Change this to "the imperium of your records" perhaps?
As far as they know, we are from before the imperium.
Vox Vitae: Warhammer AI quest
- Thread starter Neablis
- Start date
- Mature Sci-Fi
As far as they know, we are from before the imperium.
Insult Everyone!
Master of Evil but bad at it.
- Location
- Right behind you~
We pretty explicitly said we weren't literally last turn? Besides, author said they'd be interpreting things generously so minor stuff like that is fine.
[X] Plan: Tentative First Steps of Cooperation
I'm sticking to my plan since others have voted for it already, but I have to say I don't really mind the winning vote, I just think it's jumping the gun a bit with the trade goods when we do not even know who we are dealing with beside the immediate agents. How are they connected to the government, assuming they are as competent as they seem how much power do they have to make sure those goods are not used in some kind of stunt that will endanger secrecy. If Senator McCorupt has just failed on his plans to build a factory that produces life-saving medicine they are going to be mighty tempted to leak 'great rediscoveries in medicine' to the media. That kind of thing. Vita is a hand-grenade in the middle of their political scene and I'm concerned we may not be aiming it as carefully as we could.
All that being said If we do get in good with the governments we can have a chat with them about those psykers. There has to be some contact, even if it's secret just to trade for things like food and supplies. Sure monasteries IRL could be pretty self-sufficient, but not Perfect Autarky (TM), they traded for what they could not produce. In this case the 'trade good' is non-exploding psykers, but the principle holds.
All that being said If we do get in good with the governments we can have a chat with them about those psykers. There has to be some contact, even if it's secret just to trade for things like food and supplies. Sure monasteries IRL could be pretty self-sufficient, but not Perfect Autarky (TM), they traded for what they could not produce. In this case the 'trade good' is non-exploding psykers, but the principle holds.
Insult Everyone!
Master of Evil but bad at it.
- Location
- Right behind you~
Aye, it's a fast course of action. Risky too. But we chose to risk it for speed. It's not like they can make much use of these blueprints RN anyways. Mechanicus ensures it. No, their main use for the foreseeable future is ensuring they take us seriously.
It's a plan that hinges on us seizing the means of production, so that's what we'll do.
- Location
- Australia
[X] Plan: Tentative First Steps of Cooperation
Quick clarification question - is this number 10 or 45? Do you want to give them 10 BP of stuff they ask for and 35 of things you think they should have?
Next question - does this mean you will show the appearance of your new avatar? You can't go in person (without a shuttle to fly you there, at least), but you could easily do video-casts to show her that yes you are in fact a tech-priest, albeit one a good deal more radical than what she's used to.
Others can also also give input on this - just things that I want to clarify before I start writing.
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
This is building it into storage into the trade vaults. What we give should be samples. I don't want to give too much at this point, but still want to use the build points.
Yes, showing the appearance of the new tech-priest avatar. I know we could just generate the image, but I'm making the Avatar in preparation.
EDIT: Rolled for ACI, as noted in my roll. Could be better, could be worse. Also a reminder for people: You can put a reason for your dice roll, which cannot be edited, the same as with the dice roll itself. Could help to make sure that there is no confusion. ...Though people can still roll for the same thing if done in quick succession and they don't notice, so maybe not as foolproof as I thought when I started writing this, nvm.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Surely, our luck has to turn around eventually, right?
EDIT: NO BULLI INDEED!. Meianmaru posted before me, so I think they'll get the first roll, so this'd be for Admech? If not, it'd be for the ACI though, which is still really good!
EDIT: NO BULLI INDEED!. Meianmaru posted before me, so I think they'll get the first roll, so this'd be for Admech? If not, it'd be for the ACI though, which is still really good!
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- Pronouns
- Zack
put it for humanoid robots
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
Allocating rolls is probably not what the QM had in mind. Luckily, if going by the order of the posts, its ACI, AdMech, research on bot humanization. Speaking of which:
Diplo-build be diploing. And also being a terrible tempter straight out of AdMech legends and warnings for a talented yet innocent and impressionable young acolyte of the Machine Cult. Teaching things like science, how to innovate new things and maybe not cut people apart to make zombie-cyborgs, mkay?
One shudders to think what goes behind the soulless mind of such an Abominable Intelligence. (Its mostly social anxiety and giddiness about finally getting to talk to people after so long in isolation.)
Turn 4 vote closed
Turn 5
When everything is going well, be suspicious. But when you take a close look at everything and it still seems to be going well, sometimes it's actually just going well.
You take a few days to mull over your answer to the Aevon Counter-Intelligence, or ACI, then send your response back. You're sure W's handed it off to somebody else, but this is your link to the local government.
"Is anybody there?" You don't bother using a physical avatar, just directly sending the message through your directional radio tower on the right low-power ionosphere-reflecting band-hopping channel to get to the intended target. You're careful to use the same voice you used in the avatar you'd met W with, and make sure it sounds like a real voice speaking into a microphone instead of a direct-from-computer voice.
There's a few seconds of silence, then somebody answers in a slightly anxious voice. They sound young. "Y-yes?"
Your suspicion rears its head. Did something bad happen? "Who do you work for?"
There's another pause, then the other person speaks again. "The - the Aevon Counter-Intelligence Bureau, Ma'am."
I guess they just stuck it with somebody young to babysit. Good enough.
"I'm ready to answer W's questions now," you say. "Are you ready to take them?"
There's the faint sound of scrabbling paper on the other end. It seems like they've left the transmit button pressed. "Yes ma'am!"
You don't correct them. You were an officer at some point, just in a survey corps that probably doesn't exist anymore. "Alright. Well, first off, don't expect miracles from me. If you've heard tales of STCs I don't have any of that stuff. I was a surveyor, not a colony expedition. But, I've got enough to build orbital infrastructure necessary to get back to orbit, and I'm willing to share it, especially as I get closer to my goal. Including orbital manufacturing and ship blueprints. In addition, it seems like you don't have basic primers on a lot of the principles that your technology works on, so I can provide some educational material as well."
You pause for a moment, hearing frantic scratching on the other end. "Got that?"
There's nothing for a second, and you imagine some clerk frantically nodding away before realizing you can't see them. "Yes ma'am!"
"Good. I've also got an uplift guide, which is designed to help people who've lost their technological base " - like you, you don't say - "bootstrap themselves up. It's got designs for intermediate-level manufactories that'll help you build up to the better stuff."
You simulate the sound of clearing your throat. "Of course, I could also just build the final manufactories myself, but it depends on what you want, and what you're willing to offer."
There's a moment more of a writing implement scratching on paper - seriously, paper - and then your correspondant speaks again, tentatively. "And the next question?"
You harrumph. "Not telling yet. If we start working together more closely I'll reveal it. I'll probably need to, since it's where I'll want to build up my base and industry to build what I need. Don't worry, it's in Aevon territory, and I'm planning on handing it over when I leave."
The pen scratches for a moment longer, and you give them that time to make sure they finish recording what you said. Then you continue. "I don't need a lot of help. Mostly just permission and help hiding my activities from the mechanicus. Proper permits to build a factory, no extra attention."
"Heard and understood," comes the reply. "What about your ship?"
"No comment at this time. You'll find out when you find out," is your reply.
Your agreeable nature seems to be making the clerk more confident. "What are your intentions for the Mechanicus?"
Your avatar frowns from where it's sitting in your computational core room, examining the exposed and nearly fractal psionic shielding that you're pretty sure kept you safe from whatever weirdness happened on that space hulk. It's damaged, and that's not great. But it also doesn't seem to have been tested much since you landed.
On one hand, the mechanicus represent a lot of ideas you find personally offensive. On the other hand, you think there's something to save. Your response is careful. "I find them and their hoarding of technology personally offensive. It promotes stagnation, and they're using weapons of mass destruction to ensure that's what happens."
You snort. "Then there's the fact that they would probably try to kill me on principle, for having technology they can't control. Beyond that, the people of Aevon remind me of the society I came from in many ways, and even after I get to the stars I might like to come back here sometimes.
"But that's not to say I want to wipe them out. I can hope for a change towards a more flexible and permissible leadership within the mechanicus, but even with what I can offer them I'm not sure that is possible. As for what I'm willing to do about them..."
You trail off as if considering. You've already thought about this, of course, but emphasizing that you've given this proper thought is your goal. "I might be able to cripple their weapons of mass destruction, though I hope it doesn't come to that. Otherwise, I'm willing to assist your espionage efforts against them. I have some access to their systems, and can give you information or some sabotage capabilities."
The silence on the end is absolute, aside from the faint scratching of the pen. It's like the person doesn't even want to breathe for fear of missing something you're saying. When it's clear you're done, there's the sound of a faint swallow. "Heard and appreciated, Ma'am. What is your timeline?"
"It's hard to say. Decades at the least, and that's with every obstacle clear and significant assistance on your part. Potentially centuries."
The nervousness is back. "And - and is that a problem?"
"No."
The voice is back to uncertainty. "Very well then. Is that all?" That is apparently all they were expecting, but you've got something else to add.
"One more thing. If you help me get off-planet, we'll be allies. I'll help you establish yourselves as a true power with space infrastructure and real technology. You'll be able to build defensive installations in space and expand offworld. I want to mark this system as a friendly port of call on my journeys. Let's work together, and build a brighter future."
There's a moment of silence, then the voice speaks again with a hint of wryness. "Heard and understood, ma'am."
Maybe I laid it on a little too thick.
No response comes for a few days, and you turn your attention to other topics. If you're going to make good on your promise to supply material aid then you'll need to interact with them again, especially in the context of moving heavy things. Having your Avatar do all of that would be awkward, but you currently don't have any other options that aren't obviously advanced robots.
Therefore, you dive back into your design software and try to apply what you've learned in designing avatars to your combat robots. Your goal is to make them look like humans dressed in feature-obscuring armor. No need for artificial skin or hair, just human-like shapes and motions. That will require you to completely redo the musculature and bulk them out somewhat, so they'll be more expensive to produce. And if they're going to be more expensive to produce, you might be able to squeeze in some extra strength and durability with that extra bulk.
So goes your idea, anyway. But you just can't get the muscles to align properly. No matter how you jigger them around they don't quite work in alignment, and either you lose strength, increase cost or end up with something that's just obviously inhuman. After the third failed attempt, you have to admit that maybe, just maybe, you'll have to settle for a variant on your combat robots that are a bit weaker and less armored than your baseline versions. They're still at the top end of human strength capabilities, but your other bots have a small but material advantage in combat capability.
Combat bot Humanization research complete - Rolled 15+20=35. Poor Success! Humanized versions of combat bots bots have slightly reduced strength.
Unlocked new research: 50 RP - Combat Bot Humanization, Redux
Unlocked new blueprints modification - Existing combat bot designs can be humanized for +15 BP to appear humanoid unless bodies are investigated, with a slight malus to strength and armor.
You shrug and start your factories producing the bots anyway, the task taking up a fraction of your attention. The loss in combat power isn't extreme, and it's not like you would be able to use your standard bots without blowing your cover regardless. You do need to dig out some extra space to store the bots, since otherwise they'd just be standing in the hallways of your ship, getting in the way of the continual stream of worker bots carrying raw materials to and from your internal manufactories.
Light infantry bots, humanized (40 BP, 200 CP) x2 gained!
Medium Infantry Bots, humanized (65 BP, 200 CP) x1 gained!
All of that distracts you for several months, until you set up the manufactories that they only need some of your attention to churn out the rest of your planned military expansion.
Finally, just when you think that they've abandoned you, the communication channel crackles back to life. You recognize W's voice over the link.
Continue collaboration with Aevon Counter-intelligence - rolled 51+10=61. Success.
"V, do you hear me?"
You take a moment to answer, pretending that you need to retrieve your copy of the communicator from a pocket before you speak back into it. "Hello W, I was beginning to worry I wouldn't hear from you again."
She chuckles darkly. "It almost wasn't. I'm glad we have such a good relationship already. You were almost talking to the foreign minister for a moment, until I convinced the primer that he's a fop who would try to scalp you the way he did Nyvaros over that fertilizer. But he believed me when I said that this is too important to risk. Besides, we got along so well the first time."
Her voice is dry enough that it counts as humor, and you chuckle along agreeably. "Well, then I'm glad I'm talking to you. You got my answers to your questions. What do you think? If your premier's involved then you probably don't have a lot of flexibility here."
She hums in response. "More than you might expect. You offer an appealing set of options, and the cost doesn't sound too steep. I think the first question I have is what's on the table right now? You didn't seem to want to offer everything at first."
Your reply is apologetic. "I can provide the educational primers and uplift guides whenever you want, as well as as a selection of goods that you're interested in. Electronics and medicine only though, no weapons or manufacturing capability. I'd like to wait on that for a little while until we've built up some more trust."
She seems to have expected something like that, and her voice is unbothered. "And what about information on the mechanicus? We're not interested in sabotage at this point, but anything you can tell us about their operations in Aevon would be helpful, especially anything outside of the enclaves that they want to keep secret from us."
You might have seen something like that in the databases, but it was locked behind an extra layer of encryption that you would need to break. It probably won't be too hard, since most of their not-critical encryption isn't actually properly secure, and they tend to leave a lot of half-encrypted things around that are pretty much
"I can do that," you reply.
There's a pause, as if she is surprised you agreed so easily. "Great to hear. As for electronics and goods, I think we're interested in a few things. Three high-quality cogitator-blocks, the most expensive type the Mechanicus sells us, some medicines, and then as many of these encrypted communicators as you'll give us. We'd prefer if they existed on a network with proper channel options, but if they have to be paired that would work too."
You consider the request for a moment. "What medicines?"
She sighs and reads off a list of about a dozen human diseases, sounding a bit despairing.
In a flash of inspiration you pull up the governmental files and screen through them for high-ranking government officials of Aevon, then go through some medical files and press releases you have available. Each of the diseases that W lists matches one of the medical conditions of a high-up official or their family.
She finishes. "...and old age." She says the last one disdainfully, as if she can't believe she had to say it.
You chuckle, then answer. "Not the last one, or the schizophrenia. But I can do the rest as a product sample. Then three high-quality cogitator blocks and two crates of communicators with adjustable channels. Then the first set of educational material and uplift primers. Think of it as a product sample."
She sighs, part exasperation, part relief. "What's the cost? You mentioned you wanted land for your manufacturing base. Where? If it's near a population center we'll need some time to fabricate a reason and then move the population out. Do you need help setting it up? If you provide us information on the mechanicus operations in our territory then we'll ensure their attention is nowhere close to you."
You think about that for a moment. It sounds as if she's framing you giving them intelligence on their enemies as a favor to you. Which - well, they're your enemies too, or at the very least they would be if they knew you existed. And if they're going to go after mechanicus assets in Aevon you suppose that's a useful way to both distract the mechanicus from what you're doing and degrade their capabilities here.
Your reply is noncommittal. "I'm not quite ready to set up a manufactory yet, but I probably will be in a few years. I'll give you the location then, since it's not anywhere with a lot of people. I won't need much aside from clearance to use the land and the proper set of permits. I might appreciate some guards from the government to keep the area clear. How much is the rent?"
She takes a second to understand where you're going. "Once you set up - how about this much value again, every year? We'll probably change what we want over time, but this seems a good baseline. We'd want to keep getting the product sample, of course."
You run the numbers. That's - actually not a negligable amount of your production, though you're probably undercharging them for the medicine. But the cogitator blocks they're asking for are actually not trivial to build, and they're unlikely to stop asking for medicines.
But honestly, it's a relatively cheap and reasonable bribe for the elected officals. If I was really feeling pissed I'd give them things to treat the symptoms and not the underlying causes to keep them hooked, but I'm not that much of a bitch.
"Tell you what. Half that amount, every year. And once I vacate the site you get to keep it."
This deal will require you to provide 25 BP worth of trade goods every turn to 'rent' a large area and get government-provided guards to keep the curious out and distract the Mechanicus.
"Deal." She speaks the words quickly, and you know you could have gotten a better price.
You shrug internally. Keeping a good working relationship with these people is more important than eking out the minimum possible price. After all, if people feel like you're trying to pay them the minimum possible price they'll do the minimum possible work.
You arrange a time and place a few weeks from now in an abandoned industrial district on the outskirts of the city, and then bid W a farewell. "Thanks, W. Good talking to you. I'll be in touch with those details on the mechanicus."
The smile is almost audible across the transmission. "Nice talking to a professional. I hope we can work together for a long time."
After she signs off you pull up the mechanicus files and go through it for covert operations in Aevon. It takes a bit of effort to decrypt some files on the topic, but it turns out the Mechanicus does have a few things going on. They've turned a few members of the government with bribes of various sizes, and used that access to plant a few physical bugs in various places throughout the government. They've also hacked into several systems through several gaping security flaws that make you wince.
You almost want to go clean house yourself and rewrite your new allies' security code, but restrain yourself. This is their problem to solve, so you'll let them solve it. You convey the message to who you're pretty sure is the same clerk, but they refuse to engage in honest conversation. Honestly they seem terrified of you. Or they might be terrified of W, who probably told them in no uncertain terms not to piss you off.
The dropoff happens a few days later, just past midnight. You're driving a truck built for this specific purpose, though it looks pretty much identical to a very common truck on the roads. You pull up to the loading dock of an abandoned industrial building, noting that it appears to have been bombed out within the last few decades.
On another hunch you scan through the mechanicus records, and see that this was once a chip production line that they decided was too advanced. So they hit it with a long-range missile, then denied everything.
Ironic place to do a technology transfer.
The cargo door rolls open at your arrival, and you see W standing there, accompanied by a few others. They're all dressed in flak armor and carrying lasguns, though the weapons are holstered. She waves towards you, and you wave back before backing the truck up to the loading dock.
You weren't sure what to expect, or if you'd need to unload the cargo yourself, so you brought a few of your humanized bots along to provide security and unloading muscle. They swing the doors on the back of the truck open and quickly and efficiently unload the cargo into the arms of the waiting troopers.
You hop out of the truck's cab and greet W. "Good choice of a transfer point. Fitting."
She smirks. "It is, isn't it." Then she gestures towards the bots that are doing the unloading. "I didn't realize you had helpers. Crew, or servitors?"
You meet her eyes and raise one eyebrow, then shrug. "Help, certainly. It would be hard to do everything on my own."
She purses her lips and nods, watching the unloading. "The medicines. Are instructions included?"
You nod. "Yes. Each communicator comes with a manual, and the books are pretty self-explanatory."
She smiles at that. "Nice to work with a professional."
It doesn't take long for the unloading to finish, and you bid her farewell. "I'll be in touch when I've made my decision on where and how to set up my base." You wait for her to look back at you, then continue. "Please don't follow me. I won't lead you back to my ship, and it'll just waste both of our time."
She considers you for a second, then nods. "Okay."
"Thanks." You turn and climb back into the cab while your bots close the truck back up. You drive away slowly, the hidden cameras on the back of the truck watching carefully for any ground-based or airborne followers. You don't see any, but you still take a number of precautions and several days to return to your ship. It helps that neither you nor any of your bots require sleep, food or bathroom breaks.
Eventually you settle your avatar back into your underground base with a sigh of satisfaction. That's one job well-done. You have an agreement with the local government to set up a base, now you just need to decide when you reveal your location. You could always try to do it some distance from your ship, but the only thing that would make sense would be to dig a tunnel that distance, and it would require a fair amount of effort to make it long enough to matter.
With that done, you turn your attention to the other thing that's been consuming your attention - your interactions with the mechanicus. You realize you don't understand them very much on a cultural level. You've run across some societies that liked replacing their organic parts with cybernetics before, but none with quite the same... zeal or aesthetic as the adeptus mechanicus.
The first thing you run across is the language they use to speak to each other, called "Lingua-technis." There are no direct translation guides anywhere, but the translation happens automatically inside one of the more common augments that the members of the mechanicus gives its members, mediated by a simple machine spirit that is enough to make it rather difficult to design a translator that doesn't contain the same kind of machine spirit, which would be impossible to produce outside of the mechanicus.
But you're a bit better than a normal machine spirit, and have been translating weird languages for longer than the Mechanicus has existed. Lingua-technis is part code, part binary language with some channels to communicate emotion. It's like somebody tried to design the perfect language for technical communication, and then it got used by people who had emotions for ten thousand years, developing several ways to express emotion. Especially frustration. It's got about twenty different channels for frustration, each with slightly different meanings. Or you can just trigger them all to communicate MAXIMAL FRUSTRATION. Which doesn't seem uncommon.
The noosphere is similar. It's a way for a brain with neural implants to interface with the world around them, including their implants, their devices and each other. It's not exactly a way to reach out and make direct mind contact with every properly equipped device around you, but it's not too far off. It functions a bit like Lingua-technis, actually, in that it seems primarily built to transfer logical and rational thoughts and the emotion sort of comes along for the ride.
Most tech-priests can't fully control what they send through either lingua-technis or the noosphere, since to some extent the content of each is automatically generated from their thoughts by their implants. That's not a problem for you, since you have full control over every single part of the data-stream.
With a slightly better understanding of how the tech-priests interact with each other and the world around them, you keep up a small amount of communication with the other acolytes that have found your clues. But it's nothing more than an attempt to lead them along the same path that Anexa has already walked. You want them to realize that there's more to learning than rote memorization, that there's a whole world of interconnected knowledge that they can aspire to.
Continued Subversion of Mechanicus Acolytes - rolled 87+10 = 97. Outstanding success, with an extra bonus.
They're... moving in the right direction, is all you can say. But after your first message to Anexa it becomes clear that she's special, and going to be the focus of your efforts for the near future.
>Anexa, hello. I see you've been following my clues. [politeness]
>Hi? Is this the person who's been leaving hints to the purest truth? [glee]
>That would be me, yes. Have you been enjoying them? [genuine curiosity]
>... yes. I have. Can you provide more? [barely suppressed anticipation]
>I can. What area are you interested in? [genuine pleasure]
> Do I have to choose? [Longing]
> No, not really. I can transfer you data on astrophysics, genetics, logic gates and alloying [amusement]
> I would appreciate that very much. [polite elation]
You send over the data packet, then wait for her to message you back. It doesn't take long, and she spends a fair amount of time pestering you with questions about the various packages that show she's understood them completely, then synthesized them with other knowledge to jump farther ahead.
She sends you messages at random times, and you have trouble not replying. There's something about her that's just adorably earnest, though you get the sense that the only thing keeping her from pestering you nonstop is an inherent shyness, a fear of bothering you too much.
>Are you an explorator? [Eagerness]
>I have those leanings, yes. [mirth]
There's a pause before the next question, and you know she debated asking it for a while. But in the end curiosity won over timidity.
>Then why are you on Devna Secundus? [fear of offending]
>That is a question with a complicated answer. [Regret]
>Oh, I'm sorry. [Apologetic]
>What do you want to learn about now? [polite question?]
>The Laplace transform appears in so many places? Why? Is there an underlying truth there? [Passion]
She seems to have given her a few different implants to improve her information processing capability, and speeds through your lessons faster and faster. She's growing at a prodigious rate, but you watch as her rankings slowly drop in the mechanicus systems.
Magus Orynn logs a complaint that she hasn't finished her required duties, and you don't hear from her for a time. The next time she contacts you, she seems understandably distressed.
> Hello. Apologies I haven't been able to contact you in a while [Distress]
>Would you like to discuss over a larger channel? [concern]
>... yes. I would like that. [relief]
You set up a video channel, sending over a fake stream. You thought about this before, though you hadn't fully decided on if you wanted to do it. But the distress in Anexa's feed made you decide to go ahead with it, and you appear as a tech-priest yourself, though one with somewhat more advanced augments than anything that Anexa or most of the other tech-priests on Aevon had.
Female tech priest with some augmentations.
In the background, you spin up your manufactories once more. You have some spare capacity, and if you're pretending to look like this, you might as well be able to appear this way in the flesh. Besides, she looks horrible. You're not entirely sure what happened to her, but it looks like most of her remaining hair has been shaved off, and it looks like there's a new surgical scar on her skull.
She sees you and is surprised, but in a good way. "You are a tech-priest!"
You raise one simulated eyebrow. "Did you doubt it?"
"Well, you act so differently than every other tech-priest," she replies, her previous shyness taking back over.
"I do." You acknowledge with a dip of your servo-claw, then fix a kind eye on her. "What happened to you?"
She reaches up with her one human hand and touches the shaved side of her head, wincing. "Orynn installed a pain modulator. If I shirk my duties again, then he'll... Well. It's a pain modulator."
Your simulated avatar isn't wearing a mask, and your lips tighten in displeasure. "I see."
She shrugs. "It's not so bad. I just need to ensure my duties are completed on time. But he's given me more duties, so I won't be able to take as many of your lessons."
You consider her for a second, not sure how to respond. Your brain is boiling with plans, with potential designs, but most of all with anger. It leaks through to your avatar, and your eye narrows in displeasure.
She seems to mistake your anger and bows her head, canting a quick apology. "My deepest sorrow, lady Magos. I will endavor to complete as many lessons as you provide for me!"
You wave away her apology with an ungloved hand. "Do not apologize for my child. I am sorry for your suffering. You are a promising student, and I dislike seeing you suffer under a glorified lightswitch like Orynn."
She bleats a confused note for a second, then it turns into a laugh before she can control herself. "Who - who are you, my lady magos?"
You smile briefly. "Somebody who should not be here. But that is not your concern. I wish you well in your duties, and urge you to contact me once again. My task for you is that you perform the proper maintenance on yourself. If you should not care for your own person I will be most displeased."
"Acknowledged, my lady. Praise the Omnissiah."
"Praise the Omnissiah," you echo, though without fervor.
As soon as she cuts the communication you dive into the mechanicus systems. You aren't a magos, but if you've learned one thing about the mechanicus leadership it's that they're a bunch of paranoid bastards who keep secrets as easily as they breathe.
Actually probably more easily nowadays, since most of them don't really breathe anymore.
You'd considered making yourself a fake identity in the government files of Aevon, but you hadn't considered doing so for the mechanicus. They had too many files, in too many strange formats for you to believe, and too many of them were too old.
But on the other hand, you were pretty sure there were some tech-priests who tried to keep their entire existence secret, and actively worked to scrub their presence from the archives while preserving their access codes. If they ever needed to prove that they belonged to the Adeptus Mechanicus their apperance, access codes and knowledge would do the job.
After all, who else would look like a tech-priest, know as much as a tech-priest, and have the access of a tech-priest.
Well, you, for one. You spend months in frenzied revision of the mechanicus databases, inserting and backdating entry after entry to forge yourself a persona among the adeptus mechanicus. It's more complicated than most, since you don't just want to be any tech-priest. You want to be a Magos, a respected elder who's been on Denva since before the Imperium left, who may have been in seclusion for that entire time.
You add log entries to a mechanicus supply ship saying you arrived three hundred years ago, with classified clearances and a significant amount of cargo that was sent towards the mountains in the center of the continent that Aevon is part of.
There's a stroke of luck when you find the backup memory repository of Magus Silvenis, one of the leaders of the Aevon enclave. You add a memory about you showing up about ten years before the loss of contact and demanding additional supplies, brandishing high clearances and showing off knowledge and technology far above her pay grade.
Bit by bit you build up the persona of Magos Vita, a reclusive and powerful radical Magos living in the mountains of Aevon and researching classified material. It's not a significant enough history that somebody will just stumble across it and wonder where it came from, but it's built just right that if anybody goes looking for evidence of your presence they'll find it, and find out that you're actually quite high-up in the mechanicus hierarchy.
After all, the primary determiner of the mechanicus hierarchy is technological capability and age, and you've got every tech-priest on the planet handily beat in both regards.
Then, once your false identity is set, you send a priority communication request to magos Orynn. He responds grumpily, but politely, as one does to a peer you haven't heard of reaching out.
>Magos Vita. What/why do you contact me? [Tolerant]
>Magos Orynn. It has come to my attention you have more apprentices than you should. I will be rectifying this issue. [Aggressive]
>They is/are valuble candidates for future tech-priests, which we require. I make/commit a great sacrifice to train/build the future of the Adeptus Mechanicus upon this planet/hellhole. If you do not appreciate this, then I shall ignore you forever/for now [Annoyed]
You know he's reaching out through the database, looking for information on you, and likely picking up your seeded data.
You don't give him time to get all the way through it.
>Negative. You are destroying valuable material. I require this one (Anexa Ifinia) [Absolute certainty]
>Anexa is/has not been valuable/of worth. She is lagging in her duties. [cautious].
>Disagree. I will require her transferred to my care. I shall take over as her master. [Absolute certainty]
>I have trained/overseen her as master for years. I shall not relinquish/give up my claim/ownership. [Bargaining]
>What price do you require? [annoyance]
>What is your offer? I would accept the secrets/clearance of your research on Denva [Firm bargaining]
>Denied. I shall transfer you the blueprint of a motor wire winding unknown upon this planet. It increased motive force conversation by 6.2% and uses only 1% more material. [annoyance]
>Is that all/your only offer? I shall question/interrogate Anexa as to what connection she has with you. [Driving a hard bargain]
>Orynn. I can destroy you poltically, noospherically and physcially. Do not test me. [Absolutely not bluffing]
>Threats do not/will not sway me. Provide me with true secrets. [firm]
You're done with this idiot. You are pretty sure you know exactly which neural augment he's using from the wave interpolation, and you strike with a coded pattern of bursts that briefly overloads its machine spirit. It won't kill him or destroy his implant, but it will be very unpleasant for a few seconds.
>That was not a threat. That was a warning. [Very unamused, still not bluffing]
>Very well, Magos Vita. You have made an enemy/foe/nemesis this day. Now come collect your charge, before she shirks her duties further. [Bitter]
>If you harm the faintest part of that girl I will shred your mind and atomize your corpse. I know of the pain-modulator. If it is activated then I shall remove it, install it in you and lock it on full power. [Incandescent Rage finally peeking through]
He cuts the connection, and you take a mental step back from the conversation.
Uh. Whoops
You... hadn't entirely meant to go off like that. You take a second to calibrate, and figure out exactly what happened. You're pretty sure it was that you've already started to see Anexa as part of your crew, and care for her in that way. In a way that you care for nobody else on the planet right now. For all that W is interesting, she's still got her own motives that you don't fully trust.
And she's mostly capable of taking care of herself. While Anexa isn't. She just wants to learn, and explore, and hasn't been able to do that while under the crushing workload of an adeptus mechanicus acolyte.
But technically she's your apprentice now. And you've established an identity for yourself as an explorator-radical tech-priest living in the mountains of Aevon, a few hundred miles from your current location. You're sure that the gossip is flying fast and loose among the tech-priests of Denva Secundus as they learn of your existance. You wonder if this is going to come back and bite you in any way.
Probably.
Well, now you need to make another decision. It wouldn't be unheard of to leave Anexa in the enclave and tutor her remotely, though you'd be expected to oversee her work to contribute to that enclave. You could also exert some more influence and have her transferred to the enclave in Aevon, where she'd either need to work for her keep, or you could 'pay' for her room and board with materials shipped from your current location, though it would pose some security risk.
Or - you could just bring her here, or to facility you built specially for her. You would probably need to build your own transport to do it, especially if you wanted to pick her up directly from the Denva enclave. But you could do it.
Current capabilities:
Command Points 915/12,500Ground Build Capacity: 200
Void Build Capacity: 0
Research Capacity: 200
Available ships:
None.
Available ground forces:
1000 Light infantry bots (200 CP)
2000 Light infantry bots, humanized (400 CP)
1000 Medium Infantry Bots, humanized (200 CP)
Misc assets:
35 BP of trade goods that Aevon will accept as rent.
Avatars:
Adult human woman, indeterminate age.
Female tech priest with some augmentations.
Current Installations:
Underground Directional-Control Radio Tower (5 CP)
2x Underground Manufactories (2x50 CP)
Crashed Ship (10 CP)
In progress construction:
None
In progress research:
Psychic shielding: (150/300 RP)
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: Talk to people. (Write-in goal & method)
Taking the deal with the government and sticking to the agreed-upon terms is free and a separate vote. Only work with them more if you want to modify the existing deal or help them in ways beyond the deal. However, picking up/mentoring Anexa is going to require another action, and a write-in detailing what your plan is.
[] Construction: Gain build points equal to your build capacity, write in what combination of blueprints you spend them on.
A special construction available this turn is to build a tunnel for 20 bp per mile if you wish to build your 'public' manufactory somewhere not directly adjacent to your ship.
- Installations
- Void Installations
- Ships
- Units
- Export Goods
[] 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.
Reminder that you can split a research action between blueprint design & research. Not to say you should do either, just a reminder.
The ways to get new research options are to:
-[] 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)
-[] Bombers (100 RP) Can... can you just stick bigger missiles on fighters? (unlocks bombers)
-[] Shuttle automation (150 RP) Surely I don't have to fly these stupid things myself. (Reduce the CP cost of shuttles by 50%)
-[] 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)
-[] 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.
-[] Walkers (300 RP) Tanks are... kind of boring? Mechs are cooler. (unlock armiger knights, starts the knights/titans research tree)
-[] Really good Robotics: (1200 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)
-[] Psychic shielding: (300 RP) How does your shielding even work? What does it do? You've got the manuals, but it's going to require some brain-sweat to understand the darn thing. (Gives you a stability metric and a readout on your shielding. The first step towards building more/better psychic shielding. Half of unlocking research for better warp understanding).
- [] 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).
Locked behind samples/installations:
-[] System survey (50 RP) What else is there in the system? You're not even sure what planet you're on. (unlocks a system map). Locked behind an observatory.
-[] Biology is kinda wet (100 RP) Unlocks basic biology research. (The first step towards research projects related to juvenat, as well as human/xeno genetics, improved medical care, interrogaton drugs etc.) Locked behind Basic Biology Research Lab.
-[] Cybernetics (200 RP) Interfacing robotics with organics is an old art, and one you haven't dabbled in at all. You've got some medical literature on nerve-interfacing chips that will help, but you're going to need (consenting) test subjects and appropriate equipment to get started. (Allows you to build and install basic limb replacements. Nothing combat-capable. Unlocks research for more combat-capable cybernetics, brain implants and organ replacements) Locked behind any kind of medical facility.
-[] What's up with this tech? (100 RP, requires samples of imperial technology from locals) You know some of how it works, but you need to get your hands on it to properly replicate it. What's up? (unlocks machine spirits/servitor construction, as well as half of the prereq for hacking imperial technology). Requires Basic Technological Research Lab
- 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,
-[] 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)
-[] Bombers (100 RP) Can... can you just stick bigger missiles on fighters? (unlocks bombers)
-[] Shuttle automation (150 RP) Surely I don't have to fly these stupid things myself. (Reduce the CP cost of shuttles by 50%)
-[] 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)
-[] 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.
-[] Walkers (300 RP) Tanks are... kind of boring? Mechs are cooler. (unlock armiger knights, starts the knights/titans research tree)
-[] Really good Robotics: (1200 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)
-[] Psychic shielding: (300 RP) How does your shielding even work? What does it do? You've got the manuals, but it's going to require some brain-sweat to understand the darn thing. (Gives you a stability metric and a readout on your shielding. The first step towards building more/better psychic shielding. Half of unlocking research for better warp understanding).
- [] 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).
Locked behind samples/installations:
-[] System survey (50 RP) What else is there in the system? You're not even sure what planet you're on. (unlocks a system map). Locked behind an observatory.
-[] Biology is kinda wet (100 RP) Unlocks basic biology research. (The first step towards research projects related to juvenat, as well as human/xeno genetics, improved medical care, interrogaton drugs etc.) Locked behind Basic Biology Research Lab.
-[] Cybernetics (200 RP) Interfacing robotics with organics is an old art, and one you haven't dabbled in at all. You've got some medical literature on nerve-interfacing chips that will help, but you're going to need (consenting) test subjects and appropriate equipment to get started. (Allows you to build and install basic limb replacements. Nothing combat-capable. Unlocks research for more combat-capable cybernetics, brain implants and organ replacements) Locked behind any kind of medical facility.
-[] What's up with this tech? (100 RP, requires samples of imperial technology from locals) You know some of how it works, but you need to get your hands on it to properly replicate it. What's up? (unlocks machine spirits/servitor construction, as well as half of the prereq for hacking imperial technology). Requires Basic Technological Research Lab
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.
Designable Blueprints:
10 RP - New Avatar (10 BP, 0 CP) Design a new body for yourself, if you don't like the old one.
25 RP - 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Double shield cost on ship. These shields recharge significantly faster, but when taken down all the way take slightly longer to reboot.
Alloyed Armor Double armor cost on ship. 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.
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 Double shield cost on ship. These shields recharge significantly faster, but when taken down all the way take slightly longer to reboot.
Alloyed Armor Double armor cost on ship. 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.
Do you take the Aevon rental deal?
[] [Free action] No[] Renegotiate (requires diplomacy action)
[] [Free action] Yes (write-in where) (requires 25 BP every turn to 'rent' a large and currently unused area for your use, as well as getting you government-provided guards to keep the curious out and distract the Mechanicus.)
The negotiation with Aevon was always going to be hard to mess up as long as you were mostly reasonable. You spent points on an Iconoclast civ, then rolled and chose the most peaceful and democratic society possible with middling technology. It was almost the ideal situation for you since they were both reasonable and motivated to make a deal, and you've given them quite a good one. They're pretty darn motivated to keep you happy, especially since their leaders realize that you're probably the only person with the expertise to produce the medicines they're getting. That's not to say they would never betray you, but your human-behavior-predictor tells you it's pretty unlikely.
If you bring Anexa to your base and somehow tell her the truth, and she agrees to work for you, then you'll unlock the 'crew' mechanic. This is far earlier than I planned to implement this, so I'm still not entirely sure how it'll work, but It'll probably be something where you can assign her a task and that's what she works on for a turn. The options are probably to boost one of your actions, work on a separate project or do self-improvement. There's going to be a levelling system for crew that improves how good they are at things, but I don't know how it works yet. Anexa will start close to the bottom, but will level fairly quickly especially at the beginning.
Definitely no chapter tomorrow, so 24 hours of moratorium, then 20 hours of voting.
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Threadmarked this is not
I think we should get Anexa, booth because she would be very useful on a practical level and because it gives Vita an ally she can speak to. Right now it's her against the galaxy. An AI may be more strong minded than mortals, but as we saw last update she can get a little lost ('entropy fighting').
Also if we ever tell the Avonians what we did they are going to be terrified. 'I just hacked the Ad Mech into thinking I'm a high ranking Magos no biggie'
Also if we ever tell the Avonians what we did they are going to be terrified. 'I just hacked the Ad Mech into thinking I'm a high ranking Magos no biggie'
If that AdMech enclave is anything like others I recall, then I forsee Magos Vita is going to be quite busy pretty soon. Tech-priests might be bunch of stuck-up paranoid misers more antisocial than wuxia kung-fu masters, but they respect hard data. If you deliver results without stepping on toes of superiors too much and refrain from doing something that could get Inquisition to come knocking, then you're fine to keep doing Machine God's work.
I suggest to planners the following data reading:
[] Since you're going to operate semi-openly in mechanicus, it might do you well to brush on their structure and organization. Hierarchy, titulature, subdivisions... you'll need to understand it (learn Mechanicus hierarchy and names and titles of different tech-priest types: Dominus, Manipulus, Biologis, etc.)
I suggest to planners the following data reading:
[] Since you're going to operate semi-openly in mechanicus, it might do you well to brush on their structure and organization. Hierarchy, titulature, subdivisions... you'll need to understand it (learn Mechanicus hierarchy and names and titles of different tech-priest types: Dominus, Manipulus, Biologis, etc.)
Actually thinking about it if we do show 'Magus Vita' off to the Avonians we should present her as another member of the DAOT crew, distinct from 'V'. Basically someone who took one for the team had those implants put in got her head stuffed with Mechanicus jargon who we can now use as a mole.