avatar11792
Et Sic Incipit
- Location
- Planet Earth, North America
I got rid of Understanding Mutations and instead put Faith Is My Shield back in Overflow, it'll be now at 54/65.
Vox Vitae: Warhammer AI quest
- Thread starter Neablis
- Start date
- Mature Sci-Fi
- Location
- Near Freiburg in South-West Germany
Speed/thrust is one of the most important aspects, they need to be in the right place to do their job, and that means getting there before the enemy small craft/torpedoes reaches the ship the interceptors are protecting. More thrust also means they can reverse and move back into position after an intercept faster.
A long ranged weapon with enough punch to take out those small craft and torpedoes in a head-on intercept, so burst damage instead of high dps.
Basic stealth is nice, as it hides the existence of the interceptors while they are idling and might lead to the enemy attacking when they shouldn't, but as soon as they start a full burn intercept there is no hiding them, so it's not worth a big increase in cost. Stealth is more for bombers, attack shuttles, and fighters acting as escorts for bombers.
Stealth is also more useful on planets with an atmosphere instead of the vacuum of space.
Psy shields are a must for all craft, remember how Bongo nearly took over all those missiles because they had no protection against chaos? I don't want a repeat of that.
It seems like you're talking in a lot of things the game systems don't include. We have at present no levers for changing small craft flight performance. And the current weapons loadout toggles are nonlethal and grav weapons.
Distinctions between a fast one-shot missile carrier and a persistent dogfighter or whatever aren't represented.
Guess this makes Finding quite acceptable. I'll vote for it as well.I'd like to point out that my plan now succeeds on all four of these criteria. My diplo action is now far more focused on learning about the Vellkar.
In fact, both variants pass provided you consider diverting all but the +crew compartment to shielding upgrades as an acceptable substitute for Faith.
Give them a reread, the updates have been pretty substantial.
If the vote is still open in like 10h I might vote for your plan as well, just to see if it can beat the current first place...
Atop what Aineko has said, machine spirits will also provide some chaos resistance even if there aren't shields (though shields are still good).
- Location
- Near Freiburg in South-West Germany
Yeah, in hindsight I got more into details than the system allows. Which isn't a criticism, some things need to be abstracted or the whole thing becomes unwieldy. If we design an interceptor at most we might get some narrative differences.
Just having fighters is an advantage, too, that means they are more versatile in what they can do.
FYI planning to close the vote in about two hours. I've some time to write.
The veil shield on the other hand would probably be pretty invisible to a telepath and would probably hide whatever is behind it. If you put one of those on one of your staff then any telepaths would probably think they didn't have a soul, or were somehow psychically hidden in some other way.
Likely not. They would try and run into the "no" shield, and be unable to see further. They would know the shield is there, but all they'd hear from it is an unending litany of "no."
The veil shield on the other hand would probably be pretty invisible to a telepath and would probably hide whatever is behind it. If you put one of those on one of your staff then any telepaths would probably think they didn't have a soul, or were somehow psychically hidden in some other way.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sick.
That reminds me - @Neablis what does HP represent on non-no shield types? Do they still block stuff but with less damage resistance, or does HP represent a strength of effect? Both?
And if they don't block stuff... how do they take damage?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, uh, hopefully that vote comes soon, considering the vote is coming to a close in a bit.
Speaking of!
@Toygu and @ShadeFiende , if either of you happen to have been interested in Plan Communicating The Plot for the, well, Plot part, then now's the time to consolidate, as Finding the Plot seems to have turned out to be the more popular of the two and it's now or never for making a push.
As a reminder, FTP compared to CTP drops the warp comms prereqs so that it can take Faith is My Shield for synergy with Seed at figuring out what planet was in Gwen's vision and ship equipment unlocking technologies meant to make better scouting ships for the more mundane kind of searching and recon.
Also because of the psyker safety measures of Faith it spends some BP on cramming refits rather than throwing everything into improved shields.
In both cases, we're bringing the navibaby along for studying the strange seed, because despite being torn open and bleeding, the little bean stopped crying and stared open mouthed at Gwen during her vision and boy doesn't that sound like an interesting thread to pull? Despite it being closed still, it seems our daughter can already See, and I'm very interested in this as a form of enrichment.
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Strength of effect. Resistance to stuff that tries to push past them. Effective capacity.
Veil - mostly effectiveness. A 500 hp veil shield would be more effective against scrying spells than a 50 hp shield, which would be more effective than a 5 hp. They might lose HP from deflecting a scrying spell without being noticed or deflecting a telepath from trying to connect to somebody underneath really hard. If you've got a Tzeenchian sorcerer or a farseer predicting the future a "no" shield would make the result come out obviously wrong/would clue them in that there was something messing with them, while a veil shield would prevent the thing behind the shield from being included in their predictions at all, but would lose some HP while doing so. Probably. In effect this'll be quite rare, and would require focused scrying.
Soothe - Again, effectiveness. A 500 hp soothe shield would keep people calm even in the face of some pretty terrifying shit, including potentially demon possession, though it might get chunked by suppressing direct emotional effects like rituals that make people go insane.
Begone - Demon-banishing capacity & strength. Banishing a Daemonette might take 5 hp of shielding (don't hold me to this). A bloodthirster would need to bash itself against a 50 hp shield for a minute, but it'd break through pretty quickly. A 500 hp shield would take longer, and might wound the bloodthirster on the way through. A 5,000 hp shield? Well, we'd just have to see.
There you go.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hm. I observe that the "x the plot" plans are the only ones that currently assign BP to increasing the Soothe shielding on the medbay, which could be a problem with all the new psykers, most of whom are less stable than Gwen and Cia.
In particular - @LightLan, do you mind directing some of that BP towards maxing out the medbay shield, now that it's confirmed that it will increase the strength of the effect? You don't complete Faith this turn and we now have every psyker rolled last time combined to deal with, so I think it's better safe than sorry right now.
It's not a bad thing by any means, but they're inside our Hull Of No and have made it this long. I don't think we need to treat them like sweating dynamite.
[X] Plan: AI, Warp comm prereqs, Fleet building
By the way, question—what do you dislike about my plan (besides how few votes it has)?
Elegant Weapons Of A More Civilised Age - [Canon]
New
- Location
- madison
Elegant Weapons Of A More Civilised Age
Magos Anexa, we have made a breakthrough in our efforts to sift through the low priority files you asked us to analyze. While the vast majority of them are of little interest, save perhaps as a window into the DAoT culture* We have gleaned useful insight. While we are continuing to make progress coming to understand the general sort of infrastructure and approach to technology the Ancients possessed, we recently found a set of physical disks containing what appears to be a program meant to glorify technology. We have analyzed the known copies of this program, and have found a number of technologies that may be feasible and useful to recreate. Further, the program is labeled season 5, we believe that if other seasons can be found further insights may be gleaned.
*see subreport, memeform Miniature-Equestrian, and cultural implications.
> (Vita): Oh. that show. [Annoyance]
> (Anexa): Is it that bad? [Curiosity]
> (Vita): Not really, they just ended up morphing from a celebration of science and engineering to an advertising service for weapons manufacturers around season 3. [Resentment]
Cold Plasma
The name is somewhat misleading, as while the plasma these weapons employ is much lower temperature, it is still more than hot enough to boil flesh in seconds. Instead of inducing fusion within the weapon, Cold plasma instead creates plasma at the impact site. The weapons fire a canister containing a mix of gasses and metallic chaff that disperse over a wide area before a high-power microwave pulse is fired through it. The chaff superheats, and the gas then transfers the heat evenly throughout the area of effect. The result is a large cloud of gas heated to a few thousand degrees.
The overall temperature is closer to what one would see produced by a flamer than a typical plasma weapon, but the advantage is in the massive area of effect. A rifle sized weapon could produce a cloud of superheated gas well over two meters in diameter, at 30 shots a minute. The weapon is billed as a cost effective method to destroy orks, alongside other foes who rely more on numbers than heavy armor. The weapon seems to have a poor reputation, as some powers seem to have used them for riot control. Allegedly, by reducing the strength of the pulse the temperature can be lowered to non lethal levels and used to disperse crowds, though analysis indicates this was largely a pretext to justify the weapons presence. While the weapons area of focus does mean it is well suited to inflicting atrocities, we find it odd to blame the weapon and not the hand that wields it.
In terms of cost, these weapons seem to compare favorably to plasma weapons, though their ammunition is more complex to produce, so we believe they would be of similar industrial cost to deploy but are unsure of final industrial strain. As the weapons scale up, there is relatively little increase in lethality, however they seem to benefit from a massively increased area of effect. While our information is incomplete here, we have information regarding several sizes. The version meant for use as a squad support weapon was able to create a ten meter diameter zone with a rate of fire little lower than the rifle version. The largest version we found mention of was mounted on starships, and seemed to work almost more like a terraforming tool than a weapon of war, creating massive firestorms hundreds of kilometers wide with each shot.
While in the Dark Age, this weapon was primarily used against orks, or those who could not fight back, it would be notably more useful to us. Few foes we face in this age would be armored well enough to endure cold plasma. We believe most sets of sealed carapace armor would be able to endure such weapons with relative ease, but foes so well protected are rare. Of more concern is the vulnerability the weapons have to disruption, disrupting the gas flow or the microwave pulse can drastically reduce the weapons impact. We believe most elite forces, even those who forgo heavy armor would have some answer to this weapon, though they may not have it at hand if they are caught by surprise. But while a case could be made that weapons built to slay foes we can already overpower are of little use, a review of combat losses show that being overwhelmed by poorly armored foes is a common cause of a combat drone's destruction. We believe that this technology would be an excellent supplement to the typical Plasma weapons used by our forces.
> (Vita): I hope the Imperium doesn't remember these. Polities would talk big about using them to handle Ork Wagghs, but when you start to notice the less-lethal output has become the design standard, it gets hard to believe. [Sad]
> (Anexa): They do sound extremely useful, though. The supermajority of our engagements have been against lightly armored but numerous infantry, though we would need to run simulations to be sure. [Thoughtful]
> (Vita): I guess the kind of ragtag force that these were made to massacre has become the galactic standard.
>(Cia): Could you make some of this cold plasma even without the weapon? Normal plasma's too… bright is the closest word, for me to do much with. But this might be easier to work with.
> (Vita): Should be doable, I wonder where the warp thinks the line between fire and plasma is? [Curiosity]
Proton Lasers
We at last have an actual explanation for these weapons. Proton lasers seem to have been the "standard" weapon, as much as things exist, for the more advanced DaOT powers. As such we have seen many examples of them in the context of fictional war stories, of dubious accuracy. The actual explanation of them has allowed us to put these examples into proper context. The weapon works by filling a firing chamber with a complex energy field, before firing a laser through the chamber into a pseudo crystal lens. The ensuing reaction results in the creation of a negatively charged energy envelope that controls the positively charged Proton laser stream. Intriguingly, by modulating the formation of the envelope a controllable virtual aperture is created just outside the weapon barrel, allowing for fine tuning of the shot path. When paired with sufficiently advanced targeting aids, or a sufficiently skilled user, this allows for an incredible level of accuracy over even extreme ranges.
Proton weapons are surprisingly versatile devices, able to release their payloads over microseconds as a single condensed bolt, or over seconds as a sweeping beam, switching between maximum penetration and maximum damage. However even in bolt mode, they are notably below plasma weaponry for armor penetration and per shot damage. By linking the weapons fire control to a soldier's onboard cogitators, it becomes possible for a soldier to accurately fire upon targets several km away. The program made a point of mentioning that they are able to draw power from external sources, resulting in a lesser logistical load, and superior combat endurance when used by power armor equipped troops.
They seem to be somewhat easier to produce than plasma weapons, though this may rely on complex infrastructure that would be impractical to recreate. Fascinately, the weapons function and niche changes as it is scaled up. A squad support Proton laser works much the same as a rifle but more so, able to blast tanks in bolt mode or scythe down infantry in beam mode, but past that size things change. The 'pressure', for lack of a better term, in the proton chamber becomes too great for beam mode to remain efficient, and the energy envelope begins exhibiting similarities to a power field, disrupting the armor of the target nanoseconds before impact. As such the weapon pivots from a versatile and long ranged one, to a dedicated anti tank weapon, a role in which it excels. One of my compatriots has theoretical knowledge of a titan weapon known as a Turbo laser destructor, or at least a rough idea of its energy output, one of the mightest weapons known to the imperium of man, a weapon heavier than a leman russ battle tank built to slay god machines. We believe a proton cannon sized for use by a heavy tank would have a similar level of penetrative and destructive power, while having vastly superior range and accuracy. The heaviest versions we can find from credible sources were sized for use by Baneblade analogs, and we can scarcely guess how effective they would be, as we lack a point of reference for combat on the titan scale. From what we can gather, starship grade proton weapons were either rarely used for some reason, or still under development.
While we believe proton weapons are overall more useful as a general purpose mainline weapon, Plasma is superior for our purposes. In tight confines, or short sharp assaults on hardpoints Plasma's raw destructive force and penetrative capabilities shine. Its primary use would lie in the larger varieties to use in an anti tank or anti-superheavy role. The second use would be gifting them to our allies, as we believe that the Stellar Ascendancy military would benefit greatly from incorporating these weapons into their order of battle. There is also the possibility that Vita would be able to push the technology to the point of developing starship grade proton weaponry. We are unsure exactly how destructive such weapons would be, but we suspect they would be quite literally world shattering.
> (Vita): These I don't feel too bad about. Sure, they were still a weapon of states, but they were as straightforward as a gun could be. I really do wonder just what changes in the containment envelope as you scale it up, though… [Curious]
> (Anexa): Straightforward? These fire guided lasers that can punch through AFVs, and they're considered a baseline rifle? [Disbelieving]
> (Victan): From what I've seen of that episode, I wouldn't call it a baseline so much as a default. When a nation didn't have a doctrine that demanded a specific kind of weapon, proton weapons were the most cost-effective for their technological level. Not as efficient as a lasgun, but if you wanted to keep your soldiers safe, they couldn't go wrong. [Thoughtful]
Quantum Field Abrasion Cannon
This is by far the most exotic weapon we have discovered so far, and it is the one with likely the least thorough explanation. We are unsure if this is due to even the Ancients not fully understanding what they had wrought, or if they are keeping the details of this weapon heavily classified. From what records we could gather, by inducing a temporal vacuum destabilization event via a hyper compressed fusion cascade, then spatially containing the energy released to force a pinhole blast into higher dimensions, the cannon creates an pinpoint exotic singularity that focuses the entire energetic release into a single planck length, allowing a temporary excitation of the local higgs field into a higher energy state.
The new state is poorly understood, but matter can not exist within it. This is the primary blast zone, and according to records not even Aeldari dominion ships could withstand it unscathed. Exact measurements were not provided, but it seems to be on the order of engulfing a single ship, or tightly packed squadron. Milliseconds later, the altered higgs field collapses down to its baseline state, releasing a vast amount of energy across a wide range of spectrums. In theory, the energy output of the secondary blast should be no higher than the energy used to alter the local quantum field; it appears to be several orders of magnitude higher. While this is "only" a vast release of energy, the detonation dwarfs a nova cannon blast for both damage and area of effect.
The weapon seems to leave behind poorly understood "fallout" introducing a number of worrying space time anomalies. Analysis of the examples given bear striking resemblance to the aftermath of unwise usage of vortex munitions, or the failed ritual of the cult on Klyssar's nest. In theory if the weapon could be recreated, we believe that Vita may be better positioned to understand the risk of firing it, due to her greater understanding of the warp, though that is assuming that the anomalies are warp based in nature. If that is the case, then this implies that the Quantum Field Abrasion Cannon directly damages the veil between the Materium and Immaterium.
There are some commonalities between the initiation of the Quantum Field Abrasion Cannons initial detonation and Vita's discovered principles of nova cannons and cyclonic munitions, namely the initial vacuum destabilization event appears to be the same. While we still firmly believe that all knowledge is sacred, it is perhaps a lesser tragedy that the knowledge to construct such weapons was lost. We are unsure what path would lead to its rediscovery, and are hesitant to advocate that Vita attempt to recreate it. While she would be perhaps the best hands for such a destructive weapon, we find the thought of it existing concerning on an existential level.
> (Vita): I won't lie, I'm still not sure if these things really exist. All the recordings I know of were clearly simulations, and by this point the series had lost a lot of its integrity. It might've just been a myth. [Uncertain]
> (Anexa): Given how much you loved working on our nova cannons, I'm surprised you're not more excited about these. [Humorous]
> (Vita): Excitement shouldn't come before skepticism! Though I can't deny they're an intriguing idea… [Curious]
> (Gwen): True or not, please do be careful if you end up following it. I don't need divination to have a bad feeling about it. [Cautious]
Solar Aegis Array
A purely defensive weapon, the Solar Aegis is a marvel of mega engineering. Created by a system in a precarious position, the Solar Aegis Array is the weaponization of an entire star. By using automated systems to dismantle a small planet in the inner system, they were able to construct a vast swarm of solar collection satellites, creating a dyson swarm able to capture over 90% of the star's energy. The energy is then fed to a second layer of stations that focus it into a gravitationally bound laser before beaming it elsewhere in the system. While technically able to fire on interlopers from the star directly, it instead beams the energy to Lighthouse constellations set up throughout the system. Each constellation consists of a single primary lighthouse station, and an orbiting array of smaller secondary and tertiary stations.
The Lighthouse stations use gravitic lenses to allow them to handle vast amounts of energy, with the amount increasing as the amount of power they receive rises. According to the program, a single station can channel the power of the entire system, though with a notable loss of efficiency. The secondary stations use hyper cooled prisms to act as secondary relays for the Array. While they have much lower capacity than the primary lighthouse stations, secondary stations are built to more quickly refocus their light, making them better suited for engaging maneuvering targets. There also exist tertiary stations, small, fully automated mirrored droneships primarily meant to act as splitters to enable engaging larger numbers of targets at once.
The full array was composed of almost a hundred Lighthouse constellations, each able to obliterate entire fleets with ease or provide vast amounts of power to nearby civilian infrastructure. Exact capability is difficult to determine, as the nation who built it seemed to be obscuring its capacity, but we have some rough estimations. A primary light house station would be able to reliably hit most grand cruisers or slower vessels well before they came into range of it, destroying anything we know of in short order. Secondary stations seem to be optimized to deal with cruisers, with the instances of them destroying larger vessels seeming to result in damage to the station. tertiary stations are rather openly ablative, used to provide point defense or burned out to allow them to destroy full voidships.
While immensely potent, the system is not invincible. The stations seem to be somewhat fragile, and while they can project beams potent enough to scour worlds to the far edge of the system, it is far more difficult to strike an evading target. While they still have an effective range far in excess of almost any known weapon system,their range advantage is not overwhelming. While this was mitigated to a degree by mixing in more conventional defensive stations into the Lighthouse constellations, there were nevertheless several instances of a constellation being overwhelmed by human, or orkish invaders, albeit always at a staggering cost. Notably, the montage of orkish space hulks being casually picked off demonstrates that the system enforces a minimum speed on invaders, where vessels unable to evade the laser did not live long enough to reach engagement range, regardless of their durability. It seems even the Ancients were unable to construct a flagship able to stand before the full and terrible fury of a star.
While the weapons inherent design principles render it immobile, the ability to secure a system against anything short of a full battlefleet would be of immense use. Better still, the ability to use it to fuel civilian infrastructure means any port of call with such a system would be of significantly greater use to us. While the construction and operation of a Dyson swarm were not covered, they do not seem to be overly complex. A handful of operators would be able to run a self replicating production chain, fueled by the very swarm it was constructing. We believe in theory, it would be possible for Denva to construct a basic swarm in only a few decades with sufficient focus. We doubt they would be able to fully match the glory of the ancients, even if Vita were to fully recreate the technology behind the Solar Aegis Array, as the Array was the result of a fully industrialized DAoT system making it a primary focus for generations. Nevertheless, even a partial dyson swarm and a handful of Lighthouse constellations would be a massive boon to both their industry and defense.
> (Vita): Oh! I think I actually saw this one once! It was beautiful. Never got to really see it in action, but there's something to be said for an orbit of precisely tuned engineering marvels aligned in perfect unison. [Excited]
> (Anexa): It's certainly impressive, but I can't help but wonder what would drive a nation to build something like this. [Appraising]
> (Vita): They lived in a bad neighborhood. The megacorps that ruled that region of space always said there wasn't the budget to properly curtail the local orks, but they sure found the budget to keep trying to "reclaim stolen assets" after one of their systems revolted. They had the infrastructure, and a pressing need for defenses.
> (Victan): I'd be more worried about who operated it, whoever ran it would have a stronghold on both the energy supply and military dominance. The more concentrated the power, the harder it is to hold to account, and the array would be a vast amount of power in very few hands.
> (Vita): Oh it worked well enough, The AI running it answered to the local council. They seemed really dutiful when I… [Dawning horror]
Magos Anexa, we have made a breakthrough in our efforts to sift through the low priority files you asked us to analyze. While the vast majority of them are of little interest, save perhaps as a window into the DAoT culture* We have gleaned useful insight. While we are continuing to make progress coming to understand the general sort of infrastructure and approach to technology the Ancients possessed, we recently found a set of physical disks containing what appears to be a program meant to glorify technology. We have analyzed the known copies of this program, and have found a number of technologies that may be feasible and useful to recreate. Further, the program is labeled season 5, we believe that if other seasons can be found further insights may be gleaned.
*see subreport, memeform Miniature-Equestrian, and cultural implications.
> (Vita): Oh. that show. [Annoyance]
> (Anexa): Is it that bad? [Curiosity]
> (Vita): Not really, they just ended up morphing from a celebration of science and engineering to an advertising service for weapons manufacturers around season 3. [Resentment]
Cold Plasma
The name is somewhat misleading, as while the plasma these weapons employ is much lower temperature, it is still more than hot enough to boil flesh in seconds. Instead of inducing fusion within the weapon, Cold plasma instead creates plasma at the impact site. The weapons fire a canister containing a mix of gasses and metallic chaff that disperse over a wide area before a high-power microwave pulse is fired through it. The chaff superheats, and the gas then transfers the heat evenly throughout the area of effect. The result is a large cloud of gas heated to a few thousand degrees.
The overall temperature is closer to what one would see produced by a flamer than a typical plasma weapon, but the advantage is in the massive area of effect. A rifle sized weapon could produce a cloud of superheated gas well over two meters in diameter, at 30 shots a minute. The weapon is billed as a cost effective method to destroy orks, alongside other foes who rely more on numbers than heavy armor. The weapon seems to have a poor reputation, as some powers seem to have used them for riot control. Allegedly, by reducing the strength of the pulse the temperature can be lowered to non lethal levels and used to disperse crowds, though analysis indicates this was largely a pretext to justify the weapons presence. While the weapons area of focus does mean it is well suited to inflicting atrocities, we find it odd to blame the weapon and not the hand that wields it.
In terms of cost, these weapons seem to compare favorably to plasma weapons, though their ammunition is more complex to produce, so we believe they would be of similar industrial cost to deploy but are unsure of final industrial strain. As the weapons scale up, there is relatively little increase in lethality, however they seem to benefit from a massively increased area of effect. While our information is incomplete here, we have information regarding several sizes. The version meant for use as a squad support weapon was able to create a ten meter diameter zone with a rate of fire little lower than the rifle version. The largest version we found mention of was mounted on starships, and seemed to work almost more like a terraforming tool than a weapon of war, creating massive firestorms hundreds of kilometers wide with each shot.
While in the Dark Age, this weapon was primarily used against orks, or those who could not fight back, it would be notably more useful to us. Few foes we face in this age would be armored well enough to endure cold plasma. We believe most sets of sealed carapace armor would be able to endure such weapons with relative ease, but foes so well protected are rare. Of more concern is the vulnerability the weapons have to disruption, disrupting the gas flow or the microwave pulse can drastically reduce the weapons impact. We believe most elite forces, even those who forgo heavy armor would have some answer to this weapon, though they may not have it at hand if they are caught by surprise. But while a case could be made that weapons built to slay foes we can already overpower are of little use, a review of combat losses show that being overwhelmed by poorly armored foes is a common cause of a combat drone's destruction. We believe that this technology would be an excellent supplement to the typical Plasma weapons used by our forces.
> (Vita): I hope the Imperium doesn't remember these. Polities would talk big about using them to handle Ork Wagghs, but when you start to notice the less-lethal output has become the design standard, it gets hard to believe. [Sad]
> (Anexa): They do sound extremely useful, though. The supermajority of our engagements have been against lightly armored but numerous infantry, though we would need to run simulations to be sure. [Thoughtful]
> (Vita): I guess the kind of ragtag force that these were made to massacre has become the galactic standard.
>(Cia): Could you make some of this cold plasma even without the weapon? Normal plasma's too… bright is the closest word, for me to do much with. But this might be easier to work with.
> (Vita): Should be doable, I wonder where the warp thinks the line between fire and plasma is? [Curiosity]
Proton Lasers
We at last have an actual explanation for these weapons. Proton lasers seem to have been the "standard" weapon, as much as things exist, for the more advanced DaOT powers. As such we have seen many examples of them in the context of fictional war stories, of dubious accuracy. The actual explanation of them has allowed us to put these examples into proper context. The weapon works by filling a firing chamber with a complex energy field, before firing a laser through the chamber into a pseudo crystal lens. The ensuing reaction results in the creation of a negatively charged energy envelope that controls the positively charged Proton laser stream. Intriguingly, by modulating the formation of the envelope a controllable virtual aperture is created just outside the weapon barrel, allowing for fine tuning of the shot path. When paired with sufficiently advanced targeting aids, or a sufficiently skilled user, this allows for an incredible level of accuracy over even extreme ranges.
Proton weapons are surprisingly versatile devices, able to release their payloads over microseconds as a single condensed bolt, or over seconds as a sweeping beam, switching between maximum penetration and maximum damage. However even in bolt mode, they are notably below plasma weaponry for armor penetration and per shot damage. By linking the weapons fire control to a soldier's onboard cogitators, it becomes possible for a soldier to accurately fire upon targets several km away. The program made a point of mentioning that they are able to draw power from external sources, resulting in a lesser logistical load, and superior combat endurance when used by power armor equipped troops.
They seem to be somewhat easier to produce than plasma weapons, though this may rely on complex infrastructure that would be impractical to recreate. Fascinately, the weapons function and niche changes as it is scaled up. A squad support Proton laser works much the same as a rifle but more so, able to blast tanks in bolt mode or scythe down infantry in beam mode, but past that size things change. The 'pressure', for lack of a better term, in the proton chamber becomes too great for beam mode to remain efficient, and the energy envelope begins exhibiting similarities to a power field, disrupting the armor of the target nanoseconds before impact. As such the weapon pivots from a versatile and long ranged one, to a dedicated anti tank weapon, a role in which it excels. One of my compatriots has theoretical knowledge of a titan weapon known as a Turbo laser destructor, or at least a rough idea of its energy output, one of the mightest weapons known to the imperium of man, a weapon heavier than a leman russ battle tank built to slay god machines. We believe a proton cannon sized for use by a heavy tank would have a similar level of penetrative and destructive power, while having vastly superior range and accuracy. The heaviest versions we can find from credible sources were sized for use by Baneblade analogs, and we can scarcely guess how effective they would be, as we lack a point of reference for combat on the titan scale. From what we can gather, starship grade proton weapons were either rarely used for some reason, or still under development.
While we believe proton weapons are overall more useful as a general purpose mainline weapon, Plasma is superior for our purposes. In tight confines, or short sharp assaults on hardpoints Plasma's raw destructive force and penetrative capabilities shine. Its primary use would lie in the larger varieties to use in an anti tank or anti-superheavy role. The second use would be gifting them to our allies, as we believe that the Stellar Ascendancy military would benefit greatly from incorporating these weapons into their order of battle. There is also the possibility that Vita would be able to push the technology to the point of developing starship grade proton weaponry. We are unsure exactly how destructive such weapons would be, but we suspect they would be quite literally world shattering.
> (Vita): These I don't feel too bad about. Sure, they were still a weapon of states, but they were as straightforward as a gun could be. I really do wonder just what changes in the containment envelope as you scale it up, though… [Curious]
> (Anexa): Straightforward? These fire guided lasers that can punch through AFVs, and they're considered a baseline rifle? [Disbelieving]
> (Victan): From what I've seen of that episode, I wouldn't call it a baseline so much as a default. When a nation didn't have a doctrine that demanded a specific kind of weapon, proton weapons were the most cost-effective for their technological level. Not as efficient as a lasgun, but if you wanted to keep your soldiers safe, they couldn't go wrong. [Thoughtful]
Quantum Field Abrasion Cannon
This is by far the most exotic weapon we have discovered so far, and it is the one with likely the least thorough explanation. We are unsure if this is due to even the Ancients not fully understanding what they had wrought, or if they are keeping the details of this weapon heavily classified. From what records we could gather, by inducing a temporal vacuum destabilization event via a hyper compressed fusion cascade, then spatially containing the energy released to force a pinhole blast into higher dimensions, the cannon creates an pinpoint exotic singularity that focuses the entire energetic release into a single planck length, allowing a temporary excitation of the local higgs field into a higher energy state.
The new state is poorly understood, but matter can not exist within it. This is the primary blast zone, and according to records not even Aeldari dominion ships could withstand it unscathed. Exact measurements were not provided, but it seems to be on the order of engulfing a single ship, or tightly packed squadron. Milliseconds later, the altered higgs field collapses down to its baseline state, releasing a vast amount of energy across a wide range of spectrums. In theory, the energy output of the secondary blast should be no higher than the energy used to alter the local quantum field; it appears to be several orders of magnitude higher. While this is "only" a vast release of energy, the detonation dwarfs a nova cannon blast for both damage and area of effect.
The weapon seems to leave behind poorly understood "fallout" introducing a number of worrying space time anomalies. Analysis of the examples given bear striking resemblance to the aftermath of unwise usage of vortex munitions, or the failed ritual of the cult on Klyssar's nest. In theory if the weapon could be recreated, we believe that Vita may be better positioned to understand the risk of firing it, due to her greater understanding of the warp, though that is assuming that the anomalies are warp based in nature. If that is the case, then this implies that the Quantum Field Abrasion Cannon directly damages the veil between the Materium and Immaterium.
There are some commonalities between the initiation of the Quantum Field Abrasion Cannons initial detonation and Vita's discovered principles of nova cannons and cyclonic munitions, namely the initial vacuum destabilization event appears to be the same. While we still firmly believe that all knowledge is sacred, it is perhaps a lesser tragedy that the knowledge to construct such weapons was lost. We are unsure what path would lead to its rediscovery, and are hesitant to advocate that Vita attempt to recreate it. While she would be perhaps the best hands for such a destructive weapon, we find the thought of it existing concerning on an existential level.
> (Vita): I won't lie, I'm still not sure if these things really exist. All the recordings I know of were clearly simulations, and by this point the series had lost a lot of its integrity. It might've just been a myth. [Uncertain]
> (Anexa): Given how much you loved working on our nova cannons, I'm surprised you're not more excited about these. [Humorous]
> (Vita): Excitement shouldn't come before skepticism! Though I can't deny they're an intriguing idea… [Curious]
> (Gwen): True or not, please do be careful if you end up following it. I don't need divination to have a bad feeling about it. [Cautious]
Solar Aegis Array
A purely defensive weapon, the Solar Aegis is a marvel of mega engineering. Created by a system in a precarious position, the Solar Aegis Array is the weaponization of an entire star. By using automated systems to dismantle a small planet in the inner system, they were able to construct a vast swarm of solar collection satellites, creating a dyson swarm able to capture over 90% of the star's energy. The energy is then fed to a second layer of stations that focus it into a gravitationally bound laser before beaming it elsewhere in the system. While technically able to fire on interlopers from the star directly, it instead beams the energy to Lighthouse constellations set up throughout the system. Each constellation consists of a single primary lighthouse station, and an orbiting array of smaller secondary and tertiary stations.
The Lighthouse stations use gravitic lenses to allow them to handle vast amounts of energy, with the amount increasing as the amount of power they receive rises. According to the program, a single station can channel the power of the entire system, though with a notable loss of efficiency. The secondary stations use hyper cooled prisms to act as secondary relays for the Array. While they have much lower capacity than the primary lighthouse stations, secondary stations are built to more quickly refocus their light, making them better suited for engaging maneuvering targets. There also exist tertiary stations, small, fully automated mirrored droneships primarily meant to act as splitters to enable engaging larger numbers of targets at once.
The full array was composed of almost a hundred Lighthouse constellations, each able to obliterate entire fleets with ease or provide vast amounts of power to nearby civilian infrastructure. Exact capability is difficult to determine, as the nation who built it seemed to be obscuring its capacity, but we have some rough estimations. A primary light house station would be able to reliably hit most grand cruisers or slower vessels well before they came into range of it, destroying anything we know of in short order. Secondary stations seem to be optimized to deal with cruisers, with the instances of them destroying larger vessels seeming to result in damage to the station. tertiary stations are rather openly ablative, used to provide point defense or burned out to allow them to destroy full voidships.
While immensely potent, the system is not invincible. The stations seem to be somewhat fragile, and while they can project beams potent enough to scour worlds to the far edge of the system, it is far more difficult to strike an evading target. While they still have an effective range far in excess of almost any known weapon system,their range advantage is not overwhelming. While this was mitigated to a degree by mixing in more conventional defensive stations into the Lighthouse constellations, there were nevertheless several instances of a constellation being overwhelmed by human, or orkish invaders, albeit always at a staggering cost. Notably, the montage of orkish space hulks being casually picked off demonstrates that the system enforces a minimum speed on invaders, where vessels unable to evade the laser did not live long enough to reach engagement range, regardless of their durability. It seems even the Ancients were unable to construct a flagship able to stand before the full and terrible fury of a star.
While the weapons inherent design principles render it immobile, the ability to secure a system against anything short of a full battlefleet would be of immense use. Better still, the ability to use it to fuel civilian infrastructure means any port of call with such a system would be of significantly greater use to us. While the construction and operation of a Dyson swarm were not covered, they do not seem to be overly complex. A handful of operators would be able to run a self replicating production chain, fueled by the very swarm it was constructing. We believe in theory, it would be possible for Denva to construct a basic swarm in only a few decades with sufficient focus. We doubt they would be able to fully match the glory of the ancients, even if Vita were to fully recreate the technology behind the Solar Aegis Array, as the Array was the result of a fully industrialized DAoT system making it a primary focus for generations. Nevertheless, even a partial dyson swarm and a handful of Lighthouse constellations would be a massive boon to both their industry and defense.
> (Vita): Oh! I think I actually saw this one once! It was beautiful. Never got to really see it in action, but there's something to be said for an orbit of precisely tuned engineering marvels aligned in perfect unison. [Excited]
> (Anexa): It's certainly impressive, but I can't help but wonder what would drive a nation to build something like this. [Appraising]
> (Vita): They lived in a bad neighborhood. The megacorps that ruled that region of space always said there wasn't the budget to properly curtail the local orks, but they sure found the budget to keep trying to "reclaim stolen assets" after one of their systems revolted. They had the infrastructure, and a pressing need for defenses.
> (Victan): I'd be more worried about who operated it, whoever ran it would have a stronghold on both the energy supply and military dominance. The more concentrated the power, the harder it is to hold to account, and the array would be a vast amount of power in very few hands.
> (Vita): Oh it worked well enough, The AI running it answered to the local council. They seemed really dutiful when I… [Dawning horror]
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hm - I think I'd personally go for different research priorities because we're about to do more shipbuilding stuff and Neablis said that we wouldn't be able to do navigator genetic stuff without the full navigator genetics tech and adult genetic enhancement, so it seems better to either go for more ship building techs, an X factor like the seed, or warp comms.
Additionally, since it's become clear that another 200 cogitare would let us keep our full industrial park operational after we leave with just a bit of extra investment into CP efficiency, you can get an extra 40 RP to use this turn if you use the second boon.
But it seems fine enough otherwise, so what the hey:
[x] Plan: Finding The Plot
[x] Plan: Communicating The Plot
[X] Plan: Start Your Engines
[X][name] Iris
[X][name] Eos
Turn 34 voting closed
New
Ok, looks like the name and plan have been chosen!
1st: Database dive for the planet in Gwen's vision.
2nd: Large-Scale organic-machine Control, +20
3rd: Intelligence Coding, +20 (Anexa)
4th: Empathy at Range, +20
5th: Yelling into the Warp, +20
6th: Machine Spirit Shipboard Manufactories, +20
7th: Ground Manufactory Efficiency Improvements, +20
8th: Cogitare Recruitment
9th: Victan raising the Navigator, who has been named Aurora.
10th: Cia Passive Psyker Improvement
11th: Gwen passive learning action
Then I'm going to roll some dice. Let's see:
1st: Denva-Vellkar diplomacy.
2nd: Denva Civilian Development
3rd: Denva military development
4th: Vellkar development
5th: Events ouside of Denva.
6th: Events outside of Denva
@LightLan I appreciate you doing the new cramming math on the Spark of the Ancients.
I love it. Some of these might show up in later techs. There's one floating "positron" in the middle of the proton laser description that's bugging me.
