Oh I always forget about the Necrons. They break the rules of the setting in so many dumb ways. Yeah, if you get necron tech and reverse-engineer it (which you can, with the physics module taken during character creation) then maybe you'll get non-warp FTL.
Technically Tyranids too, but it's probably something similar.
TBH I don't think the setting really has any rules, just tendencies. And a lot of silly redundancies. For non-Warp FTL there's inertialess drives, Tyranid space-tunnels, traveling through a hell-dimension (the Ghostwind, not the Warp), however Necron teleportation works, whatever Subspace is (apparently simple enough that Orks can use it and the Mechanicum reverse-engineered it)...
Maybe we'll end up developing non-Warp FTL that involves entering a third, unrelated hell dimension.
For the sake of logic and consistency I think it should be. More super secret alternate dimensions are a bit silly when it can just be someone misunderstanding an aspect of the warp, infinitely malleable as it is.
For the sake of logic and consistency I think it should be. More super secret alternate dimensions are a bit silly when it can just be someone misunderstanding an aspect of the warp, infinitely malleable as it is.
It (or access to it) is heavily tied to a C'Tan, though. I do kind of like the speculation that it's in the opposite direction to the Warp, but still fundamentally along the same axis.
Maybe Pariahs being anti-Psykers means they're drawing on a power from somewhere else, a place of nothingness rather than the endless chaos that the Warp seems to be.
Ok, writing actually starting. Probably no update tonight, but we'll see. In the meantime -
Very possible. I've added a research to the tree:
-[] Advanced Materials (300 RP) You know there are exotic elements with absurd physical properties. But it's also possible to build absurdly strong materials with common elements. How does that work? Time to dust off some ancient research projects and figure this stuff out. (Unlocks improved armor, as well as research to unlock megastructures. Also required for battleships and larger walkers)
You'll have to design megastructures individually, but a space elevator is going to be something like (50,000 ground BP, 25,000 void BP, 500 CP) and be able to convert 50,000 ground BP to void BP. Or something. I need to game the numbers a bit.
We don't need a space elevator. We can get fhe benefits without needing advanced materials by building a Tethered Ring (cheaper, can be built from ground) or Orbital Ring (more expensive, needs a presence in space). Also actual space elevators don't need exotic materials if you do three tethers spread around the planet.
It (or access to it) is heavily tied to a C'Tan, though. I do kind of like the speculation that it's in the opposite direction to the Warp, but still fundamentally along the same axis.
Maybe Pariahs being anti-Psykers means they're drawing on a power from somewhere else, a place of nothingness rather than the endless chaos that the Warp seems to be.
We don't need a space elevator. We can get fhe benefits without needing advanced materials by building a Tethered Ring (cheaper, can be built from ground) or Orbital Ring (more expensive, needs a presence in space). Also actual space elevators don't need exotic materials if you do three tethers spread around the planet.
Don't sweat it too much. 40k has never been too hard on realism and this quest is heavy on simplification and abstraction. I doubt we'll get the mechanics changed. But we can discuss it as a form of flavouring.
I mean, I imagine we can do a lot to make space elevators easier with active support. Tethered rings are cool tho.
I just checked, and interestingly enough there seem to be afewdifferentmethods, which can vary by Dynasty, Necron type, status/rank, and loadout/equipment. Still, their most common form of teleportation is hypothesised to work either through direct (small w) warping/folding spacetime to remove distance/superimpose locations (possibly similar principle to Tesseract Labyrinth). However, some devices/methods may use travelling/tunnelling/"phasing" through what is believed to be subspace or be an alternative spatial (possibly temporal?) dimension very much like subspace (which the most technologically sophisticated Orks and Korks use, most famously in Attack Moons), and/or some kind of quantum entanglement/tunnelling effect, or even more exotic methods like the aforementioned Ghostwind dimension or SOL (Speed-Of-Light) travel via Translocation Beams which transmute Necrons into light, beaming to their desired location, and re-transmuting into their regular forms.
Frankly, the lack of non-Warp FTL seems to be primarily a result of Humanity discovering Warp first and a lock-in effect from parties with vested interest in preventing the proliferation of any other form of FTL, rather than it being anything intrinsic to the physics of the setting. After all, if it was intrinsic, then there'd be no actual point to the Navigators' paranoia about it, because even the best Warp Abacus is only good for shorter hops, rather than the deep navigation they can manage.
To be fair, using the Warp seems to be technologically much easier than materium FTL, so I'd probably say the lack of Warp alternatives is more down to even humanity at the height of the DAoT being much less advanced than the Necrons (as well as not having the help of the Star Gods [C'Tan] who have mastery of the materium as Neverborn have over the Warp).
I'd also argue that during the DAoT's time the warp was way calmer and likely much more easily navigable then it is in the current day. They developed their FTL tech before the birth of Slaanesh, the Age of Strife, Great Crusade, and the 10,000 years of decline in the Imperium supercharged Chaos and spread demons everywhere.
So you have a trifecta of things that pushed against the development of other FTL methods. 1. Warp FTL was what was first discovered actually worked and thus discourages investment in other FTL methods. 2. Navigator Houses come down hard on anything they hear could potentially break their monopoly. They were kingpins back during the DAoT and still are all the way up to the current day. 3. Warp Travel was likely way safer back then, and when things started to go wrong humanity was in no position to put research into an alternative because everyone was too busy trying not to die (and usually failing).
But yeah, I doubt an alternative FTL method is something MC can develop easily without flinching off Necron Tech (who are the only faction who developed an alternative, but they also are stupidly OP tech wise in many other ways so copying them doesn't seem viable). Best we can do is probably superior non-Navigator reliant Warp Travel.
But yeah, I doubt an alternative FTL method is something MC can develop easily without flinching off Necron Tech (who are the only faction who developed an alternative, but they also are stupidly OP tech wise in many other ways so copying them doesn't seem viable). Best we can do is probably superior non-Navigator reliant Warp Travel.
Alternatively, we could try fusing even partial understanding from many different FTL technologies and even outside of them to create superior Warp-based travel. Depends a lot on what we run into, how useful it might be for that purpose, and how well we roll. But there might be still something of worth there.
Also, besides FTL, I'm also interested in STL technologies. Because I don't remember anyone in the setting being able to approach anything close to the speed of light while out of their method of FTL. So maneuvers are done and battles fought at relatively glacial speeds. Being able to outrun ships chasing us to be able to even make a FTL jump is pretty important too, for example. Because you almost never want to even try translating in or out of the warp inside or anywhere even near a gravitational well. And other FTL methods might suffer similar issues (or maybe not, I guess it depends).
@Neablis
Not sure if this has already been answered, but can our humanized bots also pass as skitari? Do we need to specify that beforehand when humanizing them, or can we just say "we're sending in humanized bots as Magos Vita, so they look like skitari"
@Neablis
Not sure if this has already been answered, but can our humanized bots also pass as skitari? Do we need to specify that beforehand when humanizing them, or can we just say "we're sending in humanized bots as Magos Vita, so they look like skitari"
...Honestly, I think we wouldn't even have to humanize them first - Skitari don't really have exposed flesh. Would probably have to build them that way in the first place though.
...Oh. Oh geeze, if we made our robots all look like Skitari, could we make an invasion force look like a takeover by a rival mechanicus group? Lmao.
...Honestly, I think we wouldn't even have to humanize them first - Skitari don't really have exposed flesh. Would probably have to build them that way in the first place though.
...Oh. Oh geeze, if we made our robots all look like Skitari, could we make an invasion force look like a takeover by a rival mechanicus group? Lmao.
[X] Plan: The Robot-Satan-Snake In The Garden
-[X] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular.
--[X] Look up House Klyssar, and ask the same of Victan's contacts in Aevon. They're one of your main leads to figure out not just what's up with the Mechanicus' station, but also what made them leave a presence on the planet in the first place.
-[X] Diplomacy/Subversion (AdMech):
--[X] Visit Thalya's Enclave in person this time. Give a report with only a small amount of progress, if still with some "potentially related" physical samples. Affect a carefully concealed frustrated disposition in the noosphere, and "reveal" that you have a need for more assistants than just Anexa at this point to "accelerate the search". Deny taking them just yet, because "you want to ensure they are capable enough" in a way that will hopefully make Thalya think of you being paranoid of her infiltrators and spies. Instead, say that you will take them under your wing in the next five years after making sure that your facilities are ready. Bribe Thalya if needed, as is usual in the Mechanicus. Use the cover of scouting new talent in different Enclaves to get in contact with Cogitare Exploraratum, and with Victan assisting remotely, starts fully subverting those that you can, while at least getting your hooks into those you can't. Offer various high-technology goods, from your civilian cybernetic augments to advanced weaponry, through the latter mostly just to those you intend to fully subvert. See also about probing for vulnerabilities and installing backdoors to systems of Enclaves with their help, hopefully with improved understanding about emotionally manipulating the machine spirits. (Dedicated subversion effort. Find both true believers and opportunists, as well as those whose loyalties can at least be compromised. Probe for and introduce weaknesses in the systems of the Enclaves if feasible safely.)
-[X] Construction x2 (5300 BP = 2650 BP + 2650 BP)
--[X] Construction slot, 1st (2650 GBP)
---[X] Underground Medium Void Shield installation (2650/3000 BP, 50 CP)
--[X] Construction slot, 2nd (2650 GBP)
---[X] Underground Medium Void Shield installation (3000/3000 BP, 50 CP) (350 BP)
---[X] Underground Spaceport (300 BP, 25 CP)
---[X] 22x Basic Stealth Fighters (25 BP, 5 CP) (550 BP, 210 CP) 30 fighters total over 3 spaceports
---[X] 1x Underground Machine-spirit Jammer (300 BP, 10 CP)
---[X] 2x Underground Anti-Orbital Defenses (300 BP, 5 CP) (600 BP, 10 CP)
---[X] 100x Basic Stealth Missiles (5 VBP, 1 CP) (500 VBP, 100 CP) - Launch them using the catapult, not to engage until things get spicy.
---[X] Trade Goods, Aevon (5 BP) (20 -> 25)
---[X] Trade Goods, Mechanicus subversion (45 BP) (used at the discretion of Vita and Victan where needed and sensible, otherwise stored)
-[X] Research x1 (200 + 25 RP)
--[X] Blueprint: 50 RP - Basic space stealth missile (5 Void BP, 1 CP)
--[X] Blueprint: 25 RP - Machine-spirit Jammer (100 BP, 10 CP)
--[X] Machine Spirit Emotional Hacking (150/150 RP)
---[X] Anexa assists (+25 RP)
-[X] Pay rent (Trade Goods, Aevon 25 -> 0)
-[X] Anexa active Action: Research (Machine Spirit Emotional Hacking)
-[X] Victan active action: Subversion (AdMech)
Finally, it's time to secure Denva Secundus.
You've got the technology to disable the sword of Damocles hanging over the planet. The Mechaniucs holds this world under a stranglehold in three seperate ways, and you can break all of them. All you need to do is build the solution. All you need to do is save a world.
Wow, getting a bit graniose there, aren't we?
Your avatar snorts as you consider your construction plans over the next few years. The majority of your capacity is going to a void shield and orbital defenses to protect yourself from attack. It's all noble of you to be planning to prevent the mechanicus from destroying the biosphere of the planet, but you're definitely prioritizing your own survival above saving the planet at all costs.
Still - your plan should work. As soon as you finish your missile design you'll start seeding them in orbit in preparation to take down the network of killsats. You don't expect perfect coverage, but the fighters will be able to take down any satellites that survive the missile barrage, as well as enough to take out any ballistic missiles - which are horribly vulnerable during their boost phase.
Basic space stealth missile design complete and available for construction!
You might not be able to get every satellite immediately, but that's what the jammer is for. It will be able to paralyze anything that slips through the gaps at the speed of connection. All you need is good intelligence on what is active & when.
Machine-spirit Jammer design complete and available for construction!
And thanks to the Cogitare Exploraratum, you have observer codes for the satellites. It's not enough to hack them easily and you just know there are a trillion failsafes in the mechanicus's last-resort weapon. But they will tell you if any of the orbital-bombardment platforms start their launch sequences, and your jammer will be able to stall until a fighter can come take out the offending satellite.
Probably.
But that's the best you can get right now, and why you're not going to take offensive moves just yet. You would prefer to wait until you can guarantee a clean victory. But at least the void shield and anti-orbit lances will mean that it'll be almost impossible for you, Vita, to die.
Imagine getting killed by these red-robed toaster-wannabes. After surviving fifteen thousand years in low-power mode. Embarrassing. Just embarrassing.
Though you do need to keep in mind that the void shield won't protect you from ground-level attack. But you've got enough combat bots that it would take a full-scale assault from the enclaves to seriously threaten you, and you're pretty sure the Aevon military would get involved on your side. It might be worth building some defensive installations against ground attacks, but honestly it's not that important.
Not compared to everything else you're planning!
After all - it would be nice to win the victory entirely bloodlessly. And the more you and Victan feed the Cogitare Exploraratum, the more it seems like that might be possible. They're a bunch of nerds, but they're nerds who will do anything to learn real science, or at the very least get their hands on the design for a basic plasma-bottle.
To that end you and Victan have decided to spread your influence as far as possible. You have the contacts, you have the technology and you even have the persona. You've set Victan up with a video filter that he can use to pretend to be you, and at this point you think that he's more in charge of the "Magos Vita" persona than you are. But you've got a few years until Thalya is expecting her next report, and both you and Victan are planning for this meeting to go very differently than the last one. After all, if you hold more influence than she does over the mechnaicus then she won't have a leg to stand on when making demands of you. And maybe you can even start making demands of her.
But for now, most of your attention needs to be on the construction. Victan can handle the majority of running the social club/study group/resistance organization that the Cogitare Exploraratum has become. He's been sending you frequent reports on his progress, and the numbers of acolytes, tech-priests and continue to climb steadily. If the system of influence that the mechanicus uses to determine leadership and control is a game, Victan is steadily winning that game, though you don't yet have enough power to make broad-scale decisions for the mechanicus as a whole.
But while he's working on peaceful solutions, you're the only person who can actually build the infrastructure and technology necessary to win a war. Even if that's not your preferred action, you'd much rather have the capability and not need it.
What's the saying? Talk quietly and carry a big stick? That's me, alright. Big Stick Vita.
The main complication with the void shield is that you don't want there to be any signature whatsoever until you turn it on. And for a construction of this magnitude that's an undertaking. It's going to take miles of tunnels each carrying a multitude of cables. You're replacing a few hundred-meter towers with six overlapping figure-eights embedded beneath the ground to achieve the same effect. It'll work just as well, but it's even more rock removed to be fed to your manufactories, even more technology embedded in the rock of Denva Secundus. Especially once you finish all of the other military preparations you have planned.
At this rate I'm just going to turn this section of the planet into a solid chunk of technology.
But you can't help but admit you feel more secure with all of the new installations. You're... basically safe. Even if the entire mechanicus knew where you were and every part of it did its level best to kill you, you'd probably survive. And they won't, since you could easily sow dissent and confusion with your followers and the codes and access they've already granted you. You'd be safe even if a few small spaceships showed up, so long as they didn't perfectly time their attacks with the mechanicus killsat network.
The next task is something you agreed to do with Victan. Both of you feel confident you understand most of the assets of the mechanicus, but there's one great mystery left. They seem to be treating the giant station orbiting at the L4 point as if it was a archaeological site, despite it being clearly contemporary Imperial construction.
> Victan? Do you have time now to investigate House Klyssar? [Polite inquiry]
> In a moment. First, did you see the updated schedule? I have you sending your tech-priest avatar to do a tour of the enclaves next month. Does the timing work out? [Impatient]
> Yes, weather permitting. We've got more allowances for launches with the new spaceports and the worms in the sensor satellites, but I want to make sure nobody can track me back here. [Considering]
> There's flex explicitly for that reason. All good? [Intent]
> Yes. House Klyssar? Let's see who can find the answer first. [Competitive]
You both start going through the databases you have access to. You're of course much quicker then he is and flag several likely hints, but Victan isn't a slouch. He's had Anexa install another neural implant earlier this year, entirely focused on improving his memory and information processing speeds. Aesthetically it looks just like the old one but on the other side of his head, balancing one triangle of gold and silver with a second.
But it has undoubtedly increased his capabilities when rummaging through databases for useful information, and while you're looking through the enormous general mechanicus databases accessible with your codes, he's using the personal curated databases of a few members of the Cogitare Exploraratum who traded them for more lessons.
So he finds the answer first. Something that most certainly does not upset you.
> It's a Navigator station. [Victorious]
> Oh, good find! What happened to them? [Stoic in the face of defeat]
He shoots over a briefing file that's used to educate tech-priests that are sent up to "Klyssar's Nest." It's a surprisingly succinct and general overview of the station and the mechanicus's goals there. Apparently the station was an outpost of a minor Navigator house, a place for offshoot branches to live and reproduce to generate additional navigators. There are some reports of long-standing tensions between the imperial governor and the Navigators, with the sector government as a whole largely seeing Denva Secundus as important because of the navigator station and not the inhabited planets.
But then contact with the Imperium was lost, and a fleet of house Kylssar ships arrived to evacuate the station, emptying it entirely and leaving the massive kilometers-wide station cold and dark. The mechanicus evacuation ship arrived soon after, similarly intending to evacuate all of their disciples and whatever resources they could carry.
But then the Archmagos in charge of the evacuation - their name is redacted - decided that the Navigator station was a juicy target, if one that was too well-secured to be accessible on their evacuation timetable.
Apparently their solution was to evacuate most of the mechanicus presence, leaving behind just enough to be self-sustaining, with the mission to crack open the station and find whatever secrets are within. This document doesn't include details on what you expect to find, but it does contain an overview of the threats inside.
You go through that section and can't suppress wry humor that Victan returns. It's a humor tinged with schadenfreude, a sense of oh, those poor bastards. It looks like House Klyssar expected somebody to try boarding the station and searching it, and the defenses can only be described as ridiculously paranoid. It starts with heavily secured doors protected by automatic turrets and traps, progresses though kill-servitors housed in stasis until a target presents itself, and ends with something called scrapcode that you need to briefly dip into your secured section to verify that yes, that's associated with Chaos.
That discovery appears to have only stoked the mechanicus leaders to new heights, as they now believe that house Klyssar has chaotic secrets and desire firm proof. You're not so sure - diving into further accessible reports it looks like the report of scrapcode wasn't necessarily substantiated, and there's a thread of messages arguing that it was the result of a scavenged and poorly understood artifact that was nonetheless integrated into the station's defensive structure.
The return argument is that it doesn't matter, what the mechanicus needs is proof that house Klyssar was dealing with chaotic artifacts, and then they'll have more than delivered on their mandate.
Ok, so they're not really in this to find technology. The entire mechanicus presence on Devna is an attempt to find dirt on the navigator station. Oh, and maybe some technology too. They believe there's a biolab in the core of the station that might contain the secrets of the navigator gift.
You're struck by a sudden thought, and leave Victan to continue ripping into the package of literature on the station as you dive into other resources, focused on any mention of the evacuation fleet. You quickly find what you were looking for. The killstats - the hundred satellites that allow the mechanicus to destroy anything they want on the surface - they were dropped off by the evactuation ship, just before it left. They were explicitly meant to allow the reduced enclaves to maintain control over the plant and continue extracting resources from the local human population for the purpose of investigating Klyssar's Next.
The only reason they haven't been used yet is that they haven't needed to be used. Well, and because the mechanicus saw the governer as an obstacle to their plans, and may or may not have been involved in fomenting the revolution that took him down.
You take a moment to digest all of that, sharing a few quick conclusions with Victan before turning to other tasks.
> Well. That was informative. But I need to go prepare to shoot down all of those satellites. [Pleased]
His message back is similarly satisfied. It's got the air of somebody who had been wrestling with a difficult problem and has finally found the solution.
> Indeed, quite a bit of usable information. Can I spread this information to further increase your influence? [Speculative]
> I don't see why not. Just don't make it obvious it's coming from me. [Amused]
> Don't forget about the enclave tour next month. [Prodding]
> I literally have a timer set for it! It would be physically impossible for me to forget! [Exasperated]
You sign off with a fond feeling. You're getting sassed by your crew! It's been too long since that happened, and it's something you missed. But now it's time to turn your attention to launching the stealthed missiles you need to take down the mechanicus kill-sats. They're fairly basic things, spiky cones that look like they grew off a fractal rosebush and would cut anybody who tried to touch them. In reality they're fairly blunt-edged, but the harsh edges serve to scatter radio waves and the matte coating contributes to that.
You spool up your mag-launcher for the first time and get to work flinging the missiles up into orbit, the first dozen kilometers held in vacuum by a precise void-shield while beyond that a small disposable heat-shield protects the missile until it reaches true space.
You watch from an orbital satellite with critical eyes, wincing faintly at the streak of fire in the upper atmosphere from the heat shield burning away. It's... pretty noticeable, though the signature is very similar to a small meteorite burning up in the planet's atmosphere. But a careful look at the data will reveal that the signature comes from something going up, and the amount of missiles you're going to launch would be a worryingly dense meteor swarm all on their own.
You probably could redesign the heat shields to make that less of a problem, but the problem is that you already made them all, and building more would take time and capacity that's just not available at the moment.
Instead, you use your mechaincus access codes to see if they have a filter that'll catch that number of missile launches. And the answer is yes - but it's overseen by a fairly simple machine spirit. You can simply delay the launches by a few months while you hack through it and make a few tweaks to the sensor algorithm so it won't automatically flag your launches. You can't delete the data with this level of access, but there's no reason for somebody to look at this random bit of sensor coverage. So you decide to risk it, and proceed with the launches.
Stealth roll for missiles - rolled 20 flat, DC was 15 for any notice (and 10 for actual alarm)
Nobody seems to notice.
100x Basic Stealth Missiles in orbit!
The other task you've been working on is sending your tech-priest avatar out on tours of the enclaves. You only had to wait for a single cloudy day to launch, and the cargo bay of your shuttle is packed with combat bots and various goods for distributing to your adherents within the Cogitare Exploraratum.
Now the plan is to ping-pong between all of the different enclaves, meeting various tech-priests and further broadening your 'official' contact network beyond just Magos Thalya and present gifts to the leaders of the various enclaves. Thalya's going to know about this inside of a day, but there's not much she can do about it - and even if she does protest, you can claim that you're looking for appropraite help to "accelerate your search." Of course, everybody will see through that and understand that this trip is about you jockeying against her for influence. And since that everybody else will be benefiting from your knowledge and gifts, they'll see no reason to complain.
Of course the second purpose is to meet the members of the Cogitare Exploraratum and get your hooks into them even deeper. Well, that might be the wrong way to phrase it. You may despise the mechanicus as a whole, but you can respect many of the individual members, and frankly want to see what they'd be capable of if freed from the restrictive chains of the machine cult.
Like Anexa. Whose come quite a long way from the shy girl I yoinked from Magos Orynn. Ah yes, Magos Orynn, at the top of my list for people I wouldn't be sad to use as thruster fuel.
Victan spends the first trip - to the Nyvaros enclave - hovering over your shoulder like an electronic ghost, trying to coach you through the interactions with your contacts and remind you of critical information that's relevant for each person. You follow his suggestions with a tone of indulgence, and there's a clear point when he forgets to tell you that one of the skitarii officers is a plant by Thalya, but you snub them anyway, and he seems to realize what he's doing.
> I don't need to be doing this, do I? [Apologetic]
> It's fine. It's funny. But I've got this. I've been dealing with humans since before Denva was first colonized. [Amused]
> I forget that sometimes. And you can process all of the notes and information I have faster than I can. Good luck, I'm going to get back to the planning. I think I can tune up our plan for meeting Thalya, then I'll check in on Aevon, see if they need anything. But I doubt it. [Self-depreciation]
> Have fun. [Anticipatory]
He gets back to you soon with a report - Aevon counterintelligence is continuing to tally up the wins, and their manufacturing has advanced to a point that you would consider acceptable, but only for high-school shop class. Still, it's improvement.
Aevon-Mechanicus Subterfuge rolled 89 Good success verging on Crit.
You continue through the enclaves and the Cogitare Exploraratum grows, even more centered around you - or rather Magos Vita - as the "Explorator" who will bring the mechanicus lost knowledge and ancient technology. You certainly distribute a number of pieces of advanced technology, most of it variously scuffed or artificially aged to make it appear like it was found from ancient ruins. But still, the end result is the same. Appreciation, influence, power.
You arm your most loyal followers with plasma pistols and melta weapons in case of violence, and while you don't think they could take over any enclaves or assassinate any of the leading Magos' on their own, it's much closer to a "maybe" than it used to be.
Finally, you use your knowledge of hacking to install backdoors in enclaves across the planet. Mostly these are aimed to give you control of the information and its flow between the enclave, allowing you to make unblockable transmissions to every member of the mechanicus, or block other people from making their own transmissions. After all, when fighting in the shadows, information is the currency of victory.
Maybe I should write that one down. It sounds good.
Then you think about it for a second and decide against it. You'd prefer never to tell anybody you said that. It's embarrasing! Besides, it's not like you have perfect control, you need better hacking abilities for that.
Which is something you've been working on. In parallel to your tour of the mechanicus enclaves you're working with Anexa to try and integrate your jamming capabilities with your hacking approach to make it faster, and ideally to be able to hack more complex machine spirits. You'd hoped that the research would have been complete before you started your tour of the enclaves, but now you're hoping it'll be ready for your meeting with Thalya.
You're increasingly thinking it won't be.
The problem isn't just that this research is making you see the machine spirits as alive. And that what you're doing is manipulating and gaslighting them in increasingly cruel ways to make them more manipulable. Or that Anexa is coming to the same conclusion, and you can tell she's not enjoying yourself.
That might be tolerable. Afterall, the machine spirits you're most interested in targeting are effectively trained attack dogs. You can pity them, but you need to put them down. No.
The problem is that it's just not working. You would have thought that the two approaches would synergize, but they just don't. No matter how you abuse the poor machine spirits, you can't get them to trust you more by emotionally hacking them. You've managed to tune it so that they don't immediately become hostile, but they'll start regarding you warily. Then any efforts to make them friendly inevitably results in them turning hostile.
The same is also true the other direction - if you "hack" a machine spirit to make it regard you as friendly, then "jam" it with emotional manipulation it'll inevitably turn hostile but with the added sting of betrayal that makes it even more vicious.
One day, a few days before you're due to head to the Denva enclave, Anexa sends you a message that's outside of the normal technical babble of you discussing your past data and future experiments.
> This isn't working. And - I don't want to torture them anymore. It's not doing anything except causing pain. When I thought we would develop something out of this I thought it was worth it, but now I'm just getting used to hearing them scream. And I don't like that [Resigned]
You take a moment to consider. You have one more idea - one more way to push ahead. But you can't help but feel that this is a turning point in your relationship with Anexa. She doesn't want to continue this research and you won't make her, but if you push forward after she's decided that it's not worth continuing, does that mean she'll lose trust in you? Specifically in your research ethics?
Maybe. And that's a high price to pay for somebody you hope will be your companion into the indefinite future.
> Ok. Let's be done. Archive the notes in case we run across something new that we might be able to compare this to, but I think we're done. [Agreement]
> Thank you, Vita. [Relief]
> I'm sorry. I know this was hard. I just thought it was worth it. [Apologetic]
> So did I. But it wasn't, and it's time to stop. I'm going to go work on my augments. [Dejected]
Researched Machine Spirit Emotional Hacking - rolled 1, critical autofail. A critical failure means that the emotional manipulation to enhance hacking is impossible, it turns out.
Additionally, Anexa doesn't level at all this turn.
Unlocked new research option - Improved Machine-spirit Jamming (400 RP)
Soon enough you're coming in for a landing at the Denva enclave. Victan's caught wind through the of Thalya's plans to dust your ship with radioisotopes so that she can track you back to your base. It's cute, though a bit chilling that she's willing to sacrifice some of her own servants to merely attempt to track you. Still, they're not your responsibility, so if she's willing to pay that price it's just one more reason to bury her.
Which might be happening sooner than she thinks.
Regardless, all you need to do is run a repellant charge through the hull of your ship and the radioisotopes should avoid settling onto your shuttle. But you've brought a good isotope scanner along just in case and if needed you can have a repair drone vaporize the top millimeter of your entire hull while you're in orbit.
Regardless, you make a point to snub her invitation and visit several other members of the Denva enclave before you have a meeting with her. You're pretending to be searching for new recruits for your dig, but everybody knows you're making a play for influence. And that you're winning. You also ignore Magos Orynn, despite him seeming somewhat desperate to meet with you.
Finally, it's time for your meeting with Thalya. You and Victan have been preparing this for years, sculpting the narrative and setting you up as a rival to Thalya's powerbase. She represents the old guard, safeguarding the enclaves against the destructive forces outside and holding firm to their mission. You represent the explorators, the education and technology that the mechanicus is capable of.
Her followers are the senior Magos's, the skitarii guards and the established power structure of the mechanicus. Yours are the youths and mid-level tech-priests, those who feel like knoweldge is being kept from them, who wish nothing more than to know, to build, to not be trapped underneath the weight of the machine cult's scriptures. They'd never had a source of hope before, and you've received nearly countless warnings that Thalya would try to destroy and isolate you.
It hasn't happened yet.
You meet with her in a wide room, each with a half-dozen guards. You know she's selected her guards with the utmost care for the ones whom are both best armed and also most loyal to her. You've got six medium combat bots of your own, each armed with powerful weapons of their own.
Still, if this devolves to a fight she'd hold the advantage. Not only are her guards the best of the best, they hold some of the most advanced weapons the Denva mechanicus has access to, guns manufactured thousands of light years away thousands of years ago. Then there's Thalya herself, a looming mechanical spider with several tentacles tipped with automated death.
If I'd had time to figure out the heavier armor troops it might have looked different, but for now she holds the upper hand. AdMech Diplomacy/Subversion rolled 92+10 (woman of stone) + 5 (Victan) = 107. Critical success!
But that's ok. It was just another factor in that planning you and Victan had done, and it's related to a critical error Thalya had made. You break the silence first.
"Magos Thalya." You greet her with a smile, your appearance completely unchanged since your first meeting. That was long enough ago - and your avatar biological enough in appearance - that she knows you've either got a mastery of biomimetic augments or a supply of juvenat. Amusingly both are true, but just the statement of one or the other is a powerplay as the mechancus does things.
It tells her that even though you're spreading around many secrets to amass influence you're far from tapped out. You project satisfaction at that into the noosphere, and you can tell from her frustration that she picks up on it.
"Magos Vita. You've been busy visiting the other Enclaves, instead of working on your excavation." Her voice is accompanied by her grumpiness, and you see her angle of attack immediately.
You allow frustration of your own to leak into the noosphere. "I'm merely looking for worthy collaberators. I have come to accept your argument that I need help, and am merely casting a wide net in finding it. More hands will accelerate my search."
She seems to perk up at this news, interest clearly signalled. "Ah, truly? Have you found any?" She's clearly trying to calculate how to use this new angle to track you back to your dig site. At this point you're almost certain that as soon as she figures out where it is she'll seize it for herself.
You nod. "Some, though I am still vetting them. I am making sure my facilities are ready and then I will invite them to me. Carefully." You emphasize the last word, and allow a trace of your cautiousness to leak out and indicate that you mean to do your level best to keep hiding your base from her.
If she still had teeth she'd be gnashing them. Instead her voice emerges from the metal grill with a bitter tone. "Is that the truth? Well, I have heard you are offering gifts to the leaders of the enclaves, to help secure their alignment with your plans. Do you have a gift for me?"
"I do." You remove a box from under your robe. It's not small, and had to be strapped to your back to fit. But now you flip open the cover to reveal the final piece in your manipulation of Thalya. Inside the box rests a Phased Plasma-fusil. You don't fully understand the blueprint, and you had to spend extra resources making up shortcomings, but it's a statement. Well, the existence of the weapon is half the statement, the other half is the state it's in. Which is clearly new, and fresh off the manufacturing line.
Unlike the other weapons you've given out there are no nicks, no dings, no changes in alloying to simulate thousands of years of aging. This weapon appears to every sensor to have been forged in the last year, and that's because it was.
You can feel the disbelief and fear tear through Thalya as the makes that analysis and recalibrates your threat level. Up until now you've presented yourself as a relatively unthreatening Magos explorator who was primarily interested in archaeology and research. Your avatar has few visible augments, enough that you could be mistaken for an acolyte at a glance, and you prefer to speak in gothic instead of binaric. That tells somebody like Thalya that you hold an attachment to the flesh that she regards as weak.
Even your recent efforts to garner influence haven't changed that demeanor too much. You're now an equal that she has to treat with instead of an underling she can order around, but you ultimately didn't present much of a threat. She controls hundreds of skitarii and the few heavy weapons the mechanicus owns. You've got a few combat servitors - but until this very moment it was clear that she believed she could crush you whenever she wanted, if only she could find your base.
But this weapon on the table between you completely changes that calculus. If you can build a weapon like this, then there's no way that you're as poorly armed as she assumed you were. She understands that in addition to influence, you also command military power. You can see her attention flicking to your combat bots, assessing their weapons and making sure she understands their armaments and there are no waiting surprises.
You feel the moment she makes the decision that you and Victan had manipulated her to make, and your avatar smiles slightly as all of her weapons lock in on your avatar. Her skitarii unlimber their weapons as one and train them on your guards.
She blares out a quick message in binaric before she fires. "%The Mechanicus on Denva is mine, Magos Vita.%"
Then the room is consumed by fire and death as the high-yield explosives embedded in your avatar and all of your combat bots within the room detonate.
You withdraw your attention from the enclave, besides ordering your bots to board the shuttle and depart, then connect with Victan.
> It worked. She's dead?[Pleased]
> She is! I'm already sending the recording out across all of the feeds, and locking down communications between the senior Magos's. Send out your own messages whenever. [Exultant]
> It's your operation. [Uncertain]
> Ok. Do it in three minutes. I want the anger at your "death" to build first. [Bared teeth]
You wait a few minutes, then send a generated video out to every mechanicus member on Denva Secundus.
"Members of the mechanicus, you have likely seen the recording of my meeting with Magos Thalya, and how she tried to assassinate me some minutes ago."
Your avatar smiles, revealing bared teeth. "She was meeting with a servitor mimic of mine, remotely piloted. The moment she attacked, I detonated the bomb contained in its torso. I'm safe in an undisclosed location, and Magos Thalya is dead. It's time for us to discuss the future of the Mechanicus on Denva Secundus."
Your smile this time can only be described as pleasant, but there's an edge of iron to it, and the emotional bands on the channel are saturated with your willingness to do what must be done.
Now, it's time to decide what to do with the new situation you've found yourself in. And maybe make a new avatar, since you blew your last one up.
Thalya is dead, the leadership of the mechanicus is up in the air.
+2 Victan levels. Damn, he's killing it out there.
Current capabilities:
Command Points 4,050/12,500
Ground Build Capacity: 2,650
Lift Capacity: 500 (converts ground to void BP)
Void Build Capacity: 0
Research Capacity: 200
Psychic Shielding: 100/100 (repair for 10 BP/point)
Juvenat usage: 23/50 people's worth (cannot be stockpiled)
Available ships:
1x Mechanicus-disguised Shuttle (5 CP)
30x Basic Stealth Fighters (30x5 CP)
100x Basic Stealth Missiles (100 CP) - in space
Misc assets:
0 BP of trade goods that Aevon will accept as rent.
Avatars: Adult human woman, indeterminate age. Female tech priest with some augmentations. boom
In progress research:
Secrets of the Machine Spirits (10/200)
Actions (choose 4 of the below, can choose the same action multiple times):
[] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular. I'm not going to write out every aspect of Vita going through the databases she yoinked. If you want to ask if something in particular is present because it's important, do so here. Please keep it to one or two items per turn.
[] Orders: Command existing units in a given theater of operations.
[] Diplomacy/Subversion: Talk to people. (Write-in goal & method) About half of the Mechanicus is associated with Cogitare Exploraratum, and they're mostly junior members. Only about a third of that is willing to commit acts of violence, but the rest will help willingly or unwillingly. That's enough to get quite a lot done, and Victan is poised to help.
[] Construction: Gain build points equal to your build capacity, write in what combination of blueprints you spend them on.
Installations
Installation default is to be built in full view. Basic stealth (building under cover, sensor-absorbing materials) can be applied with 2x BP cost. Ground-based installations can be built entirely underground for 3x BP cost.
Basic Biology Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic biological samples, such as flora & fauna. Or captives.
Basic Technological Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic technological samples, to understand their electronics, materials, etc.
Captive Holding cells (25 BP, 10 CP) will allow you to hold 500 captives and keep them fed and watered while you interrogate/indoctrinate/talk to them.
Small automated medical facility (50 BP, 50 CP) 50 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with moderate injuries.
Directional-control Radio tower (25 BP, 5 CP) improves signal reception quality and allows you to send your own signals across the planet, as well as giving you the capability to bounce them off the atmosphere to disguise their origin.
Observatory (100 BP, 25 CP) Built on a nearby mountain. Will unlock research projects to map the current system.
Manufactory (100 BP, 50 CP) More manufacturing capacity and the raw material harvesting to use it. +50 ground-based build capacity.
Rocket Launch facility (50 BP, 10 CP) Uses chemical rockets to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to half that amount of void build capacity per action. The opposite of stealthy.
Spaceport (100 BP, 25 CP) Allows you to use shuttles to convert ground build capacity to Void build capacity with no loss, or as a base to host and rearm fighters. Can host 10 fighters or 10 shuttles, each capable of converting 50 ground BP to void BP per action, built separately. Stealthier than rockets, but not invisible.
Magnetic Catapult launch system (1000 BP, 50 CP) Allows you to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to void build capacity per action with no loss. Actually quite stealthy.
Medium Void-shield Installation (1000 BP, 50 CP) A void shield capable of stopping medium orbital bombardment, approximately fifty heavy strikes.
Anti-Orbital Defenses (100 BP, 5 CP) A single large lance dug into a reinforced bunker. Will prevent hostile forces from claiming the orbits uncontested, but can be neutralized by orbital bombardment or ground invasion.
Anti-Air Defenses (25 BP, 5 CP) A trio of rapid-recharge lascannons backed up by advanced targeting software in a reinforced emplacement with an upwards-facing arc. Will attempt to destroy ballistic missiles, aircraft or shuttles as they approach. Can miss or be saturated by large amounts of incoming fire or miss and fail to destroy their targets.
Machine-spirit Jammer (100 BP, 10 CP) A bank of cogitators capable of jamming a large number of small machine spirits (weapons, doors), several medium machine spirits (vehicles) or one large machine spirit (small ship). Effect is temporary and resistance will build up.
Basic Juvenat Production Facility (250 BP, 50 CP) A set of carefully-managed vats capable of supplying 50 people with a perennial supply of Juvenat.
Void Installations
These are built in space. They require 'void BP' which is associated with lift capacity. This is a detail we'll abandon eventually, but for now your lift capacity is limited.
Orbital Manufactory (500 void BP, 50 CP) Orbital manufacturing capability, built above a world. Includes material harvesting & transport. Gives +50 void build capacity.
Deep Space Manufactory (1500 void BP, 50 CP) Manufacturing capacity built near asteroid clusters. Gives +100 void build capacity. Automatic basic stealth. Requires you to do a system survey.
Small Shipyard (1000 void BP, 50 CP) All of the necessary facilities to manufacture 4 destroyers or 2 frigates per turn.
Medium Shipyard (5000 void BP, 100 CP) All of the necessary facilities to manufacture 16 destroyers or 8 frigates or 2 light cruisers per turn.
Basic space stealth missile (5 Void BP, 1 CP) Rests steailthily in orbit, until activated, at which point it can attack nearly any target in orbit. One-shots satellites, many are needed for ships or larger platforms.
Ground-to-orbit shuttle (20 BP, 5 CP) Each shuttle converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
Basic Stealth Fighters (25 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Ground-to-orbit Fighter (20 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Requires frigate-capable shipyard. Small system monitor (2525 void BP, 100 CP) Frigate, 2200x600 meters. 5 gravities of acceleration. Heavy armor, Heavy Shields. 4x Medium Macrocannons, 1x Medium Lances, 2x Point Defense.
1000 bp base. 1000 bp
Units
Avatar (10 BP, 0 CP) 1 human-appearing robot.
Light infantry bots (25 BP, 200 CP). 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with light arms and armor, mostly intended to fight lightly-armored enemies. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Can be humanized for +15 BP to appear humanoid unless bodies are investigated, with a slight malus to strength and armor.
Medium Infantry Bots (50 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with medium armor and light anti-tank weaponry. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Can be humanized for +15 BP to appear humanoid unless bodies are investigated, with a slight malus to strength and armor.
Medium tanks (200 BP, 50 CP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons to fight enemy armor.
Basic Artillery (300 BP, 50 CP) 50 basic artillery units, capable of shelling battlefields with indirect fire. Includes internal ammunition fabrication.
Export Goods
Light Infantry Weapons (5 BP) Enough light weapons to outfit 1000 humans. Mostly intended for anti-personnel use. Lasguns, a few stubbers, some grenade launchers and supplies of frag grenades.
Light Infantry Armor (5 BP) Enough light armor to outfit 1000 humans. Roughly equivalent to Imperial guard Flak armor, though with better communication abilities.
Medium Infantry Weapons (10 BP) Enough medium weapons to outfit 1000 humans. A mix of anti-armor and anti-personnel use with greater specialization. Hotshot las-gun equivalents, some lascannons, some autocannons, some flamers, some sniper rifles, a supply of krak grenades.
Medium Infantry Armor (10 BP) Enough medium armor to outfit 1000 humans. Roughly equivalent to Imperial carapace armor.
Heavy Infantry Weapons (20 BP) Enough heavy weapons to outfit 1000 humans. Primarily focused on anti-armor, will work well on power-armored foes. Plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers.
Light crewed tanks (100 BP) 100 light battle tanks, primarily armed with anti-personnel weapons. Need crew. Roughly equivalent to the Imperial Chimera.
Medium crewed tanks (200 BP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons to fight enemy armor. Roughly equivalent to the Leman Russ.
Basic Crewed artillery (300 BP) 50 basic artillery units, capable of shelling battlefields with indirect fire. Includes internal ammunition fabrication.
Trade goods (Any cost you wish to spend) A mix of medical supplies, civilian equipment, vehicles and appliances tailored to your trade partner's needs. 5 is a small amount of goods, 10 is decent, 20 is a fair number, 50 starts being quite a lot.
Manned Manufactory (100 BP) More manufacturing capacity and the raw material harvesting to use it. +50 ground-based build capacity, to be spent as the people running it desire.
[] Research: Gain research points equal to your research capacity, to be spent designing new blueprints or researching projects. Write in what you spend them on.
Designable Blueprints:
100 RP - Heavy Infantry Bots (100 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with heavy armor, roughly equivalent to the Sisters of Battle, and heavy armaments such as plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers.
50 RP - Heavy tanks (500 BP, 50 CP) 100 heavy battle tanks with heavy battle cannons to fight effectively against heavy enemy armor.
50 RP - Medium Shielded tanks (500 BP, 50 CP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons & antipersonnel weapons to fight enemy armor and infantry. Very survivable.
100 RP - Heavy Shielded tanks (1000 BP, 50 CP) 100 heavy battle tanks with heavy battle cannons and void shields to fight effectively against heavy enemy armor. Very survivable.
25 RP - Man-portable Machine-Spirit Jammers (10 BP) Enough small devices in the forms of vox-units, bluescreen grenades and directed antennae to arm 1000 humans or combat bots with gear that increases their effectiveness against enemies using weapons, armor and vehicles with machine spirits.
50 RP - BasicStealth Shuttles (25 BP, 5 CP) Each shuttle converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity, and shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking for it. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
50 RP - Bombers (20 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver cargo to your enemies. Can deliver a fair amount of ordinance to a target in atmosphere or out of it. Unlocks a bomber hanger attachment for ships.
75 RP - Basic StealthBombers (20 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver cargo to your enemies. Can deliver a fair amount of ordinance to a target in atmosphere or out of it. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Unlocks a bomber hanger attachment for ships.
50 RP - Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire.
75 RP - Basic Stealth Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire.
25 RP - Anti-armor Bunker (50 BP, 5 CP) A bunker with a heavy melta cannon, able to take out most armor in a single shot.
15 RP - Anti-personnel Bunker (20 BP, 2 CP) A bunker with a set of high-fire-rate weapons designed to take down humanoid-sized attackers wearing medium or lighter armor.
50 RP - Light Void-shield installation (250 BP, 25 CP) A void shield capable of stopping light orbital bombardment, approximately ten heavy strikes.
50 RP - Ballistic missile (50 BP, 10 CP) A long-range ballistic missile. By default it carries a high-yield explosive head capable of destroying approximately a city block. Can be intercepted by orbital defenses.
50 RP - Nuclear warhead (25 BP, 1 CP) A variable-yield nuclear warhead that can be deployed by ballistic missile or other means to destroy a city-sized target unless it's heavily dug-in.
25 RP - Spy satellite (10 void BP, 5 CP) A small spy satellite that lets you do your own surveillance on the planet below. Under your complete control and with better sensors and communication hardening than any of the local satellites.
100 RP - Advanced Technological Research Lab (500 BP, 100 CP) Will allow you to process advanced technological samples, including materials of alien orgin. Has advanced scanning, modelling and processing capabilities.
50 RP - Large automated medical facility (500 BP, 50 CP) 500 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with moderate injuries.
25 RP - Maglev System (5 bp/mile, 50 flat CP) A high-capacity maglev system to transport large amounts of goods across a planetary surface, linking various surface installations together into a single network so production from any of them can be applied at all of them.
Ground Blueprint Design:
To design ground installations & non-combat units, post them and I'll add them here if they're valid, along with RP cost to design them. This includes bunkers, anti-orbital defenses, ground units, etc. You'll unlock more things with more technology. Some things are impossible without the correct research - for example, heavy tanks will require you to research heavy armor first. Other things will be very cheap if you already have most of the design - for example if you research a better weapon it will be relatively cheap to just swap that out on the tanks.
Void Blueprint design:
To design void blueprints, follow these steps:
Choose a starting hull from the list of available void chassis below
Choose the number of Build Points to be spent on the base hull. This corresponds to overall size of the ship - a destroyer with 200 bp will be 1200x200 meters, while a 500 bp base destroyer will be 1600x400 meters. This will set the "hp" of the design as well as determine the total cost of weapons and combat equipment you can fit into the ship.
Pick the speed, shields and armor of the design. Shields are recharging temp HP, while armor is damage reduction. Speed is self-explanatory. These do not count towards weapon cramming.
Pick noncombat equipment to go onto the ship. These do not count towards weapon cramming.
Choose weapons and combat equipment to add to the ship. As a rule of thumb, your budget for these things is the base BP spent on size before you start to get into cramming. You can cram more stuff in, but there will be penalties to maneuvering, maintenance, etc. As an example, if you build a destroyer with a base hull cost of 400, then you have a budget of 400 to spend on weapons/equipment before penalties start kicking in. See the below example for an explanation:
Spend the number of RP attached to the chassis.
Here are two examples of me designing the two blueprints you have available:
(Basic Defense Satellite) Light defense Platform. Base 100 Bp (200x200 meters). No engines, Light shields for 50 bp, light armor for 50 bp. 1x light lance battery for 100 bp. Total is 100+50+50+100 = 300. Weapons+equipment is 100, within the base BP of 100, so no cramming penalty.
(Basic System Monitor) Destroyer chassis. Base BP 350 (1500x300 meters) Engines: 7 gravities for 100 BP. Light Shields for 50 BP. Medium armor for 100 BP. 2x Light Macrocannon batteries for 200 bp, 1x Light Lance battery for 100 bp, High maneuverability thrusters for (1/10 base, round up to nearest 50 =) 50 bp. Total is 350+100+50+100+200+100+50 = 950. Weapons + equipment is 350, within the base BP of 350, so no cramming penalty.
Available Void Chassis:
Light defense Platform, 25 RP, 10 CP, (100-400 BP, 200x200-500x500 meters.) Engines: (none) for (0). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Destroyer, 50 RP, 50 CP. (200-500 BP, 1200x200-1600x400 meters) Engines: (6/7/8 gravities) for (50/100/150 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Frigate, 100 RP, 100 CP. (500-1000 BP, 1600x400-2200x600 meters) Engines: (5/6/7 gravities) for (75/150/225 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium/heavy) for (0/75/150/225) Armor: (none/light/medium/heavy) for (0/75/150/225)
Light Cruiser, 150 RP, 200 CP. (1000-2000 BP, 3500x400-4400x800 meters) Engines: (3/4/5 gravities) for (100/200/300 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/100/200) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/100/200)
Available Non-combat Equipment:
Living Space (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is built to be run and operated by humans. It will require a crew but will not cost CP to command.
Warp Drive (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can jump to the warp. Navigation systems sold separately.
Psychic Shielding (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship has a neural network integrated throughout the whole thing, that thinks "no" as hard as possible, answering the question for any warp-corruption for any beings or objects within the hull.
Troop compartment (25 BP) Can carry 10,000 soldiers or 500 medium tanks across the stars.
Medical bay (25 BP) Can treat 1000 moderately injured people at once.
Manufactory (Any cost up to base cost of hull, counts as combat equipment for cramming purposes) Generates void BP equivalent to 1/10 of its cost.
Repair Bay (Any cost up to base cost of hull, counts as combat equipment for cramming purposes). Repairs damage across friendly ships equal to its cost in repairs.
Available Weapons:
Prow Ram 50 bp. This ship is built to run into things, and hurt them more than it gets hurt.
Light Macrocannons 100 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage. Medium Macrocannons 200 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage. Heavy Macrocannons 400 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage.
Light Lances 100 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire. Medium Lances 200 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire. Heavy Lances 400 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire.
Light Missiles 50 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon. Medium Missiles 100 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon. Heavy Missiles 200 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon.
Light Plasma Cannon 250 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields. Medium Plasma Cannon 500 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields, less effective against armor.
Light Melta cannon 200 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields. Medium Melta cannon 400 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields.
Fighters 100 BP, 50 CP. Parasite craft with short-ranged guns and some missile capability.
Point Defense 50 BP. A series of turrets on the hull to shoot down enemy fighters, missiles and torpedoes.
Small Torpedoes 150 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to give destroyers a bad day, hurt frigates and prick cruisers. Medium Torpedoes 300 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to wreck frigates, hurt cruisers and make grand cruisers know they've been touched.
Light Teleportarium 100 bp. Can teleport a small number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from close range. Enemy shields must be down. Medium Teleportarium 200 bp. Can teleport a medium number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from medium-close. Enemy shields must be down. Heavy Teleportarium 400 bp. Can teleport a large number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from long range. Enemy shields must be down.
Available Combat Equipment:
Low-emission Systems (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship has been tuned to reduce overall emissions, making it stealthier. Not stealthy. Stealthier.
High-maneuverability thrusters (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is more maneuverable, able to flip, spin and dodge more quickly. This lets it maneuver well through dense asteroid clusters and dodge/ram more effectively in combat.
Plasma payloads (choose missile warheads or Macro cannon warheads) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire plasma-warhead ammunition, which has a flat damage increase.
Melta payloads (choose missile warheads, Macrocannon warheads or torpedoes) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire melta-warhead ammunition, which is especially effective against enemy armor and hulls.
Tuned Shields Costs the same as the chosen armor cost, but does count towards cramming (not the total cost, just the extra cost for tuned shields, so if shields costs 100 bp, then tuned shields cost 100 bp and 100 bp is counted against cramming). These shields recharge significantly faster, but when taken down all the way take slightly longer to reboot.
Alloyed Armor Costs the same as the chosen armor cost, does count towards cramming (not the total cost, just the extra cost for tuned shields, so if armor costs 100 bp, then alloyed armor costs 100 bp and 100 bp is counted against cramming). Armor is much tougher but is harder to repair.
Light Boarding preparations (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) Bulkheads are reinforced, extra hatches seal all decks and turrets guard key chokepoints, making boarding annoying. Medium Boarding preparations (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) The ship layout is designed to funnel borders into kill-zones in front of armored bunkers, and any borders will take heavy casualties. Heavy Boarding preparations (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship as essentially a flying dungeon, filled with escherian mazes, hidden turrets, crushing-hallways and other deathtraps.
Light Machine Spirit Jammers (1/20 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Enough to cause significant degradation in an enemy ship's sensors, maneuvering and targeting. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class. Medium Machine Spirit Jammers (1/10 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Same as light jammers, plus will also effect total thrust, weapons firing rate. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class. Heavy Machine Spirit Jammers (1/5 of the base cost of hull, rounded up to nearest 50) Banks of cogitators with code to disable machine spirits. Same effect as medium, but may also effect friend-foe designation and reactor stability. Primarily effective against ships of the same weight class.
The ways to get new research options are to:
Do research. That'll unlock more research.
Build appropriate installations & potentially acquire samples to research in them (samples could be anything from 'a human' to 'a Norn queen' in rarity).
Ask for them. Often I'll tell you what you need to do to unlock specific research options,
-[] Efficient Weapon Distribution (100 RP) Ok, there must be more efficient ways to lay weapons out on these ships! (Weapon costs count as 0.9x for ship capacity packing.)
-[] Heavy Cruisers (300 RP) How to make a bigger ship? Let's figure that out. Surely it's not much more complicated than just multiplying all of the dimensons by two! (unlocks heavy cruisers)
-[] Can I have a new ship please? (200 RP) Triggers a sub-turn to design yourself a new ship. It can be any size, up to one class larger than what you currently have available (This is Vita's unique mechanic, and will let you design the first iteration of your ship)
-[] Basic Spaceship Stealth (100 RP) Spaceships are big, and emit a lot of energy. It's hard to hide them. Nonetheless, by making them show up worse on active sensors you could make an inactive spaceship much harder to spot. (Unlocks new non-combat equipment to improve ship stealth. Unlocks further research towards better spaceship stealth. Will be able to take advantage of some other stealth technologies.)
-[] Basic Ground force stealth (50 RP) Tanks show up pretty well on scanners, and it would be nice to change that. You might also be able to make your bots hide better. (Unlocks new design options for tanks and ground forces that are less obvious. Unlocks further research towards better ground force stealth. Will be able to take advantage of some other stealth technologies.)
-[] Improved Passive Stealth (100 RP) Ok, you've figured out the basics of hiding your small craft, but you have ideas on what you can do better, that might allow them to hide from even fully-alert enemies. They probably won't be able to close all the way to attack range, but they'll be able to get a lot closer (Unlocks improved stealth designs with improved performance. Unlocks further research for advanced passive stealth technologies. Will synergize with other stealth research.)
-[] Basic Active Stealth (150 RP) Just deflecting away and hiding your signature only helps so much. Then next step is to overlay a hologram over your small craft to make them effectively invisible, and even counter passive sensors. It'll still be a hazy outline, but this is the path towards being able to close to actual combat ranges unobserved (Unlocks improved stealth designs for actively hiding signatures, though they will be expensive. Unlocks further research for improved active stealth, and will synergize with other stealth research.
-[] Shuttle automation (150 RP) Surely I don't have to fly these stupid things myself. (Reduce the CP cost of shuttles by 50%)
-[] Heavy In-atmosphere void shields (200 RP) Well, the void shields you have are nice. But it would be nice to be able to build bigger ones, that can shrug off essentially any possible orbital bombardment. You need to figure out how to take advantage of the ridiculous energy and heat dissipation capabilities of being on a planet. (Unlocks heavy and super-heavy void shield installations. May unlock research towards better overall void shielding.)
-[] Tiny In-atmosphere void shields (200 RP) Instead of scaling up a void shield, can you scale one down to the size of a person? It won't be as capable of the big ones, but if it's only meant to block small-arms fire it could be quite effective. (Unlocks the ability to build personal void shields, as well as add them to combat bots. May unlock research towards better overall void shielding)
-[] Superheavy Armor (200 RP) Let's just stick starship armor on them and call it a day. (Unlocks superheavy tanks and is half of the puzzle for space-marine-quality power armor)
-[] Advanced Materials (300 RP) You know there are exotic elements with absurd physical properties. But it's also possible to build absurdly strong materials with common elements. How does that work? Time to dust off some ancient research projects and figure this stuff out. (Unlocks improved armor, as well as research to unlock megastructures. Also required for battleships and larger walkers)
-[] Basic power armor (100 RP) Putting heavy armor on a person doesn't work well because... well. It's heavy. If you can give it some robotic actuation then they don't need to carry all of it. (Unlocks humanoid heavy armor, as well as being a prereq for superheavy-humanoid armor, i.e. for space marine-quality, once you research superheavy armor.)
-[] Avatar self-customization (200 RP) Your previous avatar was capable of changing its appearance at your whim, changing the hair, eye and skim color rapidly. Hair length and body size changes took a bit longer but were also possible. Is this worth figuring out? It might just be you being vain. (Unlocks some disguise-style cybernetics... once you get good cybernetics and can do things like skin/eye replacements).
-[] Combat Bot Humanization, Redux (50 RP) Your first try at making humanoid-looking combat bots worked, but you had to make some annoying compromises. You have some ideas on how to fix it, you just need to implement them. (Fixes the combat malus that comes from humanizing combat bots).
-[] Walkers (300 RP) Tanks are... kind of boring? Mechs are cooler. (unlock armiger knights, starts the knights/titans research tree)
-[] Really good Robotics: (1050 RP) You know it's possible to make robots that are really strong. You've seen the specs floating around. You just don't quite know how to do it, though you've got some ideas on the matter... it would take quite a bit of simulation and a lot of trial and error to bring them into reality (Unlocks improvements to avatars, power armor, cybernetics, combat bots, improved manufactories). Acquire samples of advanced robots to reduce this cost.
-[] Intelligence Coding (500 RP) You don't really understand how your own code and hardware works. Maybe putting some effort into understanding that would pay dividends. It's never been something too interesting, but hey, maybe you should give it a shot. (Helps you understand your own code. Prerequisite to building new AIs, starts command point tree and automation tree, also unlocks personality-checking research)
-[] Improved Psychic shielding: (500 RP) Your "no" shielding seems to have worked to protect you from attack so far. But the design is really just a first-generation version. You could develop the second generation, make it capable of more complex and powerful thoughts? (Gives you the ability to build improved psychic shielding, and further upgrades down the path to make it even stronger, half of the research towards using this as some kind of attack against warp beings).
-[] Miniaturized psychic shielding: (300 RP) Right now you can build and repair psychic shielding that's roughly ship-sized. Maybe aiming for building-sized next? (Lets you build smaller and less expensive versions of the psychic shielding. Unlocks further research to "nest" the shielding, as well as build person-sized versions).
- [] The Basics of Psytech (200 RP) You have that pile of samples from Prospero. You were supposed to see if anybody was interested in them, but you doubt the people who gave them to you will care much what you do with them anymore. Maybe poke around and figure out what's what. (Beginner psytech learnings. Unlocks research projects to build individual pieces of psytech)
-[] The workings of a Void Abacus (200 RP) You have a void abacus. It's pretty complicated, but you also have the manual, and you've always been good at physics. (You're better at using your void abacus, and unlocks the technology to figure out how to manufacture them, half of unlocking research for better warp understanding).
-[] A Study of Physics (150 RP) You have a good understanding of physics, and access to a huge network of academic papers from several different eras on physics theory. But being able to query it and understand it are different things. It's actually kind of interesting, you have to admit. (First steps towards more exotic weapon types like nova cannons, graviton weapons, vortex bombs, fusion beamers, as well as some new potential manufacturing techniques).
-[] Secrets of the Machine Spirits (200 RP) You can imagine a lot of uses for these machine spirits in your own work. If they're included in the command loop on various pieces of machinery then that would reduce their command cost, and likely make them harder to hack. And if the Imperial literature is to be believed, corrupt? (Unlocks the ability to stick machine spirits into your combat bots, reducing CP cost. Unlocks follow-up research to use them for chaos shielding, as well as the ability to put machine spirits into installations or ships)
-[] Minaturized antigrav (100 RP) You can make antigrav that reduces the weight of things like shuttles to make them able to make orbit. But there's a floor on how small you can make that technology. The Imperium seems to have solved that. (Unlocks drones, jump-packs etc, as well as additional research to make antigrav vehicles/walkers)
-[] Servitorization (100 RP) You find it repulsive, but being able to replace somebody's brain with a computer that drives them around would have its uses. (Unlocks the ability to servitorize people in the medbay. Unlocks follow-on research to replicate their personality as well)
-[] Organ replacements (100 RP) Well, one area where lag isn't a problem is in organ replacements. It's not the same as juvenat, but it's less complicated and a good way to extend peoples' lives by a bit since you can replace most of their organs as they fail, though the technological versions aren't perfect. Also lets you provide more advanced medical care, as well as install things like adrenaline glands, toxin-filters & other miscellaneous internal augments. Not as good as genetic engineering, but easier. (Unlocks advanced organ replacements that are effectively as good as biological ones, and improved internal augments).
-[] Combat cybernetics (50 RP) Your limb cybernetics are fine for most purposes, but they're not strong enough or durable enough for use in combat situations. You also could figure out how to do things like integrate internal weapons or cutting edges to make them more dangerous. (Unlocks basic combat augments. Half of the technology for advanced combat augments, the other half is Really good Robotics)
-[] Combat Neural Implants (100 RP) Allows you to install neural implants to calculate trajectories, assist with aiming, further improve reaction time and generally improve human capabilities in combat. (Unlocks combat-focused neural implants. Will synergize with other cybernetics and neural implant technologies)
-[] Biology is kinda wet (100 RP) Unlocks basic biology research. (The first step towards research projects related to improving juvenat yield, as well as human/xeno genetics, improved medical care, interrogaton drugs etc.)
-[] Rapid hacking (600RP) You need to figure out a new approach to subverting machine spirits. It might involve some combination of confusing them with a burst of signals, then showing up and 'relieving' the issue. But it would take a lot of trial-and-error to get right. (Improves hacking of imperial tech. Potentially enough for use in combat situations? May unlock advanced hacking research that synergizes with jamming capabilities').
-[] Improved Machine-spirit Jamming (400 RP) Well, you can't combine it with hacking, but you can still try to improve what you have to be more efficent, target more machine spirits at a time, etc. (Improves success rate of jamming imperial tech, decreases failure penalties. May unlock further jamming technology)
-[] Organic-Machine control (200 RP) Allows you to hook humans into your own command-and-control loop, allowing you to turn over command duties of various bots to humans - though they'll only be able to command combat units. (Unlocks brain implants that allow a human to control some number of CP worth of combat bots/ships. There are more technologies to allow humans to command larger ships/manufacturing systems as well) Locked behind brain implants.
Locked behind samples/installations/prereqs:
-[] Advanced Neural Implants (200 RP) Well, your current neural implants are good, but what if you further integrated them into the brain, improving throughput and allowing the recipient even further integrate themselves with digital systems (unlocks advanced neural implants, unlocks further technologies related to neural implants, such as basic cognition filters). Requires Biology is kind of wet, a subsequent biology tech and Organ replacements.
-[] Basic Cognition Filter: (??? RP) Antimemetic threats are such a hassle. Even the programs you've written to partion your own knowledge are an ad-hoc solution. And aside from having an innate resistance above the zero-tolerance you likely have, humans have a really hard time not thinking about something. Fix it. Work out a method for existing brain-augments to isolate knowledge on cognitohazards to the augment's machine spirit in inert memory vaults. The user will have to instead consciously override the locks on the chosen memories to access them temporarily. That way, stray thoughts about the isolated memories cannot happen, and long-term memories in the brain when the memory vaults are unlocked get instead rerouted to the machine spirit of the brain implant. Will have a harder time isolating knowledge from existing long-term memories formed when not actively using the cognition filter. (Unlocks cognition filter modification to brain implants, unlocks further technologies related to cognition filter and methods for mitigating cognitohazards, basilisk hacks, etc. perceived in real-time.) Requires Advanced Neural Implants, cost to be determined by the roll on that research.
- [] Personality-Checking Routines (200 RP) All of this chaos-corruption is making you nervous. People changing according to the will of some warp-entity? Becoming different in ways that would disgust their past selves? That gives you the heebee-jeebies. Maybe - just maybe - it would be good to develop some ways to automatically check if aspects of your personality are diverging ways you don't want them to. Then you might be able to fix the problem before you become somebody who doesn't want (Gives you some algorithms to check for personality divergence in AIs. Doesn't do anything, just alerts you to changes and lets you decide what steps to take. Unlocks further research to prevent/rollback personality change, as well as potentially extend this research to humans with neural implants). Locked behind Intelligence Coding.
Crew :
Anexa Ifina, Tech-priest Errant.
Level 5
-[] Anexa active Action: Research - assists a research action you take, granting +5xLevel RP to the action. Will level on successful roll, scaled by the importance of the tech.
-[] Anexa passive action: Education - Roll to level, difficulty is 10+5xLevel
Victan Thallos, Spy.
Level 7
-[] Victan active action: Subversion - assists a diplomacy action you take for the purposes of covert action, granting +Level to the dice to the action. Will level on successful roll, scaled by the significance of the action.
-[] Victan passive action: Counterespionage & communication - Defends against covert action, as well as gathering information on your foes and keeping communication channels open with any allies present. Will only level if something interesting happens.
This posting schedule is more likely what we'll see going forward - I just couldn't get the update done in one day, and that's likely to be true going forward as well.
Any other roll than a 1 would have gotten you a success on the research roll. But because it was a 1, you failed. That means that this kind of technology is impossible, and the option is lost. If this was a core part of research tree you'd still have the option to continue with a higher cost, but because it's a sidegrade it's just gone. Too bad.
I first wrote this as Thalya just letting you keep building up influence, but then realized that she wouldn't let it go so easily. Her foundational power is military, and the moment she thought Vita was escaping her ability to take down with force she'd implement that force. So with the crit I decided to lean into it, and have Vita (and Victan) see her reaction coming and figure out how to use it for their own ends.
Let's do 24 hours of moratorium and 18 hours of voting.
[] Diplomacy/Subversion: Talk to people. (Write-in goal & method) Thalya is expecting a report this turn, though you have options other than simply sending her a report now. Only about a tenth of the Mechanicus is associated with Cogitare Exploraratum at this point in time, and only about a third of that is willing to commit acts of violence, but the rest will help willingly or unwillingly. That's enough to get quite a lot done, and Victan is poised to help.
That was a satisfying turn. Too bad we missed out on the tech, but I'm more than happy with critting on the important stuff like the missiles and getting rid of a thorn in our side in exchange.
Your avatar smiles, revealing bared teeth. "She was meeting with a servitor mimic of mine, remotely piloted. The moment she attacked, I detonated the bomb contained in its torso. I'm safe in an undisclosed location, and Magos Thalya is dead. It's time for us to discuss the future of the Mechanicus on Denva Secundus."
We should build an avatar body that's our "real" one. it would be fun to build the sort of thing they would expect. Some massive spider legged "cyborg" that's mostly a few bits of flesh on what is otherwise a spider tank.
Oh this was fun. I'm not sure how much we have to do to take still control over the admechs at this point but it seems like mostly a done deal. It's going to be fascinating to see the successor organization, because they'll have to keep a bunch of the rituals in order to keep the machine spirits happy, but the rest can be ditched. So it will look largely the same at first glance, maybe?
And now we can build openly, I am assuming. Very curious about the navigator station now and what might be there.
I'd vote for researching our psytech, talking to the monasteries, and starting on a space elevator? Or should we just try to start on a void-based production pipeline directly, with shuttles and the rail launcher?
Honestly the sacrifice for the machine spirit hacking just to have Thalya permanently dead is worth it. Especially with how it is well written though we should have a new tech priest, maybe make it more augmetic with some skin and such to make it different then the previous one?
Alright sweet sweet victory!
I think we share historical files and methods on science and how the DAoT humanity reached the peak, together with a rough view on how far they thought the peak was, along with the historical records of Mechanicus' decay in ability with a big speech on how you intend to recreate their success and not just halt, but invert the decay of knowledge.
Maybe flash an index of your database and tell an epic life story about a crisis of faith.
First order of business is, ofc. tearing down all contingency WMD's. Clear out all the traps and contingencies. As you do, you can see about leading people to the conclusion of making it more open and less competitive with a lot more knowledge sharing all around. Turn it into grand collegiums and scientific institutes and factory complexes.
Our new avatar should probably look... mostly human, but absolutely brimming with obvious, brand new archeotech implants. Styled in Anexa's art-deco? Same general face tho.
Let's make that art-deco the new style.
I kinda feel bad for Orryn and can't help but hope he survived. If only to see what he wanted to say.
