initiative: Space was big and had lots of space, something anyone who knew what words meant understood. A ballot had been proposed to take advantage of this and your growing orbital infrastructure: fund the development of shuttle-houses that could be used as 'orbital houseboats' by Tekket wanting to move to space, allowing for decentralized orbital communities to form with minimal investment by the government. 0/15, generates EXP.
Wonderpark Fungineering Guild: A collective of engineers, technicians, and entertainers that either are or previously were studying or working at Wonderpark, the Guild, of which the current captain of the Endeavor was a member of, had requested a glut of materials to expand Wonderpark with expanded engineering workshops to build rides and test out zero-gravity technology both for general use in the Directorate and, of course, in Wonderpark. 0/20, orbital amusement park is upgraded to Wonderpark, a Society that grands CUL and EXP and further improves orbital engineering.
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.
Advanced Therapy Promotion Project: It wasn't enough, some claimed, to merely fight against the diseases of the mind. In order to achieve its best self, society must treat the study and treatment of mental illness as a major science in and of itself. They were proposing a branch of the Academy dedicated to training social workers, therapists, and clinical psychiatrists and psychiatric researchers. 2/10, upgrades Promoted Therapy, increasing mental resilience further, costs 1 Network
VR Simulators: With access to Mind-Machine Interface technology, Virtual Reality technology had taken off for both entertainment and educational purposes. A number of Tekket wanted to go further and develop the first hyperrealistic VR Simulator, turning cyberspace from something that only existed on a screen to something that could be touched and interacted with. 0/10, grants ACD and unlocks SimTek.
Compulsory Secondary Education: It wasn't...strictly needed, since most Tekket pursued secondary education anyways. Still, by making it mandatory and spending resources to expand the Academy, you could effectively ensure 100% of your population was considered skilled. 0/10, grants the Compulsory Secondary Education, increasing ACD Points, costs 1 Network.
Sacred Livestock: Some priests and mysteks had taken to rearing livestock such as Swamp Cattle and Bighorn Lizards specifically for use in rituals: while animal abuse was forbidden, it was not considered illegal to slaughter animals so long as it was done ethically and humanely, though not all Mysteks outright sacrificed their livestock, instead merely using them as reusable sources of lifeforce. Some animal rights groups had proposed proposed promoting the latter practice in order to secure an ethical source of essence and reduce the incentive of raising individual livestock for slaughter by funding the creation of Sacred Herds, large, communally owned livestock held in common by the Mysteks. 0/20, grants Sacred Livestock tradition, increasing EXP and granting 1 Warp
Ritual Livestock: Others instead believed that the Directorates efforts would be better spent meeting lifeforce needs and thus minimizing the amount of cattle that were slaughtered via artificial selection programs to develop breeds of livestock that could quickly generate high amounts of lifeforce. 0/20, grants Ritual Livestock tradition, increasing FTH and granting 1 Warp
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.
Zoological Educational Facilities: A number of animal enthusiasts had proposed expanding the park system to include special open air zoos: attendees would learn about animals and get to view them safely in accurate recreations of their natural habitats via specialized heavy grav-trams and auto-rovers. It could also be used for research and helping promote endangered species. 0/10, grants Open Air Zoos tradition.
Lunar Salvage Cabals: Some Tekket had taken advantage of easier lunar travel to establish archaeological digs to acquire samples of PrecursorTek. A number of Directorate Citizens wanted to formalize this organization in order to streamline the acquisition of material to reverse engineer. 0/10, unlocks Salvage Cabals, a Society that generates ACD and grants one ART.
Frontier Explorer Compartment: A proposed expansion to Directorate Fleets would be a civilian compartment: essentially turning every ship into a mobile city of sorts and allowing for easy establishment of colonies on various worlds visited by the Fleet as well as providing a wealth of civilian expertise for the Fleet. 0/20, Fleet upgraded with Frontier Town compartment, providing a variety of civilian skills and services to ships alongside a steady stream of internal recruits. Requires Orbital Shipyard and a turn in dock to take effect.
Blood for Art: A number of TekArtists had begun sacrificing quantities of their lifeforce to strengthen their art, believing that it enables them to awaken with the spirit of the piece. It does certainly result in more striking pieces, and the machine spirits of TekArt did typically grow faster than other machine spirits. Some Mystek factions wanted to provide these artists with more support, developing tools so that the artists can find easily find volunteers to help them strengthen their TekArt. 0/10, significantly increases CUL, costs 1 Warp
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Elsewhere...
The Pillar of YALDABOATH was off-limits to all: the super-volcano where the God-Machine lived only had but a single area it permitted Tekket, a small courtyard of stone amid the waves of magma, protected by some arcane field the God-Machine had erected. It's purpose to be a place where YALDABOATH could meet with Directorate agents or those who had successfully managed to schedule an audience with the creature.
Ringed on every edge by the strange skeletal warriors, the ring was filled with a slow procession of Tekket in dark silvery robes. The Archonites, the greatest of the Demiurgic Circles dedicated to the Ancient of Days. It had taken many years of lobbying, but they had managed to secure for themselves a meeting with the object of their reverence.
The leader of the circle, Choirmaster Izzhmael, approached the front of the courtyard, overlooking that roiling and violent molten sea, removing his hood to reveal a face obscured by a mask, an effigy in living metal of the skeletal demiurge whose attention he wished to call forth. Reaching to his belt, he drew forth his TekGrimoire, causing it to fly through the air and settle in front of him, hovering as the mechanical tome split open to reveal the holographic projector inside.
And so the chant began. A chant done in old tongues, languages forgotten to time, speeches of circuit and soul, entreating their god for knowledge, promising their loyalty, their faith, their piety. For ten minutes the leader chanted, his followers in tune behind him. Then, at the ten minutes end, silence.
...The courtyard shook, causing the cultists to stumble, as from the sides of the courtyard, from the cauldron of YALDABOATH emerged a pair of silver hands, grasping the courtyard as a titanic and vast being rose, a silvertine being of hard lines and angles, air around them shimmering with plasma heat giving the titanic skeletal creature arising from the depths of the volcano a fiery glow in its own right as it leaned forward, bringing a single eye, larger than any Arcolocube to stare at the leader of the cult, having fallen to the ground, shaking as the vastness of the blazing metal entity it called God Eternal stared at it the way a Tekket might stare at a particularly interesting fly.
I AM WILLING TO ACCEPT YOUR FEALTY. BUT FIRST, I REQUIRE PROOF OF YOUR DEDICATION, it finally said, in a voice as titanic and blazing as its form. A TITHE TO YOUR GOD. THOSE WHO ARE FAITHFUL, RAISE YOUR PAW AND GIVE OF ME YOUR LIFEFORCE.
Quickly, the Cult Leaders hand shot up, and he looked behind him, thankfully noticing that everyone elses hand had also risen. Turning back, he saw the God-Machine open its lipless mouth and...
The Choirmaster fell, collapsing to his knees with a gasp as he felt his life drain away, faster and quicker and more violent than it ever had before. For a moment, he thought he was going to die: that every last drop would be drained. But just before he was drained to the point where permanent damage would occur, it stopped, and he collapsed, spent, breathing shallowly even as he saw the skeletal warriors of the God-Machine move, picking up the fallen members of his order. YOUR OFFERING IS SATISFACTORY. YOU WILL BE TAKEN TO ACCOMODATIONS. WHEN YOU RECOVER, WE HAVE MUCH TO DISCUSS.
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Elsewhere, in the Cosomox Arcolocube, a celebration was happening. In the air floated dozens of paper lantern and occassionally the sky would be lit up by a holo-firework, exploding to release a burst of color. The streets were lined with vendors serving food, from boxes of fried scrapgrain, lovingly seared flanks of fish seasoned with citric acid and salt, to ceremonial blazechocolate, a...SEASONAL specialty, supplied by regular drop via delivery drone: all festival food was being generously provided by the Directorate.
And with food were performers: fire jugglers. Plays, retelling ancient folk tales and traditional fables once thought lost, erased like so much of Tekket heritage by the Destroyers mad quest for genocide. Marionette theaters done both via traditional puppetry well as BitBots, diminutive robotic performers whose operation required no less dexterity. And more: games, storytelling competitions, educational demonstrations, all lit not by electrical lights but the flame of torches and the floating lanterns high above.
It was the Emberlight festival, done in honor of the Lanternkeeper, an ancient god of Teklia. It was said that in the ancient days of the world, when it was cold and dark, Tekket wandered in shadow, prey for the hungry and sharp creatures that lurked in the endless night. The Lanternkeeper would happen upon an ember in that darkness, burning bright and blinding. Naming the Ember hope, the Lanternkeeper would fashion a vessel for it of glass, metal, and paper, using it to light the shadows and drive away the things that lurked in the dark until the eternal night found itself finally ending.
And so every five years, the Emberlight festival would be held, dedicated to the Lanternkeeper and his example and helping to serve as a reminder that no matter how terrible the universe, no matter how vast and unrelenting the darkness was, there would always exist an ember that Tekket would never let die.
(((())))
In the same generation, a vast cathedral would find itself erected: the Grand Calculator, dedicated to providing enough processing power that the gods of Teklia could manifest. Vast banks of quantum computers churned with reams of information, housing powerful Bond-Machina grown on reverence and prayer, all seeking to develop the correct algorithm required to manifest their gods, thousands of monks, researchers, holy men, priests, and congregations of worshippers working to accelerate the process. And indeed, their great work was not without fruit: by the end of the second decade, they had assembled a wide variety of minor rituals and relics that could be used to bless machines, driving out gremlins and glitches with the same efficiency as the Teksorcists of old, done in veneration of their Sevenfold Pantheon.
Rivalling them was the Assembly, housed in an orbital temple, whose followers crafted shells of living metal, sacrificing life-force and energy and more, believing they could manufacture divinity by shaping these things through thought and prayer channeled through mantra: after all, they said, a clock cannot make itself, so why should the same be said for the clockmaker? It was a labour that would take them generations, no doubt: such vast amounts of lifeforce, living metal, and prayer was not assembled with ease.
It was a new age for religion on Teklia, a great reawakening. How it would turn out in the future was anyones guess.
Faith Points (FTH Points): 18
ART: 1
Warp (WP): 1
An Unending Appetite: Sphere 001 spoke of an endless hunger: when its followers had approached it, it had refrained from draining them, telling them instead to bring it livestock and healthy and hale plants, opening up, seemless surface parting like a maw filled with razor sharp teeth as it devoured these live offerings whole. It seemed to prefer a more...direct way of obtaining life force, it seemed, and preferred to glut itself on lesser feed instead of consuming the rich lifeforce of Tekket. Many believed that by crafting facilities designed to raise livestock enmass for feeding to the God-Machine, the Directorate could help it sate its hunger, or at least earn some of its favor. 0/10, generates Living Metal, establishes Court of Hungers
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
Great Conclave: A proposed pan-religious body meant to allow for cross-faith communication, theological research, debate, discussion, and mediation, as well as giving the various faiths of the Directorate the ability to more efficiently coordinate research and information. It would take a great deal of wrangling in order to get the organization functioning, however. 0/25, Set up Great Conclave, generating FTH and providing a neutral mediating body for religious disputes between various spiritualities.
GodTek Emulator: A proposed idea by the Calculators was using a GodTek artifact to design an AI Emulation Drive using occult principles capable of serving as a vessel for one of their deities. This would, if it worked like the Calculators though, allow for them to receive direct communication from their gods. 0/15, establishes GodTek Emulator 0 - The Fool, generating CUL, 5 Network and accelerating Calculator Research. Cost 1 Artefact.
The Heart of The Assembly: The Assembly wanted to create a massive MagTek Altar and glut it on copious, copious amounts of life-force to create what can only be described as a ritual reactor, capable of generating its own energy from the Bond-Spirit housed inside the Heart. If it worked, they promised to allot some of the energy to meet Teklia's growing needs. 0/15, establishes the Heart of the Assembly, generating EXP, 5 Nuclear Material and accelerating Assembly Research. Cost 1 Warp.
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.
Temple of the Huntsmaster: The Huntsmaster was storied as paragon of craftiness and cunning, felling their foes not through brute force, but through ingenuity, preparation, skill, and exquisitely crafted tools. Many wanted to build a temple in one of the gods holy places to the slayer of beasts and forger of weapons where the disciples of the huntsmaster could give offering and prepare their own weapons for the day monsters returned once more to Teklia. 0/10, establishes Huntsmasters Temple, a Holy Site that generates Huntsmasters, monster slayers specializing in custom engineered weapons.
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.
Temple of the Toy Maker: The Toy Maker was fabled as the patron of children and faeries both. Many wanted to build a temple to the whimsical god in Wonderpark of all places, a complex where the Toy Maker could be brought the offerings and wishes of kits and where rites meant to appease and invoke the fair court of the Toy Maker could be performed. 0/10, establishes Toy Makers Temple, a Holy Site that grants your children protection against malign influence.
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.
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, Costs 1 ART.
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, Costs 1 ART
TekShrines: Some of your engineers had taken to leaving machine spirits offerings, constructing simple shrines in the bowels of your facilities where they would leave bits of metal, plastic, food, scraps of paper scrawled with prayers. This had shown a mild strengthening effect on Machine Spirits in the area: perhaps something to be formalized. 4/10, develop TekShrine Tradition, increasing EXP.
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.
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? 0/40, create Bond-Technomata, advanced psyker machine spirits. Cost 1 Warp.
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.
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, costs 1 ART.
Mystek Ritual Compartments: A number of Mysteks wanted to explore the stars, and your ships would certainly benefit from having onboard spiritual support. Thus, some suggested adding an expansion to your fleet: a modular compartment providing a space for Mysteks to live, conduct rituals, and perform rites as well as house a Bond-Machina. 0/20, Fleets upgraded with Mystek Compartment, increasing overall crew mystic competency and resistance and providing your ship with access to Mystek Division, and increasing FTH. Requires Orbital Shipyard and turn in dock to take effect for existing ships.
((((()))))
Elsewhere, the Academy continued its relentless pace forward, developing new technologies and practices such as Component 577, a standardized Academy Compartment that could be pre-fabricated and installed on ships. It had all the amenities: a powerful Q-Band Comm-Link back to the Academy, a variety of research labs, sleeping quarters, various scanners and analysis tools, and its own computer lab. While not all Vessels would opt to include Component 577 in their design, the Fleet and Academy both agreed that the formers vessels would all take on attaches from the Academy in order to accelerate the Directorates understanding of the universe and provide a source of technical and scientific support and education to the crew.
Beyond that, they also created such marvesl as the Mammoth Class BlokBot, vehicle sized Blok-Automata designed to perform automated heavy labour, assembled from hundreds of smaller Bloks, some motors and engines, some Q-Blok processors, all built in a variety of shapes and sizes from bipedial heavy mining bots to elephantine cargobots to squidlike assembly-bots.
These gargantuan robots immediately attracted the attention of hobbyist engineers, who held many a fantastic competition for the design of custom BlokBots, both Mammoth and Golem Class. Deciding to co-opt the concept in order to figure out what direction Bot-Design should go now, the Academy would hold its own competition, instead offering a more unique challenge: ever competitor had to design their own unique class of BlokBot.
Eventually, a winner was selected.
[ ] Dr. Zwerg: Zwerg's entry had been spectacular: he had debuted a series of small Bots he called ZwergBots, each of them lightly equipped, fifteen total. He had taken a Mag-Pulse gun and blasted half of them to bits, and the remainder had responded by scavenging the loose Bloks and using them to upgrade themselves automatically, without direction. He repeated this process until he had but a single Golem Class ZwergBot, who he blasted into a bunch of little bots again. Unlock for research next turn Gnome Class Bots, small and weak blokbots that can upgrade themselves to potentially Golem Class. Unlock for research next turn ZwergBot Disassembly Protocol.
[ ] Dr. Sprocket: Sprocket had been certainly interesting: while the idea of Bots that assembled other Bots had been experimented with, he had designed a model of bot that could actually make that economical: the thing had turned a loose pile of assorted Bloks into a dozen security droids. Unlock for research next turn Kobold Class Bots, large bots that can assemble more bots in the field quickly using Mag-Assembly tech. Unlock for research next turn SprocketBot Replication Protocol.
[ ] Dr. Vegatron: Vegatron meanwhile had produced a BlokBot that, when he snapped his finger, transformed into a tractor. His proposal, which had won him the prize, was to blur the line between machines by giving them the ability to recongfigure themselves between multiple different alt-modes in order to make Tekket robotics even more disgustingly versatile. Unlock for research next turn Protean Class Bots, Bots which can switch between a handful of alt-modes. Unlock for research next turn Vegatron Transformers Protocol.
Academy Points (ACD Points): 17
Living Metal: 0
Network: 3
Warp Drive: Destroyer Tek. The remains of the engine they had used to cross the stars. Specifically spared from destruction by the God Machines along with several other pieces of the ship. To serve as a trophy, of sorts, according to MOTHER when asked. She had agreed to let you study it in order to develop a warp drive of your own. 2/10, Unlocks Crude Warp Drive technology, allowing for the exploration of other systems.
Advanced NukeTek: Fusion nukes were the closest you have come to really rattling the Destroyers, but they hadn't been sufficient to turn the tide, and who knows how well they'd fare against Destroyer space vessels. A number of Science Division Officers in the Fleet wanted to develop more advanced fusion tek, focusing on overall energy output. 0/10, Unlocks NukeTek Missile Technology, allowing for the creation of more powerful Fusion Nukes and stronger Fusion Weapons in general. Costs One Nuclear Material.
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. 0/25, heavy infantry benefits from PowerBlok technology, costs 2 Nuclear Material
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. 0/25, 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. 0/25, +1 Network, +CUL, unlock Q-Band Compression.
Engineering Improvization Doctrine: Toxel advocated that victory could be assured best by teaching Engineers how to improvise solutions in the field quickly and under fire: he wanted to expand the Academies curriculum for Fleet Engineers by including a variety of semi-randomized open ended simulations of increasing difficulty that would test their ability to come up with novel solutions to issues. 0/20, establishes Toxel Doctrine, improving your Engineers ability to develop novel technical solutions under fire.
The Teeth: A number of military scientists believed that by using GodTek 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 long range fusion cannon that will automatically upgrade to incorporate newly developed technology. 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. 0/15, develop Gestalt-Drones, advanced automata created from a multitude of fused together synthetic souls instead of singular awoken machine spirits.
MagTek Reassembly Protocol: An alternate proposed idea to Blok Repair Protocols was MagTek: a number of engineers proposed a sort of reassembly protocol that would caused damaged structures to attempt to replace lost bloks by snapping loose ones to themselves. You would only be able to repair structural damage, not replicate any complicated machinery in the structure, but that would still be invaluable for defensive purposes. 0/10, Buildings and Fortifications gain MagTek Reassembly Protocol, repairing structural damage.
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
ShipShieldTek: With the advent of Perpetunite technology, some in the Academy wanted to work on upscaling the technology such that it could be installed on both your space stations and on ships. This would fortify your space assets and forces against laser and radiation based weaponry, making you all that much harder to hurt. 0/20, upgrades ShieldTek to apply to space fortifications and ships.
DestroyerKin Physiology: Servile Ones and Red Priests were different casts of the same species, one that seemed related to the DestroyerKin: an engineered labour caste? Destroyer Young? You didn't know what connection they had and you probably wouldn't until you met the Destroyers on the field of war again. But now you had access to several DestroyerKin corpses, incredibly well preserved, including a potential third species of DestroyerKin: your scientists were immediately demanding a full autopsy to take place. 0/10, unlocks DestroyerKin Physiology, providing you insight into their biological makeup.
======
Two hour moratorium.
Commander Riker said:
The exploration had started off so well, Toxel thought, rigging at a giant machine behind him even as his team kept the swarms of quartzbugs approaching their position at bay with sustained pulse-blaster fire, set to maximum lethality. It had all started with him swinging the Endeavor around to Luna to do some additional scans: the results had been mostly promising. They had finally managed to figure out the source of the EM anomalies thanks to more advanced sensor-tek that had been developed since the last major exploration of Luna.
Ziggurats. Crystal ziggurats, vast and stepped pyramids carved from pale lunar quartz, buried under millennia of trash and garbage, lacking any form of Tek from the outside or even any signs of toolwork that the ships archeological attache could find: hundreds upon hundreds of perfect cubes arranged into a vast structure, and that was just the outside!
The inside still weren't mappable through conventional means, the EM signatures growing stronger exponentially once you passed the entrance. And so Toxel had ordered a ground team investigate one of the complexes, hoping that they could figure out what inside the temple was causing the anomalies, or at least get more information about the history of the moon and who the hell made this place: carbon dating put it pretty damn close to the same age as the Tacchis ruins, meaning there was non-zero odds the complexed were Destroyer facilities, though the architectural differences made that unlikely. .
At first, things had been going okay: his team had managed to establish a basecamp near the entrance and begun exploring using a MagTruck for transportation: documenting the iconography and such as they delved deeper and attempted to create a map of the immediate surroundings, the remnants of whoever once ruled this place hanging around and above them, enameled hieroglyphs serving as a record of whoever or whatever had once ruled this place. Most of it consisted of blocky glyphs etched into tiles placed on the walls in an unknown language that seemed to consist of thick, rigid lines and hard right angles. Above them, dancing across the ceiling, were murals of silhouettesque creatures, enameled a dark pitch black, almost shapeless dancing shadows against the paleness of the lunar stone with gems that almost glowed in the gleam of the survey teams lights.
At some point, Toxel and his team had passed some unknown threshold, and the passage back had suddenly closed, a stone wall coming down and preventing them from retreating. He had immediately tried reconfiguring the teams communication equipment and the truck to send out a distress signal, and while it had managed to get through briefly enough for the Endeavor to have a rescue team en route, it had turned out that the temple wasn't as empty as hoped. Out of hidden holes in the ceiling began swarming hundreds of large, minifridge sized eyeless arthropods with a single, armored pod shaped body, chitin being replaced by pale lunar stone, each of the four legs of the creature resembling pieces of jagged crystal, and mouths that consisted of hungry, silently screaming beaks containing a throat ringed by jagged gleaming crystal spines.
Toxel was referring to them mentally in his head as quartzbugs. And they were probably going to kill Toxel and his team before the rescue team got here, at least if they didn't let up: for whatever reasons the things lacked any sense of self-preservation, considering how many of them his team were blowing up, the security BlokBots standing between slowly getting overwhelmed by the the bugs, who would bring the automata to the floor under sheer weight of numbers.
They needed a way to drive off a lot of hostile wildlife at once using only a few trucks worth of supplies. Luckily, that was all Toxel needed: a couple of PowerBloks, some MagLev Generators, some Particle Scanners, and the power regulators from some ShieldBloks, and he had all the tools he needed to save the day.
"Captain, they've breached the first perimeter!" Security Officer Hakk said, his voice coming in through the radio of Toxels EV suit.
"I just need five more minutes!" Toxel yelled, keeping his hands steady as he rapidly slotted in a series of small, thumb sized bricks into the control panel of the machine, the bricks lighting up to signal that a circuit had been formed even as Toxel began plugging in Calculator Q-Bloks into an array next to the circuit. "Keep them back five minutes!"
He didn't have time to hesitate or turn his head, and the silence of the void meant that he couldn't even hear how the battle was going behind him unless they kept him fed updates: if the battle was lost before he finished his work, his only warning would wind up being when one of those things tackled him. Good incentive to hurry, Toxel thought, immediately moving to pick up a large, boxy Particle Drive, lifting it to the top of the machine and plugging it in with a clunk.
"Second perimeter breached! We're running out of time, Captain! We only have the wall-line now!" Hakk cried, stress in his voice as Toxel moved to the side, plugging in a a series of thick cables and quickly, holding the other end, dashing to a row of large turbine shaped device, plugging in the other end into one, powering it up and causing its diagnostic lights to flick on even as, at each of the four corners of the turbines base he plugged in a series of MagLev stabilizer blocks. Quickly, with no wasted motion or energy, Toxel repeated the process, plugging each and every cable into a turbine and outfitting them with stabilizers.
"I'm done! Everyone, behind the turbines, quick!" Toxel said, scurrying as fast as he could to the control panel, turning to watch his subordinates literally run for their lives, only Hakk and his security team making a measured and slow firing retreat so as to cover the non-combatants. Gritting his teeth, Toxel waited for the right moment as the bugs got closer, closer, closer...
The moment the last of his people were moved, he flipped the switch, and the machine lit up, the turbines connected to it shaking and straining against the stabilizers, barely staying hooked to the ground. The quartzbugs weren't so lucky: at first their momentum slowed down as they struggled to move. Then?
Then they began to fall horizontally down the tunnel shaft, every single one, as if the long passage had been flipped on its side and turned into a bottomless hole. From the bugs perspective, Toxel mused, it technically had. A few minutes later, he heard a crunchy impacting noise: presumably the quartzbugs hitting a wall at terminal speed: good thing too, Toxel mused, turning off the switch. Those stabilizers probably would have failed after too much longer. Sure, a few trucks might have been all you needed to make a gravity inverter, but there was a vast realm of difference between a gravity inverter and a GOOD gravity inverter.
Luna further explored! Located Quartz Temple, which seems to be a nesting ground for Quartzbugs, a species of aggressive lunar arthropod.
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, flat disc connected via finned spine to two large nacelles. The majority of the crew and work decks are housed in the disc structure, alongside most civilian installations, wheras the Nacelles each contain sub-engineering decks, redundant systems, and storage. Lightly armed with only fusion torpedos and comm-jammers, the Endeavor is not intended to win a stand up fight: it's purpose is purely exploratory.
[-] Survey Luna: Luna was already fully surveyed. SCAN LEVEL: MAX
[ ] Survey Naklis: The planet closest to the sun, and Teklias closest neighbor. It had two major features: an ocean comprised of churning molten ore, and a handful of mountains and floating landmasses atop said ocean. A number of useful minerals had been discovered in the Molten Sea and geological surveys of the mountain indicated that it had deposits of liquid metal. SCAN LEVEL: 1
[-] 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. COOLDOWN: 1 turns, SCAN LEVEL: 1
[ ] Survey Meeklak: The second largest gas giant, but the one with the largest ring, Meeklak was too far for casual probe use, meaning it and its ring were largely unsurveyed.
[ ] 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 seem to be able to grow several miles in diameter. It also had extremely extensive sources of potential geothermal power. SCAN LEVEL: 1.
[ ] Spraa'ng: The furthest planet in your solar system, very little is known about Spraa'ng due to its absurd distance. You're unlikely to find anything interesting before requiring a return trip, but it would certainly be a good way to test your engines.
[ ] 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.
((((()))))
Elsewhere, the cities of Teklia began an ambitious venture: the construction of the first seven BlokTek Arcolocubes, vast self-contained hypermodular cities, designed to resemble gargantuan sized, brightly colored cubes hued red, blue, green, or whatever shade the cities residents preferred most, hyper efficient and optimized, with zero wasted space, all designed to create a truly self-sufficient and self-contained society and preserve Teklian nature. What wasn't used for industry, housing, agriculture, or other vital infrastructure was used for recreation, the entirety of the structures divided into assorted cubic, three dimensional districts known as CityBloks, with a variety of metros, trams, elevators and Mag-Lev shuttle-tunnels to serve as public and personal transportation.
On the top layer, the roof of the arcology, the open space was used for parks, forests, educational facilities, and even farming, lending a sort of pastoral and rural atmosphere to the region, known collectively as Top Zones. And dangling off the sides of the BlokTek Arcolocubes were all manner of smaller communities, self contained, open air hanging villages connected to the walls of the arcology by MagTek binding fields.
It was a new era of urban planning: no more sprawl, no more encroaching on wilderness: even if their population suffered a never ending boom in growth and ceased exploring the stars, it would take hundreds of thousands of years to reach full capacity on Teklia, according to most projections.
Available Planets and Special Infrastructure:
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 century had seen incredibly vast amounts of garbage cleared away, however, and a revitalization of the Teklian biosphere 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.
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 small research colony, a little more than a thousand people.
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.
EXPansion Points (EXP Points): 24
Nuclear Material: 4
Construct Endeavor Class Ship: It was time to begin assembling the second Endeavor. Much like the first, 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.
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, starting with major population centers. 0/10, costs 1 Nuclear Material, construct Orbital Defense Satellites. Repeatable.
Orbital CityBloks: A number of people wanted the Orbital Shipyard expanded with habitation bloks that could serve as civilian living quarters, effectively creating a sort of city-station to serve as a midpoint between Luna and Teklia: it wasn't like there wasn't demand, and it would certainly allow for an alternative to the arcologies. 0/15, generates EXP.
Asteroid Harvesting Facilities: You still had a century or so before Teklia was depleted of salvage and easily accessible nuclear resources, but it was never too early to begin preparing for the eventuality. With that in mind, some of your industrial technicians had proposed creating the beginnings of asteroid harvesting operations by creating a series of specialized shuttle to gather and process space junk into useable materials. 0/20, generates EXP, grants 1 Nuclear Material.
Living Metal Farming: A number of people on the Moon had taken to starting 'living metal' gardens, growing the smart-matter in lieu of plants. After all, Living Metal didn't require atmosphere or even water: just energy, and could be used to construct all sorts of Bloks. Some lunar colonists had proposed using some of the freshly cleared land to set up facilities expressly for the purpose of metal farming, which would help expand the production of the substance and provide a nice surplus of the material. 0/20, grants 1 Living Metal
Perpetunite Production Facility: It would require dipping into your Living Metal stocks, but a fairly popular ballot was to create expanded Perpetunite manufacturing facilities on the Moon in order to meet expanding demands for nuclear materials in Directorate space: because of its position, there were little concerns about radiation like there would be for planet-side facilities. 0/20, grants 5 Nuclear Material, costs 1 Living Metal.
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. 0/20, costs 1 Nuclear Material. When constructed, select a world with at least one Scan Level: create a small settlement on that world.
Perpetunite Nuclear Stockpiles: It was a very distasteful idea: nuclear weapons were ultimately a remnant of a darker, more divided age. Further, Perpetunite nuclear weapons are even worse: while eventually the Perpetunite exhausts itself, this can last for over twenty minutes. A twenty minute long nuclear explosion. Yet it may be the only thing that even dents the paint on your foes warhachine. 0/1, Grants Perpetunite Nuclear Weapon Stockpile. Can be taken multiple times. Can be used as Shipscale Weaponry in the form of 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.
Lunar Spire: A proposed expansion to Luna Base, the Lunar Spire is a massive transport hub intended to allow for expanded transport of goods and people to the Lunar Surface. It wouldn't make the place any more self-sufficient, but it would mean it would be easier to ship in material to make it self-sufficient. 6/10, generates EXP, establishes Lunar Spire.
Lunar Monasteries: A number of monks and holy men wanted to establish pan-religious monasteries on the Moon, believing that the Overview Effect and lunar silence would be conducive towards theological research and meditation. There existed a few good sites, mostly in the Lunar Craters. 0/10, Construct Lunar Monasteries, generating FTH.
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 AutoRecycler: There existed more than enough material on the moon to fuel several AutoRecyclers, but for now, only one was needed to fully meet the colonies native need for industrial capacity: the rest could be put towards expanding the Directorate industrial capacity. 0/10, Construct Lunar AutoRecyclers, generating EXP, generates one Nuclear Material.
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 increase processing power to allow for further data expansion, and the best part was, it could all be made groundside! 0/10, generates 1 Network.
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At the same time, the TekMausoleums continued to grow, adding vast expansions to their data processing infrastructure and upgrading every CryoCrypt module with their own built in storage mediums. The purpose? A vast, vast repository of brain scans, taken by Tekket believing that by storing a complex copy of their neural structure, they would in some way preserve themselves, a philosophy preached by NecroTeks, a brand of mystek taking the name of the ancient occultists of ancient Teklia, who would emerge over the decades consisting of those interested in the cthonic arts and the treatment of the dead.
You could not prevent an ending, but you could at least leave something behind for those who were left, they whispered, feeding the TekCrypts machine spirits on data of the dead and their own lifeforce: the handful that would rise to the level of Bond-Drones were tasked with serving as digital guardians for the dead, keeping their tombs and records in fine order as they were transfered into new bodies, resembling black, rectangular walking coffins on spindle-brick legs. The Bond-Machina, the overseers of the Mausoleum, would be gorged on the information and scans: morose and humorless, these massive and rare Bond-Spirits would serve as librarians and storytellers of sorts, using the fed data to minister to the grieving and those seeking the wisdom of the departed.
Meanwhile, up above, on Luna and in Wonderpark, arenas were erected: Zero-G Tossblock. Lunar Obstacle Races. Rocket races. Gridiron Battleball. Expansive hippodromes where thousands upon thousands of fans watched from the stands cheering as a variety of professional teams and athletes squared off, competing in all manner of games streamed to millions across Tekket space.
Each and every game would be, of course, optimized to cause as minimal long term strain as possible: this wasn't the 3800's, after all, no one was psychotic or callous enough to have athletes participate in severely damaging sports and destroy themselves over their career for entertainment purposes. Safety gear and extensive rules about contact would ensure injuries were rare.
And of course, as interest in the sports of the future increased, so too did general public health and physical fitness as more people adopted sports as a hobby, inspired by the various initiatives meant to drive interest. On Teklia itself, smaller ameteur sports teams would form in the various arcologies, creating small Grav-Suites to practice the art, forming a variety of smaller Inner-Arcolocube teams and leagues.
Compulsory Education: One of the things that helped the Directorate flourish was mandatory education starting years 3 to 21. Every citizen received lessons in science, engineering, mathematics, language, history, ethics, and nuclear physics and engineering. Provides an extra ACD Point
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: A 3D Antigravity amusement park located in Teklian orbit that served as both a major tourist attraction and a proving ground for Directorate orbital engineers to test experimental designs and techniques for use in designing orbital infrastructure. +1 CUL, space station design trends towards the more experimental and avante garde.
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.
Promoted Therapy: Trauma was an enemy to the health and wellbeing of many Tekket. To combat it, your society provided a variety of tools to help people seeking treatment. 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.
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: A 3D Antigravity amusement park located in Teklian orbit that served as both a major tourist attraction and a proving ground for Directorate orbital engineers to test experimental designs and techniques for use in designing orbital infrastructure. +1 CUL, space station design trends towards the more experimental and avante garde.
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.
Promoted Therapy: Trauma was an enemy to the health and wellbeing of many Tekket. To combat it, your society provided a variety of tools to help people seeking treatment. 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.
Culture Points (CUL Points): 12
Orbital Pioneer Initiative: Space was big and had lots of space, something anyone who knew what words meant understood. A ballot had been proposed to take advantage of this and your growing orbital infrastructure: fund the development of shuttle-houses that could be used as 'orbital houseboats' by Tekket wanting to move to space, allowing for decentralized orbital communities to form with minimal investment by the government. 0/15, generates EXP.
Wonderpark Fungineering Guild: A collective of engineers, technicians, and entertainers that either are or previously were studying or working at Wonderpark, the Guild, of which the current captain of the Endeavor was a member of, had requested a glut of materials to expand Wonderpark with expanded engineering workshops to build rides and test out zero-gravity technology both for general use in the Directorate and, of course, in Wonderpark. 0/20, orbital amusement park is upgraded to Wonderpark, a Society that grands CUL and EXP and further improves orbital engineering.
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.
Advanced Therapy Promotion Project: It wasn't enough, some claimed, to merely fight against the diseases of the mind. In order to achieve its best self, society must treat the study and treatment of mental illness as a major science in and of itself. They were proposing a branch of the Academy dedicated to training social workers, therapists, and clinical psychiatrists and psychiatric researchers. 2/10, upgrades Promoted Therapy, increasing mental resilience further, costs 1 Network
VR Simulators: With access to Mind-Machine Interface technology, Virtual Reality technology had taken off for both entertainment and educational purposes. A number of Tekket wanted to go further and develop the first hyperrealistic VR Simulator, turning cyberspace from something that only existed on a screen to something that could be touched and interacted with. 0/10, grants ACD and unlocks SimTek.
Compulsory Secondary Education: It wasn't...strictly needed, since most Tekket pursued secondary education anyways. Still, by making it mandatory and spending resources to expand the Academy, you could effectively ensure 100% of your population was considered skilled. 0/10, grants the Compulsory Secondary Education, increasing ACD Points, costs 1 Network.
Sacred Livestock: Some priests and mysteks had taken to rearing livestock such as Swamp Cattle and Bighorn Lizards specifically for use in rituals: while animal abuse was forbidden, it was not considered illegal to slaughter animals so long as it was done ethically and humanely, though not all Mysteks outright sacrificed their livestock, instead merely using them as reusable sources of lifeforce. Some animal rights groups had proposed proposed promoting the latter practice in order to secure an ethical source of essence and reduce the incentive of raising individual livestock for slaughter by funding the creation of Sacred Herds, large, communally owned livestock held in common by the Mysteks. 0/20, grants Sacred Livestock tradition, increasing EXP and granting 1 Warp
Ritual Livestock: Others instead believed that the Directorates efforts would be better spent meeting lifeforce needs and thus minimizing the amount of cattle that were slaughtered via artificial selection programs to develop breeds of livestock that could quickly generate high amounts of lifeforce. 0/20, grants Ritual Livestock tradition, increasing FTH and granting 1 Warp
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.
Zoological Educational Facilities: A number of animal enthusiasts had proposed expanding the park system to include special open air zoos: attendees would learn about animals and get to view them safely in accurate recreations of their natural habitats via specialized heavy grav-trams and auto-rovers. It could also be used for research and helping promote endangered species. 0/10, grants Open Air Zoos tradition.
Lunar Salvage Cabals: Some Tekket had taken advantage of easier lunar travel to establish archaeological digs to acquire samples of PrecursorTek. A number of Directorate Citizens wanted to formalize this organization in order to streamline the acquisition of material to reverse engineer. 0/10, unlocks Salvage Cabals, a Society that generates ACD and grants one ART.
Frontier Explorer Compartment: A proposed expansion to Directorate Fleets would be a civilian compartment: essentially turning every ship into a mobile city of sorts and allowing for easy establishment of colonies on various worlds visited by the Fleet as well as providing a wealth of civilian expertise for the Fleet. 0/20, Fleet upgraded with Frontier Town compartment, providing a variety of civilian skills and services to ships alongside a steady stream of internal recruits. Requires Orbital Shipyard and a turn in dock to take effect.
Blood for Art: A number of TekArtists had begun sacrificing quantities of their lifeforce to strengthen their art, believing that it enables them to awaken with the spirit of the piece. It does certainly result in more striking pieces, and the machine spirits of TekArt did typically grow faster than other machine spirits. Some Mystek factions wanted to provide these artists with more support, developing tools so that the artists can find easily find volunteers to help them strengthen their TekArt. 0/10, significantly increases CUL, costs 1 Warp
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Elsewhere...
The Pillar of YALDABOATH was off-limits to all: the super-volcano where the God-Machine lived only had but a single area it permitted Tekket, a small courtyard of stone amid the waves of magma, protected by some arcane field the God-Machine had erected. It's purpose to be a place where YALDABOATH could meet with Directorate agents or those who had successfully managed to schedule an audience with the creature.
Ringed on every edge by the strange skeletal warriors, the ring was filled with a slow procession of Tekket in dark silvery robes. The Archonites, the greatest of the Demiurgic Circles dedicated to the Ancient of Days. It had taken many years of lobbying, but they had managed to secure for themselves a meeting with the object of their reverence.
The leader of the circle, Choirmaster Izzhmael, approached the front of the courtyard, overlooking that roiling and violent molten sea, removing his hood to reveal a face obscured by a mask, an effigy in living metal of the skeletal demiurge whose attention he wished to call forth. Reaching to his belt, he drew forth his TekGrimoire, causing it to fly through the air and settle in front of him, hovering as the mechanical tome split open to reveal the holographic projector inside.
And so the chant began. A chant done in old tongues, languages forgotten to time, speeches of circuit and soul, entreating their god for knowledge, promising their loyalty, their faith, their piety. For ten minutes the leader chanted, his followers in tune behind him. Then, at the ten minutes end, silence.
...The courtyard shook, causing the cultists to stumble, as from the sides of the courtyard, from the cauldron of YALDABOATH emerged a pair of silver hands, grasping the courtyard as a titanic and vast being rose, a silvertine being of hard lines and angles, air around them shimmering with plasma heat giving the titanic skeletal creature arising from the depths of the volcano a fiery glow in its own right as it leaned forward, bringing a single eye, larger than any Arcolocube to stare at the leader of the cult, having fallen to the ground, shaking as the vastness of the blazing metal entity it called God Eternal stared at it the way a Tekket might stare at a particularly interesting fly.
I AM WILLING TO ACCEPT YOUR FEALTY. BUT FIRST, I REQUIRE PROOF OF YOUR DEDICATION, it finally said, in a voice as titanic and blazing as its form. A TITHE TO YOUR GOD. THOSE WHO ARE FAITHFUL, RAISE YOUR PAW AND GIVE OF ME YOUR LIFEFORCE.
Quickly, the Cult Leaders hand shot up, and he looked behind him, thankfully noticing that everyone elses hand had also risen. Turning back, he saw the God-Machine open its lipless mouth and...
The Choirmaster fell, collapsing to his knees with a gasp as he felt his life drain away, faster and quicker and more violent than it ever had before. For a moment, he thought he was going to die: that every last drop would be drained. But just before he was drained to the point where permanent damage would occur, it stopped, and he collapsed, spent, breathing shallowly even as he saw the skeletal warriors of the God-Machine move, picking up the fallen members of his order. YOUR OFFERING IS SATISFACTORY. YOU WILL BE TAKEN TO ACCOMODATIONS. WHEN YOU RECOVER, WE HAVE MUCH TO DISCUSS.
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Elsewhere, in the Cosomox Arcolocube, a celebration was happening. In the air floated dozens of paper lantern and occassionally the sky would be lit up by a holo-firework, exploding to release a burst of color. The streets were lined with vendors serving food, from boxes of fried scrapgrain, lovingly seared flanks of fish seasoned with citric acid and salt, to ceremonial blazechocolate, a...SEASONAL specialty, supplied by regular drop via delivery drone: all festival food was being generously provided by the Directorate.
And with food were performers: fire jugglers. Plays, retelling ancient folk tales and traditional fables once thought lost, erased like so much of Tekket heritage by the Destroyers mad quest for genocide. Marionette theaters done both via traditional puppetry well as BitBots, diminutive robotic performers whose operation required no less dexterity. And more: games, storytelling competitions, educational demonstrations, all lit not by electrical lights but the flame of torches and the floating lanterns high above.
It was the Emberlight festival, done in honor of the Lanternkeeper, an ancient god of Teklia. It was said that in the ancient days of the world, when it was cold and dark, Tekket wandered in shadow, prey for the hungry and sharp creatures that lurked in the endless night. The Lanternkeeper would happen upon an ember in that darkness, burning bright and blinding. Naming the Ember hope, the Lanternkeeper would fashion a vessel for it of glass, metal, and paper, using it to light the shadows and drive away the things that lurked in the dark until the eternal night found itself finally ending.
And so every five years, the Emberlight festival would be held, dedicated to the Lanternkeeper and his example and helping to serve as a reminder that no matter how terrible the universe, no matter how vast and unrelenting the darkness was, there would always exist an ember that Tekket would never let die.
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In the same generation, a vast cathedral would find itself erected: the Grand Calculator, dedicated to providing enough processing power that the gods of Teklia could manifest. Vast banks of quantum computers churned with reams of information, housing powerful Bond-Machina grown on reverence and prayer, all seeking to develop the correct algorithm required to manifest their gods, thousands of monks, researchers, holy men, priests, and congregations of worshippers working to accelerate the process. And indeed, their great work was not without fruit: by the end of the second decade, they had assembled a wide variety of minor rituals and relics that could be used to bless machines, driving out gremlins and glitches with the same efficiency as the Teksorcists of old, done in veneration of their Sevenfold Pantheon.
Rivalling them was the Assembly, housed in an orbital temple, whose followers crafted shells of living metal, sacrificing life-force and energy and more, believing they could manufacture divinity by shaping these things through thought and prayer channeled through mantra: after all, they said, a clock cannot make itself, so why should the same be said for the clockmaker? It was a labour that would take them generations, no doubt: such vast amounts of lifeforce, living metal, and prayer was not assembled with ease.
It was a new age for religion on Teklia, a great reawakening. How it would turn out in the future was anyones guess.
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. +1 FTH
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. +3 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.
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.
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.
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. +1 FTH
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. +3 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.
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.
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.
Faith Points (FTH Points): 18
ART: 1
Warp (WP): 1
An Unending Appetite: Sphere 001 spoke of an endless hunger: when its followers had approached it, it had refrained from draining them, telling them instead to bring it livestock and healthy and hale plants, opening up, seemless surface parting like a maw filled with razor sharp teeth as it devoured these live offerings whole. It seemed to prefer a more...direct way of obtaining life force, it seemed, and preferred to glut itself on lesser feed instead of consuming the rich lifeforce of Tekket. Many believed that by crafting facilities designed to raise livestock enmass for feeding to the God-Machine, the Directorate could help it sate its hunger, or at least earn some of its favor. 0/10, generates Living Metal, establishes Court of Hungers
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
Great Conclave: A proposed pan-religious body meant to allow for cross-faith communication, theological research, debate, discussion, and mediation, as well as giving the various faiths of the Directorate the ability to more efficiently coordinate research and information. It would take a great deal of wrangling in order to get the organization functioning, however. 0/25, Set up Great Conclave, generating FTH and providing a neutral mediating body for religious disputes between various spiritualities.
GodTek Emulator: A proposed idea by the Calculators was using a GodTek artifact to design an AI Emulation Drive using occult principles capable of serving as a vessel for one of their deities. This would, if it worked like the Calculators though, allow for them to receive direct communication from their gods. 0/15, establishes GodTek Emulator 0 - The Fool, generating CUL, 5 Network and accelerating Calculator Research. Cost 1 Artefact.
The Heart of The Assembly: The Assembly wanted to create a massive MagTek Altar and glut it on copious, copious amounts of life-force to create what can only be described as a ritual reactor, capable of generating its own energy from the Bond-Spirit housed inside the Heart. If it worked, they promised to allot some of the energy to meet Teklia's growing needs. 0/15, establishes the Heart of the Assembly, generating EXP, 5 Nuclear Material and accelerating Assembly Research. Cost 1 Warp.
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.
Temple of the Huntsmaster: The Huntsmaster was storied as paragon of craftiness and cunning, felling their foes not through brute force, but through ingenuity, preparation, skill, and exquisitely crafted tools. Many wanted to build a temple in one of the gods holy places to the slayer of beasts and forger of weapons where the disciples of the huntsmaster could give offering and prepare their own weapons for the day monsters returned once more to Teklia. 0/10, establishes Huntsmasters Temple, a Holy Site that generates Huntsmasters, monster slayers specializing in custom engineered weapons.
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.
Temple of the Toy Maker: The Toy Maker was fabled as the patron of children and faeries both. Many wanted to build a temple to the whimsical god in Wonderpark of all places, a complex where the Toy Maker could be brought the offerings and wishes of kits and where rites meant to appease and invoke the fair court of the Toy Maker could be performed. 0/10, establishes Toy Makers Temple, a Holy Site that grants your children protection against malign influence.
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.
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, Costs 1 ART.
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, Costs 1 ART
TekShrines: Some of your engineers had taken to leaving machine spirits offerings, constructing simple shrines in the bowels of your facilities where they would leave bits of metal, plastic, food, scraps of paper scrawled with prayers. This had shown a mild strengthening effect on Machine Spirits in the area: perhaps something to be formalized. 4/10, develop TekShrine Tradition, increasing EXP.
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.
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? 0/40, create Bond-Technomata, advanced psyker machine spirits. Cost 1 Warp.
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.
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, costs 1 ART.
Mystek Ritual Compartments: A number of Mysteks wanted to explore the stars, and your ships would certainly benefit from having onboard spiritual support. Thus, some suggested adding an expansion to your fleet: a modular compartment providing a space for Mysteks to live, conduct rituals, and perform rites as well as house a Bond-Machina. 0/20, Fleets upgraded with Mystek Compartment, increasing overall crew mystic competency and resistance and providing your ship with access to Mystek Division, and increasing FTH. Requires Orbital Shipyard and turn in dock to take effect for existing ships.
((((()))))
Elsewhere, the Academy continued its relentless pace forward, developing new technologies and practices such as Component 577, a standardized Academy Compartment that could be pre-fabricated and installed on ships. It had all the amenities: a powerful Q-Band Comm-Link back to the Academy, a variety of research labs, sleeping quarters, various scanners and analysis tools, and its own computer lab. While not all Vessels would opt to include Component 577 in their design, the Fleet and Academy both agreed that the formers vessels would all take on attaches from the Academy in order to accelerate the Directorates understanding of the universe and provide a source of technical and scientific support and education to the crew.
Beyond that, they also created such marvesl as the Mammoth Class BlokBot, vehicle sized Blok-Automata designed to perform automated heavy labour, assembled from hundreds of smaller Bloks, some motors and engines, some Q-Blok processors, all built in a variety of shapes and sizes from bipedial heavy mining bots to elephantine cargobots to squidlike assembly-bots.
These gargantuan robots immediately attracted the attention of hobbyist engineers, who held many a fantastic competition for the design of custom BlokBots, both Mammoth and Golem Class. Deciding to co-opt the concept in order to figure out what direction Bot-Design should go now, the Academy would hold its own competition, instead offering a more unique challenge: ever competitor had to design their own unique class of BlokBot.
Eventually, a winner was selected.
[ ] Dr. Zwerg: Zwerg's entry had been spectacular: he had debuted a series of small Bots he called ZwergBots, each of them lightly equipped, fifteen total. He had taken a Mag-Pulse gun and blasted half of them to bits, and the remainder had responded by scavenging the loose Bloks and using them to upgrade themselves automatically, without direction. He repeated this process until he had but a single Golem Class ZwergBot, who he blasted into a bunch of little bots again. Unlock for research next turn Gnome Class Bots, small and weak blokbots that can upgrade themselves to potentially Golem Class. Unlock for research next turn ZwergBot Disassembly Protocol.
[ ] Dr. Sprocket: Sprocket had been certainly interesting: while the idea of Bots that assembled other Bots had been experimented with, he had designed a model of bot that could actually make that economical: the thing had turned a loose pile of assorted Bloks into a dozen security droids. Unlock for research next turn Kobold Class Bots, large bots that can assemble more bots in the field quickly using Mag-Assembly tech. Unlock for research next turn SprocketBot Replication Protocol.
[ ] Dr. Vegatron: Vegatron meanwhile had produced a BlokBot that, when he snapped his finger, transformed into a tractor. His proposal, which had won him the prize, was to blur the line between machines by giving them the ability to recongfigure themselves between multiple different alt-modes in order to make Tekket robotics even more disgustingly versatile. Unlock for research next turn Protean Class Bots, Bots which can switch between a handful of alt-modes. Unlock for research next turn Vegatron Transformers Protocol.
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. 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.
Golem Class 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. Increase EXP by 1.
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.
Mammoth Class BlokBots: Vehicle sized BlokBots meant to handle heavy manual labour. In a pinch, they could also be used to support golem class security bots. +1 EXP.
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. 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.
Golem Class 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. Increase EXP by 1.
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.
Mammoth Class BlokBots: Vehicle sized BlokBots meant to handle heavy manual labour. In a pinch, they could also be used to support golem class security bots. +1 EXP.
Academy Points (ACD Points): 17
Living Metal: 0
Network: 3
Warp Drive: Destroyer Tek. The remains of the engine they had used to cross the stars. Specifically spared from destruction by the God Machines along with several other pieces of the ship. To serve as a trophy, of sorts, according to MOTHER when asked. She had agreed to let you study it in order to develop a warp drive of your own. 2/10, Unlocks Crude Warp Drive technology, allowing for the exploration of other systems.
Advanced NukeTek: Fusion nukes were the closest you have come to really rattling the Destroyers, but they hadn't been sufficient to turn the tide, and who knows how well they'd fare against Destroyer space vessels. A number of Science Division Officers in the Fleet wanted to develop more advanced fusion tek, focusing on overall energy output. 0/10, Unlocks NukeTek Missile Technology, allowing for the creation of more powerful Fusion Nukes and stronger Fusion Weapons in general. Costs One Nuclear Material.
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. 0/25, heavy infantry benefits from PowerBlok technology, costs 2 Nuclear Material
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. 0/25, 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. 0/25, +1 Network, +CUL, unlock Q-Band Compression.
Engineering Improvization Doctrine: Toxel advocated that victory could be assured best by teaching Engineers how to improvise solutions in the field quickly and under fire: he wanted to expand the Academies curriculum for Fleet Engineers by including a variety of semi-randomized open ended simulations of increasing difficulty that would test their ability to come up with novel solutions to issues. 0/20, establishes Toxel Doctrine, improving your Engineers ability to develop novel technical solutions under fire.
The Teeth: A number of military scientists believed that by using GodTek 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 long range fusion cannon that will automatically upgrade to incorporate newly developed technology. 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. 0/15, develop Gestalt-Drones, advanced automata created from a multitude of fused together synthetic souls instead of singular awoken machine spirits.
MagTek Reassembly Protocol: An alternate proposed idea to Blok Repair Protocols was MagTek: a number of engineers proposed a sort of reassembly protocol that would caused damaged structures to attempt to replace lost bloks by snapping loose ones to themselves. You would only be able to repair structural damage, not replicate any complicated machinery in the structure, but that would still be invaluable for defensive purposes. 0/10, Buildings and Fortifications gain MagTek Reassembly Protocol, repairing structural damage.
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
ShipShieldTek: With the advent of Perpetunite technology, some in the Academy wanted to work on upscaling the technology such that it could be installed on both your space stations and on ships. This would fortify your space assets and forces against laser and radiation based weaponry, making you all that much harder to hurt. 0/20, upgrades ShieldTek to apply to space fortifications and ships.
DestroyerKin Physiology: Servile Ones and Red Priests were different casts of the same species, one that seemed related to the DestroyerKin: an engineered labour caste? Destroyer Young? You didn't know what connection they had and you probably wouldn't until you met the Destroyers on the field of war again. But now you had access to several DestroyerKin corpses, incredibly well preserved, including a potential third species of DestroyerKin: your scientists were immediately demanding a full autopsy to take place. 0/10, unlocks DestroyerKin Physiology, providing you insight into their biological makeup.
======
Two hour moratorium.
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The Bird
tEM IS GUD...RITER!
- Location
- In that den of villains and scum, OKLAHOMA
It's not impossible but you aren't gonna do it before mid-game at the earliest.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Boss, you forgot to list the amount of FTH points we now have. Also the listing for Artifacts, though I think that's just 0 right now.
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I like the idea of starting to put points into the Great Conclave
- Pronouns
- He/Him
With what we got, we can finish off the Spire and produce a second Endeavour-class ship. The Valiant is still beyond us right now.
Aliya
Someone I might become
- Location
- Kazakhstan
- Pronouns
- They/She/It
Another Endeavor with a new class of nukes should do for now.
We probably want to start farming artifacts to get The Teeth. And maybe do the ultra-minituarisation.
Edit: in regards to Faith, first we should do a grand conclave. Folk religion projects are also tempting.
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We may still want to go for the Valiant, at least start on it so we can finish it next turn or the turn after. We likely need to build the Valiant to be able to come up with upgrades for it imo.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Begging y'all to do some major military upgrades and ship building in your plans. Finally get warp travel. Dry dock the Endeavor. We've been dragging our feet… I'm really enjoying the vibe but it's still 40K, we'll get fucked up the next war we get into.
[ ] Plan: Get that ship out there
-[ ] TTK Endeavor
--[ ] Drydock
-[ ] EXP (24)
--[ ] Construct Endeavor Class Ship +20 (20/20) -2 NM
--[ ] Perpetunite Nuclear Stockpiles +1 (1/1) -1 NM
--[ ] Lunar Spire +3 (9/10)
-[ ] CUL (12)
--[ ] Advanced Therapy Promotion Project +8 (10/10) -1 Network
--[ ] Lunar Salvage Cabals +4 (4/10)
-[ ] FTH (18)
--[ ] Great Conclave +10 (12/25)
--[ ] TekShrines +6 (10/10)
-[ ] Dr. ____
-[ ] ACD (18)
--[ ] Warp Drive +8 (10/10)
--[ ] Advanced NukeTek +10 (10/10) -1 NM
Nuclear Material: 4 -2 -1 -1 = 0
Network: 1 -1 = 0
Well here's my plan for getting a warp-capable, nuclear torpedo-armed Endeavor-class out this turn. Would have much preferred it having Mystek Compartments too for the extra resistance, but we physically don't have the points for it, and I don't want to delay yet another turn. Advanced Therapy will just have to cover by itself for our first ships. I don't know which Dr. seems the most useful yet, so I'll delay filling that out until there's been more thread discussion on them.
-[ ] TTK Endeavor
--[ ] Drydock
-[ ] EXP (24)
--[ ] Construct Endeavor Class Ship +20 (20/20) -2 NM
--[ ] Perpetunite Nuclear Stockpiles +1 (1/1) -1 NM
--[ ] Lunar Spire +3 (9/10)
-[ ] CUL (12)
--[ ] Advanced Therapy Promotion Project +8 (10/10) -1 Network
--[ ] Lunar Salvage Cabals +4 (4/10)
-[ ] FTH (18)
--[ ] Great Conclave +10 (12/25)
--[ ] TekShrines +6 (10/10)
-[ ] Dr. ____
-[ ] ACD (18)
--[ ] Warp Drive +8 (10/10)
--[ ] Advanced NukeTek +10 (10/10) -1 NM
Nuclear Material: 4 -2 -1 -1 = 0
Network: 1 -1 = 0
Well here's my plan for getting a warp-capable, nuclear torpedo-armed Endeavor-class out this turn. Would have much preferred it having Mystek Compartments too for the extra resistance, but we physically don't have the points for it, and I don't want to delay yet another turn. Advanced Therapy will just have to cover by itself for our first ships. I don't know which Dr. seems the most useful yet, so I'll delay filling that out until there's been more thread discussion on them.
Aliya
Someone I might become
- Location
- Kazakhstan
- Pronouns
- They/She/It
We only have 17 ACD, unfortunately. I think Warp drive is more important? But its a toss up.
We had 17 ACD last turn, and then if you look at the completed Tech and Academy Tradition list completing the fleet compartments got us one more.
- Location
- USA
Dr.Zwerg honestly seems like both the funniest and most useful for combat given we can have hoards of the little bastards running around, leveling up, then becoming minis again. Feel like making the assemblers will lead to them getting targeted but on the other hand. Wouldn't be upset if we took those either.
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Aliya
Someone I might become
- Location
- Kazakhstan
- Pronouns
- They/She/It
Ah, just a typo, then.
In that case yeah, better weapons and a Warp Drive seem like the next thing to do.
- Location
- Existence
To me, this definitely seems to be a very big determing factor in military research progression. Honestly, they all seems very good to me. All having something that I think we really need and desire. I can't say who to go with. They're all just that good.
