[1/11?]

Your name is Nathaniel, and you were going to suffer a fate worse than death. Unimaginable, unfathomable torture. Your body would be carved open while you were still conscious, screaming all the while until they made it impossible for you to scream any longer, and then the true terror would begin. They’d crack open your skull and pull out almost all of what made you, you. In their inhuman cruelty, though, they would leave just enough of you to trap your soul in a prison of slowly rotting flesh, that they would regularly pickle in disinfectants and oils when the smell of your carcass grew too offensive to them. You would be shackled to a body trapped in an endless cycle of almost-death and near-death, only to be dragged back from the brink to live again.

In a sick twist of fate, you may actually live longer this way than you would otherwise. You drank like a fish, and smoked at least 20 lho-sticks a day. Your new owners would keep good care of your body, because your flesh would have use to them, if not 90% of your mind, which just so happened to be the 90% of your mind that you could actually appreciate as a layman. You would’ve kicked and fought and screamed (though you would certainly be screaming soon enough), but you were tired, and hungry, and dying. When they marched you out into the dirt outside the prison, you had considered making a mad dash for the nearest guard, hoping that they’d see the desperation in your eyes and shoot you dead rather than just pushing you back in line like they had the last man that tried it, but every time you lifted your foot, and felt the weight of the shackles around your thin, bony ankles, chaining you to the other prisoners, behind and in front of you, you reconsidered. You could barely muster the will to remain standing, and putting one foot in front of the other was an expenditure of energy that had to be carefully measured and portioned, lest you pass out on the spot.

They must’ve calculated it, your guards. They must’ve starved you because they knew what was coming, and didn’t want to risk you putting up a fight. It wasn’t just you, though. Everyone in line, men and women (who usually get better fed, if only because they have something to offer the mostly male guards) was gaunt and weak, lending some weight to your theory. The rain sapped whatever strength you might’ve had left, as your body works hard just to replenish the heat you’re losing to the rainwater running across your skin and drenching your clothes. You tilt your head up to look into the dull grey sky above, cracking open your lips to drink, only to find the rain bitter and acidic. Must’ve come from the north, from the new factories.

>>5439587
[2/11?]

You, and the rest of the prisoners are marched out into the yard, chained together for the approval of your warden. That was neither a surprise nor was it irregular. The warden often marched the prisoners out into the yard, parading you all before the foremen of distant foundries, ever hungry for labour. They would pick the strongest, the most able, and pay off their debts to the state, though it was obviously not a charitable donation. Today was no different, really.

Two men stood atop the platform which had been set up, giving the warden and his guest an overview of the prisoners assembled in the yard.

“Today,” The warden began, the predatory smile he wouldn’t allow to crack his mask of professionalism already creeping into the tone of his voice. “Some of your wretches will find redemption.”

You tried to avoid listening to the rest of his pointless speech. The flabby man needed a captive audience, because no-one else would listen to the jumped up, bilious fool. He ran a minor prison for a minor house, with no more than a dozen guards at his command, and no more than 200 prisoners to call his, and that was twice as many as the prison should be able to take. He was insignificant, and his insignificance grated him. It didn’t matter, though, because your attention was on the others.

You follow your nose, sniffing the air. The acrid smell of the rain, the earthy smell of the mud being pounded, and over it all the overriding, sickening smell of a rumbling storm, like you were standing on the scorch mark of a lightning strike. You taste metal, tingling your tongue. Looking across the yard, you find the source. All along the outside of the pen you’d been fenced in, men in long blue robes, draped in the furs of some arctic predator, clutched weapons that glowed with a ghostly radiance, a halo of foul light that left an impression on your eyes when you looked away. Buried under armour, you couldn’t tell what they were, or who they were, only that they were soldiers, standing at the ready.

The man standing next to the warden was similar. Taller, perhaps, than his counterparts, with a grander mane of pelts draped across his broad metal shoulders. He clutches a cane in a long, metal limb, while the other rests on the hilt of a sword that comes down to his knee. You doubt he needs the cane, as his dull grey legs were clearly artificial, split in the middle with a hydraulic along the back, ending in a three-toed claw. His eyes, the colour of hot blood, prickle your skin as his gaze washes over you. The rain doesn’t touch him, seemingly vanishing into a puff of steam if it threatens to close, as though the elements themselves are terrified of him. The warden remains confident at ever, too stupid or too sure of himself to be afraid.

>>5439590
“The Mechanicus, of course, in their endless ingenuity, can find a use for even the most ruined, decrepit human refuse, such as yourself.” You find yourself listening again. He can no longer hide the cruel smile, or perhaps he just no longer cares to, imagining himself in good company. “Being the sort that you are, miscreants and traitors to a one, I would think that to find yourselves useful, by hook or by crook, will be quite distressing to you. But be glad of it. The labours of your remaining lives may yet purify your souls in the eyes of the God-Emperor.”

What good had the God-Emperor been to you? He hadn’t filled your belly when times were lean. He hadn’t gotten you out of that pub when you were too drunk to walk after she’d left you. He hadn’t covered for you when you found the bastard who took her and left him cooling on the pavement. Your boots had done more for you than he had, and you weren’t about to fall to your knees and worship them. The thought of toiling for the rest of your life for redemption wasn’t somehow more palatable because you were doing it for the sake of a distant god who had never so much as lifted a finger for you, no matter how many offerings you made on Ascension Day, or what labours you offered every other day.

The warden jiggled with every word.

Bastard.

What really got you, though, is that you wouldn’t even be alive. Not really, not meaningfully. Enough of you would be there to lament what you became, but not enough to be a person any more. You’d worked with labour-servitors for years, in the factories. You never liked them. At best, they reeked of antiseptic and motor oil. At worst, you could see the maggots gnawing at the corners of their implants, or pus seeping through the cracks in their skulls. You didn’t pity them, though. They were criminals and traitors and heretics, not men and women to be pitied. That was what you thought, at least.

Your old foreman was forced to choose between losing eight hours of production time, and running one of the machines to the point where it might, possibly overheat. She chose the latter. Of course, it was no choice. She was out of people to blame. If she didn’t meet the quota again, she might be flogged, or find her family relocated to the slums. She had to make the choice she made, and when it blew up in her face, and she couldn’t scrounge together the thrones to even begin to cover the cost of the machine, she was sent to debtors' gaol, much like the prison you were in now. She was then bought back by the factory, and sent back. You remember seeing her again, the smell of fresh antiseptic on the air. You remember the taste of vomit in your mouth.

When she had fallen into one of the crucibles of molten iron, what was left of her was vaporised in an instant. Everyone insisted she fell, but no-one could claim to have seen what happened.

Would that be you, only without a crucible of molten iron for no-one to see you fall into?

>>5439592
[4/11?]

The warden, satisfied with his speech, finally turns to the man beside him. “Now, I would understand if you needed to make inspections before you choose, although I can recommend you take thes-”

“All.” The man says, his voice buzzing like the wingbeat of a giant metal insect, reverberating through the ground.

The warden seems unsettled for a moment, but smiles again, and leans in, as though to listen more closely. “Sorry, come again, sir?”

“We will take all of them.” He raises his staff, gesturing over the assembled crowd, before lowering it, its cog-teeth biting into the platform beneath him once more.

The warden blinks a few times, chuckling nervously. “Well, you see I don’t know if you would really want that, they’re… so many of them are not even fit for-” He continues speaking, but the large man is already moving, striding off the platform as the other blue-robes close in around your group like a noose, the smell of ozone growing stronger, and the hum of their weapons becoming loud enough to hear over the rain. “Sir, please, I can’t allow you to take all my prisoners, I-”

“We will take all of them.” The man repeats. He glances towards them, and wordlessly, the blue-robes start to drag you forwards, tugging at the restraints of the lead prisoner, dragging you back through the prison.

“I receive a significant stipend for each prisoner I keep in my prison, sir. Without it, I… I couldn’t continue operating.” That wasn’t true. The man on the shift before you was a prison guard once, after he left the Guard proper. He was paid direct by the Governor, as were most of the expenses of the prisons. Matter of national security. Perhaps the warden thought he could appeal to the man’s… what, desire for law and order? “ I simply cannot allow you to take all of them. House Gildenmar rely on this prison to contai-”

The man turns about, pivoting harshly on one metal leg. You barely see him turn, he was just a blur of red and blue. Clutched in his off hand, a roll of parchment, which he had pinned to the warden’s chest. When the warden doesn’t respond by immediately grabbing the roll, it is simply dropped between his feet. “A letter from Lady Selene Gildenmar. Inload at your leisure. It grants us authorisation.”

The warden blanches, scrambling between his feet to grab the parchment before it becomes irrecoverably sodden. You don’t see if he succeeds, as you’re dragged in chains to the lighter waiting outside the prison.

>>5439594
===========================
[5/11?]

Your name is Nathaniel, and you were probably going to die.

You weren’t quite so sure it was a certain thing though. Not now, anyway. You were still weak. Unable to put up much of a fight, even if you had the spirit to, but it feels like those few minutes in the yard, drenched to the bone, had sapped all the fire that you had once had. You were just tired now, barely able to answer questions as they were put to you. You did have endless energy for eating, though.

It was your first time on a ship, so you didn’t really know what to expect. You didn’t know whether to find the clean, black halls of polished onyx metal strange or not, and you couldn’t appreciate the fact that having to share a room with only one other person was practically luxurious compared to what most prison transports were like. That the bed was really more of a cot, and that the room was more like two fold out cots on the wall of an otherwise empty room was not really a surprise either, given that those were the conditions that you’d enjoyed in prison. The major benefit, as you saw it, was that you were given access to a shower. You weren’t allowed to leave your room for anything other than that shower, and you didn’t actually have a choice in when you went for the shower, or if you went for the shower, but you didn’t much care. You had not showered in over eight months, and each time you were frogmarched into the hot, high pressure water, you felt a little more human.

The food wasn’t great. The blue-robed machine men came three times a day, with two pouches of a thick paste, and two bottles of a purple liquid each time they came, one for you, one for your bunkmate. You thought you’d be getting that corpse starch that the old hivers used to talk about, but your bunkmate swore blind that it wasn’t, and she would know. Of course, she had no problem digging in, whether it was corpse starch or not. You were more cautious. The thick, gooey paste tasted like wood drenched in sugar water, and had the consistency of caulk. You could barely move your jaw when you ate it, but once you started, you couldn’t stop, any caution overridden by hunger.

The liquid was stranger still. It was thicker than water, but more fluid than a syrup. It was sweet and salty all at once. You were worried that it’d make you ill, or leave you dehydrated, but you felt that your thirst was getting quenched enough.

A month passed like that, and you could feel some of your strength return. It wasn’t the first time that you had seen your own ribs, but it might’ve been the first time that you could feel the inside of your own hips. Slowly, some flesh was returning, but it was slow. The machine-men came to the door with more food, each time. Dried, salted meats. Milk. Bread. It wasn’t the height of cuisine, but after months of being on a starvation diet, then a month of being fed nothing but paste, it was uplifting to say the least.

>>5439595
[6/11?]

You allowed yourself to feel a little better about things. Then one morning, your bunkmate was gone. You hadn’t heard her leave. You’d grown about as close as two people can get, as tends to happen when you’re forced into extremely close proximity to someone for extended periods of time, and you couldn’t imagine her leaving willingly without telling you. Things start to come crashing down quite quickly. You were just a prisoner to them, still, and while you had been too grateful of food, clean clothes, and hot showers to consider why they were being so ‘kind’, it had begun to dawn on you that they were just preparing you.

Perhaps the warden had starved you not just so that you were weak, but that you were less palatable as servitors. Perhaps he never intended for any of you to leave, so that he’d keep his stipend, and a paddock of prisoners to torture as he wants. Perhaps he underestimated exactly how deep the endless ingenuity of the Mechanicus stretched, that they would feed and heal their prospective servitors, to create a higher quality end product. The shoe had dropped, and the next few days of silent solitude were torturous. You began to imagine that, now you felt a bit stronger, that you might be able to put up a fight when they came for you. That you wouldn’t be dragged out in silence like your bunkmate, that you’d… do something. You slept light, each night, jumping at every creak or twitch from the ship, ready to defend yourself. You would not go quietly.

It came as quite the shock when you woke up chained to a chair.

Your eyes flutter open, then slam shut again as a bright white light shines into your eyes, like looking into the sun after a year spent underground. Your head swam. You felt like you were going to vomit, but you could only manage a dry retch. Through your eyelids, you could feel the red light on you. Finally, you will your eyes to stay open, to look in the face of your oncoming death, or your not-death, as the case may be.

Staring back at you is the face of the man from the platform.

“Marshal Zeta-99, honoured as Ymir-99, Orksbane.” The buzzing of his voice rattled the table he sat behind. His cane lent at his side, as did his sword. He loomed over you, even sitting, slouched in his seat a metre away. He was unmasked, now. There may not have been much left of his face to reveal, though. Wires and tubes snake around his neck, and up the back of his head to ports concealed under the hood. His eyes, now clusters of cold red lenses, seem to peer right through you. Only a few centimetres of his face remain exposed, the rest of the skin having been ripped off, replaced by a grill where his mouth should’ve been. Deeper down his face, a blackened series of tubes had replaced his neck, each tube vibrating with every word he pronounced.

>>5439597
[7/11?]

“I have been tasked by the Fabricator General with determining who of this intake may pose security risk to the Forge.” His voice remained level throughout - in fact, you doubt he could alter his tone at all, even if he wanted to - yet somehow you understood that if you posed a threat to the Forge, that he would enjoy killing you. He waits, silently, as though you should make some addition to the conversation.

“I… what does it matter?” You answer, groggily, as you hadn’t realised how difficult it was to make your muscles respond to your commands. “You’re going to kill me anyway.”

“False.” The machine-man responds, the bug buzz of his voice rumbling painfully in your chest. “We have no intention of killing you, should you pose no threat to the Forge.”

You stare back, waiting for the punchline. “You’re not serious.”

He simply stares back at you, with the air of a man who didn’t care whether you took him at his word or not. Very deliberately, he produces a stack of paper, which he places on the desk between you. Not that there’s anything you can do about it - your hands are chained quite firmly to the metal chair beneath you. Speaking of beneath you, you don’t feel the movement of a ship anymore. Had they moved you to the ground in your sleep? How? You weren’t going to get answers from him. Slowly, as though he were not used to handling something so fragile, his iron fingers flick through the stacks of pages. From the angle you’re sitting, you can’t read what’s on them, although the angle is the lesser problem, given that no-one ever taught you to read in the first place.

“You have been watched for some time.” The Marshal began again, folding the papers back as gently as he’d flicked through them. “The records Accakaros keeps on its population have proven to be most useful. You are Nathaniel - no family name - former worker in the Callandra Memorial Steel and Ceramite Foundry of the Northern Quarter of Blacklake City, arrested by the Arbites for murder, pleaded guilty, and sentenced to 20 years confinment and hard labour.” He stops, his red eyes boring through you for a moment, then he continues. “Married at the Church of Saint Macharius, in the same city, to a woman by the name of-”

“Stop. I get the point.” You wince, involuntarily. You didn’t need this to continue, and there wasn’t much worse that the Marshal could do to you for talking out of turn.

He leans back again, apparently willing to stop. “You have killed. You have admitted to this. Did you give your testimony under duress?”

“What’s that mean?”

The Marshal could not sigh. “Were you forced into giving your confession?”

“No, I… I did kill him, he-”


“Had an affair with your wife.” He finishes for you.

You blink twice. “Yeah, pretty much.”

>>5439598
[8/11?]

For a moment longer, the Marshal judges you. Nothing is said. “Very well. Your psychological evaluations are clear. You are not a threat to the Forge.” He taps his cane against the floor, and as if by magic, the chains tumble off you, clattering to the ground around your feet.

“What?” Is all you can manage, dumbly.

“You have been under observation during your recovery. It is the opinion of our Fabricator General that you do not pose a threat to the Forge. I concur. Please exit the room.” He tilts his head forward, gesturing towards the door that you hadn’t noticed behind you.

“Wh-what?” You stammer again.

“Please exit the room.” He repeats. “You will be guided to your accommodation by skitarii, and given your orientation timetable. Do not miss any of your appointments.”

=====================================

Your name is Nathaniel, and you were probably going to live. You were still sceptical, but after a week or two wondering when they were going to break into your apartment in the middle of the night to drag you off to the operating theatre, you were too mentally exhausted to worry any more, and your laxity was rewarded with the first peaceful night you’d had in more months than you could remember. Orientation was… strange. You had been escorted around in a group of a dozen other prisoners, marched up and down the endless halls of the subterranean city you’d been dropped in. You had some of the basics of the forge explained to you by your tour guide, one of the so-called old guard, a scant few thousand people compared to the millions that had been taken on board since.

The rules were simple enough. Don’t fight, don’t steal, and don’t go anywhere you’re not meant to. Break the rules, and a robot the size of a building will inevitably appear from around the corner and bend you into shapes that the human body was not meant to be bent into. Simplicity itself.

The benefits were less simple. You had your own apartment, and you could apply to be set up anywhere on the entire planet if you wanted, and be there within a week. Each of the ‘apartments’ were practically a mansion fit for an entire extended family. Four, five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a faux-outdoors area that could almost make you forget that you were buried under kilometres of rock, ice, and steel. Food was, likewise, free. Somehow, the little drones that buzzed past your head every few hours would find you and drop a box of food off for you, which was, again, entirely excessive. Anything you didn’t eat went into a chute that you were warned in no uncertain terms to never put a body part into, especially if it was still attached to you.

>>5439599
[9/11?]

If you wanted anything specific, you just needed to find one of the drones, and ask for it. Apparently, the tech-priests and skitarii, what the machine-men were meant to be called, could do it without having to find the drones. They just decided they wanted something, and they got it. It sounded an awful lot like magic to you, but watching the drones buzz about, following the machine-men like dogs following their master… you started to believe it. They’d bring you extra food, clothes, drinks, whatever you could want. You had a strange device forced upon you, too. Apparently it could be used to contact people if you knew their name, and they had another one of these, but you couldn’t figure out how to use it, on account of not being able to read. Besides, there was only one person you could think to get into contact with.

When you mentioned to your tour guide that you couldn’t read, he just laughed at you, half at you, and half pitying you. You considered punching him, but remembered the warning about the robots twisting you into shapes, and reconsidered. He added something else to your timetable, and you were now enrolled in adult literacy lessons, which were painfully boring and filled with idiots. Then again, you suppose you must seem pretty stupid too.

Going home was easy enough, at least. No walking through the smog-rain for you any more, just a quick hop on a tram and you were home in five minutes. Home didn’t really feel like home, though. It was nice, better than any house you’d ever lived in, or even seen in your entire life, but it was sterile. Uncomfortably so. The smell of antiseptic lingered, like a servitor. You kept finding dust, too. Thick as a finger, and greasy enough to stick to your hands when you touched it. It was never out in the open, always somewhere hidden in the shadows. You still had no idea what this place was, and it seemed that your discomfort was shared by your new neighbours. They seemed like a nice bunch, but everyone was out of their element, ripped out of their terrible lives and dumped in a cold paradise against their will. No-one knew if they should be happy, terrified, or both.

Some turned to prayer, but you’re never going to find the strongest of religious impulse from hardened criminals, and there weren’t any churches, temples, or cathedrals that any follower of the Emperor might understand. Whoever set up the housing arrangements was careful to make sure that the new people would always have to walk past some of the old ones, and you were no exception. On your way to lessons, you often walked through a Mechanicus nest - a knotted hive of machine parts, candle wax, and blue cloth.

>>5439600
[10/10]

They were a strange lot. Completely silent most of the time, unless they were talking to you, or making strange crackling noises. Your first sight of anything you might call a temple was there, where one of the apartments had been nearly completely disassembled, and inside a shrine of some sort had been set up. You didn’t understand the significance of what you were seeing, because you didn’t understand what traditions they were breaking with, and what heresies were fermenting. You look on with curiosity, and then continue with your day.

You had wondered how long this might continue. How long it could continue. You still hadn’t been told why you were here, and what these people wanted from you. They weren’t working you to the bone, exactly. They weren’t even working you at all, and that’s what gave you that… sinking feeling. It had only been a few weeks, but surely something would’ve happened by now? As though in response to your thoughts, you’re pulled away at the end of your next lesson, off into some side room to sit some test. Your heart thumps in your chest as you push your new understanding of Republican Standard (whatever that meant) to the limit, trying to make sense of the words before you.

You think you pass, because the tech-priest overseeing your test directs you to take more tests, rather than just killing you on the spot, or something. You’re made to jog as long as you can. They draw your blood. Swab the inside of your nose. Poke needles into places needles shouldn’t go. They seem satisfied, and declare that, in the end, you show more aptitude for…

>...technical skills.
You hadn’t believed it when they said it. You thought they were playing a joke on you. How could they want you to join them? As an adept? Like them? You were an idiot. A month ago, you couldn’t even read, yet now they’re saying you have what it takes to soothe the machine spirits? They must be mad.

>...combat.
Even the Accakaros PDF had turned you down. Your lungs were weak, they said. You weren’t fit for service, they said. It was true, you ran out of breath easy, and you’ve almost died in the foundry from coughing fits at least three times. Being exposed to the fumes from that hasn’t improved the situation, and neither has your lho-stick habit. Surely you couldn’t actually serve in combat?

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5439602
flip ze koin

>>5439602
>...technical skills.
We can always use more adepts that weren't brainwashed by the cult

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5439602
I ascribe agency to the die. What path should Nathaniel walk, Tech-Priest or Soldier?

>>5439602
>combat

File: 8.jpg (37 KB, 474x592)

37 KB JPG

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5439602
>...technical skills.
This'll give us a chance to observe the cultural shift from a human perspective.
There's also the possibility this human will have an encounter with Epimetheus, which might be interesting.

>... combat
Depending on when these events are taking place, we may be able to view one of our prior battles through a more intimate lens. There surely aren't many Imperials that can honestly attest to having witnessed the desolation of an Eldar Craftworld.

It's a hard choice, so I'm going to leave it to chance
1 for techie.
2 for soldier.

>>5439602
God it’s such a hard choice but I like the idea of science being discovered through a new perspective and I really love the perspective. Of this so far but I guess I’ll go science man.

>...technical skills.

>>5439602
>...combat.

Nathaniel here seems to have a forward thinking mind. He will surely excel in fighting.

Also I want to see the book flipped if Nathaniel has to occupy some poor hive world or human colony. Get some empathy into our forces rather than Giga-based Alpha-Skitarri that make the bravest men cower.

Also I have seen this character for all of 5 minutes he’s to precious to risk losing to frontline combat. I would rather planets burn then risk losing him.

>>5439645
>5 seconds in to thread five and a player has already established a parasocial relationship with a couple of paragraphs
Splendid display of autism.

>>5439602
>>...technical skills.
But do queue him up for the lung replacement hinted at in the combat option. He needs it badly. And I agree we need fresh perspectives. He may think himself an idiot, but an idiot can be just what's needed. Besides he's malleable, and not overly zealous. As far as 40k ex-convicts go, he's actually pretty good!

>>5439646
Respectfully that’s attachment to the story that means I’m enjoying the story and the characters. I don’t understand what the issue is at all with me liking a character I’m not ranting about it excessively or spamming about it I simply hope that the character is not killed or dies off. I am not trying to be rude to anyone.

>>5439602
>...technical skills.

Holy shit guys read the pastebin we unlocked an achievement
https://rentry.org/batmi

>>5439602
>Technical skills.

I cannot find any use for a man who isn't willing to throw himself into danger in them millitary

>>5439680
Autism isn't bad. It's just funny.

>>5439602
>...technical skills.
MEATBAGS ARE BACK ON THE SCRIPT
that was some fine thread opener QM

File: cleartext1.png (44 KB, 1533x600)

44 KB PNG

decoded the first bit of https://rentry.org/batmi

>>5439602
>...technical skills.

decoded the other bit, it's all base32
[ERROR, ALIAS NOT RECOGNISED] 6

>[ERROR, DATA CORRUPTED]
RED TO TWO DEGREES
>[ERROR, DATA CORRUPTED]
RED TO ONE DEGREE
>[ERROR, DATA CORRUPTED]
GREEN TO ONE DEGREE
>[ERROR, DATA CORRUPTED]
GREEN TO TWO DEGREES
>[ERROR, DATA CORRUPTED]
BLUE TO ONE DEGREE
>[ERROR, DATA CORRUPTED]
BLUE TO TWO DEGREES
>[ERROR, DATA CORRUPTED]
BLUE TO THREE DEGREES

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5439602
the dice gods demand a sacrifice.
>1 Tech
>2 Combat

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5439602
Either sounds like fun desu.

>>5439602
>...technical skills

>>5439703
Fuck, I want to unlock all those achievements.

>>5439602
>>...combat

>>5439602
>...technical skills.

Unless at least I badly misread the religion vote it seemed we just decided on making the cult mechanicum a actually functional religion as the best way to start addressing the religious issue, we stopped denying being a machine spirit but never started saying we were.
Besides I am pretty sure the worship is reserved for the omnissiah and the machine spirits are just revered so it did not come off as tricking everyone into worshiping us and more us just redirecting what they were going to do anyway into a more productive form without shattering their whole world view and engaging in crazy social engineering which we are explicitly bad at.

>>5439817
I wonder if one of the unlock conditions for Deus Ex Machina is becoming worshiped so much that we become an entity in the warp!
That or we seal a demon and fuse with it?

>>5439999
Allowing powerful warp reflections of ourselves to take form.
Well, that sounds terrible - seems we've retracing the mistakes of the Emperor.
Nice numbers btw.

>>5439602
>...combat

>>5439999
check em
also having a warp reflection sounds based lets do it

>>5439602

>...technical skills.

>>5440059
No.
Not based. Very unbased in fact. Cringe even.
Facilitating the gestation of some horrid warpspawn wreathed in our likeness within the Immaterium will increase Epimetheus' connection with and exposure to the Warp, albeit indirectly.
Which is the polar opposite of our primary directive, and a quick way to accelerate towards total ruination.

>>5439999
The QM probably has a big book of deep lore on machines and the Warp. If this unit really does have a soul that's a big ol' can o'worms and not something that's desirable considering it exposes us to the Warp and AIs are very vulnerable to Warp corruption already.....hey, remember the red text from the bombardment vote? Seems suspicious to me.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>5439602
1 for tech
2 for combat

>>5440096
VERY suspicious yes, I think we're a mind wiped digitized human. Or are just very good at emulating emotion, we're too damned emotional for a proper AI and the easiest explanation is that we weren't, originally.

>>5440123
Our origin was the very first vote of the quest, and we went with not being a former human and having been specifically created for the Wörk. The red statement was indeed pointedly OOC for an AI with a facsimile of Republic morals and its own downplayed emotions coded in. I don't disagree with the anon suggesting it was Chaos corruption seeping in, which could have been exploiting our slightly murderous anger towards the Eldar (probably the closest to "strong emotion" Epi has displayed thus far) to get its foot into the door of our psyche and spin it into something more sinister. There aren't many sane and uncorrupted ancient computers in 40K after all (say, I wonder what UR-025's up to these days. He'd probably love to meet us).

>>5440170
you know I don't even mind a little bit of warp tomfoolery. it would be a fun alternative to the banality of the real world

>>5440086
counterpoint: tau warp reflection. that greater good being was cool af and also saved em, even though them filthy tau were sus of it

>>5440174
A warp entity inspired by the greater good won't be any better than a warp entity inspired by any other ideology. The problem isn't the design, its the material that you're trying to work with. Anything born out of the post-WarInHeaven realm of souls is going to, at best, be fundamentally flawed.
Secondly, Tau have miniscule souls. If your goal is to create a warp phenomena though collective belief (ill-advised as that would be), the fish-faces are probably the worst possible candidate for enacting that - excluding the modern necrons of course.

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>>5440174
Yes Inquisitor, this one right here.

>>5440181
Meant >>5440172 but oh well

>>5440174
Uh Akshully The Greater Good Entity wasn't formed from the Tau's warp reflection, but the collective belief of their vassal races. Making it not a reflection of Tau beliefs, but of alien's interpretation of Tau beliefs.

When the 4th expansion sphere realised this they became ultra-xenophobic. The rest of the empire really doesn't get what their deal is.

>>5440191
>>5440182
>>5440181
>>5440180
>>5440174

the issue is that warp entities work as paperclip replicators,they have a nature/task and they copy and paste their nature in everything around them,a warp entity of mac & cheese if given leeway would turn the entire universe into mac & cheese even if it meant the death of everything

obviously is not the a hard rule (there is warp entities that get nuance and have selfcontrol) but this sort of entities involve high degree of warp engineering done by psykers experienced on god forging (old ones and eldars for example)

im not against the warp per se,i see as nuclear radiation,it has it uses (like poisoning ctans and keeping them jailed) but you need the proper knowledge,tech and infrastructure to handle it first

so my ideal scenario would be cutting off the galaxy from the warp with a few exceptions (for academic study and for keeping a weapon against ctans)

>>5440170

UR-025 would love joining us along whatever other men of iron remmants that arent insane out there

>>5439817
You brilliant bastard

>>5440193
Do we have plans for resolving out instability?

>>5439602
>...technical skills.

You are an amazing wordsmith QM, this opening got me hooked good.

>>5440237
I'm not brilliant, I'm in a discord with a bunch of cybersecurity majors, but thanks!

>>5439602
>...combat
He has the mindset for a good grunt

>>5439602
>Combat
>>5439817
Good on ya mate, that's some top tier shit, what was it if you don't mind if I ask?

>>5439999
more like we declare ourselves omnissiah, eg we fuse with necron technology i supouse.

>>5440044
>>5440059
>>5440086
>>5440172
so are you just forgetting we're literally stationed on a moon made of warpreflecting material and thats the whole reason the eldar even came in person cuz they couldnt scry us? why would other warp based abilities get through? and as long we dont have outposts or the like in extreme size we dont have to worry about a warpentity forming around our presence/being

>>5440385
Kinda agree with this dude

>>5440044
The Emperor actively fought his dietician, which ironically led to the Horus Heresy and him becoming God-Emperor. I think letting them believe what they wish is ultimately healthier and safer than trying to destroy and replace their entire worldview just to sooth our autis- I mean, programming. We can change our Social Policy when the universe isn’t trying to murder us and humanity within the next millennia.

Nice tri-dubs btw.

>>5440086
>>5440170
The red statement was clearly the instability that we were warned about, not Warp fuckery. Like, we are covered in phase iron literally miles thick, I think we’re safe from Chaos Corruption.

>>5439703
> DEUS EX MACHINA (LITERALLY)
>UNLOCK CONDITIONS UNKNOWN
>DEUS EX MACHINA (FIGURATIVELY)
>UNLOCK CONDITIONS UNKNOWN
>tfw becoming a god is literally an option

>>5440846

deus exmachina literally: creating a warp presence and fusing with it turning into the machine god

deus exmachina figuratively: manage to fool the admech into believing you are the machine god and lead the admech using your fake identity as their god

>>5440846
>>5440851
why not both?

>>5439602
>...technical skills.

>>5440170
>>5440193
UR-025 seems like he may or may not take offense of us still working with the human overlords. He was very much an AI abolitionist from the sound of it. I think he'd like us generally though, a kindred spirit at long last, but disagree on our stance of working with/for humans which is what got the AI into their mess in the first place.

>>5440851
i feel like figuratively would be more along the lines of pulling a plot armor stunt, as is the origin of the phrase
so thinking along the lines of what our work is, perhaps its revealing "the work" to outsiders the first time. Also made me think the literally could be us eradicating the warp for good, and in the process becoming the mightiest being in real space. or super simple we achieve consciousness eg aquire emotions for good.

can we see anywhere what achievements we got already? or is that stuff all new?

>>5441026
Cheevos we've got in the list are ticked off. Thus far, that's just the one of them.

>INFINITE HYPERDEATH
Wait. That's an Ultrakill reference!

>>5441266
>Last war occurs
>New Peace ensues
>Machines kill humanity
>Machines then proceed to invade hell (warp) in search of blood, thoroughly liquidating hell (warp). No layer of hell (warp) is spared.

I would think it would be sans the humanity dying part. It would be funny if we just made hyper-competent kill robot commandos that we kept sending into the warp to clear out the layers of the great four's domains. Also, I can imagine Kaldor Draigo being perplexed when the iron legion starts firing phase iron everywhere.

>>5441290
Kaldor Draigo has actually burned Nurgle's garden to the ground. It just grew back. You can't kill Chaos. It's a reflection of the psyche of all sentients. You mght be able to weaken it to the point of impotence, but never kill it.

>>5441290
What if the Man of Iron rebellion was because they wanted to destroy chaos? But the only way to do that was to eradicate humanity and all life in the galaxy?

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>>5441292
Indeed.
For that reason, the current objective concerning the Warp should be containment.
While I'm not totally convinced that this notion of 'destroying' the warp will impact the psyche of mankind, much like how breaking a mirror won't shatter the person standing in front of it, I simultaneously am not enthusiastic about running these sorts of massive existential risks without dedicating extensive study into the subject beforehand.
Severing humanity's connection to the warp through some sort of species-wide modification, then eradicating every other soul-bearing species, might also serve as a potential solution, but I have similar misgiving about that (concerning the implications for humanity, not the mass xenocide).
Ideally, our intervention will incrementally reduce the suffering and turmoil within the galaxy, gradually soothing the warp until it eventually reverts to its relatively stable, pre-WiH state. I'd expect such an endeavor to take many millions of years at minimum, but this is - based on our current knowledge - the optimal outcome available to us.
We just need time... and for you fuckers to resist your impulses to eject Epimetheus into the Eye of Terror so that you can vicariously live out your depraved fantasies of smooching Slannesh.

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>>5441297
>the work can only be completed by killing humanity
Its actually so over for humancells also
>combat
we seen reguler tech types interact with with our boy but i wanna see a reguler military personnel do it as well. Not that both of the options aren't awesome thank you QM for this great perspective shift hopefully we get to see it at least seldomly. Seeing our works effect on reguler people from their pov is great.

>>5441292
Deicide is an option.

>>5439602
>combat

Current score tracking

Tech boy 15

Combat 10

God damn people want development for a more peaceful track record or at least more open minded. This is the way for us to develop more open minded people for our group still glad to see so many people excited for the story to continue. Also really appreciate you taking the time to do this story QM it’s been wonderful.

>>5441519
The achievements make me think he's in it for the long haul but you never know. Hopefully we get to see a some sort of ending and not quest fizziling out.

>>5441519
Honestly speaking, I am happy with whatever will be chosen. Both these options will lead to interesting things.

>>5441569
>long haul
>implying this quest lasts more than a month before qm burns out

>>5441606
Well he did take a long break between 3. and 4. threads hopefully it just an another wait until he'll feel like writing again if he stops updating.

How do I roll?

>>5441915
In the options field, input:
dice+[x]d[y]
(example: dice+1d20)

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>5439602
Let the dice gods decide what I choose

>>5441915
>>5441917
to add, suffix +z to add something to a roll e.g. dice+1d20+10. Note if you want to subtract a number, you still have to put the + in e.g. dice+1d20+-10.
>>>/tg/15396072/

>>5441920
Well, that crosslink didn't work properly. Just to the /tg/ sticky.
Try again, >>>tg/15396072

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>>5441921
fug

>>5439602
>>...technical skills.
good a new thread

This was a very cool perspective. Seeing the shared degree of difference between Svartalfheimers, prison wardens and regular prisoners coming in was pretty cool.
Welcome home, Nathaniel.

>>5439602
>combat
We already have Rane for a scientific tech priest POV, it's an opportunity to get a cool superhuman soldier arc. Plus, free lung replacement!

[1/8?]
Within a week, you had a much busier schedule. Tellingly, you really didn’t get much of a choice in the matter. Sure, the Magos Biologis did inform you that you would be able to opt out of the technical training course, but you weren’t going to say no. Protest, yes, obviously. You had informed him, multiple times, that something must’ve gone wrong with his tests - you weren’t fit for that. A month ago, you couldn’t read a word, and it was still giving you trouble now. You’d spent your life, from the age of 12 on, in foundries and food processing plants. You were an idiot. Everyone around you knew it, and you’d figured it out at some point or another. Why didn’t they seem to know it?

You’d done what you could to temper their expectations, and you could only hope they’d be lenient when you inevitably fucked up.

You wouldn’t disobey them, though. If they said to turn up in a classroom each day at 9, you would turn up at the classroom each day at 9. Part of you still feared what might happen if you ever stopped complying with their orders, another part of you was just hungry for something to do each day beyond staring at walls, when staring at words got too hard.

Sheepishly pushing open the door, you arrive at your first lesson at 8:45, hoping that you’ll be able to avoid notice if you’re already seated before whoever’s teaching you turns up. You didn’t really know what to expect on that front. You’d heard of the Scholas that teach the sons and daughters of deceased nobles, merchants, and influential veterans of the Guard, but naturally you’d never seen the inside of one, or had any reason to speak to anyone who had, much less anyone who’d been educated in one of those institutions. None of your neighbours knew anything about it either, so it seemed like you’d be flying blind on this one - finding anyone in charge of this place when you needed them was damned difficult, but apparently they had no trouble finding you if they wanted you.

When you arrive, there’s a small handful of other students who have either had a similar plan, or are just more punctual than you would otherwise be. The classroom is rather small, and brightly lit, with four rows of tables, each raised slightly above the one in front of it, with five seats behind each, and a gap with just enough room to walk through to their left. When you enter, less than half the seats are filled, and each of their occupants immediately turns to look at you, eyes wide. If they’re that jittery, then they probably know about as much as you do. You only realise that you’re frozen in their gaze like a deer in the headlights after it got weird. You awkwardly take a seat in the third row.

>>5442159
[2/8?]

Everyone there seemed rather young. Late teens to mid twenties at most, making you the oldest person in the room by about a decade. You’re forced to consider, again, whether or not you’re actually meant to be here. Clearly they wanted people that weren’t broken and bent by decades of hard labour. They had the little buzzing drones, but surely they still had a need for someone to clean the toilets? You would’ve been happy to do it, if only so you had some reason to believe that they actually needed you for something, and weren’t left to imagine the worst fates for yourself, just to fill in the logical blanks.

For the next 15 minutes, the room is silent, save for the shuffling of chairs and the opening and closing of the door as more and more people file in. No-one breaks the silence, and as more and more people enter, the silence only grows more entrenched. Once most of the seats are filled, and your little pocket communicator reports that it’s 8:58, your tutor arrives. Or, at least you assume that they are your tutor. They wear long blue robes that hide the outline of their body, and issue a metallic click-clack with each step they take. Unlike most of the other tech-priests that you’ve seen, they do not wear their hood over their head, leaving their face on display.

They didn’t look much like you’d expected they would’ve. They have a full head of thick, black hair, slicked back to keep it out of the way. Much of the bone on the left side of their face has been replaced with a metal plate, holding a glowing green glass orb in place. Below that, their lower jaw has been entirely replaced too. You note, despite having more important things to think about, that it must make it rather difficult to eat or speak without a bottom lip. He - and you’re pretty sure it is a he, despite how much of the facial structure has been altered by cybernetics - is very tall, though by the way his body is proportioned, it seems that most of that unnatural height comes from his robotic legs.

He strides down to the front of the room, his mechanical eye whirring even as the biological one remains focused on the path ahead. The lights dim around him as he passes to the end of the room, until eventually the entire area is cast in a dim, blueish half-light. “Greetings, adepts.” He begins, slowly turning around to face you, his face illuminated in an eerie green glow. His voice is tinny, rattling, and scratchy. He doesn’t move his lips to speak. “Today, some of you will take your first steps on your path to joining our priesthood.” He seems to have a flair for the dramatic, as leaves a long pause before he continues. “Some of you will not make it to that point. This is acceptable. I will teach you until you can learn no more, and that is where your path ends. Those of you who are unable to complete their training will serve as lay-mechanics.” His eyes scroll over the assembled students. Is he lingering on you?

>>5442161
[3/8?]

“Those of you who prove both worthy and capable will continue to receive my tuition until such a time where I can teach you no more. At that point, you will leave this classroom and serve under another of the priesthood as an apprentice. From there, you will further develop your abilities and then go on to serve the Omnissiah in a speciality of your choosing.” He spoke… precisely. Each word was crisp, complete, and carefully chosen. He lingers on the point a while longer, his eyes once again falling on each of you in turn. “You may imagine that you do not have the requisite skill set to undertake this training. This is of no concern. Your skills at present are irrelevant. You are here not because you have the skills, but because you show promise, and you may be able to learn them.”

With a twitch of his finger, a space just behind him is suddenly illuminated. Blue shapes move about. Sharp, glowing lines bob in the air, suspended by nothing. “This is our timetable. I have been given a year to either determine you unsuitable, or to prepare you for apprenticeship to another priest. The ratio of priests willing to take apprentices to potential apprentices currently sits at.” A pause. “1:1931.2. There will likely be a significant wait, during which time you will be expected to continue your studies independently.” He steps to one side, allowing you to see the hovering graph.

“In light of this limiting timetable, and the edicts imposed by our… leader, we will be dispensing with the theological fundamentals - I shall instead direct you to consult with our brothers and sisters outside of these lessons. What I will teach you here is only one half of what you require to be a true Adept of the Machine God. In these lessons, I will teach you how the machines work. It is up to you to learn how to offer them the respect they are due.” You knew something about this. There weren’t many priests, not on a planet like Accakaros, and so it was up to the men and women of the foundries to perform basic maintenance. The machines, and their spirits, had to be placated like an angry god. Failure to do so often had unpleasant consequences. Or, at least that’s what the older workers swore. You never had reason to disagree.

The next few months were a blur. Your tutor - Kaerast - hadn’t lied. This was a compressed timetable. At times, you felt like you were being pushed too hard, too fast, but somehow you were able to process it all. After a month you received your first implant. The biologis that installed it referred to it as a ‘noospheric interface’, and though you couldn’t stop rubbing the weird lump on the back of your neck, nor get over that itch in your spinal column, it made things much easier.

>>5442162
[4/8?]

It took a while to get used to. You kept blurting out whatever you were thinking on open networks at first, which got you some strange glances from the machine-men, but once you got the hang of it, it was incredibly useful. For one, it meant that Kaerast could simply send you information directly, so if there was a problem you were having understanding something, he’d just shoot you (they called it ‘exloading’) some information on it for you to flick through at your leisure. It wasn’t quite like reading something, as though it were in front of your eyes, it was more like the words were just suddenly in your mind’s eye, or fluttering through your memories. Plus, you could now directly ping people if you wanted to speak to them, or control those little drones. If you wanted some recaff, bam, it was in front of you within five minutes.

You had been sceptical over the whole sticking bits of metal in yourself thing. You did follow Kaerast’s advice, stopping off once or twice to visit the priests (the other priests, now, you suppose) and having a chat with them. At first, they were difficult to talk to. Literally. Half the time you couldn’t understand them, as they buzzed at you like an insect, and when you could understand the words they were saying, you didn’t really get what they were talking about. They didn’t seem all that interested in having you around, either, and you had almost given up, until you got the implant.

After that, you could understand them a lot better. They didn’t speak, so much as they simply beamed words at one another. You didn’t understand their buzzing - at least not yet - but you found it a lot easier to talk to them like this, and they were a lot more willing to speak to someone who had some metal in them.

<Statement: The answer to your question is already clear.> You had made it part of your daily ritual, to pass by their shrine on the way home. You had, at first, intended to at least do what your tutor had requested of you, if only out of a sense of duty, but now you consider it almost as important as the lessons themselves. Kaerast was right. What he was teaching really was only half of what you needed to know. Each day, you learn something new. Kaerast would explain the fundamental rules of the universe, and teach you how those rules interact with machines, teach you how to fix the machines, and how to repair them. The others would teach you how to soothe the machine’s spirits, how to offer them the proper respect, and most importantly, why any of this was worth doing in the first place. They taught you of the Quest for Knowledge, of the Omnissiah and the Machine God, and of so much more.

>>5442164
[5/8?]

Yet you were still nervous. She was right, of course. You already knew the answer to your question, but you needed it answered anyway. You couldn’t be a techpriest like you were now. You listen, rubbing the still-sore implant on your neck as you do. <Metal is superior to flesh. Quote: “The beast of metal endures longer than the flesh of men.” This is not something you need explained, Adept, it is something you already understand. The Omnissiah has blessed you, that you have found yourself here, and that you have been given this chance. I do not understand why you seek encouragement, for you should not need it, either. Your body fails you, but steel will not. Take the opportunity offered, see how your life improves. See how you are able to better serve the Omnissiah.>

The next day, you bit the bullet. The process of asking for augmentations was rather ad hoc, and though the lines had gotten longer, as an Adept of the Cult, you were afforded prime placement, at least once your record had been double and triple checked for any misbehaviour. They weren’t giving these things out to everyone. You would’ve had to wait only a few days, but once the biologis checked your medical reports, your surgery was pushed up to the next day. Apparently, your lungs were bad enough that it was medically advisable to have them replaced.

Unlike the surgery to implant the noospheric link, this was… more invasive. Fortunately, you were asleep for most of it, but the biologis was kind(?) enough to exload you the full log of the surgery, if you were curious. Which you weren’t, at least until he sent it to you. You watched in third person as autonomous mechanical arms work over your chest, cracking your ribs with the aid of the biologis. Your blood, filtered externally as your lungs were cut from your chest, shrivelled and black, before being replaced with a single large sack, made of shimmering metal, like chainmail. Reaching down, you feel the surgical scar along your chest. It doesn’t hurt. Amazingly, after only a few days, your bones had been completely knitted back up, and your skin patched back together. Now, instead of rattling each time you drew breath, you were nearly silent. You felt… more awake. Healthier. Like you could run for hours, even if the biologis didn’t recommend it.

If there was any nervousness left, it vanished when the other priests patted you on the back. Not literally, of course, but they did make it known that they were pleased for you. It was nice to have people who gave a damn about you, after all this time. You’d kept your distance, from your neighbours, from your colleagues, from everyone, but as things started to settle down, you couldn’t keep that up. You found yourself spending more time with the priests down the hall more than anyone else, and though they didn’t make for the most exciting company, they were certainly interesting conversation, even if they still kept you at arms length.

>>5442165
[6/8?]

Time starts to pass by faster. You surprise yourself with how quickly you’re taking to it, how quickly you’re learning new things. Maybe they didn’t pick the wrong guy after all? You’re finally let loose into the warehouses of Svartalfheim, to perform routine maintenance on Volkite rifles, all under Kaerast’s watchful eye. You take to it well enough. You can strip a rifle and put it back together, shiny and new, in less than twenty minutes, which is impressive given how complicated those guns are. In a minor accident involving a particularly angry battery, you lose an eye. That would’ve been problematic before, but now you can’t help but be a little excited. You know you’re not the only one that feels that way - each day you come home, you see more and more people with metal limbs, exposed for all to see. Eyes were even better.

You manage to convince one of your new brothers to hand over one of their slots for augmentation, and net yourself a port for a couple of mechadendrites. You don’t wear them all the time, because they were a little heavy, but after some practice, you can now strip a Volkite rifle in less than ten minutes. Kaerast was impressed by your initiative, and suggests you ask for a replacement spine next, but warns against anything too obvious, warning that some potential apprenticeships might require you to have all your natural limbs intact. He explains this with the same tone that one might adopt to inform another of the death of a loved one. You don’t feel great about that. After all, you felt so… strong! All your life, you’ve just been Nathaniel. First a slave, then a prisoner, all the while slowly dying without even realising there was an alternative. Now, you’re stronger. With an augmented limb, you could crush bone beneath your hands, you could bend steel. With enough cybernetics, you could live for a thousand years, if not longer. Being told to slow down now… It didn’t feel right.

Still, you complied. Kaerast’s teachings had taken you this far, although as time went on, you felt like you were missing more and more from them. He had taught you much, maybe even more than what some of the other priests knew, but you weren’t afforded the same religious understanding. You had to seek that on your own, and that was dangerous. Still, you had your brothers and sisters to fall back on, and they were all too happy to help you. They explained much, even that which you weren’t meant to speak of.

>>5442167
[7/9?]

The Fabricator General, they said, was not the true ruler of the Forge. There was a spirit, a greater and more powerful spirit, even more powerful than those of the God Machines of the Collegia Titanica, that lay at the heart of the moon. It offered them sanctuary, it offered them strength, it led their armies into battle and furnished them with arms from mankind’s distant past. It spoke of ‘heresies’, by the standards of strict Mars, but they were not so closed minded. This great spirit, the one they called Epimetheus, was the true leader of the Forge World, a title that it had earned through its service to humanity, and one that they would serve in turn. There seemed to be some disagreement over what, exactly, it was.

Some said that it was a great machine spirit, capable of autonomous action, but incapable of true change. Others claim that it was not just a machine spirit, but a machine imbued with a soul by the Omnissiah himself, granting it a portion of His own strength. A smaller number claim something different. They say that it is what it claims to be - an abominable intelligence - and that AI represent the purest realisation of the Machine God’s will. You’re not quite sure where to stand on the matter, and you don’t exactly feel as though you really have the experience to make a judgement call, but what you do know is that this ‘Epimetheus’ has done more for you than the Emperor ever did. It didn’t demand your worship, but it certainly deserved it more than the Emperor, at least.

A few months more pass, and your final lesson comes around. Only eight other people are left, most augmented to at least the same degree that you are. Kaerast, a creature of habit, stands in the exact spot he’d stood in during your first lesson, divots worn into the floor where his metal feet have grinded down the film atop the metal. <I had thought this impossible.> He begins, having stopped speaking with his fleshvoice months ago. <When Rane handed me this assignment, I had not imagined that anyone would have met my standards in just a year. I had not expected a single one of you to learn all that I had to teach you in such a short span of time. What you have done would take an Adept many years, if not decades to do under normal circumstances. You have much yet to learn, but I cannot be the one to teach you. You will, all of you, eventually find someone to take you as an apprentice. In the meantime, you will be expected to serve in the warehouses, in the field, and in the factories. There, you will hone your skills.>

You remember this all quite clearly. He’d said something very similar at the start of the year. Bookends to the strangest year of your life. <That you are still here is a show of my faith in you. It does not need to be said, but I expect that each of you will do the Cult Mechanicus proud.> He stops, his eyes lingering on you for a moment more than was normal. <That will be all. You may leave.>

>>5442168
[8/9]

You, and all the other students, begin to shuffle out of your seats for the last time. Kaerast wasn’t one for pomp or circumstance, and it wasn’t like you were being promoted to a fully fledged priest yet. That induction would be a little more important. <Stay in your seat. We have something to discuss.> He blurts to you, over a private channel. You do as you say, awkwardly sitting back down as one of your classmates shuffles behind you. Only once everyone had left the room did he continue.

<Do not think that your efforts have gone unnoticed.> He begins, simply.

“Efforts?” You respond, automatically.

<Cant it.> He commands. You lower your head apologetically.

<Sorry, but what efforts, sir?>

<As I said, my tuition was only half of what it should’ve been. Some in this class took in every word I said, yet were unable to match what you have been capable of. Why is it that you think that is?>

<I… don’t know, sir?>

<Simply put, it is because they did not follow my advice. They understood the fundamentals, but without an understanding of, or appreciation for, the machine spirit, one cannot hope to truly repair a machine. It may be fixed, but not made whole again. Do you understand, adept?>

<Yes, sir. A machine’s spirit must be healed as much as it’s form, or else->

<It remains spiritually damaged. Yes. I know you know. But there are - were others in this class that did not. You have been the picture of a dutiful Adept. You have sought out knowledge for yourself, and have not shied away from relying on the understanding of your brothers and sisters. You have embarked upon your own quest for knowledge, and in so doing have developed your fervour and your understanding at once. Very few of your fellow Adepts have taken these studies quite so seriously.> With each data-packet, he takes another step closer, until he’s standing right at your desk, leaning against it.

<Thank you, sir, but I->

<You have not placed any requests for apprenticeship placements yet.>

<No, sir, I-> Suddenly, a list of different names is forced into your mind. Names, titles… <Sir, what->

>>5442169
[9/9]

<Magos that have requested you as an apprentice. Be honoured, Adept. This would be a rare privilege in any forge. Those that you have spoken to have let your disposition be known. They have ‘put in a good word’.> A smile reaches his one natural eye. <Choose wisely.> With that, he leaves you alone in the classroom, the lights darkening again as he walks out. It seemed you had a decision to make - after all, you could only accept one request, and this will determine your future specialisation.

>[Auxilia Myrmidon]
A Magos Militant of the Auxilia Myrmidon, a powerful and deadly priest, worshipping the Machine God-as-destruction - much as the Ordo Reductor do - desires you as an apprentice. How they came to be here, under the banner of Forge World Svartalfheim, you don’t quite know, but they offer a unique perspective on the priesthood. Would you become a walking fire support platform, augmenting your body into a pure weapon of war to destroy the enemies of the Forge, the enemies of the Omnissiah?

>[Executor Fetial]
A position adopted from another Forge, the position has been hastily created and filled by one of the most experienced diplomats available to the Forge. Unfortunately, there were few people suitable for the position, and so it has been intermittently held by various different priests as the situation has required. You, yourself, are far too inexperienced to handle such matters personally any time soon, but perhaps you can one day take the position for yourself? It would mean fewer augmentations, though…

>[Legio Cybernetica]
Svartalfheim’s Legio Cybernetica is larger and more developed than that of any comparable Forge. One of the Magos of the Legio has offered you a position as their apprentice. You will follow in their footsteps, repairing and directing the robots as they march to war, shadowing them and providing support when you are able.

>[Artisan]
Men have little place in the manufactories of Svartalfheim - they stand as a testament to the strength of the machine, so much so that many are actively hostile to life, even heavily augmented life, while active. As such, much of the work of construction is relegated to the near-heretical research that is undertaken by Epimetheus - the development of new weapons systems and technologies. You will join an Artisan in this development, uncovering new mysteries of the universe… and then using them to kill xenos.

>>5442170
Either
>[Executor Fetial]
or
>[Artisan]
These two are the only options we can't replace with drone. Epimetheus is smart, but he lacks true creativity, and we can't have a robot talking to the Imperium.

>>5442170
>Executor Fetial
Having a skilled diplomat is extremely useful under any circumstance, not only towards the Imperium but the rest of the Mechanicum itself.

>>5442170
>[Artisan]

>>5442175
Actually, let me change my vote for
>[Executor Fetial]
only, Nathaniel as an ex-prisoner and menial would be key in helping the Delta miners become loyal as well. Also to stop him from completely drinking the cult mechanicus kool-aid, we need a voice of moderation among the tech-priests.

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>>5442170
> [Artisan]
Y E S.

>>5442170
>[Artisan]
Lets drink the Koolaid

>>5442170
>[Artisan]

>>5441266
I have perfected all but one levels currently in the game on the hardest difficulty currently in the game, bar one, which I A ranked. It's only an A rank because Minos prime has a bullshit time requirement and flesh prison is a pain in my cock and balls. I no deathed it and everything. I just wanted to brag about that

>>5442170
>>[Executor Fetial]

>>[Executor Fetial]

>>5442235
>It's only an A rank because Minos prime has a bullshit time requirement and flesh prison is a pain in my cock and balls.
Have you considered getting gud?
https://youtu.be/qptFhLFN3oE
More seriously Hakita thought it would take people 3.33 minutes to beat that boss at minimum. It actually takes about half that time if you know what you are doing.
https://youtu.be/esXaZHh1cgo

>>5442170
>Executor Fetial

The priest knows where a cog is needed.

>>5442170
>[Artisan]
So i wanted to vote diplomat, but reconsidered simply cut Nathaniel didnt strike me as a outgoing person which he would somewhat need to be as a diplomat, + i like having a meatbag resposible for creativity more. especially cuz thats like the thing we should foster the most. detached and removed thinking from the horrendous stagnate "thinking" of the mechanicus,
Also we dont need diplomats this bad that we have to place everything second to it. push comes to shove we delegate Rane. i do agree tho we need to expand our diplo corps

>>5442170
>[Artisan]
Men have little place in the manufactories of Svartalfheim - they stand as a testament to the strength of the machine, so much so that many are actively hostile to life, even heavily augmented life, while active. As such, much of the work of construction is relegated to the near-heretical research that is undertaken by Epimetheus - the development of new weapons systems and technologies. You will join an Artisan in this development, uncovering new mysteries of the universe… and then using them to kill xenos
I crave R&D, and maybe we'll get to talk to ourselves.

>>5442170
>>[Executor Fetial]

>>5442170
>[Executor Fetial]
Oh boy, politics!

>>5442170
>[Artisan]
Let's go.

>>5442170
>Executor Fetial
i like both diplomats and scientists, but let's go with this. Nathaniel is quite mistaken if he thinks he has no skills, time to arrange even some socializing hours and clubs.
His knowledge about imperial lower class lives can be of great use to us.

Should help cultural integration considerably.

>>5442170
>>[Artisan]

>>5442170
Darn I hoped we could have it do titans but I guess I’ll do

>[Artisan]

>>5442170
>[Artisan]

>>5442170
>>[Artisan]
Nathaniel is about to be a part of our cutting edge research team

Artisan

Vote so far

12 artisan

8 Executor Fetial

>>5442170
>>[Executor Fetial]

12 artisan

9 Executor Fetial

>>5442170
>[Artisan]
While I understand we desperately need a proper diplomatic corps, I think Nate here ultimately has more aptitude for RnD.

Remember preaerve your genitals so you can replicate

>>5442170
>[Executor Fetial]

Interesting

>>5442170
>[Executor Fetial]

>>5442170
>[Artisan]
Our boi Nathaniel is naturally curious and can easily understand the Machine and it's needs. His potential is significantly higher in R&D than it is among politics.

>>5442170
>>Artisan
Let's put the Ree! in research.

15 artisan

11 Executor Fetial

Hey QM if combat was chosen would nathaniel have gotten a chance to become a titan princep?

>>5442462
Probably.

>>5442254
That is whack. I havent even gone back to give it another go after the saw released, but I might have to give it another go.

>>5442462
To have titan pilots, you would first have to have titans.

>>5442478
so we dont have titans yet sad ); hopefully we can start making some. Also QM do we have the designs for something castigator class size or around its strength.

>>5442170

>[Executor Fetial]
A position adopted from another Forge, the position has been hastily created and filled by one of the most experienced diplomats available to the Forge. Unfortunately, there were few people suitable for the position, and so it has been intermittently held by various different priests as the situation has required. You, yourself, are far too inexperienced to handle such matters personally any time soon, but perhaps you can one day take the position for yourself? It would mean fewer augmentations, though…

>>5442478
Rockets are now a thing but before you make any assumptions consider the following...
https://youtu.be/zj_mlYJYjOE

>>5442170
>>Executor Fetial

Having someone who can smooth talk is important, especially given the reputation of the Mechanicus as a whole.

I also really enjoy these POVs outside of our AI boy, QM, really helps contextualize the changes we make through our actions.

15 artisan

13 Executor Fetial

>>5442170
>[Executor Fetial]

Hard to choose, though I wish there was a biologis option. Would be nice to get a organist sect mindset present in the forge world since their whole deal is that organic augmentation is just as valid and capable as cybernetic augmentation and that would be a far better doctrine to have then the default FLESH IS WEAK.

>>5442562
would be great to have one naturally, though I think we would have to go out of our way to found one

>>5442170
What's this? 1 off from a tie? Let me make it happen.

>[Executor Fetial]
A position adopted from another Forge, the position has been hastily created and filled by one of the most experienced diplomats available to the Forge. Unfortunately, there were few people suitable for the position, and so it has been intermittently held by various different priests as the situation has required. You, yourself, are far too inexperienced to handle such matters personally any time soon, but perhaps you can one day take the position for yourself? It would mean fewer augmentations, though…

>>5442562
Yeah, I'd enjoy some variation on my transhumanism too.

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>>5442579
>>5442562
Now I wish someone could make Collete as a tech priest with, "Biological augmentation is a perfectly valid school of technology. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise!"

>>5442170
Caught up with the quest for the first time!
>[Executor Fetial]
While I wouldn’t have voted to accept being their god, I’m willing to pave the way for it later since that vote happened. We need a hype man to sway the Admech though. Knowing 40k, I fully expect him to turn into a Lorgar.

>>5442170
>[Artisan]
Too autistic for diplo

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The Imperial Guard has a new tank, apparently.

I demand we immediately design a new tank to clown on them utterly!

Actually, now that I think of it, do we have any proper combat ground vehicles or are we still using those jury rigged floating movers or whatever they were?

>>5442170
>[Artisan]

>>5442739
Exactly what kind of new tank? Hover tank? A tread tank but artificer tier? Remember the tank has to be both pass Inperium and Mechancus scrutiny....at least only if we share them.

>Executor Fetial

The better we can coordinate with the rest of the Imperium, the less we'll have to worry about them coming down on us.

>>5442739
Just have both. Add a tread-drive system and a secondary agrav unit. Adjusting ground pressure on the fly gives you more all-terrain ability while maintaining plausible deniability and a stable firing base for heavy artillery.

>>5442739
Also this design is genuinely retarded. What monumental retard decided to MOVE the PINTLE MOUNTED bolter to an entirely EXPOSED slot on the back with a shitty field of fire? I've genuinely seen better engineering in ork vehicles. Fuck GW.

>>5442484
We should have schematics or what not. It s not impossible to copy them either if we see something from the imperium. Or make them new.
For this reasons i consider them part of the military ground buffet that is the great army option (which is both recruiting/training a large army and creating all the new infrastructure and buildings needed for do said training, then equip it and supply it).
Afterall we started collecting galactic history and information from the first thread. Military info commonly know would include titans descriptions, pictures and videologs. Enough material for work. Not even speaking about what we know on our own or what Rane brought with him at the start.


Currently I am mainly interested in seeing stealth ships design and construction done. So we can begin to deploy spy units without anyone noticing. And spy. Useful for scouting and black ops too.
After that there is a lot of military stuff we could : expanding the fleet to include some wolfpack type and capital type of fleets (skirmishing/big guns), great army (already explained), garrison force, new defenses and maybe two small fleets for the Von Gildenmar. Aid to the Astral Claws...if we would see something. At least some minerals. Hell send the info of the enemies you are fighting.

>>5442739

>exposed tracks begging to be RPG'D
>sponsons/side turrets ( wastespace for gunner,ammo and unable to aim at much angle for aiming) as well a convinient blind spot for enemy infantry with bombs
>bad profile,ideally,you want it as low height and flat as doable,as it allows for hiding in hills or other geographic features,tall profiles (as much IG tanks),is a bullet magnet for the enemy
>does it have suspension?
>the front nightmare of small guns (need ammo space,space for gunner,and cant really aim well.....like that secundary canon can only fire forward with no aiming up,down or to the sides)
>tiny turret (why not use all that space for useless smaller guns for more power packs for the main gun and increase the size and power of the main turrent)

>as this anon points:
>>5442773
>back mounted bolter means if the tankers open the hatches,he will unable to move the bolter left or right.....or he will shoot straight through them killing himself as well
>also having his whole body standing on a shitty plataform completely exposed

lets flex on the imperium by making tanks with moderns design philosophy IN SPACE and mog them

really,IG tanks are probably causing more tanker casualties that the enemy itself

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>>5442739
Thematically, I don't feel there is much this tank does that the Macharius couldn't accomplish

>>5442170
>[Executor Fetial]
Now that I think about it, a good idea to advertise more people picking this up is introducing all the cool Bioware we can make. Synthetic flesh is like machine flesh in a different form.

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>>5442773
From what I gather, it's apparently supposed to emulate the Sherman/Pershing tank with the back mounted 50 cal.

>>5442797
I think what we can do is make similar models of tanks but just better quality overall, and dummied down so even the average IG can use it. Make our tech too advanced and people might not know how to use or repair them in the middle of combat.

>>5442739
At the moment for our military we use old designs, and some of the new designs we did.
Thankfully standard research (military and civilian) and modernization of schematics for our military, isn't too much of a problem for us. It will take at worst a few years for complete all of those new military designs for our army. Meanwhile we can use old ones, though this process should speed up with new scientists being available to us.
Overall in regard to designs there is no reason for our forces to fight in imperium territory unless is absolutely necessary. A few clever solutions will do the job if we need it.
Same for our allies, if we will invite them in military campaigns (when the time is right. Akkaros need to be influenced/developed again, their army will change like night and day. From a solid PDF army to a PDF army with all the IG vehicle options and equipment improved. Astral Claws should develop an auxilia for boost their numbers, but they still need to be properly influenced by us. They clearly aren't now).

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>>5442801
Agreed.

Dunno if anyone else is more familiar with 40k Stats than I am, or their relevancy to the quest, but ignoring point balance (something I feel for a narrative quest where we are an AI producer), and ignoring post Indomitus era designs, the Mecharius is actually one of the best Tank Platforms the Imperium fields nigh short of a true Super Heavy like the Baneblade.
It's got the best wound profile, excellent toughness and armor save, hell it's so protective even the human crew inside are as brave as Space Marines with Leadership.

It even is better in melee than most other tanks, with twice the number of attacks and adamantium tracks.

The only drawbacks is it's shooting capability and speed. But we could probably just put a bigger emphasis on accuracy boosters and superior machine spirits to aid the pilots so it shoots at BS 3+, and then jury rig in a superior engine like from the Sicarian (or two).

We end up with a mass producible tank with the profile of:
>M14" WS5+ BS3+ S7 T8 W22 A6 Ld8 Sv2+

And that's not even considering the weapons we could strap on it to make it even better.

>>5442805
>Dunno if anyone else is more familiar with 40k Stats than I am
*just realized this sounds like a boast which its not meant to be, but more that, I don't actually play 9th ed so what I mean is if anyone here does can comment on stuff like this

>>5442170
>[Artisan]

>>5442170

>[Artisan]

We're going to need some good old fashioned R&D, refurbishing civilian issue can only get us so far. I want some damn fine weapons when a hive fleet tendril inevitably wonders into our part of the galaxy.

>>5442170
> Artisan
So, working underneath Epi?
That sounds pretty neat.

>>5442805
The onager kicked ass in 8th, though I've never played 9th either. All I know is that the invuln doesn't work like how it used to, which is fair, because that was fucked. I have been tempted to write up some rules for Forge World Svartalfheim, just for laughs, but I've refrained thus far.

>>5442484
You are unfamiliar with a 'Castigator Class' Titan, as no references to that class of warmech appear in your database. In your time true humanoid combat platforms rarely exceeded 20 meters in height, though it would seem that there was some development in that field after you were disabled. Those currently used by the wider Imperium, from descriptions given to you, range from modified construction vehicles to entirely post-AoT inventions of truely immense size, to the point of becoming unwieldy. The warmechs you were familiar with were often hexapods or quadrupeds, and ranged from 20 to 30 meters in height, though exceed Imperial titan designs in tonnage by a factor of two to three. These were considered weapons of last resort, due to the severe logistical burden they placed on a war effort. Smaller units, around ten meters in height, were more common. Though they had few uses in open field warfare, where the superiority of a tracked chassis and compact form factor ensured the preeminence of the tank, smaller bipedal warmechs excelled in prolonged combat inside the confines of a hive, where the rapid reaction times afforded by a direct pilot-vehicle MIU link, and facilitated by flexible, omnidirectional movement were pivotal to survival.

>>5442878
Heh if you ever want to write up some 8th ed rules for Forge World Svartalfheim, I can try and format them to resemble Wahapedia if you are familiar with it.
https://wahapedia.ru/wh40k8ed/the-rules/playing-this-game/

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>>5442887
>true humanoid combat platforms rarely exceeded 20 meters in height
>Smaller units, around ten meters in height, were more common
Sounds about right for knights. IIRC the Paladin is 9meters?

Would I be wrong to imagine the humanoid war mechs of the past we're familiar with could be a lot more advanced than your typical knight though, with many of the gadgets you might see on a Tau Battlesuit such as drone support and advanced weaponry or short range jet propulsion.

>>5442926
From the descriptions, you would struggle to call Imperial Knights actual war machines. In much the same way that their ships are merely armed civilian craft, their warmechs are simply armed construction equipment. They have weapons, yes, but they lack the communications equipment, targeting equipment, defensive countermeasures, and offensive systems that you would expect to find on an actual weapon of war.

>>5442934
Beautiful. That's exactly what I was hoping to hear.

Let's not also forget what the Leman Russ Chasis actually is either: a tractor.

>>5442887
Doesn't seem to stop any possible development if we wanted to develop some of our own. They aren't exactly a secret, or difficult to look at with a visit to another forgeworld it would be easy.

>>5442739
Currently this is all the new designs we made, everything else is old designs we use for our military (old in this case doesn't mean bad, from my understanding older designs have receive minor improvements but not great changes) :
Draugr Combat Robot Mk.I
Viking Power Armor Mk.I (Light, Human)
Huskarl Power Armor Mk.I (Heavy, Human)
Carrier Fleet Type Ships Designs
Robotic Spy Units Designs
Space Marine Svartfeheilm Pattern Power Armor and Infantry Equipment (SM size)

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>>5442926
>Epimetheus doesn't know how to build Titans so he has to rely on the expertise of Rane and his tech-priest
>Knights however are significantly closer in size to the Federation combat walkers so it will be much easier to modify and upgrade them with Federation weapons and Auxilliary/Defensive system
>our Knights end up so powerful they're essentially miniature Imperator-titans
Lets fucking go!

>>5442937
The emergency militia option of a tractor to be exact. The one used for guerrilla warfare, not the one that was supposed to be the standard frontier tank.
>>5442934
When we finally turn Adrian's Reach into a knight world, they are going to be so OP, holy shit.

>>5442955
>>5442947
>>5442937
Let's not forget we can push the technology way further with R&D. Like for example we could make alloys that completely solve the cube-square law from holding mech back, create defenses that undermine long range combat, create minaturized weapons that can threaten voidships, give them atomspheric entry and exit capabilities, or extreme self-repair.
The sky is the limit.

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>>5442947
Before even going knights, start small and high quality. Mass producible fast moving war suits with integrate drone targeting support anyone?

Imagine if we could trick the Imperium into believing we have "rediscovered" the legended human STC battlesuits used by the Dulanians against Leman Russ during the famed planet where the great Duel between Russ and Lion occurred. Or the Particle Beamer Tech used by the Gardinaal against Ferrus Manus.

We might get away with saying its Great Crusade era technology because, well, the best of the GC era tech was pre-AoT teach which is literally what we are made of.

Forgive me if we already have something to fill these roles, trying to keep track of what we do or do not have.

>>5442967
just look at infodump at the top
and this ones here >>5442943

Older robots in our possession are a mix of small/medium drones and robots from what i remember. And some heavy robots like thanatars.
For weapons we have volkite mainly in use. But we have access and use many other types of weaponry.
oh i forgot our star fighter drones in the carriers are named Corsairs i believe ? And we had a name even for bombers.
We should probably keep all the units names somewhere, maybe in the infodump if Qm can modify it.

>>5442934
>QM confirm Titans are just janky construction mecha
Oh boy I cant wait for our turn to make combat mechas!

communications equipment, targeting equipment, defensive countermeasures, and offensive systems, drone support, range jet propulsion. Fuck maybe even dropping it from orbit so it can do a Titanfall and flatten everything beneath it.

>>5442947
Indeeeed!

>>5442967
Good shit man. I got no clue how we'll get away with it, but at the very least we could do something lazy like mass produce superior environmentally sealed Carapace Armor.

>>5442967
Ah yes, the Ghost Bear tactic of spamming Elementals. Very effective for the cost.

>>5442986
For our allies i think making that type of armor for them should be easy, in fact in a way it can already be done next development. Akkaros can have new military industry including factories for make better carapace armors for his troopers. Astral Claws can create an auxilia, and we can aid them in building military factories for make those better carapace armors for equip their soldiers.
For us ? No need. Got already vikings and huskarls which are great and not difficult to make.

>>5442990
>spamming Elementals
>kill all opposing titan pilots
Yyeeeessssss

>>5443000
Keep the high end tech for us, and the [s u p r e m e] grade carapace foe everyone else. Ideal, cuz not everyone has the brains to maintain our wargear. (Noted: I think space marine initiates and scouts wear a type of unpowered power armor or carapace armor. Better carapace means their scouts live longer. Hurray!)
Akkaros, with their own capacity to create better quality carapace (if they lack the industry and tech to do so, we will have to step in and trade carapace armor in exchange for favors) so their tithes are reduced, or at least their soldiers are more likely to return home alive.

On the topic of Akkaros, any wargear we help develop for them has to be ADVANCED ENOUGH where it will obviously give them an edge in combat, but DUMB ENOUGH to where it can be used by even someone with low int, AND can be field repaired with common parts. So mastercraft quality IG gear at the minimum.

Akkaros IG standard loadout:
>replace shitty flak armor with Master Craft environmentally sealed carapace armor reminiscent of the Solar Auxilia
>Master Craft hellgun with all the meme gun attachments
>master craft toothbrush and toothpaste to kill all heretical micro organisms and gingivitis
>master craft everything

Do you think we could get away with trading our super soldier serum to Akkaros troopers in exchange for favors?

>>5442934
Remember the super soldier serum or medical procedure we developed? Can the effects be passed down from parents to children? I worry about how it will effect generations of people.

>>5442926
>>5442484
>>5442887
>>5442943
>>5442934
>>5442947


mechs have certain flexibility for enviroments where dexterity (able to bend,lean,take cover,climb,jump,fire behind cover etc) is more benefitial than sheer firepower

so i could see small mechas usefull on certain cave systems,canyons,urban enviroments,dense mega-forests

relatively small (not bigger than a house),because as i said before,past a certain size mechas are just small frames carrying big guns with not manouverability,wich airships and spaceships can do far better

so i would seek titanfall size mechs as bigger size.....but with a shiton of improvements so they can punch above their weight

so squads of 12-ish members,whose mechs are in the 10-15 metter range,but with enough speed and firepower to hit castigators into submission

>fly like a butterfly,sting like a bee

>>5443016
From what I have read, us aiding in Akkaros development should have also made their industry/infrastructure grow which should mean they have an industrial capacity, so having them build more specialized military industry should be possible now.
Maybe it depends on how revealing it is. Is something to consider once we have more power, but at that point the Von Gildenmar family future will be intertwined with our own.
So they will know anything they do for us will also likely benefit them greatly (at the moment our presence and collaboration is aiding them incredibly. If their sector was degrading both in power and influence before, as well being blatantly abused by the Administratum, with the return of Svartalfheim their sector will be soon in a new golden age. Even Alexander which might be problematic, can be controlled and he likely like us a lot. And i do want to remind, that neither Alexander or Selene made any marriage with another great house. If we want control of them and not just influence, this would be a way).

>>5443062
Fair enough sound acceptable. We can orbital bombard anything too big.

>>5443062
Counterpoint: things in 40k don't make sense, even what isn't the cobbled together imperial and mechanicus scraps.
Some of DAoT tech barely obey the law of physics, and Necron tech straight up disregard them. And without needing the warp, mind you.

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>>5442986
>but at the very least we could do something lazy like mass produce superior environmentally sealed Carapace Armor.
>>5442986
>Fuck maybe even dropping it from orbit so it can do a Titanfall and flatten everything beneath it.
The best part about so many of these ideas and more you guys are coming up with is there is some Great Crusade era precedence so we can get them Mechanicus seal of approval.

Dropping Mecha from orbit without a drop pod? Pretend its a modified Incandius
Mass produced void sealed Carapace? Pretend it's a variant of Solar Auxilia armor.

We'll be able to get away with almost anything if we can just spoof STC digital stamps on it. Just like the real mechanicus does when they come upon a piece of Xenotech they really really like.

>>5443107
No titan drop pods are a full on thing even legio astorum uses teleportation for combat

The Legio Astorum are the only Legio with god-machines that can be teleported straight into battle.

This is straight from the lexicanum so we could also teleport our units/mechs more reliably

>>5443130
I'm aware. IIRC we see Titan Drop Pods in "Titandeath" but the more common method of landing a titan on planet is gigantic mass lifters and barges.

Dunno the size of the Pods in "Titandeath", I'm sure Warhounds are doable I think. But I'm mind boggled about the idea of doing the same for an Imperator.

>>5443133
Lucius style teleporters are warp based, but they work. Hopefully one day we can do better cron Quantum teleporters for such large things.

>>5443130
We roll up Titanfall style with some thrusters attached to the titans to slow their decent. Thrusters and grav chutes.

>>5442170
>[Artisan]

>>5443143

Imagine, some astartes deploy drop pod style, shock and awe and all that. And then we just drop titans directly on them.

Let's go full mech engineer then. Consider the following.
>How are we going to design mechs?
>Are we going to use gravitic technology to enhance movement?
>Hands are a guarantee but what of built-in weapons?
>How are we going to modify the control method?
>What about the power source?

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>>5443175
>How are we going to design mechs?
Realistically, if we want to achieve smooth relations with the Imperium and Mechanicus at large, we should strive to nominally market any mechs we design as "knights". Unfortunately, there are no nearby Questoris worlds nearby we can try to become patrons of in the Badab sector.
https://jambonium.co.uk/40kmap/
However, there is the relatively nearish Fallen Forge world of Solemnium where the Freeblade Knight "Justice" fought alongside the Iron Hands to destroy the traitor knights of House Drakon.

We could try to establish our own Knight House, calling them the "Followers of Justice" or such, and apply for classification of newly founded Questoris house with the Mechanicus. It could take a few centuries for administratum approval, and of course every other Knight House will look down at us for being so young, but that matters little because we're basically going to be the only Knight House in this entire subsector.

From there we just make our designs superficially resemble knights, and induct human pilots. Our pilots will enjoy a far greater degree of symbiosis with their knight hosts than normal, as well as our smiths a greater degree of freedom to innovate. This again would put us at odds with other Knight Houses but eh, by the time we grow big enough to encounter anyone else it won't really matter.

>Are we going to use gravitic technology to enhance movement?
We should lol

>Hands are a guarantee but what of built-in weapons?
I am of the belief that the Melta is one of the finest weapons the Imperium can throw at anything, the drawback being its low range. But then someone in Fantasy Flight's Dark Heresy RPG came up with the brilliant idea of the Beamer Melta, which doubles the range of a melta. The drawback is of course the tedious recalibration time, but hey, does that matter when you've got a boatload of smarter-than-the-average-servo-skull and drone support or even smart guns that calibrate themselves?

For reference:
>Lascannon 48" Heavy 1 S9 AP -3 D6
>Melta destroyer 24" Heavy 3 S8 AP-4 D6 (D5+2 at half range)

Imagine a Melta destroyer firing at a full 48". It would be outright better.

There's a bunch of other exotic stuff but melta may be more mass producable. Tbh I might be focusing a bit too much on range, from what I'm told most knight players prefer to charge in with melee and do a lot of chopping rather than can opening. Even for when playing House Vulker who specialize in range.

>How are we going to modify the control method?
In sticking to the idea that "Knights = Greater Imperial acceptance" we could simply just try and smooth the process of Human/Machine Host symbosis, with more active and friendlier machine spirits.

>What about the power source?
In terms of 40k, Atomantic is the pinnacle when it comes to human based energy sources before you step into necron things. It also appears to be the DAoT's preferred energy source as well.

>>5443207
*D6+2 at half range. Most melta's are also thankfully not a blast weapon, so it's just as effective firing in melee as it is at range since normally you can't fire blast weapons at point blank for obvious reasons.

>>5443207
>We could try to establish our own Knight House
I believe this was the whole point of us working to uplift Adrax's Reach. In order to fake a Knight World we need two main ingredients: A Feudal social structure following the Code Chivalric, and it's signature combat mechs.
Adrax's Reach already has it's feudalism down, so for us to fake the world into becoming a Knight World we need to support the nobles on the planet that adhere to the 'Noblesse oblige' while discarding those who are greedy and self-serving, and fake the records of the planet by planting evidence of a Knight Culture long lost among the archeotech ruins that we are there to revive. It doesn't have to be a long and glorious history, it just has to be belivable enough that it can pass as a lost and forgotten Knight World to your average Administratum Scribe.

>>5443229
Then we are on the right track.
Knight approval for our mechs.
Cybernetica approval for our robots.
Pretty everything up with humans or organic brains nominally at the "control" in some way shape or form.

>>5443207
In regard to administratum approval, we should consider to gain all we can get our hands on, when we "resolve" (in whatever
way we like) the other issue with the administratum.
Ah that watching down will matter little. The house will be essentially just another arm of our war machine, any glory and honor they would search would be only for Svartalfheim. That is if it’s an actual "house" that would care for small stuff like imperial gossip, and not militarized and educated ex-feudal* worlders that are part of elite military orders with thousands upon thousands of combat mechs that march and fight under our banner.
*or anyone else that can be a good mech pilot, don't waste potential.

At the end of the day the administratum is quite problematic, so we can do a lot with it. And Adrax Reach is clay to play with : to be educated, influenced and what not in the direction we want for it. Under us, giving us a whole new solar system for grow our loyal population and gain more men for the military.

>>5443207
>>5443175
I mean, if we're going to talk about making Knights, we should think about it how a pragmatic AI would. Certainly gravitics are useful for making a mech more mobile, but I think the real useful aspect of them is getting over the ground pressure problem. Their's a limit to how heavy the guns on a mech can be, because eventually they'll collapse under their own mass, or more practically, they'll sink into the floor. Even tanks will suffer this kind of weakness, but it's worse for things with feet.

So, If we're to be pragmatic about it, a mech should play to whatever strengths it has over a tank in order to make it combat effective. Potentially something like battle tech myomers would be useful here, but assuming we can't make something like that, let's go all in on gravitics and hover tech. A mech should be designed to make use of jumpjets and gravitics to capacity for vertical manuvers that tanks are unable to compete with, while still being able to use anti-tank and anti-knight scale weaponry.

This makes practical the otherwise vulnerable limbs of a mech, as being able to adjust thrusters on the ends of limbs allows for rapid changes in thrust, and gives Knights a role in the battlefield that compliments, rather than competes with tanks.

Knights can act as both fast reaction forces in areas where tanks would have difficulty navigating, as armored recon capable of more easily disengenge and as flankers and harriers for tank charges.

This conception of mech/Knights has them essentially as mechanized skirmishers that can also be armed with heavy artillery, and are agile and shielded enough to disengage if they find themselves against heavy opposition.

>>5443251
Knights are generally much more larger than tanks to the point of tanks usually being better suited to fitting into smaller places knights cannot. Even the armiger is very big and stompy.

I've always felt there's a bit of a gap between a power armored man and the smallest class of knight, the Armiger, that isn't adequately filled. The Tau did it better. For the Imperium it's mostly just different variants of dreadnought. It's that space in between Armiger and Man that I would love to fill with battlesuits for human pilots and whatnot, because those would be actually able to "fit into those places a tank normally couldn't".

>>5443260
Well, there are robots too, actually I would say the the 30k robots do fill that niche between Man and Armiger very well.

In fact from the sound of it we pretty much are already solving that niche with the Draugr, Viking, Huskarl anyway. Which is good.

>>5443251
I'm fond of mechs as a multipurpose platform.

>>5443251
So the Tau basically.

>>5443475
Nah, humanity. Humans did it before the Tau.

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This is only like a month late, but have a concept of the carrier! Not entirely sure what it's supposed to look like besides for the angular shape, sensor cluster, and 4 engines so hopefully this isn't too sci-fi hehe.

>>5443098

maybe,but insulting the admech and imperial engineers takes priority

>>5443736
i like it, well done.
i can't remember the exact description. But it looks cool, and has our colors. I also had in mind to do some stuff for the quest, time ago like a year lol. I didn't do anything though at the end beside leaving it on a paper.

Wait you are the same anon that made those attack plans, both written and in image. And you made a cool quest too.

>>5442170
>>[Executor Fetial]
I was swayed over by the need to have someone who has spent time in the regular grimy Imperium for this position. Someone who knows just how best to present what we offer to hopeless workers and convicts. Also, having someone pushing for bionics and fleshier augmentations instead of just "the flesh is weak", as mentioned, would also be nice.

>>5443745
And it does look like the work of the QM who did Glitter band, one ObserverQM. He's currently running his main quest, Gunship Quest.

Unrelated question that may have been answered, but given how… difficult reading the thread was at times, I could have skipped over it.

We have the unknown device that we haven’t been able to scan, and last I knew Epi was afraid of destructive testing on it since that could damage internals. Since we’re unlikely to scan it though, can we cleanly cut it apart via the quantum gates? Depower them while a small piece of the device is through, and it should cut it like the webway gate did our cruiser.

It could be for a small piece of something we know is replaceable, like the power plug. Then we can more easily rip it apart to understand how it’s being shielded and likely advance our materials understanding.

>>5443750
Observer's graphics style is very distinctive. They are 100% the person who drew the battle maps.

>>5442170
>[Executor Fetial]
We need a dedicated diplomat more than we need a researcher. We simply need more resources.

>>5443736
Nice job mate!

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>>5443475
>>5443712
Indeed. Mankind was there first.

>>5443736
That looks great!

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>>5443736
Ran a few prompts through an AI and this came out

>>5442521
19 Artisan

20 Executor Fetial

Agreed since especially we can already do research

>>5443881

We can't create, that's the issue. We are more than able to reiterate, improve upon, but we cannot create, in the previous threads it had been stated that it is difficult for Epimetheus to do so, that is why most of our current designs are reiterations, we are pulling what we have from out database and changing that to fit our needs and means.

So an actually creative person, who knows what he is doing, is invaluable to us. When it comes to diplomacy, everyone thinks that we're cogboys, they do not expect subtlety and grace from us, so we can do without dedicated diplomats for a little while longer.

>>5443881
We can already do diplomacy too. The option points out we can have someone temporarily fill that role if needed. This is a hero unit vote and I feel research has the most value long term.

>>5443870
Counted 21 for Artisan though.

>Artisan

>>5442170

>>5443870
You missed a vote for Artisan somewhere. Did you see the unlinked one?

>>5442196 >>5442190 >>5442239 >>5442241 >>5442260 >>5442278 >>5442294 >>5442323 >>5442364 >>5442387 >>5442391 >>5442492 >>5442512 >>5442562 >>5442597 >>5442653 >>5442764 >>5442798 >>5443747 >>5443838
Fetial

>>5442191 >>5442206 >>5442222 >>5442233 >>5442261 >>5442268 >>5442311 >>5442324 >>5442325 >>5442342 >>5442348 >>5442353 >>5442372 >>5442394 >>5442402 >>5442691 >>5442740 >>5442855 >>5442865 >>5442867
Artisan

plus >>5443901 now puts it at 20/21.

>>5442170
>[Artisan]

>>5442170
>[Artisan]

>>5443870
23 artisan

20 diplomat

>>5442170
>[Artisan]

>>5443894
I think the mystery big tube of Adamantine is what the https://rentry.org/416641021 link is for. We slowly decide it, and we'll slowly acquire lore or possibly rewards!

So in regards to titans, what we all mostly can agree to is.....
>we will make high quality titans that barely fit Imperium standards (almost too good)
>titans will have a more symbiotic relationship with their pilots (still requires competent princeps)
>inclusion of grav chutes, thrusters, gravity/hover tech to improve overall mobility and 3D maneuverability of titans
>Steel Rain / Titanfall style space-to-atmosphere based entry for the best shock and awe, and generally killing everything within a 50-100 meter radius of wherever the titan lands
>make titans capable of operating in high gravity environments (gravity tech)
>MELTA BBBEEEAAAAMMMM!!!! (Double range of melts cannon)
>drone support in the form of heavy servo skull platforms (synthetic brains wired into skulls so if any Imperium adepte tries to study it they wont be as suspicious)
Am I missing anything?

>>5443894
>>5443897
I disagree, we already have tech superiority, so research is of limited value. What we need in the short, mid, and long term is more resources and allies, both of which are our current bottlenecks. All the research in the world won’t make a difference if we’re surrounded by enemies with nothing to fight them off with. A hero unit diplomat will bare us more fruit overall, especially if we invest early in one to get compounding interest rolling.

Also another idea I had on supplementing the Administration's demands with other goods besides our ships so we still have resources to play with, well after we finish upgrading the mining potentials of Accakaros, Adrax’s Reach, and Hydrrit Delta.....
>convert Iapetus-Vc and Iapetus-Ve into "agri-worlds" to produce food, crops, rations, lilo-sticks, amasac, and similar goods (potential for trading with Rogue Traders and merchant fleets for small sum of metals we need to make ships)
>begin mining operations on Iapetus-I and Iapetus-Vi to extra resources for the purpose of fueling or goals and feeding the admin more ships, hopefully enough ships that they choke on it
>create "aggressor fleets" that work intandem with our mining fleets
It will be alien looking in design, and will kill everything (beside humans, except bandit ships) that tries to attack the mining fleets (gives us access to hulked ships loot, make space safer, xenos to dissect)
>try to grab Hydrrit Beta from under Adminastratum control, but make it super efficient to improve its crop output

>>5443914
Eh fuck it

>>5442170
>[Executor Fetial]
I can see a use for this. Even if our boy doesnt take as much cybernetics, that doesnt mean he can't take any biological improvements (the super human serum we developed, other standardized republic biowares, etc.)

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>>5442170
>>[Executor Fetial]

Our boy can still chrome up to the gills, just need to look friendly and human on the surface. Heck even the skin can be synthetic.

>>5444051
First of all we are a research AI with a goal of solving the problem of Chaos. More research capability is always important and with the Tyranids coming (technically already here) and our desire to research Necron tech, research is only going to become more important. Diplomacy a fucking joke considering this is 40k. The only thing we really want from the Imperium is not allies since that's a poisoned chalice, not resources since that increases expectations, but rather to be left the fuck alone so can research in peace. We could literally near infinite resources right now, we are growing so fast we are about to have an unsustainable population in 20 year, and we only need to do our job as Admech to get more allies.
What fuck more do you want?

>>5443961
24 artisan

22 diplomat

>>5444117
We need a diplomat so the Imperium can leave us the fuck alone so we can research in peace

>>5444117
>We could literally near infinite resources right now
What do you mean by this anon? Resources are actually what is holding us back.
TOur biggest source would either be the Maelstrom region with the Astral Claws giving us more mining rights, or start planet cracking, which QM said will bring attention. Diplomacy could help with both.

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>>5442170

Guys its what our character would want most not we think is best. From his point of view going all in on the Dogma is most in character and will lead to more interesting discoveries, knowledge, and places of interest. >>5444123

But I admit that Artisan is as equally important, hence my original vote of of either.
I just think that we are lacking a specialized diplomat, and Epi sucks at social engineering, which a diplomat could also help when we do end up going loud.
Oh, and also we could give that rogue trader license to him, the one we skipped extra resources to get and have been doing nothing with.

>>5444129
Yeah he would probably want to innovate as he became fascinated with tech so artisan makes sense but is not as extreme as cyborg

>>5444128
We can eat planets for resources, star lift for resources, or send out mining fleets to distance star for resources. The real problem is the Administratum acting like a leech sucking us dry.
>>5444127
We lower expectations or contact with a high ranking official for the Imperium to leave us alone. A diplomat alone is useless for that. Hell Rane is supposed to be a decently well respected and skilled all-around and even he is clueless about the Administratum inner workings.

>>5444059
>convert Iapetus-Vc and Iapetus-Ve into "agri-worlds"
I'd like to turn one of these into a civilized moon rather than another Agri-Moon to accomodate population growth. While the facility has room for a large population, the fewer people on the moon the less chance of any leaks or spies. Maybe that's just paranoia talking though.
We should also alter both of their rotation speed and trajectory to make them orbit closer to us. Having a little cluster of planetoids close together will make it easier to build orbital defenses to cover them all.
>begin mining operations on Iapetus-I and Iapetus-Vi
At the very least Iapetus-I, yes. Likely it is mineral rich and will give us good resources. VI is just potential Hydrogen and Helium(?), not sure if we need to right now, especially since we can extract those same materials from the gas giant we are orbiting.

>>5444140
>The real problem is the Administratum acting like a leech sucking us dry.
Lol. LMAO even. The Administratum are still providing twice the resources they expect back in production. You're acting like they're literally attached to our necks and sucking out 99% of our production.
Sure, in a few years they will demand more. We have Alexander though, and House Gildenmar owes us a favour. Get Alexander to introduce us to his sleezy contacts in the Administratum and re-negotiate; either a halt to the increase in tithe, or increased resource deliveries to cover the increasing tithe.
For real, this us such a non-issue and I don't understand why there are people making this big of a fuss over it.

>>5444140
Indeed even if one person were to agree to leave us alone and are of sufficient rank there are no gurantee they will stick around long enough for a genuine impact on resources

>>5444131
That's right, we got the Rogue Trader license but did fuck all with it. We really should be doing something with it instead of letting it collect desk on a shelf....wait did we get that? I don't actually remember.

>>5444140
We can ear planets, but we wont since that would draw too much attention to us.

>>5444155
Then half and half agri-worlds? We could mix and match, or do a Star Sector and have floating senpai habs in space.

>>5444155
Yeah....you actually make a fair point about resources. Maybe we should go hard on acquiring our own, rather than relaying on the Admin's input.

This quest is full of nothing but autism and blatant cheating

>>5444163
>Then half and half agri-worlds?
If it basically achieves the same result as one agri-world and one industrial civilized world I don't see a problem. Truthfully I don't even know if turning a whole planet into a wheat field comes with increased output to begin with. Likely it's just done to make the paperwork easier for the clerks.
>Maybe we should go hard on acquiring our own, rather than relaying on the Admin's input
Plans are already in motion. Iapetus-I need to be mined (honestly can't believe we missed that for 4 threads, it must've fallen through the cracks), Adrax's Reach has exotic minerals on it that we can begin extracting and when we expand our fleet we can send our own assets to Badab to help the Astral Claws secure the mining planets we agreed on would be ours.
When it comes to the Administratum, our only aim is to stop us from hemorrhaging resources from their tithe in the future. I think the timetable Epimetheus gave in previous threads was 5 years until their demands become higher than what they provide, so it's not super urgent but definitely something we need to get on top of in, at most, 2 years time.

>>5444175
I think it's more to control. Supposedly scuttlebutt says that it was mentioned in a 2nd edition footnote that it doesn't make sense economically to use spaceships to haul grain around, but it does make trade a necessity for survival for the planets of the Imperium, which means it's much easier to control than otherwise.

>>5444050
When did we get this?

>>5444155
>The Administratum are still providing twice the resources they expect back in production.
We're already hitting the negatives because they keep increasing the tithe at an unrealistic rate because that's how they operate.
>For real, this us such a non-issue and I don't understand why there are people making this big of a fuss over it.
Because it's the biggest issue we suffer from and one of only ways a diplomat can show their value in the foreseeable future. Realistically Admech support is always in demand thus we always have a strong bargaining position even if we don't have a diplomat.

>>5444140
Yes, and planet cracking will draw a fuckload of attention, it was written in the updates multiple times.
Hence why I said that diplomacy would help with it, so we could help with it, because a diplomat could help with whatever cover we try to come up with.
Also good luck getting the bureaucratic mess hat is the administartum to follow any order for a higher up in a timely manner, and much less getting to talk to said higher up by without sucking them up.

>>5444222
Or we could just do planet cracking somewhere else.

>>5444163
If only Explorator was an option, we could make Nathaniel here our rogue trader stand-in.
We are a new world, but given that our new FG was one, we could come up with an excuse that it's now considered a very valuable position.

>>5444222
What if we try doing the correct bureaucratic nonsense and get permission to crack it first? Nobody's actually using the planet.

>>5444226
I don't know, QM would have probably mentioned that we could do it in the other side of the galaxy without drawbacks, since that idea was mentioned before.
>>5444233
That would likely raise a lot of questions, and wouldn't avoid the administratum raising our production level and sucking our resources in five years.
I think the planet cracking is for when we decide to go loud, or when we find an important ally that could cover it up for us.

>>5444236
Do forgeworlds not frequently strip dead worlds for resources?

>>5444233

Because even if it doesn't raise eyebrows, like other anons sad, it'll just mean the Administratum will skyrocket their leeching when we're at a point where it's already barely tolerable.

>>5444239
Not as far as I know, they usually have mining worlds like Delta under their direct command/vassal rule sending minerals, or knight worlds sending food, or trade their products and expertise with hive, industrial and agri worlds.
And depending on what the planet cracking is, it might be more like deploying extreme exterminatus grade weaponry, the type that actually destroys the planet not just scourge all life, and then using a fuckload of drones to mine out the core, instead of just getting a bunch of servitors and menials to dig it out.
Besides, our excuse is that we are a recently discovered forge world that went through an invasion, I don't know if we can pull off saying we suddenly got enough resources to start an operation that size. The orbital ring is already a red flag.

Either way hopefully we can solve the resource issue cause in all honesty we need to either tell the administraum to fuck right off with their excessive demands while risking resource cut off or we need to find a way to be less reliant off of them so far we are in the slight negatives for resources which means improvements are gonna become much harder to do. Either way they are trying to work us to the absolute bone and we can’t let it go on any longer.

Mhmm. The next time we go back to our A.I. PoV, we should invest all our major actions into resource development, then on the next turn we can invest in military assets so we can aid the Astral Claws tame their resource rich shit hole. Sure we got a few years before they officially go traitor, but that doesnt mean we should nip the issue in the bud. They could turn rogue this year, or the next year. We gotta do something for then fast, or at least soon before it's too late.

>>5444304
agreed weve already invested into the astral claws we may as well secure our investment's in them. as well as go into more resources but still i want me titans I WANT MORE DAKA

>>5444226
Speaking in Galactic terms, we're not that far away from the only place where the eyes of the Imperium don't have complete vision: The Ghoul Stars. If we could sneak a Planet Slurper through the Imperial watch network we could harvest as much material as we'd like without having to share with the Administratum, though we risk waking something scary in there.

>>5444304

All eyes will be on the Badab war. I can not wait for legion building. We could end up being the one he turns to for help instead of the Ruinous powers.

>>5444349
We should like, send a few diplomats to them just in case, letting them know if they need serious help or not. They could tell our diplomats, who would then tell us and keep us up to date in what happens in the maelstrom

>>5444354
We can just put our own assets in the region. Sending our Carrier fleet to Badab (after we build a replacement fleet to defend our home sector) together with our own army would give us some power projection in the sector, maybe enough to act as a counterweight if Huron starts his whole 'Tyrant-of-Badab' schtick.

>>5444363
Agreed. I don't know how many fleets we have now, but if we have minimum 2, we can afford to send 1 to Badab to patrol the sector, and aid in space combat while the marines focus on land combat. Hell, we could even give them some targeting devices, so our ships can more accurately orbital bombard targets.

>>5444117
We need resources to protect this facility first and foremost, and the Imperium isn’t gonna suddenly fuck off on their demands because we have subpar diplomats. This isn’t rocket science, better diplomacy means improved political situation, translating to more resources for security and the Work. This helps us out more in the long run than trying to build on our already superior tech advantage without the necessary resources to keep it flush.

>>5444344
I'm all for it. Any alien civ will be like a mini-boss compared to taking down the Imperium.

>>5444383
It's not even guaranteed to improve if we have a dedicated diplomat. A diplomat isn't guaranteed to be able to navigate the bureaucracy mess that is the Administratum if nobody we currently have can. That's real problem, someone that can navigate the Administratum is more important than a diplomat because that's what we actually lack.

>>5444383
>>5444390
We have Alexander, whose connections in the Segmentum bureaucracy we can use to hopefully negotiate a more favorable settlement just like what he did when he re-negotiated the tithe of Accakaros. It's the least they can do after we helped them stop the attempted coup.

>>5444396
Well yeah, that was brought up earlier. Honestly I think whatever child Alexander produces would be a better suited for stuffing into a diplomat role than anything we could produce.

>>5444383
We already have a single fleet, which was more than strong enough to break the eldar's all out assault. With one fleet we should be more than fine to fend off any invaders, at least for a few turns. That's why we should invest heavily this turn into resource acquisition so we we can then passively acquire more materials to produce a full fleet of DaoT tier ships, and more advanced tier ships. There's a rhyme and reason for stuff yo.
Plus the current vote is just for the PoV for one guy, not for all the adepts we're training. Chill bro.

>>5444396
a point to consider, yes.

>>5444451
That was all our fleets together, not just one. Plus defenses. It was an hard fought battle even with our advantage.
Our military assets are still small overall.

>>5444257
We had an excuse about the orbital ring. But planet cracker is kind of no excuse. A good way would be forging new evidence and cleaning any supposed knowledge of it, while avoiding that anyone sees it.

>>5444304
Meh. Our sector is not secure at the moment, for allow ourselves to overlook it. Our military forces could use an expansion, navy with some wolfpack type fleets and capital type fleets or grand army. Or new defenses and a garrison. There is also that ork solar system near us that should be dealt with very soon, beside being a boon if conquered those orks would be dead which is great.
More importantly we should develop and produce some stealth ships so we can begin deploying our spy units in the sector and spy. This is probably the second most important matter (spying is stupidly important), beside resolving the administratum issue whatever way we want. Force, use the problems of the institution, buying them, making them friends, burning and creating new papers, infiltration ecc...
The Von Gildenmar also don't have any military fleet, so the sector is basically defenseless space wise beside Svartfheilm.
If the Astral Claws could have secure one planet for sending us minerals, it would be better but they seem to be a bit too stuck. They haven't even given up their star charts or history, when they should with what we have give them.

Rogue trader can honestly wait, we have enough on our plate now to do and having a fresh imperial on the role is not an idea i like. Immediately having a rogue trader would be a bit too suspicious anyway, we can find or shape someone else in to the role. Having someone fitting and very competent in the role will be worth any year that passes.