Well, if we go by order of rolls here when not dealing with a specific call-out
74 = Good Success (Database)
85 = Good Success (Shooshing)
73 = Good Success (Stealth)
90 = Crit! (Brain Implants, Anexa Specialty Get?)
32 = Poor Success (Faster Hacking, I guess it needs more time in the oven)
91 = Mystery Box (Crit!)
If we are going to be a new human faction, we should probably stick to the strategy that the Tau empire have done so far, be to small and costly for the imperium and not important to make it worth their time and effort to eliminate. They were not eliminated like any other small rising powers is because the Tau is the least of the Imperium's concerns
Edit2: These rolls are to see if you gain bonus progress towards a follow-up research, and to see the quality of the result. Rolls below 10 (which are impossible with your trait) will mean you don't complete the research, between 11-35 will increase the cost of follow-up research, between 36-65 will return expected results, 66-90 will decrease the cost of follow-up research, and 91+ will give you a bonus outcome depending on exact number rolled. There's further gradations within that, but those are the rough numbers.
Yeah, this is accurate with modifiers. The stealth isn't a crit, just a roll that's almost a crit. You'll get a result on the high end of good. 73 is enough for an Anexa level, but no specialty.
Yeah, this is accurate with modifiers. The stealth isn't a crit, just a roll that's almost a crit. You'll get a result on the high end of good. 73 is enough for an Anexa level, but no specialty.
Still much better than our usual set of rolls on technology. But machine spirits are once again proving to be extremely resistant to hacking, which makes sense considering the AI rebellion humanity went through.
On the mystery box, at least personally I would prefer the mystery to preserved until the update. Still very interested in what it was, considering you said we didn't want to roll a crit-fail on it.
I had another idea - could we harvest any remnants/ruins from the Spirefall to accelerate our operations, or has it already been thoroughly scavenged/dismantled in the intervening century and a half?
Sorry if I missed it beforehand in the quest, but I'm a little confused - where does the mystery box come from? Is it a new game mechanic, or part of the winning plan I've misunderstood? Or is it entirely unknown to the players at this point, other than the fact we rolled for it?
Sorry if I missed it beforehand in the quest, but I'm a little confused - where does the mystery box come from? Is it a new game mechanic, or part of the winning plan I've misunderstood? Or is it entirely unknown to the players at this point, other than the fact we rolled for it?
Quick, I need somebody to roll a d6 for Anexa's new augment vibe. 1-6,
Fractal Lightshow, Organic-Analogue, Flowing Metallic, Baroque Elegance, Dark Minimalist, Art-deco futurist.
Quick, I need somebody to roll a d6 for Anexa's new augment vibe. 1-6,
Fractal Lightshow, Organic-Analogue, Flowing Metallic, Baroque Elegance, Dark Minimalist, Art-deco futurist.
Quick, I need somebody to roll a d6 for Anexa's new augment vibe. 1-6,
Fractal Lightshow, Organic-Analogue, Flowing Metallic, Baroque Elegance, Dark Minimalist, Art-deco futurist.
Some of these are going to be hilarious, given that Vita is still doing the standard Mechanicus look.
A secure subchannel, in the near future.
Thalya : "So, what misdeed has she comitted, to send her out like that? Her character was always a risk, but if you resort to such measures, perhaps a sting in my forges could shape her up".
Vita : "Oh, she chose it herself. Experimentation is important in defining one's true form. I would not stand between my apprentices and their communion with the Omnissiah".
The room lights up in tones of red, green and blue as Anexa rounds the corner.
Vita : "Though perhaps, not every experiment can be called a succes".
Some of these are going to be hilarious, given that Vita is still doing the standard Mechanicus look.
A secure subchannel, in the near future.
Thalya : "So, what misdeed has she comitted, to send her out like that? Her character was always a risk, but if you resort to such measures, perhaps a sting in my forges could shape her up".
Vita : "Oh, she chose it herself. Experimentation is important in defining one's true form. I would not stand between my apprentices and their communion with the Omnissiah".
The room lights up in tones of red, green and blue as Anexa rounds the corner.
Vita : "Though perhaps, not every experiment can be called a succes".
[X] Plan: Killsats means Vita will not be going to space today T_T
-[X] Free: This is an absurd amount of firepower aimed at a planet that can't resist, what is the deal, it can't just be sheer greed and conservatism, is there an actual reason for it? See if you can find out what this is.
-[X] Diplomacy: Admech Shooshing
--[X] Somehow, the deal keeps getting worse all the time! Still, we need to keep poking around the corners to keep them complacent. Provide our regular report, with some speculation as to what might be found. Now that we actually have an understanding of what a Machine Spirit is, we've got more of the terminology that can be used to deflect suspicion too. While we're at it, we should see about starting to consolidate some of our gains--we've got the fundaments of a following, and we're loathe to actually conduct a complete purge--especially now that you know that there's potential in the Mechanicus to be something worthy, held back by a bunch of regressive toughs, if we can get followers on the inside who can help, we might manage to avoid a complete wipeout when the time comes for the status quo to shift. (Thalya report, followed up by starting to capitalize on those initial seeds we've sown to start assembling a following in our own right. Allies inside could be worth their weight in your exotic material of choice when things get noisy.)
-[X] Construction (+1,100 BP)
--[X] 2x Concealed Spaceport (-600 BP, -50 CP)
--[X] 4x Manufactories (-400 BP, -200 CP)
--[X] Shield Repair (-50 BP)
--[X] Trade Goods (-50 BP)
-[X] Research x2 (400 + 10 Anexa RP)
--[X] Small-craft Stealth (100 RP)
--[X] Medium Void Shield Installation (100 RP)
--[X] Brain Implants (40 + 10 Anexa RP)
--[X] Faster Hacking (150 RP)
--[X] Secrets of the Machine Spirits (10/200 RP)
-[X][Anexa] Research - assists a research action you take, granting +5xLevel RP to the action. Will level on successful roll, scaled by the importance of the tech.
Of course, it all makes sense now!
That's mostly true. There'd been so much confusing about the galaxy you'd awoken in, and the more you'd learned the less everything had made sense. You'd last known a galaxy built on progress, where civilization was spreading, technology was advancing and the future was bright.
Then you'd been taken out of commission for fifteen thousand years, and instead of awakening in a utopia you'd found something rather the opposite. The oppression and fascism of the Imperium, the techno-religion of the mechanicus, the prosecution of psykers. The questions had been niggling away at you for the longest time - why? How? What could have possibly happened to reduce the galaxy you'd known to the one you found?
The answer doesn't entirely lay with Chaos. But that's a lot of it. If societies are capable of great and terrible things, then so are those members of the society that become corrupted. You don't know exactly what happened during the Cybernetic Revolt, the Age of Strife or the Horus Heresy, and you doubt you ever really will. But something about the galaxy fundamentally changed in a way that made society less stable. Any pinnacle of achievement draws attention to itself and gets hammered down by malign, intelligent forces beyond the limitations of the physcial universe.
No wonder everything turned to shit.
You're not sure how you feel about the Imperium now - there's an argument to be made that it's a necessary evil, that an oppressive and theocratic regime that abhors anything unfamiliar is the only way to survive in a galaxy with Chaos.
Naww
It's not that you're certain you're right about that. Maybe it is so. But you don't think so. The problem with the Imperium is that there's no path towards anything better. There are almost certainly other ways for a society to resist Chaos while maintaining advanced technology, but with the monolithic nature of the Imperium and it's tendency to answer dissent with jackboots, you doubt anybody has tried many of them.
So! It might be fun to go find some! And if you can't find one, maybe you can make one, or at least guide a few places onto the proper paths. That might be a fun experiment.
But first - you'll need to deal with more prosaic problems. Namely, the fact that the mechanicus has about a hundred automated orbital bombardment satellites in medium orbits. You're not sure exactly why they're there, but there they are, and it's a problem you have to deal with.
You've never claimed to have the greatest aptitude for military matters, so you're not sure if you're underpreparing or overpreparing - but over the next few days you plan out a two-pronged approach to dealing with the Mechanicus orbital capabilities. Active combat, and subversion.
You have most of the tools you need to fight the mechanicus. Your anti-air systems would stand a chance against ballistic missiles, which are the threat you knew about before. But they won't do much against weapons dropped from those orbits, and you need to be able to both knock out the satellites and take more than a single hit. To that end you follow up on what you learned about in-atmosphere void shields and design a large-scale shield generator that will serve to protect a twenty-mile radius from orbital bombardment.
Medium Void-shield Installation blueprint available for construction.
It's about as big of a system as you can build before you start having to take into account complexities like the planet's magnetic field, but it's still able to take quite a beating. Ultimately it'll only block about 8% of the Mechanicus's total orbital strike capability even before counting the missles, but only about 10% can range on you at any one time.
Unfortunately your primary design requires some fairly large and obvious shield projectors that would tower a hundred meters into the air - which can be replaced by ground-level or underground cabling, though that would require a good deal more material. And while you can't have more than one on at a time since their shields would intersect, you can turn one off to recharge and switch on a second one. Hopefully another strike won't be able to sneak inside while the second system warms up. Though you could layer a smaller void shield inside the larger without significant issues.
But the shield is only the last step in your defensive plan, and you'd prefer to never need it at all. The second arrow in your quiver is to finally get some capability to get stuff to and from space. You'd really prefer for those to be cargo ships with the materials you'd need to start on true space infrastructure, but you're aware that your most likely initial craft are going to be orbital fighters to destroy the mechanicus satellites. You don't have any designed yet, so you get started on the launch infrastructure for 20 small craft. You don't want to spend the resources necessary to fully shield them from view, but orbit-capable launch infastructure is something that the mechanicus monitors very carefully, so you dig hangers and launch tubes into the surrounding hills, disguising some of them with waste rock tailings.
2x Underground Spaceports completed
Your manufactory complex is growing, but you judge that with the cover that Aevon's given you it could easily double again before it gets really suspicious, and you extend a few buildings towards the river, dumping viscous sludge into the waterway. It looks nasty but really it's mostly pumped mud from the river bottom. You doubt the mechanicus is going to take samples downstream and note the lack of toxic smelting byproducts.
4x Manufactories completed
Repairing your psychic shielding is almost an afterthought - it wasn't damaged badly by your forays into Chaotic reading material. You've safely locked the most harmful details away regardless, and as long as you aren't obsessing over the true nature of each of the four Gods then the risk seems to be minimal. Which is good! It would be frustrating to have to be constantly repairing your shielding because you decided to read the wrong book.
Antimemetic threats are wild. Even crazier is that I just happened to have the right shielding to protect me from it. I don't want to think about what would have happened without it. I'm glad I kept it around, and never upgraded to one of the newer ships that didn't have it. A benefit of staying on the fringes of civilization?
A buzzer goes off in your consciousness, and you sigh. You started thinking about chaos too much again, and that's a no-no. It's just - kind of fascinating, you have to admit. But bad for life, consciousness and staying yourself. So probably better not to think about it too hard.
Not beyond what it takes to deliver heavy ordinance at least! At least that sounds mostly effective.
Anyway, what you really need to effectively combat the mechanicus is better stealth technology for fighters and shuttles. That's a tall bar - with the full suite of technology available to the mechanicus there's a lot of ways to see somebody. But you don't need to hide from them when they're fully alert and looking. You need to avoid popping up on their passive scanners when they've got all of the material of a while planet to look at.
That means understanding how to hide the signature of your ships from basic scans. The obvious one is various forms of reflected electromagnetic radiation used in active scanners, but there's also the thrust plumes and the optical signature. You quickly discard optical camouflage - it might be important for if you want to get really close to targets, but for the kind of long-range stealth you're looking for you don't need it.
You're able to find some resources on radar-absorbent materials and profiles that will disperse thrust plumes, though every entry and information is different and none of them are complete schematics for you to steal. It's clear that despite you having resources from dozens - hundreds of places, nobody wanted to be fully open about their stealth capabilities.
Still - you're able to piece together a pretty effective set of principles for what you need to do to achieve basic stealth on small craft, and you don't think it will even require any sacrifices or even a dramatically increased cost to achieve. As a side-benefit, you think you can make some small tweaks to the cargo-capsules you'd use for a magnetic launch system to make them nearly undetectable.
Furthermore, you're pretty sure you can see directions to improve it, as well as start applying the same techniques both up and down to much larger spaceships, as well as vehicles like tanks and even individual combat bots. You also see avenues for integrating holographic technology to provide active camouflage as well. It'll all take extra research, but it's nice to know that this is an area ripe for investigation. After all, what's a more effective way to attack somebody than in a way they never saw coming?
Researched Small-craft Stealth - rolled 70+20=90. Excellent success, just short of critical. Follow-on tech costs reduced.
New blueprint available for design - Basic Stealth Fighters, Basic Stealth Shuttles, Basic Stealth Bombers, Basic Stealth Assault Shuttles.
Upgraded stealth on Magnetic Catapult launch system
New research unlocked - BasicSpaceship Stealth (100 RP)
New research unlocked - BasicGround Force Stealth (50 RP)
New research unlocked - Improved Passive Stealth (100 RP)
New research unlocked - Basic Active Stealth (150 RP)
You back out of your self-imposed fugue and look around. Great. Nothing's on fire, and you've bypassed a major hurdle. You're not sure if you want to go for an even better understanding of stealth technology or keep trying to improve your understanding, but you've run out of the time you allotted to this. Unfortunate! You felt like you were on the edge of a breakthrough, but it really could have been an illusion. Sometimes that's just how the cookie crumbles.
These designs will definitely help you get to space, and you can't help but imagine what you'll find there. There has to be some reason the mechanicus has this much firepower in orbit, and you want to know what it is.
The obvious answer is the gigantic station up there that seems to host the only active orbital activity in the system. You're honestly not sure it it's a problem or an opportunity. In this galaxy it seems like it'd be a problem - but it's almost completely inactive. So? Maybe an opportunity? It's important to try to find out, so you decide to dig through public databases at your disposal and figure out if it's something to be excited about or yet another threat you'll need to deal with.
Database Snooping - rolled 75. Good success!
The station seems to be a secret among the mechanicus, but somewhat of an open one. Every single enclave on Denva is engaged in sending supply shipments off to the station, though only rarely. You manage to find a few manifests and it seems like they're shipping everything needed to sustain a small population, along with a number of combat servitors adapted to cold environments.
Interesting. Very interesting. Something about that station is important to the mechanicus, and is the reason that any of them are left at all after the majority of them withdrew and destroyed what little orbital presence there was behind them.
You search through the datanet and can't find any clues as to the station - though there are gaps where somebody appears to have gone through and deleted references to it. In some of the older literature there's mention of an ally of the governer, who may have helped sponser him in some ways. You don't know anything about them beyond the name: "House Klyssar."
Interesting. Still, not something you can polish off today, though it might be something to ask W about later. But now it's time to go make a report to Thalya so she stays off your back, and keeps the Magos Vita persona active.
You debate sending your avatar in person again, maybe with some more tech samples from your ship, but then decide against it. You just did that during your last report. If you set that as the standard, and also had samples, then Thalya would expect that from you every time. It would give her more opportunities to determine your launch point, and also likely set unreasonable expectations for your progress.
She'll have to be content with a digital report, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't give her your whole attention. You don't want to make her slap you on the wrist with a ruler, or to know exactly what that would look like in that circumstance. Still, your progress report ends up high on speculation and low on details, though you provide a fair amount of detail into an attempt to interface with an ancient computer as if it were a machine spirit. It's entertaining to write with full understanding of both systems, and if Magos Thalya has access to any reports of similar undertakings she'll be able to corroborate your reported attempts and their results as reasonable.
Mechanicus Shooshing - rolled 74+10=84. Good success.
You get send off the report, and then dive into the mechanicus network. You're starting to train the basic security machine spirits that you're an expected presence, despite not quite having the correct codes. It makes it easier to access the mechanicus systems, but you're very well aware that you'd have a harder time penetrating to the higher-security systems. You think you know where the access link to the orbital bombardment satellites is now that you know where to look for it.
But that's not your purpose right now. You want to check in on the hidden breadcrumbs of knowledge, and see if there are more acolytes to be harvested for your own purposes. Anexa is probably one-of-a-kind, but you might be able to recruit people to your side within the mechanicus. About a third of them seem to have been found and removed by various tech-priests or other parties with edit access to the educational archives, but most still remain.
Before you're able to collate all of the data, you get a message request from Thalya. You accept it in text-only, since you're busy looking through things.
> Magos Vita. Is this the totality of your report? No samples or additional data? [Skepticism]
> That is the entire report. It summarizes my activities in the past ten years. It fufills our agreement, Magos Thalya. [Satisfaction]
That's a lie, and you both know it. However, it definitely represents a solid overview of some aspects of your investigation into ancient technology and fufills your agreement with Thalya.
> Very well. Acceptable. Do you require more supplies at this time? [Annoyance]
> No. I do not. I am very much self-sufficient for now. [Bored]
> How is Anexa? Is her training progressing? May I send you more acolytes or techs to speed your task? [Insistant]
> Anexa is doing well. She may be ready to do more than catalog salvage in another thirty years. I do not require additional hands, though I may request them at a later time. [Placating]
Then a thought strikes you, and you send a follow-up message immediatley, before she can respond.
> If I made a request for a specific acolyte, would I be able to take them on as an apprentice as I have taken Anexa? [insignificant curiosity]
> That would need to be arranged with their master, though I would support such a measure. Especially if it results in faster progress on your project. Do you have a specific acolyte in mind? [Impatience]
> No. Fare well until my next report, Magos Thalya. [Uncaring]
> Fare well. And stop corrupting the acolytes in the name of testing them. It's not significant, but I'm hearing too many complaints about it. [Annoyed]
You break the connection without responding, and pay attention to see if there's any obvious change to your interaction with Thalya. You don't think there will be - that seemed to go well. You managed to put her off for another ten years, and managed to get her to agree to let you take on more acolytes, though you don't have anybody specific in mind.
With that thought you turn back to your breadcrumbs, though from Thalya's last message it sounds like the higher-ups in the mechanicus have started to notice, though they don't seem to take them too seriously.
You reach out to check if anybody else has managed to follow the trails successfully. To your amusement and partial disappointment there's a number of messages, but they're not from individuals. Instead a kind of group seems to have formed, using interpersonal messages to exchange notes and hints with each other.
Finding your hidden puzzles and the rewards that came with them seems to have started as a game, and a way for acolytes to gather social credit with their peers. However, over the years they started to collaborate more closely and attempt to find new clues. There are some people who appear to be leading the coordination effort, but it's less an organized movement and more a hidden social club that tries to collaborate to find more of your hints.
You're sure that the various tech-priests and especially the magos would try to stamp out this assemblage, and there's records of disciplinary action that came about when they caught wind of it. But it seems minor thus far, and it's hard to trace the collection of interpersonal messages far, especially since the acolytes seem to have gotten wise to making self-deleting messages.
Still, you have a huge advantage here - whenever somebody solves a breadcrumb trail, they're given an address on the public datanet to send a message to. Some of those appear to have been found by various higher-ups and deleted, but you're pretty sure they didn't gain access first. You put some nasty encryptions on them.
Regardless, you know the list of people who have solved your puzzles and want more, and many of them left notes about who helped them get there. That lets you reconstruct a network of a several dozen acolytes spread across all of the enclaves on Denva who you would be able to contact. They know you as "The Explorator," and under that guise you're pretty sure that Thalya and potentially Orynn know that these messages come from you, but they don't seem to regard them as too important.
It would be easy to reach out to all of them in one form or another, or even as a collective, and start helping and shepharding them towards certain directions. The question remains, how do you want to do it? You could try to teach them true science, which would push them forward the fastest but might alarm their mechanicus masters. You could teach them what they would need to advance quickly in the mechanicus, or you could try to subvert them to your cause, and make them active agents against the mechanicus.
Any of the options would take concerted effort on your part, and maybe it's wiser to do nothing at all and simply learn more of the internal fault-lines of the mechanicus. Thalya seems to have drawn an entirely reasonable link between "Magos Explorator Vita" and "The Explorator" who left behind coded messages and seems to be using them to recruit promising acolytes to her cause. Vote below on how to approach the curious mechanicus acolytes
Definitely something to consider and act on, especially if you want to pursue significant amounts of subversion in the future. You're hopeful for what your new hacking capabilities could mean for setting up secure and reliable coordination between this puzzle hunting group, and what your planned forays into improving those capabilities may result in.
But! In addition to all of the drudgery of looking through databases and talking to mechanicus, you've also been doing some fun things, like figuring out brain implants with Anexa. You're glad it counts as "fun" now, since there was a time when you would only be content with heading to the next system over. That wanderlust still scratches the back of your brain occasionally, but so far you've been content with learning everything you can about this new universe. And with spending quality time with your new crew.
Speaking of Anexa, she's been slowly experimenting with different aesthetics for her augments and looking through your databases for inspiration.
What aesthetic does Anexa choose? Rolled 1d6 = 6, Futurist art deco.
After a fair amount of research and some time machining it, she seems to have settled on something best described as "futurist art deco." You have to admit, you see the appeal. It's very distinct from the mechanicus normal style, and she's done away with the red and black robe and replaced it with a slimmer and less form-covering version in white and gold, even as she's replaced her augments one by one with white-and-gold versions decorated with pleasing geometric shapes. You know she still has the old augments and can swap them back on if she needs to go back into Imperial society, but she definitely prefers the new ones. You can't help but approve, both because it's more aesthetically appealing and because it's yet another step distancing her from the mechanicus and the Imperium.
You're still hesitant about involving her in your work on brain implants. You know it's something she's very interested in - she wants to be able to aquire informaiton faster. Right now she's only got some very basic implants left over from the mechanicus days, and she wants to replace those with ones that will let her better interface with you. Or more accurately, your databases.
Still, you're worried. She's got some good background in the field, but she's not an expert. You've also both gotten into the bad habit of testing your new augments on her. That's fine if it's an arm you can remove, but brain augments are a much riskier kettle of fish.
But once you both get started it's clear your worries were misplaced. She's still learning as she goes along, and you spend a not-inconsiderable amount of time explaining various concepts to her. But she's still a genius, and is able to make near-intuitive leaps to connect disparate pieces of information in satisfying new ways to solve problems that you would have struggled with for some time. She doesn't suggest dangerous things, and is definitely a researcher at heart.
You can't wait until she actually knows enough to hold her own in these discussions. But in the meantime, you're able to adapt your machine-spirit mediated neural connection links into brain augments. Once you were both confident in the design you both work together on a simple data-processing augment that connects directly to the brain to allow for faster database access and perusal.
Researched Brain Implants with Anexa! Rolled 53+20 = 73! Good success!
Unlocked basic neural implants, and discounted follow-on technologies!
Research unlocked - Organic-Machine control (200 RP)
New research unlocked - Combat Neural Implants (100 RP)
New research unlocked - Advanced Neural Implants (200 RP) Requires other prerequisites.
Anexa has installed a basic neural implant, +1 level.
She's thrilled by her improved capabilities, and quickly dives back into her reading. Under the care of your medical suite and full-strength juvenat she's looking more vital than ever, and you almost tell her about Chaos. It's unlikely she's ever going to be in a better mood. But in the end you decide against it. She doesn't need to know yet. But you should decide when to tell her, and how much.
The last thing you really intended to get done before you reassess is continuing to work on your hacking machine spirits. It's not really hacking, but you've resigned yourself to thinking of it that way. It's closer to befriending, or tricking. The problem right now is that it's slow, and done properly takes a very long time and still isn't risk-free. You work on improving your approach, varying it up so you can engage more with a machine spirit, and teach it to trust you even when it's by nature very suspicious.
It's... extremely frustrating. Some part of the base design of machine spirits is clearly paranoid and designed to counter any kind of subversion. You make progress but it's slow and painful. You can definitely trick machine spirits into granting you access you shouldn't have, and your capabilities at doing so have undeniably improved, but it's definitely not the sort of thing you can do in less than months of groundwork. You could keep working on improving this capability, but you'd need to come up with some kind of change in approach to go any further, and that would take a significant amount of effort.
Researched Faster Hacking - rolled 12+20=32. Poor success.
You can hack more Imperial systems at once, and have less worry about high-security systems triggering the alarm. Poor success means fewer tech unlocks and higher cost for them.
New research unlocked - Rapid Hacking (600 RP)
The only thing left is to pay rent to Aevon for your surface facilities.
Victan reaches out on the scheduled data, precisely on time. "V, we'd like to update our request. We'd like to make it three-fifths more communicators, and only one part in five additional weapons, in the same ratio as before."
You respond with some amusement. "Heard and understood. Do you have enough guns?"
His voice is wry. "No such thing. But we're finding better uses for communicors. Intelligence is the true currency of war, not weapons."
There's some wisdom in that, but you don't have time to digest it. "Will you be present for the pickup?"
"I will, but W won't be joining us."
"Sorry to hear that. I enjoy working with her." Your tone is slightly teasing.
"And she with you. But you'll have to settle for me. Is there anything else?"
You consider for a moment. You hadn't made up your mind on if you should communicate this news - but you've been becoming better allies with Aevon. Part of that is sharing critical information. "Yes. There's a stealthed satellite network over Denva Secundus. Middle orbits. It appears to be about a hundred satellites with orbital bombardment capaiblities. Enough to exterminate life on the planet."
There's a pause on his end. "I see. I apologize for asking, but you are certain?"
"Yes. I'm working on fixes, but nothing is quite ready."
"Understood. We appreciate the information. Keep us updated."
The switch from more weapons to more communciators is a bit confusing. But based on everything you can see and listening in on their communications, Aevon Counterintelligence seems to have put all of the resources you've given them to good use. They've impressed you, and you're not about to second-guess them.
Aevon Subterfuge roll - 91. Critical success!
The mechanicus presence in Aevon has been badly strangled, with the local enclave denied resources and therefore the ability to produce advanced goods. They've fallen in favor with the other enclaves, both for requiring additional support and failing to meet obligations and for being unable to suppress Aevon technological progress.
It's not considered a problem by the other enclaves, who really do think Aevon has had a string of lucky breaks exacerbated by the incompetence of Magos Silvenis, the leader of the Aevon enclave. Even the appearance of advanced weaponry is more a cause for interest than alarm, since it indicates there's more salvage potential on the planet. The weaponry in the hands of their enemies is something that they merely need to wait out - they can't repair it after all.
But Aevon has progressed far further than the mechanicus thinks they have. The first generations of children taught with the contents of your educational materials have come of age and entered the workforce, and Aevon is undergoing a quiet technological revolution. There's no centralized hub of innovation - but it's happening everywhere, under the guise of "general upgrades" and "improved tooling." If the mechanicus was paying attention they'd be truly alarmed, but so far Aevon is doing a great job diverting their attention elsewhere.
Part of that is revealed as you listen in to more of the communictors that you've handed over. You only rarely pay attention, but as you check in it's clear that more groups than just Aevon have been using them recently.
In fact, it seems like Aevon has been quietly bragging about their successes in standing up to the mechanicus and expanding their tech base without retaliation. The other nations of Denva Secundus have reached out diplomatic feelers to see if they can share in the beneifts, and been given samples of your communicators and some of the educational materials.
Right now, a significant number of your encrypted communicators are in the possession of the nations of Pryath and Estrana, two of the five major nations on Denva Secundus. Each of them has also been started teaching with versions of your uplift manuals.
They haven't been as successful as Aevon has been, and at least a few of the communicators have fallen into the hands of the mechanicus enclaves in each nation. This isn't really a problem for you - they're the next best thing to untraceable, and nothing about their construction should ring any alarm bells besides "there's advanced manufacturing we don't control" for the mecahncius.
But the result is that the mechanicus's attentions are squarely on Pryath and Estrana, and away from Aevon - and you.
"V, are you there?" W's voice comes from the communicator one day without warning, and you once more make yourself wait a little while before responding. You're still pretending to be a normal human with W.
"I'm here. Where's Victan?" He's been your normal contact, and you've successfully collaborated with him on various activities. You've gotten used to his no-nonsense style, general responsiveness and occasional blast of wry humor.
"This is just us. I appreciate the warning on the orbital weapons. We've slowed some of our more notable activities and intensified distraction efforts. But this is the part where we need to coordinate closely to ensure neither side tips our common enemy off. We've noticed you building some kind of opening that looks to be made to launch various things out of it. You don't need to tell us what you're doing, but we would like closer coordination as your plans progress so we can synchronize our efforts. We're likely going to have to leave the satellites to you, but I don't know your methods, timeframe or how we can help."
You don't have a ready response. You're not sure how much you want to tell them - not because you think they might let the secrets slip, but because you're not sure how much they can help. On the other hand, it seems like W has a plan. "You have a proposal?"
"Let me send Victan to join you. He's a natural at intelligence work, and - " She breaks off for a moment, as if considering how to proceed. "And my only living family. I'm staying with Aevon, but if there's a chance that all of this ends with a dead rock, I'd like him to make it offworld."
"But he'd still report to you."
"That's up to you. He understands our capabilities as well as you understand your own. He'll be able to ensure that we coordinate together well as we move to the most critical stages." She sighs. "I'd like to still hear from him, but I understand your need for secrecy. This really is a proposal, not a demand. You're free to delay it too. It's not like either of us is getting any older."
You hang up the call and consider. You'd been planning on moving towards more active engagement with the mechanicus elements, and Victan might be a good asset for that. He's both been trained for subterfuge and would be able to help you coordinate with Aevon down the line.
Still - you're not completely sure of his loyalty. If W is to be believed he's related to her by blood, and if he works for the ACI it's likely that he's a patriot Will that stand up to the full truth about you? You're not sure. You like him, but you're not sure he'd like you if he knew the full truth.
Current capabilities:
Command Points 2,305/12,500
Ground Build Capacity: 1,300
Void Build Capacity: 0
Research Capacity: 200
Psychic Shielding: 100/100 (repair for 10 BP/point)
Juvenat usage: 23/50 people's worth (cannot be stockpiled)
Available ships:
1x Mechanicus-disguised Shuttle (5 CP)
Misc assets:
45 BP of trade goods that Aevon will accept as rent.
Avatars: Adult human woman, indeterminate age. Female tech priest with some augmentations.
Military Installations:
10x Underground Anti-Air Defenses (10x5 =50 CP)
In progress construction:
None
In progress research:
Secrets of the Machine Spirits (10/200)
Actions (choose 4 of the below, can choose the same action multiple times):
[] [Free] Poke around some more in the databases, looking for anything in particular. I'm not going to write out every aspect of Vita going through the databases she yoinked. If you want to ask if something in particular is present because it's important, do so here. Please keep it to one or two items per turn. There may be rolls for figuring out various sensitive data, but you can't try again if you've already looked for a given topic.
[] Orders: Command existing units in a given theater of operations.
[] Diplomacy/Subversion: Talk to people. (Write-in goal & method) Thalya is expecting a report next turn. However, if you want to double down on subverting tech priests and/or hacking some portion of their systems then you should spend actions on that now. You can do multiple things with one action, though less will be achieved per goal then if you just have a task dedicated to a single purpose. You also have an in with the psyker monastery on Aevon, though they're pretty insular and would need a reason to care about talking to an outsider that's not the goverment. You could also spend an action to build up your connection with Aevon enough that they're in the loop on the general shape of your plans.
[] Construction: Gain build points equal to your build capacity, write in what combination of blueprints you spend them on.
Installations
Installation default is to be built in full view. Basic stealth (building under cover, sensor-absorbing materials) can be applied with 2x BP cost. Ground-based installations can be built entirely underground for 3x BP cost.
Basic Biology Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic biological samples, such as flora & fauna. Or captives.
Basic Technological Research Lab (50 BP, 50 CP) Will allow you to process basic technological samples, to understand their electronics, materials, etc.
Captive Holding cells (25 BP, 10 CP) will allow you to hold 500 captives and keep them fed and watered while you interrogate/indoctrinate/talk to them.
Small automated medical facility (50 BP, 50 CP) 50 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with moderate injuries.
Directional-control Radio tower (25 BP, 5 CP) improves signal reception quality and allows you to send your own signals across the planet, as well as giving you the capability to bounce them off the atmosphere to disguise their origin.
Observatory (100 BP, 25 CP) Built on a nearby mountain. Will unlock research projects to map the current system.
Manufactory (100 BP, 50 CP) More manufacturing capacity and the raw material harvesting to use it. +50 ground-based build capacity.
Rocket Launch facility (50 BP, 10 CP) Uses chemical rockets to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to half that amount of void build capacity. The opposite of stealthy.
Spaceport (100 BP, 25 CP) Allows you to use shuttles to convert ground build capacity to Void build capacity with no loss, or as a base to host and rearm fighters. Can host 10 fighters or 10 shuttles, each capable of converting 50 ground BP to void BP, built separately. Stealthier than rockets, but not invisible
Magnetic Catapult launch system (1000 BP, 50 CP) Allows you to convert up to 500 ground build capacity to void build capacity with no loss. Actually quite stealthy.
Medium Void-shield Installation (1000 BP, 50 CP) A void shield capable of stopping medium orbital bombardment, approximately fifty heavy strikes.
Anti-Orbital Defenses (100 BP, 5 CP) A single large lance dug into a reinforced bunker. Will prevent hostile forces from claiming the orbits uncontested, but can be neutralized by orbital bombardment or ground invasion.
Anti-Air Defenses (25 BP, 5 CP) A trio of rapid-recharge lascannons backed up by advanced targeting software in a reinforced emplacement with an upwards-facing arc. Will attempt to destroy ballistic missiles, aircraft or shuttles as they approach. Can miss or be saturated by large amounts of incoming fire or miss and fail to destroy their targets.
Basic Juvenat Production Facility (250 BP, 50 CP) A set of carefully-managed vats capable of supplying 50 people with a perennial supply of Juvenat.
Void Installations
These are built in space. They require 'void BP' which is associated with lift capacity. This is a detail we'll abandon eventually, but for now your lift capacity is limited.
Orbital Manufactory (500 void BP, 50 CP) Orbital manufacturing capability, built above a world. Includes material harvesting & transport. Gives +50 void build capacity.
Deep Space Manufactory (1500 void BP, 50 CP) Manufacturing capacity built near asteroid clusters. Gives +100 void build capacity. Automatic basic stealth. Requires you to do a system survey.
Small Shipyard (1000 void BP, 50 CP) All of the necessary facilities to manufacture 4 destroyers or 2 frigates per turn.
Medium Shipyard (5000 void BP, 100 CP) All of the necessary facilities to manufacture 16 destroyers or 8 frigates or 2 light cruisers per turn.
Ground-to-orbit shuttle (20 BP, 5 CP) Each shuttle converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
Ground-to-orbit Fighter (20 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
Requires frigate-capable shipyard. Small system monitor (2525 void BP, 100 CP) Frigate, 2200x600 meters. 5 gravities of acceleration. Heavy armor, Heavy Shields. 4x Medium Macrocannons, 1x Medium Lances, 2x Point Defense.
1000 bp base. 1000 bp
Units
Avatar (10 BP, 0 CP) 1 human-appearing robot.
Light infantry bots (25 BP, 200 CP). 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with light arms and armor, mostly intended to fight lightly-armored enemies. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Can be humanized for +15 BP to appear humanoid unless bodies are investigated, with a slight malus to strength and armor.
Medium Infantry Bots (50 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with medium armor and light anti-tank weaponry. Expensive CP cost due to need for close control. Can be humanized for +15 BP to appear humanoid unless bodies are investigated, with a slight malus to strength and armor.
Medium tanks (200 BP, 50 CP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons to fight enemy armor.
Basic Artillery (300 BP, 50 CP) 50 basic artillery units, capable of shelling battlefields with indirect fire. Includes internal ammunition fabrication.
Export Goods
Light Infantry Weapons (5 BP) Enough light weapons to outfit 1000 humans. Mostly intended for anti-personnel use. Lasguns, a few stubbers, some grenade launchers and supplies of frag grenades.
Light Infantry Armor (5 BP) Enough light armor to outfit 1000 humans. Roughly equivalent to Imperial guard Flak armor, though with better communication abilities.
Medium Infantry Weapons (10 BP) Enough medium weapons to outfit 1000 humans. A mix of anti-armor and anti-personnel use with greater specialization. Hotshot las-gun equivalents, some lascannons, some autocannons, some flamers, some sniper rifles, a supply of krak grenades.
Medium Infantry Armor (10 BP) Enough medium armor to outfit 1000 humans. Roughly equivalent to Imperial carapace armor.
Heavy Infantry Weapons (20 BP) Enough heavy weapons to outfit 1000 humans. Primarily focused on anti-armor, will work well on power-armored foes. Plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers.
Light crewed tanks (100 BP) 100 light battle tanks, primarily armed with anti-personnel weapons. Need crew. Roughly equivalent to the Imperial Chimera.
Medium crewed tanks (200 BP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons to fight enemy armor. Roughly equivalent to the Leman Russ.
Basic Crewed artillery (300 BP) 50 basic artillery units, capable of shelling battlefields with indirect fire. Includes internal ammunition fabrication.
Trade goods (Any cost you wish to spend) A mix of medical supplies, civilian equipment, vehicles and appliances tailored to your trade partner's needs. 5 is a small amount of goods, 10 is decent, 20 is a fair number, 50 starts being quite a lot.
Manned Manufactory (100 BP) More manufacturing capacity and the raw material harvesting to use it. +50 ground-based build capacity, to be spent as the people running it desire.
[] Research: Gain research points equal to your research capacity, to be spent designing new blueprints or researching projects. Write in what you spend them on.
Designable Blueprints:
100 RP - Heavy Infantry Bots (100 BP, 200 CP) 1000 human-sized bipedal robots with heavy armor, roughly equivalent to the Sisters of Battle, and heavy armaments such as plasma guns, meltaguns, heavy flamers, melta bombs, missile launchers.
50 RP - Heavy tanks (500 BP, 50 CP) 100 heavy battle tanks with heavy battle cannons to fight effectively against heavy enemy armor.
50 RP - Medium Shielded tanks (500 BP, 50 CP) 100 medium battle tanks with battle cannons & antipersonnel weapons to fight enemy armor and infantry. Very survivable.
100 RP - Heavy Shielded tanks (1000 BP, 50 CP) 100 heavy battle tanks with heavy battle cannons and void shields to fight effectively against heavy enemy armor. Very survivable.
50 RP - BasicStealth Shuttles (25 BP, 5 CP) Each shuttle converts up to 50 ground build capacity to void build capacity, and shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking for it. Requires a spaceport for efficient transfer of materials.
50 RP - Basic Stealth Fighters (25 BP, 5 CP) These fighters have twin-linked lascannons to attack ground and orbital targets, and can carry a couple of small bombs. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Requires a spaceport for rapid launch and rearming.
50 RP - Bombers (20 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver cargo to your enemies. Can deliver a fair amount of ordinance to a target in atmosphere or out of it. Unlocks a bomber hanger attachment for ships.
75 RP - Basic StealthBombers (20 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver cargo to your enemies. Can deliver a fair amount of ordinance to a target in atmosphere or out of it. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Unlocks a bomber hanger attachment for ships.
50 RP - Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire.
75 RP - Basic Stealth Assault Shuttle (25 BP, 5 CP) Sometimes you want to deliver things other than bombs to your enemies. So let's stick some armor and guns on a shuttle, and make it a bit more maneuverable. They shouldn't be especially noticeable to anybody not actively looking, though they won't be able to close all the way to attack range without being spotted. Can carry 100 troops and provide anti-personnel and light antiarmor fire.
25 RP - Anti-armor Bunker (50 BP, 5 CP) A bunker with a heavy melta cannon, able to take out most armor in a single shot.
15 RP - Anti-personnel Bunker (20 BP, 2 CP) A bunker with a set of high-fire-rate weapons designed to take down humanoid-sized attackers wearing medium or lighter armor.
50 RP - Light Void-shield installation (250 BP, 25 CP) A void shield capable of stopping light orbital bombardment, approximately ten heavy strikes.
50 RP - Ballistic missile (50 BP, 10 CP) A long-range ballistic missile. By default it carries a high-yield explosive head capable of destroying approximately a city block. Can be intercepted by orbital defenses.
50 RP - Nuclear warhead (25 BP, 1 CP) A nuclear warhead that can be deployed by ballistic missile or other means to destroy a city-sized target unless it's heavily dug-in.
25 RP - Spy satellite (10 void BP, 5 CP) A small spy satellite that lets you do your own surveillance on the planet below. Under your complete control and with better sensors and communication hardening than any of the local satellites.
100 RP - Advanced Technological Research Lab (500 BP, 100 CP) Will allow you to process advanced technological samples, including materials of alien orgin. Has advanced scanning, modelling and processing capabilities.
50 RP - Large automated medical facility (500 BP, 50 CP) 500 treatment rooms with autodocs capable of dealing with moderate injuries.
Ground Blueprint Design:
To design ground installations & non-combat units, post them and I'll add them here if they're valid, along with RP cost to design them. This includes bunkers, anti-orbital defenses, ground units, etc. You'll unlock more things with more technology. Some things are impossible without the correct research - for example, heavy tanks will require you to research heavy armor first. Other things will be very cheap if you already have most of the design - for example if you research a better weapon it will be relatively cheap to just swap that out on the tanks.
Void Blueprint design:
To design void blueprints, follow these steps:
Choose a starting hull from the list of available void chassis below
Choose the number of Build Points to be spent on the base hull. This corresponds to overall size of the ship - a destroyer with 200 bp will be 1200x200 meters, while a 500 bp base destroyer will be 1600x400 meters. This will set the "hp" of the design as well as determine the total cost of weapons and combat equipment you can fit into the ship.
Pick the speed, shields and armor of the design. Shields are recharging temp HP, while armor is damage reduction. Speed is self-explanatory. These do not count towards weapon cramming.
Pick noncombat equipment to go onto the ship. These do not count towards weapon cramming.
Choose weapons and combat equipment to add to the ship. As a rule of thumb, your budget for these things is the base BP spent on size before you start to get into cramming. You can cram more stuff in, but there will be penalties to maneuvering, maintenance, etc. As an example, if you build a destroyer with a base hull cost of 400, then you have a budget of 400 to spend on weapons/equipment before penalties start kicking in. See the below example for an explanation:
Spend the number of RP attached to the chassis.
Here are two examples of me designing the two blueprints you have available:
(Basic Defense Satellite) Light defense Platform. Base 100 Bp (200x200 meters). No engines, Light shields for 50 bp, light armor for 50 bp. 1x light lance battery for 100 bp. Total is 100+50+50+100 = 300. Weapons+equipment is 100, within the base BP of 100, so no cramming penalty.
(Basic System Monitor) Destroyer chassis. Base BP 350 (1500x300 meters) Engines: 7 gravities for 100 BP. Light Shields for 50 BP. Medium armor for 100 BP. 2x Light Macrocannon batteries for 200 bp, 1x Light Lance battery for 100 bp, High maneuverability thrusters for (1/10 base, round up to nearest 50 =) 50 bp. Total is 350+100+50+100+200+100+50 = 950. Weapons + equipment is 350, within the base BP of 350, so no cramming penalty.
Available Void Chassis:
Light defense Platform, 25 RP, 10 CP, (100-400 BP, 200x200-500x500 meters.) Engines: (none) for (0). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Destroyer, 50 RP, 50 CP. (200-500 BP, 1200x200-1600x400 meters) Engines: (6/7/8 gravities) for (50/100/150 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/50/100)
Frigate, 100 RP, 100 CP. (500-1000 BP, 1600x400-2200x600 meters) Engines: (5/6/7 gravities) for (75/150/225 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium/heavy) for (0/75/150/225) Armor: (none/light/medium/heavy) for (0/75/150/225)
Light Cruiser, 150 RP, 200 CP. (1000-2000 BP, 3500x400-4400x800 meters) Engines: (3/4/5 gravities) for (100/200/300 BP). Shields: (none/light/medium) for (0/100/200) Armor: (none/light/medium) for (0/100/200)
Available Non-combat Equipment:
Living Space (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is built to be run and operated by humans. It will require a crew but will not cost CP to command.
Warp Drive (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship can jump to the warp. Navigation systems sold separately.
Psychic Shielding (1/5 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to nearest 50) This ship has a neural network integrated throughout the whole thing, that thinks "no" as hard as possible, answering the question for any warp-corruption for any beings or objects within the hull.
Troop compartment (25 BP) Can carry 10,000 soldiers or 500 medium tanks across the stars.
Medical bay (25 BP) Can treat 1000 moderately injured people at once.
Manufactory (Any cost up to base cost of hull, counts as combat equipment for cramming purposes) Generates void BP equivalent to 1/10 of its cost.
Repair Bay (Any cost up to base cost of hull, counts as combat equipment for cramming purposes). Repairs damage across friendly ships equal to its cost in repairs.
Available Weapons:
Prow Ram 50 bp. This ship is built to run into things, and hurt them more than it gets hurt.
Light Macrocannons 100 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage. Medium Macrocannons 200 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage. Heavy Macrocannons 400 bp. Medium range, projectile weapons built for sustained barrage.
Light Lances 100 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire. Medium Lances 200 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire. Heavy Lances 400 BP. Long range, hitscan burst weapons. Not excellent at sustained fire.
Light Missiles 50 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon. Medium Missiles 100 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon. Heavy Missiles 200 BP short range, limited ammo, vulnerable to enemy point defense but very good burst damage. Limited ammo. Decent anti-fighter/bomber weapon.
Light Plasma Cannon 250 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields. Medium Plasma Cannon 500 BP, Medium range, high-fire rate with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields, less effective against armor.
Light Melta cannon 200 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields. Medium Melta cannon 400 BP, Very short range, medium-fire rate but with incredible damage potential. Extremely effective against shields.
Fighters 100 BP, 50 CP. Parasite craft with short-ranged guns and some missile capability.
Point Defense 50 BP. A series of turrets on the hull to shoot down enemy fighters, missiles and torpedoes.
Small Torpedoes 150 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to give destroyers a bad day, hurt frigates and prick cruisers. Medium Torpedoes 300 BP. A payload of straight-flying armored torpedoes, sized to wreck frigates, hurt cruisers and make grand cruisers know they've been touched.
Light Teleportarium 100 bp. Can teleport a small number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from close range. Enemy shields must be down. Medium Teleportarium 200 bp. Can teleport a medium number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from medium-close. Enemy shields must be down. Heavy Teleportarium 400 bp. Can teleport a large number of organics or robots onto enemy ships from long range. Enemy shields must be down.
Available Combat Equipment:
Low-emission Systems (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship has been tuned to reduce overall emissions, making it stealthier. Not stealthy. Stealthier.
High-maneuverability thrusters (1/10 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship is more maneuverable, able to flip, spin and dodge more quickly. This lets it maneuver well through dense asteroid clusters and dodge/ram more effectively in combat.
Plasma payloads (choose missile warheads or Macro cannon warheads) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire plasma-warhead ammunition, which has a flat damage increase.
Melta payloads (choose missile warheads, Macrocannon warheads or torpedoes) (1/20 of the base cost of the hull, rounded up to the nearest 50) This ship can load and fire melta-warhead ammunition, which is especially effective against enemy armor and hulls.
Tuned Shields 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.
The ways to get new research options are to:
Do research. That'll unlock more research.
Build appropriate installations & potentially acquire samples to research in them (samples could be anything from 'a human' to 'a Norn queen' in rarity).
Ask for them. Often I'll tell you what you need to do to unlock specific research options,
-[] Efficient Weapon Distribution (100 RP) Ok, there must be more efficient ways to lay weapons out on these ships! (Weapon costs count as 0.9x for ship capacity packing.)
-[] Heavy Cruisers (300 RP) How to make a bigger ship? Let's figure that out. Surely it's not much more complicated than just multiplying all of the dimensons by two! (unlocks heavy cruisers)
-[] Can I have a new ship please? (200 RP) Triggers a sub-turn to design yourself a new ship. It can be any size, up to one class larger than what you currently have available (This is Vita's unique mechanic, and will let you design the first iteration of your ship)
-[] Basic Spaceship Stealth (100 RP) Spaceships are big, and emit a lot of energy. It's hard to hide them. Nonetheless, by making them show up worse on active sensors you could make an inactive spaceship much harder to spot. (Unlocks new non-combat equipment to improve ship stealth. Unlocks further research towards better spaceship stealth. Will be able to take advantage of some other stealth technologies.)
-[] Basic Ground force stealth (50 RP) Tanks show up pretty well on scanners, and it would be nice to change that. You might also be able to make your bots hide better. (Unlocks new design options for tanks and ground forces that are less obvious. Unlocks further research towards better ground force stealth. Will be able to take advantage of some other stealth technologies.)
-[] Improved Passive Stealth (100 RP) Ok, you've figured out the basics of hiding your small craft, but you have ideas on what you can do better, that might allow them to hide from even fully-alert enemies. They probably won't be able to close all the way to attack range, but they'll be able to get a lot closer (Unlocks improved stealth designs with improved performance. Unlocks further research for advanced passive stealth technologies. Will synergize with other stealth research.)
-[] Basic Active Stealth (150 RP) Just deflecting away and hiding your signature only helps so much. Then next step is to overlay a hologram over your small craft to make them effectively invisible, and even counter passive sensors. It'll still be a hazy outline, but this is the path towards being able to close to actual combat ranges unobserved (Unlocks improved stealth designs for actively hiding signatures, though they will be expensive. Unlocks further research for improved active stealth, and will synergize with other stealth research.
Tanks show up pretty well on scanners, and it would be nice to change that. You might also be able to make your bots hide better. (Unlocks new design options for tanks and ground forces that are less obvious. Unlocks further research towards better ground force stealth. Will by synergistic with other stealth research.)
How do I keep these ships better hidden? Hmm - radar absorption, better chassis design to deflect signals? Hiding or dispersing the drive plume? All good ideas. (Unlocks the ability to design versions of fighters, bombers, boarding craft and shuttles with basic passive stealth. Unlocks advanced passive stealth, basic active stealth and research to apply stealth to both smaller combat bots and larger ships)
-[] Shuttle automation (150 RP) Surely I don't have to fly these stupid things myself. (Reduce the CP cost of shuttles by 50%)
-[] Heavy In-atmosphere void shields (200 RP) Well, the void shields you have are nice. But it would be nice to be able to build bigger ones, that can shrug off essentially any possible orbital bombardment. You need to figure out how to take advantage of the ridiculous energy and heat dissipation capabilities of being on a planet. (Unlocks heavy and super-heavy void shield installations. May unlock research towards better overall void shielding.)
-[] Tiny In-atmosphere void shields (200 RP) Instead of scaling up a void shield, can you scale one down to the size of a person? It won't be as capable of the big ones, but if it's only meant to block small-arms fire it could be quite effective. (Unlocks the ability to build personal void shields, as well as add them to combat bots. May unlock research towards better overall void shielding)
-[] Superheavy Armor (200 RP) Let's just stick starship armor on them and call it a day. (Unlocks superheavy tanks and is half of the puzzle for space-marine-quality power armor)
-[] Basic power armor (100 RP) Putting heavy armor on a person doesn't work well because... well. It's heavy. If you can give it some robotic actuation then they don't need to carry all of it. (Unlocks humanoid heavy armor, as well as being a prereq for superheavy-humanoid armor, i.e. for space marine-quality, once you research superheavy armor.)
-[] Avatar self-customization (200 RP) Your previous avatar was capable of changing its appearance at your whim, changing the hair, eye and skim color rapidly. Hair length and body size changes took a bit longer but were also possible. Is this worth figuring out? It might just be you being vain. (Unlocks some disguise-style cybernetics... once you get good cybernetics and can do things like skin/eye replacements).
-[] Combat Bot Humanization, Redux (50 RP) Your first try at making humanoid-looking combat bots worked, but you had to make some annoying compromises. You have some ideas on how to fix it, you just need to implement them. (Fixes the combat malus that comes from humanizing combat bots).
-[] Walkers (300 RP) Tanks are... kind of boring? Mechs are cooler. (unlock armiger knights, starts the knights/titans research tree)
-[] Really good Robotics: (1050 RP) You know it's possible to make robots that are really strong. You've seen the specs floating around. You just don't quite know how to do it, though you've got some ideas on the matter... it would take quite a bit of simulation and a lot of trial and error to bring them into reality (Unlocks improvements to avatars, power armor, cybernetics, combat bots, improved manufactories). Acquire samples of advanced robots to reduce this cost.
-[] Intelligence Coding (500 RP) You don't really understand how your own code and hardware works. Maybe putting some effort into understanding that would pay dividends. It's never been something too interesting, but hey, maybe you should give it a shot. (Helps you understand your own code. Prerequisite to building new AIs, starts command point tree and automation tree)
-[] Improved Psychic shielding: (500 RP) Your "no" shielding seems to have worked to protect you from attack so far. But the design is really just a first-generation version. You could develop the second generation, make it capable of more complex and powerful thoughts? (Gives you the ability to build improved psychic shielding, and further upgrades down the path to make it even stronger, half of the research towards using this as some kind of attack against warp beings).
-[] Miniaturized psychic shielding: (300 RP) Right now you can build and repair psychic shielding that's roughly ship-sized. Maybe aiming for building-sized next? (Lets you build smaller and less expensive versions of the psychic shielding. Unlocks further research to "nest" the shielding, as well as build person-sized versions).
- [] The Basics of Psytech (200 RP) You have that pile of samples from Prospero. You were supposed to see if anybody was interested in them, but you doubt the people who gave them to you will care much what you do with them anymore. Maybe poke around and figure out what's what. (Beginner psytech learnings. Unlocks research projects to build individual pieces of psytech)
-[] The workings of a Void Abacus (200 RP) You have a void abacus. It's pretty complicated, but you also have the manual, and you've always been good at physics. (You're better at using your void abacus, and unlocks the technology to figure out how to manufacture them, half of unlocking research for better warp understanding).
-[] A Study of Physics (150 RP) You have a good understanding of physics, and access to a huge network of academic papers from several different eras on physics theory. But being able to query it and understand it are different things. It's actually kind of interesting, you have to admit. (First steps towards more exotic weapon types like nova cannons, graviton weapons, vortex bombs, fusion beamers, as well as some new potential manufacturing techniques).
-[] Secrets of the Machine Spirits (200 RP) You can imagine a lot of uses for these machine spirits in your own work. If they're included in the command loop on various pieces of machinery then that would reduce their command cost, and likely make them harder to hack. And if the Imperial literature is to be believed, corrupt? (Unlocks the ability to stick machine spirits into your combat bots, reducing CP cost. Unlocks follow-up research to use them for chaos shielding, as well as the ability to put machine spirits into installations or ships)
-[] Minaturized antigrav (100 RP) You can make antigrav that reduces the weight of things like shuttles to make them able to make orbit. But there's a floor on how small you can make that technology. The Imperium seems to have solved that. (Unlocks drones, jump-packs etc, as well as additional research to make antigrav vehicles/walkers)
-[] Servitorization (100 RP) You find it repulsive, but being able to replace somebody's brain with a computer that drives them around would have its uses. (Unlocks the ability to servitorize people in the medbay. Unlocks follow-on research to replicate their personality as well)
-[] Organ replacements (100 RP) Well, one area where lag isn't a problem is in organ replacements. It's not the same as juvenat, but it's less complicated and a good way to extend peoples' lives by a bit since you can replace most of their organs as they fail, though the technological versions aren't perfect. Also lets you provide more advanced medical care, as well as install things like adrenaline glands, toxin-filters & other miscellaneous internal augments. Not as good as genetic engineering, but easier. (Unlocks advanced organ replacements that are effectively as good as biological ones, and improved internal augments).
-[] Combat cybernetics (50 RP) Your limb cybernetics are fine for most purposes, but they're not strong enough or durable enough for use in combat situations. You also could figure out how to do things like integrate internal weapons or cutting edges to make them more dangerous. (Unlocks basic combat augments. Half of the technology for advanced combat augments, the other half is Really good Robotics)
-[] Combat Neural Implants (100 RP) Allows you to install neural implants to calculate trajectories, assist with aiming, further improve reaction time and generally improve human capabilities in combat. (Unlocks combat-focused neural implants. Will synergize with other cybernetics and neural implant technologies)
-[] Biology is kinda wet (100 RP) Unlocks basic biology research. (The first step towards research projects related to improving juvenat yield, as well as human/xeno genetics, improved medical care, interrogaton drugs etc.)
-[] Rapid hacking (600RP) You need to figure out a new approach to subverting machine spirits. It might involve some combination of confusing them with a burst of signals, then showing up and 'relieving' the issue. But it would take a lot of trial-and-error to get right. (Improves hacking of imperial tech. Potnetially enough for use in combat situations? May unlock advanced hacking research that synergizes with jamming capaiblities).
-[] Machine spirit jamming (150 RP) Well, if you can double down on that signal that confused the machine spirits, you might be able to lock them into a state of inactivity. (Unlocks installations & ship parts that can disable imperium-based technology)
-[] Organic-Machine control (200 RP) Allows you to hook humans into your own command-and-control loop, allowing you to turn over command duties of various bots to humans - though they'll only be able to command combat units. (Unlocks brain implants that allow a human to control some number of CP worth of combat bots/ships. There are more technologies to allow humans to command larger ships/manufacturing systems as well) Locked behind brain implants.
Locked behind samples/installations/prereqs:
-[] Advanced Neural Implants (200 RP) Well, your current neural implants are good, but what if you further integrated them into the brain, improving throughput and allowing the recipient even further integrate themselves with digital systems (unlocks advanced neural implants, unlocks further technologies related to neural implants). Requires Biology is kind of wet, a subsequent biology tech and Organ replacements.
Crew :
Anexa Ifina, Tech-priest Errant.
Level 3
-[] Anexa active Action: Research - assists a research action you take, granting +5xLevel RP to the action. Will level on successful roll, scaled by the importance of the tech.
-[] Anexa passive action: Education - Roll to level, difficulty is 10+5xLevel
Include these as part of existing plans.
How do you treat your new acolytes among the Mechanicus? You have some leftover effort from your existing action. You can get in touch with them and start one of the following for free.
-[] Educate You teach them true science. This is likely to alarm the mechanicus, and may bring fire down on you. But it's likely to tie them to you more tightly and make them more capable.
-[] Promote Teach them what they need to know to get ahead in the mechanicus. The least likely to backfire, but they'll be less loyal to you.
-[] Subvert Try to prepare them to hear the truth about you, and the mechanicus. Has the worst consequences for failure, but if you want do-or-die agents this is the path to go.
-[] Ignore You're not going to use them. The small amount of exposure they have to Magos Vita is too risky.
Do you tell Anexa about Chaos?
-[] Now (write in how much)
-[] Not yet
-[] Never There's some risk of her being upset you hid such an important truth from her for a long time, but on the other hand it's risky to tell somebody so curious about chaos. She should be generally safe from corruption inside your shield, but that might just promote bad behaviors. There are benefits and drawbacks in both directions.
Do you take on Victan?
-[] Yes (write-in if/how to handle revealing the truth about yourself)
-[] Not Yet
-[] No Victan will be a spy, and start at level 1. His active action will be to give bonuses to diplomacy rolls with subterfuge components, and his passive will be to coordinate with allied forces or provide counterespionage defense as needed. He'll be slower to level than Anexa.
The winning plan said "concealed" spaceports, but spent the BP for "underground" spaceports. Therefore you get underground spaceports.
Your followers amongst the mechanicus are still fairly low-level. You've snagged zero Magos, just a collection of various acolytes who are desperate for true knowledge. You left them alone for a while but rolled well, so they started collaborating with each other.
Let's do 18 hours of moratorium, 20 hours of voting. I do not promise to keep getting updates done so soon after voting closes, but we'll see.
-[X]Diplomacy x 1
--[X]Inform Thalya on the research projects we worked on for the past few years and specifically not mention the construction projects we worked on for the past few years
-[X]Research x 3
--[X] The Basics of Psytech (200 RP)
--[X] Secrets of the Machine Spirits (200 RP)
--[X] A Study of Physics (150 RP)
--[X] Combat Bot Humanization, Redux (50 RP)
-[X] Anexa passive action: Education - Roll to level, difficulty is 10+5xLevel
-[X]How do you treat your new acolytes among the Mechanicus?
--[X] Educate
-[X]Do you tell Anexa about Chaos?
--[X] Now (Everything we currently know about Chaos)
-[X]Do you take on Victan?
--[X] Yes (Let's take it easy and explain to him what a Man of Stone is)
I think we really need to start getting an emergency exit plan in place, and I want those basic research done cause they surely will give us some bonuses to other research and even if they don't it'll make more sense narratively to have them done.
Also more minions and treating them good
[]Plan Leave the car Running
[]Diplomacy x1
—go looking for more skilled people to bring into the fold
[]Research x3
-[] Can I have a new ship please? (200 RP)
-[] A study of physics (150 RP)
-[] The basics of psytech (200 RP)
-[] Anexa passive action: Education - Roll to level, difficulty is 10+5xLevel
-[]How do you treat your new acolytes among the Mechanicus?
--[] Educate
-[]Do you tell Anexa about Chaos?
—[] Enough to know there is a memetic hazard
I love the Augment aesthetic. Replacing the grimderp of Mechanicus with this auric Art Deco geometric fabulousness sounds like an excellent idea. We should match it for all our future production, really turn this future Grimbright.
As for plans - working more on stealth, hacking, and shields (both void and psi) would be best when we have 100 orbital killsats pointed at the planet, and cognitohazards are very much a thing.