Thank you. All of your reply is helpful, and I understand that I've been very pointed, probably more than I should have been. Sorry.
Having a narrative preference is valid. I just ask you to lead with that in the future - because if that's your bottom line, if that's what's most important to you about all of this, than that should be front and center. Absent that, people won't just try to debate your rhetoric about risk and opportunity cost - they'll try to convince you through it, and get frustrated when that doesn't seem to accomplish anything.
Because, of course, that won't touch on what's actually important, and nobody here has the right to demand you change your opinion about what kind of story you would like to read. Goals can be pursued in objectively better or worse ways and we can debate that, but what you enjoy or don't enjoy is not something anyone can debate. You and you alone decide your preference for that, all anyone else should do there is offer their own.
They have to know that's the situation first, though.
That said? You're not alone on being tired of bongo. I think one of the big reasons why a lot of people "switched sides" about bongo is because we're basically getting catharsis from all of that grind and frustration.
But, and this is where some of my personal tiredness and frustration came into it, a very significant part of that grind was the relitigation of mostly settled issues. We have not spent more actions on psy shield research and bongo than we have on material priorities - but we have absolutely spent more time arguing about it, spread out over more turns.
Which is maybe why it feels like the quest has been overly focused on the scrapcode generator even though the text of the work itself honestly hasn't been.
So anyways, that's the important part. Now to respond to some of the points about in-universe stuff:
The temptation is that it has knowledge that we cannot get anywhere else, as long as we keep interacting with it and keep giving it chances to get it's hooks in us- this means it can never be fully safe because the vice it exists to punish is greed and hubris. Try to take too much, be too confident in your precautions- those are the risks.
A sealed evil serves as a big bad when it is released, and it is usually released through the unwitting actions of a naive explorer, trying to discover what is hidden in the vault. I'm this story, that could be either one of the crew or Vita herself. There are no cases where it just stays sealed forever- that's like a checkov's gun never getting fired. Having a bunch of these in a vault would actually reduce the risk- conservation of ninjitsu would make each one less of an agent on its own, but one singular one taking narrative prominence is trouble.
So, it's worth noting - you would be 100% correct in a traditional narrative. The more time is spent on something, the more important it should be to the story or you're wasting the readers' time.
The thing is, in questing what time is spent on and what gets paid off isn't the sole choice of the author. Our choice to spend time or focus on the scrapcode generator does not make it become a greater threat, to avoid having a chekhov's gun that does not fire. To function as a game, it must be possible to interact with the world logically. There have to be rules.
Because the thing is... the scrapcode generator is not in the immaterium, where narrative logic trumps all. It is here, in the materium, and across all of warhammer, 40k and fantasy, bending the materium with the logic of the warp takes power, and it takes power in proportion to how much it is bent.
If Bongo wants to invoke the inverse law of ninjitsu, it has to pay a price proportionate to that, and every indication we have is that it can't. The ability to do stuff with the warp is itself predicated on paying costs proportional to how "important" that act is.
And the scrapcode generator just... isn't. It's not that important in the grand scheme of things. More sophisticated than most, sure, but not that powerful, not that connected, and not the centerpiece of our story nor the story of the technology used to contain him; technology that wields the warp with more power than it does.
As for alternative chaos protections - personality change notifications and backups for Vita aren't applicable to Denva, which has been a major concern of mine. We're making good progress towards the equivalent for people, I just rolled a specialty for Anexa on implants for example, but it's a slower path than psy shields to being sufficient, and ultimately isn't a substitute for anyone because with all shields down, scrap code could just corrupt the backups too.
As Vita has pointed out - Malware with Purpose doesn't care that much about material defenses. It achieves its goal unless something else puts power behind a purpose counter to it. Right now, the only things we've got that do that are machine spirits and psy shields, the techs we took.
Despite everything, I think we still had to go through roughly the techs we did before we were ready to go out into the world.
I'm pretty sure this daemon does not know how to navigate, some daemons might, but there is no reason why you would make a scrapcode generator out of one with that skill.
I think he means more in a general way that by beating the bongo pinata we are getting warp fundamentals
Like empath sensor stuff seems a massive synergy with void abacus
I consider it complementary,there is so much ways to synergize that we can just pick anything from the warp tech tree and down the line will give us discounts for other stuff
>psyker and nav genetics mix well with machine spirits,empath sensors and OMC implants for example
We can beat bongo for cheaper warp fundamentals,then research the more complex waro stuff
We got that from Immaterium Investigation which derived from the Warp Abacus, not from the scrapcode generator.
IIRC, and I might not, the scrapcode generator has given us psy-shield and scrapcode related points. EDIT: Also hacking and some machine spirit chaos resistance.
We got that from Immaterium Investigation which derived from the Warp Abacus, not from the scrapcode generator.
IIRC, and I might not, the scrapcode generator has given us psy-shield and scrapcode related points. EDIT: Also hacking and some machine spirit chaos resistance.
I won't lie a lot of my motivation in this whole plan is making our own Scrapcode. That's a juicy as hell option, since it basically lets us start fucking with any tech we find, even tech specifically hardened against our hacking abilities as an AI.
I won't lie a lot of my motivation in this whole plan is making our own Scrapcode. That's a juicy as hell option, since it basically lets us start fucking with any tech we find, even tech specifically hardened against our hacking abilities as an AI.
I'm almost certain it'd work against Chaos, given that it's specifically warp-enhanced malware. It might be the main type of hacking worth using against higher tier Chaos honestly, at least against anything that's using Chaos blessings or daemons. Necrons… well, I'm pretty sure it'd have better odds than anything else we could hope to pull out.
My big thought on this is that we've been told even navigating the warp will damage our shields, so we'll need advanced psychic shield tech. Having it also makes training psykers safer, and it makes researching the warp safer. Consider the warp investigation lab is opening warp gates and what that may do with poor shielding.
That said, I have been advocating for other military/material research, especially cheap/foundational tech and automation.
Ok so I've been doing comparisons of benefits in the research list first no negotiation we get machine spirit design ( 200 RP) because more RP the rest of the improvements are desert.
Med school (20 RP left) just to get it done
next Improved Gellar Fields (100 RP)decrease travel damage nuff said.
Next is machine spirit psy shield (200 RP) base success is more resistance high rollsight give it auto repair.
Next up empathy as sensors (150 RP) if we want to set up observation bases this is the path
Next Starship stealth (100 RP) improve our strike fighters and a path to making our destroyers and frigates harder to find also we'll need it for observation bases to stay safe.
Finally passive stealth (50 RP) again part of the observation bases route
So all up 820 RP cost Anexa is about to have 65 RP so this is mostly doable across 3 turns
Ok so I've been doing comparisons of benefits in the research list first no negotiation we get machine spirit design ( 200 RP) because more RP the rest of the improvements are desert.
Empathy as sensors would hotrod any of our other warp research, and is another potent defense against the scrapcode generator.
Faith studies (for chaos resist) is something we may want to get done early so we can work the kinks out by the time we get back to Denva. That way when (if?) we offer it to them we have more time to make sure it's implemented smoothly and without shady BS.
I'm sorry, what, a Bloodthirster, the most martially competent champions of the Thirsting Gods? Those things are threats to entire Hive Worlds with garrisons in the millions
Depending on how much cognito-hazard you ascribe to 40K demons, it's entirely possible that this is a fundamentally mistaken approach. You are assuming that the more we know about something the more power we have over it. The setting seems to suggest the reverse is actually true.
I'll note that until the chapter drops our research time and priorities are extremely up in the air. We might have so much to do we haven't got time for it. We might discover new research options, get new discounts, or encounter new problems that change the terrain.
I do not think it would do anything to necrons, they are hardened to work against whatever the hell the Old Ones could throw at them. Chaos... it depends on how it works.
In terms of discounts, I wonder what all we get from tbe scrapcode resistant shielding? It could give us discounts to machine spirit chaos resistance and faith studies, maybe? If so, then both of those would be worth looking at.
Faith studies (for chaos resist) is something we may want to get done early so we can work the kinks out by the time we get back to Denva. That way when (if?) we offer it to them we have more time to make sure it's implemented smoothly and without shady BS.
During the next set of exploration our first run is gonna be 3ish turns before we circle back to Denva which while we could get a basic idea I wouldn't trust it so not worth doing straight away the next run probably north west would be a good time to just steadily work out faith tech do it properly and then when we get back to Denva teach them it.
You can in fact hack a Tyranid. In canon 40k at least Fabius Bile managed it. The actual question is how far up the research tree hacking a Tyranid is? And which research tree that belongs to Biological? Or Psychic? Or something else?
Turn 20:
-[] Efficient Psychic Shielding (100 RP) Your "fractal" method is painfully difficult to manufacture, and is bottlenecking further design. If you spend some more time on it you think you could either improve the manufacturing techniques or figure out a more efficient solution to the same problem (Improves the BP/HP ratio for psychic shields, unlocks cost discounts on other kinds of psychic shielding, may unlock further research towards cheaper or more ubiquitous shielding, including extremely minimal shielding that serves to trip an alarm upon damage). Good Success. Halves BP cost of psychic shielding across the board.
-[] Industrial Organic-Machine control (150 RP) Controlling a combat bot, tank or aircraft is something a human bran can intuitively understand. Machining to incredibly small precisions not so much. (Allows OMC implants to control industrial capacity. Leads to some further research to allow OMC to control shipyards and larger installations, as well as to improve human capacity for research & development, and potential psytech improvements) Allows OMC implants to control industrial capacity. Anexa has gained the cybernetics specialty.
You can in fact hack a Tyranid. In canon 40k at least Fabius Bile managed it. The actual question is how far up the research tree hacking a Tyranid is? And which research tree that belongs to Biological? Or Psychic? Or something else?
And we're a Dark Age of Technology AI. A (Wo)man of Stone and a Wayfarer meaning that Mad Science and Madder Science are both our wheelhouse specifically.
An auto-repairing shield that can hold off Chaotic corruption, from Scrapcode to Whispers in the Warp. Guilliman would... well not sell his soul for it, that tends to go badly for Primarchs, but he would sell a dozen sectors worth of Imperial space and not notice the loss. This is a game changer because you can just make this in a factory, no 'It can only be made by blind monk serfs on Titan hoked up to incomptehensibile eldertich fabricators', just 'if you have the manufacturing precision you can make this the tech'. If this ever becomes common galaxy wide among human vessels Chaos is taking a serious hit.
[X] Plan: You can't take the sky from me!
-[X] Explore: Ascalon (final action on the turn)
--[X][FREE] They can have it (+1 Boon, we're getting OMC Manufacturing this turn)
-[X] Construction (8,350 BP)
--[X] Auto-repair damaged Shields (Budget of 1,000 VBP to handle shield repairs)
--[X] Flagship Refits:
---[X] Drop 3x Manufactories, Captive Holding Cells. Build The Oubliette (Or, the Bongo Containment Zone), 4 Slots, Up to 8,100 BP for 540/540 HP. Move the Scrapcode Generator there after Further Scrapcode Research is complete.
---[X] All BP freed up from the Oubliette should be distributed in this order. 1) Nesting a shield around the Vault to further protect it against a Bongo Breakout during the research. 2) Nested compartmentalized shielding inside the Flagship, prioritizing critical facilities like Vita's brain and the crew quarters.
-[X] Research x2 (400 + 60 Anexa RP)
--[X] Industrial Organic-Machine Control (90 + 60 Anexa RP)
--[X] Efficient Psychic Shielding (100 RP)
--[X] Scrapcode Resistant Shielding (100 RP)
--[X] Further Scrapcode Research (100 RP)
--[X] Okay, maybe there's a point to medical school (+10, 30/50 RP)
-[X][ANEXA] Active: Research (I-OMC)
-[X][VICTAN] Passive: Counterespionage & Alliance-building
-[X][CIA] Passive Psyker improvement
-[X][DENVA] Boons!
--[X] Denva #1: Unification: The Stellar Ascendancy. "Be for others as I have been for you."
--[X] Denva #2: Manufacturing Capacity
--[X] Denva #3: Crew: Tech-priests under Anexa
"Soon, that will be our destination." You point out the window of the observation deck, which is for once is not facing Denva, but rather the starry night of open space.
Cia squints out the window for a moment. "One in particular, or just out there in general?"
You sigh, and drop a data package into their implants to highlight the particular star you're indicating.
"Ascalon. I don't have much data on it, but it's in the opposite direction from whatever the Knights of the Crimson Vigil warned us about. And most importantly" you flourish your hands dramatically "it's not Denva."
"What's wrong with Denva?" Victan asks with a crooked eyebrow.
You sigh at the lack of appreciation for your drama. "Nothing. I've just been here for... well. Thousands of years. But actually been here for over a hundred. I think that might be a new rule of mine. A hundred years in a system is long enough."
They all nod at that. None of them are ignorant of your wanderlust, of your appetite to explore the stars. They've all come to share it to one level or another, encouraged by you telling tales and showing records of past wonders you've found. It's hard to watch a video of a multi-kilometer waterfall of ammonia scintillating into ice as it falls into the depths of a planet and not be at least a bit moved.
"But first..." Anexa teases leadingly. She's excited about leaving, but she's more excited about the next things on your research agenda. She's sporting a new implant, a diamond-shaped node on her forehead that allows her to control the lab equipment as well as you do, and you can feel her excitement to continue that work probing through the noosphere.
"But first," you give her a nod. "We're actually in the home stretch. We're giving Denva a few more pieces of technology and then we are gone. Well, that and I'm going to secure the scrapcode generator."
"Not destroy it?" Cia's brows are drawn down in a frown, but not an unhappy one. A confused one. Which is fair - you've long spoken about your desire to destroy the thing.
But the more you probe into the warp, the more you are certain that the generator - and the demon inside - are a gift pretending to be a curse. You don't intend to destroy it yet, though that could change anytime.
Anexa answers before you can. "No. It was dangerous. But now our psychic shielding is better. Our scrapcode countermeasures are better. We can contain it indefinitely. And in doing that, we'll learn how to fight demons. What makes them tick, and how they can attack us."
Cia looks like she's about to object, but after a moment smiles grimly. "Ok. And if it breaks free, I'll be there to tear it apart."
Anexa's about to poo-poo the possibility that such a thing could ever happen, but you raise a hand to cut her off. "Then let's install an armoring station in your quarters. No harm in making sure you can get ready quickly."
"I'd like some better armor," she says, but subsides without further comment.
The more you think about it, the more you're sure this is a good idea. She's not learning to use her powers quickly, but she's getting better in hand-to-hand combat. Somebody fighting with a sword in this day and age sounds ridiculous, but when that sword is psychically-powered to cut through just about anything and the location is a cramped ship it starts to sound a lot more reasonable.
Though the armor comment is reasonable. Right now her armor is fine, but not better than what my heavy combat bots wear. And I remember how many of those I lost taking the mechanicus strongholds. Or Klyssar's nest.
Victan clears his throat next, refocusing the conversation. "And Denva? Anything else with them? After the vote last year they're in the process of unifying, but there's still some pain points there. But you need to decide who gets your crashed ship. Not only is it right underneath all of the manufactories, it's also got the juvenat production inside."
Vote below on who gets the ship.
You wave a hand absently. "I'll think about it, we've got some time. But we've communicated our wishes. They're about where I want them - united, ambitious. Now I just want to bargain for some manufacturing capacity for when we come back. Quite a bit actually, but I trust you to make sure all of that political capitol gets spent appropriately to ensure it. We're going to do the full handoff of my industry in a couple of years, and I want to make sure that goes smoothly."
"And we'll be providing the technology for them to control it with mental implants!" Anexa butts in, unable to restrain her excitement as she taps at her forehead.
"One more thing." You give her a sly smile. "I also want to get you some underlings. Some tech-priests from the Cogitare Exploratium. They should be helpful as test subjects for the new implants, and then they'll be coming with us offworld."
Victan smiles agreeably, as well he should, since he knew about this ahead of time. But Anexa just gapes. "But - but - I'm not really a tech-priest anymore. I'm so much more than that now."
"And you'll have to guide them along the same journey," you explain. "They are already on our side. But you'll need to manage them, integrate them onto The Spark of the Ancients and see how you can make use of them. I'm sure you'll figure it out."
You leave Anexa gaping like a beached fish and turn your gaze on Cia. "How do you feel about weapons training?"
"Weapons training? I can't use my powers in unarmed combat yet."
You shrug. "So switch it up. Even if it doesn't work, I get the feeling that learning to use the sword won't be a bad idea."
She grins at that, mind clearly going to the assortment of psychic weaponry you've got left over from Prospero.
"My primary focus is going the be the scrapcode generator," you say to start bringing the meeting to a close. "I want to be able to bring it along, but to do that I want to be very sure it is safe, and give it another poke first. It should be totally safe, but I'll notify you before I do anything dangerous so you aren't caught off-guard in case of unexpcted consequences.
Like it hijacking a hundred missiles and two kilometer-long ships.
You get a round of agreements, and then everybody splits up to start working on their own tasks. Anexa still seems a little shocked that she's going to be getting minions, but you think it'll be good for her. She could use the responsibility.
Your first task is to refactor your psychic shielding - you've got a few things to do before you bring the scrapcode generator aboard, and not least of them is building the vault you intend to store the generator in. Part of that is redesigning your psychic shielding to not be quite so expensive to make. So that's the first thing you focus on.
The basic problem is that it's a nearly fractal design that mimics a neural lace thinking a single thought. The more connections the stronger the signal, the stronger the shield. But the only way to fit more of those connections is to make them smaller and smaller until you're essentially hiding behind a circuit board. And needing to make a custom set of circuits every time you want to shield something is not the best way to go about this.
The solution is blindingly obvious. Standardize it. Instead of a solid and uninterrupted surface, figure out how to build a standardized shape you can tessellate across the surface. Then you can figure out manufacturing of that shape and assemble it into whatever shields you need.
It's not quite so trivial. You need to rework the basic harmonization of the shield depending on how big it is, and making the modular approach work requires you to use your recent advances in "tuning" the shield to keep the whole thing working as the size changes. But the overall improvement is that now you can churn our hundreds or thousands of the hexagonal panels and then assemble them into whatever shape you want. Then when the shield takes damage it's simple enough to just swap out the portions of the shield that took damage.
It might seem basic, but empires are built from efficiencies like this, and you can see a few more ways you can apply this approach to make your psychic shielding ubiquitous and cheap.
Researched Efficient Psychic Shielding, 66+20 = 88 Good Success. Halves BP cost of psychic shielding across the board. New technology unlocked - Better Psychic Shielding Efficiency (200 RP)
New technology unlocked - Psychic tripwires (150 RP)
New technology unlocked - Small-scale Design-integrated psychic shielding (150 RP) requires Personal-sized Psychic shielding
New technology unlocked - Large-scale Design-integrated psychic shielding (250 RP)
Research discounted - Triple Nested Psychic shielding cost reduced by 50 RP
The whole time you're working on that you're paying some attention to Anexa and Victan, who have prepared, selected and are now welcoming aboard the new members of your crew. You've been involved, but trying to leave a lot of the important decision-making to them. If you start selecting who comes, then you're going to get involved. You know yourself well enough to know that, and you'd prefer to avoid it.
The tech-priests are... fine. They're useful, but you're not a giant fan of their whole subculture. Anexa got out early enough and spent most of her time with you, but a lot of the people coming aboard are almost more machine than human at this point, and their weird augmentation process has left scars across more than flesh. You just hope that Anexa won't get too dragged into mechanicus stuff.
Convincing them to come wasn't a problem - Victan put out a call to the Cogitare Exploratium for volunteers to join the crew of the Spark of the Ancients, and literally every single one of them volunteered. The problem was more in convincing the governments to let go of some of their top technologists, educators and researchers. But it would not be inaccurate to say that you've got a mountain of political capitol, and this is something you've decided to spend it on.
So over the course of a few months a series of tech-priests come aboard, each one more bizzare and augmented than the last. In the middle arrives the 'leader' of this new enclave of the mechanicus, none other than magos Quorath Velis - one of the first and most senior members of the Cogitare Exploratium. He's given up a very prestigious post as the head of one of the major Aevon scientific institutes, but doesn't seem to have any regrets.
How well does Anexa do with them? Rolling - 31+12(Anexa's level) = 44. Success. +50 tech-priests, led by Magos Quorath Velis
You wonder if that'll change after the first time he tries to subtly hint that he should be determining the research direction and Anexa firmly slaps him down. He was told that he wouldn't be in command, but apparently he didn't really believe it. Still, you back Anexa to the hilt when he tries to escalate the matter, informing him that as far as you're concerned he reports to her.
It's not the greatest start to the mecahnicus's presence on your ship, but Quorath falls in line without any more grumbling. You haven't dealt with mechanicus politicking in some time, but this sort of dispute is quite common among them. This instance is mostly notable for the decisiveness of the resolution, not the fact that a dispute happened at all.
Still, they all set to the research task without any issues, and that's when you get more involved. You've agreed to let them in on the AI-secret gently, so you mostly show up as your green-haired avatar self. The tech-priests seem to regard you with a significant amount of awe, and you don't do much to dispel their illusions.
Instead you spend that time talking to Anexa, working through the challenges in adapting the organic-machine control implants to work on industrial tech. And there are many. The amount of data is just the start of the iceberg, because the human brain is just not set up to understand some of the manufacturing technologies, and you need to work out methods to adapt every single one of them to something that the human brain can make sense of.
The tech-priests turn out to be a wonderful asset in that regard, since many of them have already done a significant amount of work adapting their senses and consciousness to modes outside of normal human perception. That basically gives you a sliding gradient of subjects whom you can use to test new signal-processing algorithms to help the human brain interpret the necessary data.
Quorath's grumbling certainly ceases as he watches Anexa in the cybernetics lab. She's in her element there, operating a dozen pieces of surgical equipment at once to rapidly and cleanly install experimental new implants, even while chatting with you about the next iterations. The dichotomy is strong between her and the mechanicus tech-priests. They're draped in red robes, stooped under the weight of black metal while she's a young-seeming woman with clear skin and augments that could be mistaken for jewelry - and a pet snake around her shoulders.
A few weeks later she forwards you a message from Quorath, barely disguised glee leaking through the noosphere. It's an apology, an admission of mastery and a request for tutoring in the art of cybernetics. She's over the moon about it, and you have to admit that it's quite an accomplishement, to have a magos of the adeptus mechanicus asking you for lessons on augmentation.
But she's earned it. Anexa's always been a devotee of cybernetics and a bit of an artist, but her technical spark has finally caught up to her virtuoso flair. The newest set of implants are impressive and fulfill everything you agreed you wanted on the technical specs and more besides. In addition to the stylized version that traces golden filigree under her hair she's delivered a much more utilitarian and easily-installed version that can be nestled just behind the ear to give any human near-intuitive control over manufacturing capabilities.
Researched Industrial Organic-Machine Control, 91+20 = 111 Critical Success! Allows OMC implants to control industrial capacity. Anexa has gained the cybernetics specialty. +500 CP capacity from the tech-priests. Unlocked new technology - Large-Scale organic-machine Control (100 RP)
Unlocked new technology - Human Simulation Implants (150 RP) Requires advanced neural implants
Unlocked bonus technology - Complex Psytech Implants (250 RP) locked behind Requires either Basic Psychic Suppression Devices or Basic Psychic Amplification Devices
Research discounted - Improved Organic-Machine control cost reduced by 50 RP
Research discounted - Void Organic-Machine control cost reduced by 100 RP
Research discounted - Remote Organic-Machine control cost reduced by 50 RP
The tech-priests don't exactly worship Anexa after she's installed the new implants in all of them, but they certainly have lost a bit of the transactional nature of their respect. They wanted to come aboard the Spark of the Ancients because they believed was the best way to learn the secrets of the universe, and advance in their religious mission of techno-ascendency.
Now they no longer believe that to be true. They know it, and Anexa is the prophet that will lead them to the holy land of full integration with the machine. That metaphor places you as their god - which becomes more or less true as Anexa slowly introduces them to the truth of your full identity.
It would have been unthinkable for most of them to accept an abominable intelligence just a few years ago. But that's not what you are, Anexa explains. You are the true wonder created by the ancients, a true artificial intelligence, one uncorrupted by the archenemy.
There's a few tense weeks as they swallow that truth, but in the end all of the tech-priests come to accept it, and you breathe a sigh of relief.
That sigh is short-lived however as a set of alarms blare inside your mind. You'd just been in the process of beginning to assemble another layer of psychic shielding around the scrapcode generator while toying with ways to specifically tune it against what you've seen of the scrapcode. But it seems that somebody's arrived in the system from the direction of Ascalon, and you're not sure how big their ship is besides "smaller than yours."
Rolled for arrival timing - rolled a 37. You're in-system and detect the new arrivals, but are out of position and don't get a great sensor-image of them.
Somebody new, with strange warp signatures that you barely recognize. But you do recognize it. They're stealthy, but ancient sensor traces give you a clue who you're dealing with.
Eldar
You train all of your available sensors on the emergence point and the expected movement cone, trying to track the new arrivals. Time passes, and you have to admit you can't nail them down precisely. But you can figure out where they're going. They're headed for the industrial platforms of Aerithon, where there's a few hundred of Denva's best engineers are working to get the gas refineries back online.
The Denvans have a number of advanced pieces of technology with them too - no manufactories or anything outrageous, but a number of rare and tricky components that are needed to get the equipment out there into full working order.
I don't really know what happened to the Eldar during the Age of Strife, except from the databases. But it sure seems like they fell even harder than the Federation did. I'm not sure how much stock to put in Imperial records on this - but the Eye of Terror seems to sit right about where their core systems were, which can't have gone well for them. Still the reports of raiding and slaving seem verifiable, so... that's not a good sign.
You hesitate to jump to conclusions, but the truth is that they jumped in and immediately went stealthy before heading towards an undefended area with stealable resources. There's not a ton of benevolent interpretations of that.
You spend a moment calculating out possibilities, and aren't entirely pleased by what your math tells you. You can burn straight for Aerithon, but the Eldar can get there first and they'll probably have several hours to do whatever they want before you can arrive.
You could also try to maneuver to pin them into the gas giant system, but that would be slower and not be certain to succeed.
You could also stay here. It's fully possible that after you commit to heading outwards to Aerithon they'll turn around and strike towards Denva Secundus. No matter how fancy their flying they wouldn't have long in orbit before you caught up to them, but the planet definitely has more vulnerable targets than the gas giant.
Though it also has some defenses, at least. Two caltrops and my anti-orbit defenses on the ground. Plus the two destroyers.
And you could always just talk to them. You're not sure what you would say, especially since it seems like everything you knew about the Eldar is out of date.
Vote below on what to do. I've copied in your relevant assets below.
Available ships:
Flagship: Spark of the Ancients
30x Basic Stealth Fighters (30x5 CP) On Denva
12x Basic Stealth Assault Shuttles (12x5 CP) On Denva
2x Tiny system monitors (2x50=100 CP) Currently in Denva orbit
Available ground forces:
1000 Light Machine-spirit infantry bots (20 CP) On Denva
2000 Light Machine-spirit humanized infantry bots (2x20 CP) On Denva
1000 Medium Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots (20 CP) On Denva
3000 Heavy Machine-spirit humanized Infantry Bots with Machine Spirit Jammers (60 CP) On Denva
4000 Heavy Machine-spirit Infantry Bots (80 CP) On Spark of the Ancients
Current Installations:
Crashed Ship (10 CP) +100 BP
Underground Directional-Control Radio Tower (5 CP)
2x Underground Manufactories (2x50 = 100 CP) +100 BP
116x Manufactories (116x50 = 5800 CP) +5800 BP
Underground Captive Holding cells, 0/500 occupants (10 CP)
Underground Basic Technological Research Lab (50 CP)
Underground Basic Biology Lab (50 CP)
Small automated medical facility (50 CP)
Camouflaged Observatory (25 CP)
4x Underground Spaceport (4x25 CP) (40/40 ship capacity)
11x Spaceports (11x25=275 CP) (110/100 ship capacity)
Underground Magnetic Catapult launch system (50 CP) +500 lift capacity
Spoiler: Denva Void Installations:
27x Orbital Manufactory (27x40=1080 CP) +1350 VBP
Small Shipyard (50 CP) 4 ship construction slots
Medium Shipyard (100 CP) 16 Ship construction slots
Improved Scrapcode Vault 200/200 CP (50 CP)
Military:
2x Caltrop Defense stations (2x10=20 CP)
Who gets your crashed ship?
Not only is this a functional relic from the Dark Age of Technology, it is a well-hidden base that can product several-hundred BP per turn and contains a juvenat factory. It's also hidden underground and located near the greatest concentration of manufacturing on Denva. The governments are in the process of unifying, so at least you don't have to choose who to hand it over to.
-[] Old Ship: W W has shown herself to be a startlingly effective patriot of democratic ideals. You're sure she'd have uses for a hidden base that will let her manufacture arms and control the juvenat production.
[] Old Ship: Denva Secret Give it to the unified governments of Denva as a secret facility. They'll primarily keep it for the juvenat according to the previous deal. Though nobody's going to turn down the covert manufacturing capability.
[] Old Ship: Denva Public Give it to Denva publicly, with the expectation that they'll make a museum out of it to boost general excitement about space and stuff. Slightly awkward with the juvenat production, but they'll manage.
[] Old Ship: Mechanicus Give it to the mechanicus, or more accurately the Cogitare Exploratium, to use as a kind of clubhouse. Will both make them more indebted to you, and keep that organization existent as you leave to go do other things.
What to do about the Eldar?
Ask me if any details of the situation are unclar.
[] Charge towards Aerithon (Write in if you talk to them) You can at least ensure the amount of time they have to do mischief is limited. Depending on rolls they may not have time to loot much - if that's their intention.
[] Pin them in (Write in if you talk to them) You can't get out there to stop them, so at the very least you can try to catch them and take back what they took. And maybe get your hands on some juicy Eldar technology in the bargain?
[] Stay put (Write in any conversation/other orders) Denva is what is important. If they take the engineers then so be it. But this is where the really vulnerable stuff is.
In light of a few questions that have been asked, here are some more details with respect to the whole Eldar situation:
Part of a vote may be to delay your departure to Ascalon until next turn so you can do one more construction action to build more defenses for Denva. I'm not quite sure how I'll manage it yet, but it's something you can do. Include the contents of the construction action in the vote, please.
Vita knows of and has spoken to Eldar in the distant past, but not in great detail. She can say hello and not sound like an idiot, but she only had passing contact with some Eldar traders in the good old days.
Some of the benefit of the crit went to improving the mechanicus relations - you kind of need to bring them into the full truth of who you are if you want them on your ship, and that has been accomplished.
The rest of the planned turn will continue after this update. If you really want to I'll allow you to abandon the rest of the actions on this turn to go charging off after them, but it would mean abandoning a good deal of prepwork for all the scrapcode research stuff that's coming.
You can ask questions about the situation, but there's a lot you don't know. Part of this decision is making it without complete information.
This might require some discussion, so let's do 30 hours of moratorium and then 12 hours of voting.
