first

Leggo

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>>1233890

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HERE WE GO BOYZ

>>1233890
its past past midnight here, Happy you´re back

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>>1233890
>that feel when HQQ thread

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>>1233890
I missed you

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkpS2Sdu2io

YESSS YES!

Guys
What if lee is having minir chest pains

So Path Spore incident is happening right?

GAS THE SQUIDS
NUKE THE WHALES
STAB THE MONKEYS
TRUST NOTHING
THE VOID IS WATCHING

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Aww yis.

This quest brought to you by FormOther FTL drives.

FormOther, perfect for the Frontier, and for impressing your Valen boss.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Daily reminder.
>Raid OQ
>Read the locked memories of that thinker.
>Board a scav vessel for their FTL.
>Send a diplomacy team to earth.
>Build Orbital solar array in both planets.(It's cheap enough in nutrients to be wort it and the metal can be converted from half of it's income.
>Take Reprive (I think that is the system that our mother made her last stand and it only has mining corvetts, it would be a great test for our raiding fleet.)

>>1233931
Nah. This is commonwealth attacking the Sol System (I think).

Speaking of, we should really try to talk to the Commonwealth about backing off the union somewhat. Bleeding their military forces is counter productive to the real threat.

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>>1233923

>>1233890
So the commonwealth making a push to take back Sol then? no real worth industrial but a major pr boost if they can pull it off

HE HAVE RETURN ! A GLORIOUS DAY INDEED !

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>>1233890

Gilliam exits the tram as pulls into the small station, a direct line to the local ziggurat, an old decommissioned atmospheric processor long ago gutted and refurbished into an arcology. They often either became massive, vertical slums or self-contained gated communities. This one was a bit of both, with a number of executive suites and sectioned off communities and corporate branch offices near the top, and various lower level employee housing held bellow. Near the middle, however, the government had purchased a number of floors and constructed what was in essence a sealed laboratory. Gilliam quickly makes his way past the public transport station followed by his guards and the lab workers further behind, taking an elevator and a short walk to the air tight security doors of the lab itself. He could tell from the various small restaurants and shops, as well as the litter and general filth of public traffic that this place was normally quite busy. As he gives his data to the terminal the security door opens to an airlock, promptly spraying him with various chemical gases and scanning the chamber before allowing him through the inner door to reveal an almost sanitized looking lobby.
cont.

>>1233923
It was many things, but "minor" is not one of them. Damn thing felt like a weed whacker running in my chest cavity.

So shortly after my last thread my body decided it was sick and tired of keeping me live, and my aorta burst. I was rushed by helicopter to the hospital for emergency open heart and have been pumped with drugs and in great pain since. As such, please forgive me if I end up forgetting anything regarding any crunch we had going in the last few threads, I tried to look through them but I probably missed a bunch, as such, feel free to remind me if you think I've missed something, because I probably did.

>>1233977
Dont worry about that, just keep yourself healthy man

Really scared the shit out of us hearing you nearly died

>>1233977
Shit, that sounds intense. Glad you aren't dead.

>>1233890
Hello QD, how's your health holding up? Is your Dad okay?

>>1233890
for mother

>>1233977
Thank you for not dying dude.

ITS FINALLY HERE


ITS HEEEERRREEE

>>1233977
Dude, you are awesome for sticking with this. Best of luck for a swift recovery. Take care of yourself and no worries at all regarding the crunch. I'm sure it builds up quickly for quests like this.

>>1233977
Wait...
Who is Gilliam already ?

Since the commonwealth is taking Sol, we should talk to the leader(Who's name I've forgotten.) and sell them a secret about earth.

>>1234023
High ranking union mad doc we got a para in

>>1234023
The doctor we parasited back on Gemini. They were the doctor in charge of the psionic experiments we rescued Lee from.

He got redirected to Path after the Obsidian Queen attack

>>1234023
Research Head for several Union Black Projects whom we parasited while rescuing Lee, got ordered to transfer somewhere when all the shit broke loose several threads ago.

>>1233977
Gonna have to leave this thread, but you a lucky motherfucker and that shit sounded painful
Don't sweat it on the crunch

>>1234023
That Union scientist we donated a spine pal to. He's going to be studying hive tech from a secret lab on Path.

>>1233977
No matter what, you're awesome for being able to quest at all in this state.
Really, really happy you survived. Don't worry too much about the crunch, it can always come later/retroactively, it ain't needing a rush.
And thanks for keeping on.

>>1234023
Parasited union docsci.

>>1234033
Ho yeah that guy. Woah, didn't follow the quest for far to much time.

>>1233977
The crunch, if i recall correctly, was Scouting pods and Ship constriction.

>>1233977
Hows your heart, my nigga?

How's your dad?

>>1233977
Gonna have to leave ( I probably need at least 5 hours of sleep if I want to be productive I guess) but thanks for running, and take care of you.

>>1234044
It can be ignored for now

Hey guys, what if we maybe suggest to the Union and Commonwealth that fighting is a bad idea?

Once the black queen shows up, we're going to be stuck defending two weakened human factions so that she doesn't get her hands on superior human technology. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I think it's not the best situation.

>Came up with a ship design, give me your thoughts

Hull: Corvette 400N 800M
Capacity 200/20
Size: 100 Meters
Module Limit: 2
Spinal Mount (x1): Ramming keel 50N 200M
Armor: Standard
Power: Micro Fusion
Utility: Defensive shields 10N 30M
Utility: Cloaking field 50N 150M
Utility: Atomic self-destruct 200N 200M (on use)
Module: Harpoon 10N 200M
Total Cost: 520N (720N) 1380M (1580M)
Upkeep: 260N

A cheap fireship built purely for its purpose, whether to take out clusters of screening ships or to be used en masse on a capital ship. It uses its cloaking field to try to close the distance and has a 20 meter frontal shielding to use when detected or on its ramming course. Has a ramming keel and harpoon to assist in ramming, once rammed or in a suitable location it will detonate. Bathe its enemies in nuclear fire

>>1234115
Oh god, one thing at a time anon, we can do ship construction at the end of the thread.

>>1234111
Nah, let them keep fighting. The commonwealth has our help with the scavengers and the Union are assholes.
The only danger here is OQ which we're keeping an eye on and, hopefully soon, raiding.

>>1234027
You do realize the AI on Earth has the blueprints to the completed Psionic cannon right?

>>1233977
Damn, that sounds rough.

>>1234111
I'd rather they duke it out for a bit. In an ideal scenario the Commonwealth could retake the Sol system in a brief conflict, it's not like the Union really wants it.

>>1234111
Yeah, I agree. We can probably queue the Commonwealth in on the fact a greater threat is headed for the union and commonwealth both. We can also offer assistance (like letting them know the location of the scav base and/or supporting a joint strike against them is the Commonwealth pulls their punch and ignores the current weak position of the Union.

The Union itself I guess will be unwilling to throw away their forces against the commonwealth when the hive represents a big threat and we're telling them worse is coming.

I'm on mobile for next several hours so apologies if I have slow replies or spelling errors.

>>1234131
We ignored that plotline and thus never sure what the proto ai and the tribals connection to the project remains were

>>1234124
I'm not going to be able to stay till the end sadly, give me your opinion on it at the end pretty please and I'll read it in the archives.

>>1234129
Fighting the Black Hive
Raids against her systems are for the most part are impractical because of her superior numbers and instant response time makes it impossible to divide her forces to create effective advantage. A straight up invasion would force us to play a dangerous game of chicken forcing us to commit all our forces in attacking her or admit to her that we are too weak to fight her. The best option we have available is to build up our empire and try to capture one of her advanced relays to eliminate her instant response time.
If a planet gets infected with her creep the first thing to do is confirm whether there is an advanced relay or not. If there is primary objective is to destroy/jam the relay then destroy the creep. If there isn't one primary focus should be on destroying the creep.
Cryospray is a great choice for removing creep while doing minimal damage to structures and environment.
Energy weapons are all-around better for remove creep than kinetic weapons
Disassembler missiles are a great choice for removing large swathes of creep without doing damage to the biosphere
Photonic armor is great for limiting creep spread.

>>1234131
Honestly we could probably start recruiting human help to join Theseus in building the Psionic Cannon for us since they are immune to the Voids psychic bullshit

I just realized i had my name from another quest still on, sorry.
>>1234115
Can't have both shields and stealth, and the kamikaze can be done with pods instead of Corvettes so it's redundant.
>>1234131
He might but i don't think it's likely, I'm more worried about void fuckery creating cults on earth, which is why i want to go down there before the commonwealth meets them.

>>1234124
Well actually, considering how long threads stay on the board, it should be fine to talk about build orders and stuff throughout the thread. Previously we were worried about getting bumped off.

>>1234155
So we give up the psionic cannon so the humans get interested in psionic research again the very thing we are trying to avoid?

>>1233977
Well shit. Thanks for running man, your threads are always awesome.

Heres to hoping your heart heals up correctly and quickly. Stay well man.

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>>1233977

The lobby is filled with traffic, various technicians and researchers pushing carts of equipment and crates of various cargo from place to place, or examining new deliveries with careful scrutiny. Gilliam's guards begin discussing some matters with another using various military lingo the doctor doesn't quite understand, but the gist seems to be regarding alien incursions. The guard looks back to Gilliam.

"The local space is clear, but there was an attack by a hostile threat. Same species as the buggers over Gemini by the looks of it, but a different faction. They had a battle over the planet not too long ago." He says. "From what I can tell, any recovered debris from it is being brought here, and this is your new data pad. It's linked to the lab." He hands him a small device from the first guard and Gilliam takes it, examining it quickly as it automatically logs his fingerprint and biometric data from the glance he gives its camera. A new mail notification pings in the corner, and he clicks it. It brings up a small map of the facility and an automated greeting, as well as a request to visit the main lab as soon as he arrives. He nods to the guard as he moves to leave, and follows the map through the bustle of lab techs and workers moving cargo.

The lab itself is surprisingly well outfitted, it clearly has been here a long time, although until now it was likely dedicated to much less secretive research. A man stands near the entrance, shouting at workers as they haul in crates and jars, and he quickly eyes Gilliam as he approaches.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Alex Gilliam," He says, "are you in charge here?" The man extends a hand.

"I am. Dr. David Palmer, Xeno Biologist. Until now this facility has been dedicated to the study of anything and everything of interest found in the Expanse, I suppose technically that hasn't changed, but now anything not related to these things, the Xeno Formicidae, is getting put on the back burner indefinitely." The two shake hands. "I understand you are an expert on Xeno Archeology. I was sure to read some of your papers when I received word of your arrival and I think you can certainly help, we don't have much in the way of that skill set here." He directs Gilliam towards a number of instruments and crates, bringing up a holo-projection of the inventory they've collected so far.

cont.

>>1233995
He's doing great. He was able to get a minimally invasive procedure, so he just ended up with a scar on his side instead of a big o'l monster of a scar down his chest like I got.

>>1234018
I honestly tried doing some pre work and finish up some crunch I got in the works, but oxycodone is a powerful thing, and is not conducive to doing any kind of math. I'm down to just running off over the counter meds now though. It just feels like a broken bone, otherwise I feel fine.

>>1234129
>Union are assholes
>Ceph,OQ and Crystals are super assholes
>The two groups are not one the same side
We should let them get a bit bloddies so that they come the the negotiating table easier, but not to the extent that they cannot help us against a greater threat. They lose a world or two to the Commonwealth but if the human start doing mutually destructive stuff we step in and tell them to knock it the fuck off.

>>1234169
It isn't a matter of driving a thread off the board faster, it's a matter of doing one thing at a time and staying focused on one thing at a time. Getting anything accomplished by consensus in this quest is like herding cats.

>>1234158
What the fuck are you talking about?
She has a slight numerical superiority but that pales in comparison to what she could have if we allow her industry to continue to survive.
The raids are meant to destroy as many of her ships as possible so she has to replace them, this will weaken her, allowing for an opportunity for invasion.
And we have instant response time too, in fact our is superior since she only has one relay per fleet.

No research?

>>1234163
>>1234160
>give humans the psionic cannon
Why are you this stupid? Do you not realize where everything could go wrong if you give the least predictable race the most powerful weapon?

>>1234160
They're highly resistant but not immune, that cyclist researcher who summoned the void god is proof that they can still be corrupted.

>>1234189
Glad to hear your family is okay man. It's never fun seeing them get ill.

>>1234190
They might not appreciate us stepping in on their war, i know the commonwealth leader wouldn't.

>>1234209
>give humans the psionic cannon
They don't have to survive or leave unparasited after they finish the work

>>1234216
Yeah as soon as i hit post I remembered the crystal zombies on Tenebrus

>>1234202
Obsidian queen has absalute numericl superiority.
What she lacks is quality, because she never developed quantum thinkers, which means we started at her tech level and then set off sprinting, now she's rubbing her crystal head with worry because she don't know what us reds have in store for her.

>>1234202
>She has a slight numerical superiority
>She likely has twice as much as we do minimum
>Slight

>>1234230
If I remember right she doesn't have missiles, shields, or planetary defenses because all previous Hives just used picket fleets and ground swarms for defenses

>>1234209
>give humans the psionic cannon
When the fuck have i ever said this?
When the fuck have i ever implied this?
I want to go to earth for diplomacy and heresy removal.

>>1234202
Nay nay, it ain't slight.

Imagine her as the zerg, and us as protoss. She's had tens of thousands of years on us to develop and build up.

>>1234230
>Obsidian queen has absolute numerical superiority.
No she doesn't, go read the thread where the white queen had her last stand, she completely shredded OQ's fleet. That was recent.

>>1234176
The fuck are you going on about? there already doing psi and psi cannon research, the nowhere clusterfuck happened because they though the discovered a new tech while researching the psi cannon tree

>>1234251
Mom died a year or less ago and wiped out nearly all of aunties forces. Unless I got the timeframe of that flashback wrong.

We can move in and start the slaughter at our leisure, and I say sooner is better.

Also FFS we need to talk to the commonwealth about retrieving psionic cannon related research from Terra

>>1234227
I said we would only step i if they started mutually destructive actions such as the glassing of inhabited planets. Some will be mad at the intervention, but many will be glad. Take the Cold War for example. A lot of people on both sides realized that using nukes would be retarded.
>>1234230
That reminds me, could The Red Queen be special in some way? Could the White Queen has tweaked with her to some extent. In the flashback, I wasn't sure if all of those thinkers were working on her pod or her.

>>1234189
>From what I can tell, any recovered debris from it is being brought here
>that nat 1 on destroying debris
Remember killing Seiner? We're on the other end now.

>>1234158
No, raids are immesurably useful. A few ships tie up allot of ships and resources. In a war vs a bigger economy, the efficiency by which you deny effective use of resources will dictate how it plays out. Raiding is hyper valuble to us provided we get it right.

Straight up invasion is right out. We need to develop a defensive bulkward and bait her into it. Grind that fleet down then burn back hard before recovery.
Energy weapons suffer in atmosphere compared to kinetic, you'de be better off and more time efficient just dumping our own creep down and pumping resouces into it while suppressing any structure generation by hostile creep.

>>1234242
Pretty much.

>>1234252
That was just the fleet. Look how fast we grew, Obsidian has had the same time but with an intact fully developed war economy. No Queen as experianced as Obsidian is going to sit around not rebuilding their fleet. One battle a while ago means fuck all in this context. She has the numbers on us.

>>1234238
>>1234251
Her having twice our number in ships is still slight, we have the tech advantage to equal her in space combat, the problem is leaving her industry undamaged since she's trying to recuperate from WQ's last stand.

>>1234189
Hope you and your father have a swift recovery

>>1234263
Well, we do have a guy in the facility this time. We could totally take over all the scientists there with parasites.

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>>1234260
>Recent
>A year ago
>With a few developed planets we can make millions of troops and tens of thousands of ships
>She has potentially dozens of worlds at the least

>>1234242
And all of those are stupidly expensive anon. Shields alone would be easily cost an entire ship in resources. Missile cost resources to use.
>>1234260
You do realize she can build ships in a day right? That entire line of arguing is stupid.

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>>1234189
Now we have to resist shouting "burn it, burn it all!" as soon as we see what they have.

>>1234285
I wasn't talking about pricing. I was just stating a fact about differences in tech.

>>1234275
This guy here>>1234273

Pretty much sums up what I mean.

>>1234285
Shields have a compounding effect in that they keep our ships alive. This lets us build up numbers while OQ does not seem to realize how much of a threat it is. I imagine she is going to go after other ships with shields to try figure them out in an attempt to match us at some point, so it may be prudent to develop anti-shield weaponry at some point.

>>1234285
>>1234284
We really dont know that for sure.
All we absolutely know is Auntie has the baseline Hive techs, she might be retarded or autistically ass-backwards tech wise because of her relationship with the void gods. We wont know in any capacity what she is capable of or not until we start raiding her. And Im serious, we need to get that psi cannon research from earth, if we dont talk to the commonwealth they are laible to just blow it all up when reclaiming the earth.

>>1234300
No way we can get it all without getting stopped first. What we should do is to try to control what they find out. If we cant stop them finding something out, no problem. Its not worth losing our unwitting spy over.

>>1234275
At least twice as much as we do genius there's a good chance she has ten times the number we do which would be a complete advantage for her.

>>1234189
"We've already cataloged what was found in New Port, and it wasn't much. The largest intact object was a shard of biological material the size of a baseball, and it seemed melted together, likely a fragment of hull." Palmer types on the console and the projection adjusts. "The battle over Path, on the other hand, gave us some far more interesting specimens. The ships themselves were damaged beyond the point where we could still call them ships, but the interiors remained at least capable of being studied. Several fragments of what I assume are crew, and chunks that seem to be components of several ships. Do survivors, as to be expected from the damage, but there is still plenty to examine." He says with glee. He turns to Gilliam.

"I'd like your help in examining and identifying anything you could consider a sign of culture. Language, technology, art, anything not borne from their biology, which, given what we can see so far, seems to be rather mixed together." The projection shows a number of small holographic miniatures of various hive chunks, some pieces of ship no larger than a man, limbs of drones, strips of burnt flesh from hull interior segments.

"We have a number of interesting specimens being prepped for proper dissection. I'm not sure what you would personally find interesting, but our preliminary analysis if truly fascinating.

>Request to assist in the dissections
>Examine the preliminary data further
>Ask Palmer about something else (write in)
>Other

>>1234273
>That was just the fleet. Look how fast we grew, Obsidian has had the same time but with an intact fully developed war economy. No Queen as experianced as Obsidian is going to sit around not rebuilding their fleet. One battle a while ago means fuck all in this context. She has the numbers on us.
But she sent nearly her entire fleet, not just a few ships, she's still still recovering for the battle A YEAR AGO. She's trying to gain her previous fleet numbers which is bad for us, right now she's weak which is why we should strike with some raids to weaken her further instead of sitting down with our thumb in our ass.

>>1234309
Except when blasters come into play shields become nothing more than a minor advantage.

>>1234324
>Ask Palmer about something else
Security measures and how good is the bio containment protocols here

So we can plan a raid if things get fubared

>>1234324
>Request to assist in the dissections

>>1234323
>At least twice as much as we do genius there's a good chance she has ten times the number we do which would be a complete advantage for her.
Maybe when WQ and the Builder were still alive she had those numbers but now she is weak from fighting those 2 queens.

>>1234333
Anon, your being stupid.
Unless OQ toed her hive worlds into that fight she has the advantage in production and numbers. No amount of insiting otherwise is going to change this cold, hard fact.

We are the underdog who needs to jealously guard our new tech if we hope to win this.

Also note: i am an advocate for raids, they tie up superior numbers beautifully.

>>1234324
>Request to sit in on the dissections
We don't want our man too close to any traps OQ might have set up.
And while we're sitting in we can
>Examine the preliminary data further

>>1234324
>>Examine the preliminary data further
Let's not get our one host infected with OQ's deathspores by going near the imminent containment breach.

>>1234324
>Examine the preliminary data further

>>1234324
>Examine the preliminary data further

>>1234324
>Examine Data Further

>>1234190
>They lose a world or two to the Commonwealth but if the human start doing mutually destructive stuff we step in and tell them to knock it the fuck off.
This sounds like a good compromise. We should talk to Killinger and the Commonwealth commander about the threat of the Black Queen so maybe we can stage a kind of intervention for the various parties involved so they get it out of their system.

>>1234324
>Examine the preliminary data further
>Ask about biological containment protocols

>>1234324
>Ask Palmer about something else (write in)
"Given the nature of their technology, literally everything they do could be considered biowarfare."

>>1234355
Actually, speaking of that, we should probably get Gilliam to point out that the Obsidian Hive may have hidden mechanisms to prevent the proper analysis of its ships and drones.
Like deadly spores or the like.

>>1234324
>Request to assist in the dissections

>>1234354
We negate her current numerical advantage with our superior Tech, although that won't last long if we leave her industry intact.
She also is behind in production based tech.

>>1234324
>Examine the preliminary data further

>>1234371
Seconded.

>>1234381
Post got cut
She also is behind in production based tech. She surpasses us only because she has many worlds.

>>1234381
Anon, not saying I don't support taking harassing actions against her but I think you are underestimating her far too much. Despite her void autism she is still a Hive Queen, with a lot of experience under her belt.

>>1234389
She has psionic spore tech so technically she's ahead in some areas

>>1234381
Again, your not making any new points.

Advocate = in support of.

As for negate, no we dont. Not entierly. Even in our more successful ship battles we still take considerable damage. We certainly punch above our weight class in ships, but we don't dominate, otherwise why would we be so worried?

>>1234389
Production tech I conceed on, but if she has 10x our worlds but we only have 2x the tech efficiency then its not an equel footing. It also raises the fact that her production has much more room for redundancy and ability to suffer loss, while ours is more concentrated and a bigger blow to us if we lose it.

>>1234396
And i think your overestimating her too much.
At least we agree on raiding her,

>>1234404
>Production tech I conceed on, but if she has 10x our worlds but we only have 2x the tech efficiency then its not an equel footing. It also raises the fact that her production has much more room for redundancy and ability to suffer loss, while ours is more concentrated and a bigger blow to us if we lose it.
I concede on this, i agree with everything but the production estimates, i believe we're lagging behind slightly.

>>1234354
Using the OQ's lack of faster-than-light sensors to blink battleships in, send relativistic bombardment at some planet's hive spires, and blink out before they see the light from the original blink, would certainly cost her some production capacity.

Then there's psionic cloaking, a strategy that will be at its most effective at locating and jamming her Advanced psi relay bugs only once, so we'd better get it right the first time with multiple simultaneous infiltrations, we only need one to succeed.

But, those would be more effective if we could research more miniaturized quantum comms with Theseus, which was mentioned as a possibility. Otherwise we just send off the drones and hope, with no way to communicate.

The one thing people here seem to forget is that jamming her network would render her unable to communicate with her other planets for a full day this would let us raid her without being able to mount any kind of response.

>>1234408
I agree on testing her defenses with caution, but a full attack would be very ill advised. Remembe that the OQ has forces that wrecked a bunch of server ships when we couldn't even field a single capital ship. Our forces have definitely grown immensely since then, but we have to assume the OQ has built many, many ships in that time.

>>1234404
Also note that efficiency improvement is a steadily and rapidly narrowing bottleneck, while increasing raw production facilities is exponential. We need to expand, badly, if we are to keep this war on relative footing. We have bought time by making allies.

>>1234408
I think any raids we perform should be done with more intelligence gathering. We just don't know enough to estimate her strength. She owns many more planets than us, and has an already-established industrial base. As others have said, even if our ships are 3 times more powerful and our industrial base is twice as powerful, if she has 20 times as many planets as we do, our advantage disappears. If the Union agree to surrender their planets peacefully, we still need to spend at least several weeks just spinning those planets up into full production mode, which leaves us vulnerable.

Losing portions of our fleet is not good in this situation when we can't even exploit the resources closer at hand yet.

I've been running under the assumption that QD plans on scaling the size of the black queens fleets to roughly match our own after we go to war with her. Knowing us if he gave us a fixed number we would match or top it in two threads

>>1234408
Its hard to overestimate her, WQ had tech superiority over her and she did well. But tech does not negate numbers and WQ learned that the hard way.

You also forget that WQ did not lose only to numbers, the ceph were there and so were the void gods. Thats two big ?? that you haven't taken into your estimations.

>>1234423
>>1234438
>>1234431
>>1234432
Instanteous transportation + Instanteous communication = Instanteous response time
We could render her entire network inoperable graph a burner drone to on of her advanced relays.

Were we expecting this most recent invasion? Nothing about it shows up in the last thread.

>>1234423
>But, those would be more effective if we could research more miniaturized quantum comms with Theseus, which was mentioned as a possibility.
Aren't we already researching that?

>>1234428
Better to flat out invade that just raid, her drones will be disorganized.
And why would the jamming only last a day?

>>1234438
Then let's begin probing her forces with our raiding ships and put this argument to rest, they're designed to be cheap so i believe we can sacrifice them for intelligence.

>>1234432
>making allies
Well it sure ain't the union that you're talking about, I hope.

>>1234458
Bad anon! No metagaming!

>>1234470
The Blink drive has a reliable 5 LY jump range, anything beyond that can't be said to be "instantaneous." The network jamming is a good plan, so let's keep an eye out for that. I'm just saying we should err on the side of more caution before jumping into systems we know she controls.

>>1234471
Union vs Commonwealth war. We're staying out of it (for now).

glad to see you back qd, this is honestly one of the best quests ever and i'm happy to see it continued. also very glad you're doing okay now

>>1234402
>She has psionic spore tech
What? Nothing indicated her spores themselves are collectively psionically sensitive before they've grown into a relay or infrastructure or whatever.

>>1234260

im new from tye beta stuff, so if i get things right this queen is called Red, she is currently weary of a queen called obsidian and the mom of red died and killed off all the aunties.
so the queen in beta is what a cousin or a sister of red?

also this queen is In space wicked!

>>1234478
Takes a day to hatch a new one assuming they exploded from the overload. White crystal could mitigate their effects.

>>1234467
>the ceph were there.
And they got immediately jammed, which recked them.
The void gods is the big bad though, no argument there.

>>1234493
Her spores specifically allow us to unlock psionic spore research.

>>1234324
>Request to assist in the dissections

Mention that there may not be much difference between the big chunks and dissecting the "crew" since it's all living tech. The smaller organisms may yield insights into how the larger function. A multidisciplinary approach is needed

>>1234487
This is a good idea.

>>1234496
Beta is in a different timeline or something, but I guess the same concepts carry over. The Black Queen (Obsidian Queen, Kinslayer, Betrayer, Traitor, etc) was corrupted by the planet-eating "void gods" and basically killed off every other queen. The void gods themselves are a problem, since there's basically only one way to even hurt them, and that's with the psionic cannon. If we start researching it or testing it, the void gods immediately know. We have not started researching it and are incapable of hurting the void gods.

>>1234496
I reccomend the archive. alpha ha run about 10x as many threads as beta

and i think betas queen is a cousin yes.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Hive%20Queen%20Quest

>>1234472
>Aren't we already researching that?
As far as I can see no new quantum tech has been researched or unlocked since complex matter reconstruction.

>>1234528
I want to a nice space city where we can dump all of our research together with Theseus just to see what crazy tech we can come up with.

>>1234324
"Well, firstly, this facility wasn't always so secretive. What security do we have, in the event of containment breach?" Gilliam asks. Palmer nods.

"Yes, but this lab has always been graded for such risks and is capable of securing dangerous specimens and toxins safely. There is always an inherent risk in alien technology as this, but so long as it's dead we should be fine. And all the armed guards, I am told, are here to ensure they are dead."

"Alright. What have you figured out so far?" Palmer seems almost giddy as he leads Gilliam over to another terminal.

"Well, we all know that of all the worlds mankind has discovered, by far the strangest and most unlikely discover is the common similarities of genetics. Humans, Taidaren, Valen, we can all, for the most part at least, eat the same food. At least, within the same margin of difference as an ape, a goat, and a shark. Look at this." He clicks on the controls of the terminal and a number of projected helixes appear. They are different in the details, but largely made of the same materials.

"How can anyone fathom three species evolving on three different worlds coming up with such a similar genetic structure." He says.

"Right, the Gattaca Paradox. Every form of carbon based life has the same general genetic architecture. One of the great mysteries of the universe. Xenology 101." Gilliam says. Palmer only chuckles.

"Yes, but after we examined the samples taken from one of the recovered crew remains, we found this." He clicks a number of keys, and a new strand appears, replacing the others. Three genetic strands curling in a triplex, linked in a complex web of proteins. Palmer almost burst out laughing in his excitement as Gilliam shuffles closer, mouth agape.

"How is that stable?" He asks. Palmer shakes his head with excitement.

"I have no idea!" He says. "The bodies are slightly acidic, almost like orange juice, so that's one theory. The Triplex can't remain stable in a neutral or basic environment."

"But they would still be horribly prone to mutation. Cancer rates or birth defects would make long term stability difficult."

"Unless they use it to their advantage. We've seen massive differences in their castes' biology. The ones at the new Gemini embassy alone show us that. Their speaker, the name alone tells you enough about their thought process. It speaks, like us, and that is all it is meant to do." Palme places a shaking hand on Gilliam's shoulder. "They mutate themselves to purpose. My god I've never seen anything like it. I bet their ships look similar under a microscope, and this complexity, we'll be data mining this strand for years!" He quickly catches himself, and changes the projector screen again.

cont.

>>1234570
>capable of securing dangerous specimens and toxins safely.
Not good enough.
Ready the fleet.

>>1234528
Found it in the middle of thread 58. we're researching "smith dissection" but it's not completed yet.

>>1234570
>we'll be data mining this strand for years!
oh no

>>1234570
So Mom seeded all the life in this sector then?

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>>1234570
>"Unless they use it to their advantage. We've seen massive differences in their castes' biology. The ones at the new Gemini embassy alone show us that. Their speaker, the name alone tells you enough about their thought process. It speaks, like us, and that is all it is meant to do." Palme places a shaking hand on Gilliam's shoulder. "They mutate themselves to purpose. My god I've never seen anything like it. I bet their ships look similar under a microscope, and this complexity, we'll be data mining this strand for years!"

Seiner is laughing right now from whatever afterlife exists in this setting

>>1234602
I don't think the White Queen did because she wasn't old enough.

Maybe her grandma did or something even prior to the Hive

>>1234602
Mom and Gardener. Both of them did it as a collab project according to the Barren queen.

>>1234590
Dont worry. If in ten years they discover how to make bug spray work on us, we can discover how to make a human equivalent in 2 days and figure out how to spread it to every human world in a week at most. They trey any bio terrorism, we will show them how its properly done. Besides, if we can see what information they have gathered about us (really the OQ's hive) then we can plan ahead.

>>1234590
It won't matter, within two years the 4-dimensional crystal war will be over, either in loss or victory.

>>1234602
Wow, we got an ever bigger secret we can use to completely destroy everyone's worldview.
Creator of 3 space fairing races is pretty huge.

>>1234611
They diddled around with humans, not Earths most common ancestor or every other species on the planet, so they cant be responsible for the common genomes.

File: CRYSTALS.png (38 KB, 821x831)

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>>1234611
Neither are old enough.

It's far more likely the 4th dimension is responsible for the vast majority of lifeforms being capable of being interacted with by tachyons.

For some reason psionics can manipulate all carbon based life. Possibly including causing it to form.

>>1234621
>>1234611
Plus the ark that Mom came on isnt at least 3.5 billion years old(the latest age of life on earth), so life would already have developed.

>>1234570
Hah, silly apes. Thinking that they can do anything without us knowing, little do they know their R&D guy already belongs to us. All their research is belong to us, all their planets are belong to us underground, all their bases will be belong to us.

>>1234621
Our Mom may not be responsible for all life, but the hives generally have been around for millions of years or more. They may have done something from that forgotten era.

Also... the void God is another entity claims to create/uplift life...

>>1234623
Actually I think they were flesh and blood at some point before they went through some sort of singularity.

Weren't the queens around for 30,000 years or something?

>>1234610
White Queen and Black Queen were the only two queens born ON the arc in space before it came to this galaxy. After White Queen (mom) left, Gardener became top dog since she controlled Raligha or something.

>>1234604
We should get rid of that man's head. Literally nobody wants him back.

>>1234602
Not impossible. Humans and Phantoms, definitely. Valen and Taidaren, who knows. It's within Hive capability to do it.

>>1234635
My personal theory is that the Void Gods are basically the Hive equivalent of Theseus: an AI research project that got out of hand.

>>1234635
All I was saying is that Mom wasn't responsible. I can entirely believe that the Old Hives or the Crystals or a surprise third faction is responsible.

>>1234623
I wonder if we could devote serious resources to that line of questioning. Modifying genetic data with psionics, tachyons, would be an uber-OP ability, if it could only do anything further than our infiltration eggsacs.

>>1234643
70,000 years ago.

>>1234570
"Well, attention to the present. We don't have much to dissect. We found some kind of... I'm not sure. But it's about two meters in diameter and was found inside a charred wreck, deep enough so it was crushed but not burned. We also found several parts, enough to reconstruct one of the drones." Several pictures are quickly pasted together, three legs, two arms, and a shredded torso in three pieces with a head that's been popped open like a steamed lobster." The parts are all from different sources, but they seem to be the same caste. Oh, and the real jewel, and it wasn't even found here. We've got a full, intact drone. Not sure about the caste, but the settlers on Djin apparently found it in the ice caves. Thing is dead as a doornail, but it looks almost perfectly preserved in the ice. Ice cores from nearby sources indicate the thing's almost a million years old. At least ninety thousand. God, how long were these things space faring, do you think?"

"Ninty thousand years old?" Gilliam asks at your nudging. "Are you sure?"

"At least." Palmer replies. "Why?"

"No reason." You say, the hologram shows an image of a block of ice, freshly cut with laser drills, being held in a thawing rack. The blackened figure inside is twisted, as if the body was burnt before being frozen, the limbs seemingly bent and contorted without having been broken. You doubt it could have survived whatever warped its carapace like that, and you detect nothing from the lab at all, none of its crates or samples give any hint of mental activity, and the guards follow them everywhere, watching every door and security camera. You wonder if you'd be able to even get a fly in here.

As you mull over such things, Gilliam is approached by another guard in an officer's uniform, his armor painted with a blue stripe of the local PDF rank of captain.

"Hello." He says with a quick salute. "I'm captain Vance Norris, and despite what either of you believe, I am in charge of this facility." He is a gruff looking man, several scars trace along where implants are or once were, and a small metal plate sits on his right temple with a port that seems dedicated for his helmet to interface with. "I have seen or heard of a number of labs going up in atomic fire or worse in the past few weeks because they started studying weird shit." He spits the word, "and I swear to you on my mother's grave I will personally incinerate anything I see so much as twitch on an operating table. I've already given this speech to Palmer, and now I'm giving it to you. I'm watching you, and your weird alien bullshit."

"Sir, I-"

"Don't even try. My last post had these same things involved. Upper brass wanted live drones studied. Had some crazy madman in charge, and in less than a day, those things were loose and disemboweling my men. I lost people that day, and by god I will shoot you if I think you're about to do something like that here." He stuffs his helmet back onto his head, and storms off.
cont.

>>1234643
Or was it 300,000?
All i remember is we cause that genetic bottleneck in humanity.

>>1234647
>White Queen and Black Queen were the only two queens born ON the arc in space before it came to this galaxy
We have yet to confirm that the arkship traveled beyond the galaxy.

>>1234653
WE GOT STREET CRED

>>1234650
We're already researching Psionic Telekinesis so we're on our way.

>>1234653
[FOR MOTHER]

>>1234653
• Djin: Population, 6,340. A small planet covered in porous holes. The planet is covered in water, and the network of caverns and interconnecting caves have yet to be even remotely explored.

>>1234653
I think I like this guy, and not just because his proclamations will make this place less dangerous for us. He understands, at least on some level, how dangerous this stuff can be.

>>1234653
>WQ OQ only got to this portion is space 70K years ago
>Humans unearth a drone that is 90K old

Maybe one of the reeeeally ancient hives then.
Might be a scout of the WQs mother Hive?

>>1234653
Hohoho, I like this guys moxy. Lets do what he says for now. Our spy is far to valuable to risk.

>>1234669
Damn, how deep in human area that is.
Also even for us it would be hard to explore the caves...but worth of a shot still. Although we got 99 other things at our "to do" list.

>>1234679
Agreed, its not like we can't research it indirectly through him either.

>>1234682
One of the neighboring systems.

>>1234669
Right, let's send some more observation pods that way and start infiltration. Even if this one drone is dead they usually travel in groups, there could potentially be millions recoverable if the hive is deep enough. Or even better - ancient knowledge.

>>1234677
>>WQ OQ only got to this portion is space 70K years ago
Wrong.

70k years ago is the date of the Betrayal, cursed be aunt's name.

We have literally never asked the Barren Queen how long ago the Ark arrived here.

>>1234691
We should have Elizabeth and the Barren queen talk also bring in everyone to watch this trainwreck happening before us.
Also reminder.
Cryospray is a great choice for removing creep while doing minimal damage to structures and environment.
Energy weapons are all-around better for remove creep than kinetic weapons
Disassembler missiles are a great choice for removing large swathes of creep without doing damage to the biosphere
Photonic armor is great for limiting creep spread.

>>1234653
>almost a million years old. At least ninety thousand.
HOW OLD ARE WE?
WHAT'S THE FUCKING TIMELINE?

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>>1234653
Palmer stutters for a moment before looking back at Gilliam.

"I'm sorry about him. He's a bit worked up. His troops just transferred in recently. Anyways. We've been trying to thaw out the sample from Djin without harming the sample itself. We've taken some carbon dating of the surrounding ice to compare with what the settlers found, and we get a range of dates, but regardless, this thing was frozen while mankind was smashing rocks together. The oldest samples show the caves forming a million years ago, while ours show the more mild ninety thousand. It's a bit of a wide margin, but it's what we got. I've asked them to keep us posted with any more findings, and to try to get a better idea of when this drone got there, and how."

>Offer to help perform the dissection
>Ask for a tour of the facility and its staff
>Other (write in)

>>1234718
>Ask for a tour of the facility and its staff

>>1234718
>>Offer to help perform the dissection
Lets see what this drone is made of

>>1234718
>>Other (write in)
Have you tried.... ringing Gemini and ASKING their speaker about it?

>>1234718
Ask for a tour.

We can help cut it open soonish

>>1234653
>and I swear to you on my mother's grave I will personally incinerate anything I see so much as twitch on an operating table. I've already given this speech to Palmer, and now I'm giving it to you. I'm watching you, and your weird alien bullshit."
I like his style!

>>1234660
I went back to look and you're right. It's unclear. We could ask the Barren Queen for clarification.

>"Both her and your mother were born before the ark left the space of the ancient hives. They were born as it departed, fleeing from the maw of the abyss." She says. "I do not know the details, only that it changed them. The Black Queen's fervor became her undoing. Her plans brought her closer and closer to the enemy, and when the time came to strike, when the abyss opened and the time to attack came, she looked away, and let it devour her."
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/47638615/#p47641665

>>1234715
The Red Queen is not even a human year old, chill your jimmies.

>>1234718
>Ask for a tour of the facility and its staff
Would be more in-character. Gilliam is not versed in biology.

and also seconding >>1234739
>Bring up asking the Hive in Gemini

>>1234718
supporting
>>1234739
>>Other (write in)
>Have you tried.... ringing Gemini and ASKING their speaker about it?

>>1234718
>Offer to help perform the dissection
We should find out what's the deal before it inevitably bites us in the ass.

>>1234718
>Ask for a tour of the facility and its staff
>Offer to help perform the dissection
Help from a distance...a LARGE distance.

>>1234718
>Offer to help perform the dissection

>>1234653
This guy is gonna get a hell of a resume if he survives this post.

>>1234718
>Ask for a tour of the facility and its staff
>>1234739
Thirding.

>>1234742
>The Red Queen is not even a human year old, chill your jimmies.
I thought our pod was sent out during the final battle? How long were we in that pod?

>>1234718
>Offer to help perform the dissection
The ice drone might have been void corrupted.
Also supporting >>1234739

>>1234718
>Offer to help perform the dissection
Science, ho!

>>1234771
Void corruption doesn't work like that.

>>1234777
It might be similar to the nowhere corrupted humans, they were implanted with a physical void shard and this drone might be too. Better safe then sorry.

>>1234739
Actually, though Gilliam wouldn't know about this,

the Union has agreed to give the hive all artifacts in the Expanse.

I think a frozen hive drone would qualify.

https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/48523245/#48527443

>>1234769
It was less than a year ago that the White Queen's fleet was destroyed by the Void Gods and the Black Queen, so any way you count it, it's not more than a year. I'm not counting any time spent before hatching. After waking, we basically just blinked to Leeland as soon as we awoke. Doesn't really matter, Red Queen is younger than a human toddler.

>>1234785
Incorrect anon. You are making assumptions of things that didn't happen.

>>1234785
The corruption didn't really take hold of Black Queen until her betrayal. You can't compare a human mind to a drone mind, either. The drone mind would fry before being corrupted, that's a built-in failsafe that even our drones have.

>>1234805
Also humans were designed by Mom to NOT by psionic. What I think is they need some non psionic prodding to be corrupted, like that religious nut.

>>1234795
I need to re-read the archives...

>>1234811
Mom's engineering probably made them heavily resistant, but genetic mutations have weakened that (as well as creating Blanks, effectively), and extreme proximity to the void shards will still do it. It took several months for that base to go corrupt.

>>1234811
Well the void found a way to get around that safeguard, and mom made them long time ago and abandoned the project after she got what she wanted a century ago?

>>1234718
>>>Offer to help perform the dissection
We can tour later

>>1234739
Also a good idea.

Also, the hive probably has more advanced dissection and preservation expertise than human technology anyway. So that's a possible benefit to them.

>>1234785
The crystal brains were explicitly not void shards. It was spelled out. The dark color is just blood.

Also an individual drone would be of very little value to assume direct control of.

>>1234818
What im saying isnt that they cannot be corrupted, but that its harder, takes longer, has to be done in a more "roundabout" way or a combination of the three.

>>1234800
>Incorrect anon. You are making assumptions of things that didn't happen.
Thread 57.2
>The helmet cam adjusts itself deliberately, lowering to look at the body. The skull is cracked open, and the brain is partially crystallized, cloudy shards of what looks like a dark quartz covered in blood embedded in the brain, the shape following the curves of the brain itself, as if the brain had been frozen solid, then smashed against the floor.
Thread 59
>Human Possessed Dissection
>the physical structure of the brain has also been severely altered, becoming a crystallized solid substance.
>The only remaining fragment that does not crumble to dust within the day, is a small fragment of material you find embedded within the back of each human's skull.
>>1234805
I know the void god's psionics don't work on our drones but it's the physical corruption I'm worried about, we have yet to finish researching Crystal neural jack implant.

Should we be cheeky as fuck if they call tell them destroy it and if they refuse and say "at least this shipwreck will be an entertaining one" and blink some ships above to watch the show.

>>1234835
>Should we be cheeky
Yes.

Space citadel, in construction, 4-5 threads ago.

>>1234835
I like this, eve better if we just send in a single corvette.

>>1234851
THIS!
While i don't want to stress QD the Space citadel and scouting pods have been in the back burner for a long time.

>>1234863
I'm just happy QD isn't dead. I've been re-reading this quest and I like it a lot and wish we had more. Please don't die, QD.

>>1234835
That's silly. The ancient frozen corpse is the one thing they aren't in apparent danger from.

They won't admit having collected the wreckage of the OQ's fleet, and since that's recent it's not part of our gunboat-diplomacy demands anyway, they're welcome to the sleeping sporepod that is
>We found some kind of... I'm not sure. But it's about two meters in diameter and was found inside a charred wreck, deep enough so it was crushed but not burned.

>>1234833
>While your initial observation in the field lead to fears of a more ethereal composition, the crystalline structure's dark color appears to have been caused by blood cells and remaining components of the brain lodged within the structure itself.

They are not void shards. Void shards aren't even made of atoms, they're just seemingly nothing. The 'Crystal neural jack implant' being researched isn't a void shard.

>>1234863
This is what the 3 time you brought this stuff up?
>>1233954
>>1234044
Let the crunch be abandoned till QD is better and stop being so demanding given his situation

>>1234897
>The only remaining fragment that does not crumble to dust within the day, is a small fragment of material you find embedded within the back of each human's skull.
We wont know if it's a void shard or something similar until we finish Crystal neural jack research and until then I'd rather be safe than sorry.

>>1234718
Gilliam looks about quickly as he mulls over his thoughts.

"Have you... considered asking them?" He says.

"What?"

"The speaker on Gemini. Have you considered calling the embassy and... just, asking them about it?"

"I..." Palmer seems at a loss for a moment. "I don't think they'd let us. I could maybe try to get a diplomat to pass on the question. I'll see if I can get the Secretary to pass it on to Morgan."

"Right." Gilliam says. "Well, I would be willing to help out with any of the dissections you have planned. In case you wanted me to help examine their biotech."

"That would be appreciated greatly. We have the control room up here. It lets us operate our remove surgeons from a central location."

"Remote surgeons?"

"Well of course." Palmer says with excitement. "I know, it's less fun than really getting in there yourself, but we've got no idea what these things could be capable of even in death. We wouldn't want them to gush acid all over our technicians or anything like that, would you?" Palmer speeds up into a jog as he flicks his ID pass through the door's lock and it opens as he dips through sideways and nearly falls as he slides to a stop at the command controls. Screens show a number of tables with various samples being prepped by robotic limbs hanging from above, and several large window shaped screens show the rooms of the operating rooms. In one is the frozen block of ice slowly thawing, the other, a number of tables with various worker body parts, and the third is a small blob of flesh oozing a thick greenish paste. In time, you recognize it as a thinker, or at least it once was, now it more resembles a ruptured cyst.

"Come on everyone let's get this show on the road!" He shouts with glee. "I want to know what's in these beautiful, beautiful pinatas of ours." He leans in looking over a number of displays before becoming reminded of your agent's presence. "Oh! Right. First off, what do you make of it from the perspective of an intelligent creature."

>Assist Gilliam and offer him some small piece of information in his observation
>Allow him to study the remains himself
>Attempt to sabotage their research with poor data and low quality analysis.
>Other

>>1234901
Actually the reminders help, that way I know what I missed and what I didn't.

>>1234917
>"Remote surgeons?"
>"Well of course." Palmer says with excitement. "I know, it's less fun than really getting in there yourself, but we've got no idea what these things could be capable of even in death. We wouldn't want them to gush acid all over our technicians or anything like that, would you?"
They've learned

>>1234917
>>Assist Gilliam and offer him some small piece of information in his observation

carrot

>>1234917
>Allow him to study the remains himself

>>1234927
My god.

>>1234917
>Allow him to study the remains himself
keep gilliam seem competent but don't give them useful info

>>1234917
>Allow him to study the remains himself

>>1234917
>>Allow him to study the remains himself
We want to see how efficient their methods are

>>1234917
>"I don't think they'd let us.
Ha, unless you instead choseto call up the Valen, to pass on a message to their human representative on Gemini, to talk to the hive representative.

But that's a whole new can of space-gators they'd be opening instead.

>>1234917
>>Allow him to study the remains himself

>>1234917
>Assist Gilliam and offer him some small piece of information in his observation

We need our cover as a super scientist intact.

Also, is anyone else incredibly nervous with how energetic that other scientist is with cracking open a "piñata" that could potentially contain lethal alien bio-weapons... even if he survives this he may not be long for this world.

>>1234917
Hmmm if we sabotage too hard then it would look bad if its proven wrong, such as a new guy taking our spy's place at the best. Let them learn some rudimentary stuff. If they get too close to some important things then play devils advocate, get some uncertainty going and let them doubt their observations for as long as possible while making it seem like we are trying to be helpful.

>>1234917
>Allow him to study the remains himself

It's a little bit too dangerous to give hints here. Giving rise to questions like "how do you figure?" and responding with "just a guess" isn't very helpful.

>We wouldn't want them to gush acid all over our technicians or anything like that, would you?
Hehehe. Well it was only ever going to work once.

>>1234917
>Assist Gilliam and offer him some small piece of information in his observation
Maybe try giving rise to more questions than answers. Keep them from knowing something before us.

>>1234917
>let him do it himself

>>1234917
>>Allow him to study the remains himself
No reason to sabotage, no reason to giv ethem a suspicion he knows too much.

Let's let the other scientist show off a bit. Gilliam isn't a biologist really after all.

>>1234917
>Attempt to sabotage their research with poor data and low quality analysis
Union shitters don't deserve jack

Maybe we should invite this Palmer guy over for a few drinks and a free internal pet?

>>1234989
we're already playing a dangerous game with Gilliam. Let's not, until we know more.

>>1234989
Well we HAVE had no less than 5 days to establish a sewer hive under New Tokyo that could easily have hatched some flies and parasites by now.

>>1235018
New tokyo is where we get to see live actions of aunties spores right

>>1234635
Or... maybe it's the hive the one which has diverged. The hive achieved complete mastery of its own evolution, it makes sense to consider that its base genome is now completely different to whatever it was originally. Hell, as Palmer points it is designed to achieve maximun mutation rate.

>>1234635
>the void God is another entity claims to create/uplift life...

You know this is a good point.

We've only seen the void gods corrupt existing life. It hasn't been able to create anything unique but I'm pretty sure any decent queen would be able to create some kind of new species from whole cloth. It's more difficult than just editing existing genomes like we have been doing, but it must be within the realm of possibility.

>>1235107
They altered the Skyl so extensively over time they may as well have made them from scratch.

>>1234852

Why we always forget to read that Thinker mind? The Void already knows about us. So there is no danger, can we get a vote to do it already?

>>1235132
This. We have literally nothing to loose at this point by looking into it's memories, and could give us a crucial edge.

>>1235132
It's not really relevant right now. QD tends to resolve things in a very step-wise manner. We're dealing with Gilliam right now, will move on to something else soon, and once we're done, there's time to suggest new actions.

>>1235132
There are levels of danger. You never know if it raises the crystal DEFCON further.

>>1235132
Cause it became a forgotten sidequest that lost importance as we learned things by other events

>>1234917
"Well... Honestly it's difficult to say. I would think they were different species, but knowing they're not..." Gilliam says, his mind finding no aid from you. "The drone you've managed to get in pieces, it looks like it could be a lower caste. A worker of some kind. It looks similar to those found in the Expanse, but slightly different."

"Yes, I've noted that myself. The carapace is darker, with what look like thorns. Do you think it's a deliberate aesthetic?"

'A sign of rank, or indication of a faction loyalty?" Gilliam replies. "An indication it's from a different hive than the primitive hive found in the Expanse."

"Are you sure those were truly primitives?" Palmer asks. Gilliam ponders the thought.

"I've wondered about that myself. Our own space has worlds and regions of worlds at radically different levels of development. It's possible we found a kind of primitive community of luddites."

"Alien Amish?" Palmer asks with amusement.

"Something like that. I don't think that's very likely though. It could have been a new hive, too young to make use of their advanced technology, or they could have just been pulling our legs this whole time. I don't think there is enough data either way to be sure. Regardless, these look different from them. This could be their idea of branding or uniforms." Gilliam looks to the thinker. "This one is more interesting. I don't see how it would function physically."

"We can't detect any hint of musculature in the legs." Palmer says simply as a number of probes pierce its fractured shell. "It's filled with a strange mass. It seems similar to... brain matter. It's nothing but electrically conductive fibers."

"A leader caste, maybe? We know they were able to breed a drone just to be able to speak verbally, and we still don't know how they speak among each other, or how specialized their drones can get." Gilliam says. Palmer scratches his chin as he grabs a cup of coffee from the desk behind him and takes a sip.

"You're saying you think they could export their thought process?"

"We know they do. Their behavior shows an indication that they are some kind of collective organism. We just don't know if they have a distributed intelligence, or a consolidated one. This, however, would hint they can consolidate their sentience into a few bodies, possibly able to control the others."

"The legs are the same. A flexible structure holding a conductive fibre within. "Palmer says as the instruments pluck a leg from the thinker's crushed corpse. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was fiber optic cable. And damn good cable too."

"Did you find anything that would indicate their FTL capabilities, either transport or communications?" Gilliam asks.

"No, or at least, nothing we're capable of comprehending."

The two continue to pass conjecture between them as technicians slowly slice the bodies apart layer by layer. As they do, the ice block continues to thaw, its rack slowly heating the frozen corpse.

Cont.

>>1235152
It hasn't lost one single iota of relevance to this quest, we just decided to put it off because it reveled to us too much IT CANNOT BE knowledge. We have now attained this knowledge, so we should check what else is on there.

>>1235155
>"We can't detect any hint of musculature in the legs." Palmer says simply as a number of probes pierce its fractured shell. "It's filled with a strange mass. It seems similar to... brain matter. It's nothing but electrically conductive fibers."
Oh shit, that's a relay. We need to start thinking about stealing this from the Union, maybe deploy a covert advanced psionic jammer over New Tokyo's orbit.

>>1235155
>this caste info dump
SHIT, STOP GILLIAM, STOP

>>1235176
Another task for Lyle?

>>1235139
>So there is no danger
Assuming it doesn't actually have the Psionic cannon research on it. I mean the White queen performed the research with millions of thinkers and she left a message that said to kill the Black Queen.

>>1235186
>>1235186
Its just a thinker anon

>>1235186
Sounds like a thinker to me.

>>1235186
That's a thinker anon. it even says so.

>>1235176

Yes. At most we could look it inside a room wwre we are shirled from the Void, you paranoid bastards.

>>1235186
It's a thinker. Learn to read.

>>1235187
Meh, this kind of basic info is going to come out anyway.

>>1235189
The psionic cannon is only hazardous to us if we fire it, thereby puncturing whatever veil lies between us and the crystals. We cannot see them without being seen by them, and we cannot strike them allowing them to strike us, remember.

Just viewing the plans won't have any effect on us at all.

File: fullrichards.png (244 KB, 500x499)

244 KB PNG

>>1235186
>Oh shit, that's a relay.

>>1234917
>you recognize it as a thinker, or at least it once was, now it more resembles a ruptured cyst.

I don't think you tried at all.

>>1235214
Why not have the humans fire it again? Or Design a race to fire it thats null.

>>1235214
Well we are being watched by the void, who knows if they can detect us working on the plans.

>>1235214
That's quite the assumption. Did any of those queens have Void Demon spying on them at the time?

>>1235155
>the ice block continues to thaw, its rack slowly heating the frozen corpse.

Oh, right.

I just remembered how drone hibernation works.

They remain effectively dead, perfectly preserved, until their psionic brain, the only active part, gets a mental signal to awaken.

And they're very hungry when they wake up, if sleepy.

>>1235235
CHRIST I JUST REMEMBERED THAT

There might be an entire hibernating hive on that planet holy shit!

>>1235235
Well, this should be interesting.

>>1235235
Well, I don't think it's going to be very happy to learn that its Mother has been space-dust for a very, very long time.

>>1235235
That's quite interesting.

>>1235214

The cannon was a mistake to make. It opened a bigger door. Shielding and destroying the Void followers is a better idea unless we could one shot the Void gods and Queenie would never make that easy.

>>1235235
That drone is going to die.
Maybe we can ask some questions with our parasite before vance puts a bullet through it's head.

>>1235235
WE CANT LOSE OUR SPY. Subconsciously give him the idea of hibernation and tell hm to tell the others all while backing the fuck up.

>>1235243
>its Mother has been space-dust

>>1235155
>The carapace is darker, with what look like thorns. Do you think it's a deliberate aesthetic?"

Its mother is quite alive and well, anon, if completely insane.

And only its Mother or a Thinker of her hive could awaken the sleeping drone.

So, odds are, what survived the wreckage?

>>1235251
That's why the message on the thinker is to kill the black queen first then it's memories will likely unlock the memories.

>>1235262

Oh shit.

How fast can we nuke the whole place?

>>1235251
>The cannon was a mistake to make
It's literally the only weapon capable of harming the Them, we'll never be rid of them or drive them back without it. It's not like it even poses an existential threat to the shooter unless it's a queen doing the shooting, we could probably talk Theseus into constructing and testing one with a disconnected instance of himself.

>>1235266

Actually we had a notification SEVERAL THREADS AGO that we can now read the Thinker memories.

>>1235262
The description is from the recent OQ drone pieces.

>>1235276

It also opens a hole the Void gods can use to enter. And we only get a few shots.

>>1235278
Which thread? Because I've read all of them and nothing like that was mentioned.

>>1235272
WAIT. If it's an OQ former hive, or even the former hive of an OQ relative/daughter, then there is probably a relay somewhere on the planet. A hybernating relay is a valuable enough prize we shouldn't necessarily need to nuke the whole thing.

>>1235262
I can't remember but did the Gardeners Warriors have thorns on them? I know the OQs do

>>1235278
We did?

>>1235284
We only need a couple.

>>1235286
If that's true, it'd be on Djinn where the frozen Drone was from.

>>1235288
Gardener's were literally walking trees.

>>1235278
That sounds vaguely accurate, but it's been a long time. Do you have a thread or quote anon?

>>1235281
Oh, shit. Never mind. It's not clear what hive it belonged to.

>>1235290

Yes there was a change of sorts notification that we could read the Thinker memories but we didn't because Void Gods. But the Void Gods already know about us due to that accident so there is no reason to get reading that Thinker memories out the way.