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>>1764221

Best time of the week is here!

>>1764221
>The closest drones shudder as you pull away from their minds, and they collapse to the floor like discarded puppets, and then they begin to twitch again, shuddering in a momentary shock before they rise again and skitter in around the pod, prying out the figure within.

Nice. Time to have a chat with our new daughter.

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>>1764236
>new daughter

>>1764221
The workers pick up the figure, a soft, mushy looking lump of flesh coated in plates of layered chitin. Thick, crusted lumps of old chitin cover the body like thorns, each one a translucent lump like amber resin leading into the soft flesh of the rest of the body, the carapace itself a glistening layer of chitin that has yet to harden, the legs bending slightly under her own meager weight. The drones pull her out of the pod as her wings trail behind her in a wet tangled mass, each layer slowly fluttering as it extends, trying itself in the pulsing breeze of the cave.

The Scarred Queen stands, slowly, on shaking legs as the workers back away. Her headdress is coated in amber thorns and twisted lumps of condensed chitin that darkens as it runs down past the eyes to the mandibles, which are jagged and uneven, almost black like the stone tools that surround her, striped with chunks of the amber that almost glows with its own luminescence, catching the minuscule light from outside and sparkling like prisms. She bows her head towards your drones, her wings extending into a quick curtsy as the color begins to enter into them as they fill with blood and the airfoils harden.

"You have given be a second life. I will not squander it." She thinks.

>Write in

>>1764309
>how do you feel now?

Daily reminder

>Raid OQ
>Read the locked memories of that thinker.
>Board a scav vessel for their FTL.
>Send a diplomacy team to earth.
>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.)

>>1764309
How do you feel and what will you do now with your new life?

>>1764309
"As promised, this system is yours, as are the Phantoms, which remain in your care. May we live through these dark times to be able to appreciate what we are capable of."

>>1764309
Now let's ask if she has any technology that would be of interest to us or about the general state and politically landscape of the old hives when they were in power. Also ask about all the lifeforms Gardener and the White Queen modified.

>>1764309
>You earned your second life by breaking yourself when no other queen could bare to do so. You fought to survive with the outstanding strength that is needed now more than ever in these dark times. I am saddened even now by the memory of the pain you must have caused yourself. How are you feeling now?

>There has been a significant development while you slept - the discovery of another race as old as the Hive and Void both - a third party to our ancient conflict (tell her about the Cluster)

>>1764353
>(tell her about the Cluster)
Seconding.

>>1764351
>about the general state and politically landscape of the old hives when they were in power
Seconding

>>1764353
thirding

>>1764309
Welp, time to come up with a new name for the scarred queen.
Thorn queen?

>>1764431
Scarred Queen is her new name. She was the Barren/Broken Queen before she was reborn

>>1764436
I referred to her as scarred queen back when she was without her eggsack, now i don't know what to call her.

>>1764446
She was always the "barren queen" back then. Anons proposed renaming her the "scarred Queen" when she finished undergoing healing to signify the sacrifices she went through and what she had suffered.

>>1764461
>the Reconstructed Queen

>Robot is watching
I wonder what Theseus thinks

>>1764504
he is obviously vacillating between incredibly interested and incredibly confused.

>>1764504
I imagine he imagines we're feeling something like he did when he ad Heretic first connected in a serious way.

>>1764496
That wasn't a vote.

Wait should we bring up Elizabeth to the Scarred Queen?

>>1764532
Probably eventually. Right now what with the SQ being reborn, the info on Union Void research attempts, and the Cluster revelation we have a lot to talk about.

>>1764549
Actually, didn't the Void materialize in this sector of space not too long ago? The Union even hit it with a probe.

>>1764578
I "think" that was way back when the Union was first scouting out the Expanse - so it'd be nearly 100 years ago. I could be wrong on that, though.

I'm at work on mobile, otherwise I'd check the archives myself.

>>1764309
You know I've been meaning to ask, how much of our technology and specialized drone adaptations has the scarred queen inherited from us? I know that much of the Hive's scientific and technological knowledge is passed down genetically between queens and their daughters, how much of that has this queen received?

>>1764675
Since she was missing her egg sac and we basically gave her one of ours, all of it.

>>1764678
Indeed, I'm just wondering where the line between genetic drone adaptations and theory oriented knowledge like quantum entanglement or hard light construction lies. I'm guessing she can produce exactly the same sort of drones as we can, but I wonder if she's got the more the more arcane stuff down.

>>1764675
Pretty much >>1764678

Hypothetically we could probably limit the DNA we pass on to her new egg sac, but why would we do that? We need our daughter as strong as possible.

On a related note: which/how many fleets should we give our daughter to help jump start her military and productivity?

>>1764696
That would need to be part of an information exchange. Not even we as the Red Queen know all of this offhand, a lot of the information is stored in thinkers. Or at least that's my understanding. Hive knowledge is "some brain somewhere in the network knows this information, please find it" rather than "the queen knows this information directly and immediately" although the Queen probably knows a lot anyway and might be the source of knowledge for many things.

But like what kind of silverware goes where... some thinker knows this (or Elizabeth knows this) and now any other creature connected to the hive can access that memory and know it too.

>>1764678
I don't know. It wouldn't make sense to have anyone but the queen actually store non-genetic information in their genome since she's the only one that can use this knowledge proactively so it's possible she hasn't actually gained any of our technological advancements.

>>1764697
Plot twist: The Scarred Queen is what remains of the Obsidian Queen after she escaped Void control, the OQ's forces are directly controlled by the Void now.

>>1764678
I don't think it works like that. The only think we inherited from the White Queen was highly effecient drones nothing else.

>>1764697
Dude, if she's our daughter, she's not going to need any fleets to jump start her own.

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>>1764309
"You have more than earned it. You have proven yourself to have the strength to do the unthinkable to survive, and such strength is needed now more than ever." You reply. "Your wounds have been healed. How do you feel?"

"Indebted, and grateful. My years have left me jaded in my isolation. Perhaps my renewed youth has given me undue hubris, perhaps we are the last gasp of a dying race, but in this moment I do feel hope again for the first time in millennia."

"Much has happened since you entered the pod. Revelations of our past, and the war."

"Yes." She says. "These creatures, they hold many ancient adaptations."

"They hold memories as well, from before the Ark." You say.

"Yes." She replies, your minds flowing with the thoughts and memories. "We must learn more of ourselves and our past. My old life was during our kind's downfall. My new life shall be witness to our second rise, but how much has been lost? So much is left unknown. We are vulnerable, and these ancients make no pretense of alliance, we must be careful, but they could be the only link to our past."

"Hive-grown humans are already moving in to open communications."

"That is good." The Scarred Queen says, then her mind skips a thought. "You cultivate the blind?"

"Yes. To allow the hive to view and interact with the humans without their knowledge I grow my own to blend in among them."

"That is an interesting concept." She says simply.

"You can make your own, in time. This system is yours to do with as you see fit." You say, and the Scarred Queen's mind flutters for a moment with a slight embarrassment.

"The metal thing is still here." She says. "We have ignored it all this time. I will dispatch my relay to your world immediately, you may integrate it into whatever method of communication you use to speak with the rest of the silicon life, but it would be best if the metal drone left. I am indecent, and I must begin laying my children." She unfurls her wings, covering her freshly hatched carapace as her workers circle around her. You have failed to realize the taboo until now, although on some level even in your uncultured state you have followed it to some degree, that it is unbecoming for a Hive Queen to be seen in person by an outsider, the sight of a Queen within her throne room being akin to nudity. You suspect the taboo has evolved from a need of total safety, or at least that is the reason you have followed the tradition even without the explicit knowledge of the taboo.

Your drones begin ushering the unity drone from the chambers, its cameras spinning into focus with a soft whirling noise of servos.

"Integration of the new Queen's mind into our communication system will be finished shortly" You say. Already the repaired relay is being taken aboard one of your corvettes. You will need to create a hall for it on Leeland as the new matriarch. Your own dynasty, yours to command, however small it may be, but it is a place of honor.

cont.

>>1764766
>Your own dynasty, yours to command, however small it may be, but it is a place of honor.
We're going up in the world, fellow thinkers.

>>1764766
>You will need to create a hall for it on Leeland as the new matriarch. Your own dynasty, yours to command, however small it may be, but it is a place of honor.
Can we not do that? OQ has shown what a massive security risk it is to have all those relays in one place.

>>1764801
Just place it on a self destruct equipped stealth pod in orbit with a medium relay in the hall.
They get their hall and we get operational security.

>>1764801
It's going to have a built in acid gland, something only the Builder had built into theirs

>>1764801
It's not.

>>1764819
It is.

>>1764822
Only if you're stupid.

>You say, and the Scarred Queen's mind flutters for a moment with a slight embarrassment.

Guys i think she never expected that we would keep our word about giving the system to her.

>>1764823
So let's not be stupid and put the relays somewhere else.

>>1764825

The Daughteru is too cute.

>>1764826
That would be an actual security risk.

>>1764832
Why?

>>1764835
The only reason it fucked Gardener over was because she let her guard down before the Black Queen sucker punched her psionically and invaded the planet to plug in the jammers without any resistance. Our capital is the safest planet because she doesn't even know we live on it.

>>1764852
I was gonna say, if Leeland is being invaded then the Scarred Queen's system will likely be under attack before then.

Remember we fought the OQ in Refuge to discover the Broken Queen right before the hiatus

>>1764852
Dude I think you're over thinking the risk here. The Dark Queen only succeeded to nerve bombing all other hives because the queens let their guard down at that gathering. It's not like she could get a psionic jammer within 50 light seconds of Leeland with our defensive network around it.

>>1764872
You responded to the wrong person.

>it is unbecoming for a Hive Queen to be seen in person by an outsider, the sight of a Queen within her throne room being akin to nudity

Does that mean that Lee was the first human to see the Queen naked?

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>>1764935

>>1764935
Now we understand the nature of our attachment to him. He is literally our husbando, and by the ancient law of our kind it must be so. Our dynasties will be merged.

>>1765075
I guess those Taidaren friends of his were right and Lee really did marry into a big family...

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>>1764766
Your mind turns to the frozen world of Djin, your clones having marched their way through the stinging wind as frost forms along their coats. Your two teams both have yet to find any activity. At the mining drill you can hear the humming of idling engines, the massive mining rig perched over a caved in crater as floodlights illuminate the area. Along the sides of the valley you can see a small collection of camp shelters assembled in a village of sorts, with the ice caves visible further beyond the pre-fabricated shelters. Your other team has reached Thule station, although it doesn't look like much. The wall of the closest building has collapsed, revealing the interior of some manner of garage. Most of the lights are out, although the glow of interior lights can be seen glittering off the snow.

>Have your clones enter Thule station
>Have your clones search the exterior for a proper entrance
>Other (write in)

>Have your clones search the mining rig
>Have your clones enter the base camp
>Have your clones enter the ice caves
>Other (write in)

Before we continue, I'd just like to quickly say I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I will be running all night, or at least as long as you are here to play. The bad news is that I will be going out of town tomorrow so no thread for the next few weeks. I plan on running, or at least staying in the thread, until I have to leave tomorrow around noon.

>>1765086
How many weeks is a few weeks?

>Have your clones search the exterior for a proper entrance

>Have your clones enter the base camp

>>1765099
Probably at least until next month, so three-ish.

>>1765086
You madman! How much caffeine are you hopped up on?

>>1765112
I try not to drink much caffeine since the, uh, aortic dissection. Bad for the blood pressure and all that.

>>1765086
>>Have your clones enter Thule station
>>Have your clones enter the ice caves
Any chance you could post on your ask page or the wiki during that time to help tide us over?

>>1765086
>Have your clones enter Thule station
If we go in by a real entrance we might have to answer some annoying questions about why we are out in a snow storm and who we are. It's fine to enter through the garage for now.

>Have your clones search the mining rig.
If it's idling someone might be inside with an idea of what's going. We can then enter the ice caves with less of a diversion than if we went to base camp first (probably).

>Before we continue, I'd just like to quickly say I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I will be running all night, or at least as long as you are here to play. The bad news is that I will be going out of town tomorrow so no thread for the next few weeks. I plan on running, or at least staying in the thread, until I have to leave tomorrow around noon.

Wow QD, you're amazing. Thanks for the treat you outstanding madman. Enjoy your trip out of town!

>>1765086
>>Have your clones search the mining rig
>Have your clones enter Thule station

>>1765086
It is what it is GM, I enjoy our time together.

also
>Other (write in)
Examine the nature of the damage to the the garage.

>Have your clones enter the base camp

>>1765111
Geez well i will miss the thread but this will be good for you. Have a nice trip QD.

>>1765086
>>Have your clones search the mining rig
Avoid people-camp, awkward questions of where did you come from.

>>1765157
You do realize it's highly unlikely there are any human survivors left on this site now, right?

>>1765127
Not sure, my phone is old and crappy and the Ask mobile version tends to screw up for me, but I'll try and keep an eye on the thread at the very least.

SUDDENLY THREAD.

>>1765086
>I plan on running, or at least staying in the thread, until I have to leave tomorrow around noon.
Dude don't kill yourself running.

>>1765214
Thanks for giving it a go man, 'preciate it.

>>1765086
>>Have your clones enter Thule station
>Have your clones enter the base camp
start up top and work their way down.

>>1765120
That is a very good reason. Good luck staying up without stimulants though.

>>1765193
It depends on how curious the Cluster was and how stupid the humans are. If I remember correctly our orbiting ships have detected something "big" warming up underground.

If the humans are all dead we shouldn't be detecting any tachyonic life signatures from the base. QD would probably tell us if we identified the entire base as being empty of life. I think we also sent hybrids and not pure clones on this mission, so any passing attack against our agents by the Cluster would instantly betray traces of Hive DNA to genetic masters such as them.

>>1765269
>how stupid the humans are.

Well this is a Union station so...pretty dumb.

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>>1765086
>Have your clones enter Thule station
(other one is a tie so we will just deal with this one first. Also sorry, I had to back up a few things real quick with the family.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRKZYLw-SQw

Your agents quickly move in, shuffling through the snow and hop the pile of debris to the inside of the garage. Your agents quickly clear the room, their weapons at the ready as they search for any activity. The room is coated in ice and snow billows across the floor. A large vehicle is set on blocks nearby. The driver's door is open and the interior lights are on, but dim, flickering faintly as the lights slowly fade. Your agent moves closer to investigate, and you see the steering wheel is smudged with dried blood, and the dash is coated in crimson finger prints, almost too faint to notice. Your clones search the vehicle for any survivors and quickly move on, finding a single doorway to some manner of workshop where various electronics are set out half assembled. Radios and survival gear are set out on tables, all coated in ice. The roof have caved in, although it is unclear what caused the damage. Your agents search the room just as thoroughly as before, finding several broken electronic devices, some batteries, flashlights, and a number of empty jerrycans. You find an electrolysis chamber along the far wall with several half-charged hydrogen cells set within. One of your clones flips a power switch, and a spark flies from a power cable in the ceiling in response.

The room splits off from here, with a door covered in frost on one side, and a hallway stretching off further into the station along the other. Tables are flipped over around the hallway, and you can spot several patches of burn marks in the walls, as well as several small arms discharge marks. The door is sealed shut, either by a lock, the ice, or both. There is a window but it is frozen thick with ice, leaving nothing but a faint, flickering of dim light visible on the other side and a frost coated sign reading 'Medical Bay'. Your clones struggle to detect any heat through the door's insulation. The hall is equally ambiguous, flickering with an emergency light as a hissing of air brought in swirling wisps of snow through several bullet holes in the walls. The far door is slightly ajar, with some tangled, bloody chunk of table lodged in the door frame.

>Have your agents break through the door to the Medical Bay
>Have your agents move down the hall to the common area
>Have your agents split up
>Other

>>1765575
>Have your agents split up
What can go wrong?

>>1765575
>>Have your agents break through the door to the Medical Bay

>>1765575
>Have your agents break through the door to the Medical Bay

>>1765575
>Have your agents break through the door to the Medical Bay
Need to stay together, considering that shit obviously went down here.

>>1765575
>Have your agents break through the door to the Medical Bay
Clearly some shit went down here.

>>1765575
>>Have your agents break through the door to the Medical Bay
But try to communicate with anyone who may be on the other side first.

>Other
Do we detect any tachyon signatures in the area? Anything that indicates "life" of a non-cluster type in the camp?

>>1765639
Questions like these are examples of how a psionic sniffer unit would be useful.

>>1765575
>>Have your agents break through the door to the Medical Bay

>>1765667
Our parasite was able to detect the complete lack of tachyonic signature on the Cluster sample when it was inside Gilliam. These agents are all hybrids and have paras, so they can probably detect a lack of life the same way - they'd just have to get relatively close to the target. I agree psionic sniffers like the whisperer design would be good to make, though.

>>1765688
Yeah I came up with a possible design like that at the end of the last thread. Think I should repost it in this one?

>>1765755
If you really want to. I think that multiple very similar designs can often be confusing to people so it's better generally to just have a relatively limited design to fill a particular niche. Maybe we can have a drone design discussion after QD's finished updating.

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>>1765575
>Have your agents break through the door to the Medical Bay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nRC0hkNGzM

Your agents search over the door for any method of opening it. Buried in a thick layer of ice is a metal handle, frozen shut. Your clone picks at the ice with his arm blades, using the thermal energy to melt through to the metal beneath and he pulls the handle to unlatch the door, then gives it a quick kick that sends ice chips scattering across the room.

The medical bay is sizable, clearly suited for the dangers of interplanetary mining, though the quality of the equipment is less than par, with most of it clearly focused towards dealing with various mining injuries, but with the more subtle diagnostic or general purpose machinery lacking rather starkly. There is a rather rudimentary bio-scanner, suitable mostly for studying bone fractures or tissue tears, as well as a stock of auto-casts ready for application, as well as several auto-injectors and an assortment of pain killers, antibiotics, and anticarcinogens that anyone spending any moderate amount of time in a mine shaft would need to remain clear of the debilitating effects of toxic chemicals and alien pathogens, which often deal more damage from physical obstruction than by actual infection. There is a simple gene-chopper, a rather misleading laymen's term for a gene editing device, although from your perspective the crude barbarity of its function fits with the term rather nicely, with the device itself designed to "cut" out cancer through genetic tampering, its approach to genetics is similar to a child smearing clay all over the table until some lump forms and claiming it to be a bowl. It's quaint, arguably effective, but otherwise a brutal insult to the artistic craft of genetic engineering.

The medical bay has several surgical tables, each with a number of auto-doctors folded up beneath them where pre-programmed simple medical procedures can be performed automatically, or to allow specialists to perform a more complicated procedure via telepresence, likely via Q-comm. One on table is a large smear of blood and a layer of plastic wrap. One the other, a body of some sort. Humanoid in shape, it clearly is anything but upon anything but the most cursory inspection. The skin is charred and burnt, its crispy hide pulled open to reveal a softer layer of flesh where a body lays motionless in some manner of fluid filled sac. It is coated in frost, glistening with a thin layer of ice. You wonder, judging from the burns, if it really is dead, or if the ice simply has reduced it to a deep sleep. Regardless, you see no method of gaining power to the room, or warming up the body without causing more burns to it.

cont.

>>1765805
I'd like that, and feel free to toss in any advice or recommendations whenever.

>its approach to genetics is similar to a child smearing clay all over the table until some lump forms and claiming it to be a bowl. It's quaint, arguably effective, but otherwise a brutal insult to the artistic craft of genetic engineering.

Pfff i love these moments

>back up
What?

>>1765841
Oh phew QD's alive.

>>1765841
Oh another cluster.

>>1765841
Oh good, another of the Cluster, we must be getting closer.

And I'll hold off on badgering you about drone designs until the thread is completed QD.

>>1765874
>>1765841
Agreed, I'd rather wait until the thread is over until we start another interminable drone design debate.

On another note, I think I've found some good music for what it must be like for humans trying to fight the Hive: Terrifying and insectoid, but still still regal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_YXZxBfIyM

>>1765901
I always find myself listening to this track when the Queen is reflecting on what she's doing. It's so alien yet so regal, as you so well put it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t01dYTecfS8

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fZd0ythDL3A

I was hearing this one while i readed Titan-kun crushing the scavs.

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>>1765954

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>>1765954
Never forget.

>>1765954
huh, good song for a disappointing movie

>>1766005
Shin Godzilla was pretty great, even if the titular monster did have hilarious googley eyes. It was a real throwback to the original movies and away from the Hollywood blockbuster format.

>>1765969
>When all you have are drills for hands, everything looks like a rock

>>1766018
meh, I prefer 2014 for all it's spectacle. The visual direction for that movie was spectacular

>>1765841
Your clones examine the body, finding a number of medical instruments still embedded within, as if some dissection was interrupted by more pressing matters. One of the medical scanners is still active, its display flickering with flashing malfunction errors. Your clone clicks out of them, awakening the device as it projects a foggy image of cellular layers and a triplex strand. It seems they were indeed in the middle of an autopsy.

Your agents move on, finding a second door leading out into a central hallway. The door is jammed, but your clone gives it a swift punch that cracks the frozen polymer. The hallway on the other side is wide, but strewn with debris. Various items are tossed about, discharged plasma cartridges, empty ammunition magazines, shredded wrappers for rations or fire extinguishers and other various items all tossed about without care. The doors along either side are thrown open, and several of the lights hang from their places in the ceiling by a thread, flickering or sparking as they sway back and forth. Next to the medical bay the hall turns, running along the side of the wall and leading into a sealed blast door and a barricaded doorway leading to the common room. Your agents move ahead, searching through the rooms along the hall and finding each one empty, with a bunk bed set along either wall and several lockers set between them. They are all in various states of disarray, with items tossed about and the lockers ransacked. One of your clones finds a discarded datapad, the case coated in a thin layer of dried blood along the edges and smeared across the touch screen, although it still activates as the clone picks it up. It's connected to the Thule internal network, or what is left of it. The pad itself seems to have been left while it was attempting to upload a video recording through the facility's Q-comm relay, although the file is marked with an error indicating it was never sent. Your clone clicks the file and it begins to play. You see a human male on the screen as he holds the datapad in his shaking hands, his face is coated with blood, but you can't tell if any of it is his or not.

cont.

>>1766072
"I-" He stammers, cursing under his breath. "This is Thule station. We need help, backup, the military, anything, just send something!" He says. "This planet isn't safe to colonize, there are these, I dunno, things out there, under the ice. Some of them look like some kind of bugger species. Jesus, we already shipped one but then we started digging for more, especially after we found the ruins." The man glances to either side, his gaze uneven as he wipes the side of his head and his hand pulls away covered in blood. He quickly wipes it on his jacket without notice.

"The mining team repositioned the rig after the find, figured it would be worth more than common minerals anyhow but then the cave-ins started, people were getting lost in the ruins. I don't-" He bites his lip, choking back something. "We need fire, lots of fire, burn the whole place to the ground!" His voice is rushed and his tone uneven, cracking slightly as his head bobs to the side as if almost falling asleep. "I need to find the stuff, anything flammable works." He says, and he fumbles with the datapad as the video cuts off. You are unsure where he could have gone, but you doubt he would make it far with his injuries and an obvious case of head trauma. If he didn't pass through the medical bay already, you doubt he would still be alive.

Your agents find more items, mostly personal effects, while at the end of the hall is a communal bathroom, the inside entirely burnt and falling in on itself with torched tile and melted polymer. A humanoid body is crusted to a seat in the showers where the burn marks are centered, the charred flesh spread around the tile like tendrils, digging deep into the wall, and deeper into what is left of the figure's body. Your agents cover their faces to shield themselves from the stench and quickly back away from the room.

>Search the common room
>Attempt to breach the blast door
>Other

(because it's still a tie)
>Have your clones search the mining rig
>Have your clones enter the base camp
>Have your clones enter the ice caves
>Other (write in)

>>1766086
Looks like Cluster.

Search the common room, and then go into the ice caves. Cluster should recognize us immediately.

>>1766086
>Search the common room
>Have your clones enter the base camp

>>1766101
The cluster species has no psionic communication anon

>>1766086
>Search the common room
>Have your clones enter the base camp

We need to not be snuck up on, and we need to find any useful resources for containing or repelling Cluster forms until we can establish contact.

>>1766086
>>Attempt to breach the blast door
>Have your clones enter the ice caves
Because it's not like we're trying to hide from the Cluster at this point, half the reason we're down here is to attempt contact.

>>1766086
>Attempt to breach the blast door
>Have your clones enter the base camp

>>1766086
>>Attempt to breach the blast door
>>Have your clones enter the ice caves
Tie breaker?

>>1766086
>Search common room
>Have your clones enter the base camp
I would rather enter the caves to get to the cluster quicker but not just yet.

Palmer was literally just talking to Camp Thule on the quantum comms. >>1374547

Just how much time has passed since that call?

> We won't have radio contact for another few hours but I'll call for a status update when we get them back. You're not going to believe what we found down there though."

Form other

>>1766086
>Search common room
>Have your clones enter the base camp

Your agents move back down the hall to the barricaded doorway stuffed with piles of junk and furniture. The clones begin prying away the refuse to clear the door , pulling a desk off the wall as a crack of lightning flashes into the wall and sending your clones scattering for cover.

"Get the fuck back!" You hear someone shout from the other side as the remains of the desk simmers with wisps of smoke. Keep away, keep the fuck away from me!"

"Put the gun down!" Your clone shouts back. "We're not gonna hurt you."

"Unless you keep shooting." Another clone quips.

"Like hell you are! Those old tricks won't work. You try and get in one more time and I'll shoot goddammit!" Your clone holds up a small reflective patch of metal found on the floor, possibly once a part of a mirror or a screen for some device, and holds it just over the door frame as another of your clones moves quietly through the medical bay to the hallway. In the reflection you can see several humans, one with a cip pistol held with a shaking grip aimed towards the door. Tables have been overturned into a makeshift defense within where you can see more humans huddled in blankets tending to wounds or eating rations from their wrappers. You don't see anyone else armed, but you don't have that good of a view. Your clones are stronger and faster by far than any human, you have no doubt you could take the position, the only question is how.

>Have your clones breach from both sides and tackle the armed man
>Have your clones return fire and take the position by force
>Other (write in)

>>1766169
>"Put the gun down!" Your clone shouts back. "We're not gonna hurt you."
>"Unless you keep shooting." Another clone quips.
It's at times like these I wonder how much of Lyle's genome and psyche we integrated into all our human children.

>Have your clones breach from both sides and tackle the armed man

>>1766169
>Have your clones breach from both sides and tackle the armed man

>>1766169
>>Other (write in)
Just human survivors, no hurry to break in to get them. They'll all fall in due time when Cluster gets them.

Try the blast door instead.

>>1766179
Supporting. I'm not sure what we gain by taking over the base camp anymore.

>Other (write in)
"If you're gonna shoot at everyone that shows up, how are you ever gonna get out of here?

Suit yourself. Good luck with your last stand."

>>1766169
>Other (write in)
"Yeah, okay, seems like you guys don't want rescue anyways. Hey Kyle, breach the blast door then! I bet that's where the artifacts are!"
A bit of misdirection and us looking like we're pirates/tomb raiders should confuse them with maximum cheek.

>
1764221 Hive Queen Quest 65.4 The Queen establishes her dynasty as the hive reacquaints itself with an ancient being. Hive Queen Quest, Hivemind, Collective Game, Queen, Quest, sci fi 2017-08-11 2


We really gotta narratively focus on those ice caves if we're gonna do the latter...

>>1766169
Actually, I think I'll change my vote here>>1766171
to back this >>1766182

>>1766184
Yeah, just cause QD is willing to run all night doesn't mean I want to force him to just to get to the actual bits where we contact the cluster.

>>1766169
>Have your clones breach from both sides and tackle the armed man

>>1764221
>Archives http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Hive%20Queen%20Quest
QD, can you change this to
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Hive%20Queen%20Quest
in future. You can't vote directly from the former.

>>1766169
>Try to break through the blast door instead

"You want to starve in there, it's no skin of my bones." Your agent says.

"Wait, what? Where are you going?"

"Somewhere you can't shoot us, maybe wait for you to calm down." Your clone replies. He gestures to the other, who produces a photon blade from his belt and begins work on the blast door. The progress is slow, but steady. Your other clones keep careful watch over the humans, making sure there are no more errant gunshots as the hall is flooded with the sparking light of the blade working its way through the reinforced steel.

Please roll 1d100 for a mixture of how quickly you cut through and loot roll

>>1766189
2nding this

Rolled 16 (1d100)

>>1766214
Looting things for mother!

Rolled 41 (1d100)

>>1766214
For Mother!

>>1766214
For mother....

Rolled 5 (1d100)

>>1766214
Shinies!

>>1766216
>>1766217
>>1766219
Slow cutting, or poor loot?

>>1766218

Rolled 95 (1d100)

>>1766223

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>>1766222
I suspect both.

>>1766224
>pic related

>>1766214
Are the arm blades not more effective than photon blades since they use thermal loop and vibro blade tech?

Also I wonder if there will be cursory investigation here or they just quarantine the planet and abandon them all as potential impersonators. Maybe they'll find the way the door was cut through odd.

>>1766227
I have a feeling ol QD will allow my roll

We should download that video as evidence and if the Union deny our deal to take the expanse.

>>1766228
The Photon blades ignore armor. I think?

>>1766233
Its best of three anon, nothing rolled after the first 3 count for squat.

>>1766237
It doesn't.

>>>/tg/47632773
>While it actually has less overall cutting power when compared to the larger and more damaging thermal and vibro blade options, the photon blade is smaller, lighter weight, and cannot be broken by virtue of not actually being made of solid matter to begin with.

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>>1766214

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpnsZyB9GXU

Your agents work their way through the deep snow, trudging knee deep as the winds whip at their faces. The valley curls upward to the sloped ledge of the base camp where prefabricated shelters are propped up on the ice coated rocks, the mountains above smooth and sleek like blackened ice, the stone blasted from wind and the barrage of ice and snow. Your agents make their way into the base camp, quickly spreading out to cover the area more quickly, searching shelter after shelter as quickly as possible. In each is a ransacked chamber, either an empty storage shed, or a disorganized residence. A small medical pod, little more than a ship's medical segment jettisoned and planted on the mountain, has been set on fire and burned to cinders with nothing left but a charred frame. Within is a twisted husk, burnt beyond recognition. Something akin to a row of teeth can be seen jutting from it, blackened and covered in soot, with arms splayed out like a spider curled into a ball.

Your clones keep their weapons close and at the ready as they scour the perimeter. You find a single set of footprints, a faint trail of blood leading from footstep to footstep as the trail seems to run from the camp towards the ice caves beyond. You can see them from here, glittering, the ice within freshly smoothed out and cleaned, the entrances steaming with a warm fog. The ice walls are permeated with cracks running deep between the caves themselves, where shelves of ice cliffs have formed, most likely artificially judging by a number of cables drilled into the upper cliffs as supports for a small lift. Your agents follow the footprints, and just beyond the edge of the first cliff, buried beneath the ice and the steaming caves, is a clearly artificial structure, a wall, its surface covered in designs like some manner of seashell of immeasurable size.

Your clones continue on their way, following the footsteps and the trail of blood as they enter one of the caves. The temperature immediately increases and the air is filled with steam. The air is so warm your clones unzip their jackets and are forced to strip off their heavy coats down to their combat armor as they move.

"Stay back!" Someone shouts. Your clones swing their weapons in the direction of the voice to find a human clutching his arm tucked away in a corner as he flinches away from the flashlights of your weapons. "Get back, I mean it!"

"Easy. We're here to help, just tell us what happened." Your clone says slowly.

"What?" The man asks. He lowers his hand slowly from shielding his eyes and tries to get a better look at your clones, squinting in the dim light of the cave. "What, like a rescue?"

"Let's keep this one step at a time, first tell us what happened to the camp."

"You can't... you can't rescue, the planet needs to be cut off, you can't risk it!"

"Easy! Nobody's going anywhere right now, not until we know what happened."

cont.

>>1766228
>>1766244
Normal blades, while technically better at cutting, would likely break if used to cut through a blast door, which are built to withstand such forces. A photon blade is slower, but more stubborn, since no matter how much you grind it up against a surface it just keeps on cutting. In effect, it is similar to a plasma torch in that way, which is essentially what it is being used as a substitute for in this case.

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>>1766245

The man shudders for a moment, shaking his head as he knocks loose stray chips of half melted ice from his hair.

"After we found this place, I dunno, it just all went to shit." He says. "We were attacked, no, infiltrated I think. These things, they can look just like a person. By the time we figured it out, we already lost contact with Thule."

"Where is everyone else?" Your agent asks. The man shakes his head.

"Dead most likely. Or one of those things. We were able to burn one of them after it got into the infirmary but the camp lost power, so it's either stay in these caves or freeze to death outside. There still should be a survey team in the ruins but..." He shakes his head slowly. "No, no way, they're either gone or more of those things by now, for sure."

"What ruins?" Your agent asks. "Can you lead us?"

"Fuck me. You want to go further in?" He asks. The man looks at each of your clones, glancing back at the way they came as snow drifts in from the harsh cold outside.

"Nowhere else to go." Your clones reply, the man just grips his arm again, hoisting it up by a makeshift sling made from his coat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLLLwL4uzOQ

"Alright, it's a bad idea, but alright." He gestures towards one of the tunnels, and your clones follow behind. The tunnels twist and turn, not unlike your own hive in fact, each tunnel leading through a dozen others. Floodlights have been drilled into the walls, although most are either dark, or dying out on battery power. Your agents stick close to the man, or as close as he allows, until the cramped tunnels open into a spacious cavern. More lights cover the area, and the floor is a smooth, metallic substance coated in a strange spiraling pattern that looks almost organic in nature, as if the material was grown like a shell or scale.

"It took some time, but we managed to drill through." The man says.

"What is it?" Your clone asks. He simply shrugs.

"Some kind of space craft maybe?" He says. "I'm not going any deeper, you have a death wish? You can fulfill it yourself."

Your clones continue on, quickly climbing down the ladder planted into the hole drilled through the metal structure. The man seems shocked. A moment after the last clone slides down the ladder you hear him shout after you.

"Wait! Alright fine! Just don't leave me like that!" He says.

cont.

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>>1766263
Oh boy..this guy. Unless he is a disguised Cluster.

>>1766246
>>1766245
>Thule station
>prefab station on fire.

Reading this giving me some Lovecraft and The Thing vibes.

>>1766265
He's about to die.

>>1766273
Nah he has giod survival insticts he managed to survive here. He is also smart enough to realize he would die alone in the cave and is sticking to our agents. Some humans seem to have a strong sirvival instict, must be because they are so frail.

>>1766265
If we're going to cover our tracks for this little excursion (and the existence of our hybrids) we might just have to adopt ALL the survivors. Either that or feed them all to the Cluster.

Could go either way really.

>>1766277
I agree if anything i would like to keep the ones with skills we don't have so we can produce other kinds of clones/hybrids.

Although i don't know how usefull a human artist or engenieer would be usefull to the hive.

>>1766277
Imagine it from his perspective, he's kinda stuck in some sort of Lovecraftian horror novel.
>Go to mine and research
>Some of your colleagues go missing after finding ancient artifacts
>Find out there's a Skinwalker/Thing expy living here, or several
>Been surviving out on the caves
>There's a rescue crew, apparently
>What's with their weird behavior
>Turns out that they're insect cultists and wants to either assimilate you into their insect goddess hivemind or feed you to the eldritch skinwalkers

>>1766280
>Just one more casualty caught between sides in a war that's older than his species

>>1766280
You know you're having a bad day when the half insectoid pod-people supermen are your only chance of surviving an outbreak of shapeshifting horrors that have been frozen for eons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8StG4fFWHqg

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>>1766263

The inside is even warmer, the air a muggy, humid atmosphere thick with oxygen. You can feel a warm breeze, the air moving forward and back, then forward again, like breathing. The ladder leads to a large chamber, the walls twisting and unusual in shape, curving back and forth between the outer metal wall to the floor like tendons.

"What do you know about this place?" Your clone asks. The man stammers for a moment before answering.

"Just that it's where those things come from, and people tend to disappear in here."

"So how did things get this bad?"

"We started digging up what we found. Things just got worse from there once we broke through the metal layer into the ruins. People started disappearing, things started going missing. Then, people started showing up again, but different, it wasn't until recently that things went right to hell. Is it me or is this place getting warmer?"

You notice it too, and your clones have far better senses. The heat is growing, gradually but steadily. Your agents continue to make their way through the twisting tunnels.

"This way." The man says. "The survey team would have gone this way, where the major ruins are." He points down one of the twisting tunnels, the dark chamber curving inward and downward in a wide spiral. It eventually leads to another open chamber, this time filled with crisscrossing beams, each curving around the room in twisting shapes. "This is the place. Topography drones show this is one of the largest chambers in the ruins. It's where the last survey team was scheduled to investigate, but they haven't been heard from since yesterday."

cont.

>>1766287
So either killed or tucked in some place.
Also how come we never asked him how he managed to survive?

>>1766283
Actually one more victim of their corrupt government.

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>>1766287
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC13nVHoR64

"It's huge." Your clone says. The squad spread out, their minds linking firmly as they move in slowly.

"Are you serious? Please! Let's just leave!" The man says.

"What's your name, anyways?"

"What?" The man asks. "Uh, Cochran, what are yours?" Your clones ignore the question, their eyes locked on the vast chamber before them.

"Well, Cochran, you can head on back if you want, but we're not leaving just yet."

The chamber almost glows with a soft light, the walls glistening with moisture, pulsing ever so slightly with activity. You can see several floodlights set up around the area, but they are all off, some tipped over and broken, others not even set up yet. Several portable generators sit along the floor in a thick, steamy mist.

"Cochran!" The voice shouts out from within the mist, echoing off the twisted walls. "Cochran is that you? We need some help over here!"

"No!" Cochran shouts back. "No dammit no! Ignore them, it's not them!"

"Wait!" A man steps forward, his hands held up as your clones aim their weapons. "Cochran it's just us."

"Shoot it!" Cochran screams as he fumbles back, tripping over himself as he moves away. "It's just another one of those things! Kill it, shoot it!" He falls back, tripping over himself as he turns on his heel and begins sprinting away. Your clone glances at him as he disappears in the mist.

"Wait, get back here, it's not safe!" Your shout back, but he's already gone. The man before your clones echos the sentiment.

"Cochran get back here, we need to regroup!"

"You shut it!" Your clone snaps. "And let's not get any closer. Don't think I didn't notice those little steps forward. If there are any more of you, come on out now."

"We have wounded over here. I can't move them." He says. "Please, you need to help us get them stable, before those things come back!"

>Have your clones approach the man carefully and check the wounded
>Order the man to come closer
>Other (write in)

>>1766296
>>Order the man to come closer
Boi we know how this works. That said, do we have a plan on how to communicate with this Cluster instance other than letting it semi-eat one of our clones?

>>1766296
>>Order the man to come closer


But hey buddy, if you're not human, I gotta ask that you wait on eating us until you've read our minds with your freaky nervous system hijacking.

Or actually we could mention amongst ourselves to hint at some valuable information Cluster would want to extract. About orbital bombardment or something.

>>1766296
>Order the man to come closer

>Other (write in)
Begin handshake protocol? If we don't feel nothing is cluster if we do it's human.

>>1766296
>Other(Write In)
>"Just to be clear, do you know anything related to 'the ancient compact'?"
>If yes, tell them that an artifact that came from Djinn is going to return home
>if not, tell them that there's this new insectoid alien overlord of the Expanse is arriving, so either evacuate or just... stay here with the Thing expies

>>1766296
Wait.
>>Other (write in)

We can test him by catching him with a sting whip. That'll indicate his capabilities and intrigue the Cluster.

>>1766298
Just let him plup into our clones spine our symbiots can keep our children alive.

>>1766296
>"The hive sents their regards, there is much to be discussed between our races after your slumber."

90% sure it is part of cluster, so lets talk fake face to fake face.

>>1766296
>Order the man to come closer

>>1766308
Let's do it when we having something more concrete then just a hunch okay anon?

>>1766296
Going to support this>>1766302
Letting one of these things get within arms reach of us doesn't seem smart.

>>1766298
I figure we can just give them a drop of our hybrids blood, they'll be able to instantly pick up the triplex structure of them.

>>1766301
+1 to this.

>>1766300
We would need a moderate relay to sense anything which was too conspicuous to bring.

>>1766318
Although, wait. When we attempted psionic communication with the frozen Cluster, we could in fact do so from low orbit.

I guess we could attempt that. Attempt a psionic communication and see if we hit a wall of nothing or a living mind.

>>1766296
>Order the man to come closer

Please roll 1d100, best of 3.

Rolled 68 (1d100)

>>1766322
That was a long vote.

Rolled 29 (1d100)

>>1766322

Rolled 85 (1d100)

>>1766322

>>1766325
Praise Mother!

>>1766325
Mother ain't afraid of no thing!

>>1766325
Excuse me humans superior race comming through!

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>>1766269
>The Thing vibes
Did you read previous threads?

>>1766334
>humans
If he were the unarmed human he looks like would there be any violence occurring at all?

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>>1766322
"Alright then, your friends can wait a few minutes for you to explain the situation. Get over here, slowly, and we can have a chat."

"Alright." The man says. He takes a step forward, and your clones aim their weapons, following the man as he slowly makes his way closer to your agents. He is nearly half way to your clones when there is a sudden shift in the air, a quick gust of wind and a distant rumble. Shapes appear along your periphery, strange figures bathed in shadow shifting in the darkness. The man suddenly dives forward as his arm springs up, and in a sudden burst of flesh his forearm splits, the bone within firing a chitinous shell at your clones as a thorn launcher extends from the arm. Your clones duck and dive for cover, sprinting to the side before expending a sting whip and lassoing it around the man's neck. There is more resistance than any human could ever provide, the being digging in its heels as you reel it in, its feel unfolding into clawed talons. Your agent hops into the air and simply pulls himself instead, the sting whip hurling him through the air towards the human looking figure.

The creature screams, an inhuman, howling wail that echos through the chamber. The other figures begin to move in, circling your clones, but not attacking, yet. Your clone holds his sidearm to the creature's head, more because it offers a large target than any hope it is a critical organ for the creature.

"I said slowly. Now, tell your friends to back off, we're here to talk." Your clone says. "I know you're blind or deaf or whatever poorly translated concept you call it so get those nerve endings out and start yapping." You can feel the sting whip struggling, the toxin filling the creature having little effect. Its own flesh seems to extend back out, veins in the neck worming their way into your clone's sting whip like parasites taking root. You feel a slight, fleeting thought, but it quickly vanishes as the roots pull out and the creature's head begins to unfold, its neck cracking apart as its jaw unfolds into a set of leg-like mandibles that quickly scoot itself away. The now headless body quickly unravels, organs, chunks of flesh, strips of tissue falling apart and pulling away like clumps of wet paper disintegrating into mush in your clone's grip.

"We remember you, but not your form." The voice echos from the walls, from the shifting figures, from the ruins themselves. Creatures of all shapes and sizes with no visible pattern shudder with shock as they stalk around your clones, their forms pulling back a short ways as if uneasy at your presence.

>Introduce yourself and make contact (write in)
>Inform the cluster of your hive and the events on Path
>Speak with the Cluster (write in)
>Other

>>1766343
>Inform the cluster of your hive and the events on Path

Note: We should analyze what happened in this infiltration of our whip. While i doubt we can stop a hostile take over without shattering their mind psionically, we may be able to design stalling counter measures in our biology. Something akin to a beefed up and very deadly immune system.

>>1766343
>Introduce yourself and make contact (write in)
>"We're representatives of the Red Queen. We're only here to investigate, but a proper Speaker will be here soon, along with one of your... instences?, as a sign of good faith."

>>1766343
>>Speak with the Cluster (write in)
Once the introductions are done, ask about the history of their interactions with the hive, and of the nature of the pact between the three great races.

Then ask about whether they intend to go back to sleep once this is all done, and that we claim the region of space this world inhabits.

>>1766343
We remember, but we have both forgotten much, and fallen so far.

Have you forgotten how to restore your sight, or do you still refuse to see?

We could teach one another what we have forgotten and attempt to lift ourselves up once again.

>>1766352
They cut their sight out of fear. No way in hell will they accept it back.

>>1766348
I'm more concerned at how insanely fast, from a tiny fleeting interaction of thought, it determined this was a hive organism.

It took much longer to determine that on Path. Interacting with the nervous system to delve into the mind and speaking to the other mind there.

>>1766353
Not unless they're sick and tired of waiting for the end of the war, which they hinted at before. An incredible fatigue.

I doubt they're going back to sleep this time.

Hey now our clones finally have a conversation partner where they can openly call the Queen "Mama".

>>1766357
When we sensed a shadow of their thoughts when we connected through our sting whip, they doubtless sensed our own in return. That's why this cluster decapitated itself immediately after, the severed head was running off to the greater cluster to confirm our neural 'handshake'. As we all know these guys went to great length to blind themselves to psionic transmissions, so all their communication must be carried through direct physical contact.

>>1766357
That is because these are Hybrids the other was a human scientist with a parasite Only when the thing pluged into Gilliam's spine.

>>1766360
Nothing of what you said is shit I didn't know or at all related to the question of how it was quick in one instance and slow in the other.

Guys i say if the cluster needs nutrients we should point them toward the scav fleet.

>>1766362
He only knew it was us ince he pluged into Gilliam's spine and sensed our para*

God dammit i'm terrible yoday.

>>1766364
Because our thoughts were inimically and unmistakably that of a hive queen. The cluster Gilliam interfaced with was able to instantaneously recognize who countered his brain raping, and this is the same sort of thing.

>>1766365
Too much metal, not enough flesh. When something like a proper cluster gets hungry I'm assuming it takes entire ecosystems to sate it.

>>1766343
>Inform the cluster of your hive and the events on Path

>>1766373
True.

>>1766371
It wasn't instant for Gilliam whatsoever. It had to delve, then notice there was a second mind, then interact with it.

>>1766378
>one hour late
He almost definitely already started writing whatever it is.

...And definitely is not dead of an exploded heart, right?

>>1766386
M8, I fell asleep and woke up and this thread is still going.

It's quite possible that QD just closed his eyes for a second too long and conked out.

>>1766386
Diferently from other QM's QD warns his players when he needs to leave sunddely. So he's definetly writting.

>>1766386
Nah, we're just on midnight quest time now, son. This is when the real magic of this quest comes out, when the sleep deprivation and caffeine poisoning starts to kick in.

>>1766386
Well, I wasn't really looking at the time.

>>1766386
Okay, we just hit the 2 hour mark, I'll admit I'm starting to get worried.

>>1766405
Is QD making slower, more monolithic, larger updates than he used to, or has he slowed down his writing considerably lately.

>>1766406
>>1766405
Well he's QMing for more then ten hours.

>>1766409
Nearly 16 by now, actually. Fuck, what a champ.

>>1766409
Two hour gaps between updates have become more common regardless of the time of night.

There was nothing between 11pm and 1am tonight, even. We had...13 updates total so far?

I can't believe I missed this thread.

>>1766380
That one was isolated and in hostile territory. Maybe when there's more of them or they're in their ship it's easier.

>>1766413
He isn't drinking any caffeine. It's bad for someone in his condition. And he said he had to do something at that time. Just look up there.

>>1766343
Put yourself to bed QD

>>1766343
Alright, it looks like QD passed out on his keyboard again, and I too must sleep. I was hoping I could bring this up before the end of the thread but better late than never. I propose we alter the design of our medium sized sniffers in the following way.

Current Sniffer
Olfactory: Medium 1
Acoustic: Medium 1
Radio: Medium 2
Psionic: Basic 0
Mandible: None 0
Blade: None 0
Arms: Dex 1
Legs: Sprint 1
Wings: Medium 2
Carapace: Basic 0
Size: Medium

Proposed Sniffer
Olfactory: Advanced 2N
Acoustic: Advanced 2N
Radio: Advanced 6N 3M
Electrical Sensitivity: Moderate 2N
Psionic: Moderate 50N
Mandible: None 0
Blade: Combat 1N
Arms: Dex 1N
Legs: Sprint 1N
Wings: Gravity Foils 8N 10M
Utility: Acid glands 1N
Utility: Quantum Brain 4N
Carapace: Mimic skin/Adaptive Camoflage 10N
Total Cost: 88N 13M

I say we increase all of it's senses to the point it can eavesdrop on radio transmissions, and give it a moderate relay to improve it's coordination with small sniffers, and to allow for improved psionic scanning of ground targets. I think it would be wise to give it adaptive camo to hide and flee if needed, rather than heavy armor which would weigh it down. This design offers a balanced drone capable of rapidly seeking out and telepathically engaging with targets in the field, either discreetly or ahead of larger force.

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>>1766343
"Yea, we have a lot to discuss." Your clone says. "And more of you out there we're bringing home. I have the memories to bring you up to speed." Your agents feel a sudden shaking in the ground as the walls shift around them. Mounds of flesh rupture up from the ground in great piles of flesh pulsing with activity. Tendrils unfold from the ceiling, coiling around the pillars as the walls seems to flex and tense up like a muscle building tension.

Near the center of the massive chamber the mounds begin to link, tendrils of nervous tissue and muscular fiber lash out and link together, dragging lumps of flesh into one another as eyes open along the patchwork of flesh and limbs. You can feel their gaze upon you as they combine, the figures surrounding your clones firing spears of tissue into one another in a long daisy chain of nerve endings. The matted patchwork of organs and flesh that is left of the human figure on the floor reaches up a hand as the palm unfolds into a tangle of nerve bundles, the shoulder of the arm fusing with the floor itself as small tendrils writhe up into the flesh, pulling the organs into itself as something almost akin to a bed forms around it made of fatty tissue and muscle, the nerve tissue thrashing about towards your clones.

"You will join with us." The voices say. Your clone hesitates for a moment, but your clone steps forward and leans back as the tendrils flop about against his neck before quickly burrowing inside. There is a flash of pain, and a sudden expansion of your mind as new thoughts form at the edge of your understanding. You let your thoughts flow, carrying the memories of Path like refuse along a river towards a massive mind growing ever larger as countless clusters of thoughts converge on the consciousness.

"Our sleep has been disturbed. We have studied these life forms and their thoughts. They are ignorant of the ancients and hold no respect for their masters. We will await the arrival of the errant cluster and will decide our action with its thoughts."

"The Hive will bring it here, but much has happened during your slumber."

"No." You hear in reply. "Too little has happened. The war continues, all sides have waned, ravaged by time and war. The Three have lost dominion over the galaxy, and our planted seeds grow as an abandoned garden, wild and untamed, feeding upon one another in chaos. Little has happened that is worthy of recording. We have all fallen further from our heights. Entropy continues. Entropy will continue."

cont.

>>1766445
So like a sniffer command drone?

>>1766458
is this a situation where we need to immolator missile a planet or will they quietly go back to sleep?

>>1766458
>The war continues, all sides have waned, ravaged by time and war. The Three have lost dominion over the galaxy, and our planted seeds grow as an abandoned garden, wild and untamed, feeding upon one another in chaos.

Reminds me of what QD said on the ask.fm a long time ago. That the last Hive "civilization" was the equivalent of a bunch of people stuck on a lifeboat trying to start up civilization again.

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>>1766458
I think I just heard Giger creaming his pants from beyond the grave.

>>1766463
WTF are you talking about? We've already established peaceful relations with them, and they respect us for being a queen. Why would we bomb them?

Them: "Oh, sorry, didn't realize it was you. Please just leave us alone and everything will be fine."

Us: *NUKES*

>>1766466
I dunno that last line just sounded a bit ominous like they're planning to get involved again and certainly not on our side. Hopefully they'll just fuck off from this part of the galaxy to find another place to nap.

>>1766458
"The Three were once beyond either of us now, but what of the ancient alliance do you remember?" You ask simply. Tattered and worn memories flicker through your mind.

"You do not remember. Thoughts are weapons in your war, and they are lost in your attrition. We remember little of the beginning. We cannot remember who began the war, only that it was a private matter and not of our concern. The great Schism tore the galaxy in two. Where once there was unity, there emerged disagreement. The three were already in ruins. Our alliance was not so. We were not allies, never allies. We were gods, the most powerful minds in the galaxy united by authority, not friendship." Memories of worlds seeded with life, cultivated over eons, their life forms carefully and biospheres carefully pruned and managed, their genetic data traded and bartered for. You watch memories of ancient clusters spread across the cosmos, farming worlds for genetic mutations, seeding life onto hostile worlds, mutating and guiding its evolution, and in time, reaping the results.

You see their ships, massive half-spheres covered in thick shells as they harvest worlds of their genetic information, filling their minds with data before selling what can be found of use to others. You see Queens, their ships parked in vast picket fleets over their worlds as data exchanges take place, nutrients flowing from one vessel to another. The Hive's always all too eager to purchase whatever the cluster may bring. They are gene farmers, you realize, harvesting worlds like a farmer would harvest his crop fields.

"What about the other of the Three?" You ask. The memory is blurred. It is ancient and vague. You see flashes of an ancient mind. A distant sphere, and beings of silicon.

"They did not trade for our harvests. They did not alter themselves for their tools, as we do, but made their tools of silicon. Mechanical servants for every function." You see memories of silicon based life forms covering a world, much like the creatures of Nowhere, but of every shape and size.

>>1766388
This.

Sadly I need to be going now, but I will try to keep a close eye on the thread and answer any feedback or questions with my phone if I can.

>>1766413
I've noticed that too. I think maybe the larger character limit is giving me a subconscious drive to increase the size of each post and it ends up more wordy but without adding much actual content. It's something I'll try to work on for sure.

>>1766469
>They did not trade for our harvests. They did not alter themselves for their tools, as we do, but made their tools of silicon. Mechanical servants for every function." You see memories of silicon based life forms covering a world, much like the creatures of Nowhere, but of every shape and size.

So, the Void went full psionic singularity?
Were they silicon-beings like machines or were they like humans who made machine servants?

Anyway, stay safe on your trip QD. Love it everytime you run a thread.

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>>1766469
Thanks for running!

And yeah, editing for conciseness is sometimes the hardest part of the process.

>>1766474
I know who we're fighting. Pic related.

Would you like to install Windows 10?

>>1766469
Have a safe trip QD.

>>1766469
Thanks for running! Take it easy and stay healthy man! Get lots of rest!

>>1766469
>"What about the other of the Three?" You ask. The memory is blurred. It is ancient and vague. You see flashes of an ancient mind. A distant sphere, and beings of silicon.

>"They did not trade for our harvests. They did not alter themselves for their tools, as we do, but made their tools of silicon. Mechanical servants for every function." You see memories of silicon based life forms covering a world, much like the creatures of Nowhere, but of every shape and size.
So in order to fully understand the Void we need to fully study silicon life and by extension Theseus and Heretic.

>>1766469
>much like the creatures of Nowhere

We really, really need to get back to acquiring some samples of the silicon-based for studying. We don't "get" them because they're not really organic, and that ignorance is dangerous.

Theseus could play into this too. He's also silicon-based life with robot servants, basically.

>>1766510
Wild speculation time, the Void has always had difficulty in physically interacting with other races, hence their predisposition towards using slaves and proxies.

If we go with the idea that psionics and and silicone life do not mix, it could possibly explain why the Void used slave species such as the Skyl and the Ceph instead of these machines when they
ascended into whatever extradimensional psionic hidey-hole they're holed up in.

But until we know more, i'm just talking out of my ass.

>>1766469
>Mechanical servants for every function
Fuckin' void is computers.

I don't blame them, if I was a computer, I'd want to be psychic too.

>>1766510
>>1766516
I think this is referring to creatures like the Phantoms on Refuge, not digital life.

>>1766525
Maybe not computers literally, but:
>silicon based life forms

The closest we've seen to that is the rock-critters on Nowhere that we never adequately studied.

I don't know what connection you're drawing to the Phantoms.

>>1766535
I misread something all the way back in 59.6, thought it was referring to the Phantoms, so never mind on that.

But yes, point remains, it might be referring more to actual silicon-based creatures like on Nowhere rather than digital lifeforms like Theseus.

>>1766612
From a hive perspective there is no practical difference.

>>1766625
That's half the problem though, isn't it?

It'd be like Theseus saying "Humans, Hive, Ceph, you're all wet sacs of organics, I don't really see a practical difference."

>>1766612
Doesn't the planet Coral have silicon lifeforms?

>>1766469
>"What about the other of the Three?" You ask. The memory is blurred. It is ancient and vague. You see flashes of an ancient mind. A distant sphere, and beings of silicon.
Makes sense I guess. The Void used silicate creatures so they ended up becoming crystals themselves.

Which explains how Void Crystals can manipulate psionics since so far we've discovered only carbon organic life can use psionics

>>1766625
Yes, there is. It's the difference between a biological system that uses silicon in place of carbon, and minds that only exist digitally. That's far different from not differentiating between various carbon-based lifeforms.

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>>1766469
>silicon based lifeforms
oh fug

>>1766458
>Entropy continues. Entropy will continue.

Unless you're the Void and you live in a timeless black hole but can still extend your reach out of it because psionics don't care about gravity.

So what do we do if Cluster decides to wake up and not take our side? Gonna get those Immolator warheads ready?

>>1768140
>So what do we do if Cluster decides to wake up and not take our side?

If they're neutral it's fine. If they take the Void's side in the war, that's another matter.

>>1766469
>We were gods, the most powerful minds in the galaxy united by authority, not friendship.

>claim you were gods
>best weapon you can get is a thorn launcher
>no shielding
>no understanding of gravitics
>just recombining things they already know
>still have to wait for natural evolution to provide new ideas
>literally gene farmers

Yeah ok they've got their nice bio adaptations but that's pretty much it. The only reason the Old Three were gods is because they had overwhelming force in the face of literally primitives. We call the humans primitives, but they're the ones making the gravity suits, mining stars, and weaponizing singularities.

>>1768140
I imagine that we'll have no choice but to just let it go.

The Cluster doesn't want anything to do with us, and in light of that I think the best possible outcome would be them either falling back asleep or deciding to continue their neutrality and just fucking off to another system while we continue squabbling with the Void. Depending on how many of them we're talking about, it's quite possible that we wouldn't be able to stop them if we wanted to.

>>1768553
>humans made a bunch of cool stuff
>after millions of years of farming and warring
>we reverse engineer and improve on the technology of every space faring species within months of being born

Yeah okay bud.

>>1768585
We haven't invented anything new.

>>1768595
Except the cure for cancer. And every other disease known to mankind. Also improved on the basic design of the human body WITHOUT driving the subject insane.

>>1768585
It's literally been stated that our weakness is our limited ability to innovate very far beyond the tech we have without copying from someone else.

>>1768614
That's not a technological invention. Even the older hives were using just kinetics, no energy weapons, no shielding. Yes, we have biological superiority, but not technological. This is why the Void wiped the floor with the Hives, and the only way the Hives could fight back was a numbers game.

>>1768634
And yet we are still the galaxy's best hope for survival. Also, what do you think makes medicine? Witches?

>>1768595
Actually we technically have invented several things like the gravity foils, shield domes, and core mine which for all intents and purposes is more valuable then anything they could offer. Gravitics is prohibitively expensive and their star mining is hideously ineffecient. No matter how you try to talk them up they are clearly inferior comparatively.

>>1768685
The Confederacy had shield domes first.

I think you're right on the other two though.

>>1768695
If you're going to be like that then the void literally invented all technology including Gravitics before everyone else.

>>1768712
That's why they killed all the queens except like three, one of whom is under their control.

From what it seems though is that the void is hilariously bad at biotechnology despite their incredible mechanical technology and Cluster is the reverse. The Hive seems to blend the two together to get the best of both.

>>1768742
Yeah, that's what it seems like. It's just historically the Hives never paid too much attention to non-bio tech, and when the black sheep Void finally made their move, it was pitched against the Hives in the tech sense.

Does this mean Theseus can develop psionic capabilities?

>>1766469
Damn, now we gotta wait for three weeks. This is terrible.

>>1766469
>thoughts are weapons in your war, and they are lost in your attrition.

>>1769160
Really anything with an understanding of tachyons can be psionic.

>>1769160
>>1769307
maybe if he gets to study a relay from us or OQ he might be able to devise a hybrud synthetic carbon-based version he can plug himself into.

I may be talking out of my ass because it's so late tho

>>1769160
>>1769160
Even if he could he wouldn't. Also the Void are carbon based.

>>1769160
I hope not, if he does we'll have to find someone else to build the psionic cannon.

>>1768685
>Actually we technically have invented several things like the gravity foils, shield domes, and core min
Well yeah but those are just novel uses of nanomachine tech, which underpinned each of their functions. Without those we never would have gotten as far as we have technologically, and we got that from the skyl remnant.

>>1769425
Derivative inventions are still inventions.
I get what you mean though and we really should be more aggressive in securing basic research and innovations from the races we encounter.

>>1768742
The Void managed to convert human brains into black crystals, and bones/skins into carbon nanostructure armor equivalent to our combat carapace just by virtue of the humans being close to the Tartarus Reactor.

They don't seem too bad at biotech to me.

>>1769549
I think most people confuse Biotech with biology.

So, given the Queens have two different sets of names, i.e. the x Queen and being named after a profession such as the Builder, Nomad, and Gardener, do you think the profession ones just changed their name similar to the Barren/Scarred Queen or are they members of a different lineage that was carried of on the Ark?

>>1771676
I think a Queen's name is basically derived from of their most prominent trait and usually conferred to them by other queens (Us being the exception because there weren't any other queens around at the time)

>>1771676
I don't think queens named themselves, it seems that they were "named" by others when they discussed that particular queen. It might also be an artifact of us needing human names to refer to the characters because we can't feed direct thoughts and memories to each other. So in terms of hive communication, one queen would think of the particular queen and the others in the conversation would know the thought and not even have a name, but for us we need a discussion shorthand.

That said, since most of our interaction is with non-psionic races, we needed a name. Red Queen is a fine name. If there were other queens to name us, they might use a term to refer to our tech development or our consorting with the lesser races.

>>1771999
I'd say "Survivor Queen" would be an apt name for us considering that we built our way up from nothing but a pod and a thinker.

>>1771999
>Scholar Queen
We do have an obsession with researching and gaining knowledge

>Phoenix Queen
Less likely but we might be inspired by human mythology and the color red

>>1771999
>>1772038
Clearly she's the Cheeky Queen.

>>1768559
We might, but itd be a really sketchy proposition, we would have to resort to some serious viral warfare bombing. The kind used in exterminatus in warham.

>>1772064
I wonder from were our cheekness comes. I definetly know we inherit the a soft version of the White Queen's paranoia.

>>1772005
>>1772038
>>1772064
Honestly, it feels like we've violated so many cultural taboos from the older hives that most other queens, were there any left, would see us as a pariah. Yeah sure, most of these taboos were probably stupid and part of the reason the Hives fell so low, but that doesn't change the fact that we are not only working with Heretic and Unity -- entities that wouldn't even be considered "alive" in the past -- but we brought back the Skyl. Even White Queen would disapprove. The Scarred Queen was taken aback at our use of Human clones. Cluster is probably going to flip a thousand of its terrifying Giger titties when it finds out that the Hives have fallen so low that "diplomacy" sounds like a good option.

Good thing none of the old queens are around to tell us what to do and we've got enough of a head start on Cluster that we can bomb them if they try any bullshit.

>>1772251
>have fallen so low that "diplomacy" sounds like a good option
And, to clarify, no, it's not the only option, but in the many times we've gone over this, the classical Hive option to "just destroy and assimilate them all" would consume too many of our scarce resources and create more problems than we can reasonably deal with at once if they all came to a head at once.

>>1772251
>Good thing none of the old queens

Auntie Obisidian is still around anon.

>>1772278
Like she's one to judge.

>>1772253
>>1772251
What worries me the most is what were going to do if cluster decide to feed from Union worlds. Would we support the humans? Or would we just give up all the diplomacy we did with then? I would go for the second one if you ask me.

>>1772251
Well yeah we got zero cultural knowledge from our mother and our own moral code was developed through our need to survive. We're a wild child in a very literal sense.
>>1772299
Union worlds? Tell the Union they fucked up and to prepare evacuation for their people and fuck off from this portion of the galaxy but otherwise do nothing. We'll still have the commonwealth for technological innovation.