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Messages - Tube Wizard

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1
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 19, 2022, 02:50:07 pm »
Quote from: Glass on February 19, 2022, 02:39:33 pm
(There is in fact a grey color, as well as a silver one.
This thread has all known color names that work here.)
(What? whew, and here I thought it was just the ones on the dropdown. Thank you for illuminating me, I'll retroactively edit the Chapter's dialogue when I have some time later.)

2
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 19, 2022, 02:34:26 pm »
Quote from: Glass on February 19, 2022, 02:22:45 pm
(Also, as an aside: Tube, why do you use bold red for all the astartes' speech?)
(I use Bold Red for the Sentinels of The Watchtower because there isn't a gray color and messing around with the highlighters for rust-red would be slightly time-consuming, so Bold Red is the next best thing. It's based on the colour of their armour, for the most part, Ultramarines would be using Bold Blue for example. Also, if the dialogue from Astartes seems somewhat samey, that's by intent, the Chapter's psychology is largely homogenized.)

3
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 19, 2022, 02:08:52 pm »
(My apologies for the late update, I've been swamped at work and more recently, distracted by the release of Total War: Warhammer 3. Thank you for your patience. Should be more consistent in the coming days.)

4
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 19, 2022, 02:06:13 pm »
Meanwhile, on the Surface of Civilized World #5/5- Kauril

You are battle brother Atellanus Akentar, Sergant of 1st squad, 8th company. You are as veteran as an Astartes in a Chapter as young as yours can be, and you, like all of your battle brothers, are proud to be a Sentinel of the Watchtower. That's why when Chapter Master Talnior decreed that the 2nd and 8th companies would be tracking down and holding psykers on the frozen hellhole with the only human manufactorums outside of the Fortress-Monastery's forges, you didn't complain and you didn't hesitate. You put your nose to the grindstone, kept your silence, and deferred to the Prognosticator assigned to your squad. You're a soldier, not a witchhunter, and you know better than to risk succumbing to zeal and making a fatal mistake.

The transit onboard the Gilded Rider took only two months and was thankfully uneventful. Likewise, your initial landing on the planet and investigation of outlying communities was nothing noteworthy. For the better part of three weeks and tens of thousands scanned, you've seen a single positive, a frail old woman who admitted to doing palm-readings that were true far more often than they had any right to be. You personally don't think such a minor witch is worth anymore effort than a bolt to the back of the head but Chapter Master Talnior said every psyker was to be taken in, and so you'll do your duty. You and your squadmates have slowly started to settle into a smooth rhythm and relax your trigger fingers. That might've been a mistake.

It was near the end of your third week here when you ran into a problem. A four-story apartment complex on the edge of a minor, semi-urban residential district, no different from any of the dozen others you've combed through. It looked to be a simple, open-and-shut case like the last. You were approaching the entryway when an autogun roared into the air RATATATATATAT and the entire squad went on high-alert. Two seconds later, a window on the third story shattered open and a man in a local security uniform leaned out, holding an autopistol to a screaming woman's head. The barrel of your boltgun was aimed in less than a heartbeat but you caught yourself, not for fear of killing the hostage, but because the security officer's face was limp. Not a single emotion was on display, his eyes were out of focus, and he seemed on the brink of collapsing into a comatose state but his arms and hands, one around his victim's throat, one pressing an autopistol to her temple, were more still and tense than a ceramite chestplate. The Prognosticator, Telador, barked an order with panick in his voice. "GET BACK DAMNIT! GET BACK!"

The squad needed no instructions. In a matter of seconds, they funneled out and went prone, covering the building in intersecting fields of fire. You did the same and waited, boiling with anticipation, as the hostage-taker staggered back inside and a grainy, civilian vox transmission reached your helmet's communicator. After an instant's pause, you accepted and a shaky, trembling voice took on, over audible to every member of your squad. "L-Listen to me, Astartes. By the God Emperor if... i-if one of you takes another step e-ev-EVERY man, woman, and child in this building dies... DIES! I-I me-MEAN it damnit! Don't you try to sneak up on me. I can sense your minds. I can sense everyone's minds... I'm controlling them right now, th-the gunmen and- and more, they're all waiting for-... for you t-to do something. I don't want you to make a mistaaake... I just... I just..." You mute your outgoing vox to the transmitter and ask. "Teledor, what's happening here?" The Prognosticator takes a few seconds to respond. "...There's a psyker in that building. I'm getting the strongest signature I've ever sensed. It's spread throughout and focused on... I'm counting fourteen men. Minimum. All of them standing like they're armed, same as the window." You piece the situation together immediately. "By the Saints."

You transmit to the apartment. As an Astartes your mind is somewhat distant to mortal men and their needs, but you make your best attempt at talking him down. "We aren't moving. Our fingers aren't on the triggers... You're safe. For now. What is this for? Do you need food? If you submit, we can get you a sandwich-" "I don't want a FUCKING sandwich! I-I don't want any of that. No, no, NO!" You suck air between your teeth, one of the few holdouts of your humanity, and respond. "What do you want, then?" He replies and his voice is gripped by hysteria. "I just- I just don't want to die! I KNOW that's what you're going to do, I KNOW IT! Don't lie to me. You'll take me into one of your ships and execute me there, just like- like the Imperium used to, just because everyone else's mind is like an open fucking book... FUCK. I didn't want any of this!" You fallback on the default protocol. "We're only here to stop you from being a danger to yourself and others."

"You're going to kill me. I know it. I'm too powerful and after what I've done... you won't listen to me, you'll j-just... PLEASE, leave me alone! I'm begging you! I don't want to do this! I never wanted any of this!" You restrain yourself from magdumping a dozen armour-piercing, rocket-propelled, explosive rounds into the building. "What is it that you've done?" He sounds like he's crying but you have little sympathy, he could be faking it in some foolish attempt at gaining your leniency. "I-I'm a fraudster! A witch-thief! I... I'm the secretary of the regional treasurer, but I didn't get there on my own merits... No, I mind-controlled my superiors and switched their memories around to get promoted, over better qualified, better connected people, un-until I landed my job. For the last eight years I've- I've been mind-controlling public officials to steal public money t-to funnel it back to my folks... You don't understand- you don't understand what it's like. I was a manufactorum worker like my father was a manufactorum worker like his father's father was a manufactorum worker, all the way back to colonization. Twelve hours a day on a pitch-black assembly line putting parts together so that I can earn enough to feed myself so I can do it again the next day." You doubt it's any worse than things were on the blistering desert you were born on, half a galaxy away, but you keep listening. "Imagine doing that when you- when you have the power to make everyone on the floor listen to everything you say. I tried to be a good citizen for years, I really fucking did, but I got tired of it. I-I lied, cheated my way to a cushy desk job and once I got there I... started funneling kickbacks to my cousins and their kids. TH-THEY DON'T KNOW! I told them it was a- a personal bonus for ignoring the treasurer taking bribes but- but he's an honest man... More ration-cards than they could ever earn but never enough to make a dent in the tithes... pulled some strings so no-nooobody asked any questions. I made it so they could- if they put in some work maybe, do something else, anything else."

You slowly put together the implications and your jaw goes slack. If what he says is true, that he really has been using his powers for a minor embezzlement scheme, that's the psychic equivalent of using a controlled macrocannon blast to light a candle because he didn't have the brains or the funds to get a lighter. By the position of his pauldrons, you can tell Teledor is thinking the same. You communicate with the Prognosticator. "Think you could subdue him?" He takes a second. "That raw power? In that mental state? I could try but I'm not sure. I'm not sure it wouldn't backfire. This is Delta-tier. The aura is brighter than Nens Nende's, nowhere near as stable but much more than a rogue psyker of this magnitude should be. This man is dangerous. Too dangerous to risk. I reccomend we shoot him through the walls, clean the mess afterward, and have the planetary media scrub it." Your mind is racing at a breakneck speed. "If we could control him, he could be useful to the Chapter." The Prognosticator nods and keeps his boltgun aimed at the building. "You're squad commander. It's your call to make."

How do you want to handle the situation?

Psychic Duel: Teledor will try to catch him by surprise and break his control in a battle of wills.
Immediate Execution: The squad will magdump into the building at anything with a pulse. The hostages will die but at the same time the psyker will be dealt with.
Talk Him Down: He seems agitated but his lack of ambition is a sign in his favour and he might be willing to see reason.
Call In Reinforcements: Prolonging the situation for a few more hours may make him erratic but you can't handle this with a single squad.
Leave Him Alone: There's no need to risk the lives of these civilians. You'll track him down or coerce him to turn himself in later.

5
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 19, 2022, 02:05:24 pm »
Quote from: Man of Paper on February 14, 2022, 10:04:37 pm
Let em peep a seed

It is withholding knowledge that has led to the Empire's current piss-poor state.

Grant permission for the fights

It's a good way to blow off steam and increase morale!
Quote from: crazyabe on February 14, 2022, 10:54:38 pm
Quote from: Maximum Spin on February 14, 2022, 10:10:01 pm
Agreed on the seed.
But, recall Bulvak for discipline - but with a moderate touch. There is a command structure for a reason and he should have used it, but at the same time, the fights should be allowed and we would have allowed them if the rules were followed. He should be disciplined for not following them, not for the fights themselves.
+1
Quote from: Egan_BW on February 14, 2022, 11:01:59 pm
Don't allow them to access the seed, but do draft a few as discount mortal apothecaries.
And since we've got the cream of the crop, see if any of the genetors are suitable for implantation. Then we could certainly trust them to examine the stuff.

Allow the fights to continue, no reprimand. What are chapter veterans for, if not making good decisions under fire? Under metaphorical fire in this case, but still.

Quote from: King Zultan on February 15, 2022, 04:38:52 am
Quote from: m1895 on February 15, 2022, 12:24:52 am
Quote from: Glass on February 15, 2022, 12:17:34 am
Quote from: Madman198237 on February 15, 2022, 12:06:00 am
Spoiler: I'm So Glad You Like Long Plans (click to show/hide)

OK I don't remember if that's everything but, well, it's close enough. Probably.
+1, thank you MM for being the excellent plans guy.
  + 1
Thank you for doing this so I don't have to
  + 1

By the Terran Calendar: 36,133.7

You determine that, although the gene-seed is sacred, its holiness means nothing if you can't understand it. The geneticists are screened for the utmost competence and loyalty, they are subject to questioning and in several cases, their very minds are searched by means of psychic power. In the end, tens of thousands become hundreds of the skill and faith necessary, and the most brilliant handful of these receive the chance to examine a gene-seed. The least visibly healthy from the least honoured non-heretical marine, it is still of a grandeur that would warrant the death of millions if slighted.

The geneticists aren't unsupervised, a prognosticator and full squad of veterans watch over them, boltguns in hand, and wait for them to make the slightest disrespect to their gene-father's bounty. Needless to say, they are terrified but they are professionals and soon get into a steady rhythm of study. The Chapter at large is profoundly uncomfortable with the thought of mortals examining their gene-sire's legacy but they recognize the need for apothecaries as much as you and acknowledge the necessity. All that's left now is to wait for their research to yield results. In the meantime, the rank-and-file are tested to determine the brightest among them that aren't already techmarines or techmarines-in-training. These few start to study under the mortal geneticists, who struggle to teach them all that they know. This will be the work of decades but its rewards will be worth even centuries of struggle.

After the revival of the Apothecarion is set into motion you consider the problem that Bulvak Aquonus of 9th company, 10th squad has posed. On one hand, his push for Astartes-on-Zahgun fights has singlehandedly moved the Astartes from rabidly baying for xenocide to almost willing to see them slaughtered in combat for the glory of mankind, but on the other hand, he mustered his peers to pressure the captain to allow them to take place. This represents a slight deviation from the conventional hierarchy, that being the captain hears his subordinates and presents it to the Chapter Master but at the same time, The Watchtower has little care for the formalities of rank and he's gotten results. You value initiative and would've allowed them yourself, so you make a judgement and grant permission for the fights to continue.

From what the Prognosticators say of each other's dreams and the messages from freighters, overladen with the products of Xenos industry, you piece together that this move was extremely popular with 9th company. They've continued the fights and over time, they may grow into a grander spectacle of martial excellence. For his part, Bulvak seems indomitable, at one point slaying three back-to-back through physically tearing them out of their shells, hooks and all, and ripping them apart, but as time goes on, he takes to observing fights rather than participating. Supposedly he's started to take an interest in the Zahgun way of life outside of battle and has asked the Prognosticators to teach him their language. They oblige and this sets an example for the 9th company, who've started to almost enjoy their position and consider you wise for decreeing it in the first place. This has done wonders for your popularity in 9th company, elevating your respect to the same level as when you were chosen by prophecy, but is sadly limited in regards to the other companies. So be it, you're confident they'll catch on sooner or later.

At your behest, the less xenophobic and more tactically-minded veterans of 9th company start to draft plans for how to implement Zahgun cannon fodder auxiliaries alongside human forces, putting both to the tasks in which they should, theoretically, excel. Making a completely new and "heretical" military doctrine takes time and you'll allow all that they need. You almost wish there was a proper threat to field them against but you aren't sure the cannibals on Death World #14/2- Antwir would be worth the attrition from the planet itself. All things in due time.

As it is, you invest the totality of your resources into entrenching the Chapter's power-base, as only from a sturdy foundation can you build a future for the masses of mankind, freed from the inefficient cruelties of the Imperium. A tremendous sum goes toward building a sprawling rockcrete bastion on Feral World #7/3- Overlook, to oversee their defence and ensure the wretched Xenos, the Gremlins, are contained. Likewise, you move heaven and earth to ensure the Small, Crude Shipyard in-progress receives anything it could possibly require, man or material, as soon as possible. Between the industrial output of Kauril, or Hardwater, depending, and Zahn, both projects should be complete in a timely manner and with much to spare. To that end, the maintenance of active ships, your Frigates, can resume. The larger craft will receive the attention they deserve in time, when you can afford giving it to them.

Likewise, the native psyker populations of Death World #14/2- Antwir and Civilized World #5/5- Kauril/Hardwater are too useful to the Chapter and dangerous to the general population to let them fend for themselves. You decide that #5/5 is the best place to start and arrange for two frigates, the Gilded Rider and Fatebreaker along with 8th and 2nd company, respectively, with a full complement of Prognosticators to be sent there, the former to search for psykers, the latter to assist and garrison the planet. Both disembark immediately.

While you're at it, Peacemaker is to take 4th company to Feudal World #1/1- Triarius, to garrison the planet and hold as a potential strike force against minor incursions. That settled and Argent Raiment and Verdigris Cloak hard at work transmitting colonists to Feral World #3/3- Overlook, you take the time to draft a system of governance. Far less glamorous than the Astartes taking tithes and leaving each planet to its own devices, having a subset of sufficiently skilled mortals handling the day-to-day management will free you far more time to work with machines, and between the 7th and 3rd, desperately penitent, companies' work in the ruins of Death Worldn#14/2- Antwir, there should be little shortage. Gradually, the daunting task of finding reliable, useful bureacrats to handle lesser domestic affairs begins. Perhaps the most frightening order you've levelled on your mortal charges yet.

In addition, over the next few weeks, a couple of letters you'll be needing to turn your attention towards come in. One from egg-G0 and one from Archaeus, they look to be most interesting...

6
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 14, 2022, 09:33:32 pm »
Quote from: Egan_BW on February 13, 2022, 06:14:46 pm
Reduce tithes on all feral/feudal worlds to 0%, to be reassessed to a base of 10% upon recategorization to civilized world as assessed by the Adeptus Econometrica.

As a related measure, encourage natives of Antwir and Kauril to colonize our feral and feudal worlds. The chapter itself won't contribute much resources to this other than usage of our tithe-vessels for transportation, but as we've seen Antwir's civilized inhabitants will be sufficiently motivated.

Recommend mothballing most of our fleet with the exception of the Barge and the two fleets still out there, hopefully freeing up enough income to start building one or more ship-docks. But that's complicated so I'll let other people figure it out.
Quote from: EuchreJack on February 14, 2022, 04:39:52 am
Quote from: Madman198237 on February 13, 2022, 08:22:43 pm
Spoiler: Ship Names (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: System/Planet Names (click to show/hide)

Now that the IMPORTANT stuff is done, on with the planning.

Spoiler: Plan! (click to show/hide)
Quote from: King Zultan on February 14, 2022, 04:36:51 am
+1 to MadMan's plan.
+1 to the Plan, now what do people think of rebuilding the Chapter Apothecary?
Quote from: Madman198237 on February 14, 2022, 08:55:15 am
Obviously a major positive. Oh, right, I'm going to send the remainders of the companies presently cooling their heels to go start gathering medical knowledge from local populaces. They've only got access to Antwir right now because I don't think we can or should send Space Marines out on tithing vessels (since they're not mechanically represented ATM and it might be something of a minor slap in the face to said Marines), but that's a start. Soon we'll have more frigates available and be able to spread Marines out around our Empire as we desire.

To suffer a net-deficit of resources is unacceptable. A lack of resources means a lack of ammunition, an inability to equip new cannon fodder honoured auxiliaries, and a stagnancy of the empire's growth. That cannot be tolerated and you will no longer. Though it pains you to do this, you have no other recourse and Night's Final Watch, Dawn's First Light, and the Vengeance of Kerhon-7 are mothballed on Death World #14/2- Antwir, effective immediately. When Shattered Silence returns, unless conditions dictate otherwise, it too will be, and Peacemaker has been sent to system #10- named Delnai, to recall The Emperor's Spleen and Gilded Rider, to return and mothball the former and press the latter into much-needed service. 2nd, 6th, and 8th company are crammed into the Nova Frigate to hopefully gather enough Astartes to relieve the members of 9th company whose hate for the Xenos has grown too fierce to hold back any longer.

Peacemaker flies to the end of the system and its gellar field flickers, before propelling it into the warp. You have a strange sense of swiftness, looking at it. Hmm.

Nevermind. You decide that the tithes on the Feral and Feudal Worlds are too insignificant to spend time and effort gathering them. For the time being, they are exempted. It will likely take one or two tithe cycles for the news to reach them but such is the cost of Warp-travel. You deem the marginal, if extent, increase of troop quality from primitive planets to be useless next to the production they could yield if modernized and feel there's no better way to advance their societies than to fill them with advanced people: the Antwiri. Victims of birth, circumstance, and so, so many parasites, they are extremely hardy colonists and more than that, they are willing enough to kill and be killed for the chance to board a colonial frigate with an elbow's room of space left in the cargo hold. You know that taking the effort to choose the objectively least suited to combat among them will cause undue resentment, so you leave it to chance by lottery. You don't need to propagandize their destination so you don't bother.

By the end of the week, Argent Raiment and Verdigris Cloak are filled with the 4th and 5th companies and 20,000 colonists between them. 15,000 civilians and 5,000 auxiliaries, all chosen at random. They should repeat this expedition a dozen or so times. It would be more efficient to do it all at once but you'll hold a fresh lottery when they return. You don't want resentment to breed between winners and losers, and besides that, you want to keep their hope alive. As they were last time, winning tickets are so precious that no offer of wealth will sway their holders. You're still sure there were a few dozen murders but the local law enforcement are so sympathetic they're almost unable to investigate so you let the issue go. It's beneath your notice. Eventually, there should be an appreciable advanced colony on Feral World #7/3- Overlook which should improve the local standard of living as well as lead to fears of parasite daemons in the superstitious locals. It's too early to begin building a proper fortress but when they arrive, they can begin laying the groundwork. They leave and a betting pool emerges on when they'll return. There's one case of a known loudmouth being beaten to death by a mob for publicly trying to bet they won't return at all but the hundreds of suspects that may know of who was involved or when refuses to speak of it. Again, you drop the issue. It's indicative of one thing, the people of Antwir want to go. The problem is that Antwir is so effective at breeding soldiers you simply can't comply. They know it, too, but the fact that you're letting the luckiest of them leave seems to have had a notable positive effect on their loyalty.

The rubble that 7th company discovered can't put a dent in the Chapter's maintenance needs but it can contribute to stopping them, so you have it melted down into the tons of sheets, girders, nuts and bolts necessary to begin constructing a Small, Crude Shipyard in Antwir's orbit. This is cause for tremendous joy among the techmarines, yourself included, but few others care. More than anything else, it represents a step forward. (-100 Resources, Construction Project has begun: Small, Crude Shipyard in Antwir's Orbit.)

After this, you launch a very low intensity propaganda campaign to encourage the mortals to reproduce. It doesn't take very well to the masses, who ignore it and keep having children at the same rate as before. The Chapter's finest minds are stumped. One veteran suggests that we make less references to gene-seed implantation but the others are confused as to why that would be relevant. For now, the project is shelved. You'll get back to it at a later date.

Speaking of gene-seed implantation, you attempt to uncover potential gene-seed recipients in Antwir's population. The Astartes you've sent to go door-to-door are unsuccessful and you're frustrated. If there were trained Apothecaries conducting the search you're confident they would've found something but as is, your techmarine's fumbling attempts to match them don't measure up. You need to rebuild the Apothecarion, the sooner the better, and when you puzzle over it for several nights, you come to the conclusion that while the scalpels do good work, their knowledge of gene-craft is no greater their peers'. It hurts but you concede that in this specific area, parts of the broader human population may be your Chapter's superior. However they are your charges and like the auxiliaries, to a degree, there's no shame in relying on their expertise.

If Copperstock possessed a secret reserve of genetors it would warrant Astartes action, so you settle for delegating an ad campaign to the Adeptus Econometrica on Antwir while you arrange for word to get to Kauril, Hardwater, gah, whatever it's called... and are surprised again when tens of thousands of professional, experienced geneticists are clamouring for an audience by the end of the week. It turns out that due to the omnipresent indigenous parasite infestation, (and the infestation of parasite-parasites, and the infestation of parasite-parasite-parasites, et al.), the Adeptus Mechanicus' Magos Biologis maintained a presence on the planet, showing great interest, until eight too many casualties of high-ranking personnel convinced them it wasn't worth it, so they were sanctioned to train and supervise locals to do their own surveying instead. In a matter of years, this shifted to a lifesaving medical tradition and the Adeptus Mechanicus' interest in the planet shifted to its ruins, largely recalling the Magos Biologis. After the Chapter's arrival under Chapter Master Zaphiel, most of them were exterminated to the last but the local gene-medicae remained and in the absence of even slight supervision, have thrived into a disproportionately huge and wildly successful, for a given definition of the term, branch of local professionals. There are enough geneticists on Antwir that you're able to pick and choose the cream of the crop, who are eager to work for the Chapter. You consider their skills carefully and come to a decision.

They will be in a strict, teaching only role: They will do everything in their power to train and educate the scalpels and brighter marines who aren't preoccupied with tech-heresy in the study of gene-craft. From there, the Chapter should be able to do its own work.
They will be incorporated into the Chapter's scalpels: Though most of their hands-on experience is related to the treatment, removal, and prevention of cell-leeches, vein-burrowers, and rare, loathed DNA-scramblers, much of their skills are also applicable to battlefield surgery.
They will be allowed to examine a gene-seed: Just one, the least visibly healthy, from the least prestigious donor that wasn't a Heretic, and only for a few hours a day. This is tremendously controversial but they may make enough sense of it to relearn some forgotten Apothecary lore.

When that's done, you turn your attention to what's important: dissecting scrap technology and reassembling it in new, Mars-confounding ways. Ah, the joys of freetime.

By the Terran Calendar: 36,133.6k

This blissful twisting of the machine goes on for a few weeks before the Shattered Silence and 5th company return, with good news. The tithe-increase on Civilized World #5/5- Kauril, officially, went off without a hitch and their population has agreed to hand over 30% of their monthly resource-output. It will be put to much more vital use under the Chapter than their hands. The 5th company captain insists that a minimum of threats to the planetary administration's lives were made. Good. You wouldn't want them losing sight of who their protectors against the greater galaxy are. You'll start seeing improvements sometime next month, though the work of the Xenos is already trickling in and it is substantial. So substantial, in fact, that you demand an audit of their population census and come to the stark realization that there are just barely over four-hundred and thirty million of the horrors. That means that, technically, there are more Xenos than there are humans under the Chapter's protection, and by a significant margin. For the next four days you lie flat on your back, barred in your personal chambers, eyes-wide-open, wrestling with dread and shivering in fear of what you've become. In the end, your Renegade tendencies prevail and you opt to simply not think about it too much. The news will slowly trickle through the Chapter and you hope they, too, will come to the same conclusion. The Xenos are too useful to purge. Once their manufactorums have reached a human standard and the social engineering bears fruit, oh, you shudder to imagine the wonders that could be built.

Shortly after, as you're getting ready for another eventless month Peacemaker returns, with The Emperor's Spleen and Gilded Rider in tow. You're stunned and demand an immediate explanation from everyone involved. The crew of the Peacemaker explain that they went through a full month's travel in the Warp but that when they emerged and checked the local date, they arrived at the same moment they left. You're confused how this could be possible but dismiss it as a rare, harmless example of Warp phenomena and are thankful that they didn't waste any time. On the month-long return voyage, nothing of substance occurred but much of the crew of the Gilded Rider reports dreaming strange dreams that they dreamed those same dreams before. Strange. You aren't sure if that's good or bad, or to get the Prognosticators involved. You ignore the mortal crew for now and discuss the situation at planet #10/2- designated Zahn for its alien taint. In particular, of the returning 2nd, 6th, and 8th company Astartes, you notice that outside of 2nd company there are very few transfers from 9th company, which received a dozen less than expected. The Chapter has very little company culture outside of the 1st and 7th, and what's there doesn't explain the disrepancy.

You demand another explanation and a younger battle brother from 9th company, 7th squad relates to you that the 9th company has begun to get over its loathing of the Xenos. That's excellent news but you want to hear the why of it. He explains that after a couple of days the 9th company grew increasingly frustrated with their assignment and after a couple of weeks, this frustration reached a fever pitch and Bulvak Aquonus, a well-liked veteran of 10th squad and arguably the most xenophobic member of the company, demanded the Chapter start holding fights against the Zahgun, reasoning that if they were so willing to throw their lives away and if the Astartes wanted to kill them so badly, they might as well. Some short debate later, the 9th company captain agreed and the Prognosticators, long tired of being near the aliens, enthusiastically sent out a call for volunteers. By the end of three of Zahn's daily cycles, there were thousands of applicants and fights were well underway.

In cleared, designated patches of dry sand, because the Astartes would be damned if they allowed Xenos on any of the Emperor's vessels, tens of silent marines, hundreds of cheering auxiliaries, and thousands of whooping Zahgun gathered to surround and watch two combatants try their damnedest to tear each other apart. An ancient, time-honoured tradition among the aliens and much-needed stress relief for the marines, the rules dictated neither was to be armed or assisted by any members of the crowd under pain of death-by-dismemberment. Because the Zahgun considered the marine's power armour to be equivalent to a shell, or that it was their shell, researchers aren't yet sure, the marines were allowed to grapple with them in full kit, to devastating effect. To date, there have been hundreds of Zahgun casualties and not a single marine has suffered a major injury. Rather than cause a lack of Zahgun volunteers, this seems to have had the opposite effect and further, the news has convinced some aliens of the Chapter's martial prowess. For his part, Bulvak, who insisted on fighting them naked, so as to truly prove mankind's superiority, has twenty-eight confirmed kills, a few fresh scars, and a change of mind. Now, where he used to rant about the Xenos' hideousness, he speaks of their virtues, of how their third and fourth hooks tend to catch him by surpise, of how it takes his full upper body strength to rupture a shell, and of how mankind could learn a thing or two from their lack of fear.

Indeed, he seems to have grown fond of the Zahgun by their skill in battle and some of this has rubbed off on the Chapter, who've begun to refer to them by affectionate nicknames, such as "mini-russes," "death-spitters," and "fit for later extermination." A few have started to express interest in fielding them with auxiliaries in combined-arms exercises and Bulvak is the foremost among them, insisting they'll provide an example for the men to aspire toward. You deem that, while a certain tolerance of the Xenos is what you wanted to happen and killing handfuls of them is perfectly acceptable, he and the 9th company have started doing so without your permission. This demands a response.

Sanction the Zahgun-Fighters of the 9th company Their open disregard for your authority as Chapter Master is unacceptable, the fights will stop immediately, and they will be transferred back to answer for their reckless behavior.
Recall Bulvak to the Fortress-Monastery for Disciplinary Measures: His intentions may have been in the right place but there is a structure of command for a reason and he would do well to obey it. By the end of one Terran year he should be ready to reintegrate into a different company and resume his duties.
Grant Your Permission For The Fights: If they're popular with the Chapter and with the Xenos, and make for practical combat experience as well as bettering interspecies relations, you don't see any reason they shouldn't continue. In particular, you'll commend Bulvak for the idea, as this type of initiative in the rank-and-file is vital.

When all is said and done, you turn your attention to the management of the empire. More than anything, you're really liking the heightened income.

How do you want to start spending it?

Spoiler:  1st Fleet (Orbiting Death World #14/2- Antwir) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  2nd Fleet (Orbiting Xenos World #10/2) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  3rd Fleet (Exploring the Outer Nebula) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  4th Fleet (Orbiting Death World #14/2- Antwir)(Under Command of 7th Company and Circle of Prognosticators) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  5th Fleet (Traveling to Feral World #7/3- Overlook) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  In Reserve (Mothballed on Death World #14/2- Antwir) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  Full Might of the Chapter's Armada (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The Sentinels of The Watchtower (1,056 Marines, 80 Scouts, 55 Neophytes, 136 Implant-Aspirants) (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The Holdings of The Watchtower (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  Construction Projects (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Resource Income (click to show/hide)

7
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 13, 2022, 05:28:38 pm »
Quote from: Egan_BW on February 12, 2022, 04:47:26 pm
CRUSH HIS HEAD.

When a part is broken, you remove it, destroy it. The remainder of his components may still prove useful, and there's no need to expend ammunition on destroying our own precious power armor.
Quote from: Maximum Spin on February 12, 2022, 04:57:29 pm
If nobody is into servitorization then I will back skull-crushing, for the record.
Quote from: Madman198237 on February 12, 2022, 06:41:31 pm
I kind of want to go for skull-crushing to spare his power armor the damage but also really don't want to find out if there's a chance for it to go wrong.

Ehh whatever we'll repair his armor, it's what we do. The GM makes some good points about the tiny risk.


Crush his skull and spare the armor.
Quote from: King Zultan on February 13, 2022, 04:18:21 am
CRUSH HIS SKULL!

In an effort of will, you steel your nerves and becalm the frenzy rising in your veins. You lower the Eye of Death, sliding it over your shoulder as the High Prognosticator and Master of Sanctity glance to you, anticipation and doubt warring beneath their angry visors. The Fallen Astartes meets your gaze without hesitation. Even now, the courage that hypnotherapy yields hasn't left him. Your voice is of a slow, brewing wrath. "YOU ARE NOT YET BEYOND FORGIVENESS. REMOVE YOUR HELMET AND KNEEL BEFORE ME, AS CHAPTER MASTER OF THE WATCHTOWER." He moves slowly, deliberately, unfastening his helmet and tossing it onto the sleeping rack. His eyes are anxious, deferent, he feels he has made no mistake but to reveal himself. You know better. He sinks to a knee and looks down, the image of false piety- as your twin servo-arms lunge from your shoulders and seize his skull. He gasps despite himself, "N-NO!" as both clamp, squeezing onto his skull with ceramite cracking force. A storm of hammering pistons screams out as he howls in pain and desperate, blasphemous prayer. "ENLIGHTENED ONES! TAKE ME NO- AAAAAAGHAAAAGHK!" The whirring turns to crunching, and his liar's tongue is incapable of anymore than a deathly wail as his temples cave in, meeting one another amid his grey matter and shattering into so much gory shrapnel. You look down at the Fallen carcass in scorn. The first of your Fallen. You pray to the Emperor it will be your last. Both of the others look to you as you speak, addressing the living and dead alike.

"FOR SUCH SINS, ONLY IN DEATH CAN THERE BE REDEMPTION." The Master of Sanctity nods in approval, slinging his own bolter rifle over his shoulders. "Well spoken, Chapter Master." Nens Nende taps his staff to the ground, contemplating, and shakes his head. "There are no further signs, brothers. The threat his Heresy posed is gone." Your servo-arms retract back into position as you examine the chamber. "I'll tend to his armour. The body and its gene-seed, to the scalpels. Everything in this chamber will be burnt, melted into slag, and recommissioned when it has been exorcised and blessed... Twice over. The Sentinels can afford no chances." The High Prognosticator nods sagely. "Wisdom. I will return to my meditations, then." The Master of Sanctity looks down at the carcass. "And I will start mine. To let a Heretic creep into the very chaplaincy is an unforgiveable failing and not only to the 3rd company, but to the Chapter. The contrition in me knows no bounds. When I've finished my period of fasting and prayer, the shame here will be commemorated on my flesh in ink, so that I will never forget." The fires of zeal burn hot in you but they are cold beside the chaplain-of-chaplains. "Your faith is an inspiration to us all, brother." None of you have anything more to say, so you go about the process of cleaning your mess.

After that's done, word spreads through the Chapter that you discovered a Heretic among their number and crushed his skull without hesitation. This has gone a small way toward renewing their trust in you as Chapter Master after openly assimilating the alien (not in the least because of the High Prognosticator and Master of Sanctity's refusal to reveal your previous failure to uncover the truth) but it will take time to fully renew the loyalty that came so fiercely, not so long ago. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd companies are filled with paranoia and are frantic to prove their devotion. You doubt there are any more Heretics among them and if there are, the Master of Sanctity should do well to root them out. You ponder how the Chapter might decrease the likelihood of individual Astartes, whole squads, or Emperor forbid, entire companies Falling to the Ruinous Powers and dwell on several possibilities but deem that you can't implement much in the way of structural changes until the full force of the Chapter is gathered.

You return your attention to your crafts and take solace in the thought that no treachery of the Warp can reach you here, surrounded by gears and wires.

By the Terran Calendar: 36,133.5k

It's two months later that you return to System #14 and the Fortress-Monastery on Death World #14/2- Antwir. In a thankful progression of events, the time you spent in the Warp seems to match the local chronology. As the empire grows, time-keeping will become more complicated. 1st Fleet arrives at the edge of scanner-range, augurs at full-bore, before determining it's safe to proceed. It appears 2nd Fleet arrived some time before yours and in your absence, the 10th company captain has opted to mothball both the 3rd Strike Cruiser and 3rd Gladius Frigate. That was perhaps a practical decision, as the first thing you realize on your return is that there's been a predictable, perhaps inevitable, loss of vital resources. Because the Chapter is the closest thing there is to a bank, there's no "debt" that must be paid but the reality of the situation is that your fleets have been drawing on too much in their need of industrial upkeep for the population of your worlds to fully support them. The stores have run dry and there's been a clean two months without proper maintenance of your vessels. Of course, human engineering, especially in this day and age, is built-to-last and can endure for some time without risk but the longer you wait, the likelier something is to break, and that will be expensive to fix. You scowl at the tithe-listings and come to the uneasy conclusion that if you don't do something, the sooner the better, logistics will be a deadlier peril to your Chapter than the Heretic ever could've been. As is, you roll the scroll and turn your attention to what's been happening in your absence.

The 2nd Fleet have gathered a frankly... substantial amount of data on the Gremlins that your predecessor, Chapter Master Zaphiel, overlooked and are eager to show you their findings but the 7th company captain has some good news and some bad news to inform you of. You opt to hear out the latter first and he explains that in the first month after you left, the 7th company made an excellent find: a tremendous chunk of rubble that could be put to practical use. (+108 Resources) You aren't too impressed but you could be far more disappointed. Given the Chapter's logistical failings, the 7th company captain opted to hold it in storage for your return. He also informs you that in the third month after you left, while you would be in return from System #10, the company's 6th squad was caught under a sudden tunnel collapse. Most managed to escape, but one was crushed under several tons of ancient rockcrete, one's hand was trapped and had to be amputated, and one's helmet was shattered inward by a tremendous stone. The two wounded should survive, the amputee will need some help (5-100 Resources, depending on quality) to get an augmetic replacement for his hand and the other will live, his face has just been mangled beyond recognition. Both will take a few months to recover. You thank the 7th company captain for his work and go to meet the 10th company to talk over what he's found.

You see he's holding a little green man in his hand, by its arm, dangling over the floor of the 3rd Strike Cruiser. Its face is twisted into a mask of rage that's worsened when he pokes it in the belly. You notice a severe bruise is already forming over that. "The Xenos are frail, Chapter Master. Feeble, feckless. I'd say they were worthless if I hadn't seen what they could do myself." You stare down at the Gremlin and go into a conversation with the 10th company captain, most of its techmarines, and everyone that could theoretically hold a small, sharp blade steady and identify what organs maybe did what. Their discoveries are most informative. You already know that the Xenos are small, weak, soft, and no threat to mankind but for their minds but the Chapter has dug deeper and found more. Apparently, Gremlins lack a digestive system entirely, instead having a pitiful, pouch-like sack in lieu of a stomach, that fills with spores that are almost as quickly shunted up to their toothless mouths by a gas-bladder mechanism and exhaled out, usually by breathing and when it's backed-up or they're under severe duress, fits of coughing that don't seem to disturb them. Notably, this means that they lack genitals or any form of an exit-chute, as it were, and has somewhat mystified the Chapter's improvised researchers.

They possess three separate internal lungs and these function on alternating shifts, two lying dormant at any given time while the third manages the creature's needs. They're comparable in-size to human lungs despite the diminutive frames of the aliens, which means they are able to hold their breaths for a very long time and more frustratingly, to scream for minutes on end. Unlike humans, whose superior bodies won't tolerate the shame for long and demand to stop and breathe. All of this means that their internals are freakishly alien but after seeing the inhabitants of #10/2 firsthand, you aren't much phased. The Gremlins are supposedly extremely fast to bleed-out when severely punctured and can, if struck at the correct angle, burst like a balloon. Their sense of touch is no more developed than humanity's but their sense of taste is nonexistent and their sense of smell vestigial. Fascinating. The most fundamental difference between these aliens and humanity is that the constant urge to eat and reproduce, that humanity might demonstrate and expand its righteous dominion over nature, is absent. Far from leaving them lethargic, however, they seem to have substituted these driving forces with a philosophy that they cling to with unquestioning determination. This is curious, leading the Astartes to conclude that in the lack of an innate, natural meaning that demands to be satisfied, they've introduced artificial meaning and hold it to the same importance.

That could be useful, if you could orient it toward yourselves and your own ends. The Chapter did manage to seize a handful of swollen, fleshy growths in the soil that, when cut open, revealed a handful of lumps they initially mistook for tumors or fruits, until recognizing some developing features of grown Gremlins. From what they've found, they've pieced together that the spores they continually release drift on the wind and when one lands on a patch of nutrient-rich soil, it begins to grow an aboveground womb that takes 6-10 Terran months to mature, conditions depending, before rupturing to release two or three of the aliens, fully grown but illiterate, incapable of speech, and driven to learn as much as possible about the world around them. Their manner of reproduction is horrendously inefficient by human standards as the spore-womb has no means of protection from predators and there's no way for the initial spore-releaser to plan where one emerges or to track it themselves, so the Gremlins have a tendency to constantly search for new wombs, defend them once they're found, and adopt whatever individuals emerge from them. In this respect, they're remarkably tolerant of strangers but have a total lack of a non-communal family unit, and have constant, bloodthirsty skirmishes between tribes that share different philosophies of such vicious, primal loathing, they'd doubtlessly leave numerous individuals mutilated if their bodies weren't too frail for most to survive even moderate excruciation. There are a number of cripples who cling to life with an admirable tenacity, however, and the workgremlinship of their weapons is impressive. They're primitive, yes, flint, wood, and brittle, spongy bone, but the amount of detail that's gone into them is genuinely, if only slightly, impressive and they're of a cultural complexity that's usually reserved for populations nearing the renaissance era in humans. The 10th company brought back a few dozen survivors if you have anything you'd like to try yourself. They've had to be kept separate due to the random tendency of some to lapse into internecine massacres. 10th company thinks this is philosophical and not biological but can't be completely sure. Not for the first time, you lament the loss of the Chapter's Apothecaries.

You turn your attention to the workings of the Chapter itself. Even if the tithe-increase of Civilized World #5/5- designated Kauril under the Imperium, nicknamed Hardwater by most of the locals after it joined the Chapter in revolt, were successful, you wouldn't be aware until the 4th Fleet and 5th company returns. You have a hunch they did well but an infuriating inability to truly confirm. You wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to establish a permanent Astartes garrison on the Civilized World or a Chapter Fortress, but if you did this with every planet you controlled, you'd spend more time building defenses than expanding. Part of you does like the idea. Part of you wants to scour the Nebula and strip it of anything of worth. Maybe you could do both.

What do you want to do for the 6th month of your rule?

As always, the administrative scrolls await your perusal.

Spoiler:  1st Fleet (Orbiting Death World #14/2- Antwir) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  2nd Fleet (Orbiting Xenos World #10/2) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  3rd Fleet (Exploring the Outer Nebula) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  4th Fleet (Traveling to Planet #14/2) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  5th Fleet (Orbiting Death World #14/2- Antwir)(Under Command of 7th Company and Circle of Prognosticators) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  6th Fleet (Orbiting Death World #14/2- Antwir) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  In Reserve (Mothballed on Death World #14/2- Antwir) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  Full Might of the Chapter's Armada (click to show/hide)

You pass over the assorted Fleets and look to the Chapter, your gene-brothers.

Spoiler: The Sentinels of The Watchtower (1,056 Marines, 80 Scouts, 55 Neophytes, 136 Implant-Aspirants) (click to show/hide)

You consider the foundation of The Watchtower, its Astartes, and turn to the less glorious but no less necessary management of its empire.

Spoiler: The Holdings of The Watchtower (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Resource Income (click to show/hide)

8
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 12, 2022, 01:58:48 pm »
Quote from: King Zultan on February 12, 2022, 04:19:14 am
It seems EuchreJack's plan has gone very wrong.


I also think the High Prognosticator Involved should get involved.
Quote from: Man of Paper on February 12, 2022, 10:28:40 am
I think we should execute him and ensure selfinserts don’t try to derail our glorious budding empire anymore
Quote from: m1895 on February 12, 2022, 12:06:17 pm
Quote from: Glass on February 12, 2022, 11:19:42 am
Quote from: Egan_BW on February 12, 2022, 03:18:53 am
These matters are not to be taken lightly. Get the High Prognosticator Involved.
+1
+1

Your suspicions confirmed, you grit your teeth and slip the Eye of Death from your shoulder. The Master of Sanctity lets you near the door and stops you with a word. "Chapter Master, we must be sure." You snarl, the noise more growl than speech. "Nens Nende." He says not a word and follows you, his own bolter rifle in his hands. Both of you practice rigid trigger and barrel discipline, even in the midst of your fury. It is too sacred an instrment of war and your training too thorough to forget. The High Prognosticator meets you both in the hall. His helmet is fastened and the staff in his hands clenched with spine-snapping strength. His voice is sharp. "Brother Talnior, Brother Chaplain. I foresaw your arrival. We have no time to waste."

Less than ten minutes later, you've stormed into the chaplain's chambers and have him at boltgun-point. He's in his armour, perhaps he was expecting your arrival but his bolter rifle is on its rack, a galaxy away from his trigger finger. No-one says a word as the High Prognosticator steps forward, places his palm onto the Astartes' head, and mutters ancient words of holy power. The warmth is sucked from the air, replaced by an unseen shadow and there, on the place where the High Prognosticator's palm meets the 3rd company chaplain's helmet, monumental tension simmers and surges. After a minute, he releases and the air snaps back to normalcy. Nens stares with the same intensity. "FILTH. Were I not wearing my helmet and cowl, I would spit upon you. Brothers, this man is a Heretic." You sense if it were not for your gene-augments you would be reeling in nausea but as is, you stomach it and pointedly stop practicing trigger discipline. "How so?" The High Prognosticator hasn't moved a muscle. "In his twin hearts, he has abandoned the Emperor and sends his prayers to whatever will listen in the Warp. He has found nothing, knows nothing, but for months he has harboured fantasies of undermining the Chapter's authority, leading his gene-brothers in revolt, and bringing all that we have made to ruin. It is my opinion that he is beyond redemption... but the judgement isn't mine to make." The Master of Sanctity's voice is filled with righteous fury. "Brother Talnior..."

You decide how he's to be dealt with. On some level, you recognize this will set a precedent but here and now, your frenzied zeal cares not for such petty considerations.

Immediate Execution: You'll pull the trigger and the Master of Sanctity will follow. A death by boltguns is more than a Heretic deserves but it will end the threat.
Thrown out of an Airlock: He will be stripped of his power armour and confined. The moment you've left the Warp he'll feel the void's embrace.
Beaten to Death: The Astartes of 3rd company failed to see the spark of Heresy among them. They will snuff it out before the gathered 1st and 2nd companies, by hand and by foot.
Set Abalze: The promethium is less holy to you than it is to some, this is a worthwhile use of your reserves and a fiery example of the fruits of betrayal.
Crush His Skull: You will remove his helmet and then your servo-arms will crush the Heretic's skull into powder. The sacred bolter rifle is more than the deserves.
The Scalpels' Mercies: Your lack of an Apothecarion is a sore loss to the healing of wounds but many of your gene-brothers are well-familiar with their making. His Astartes' body should hold for weeks.
Living Servitorization: To execute him quickly is a kindness he does not deserve. He is to be stripped of his armor and confined until your rearrival at Antwir, where the Master of the Forge can begin his bloody work.
Psycho-Restructuring: Clearly the hypno-indoctrination wasn't thorough enough. He's yet to act on his whims or be tainted by them. For now, he's to be demoted and sent in for a long, slow reeducation at the Fortress-Monastery.

9
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 12, 2022, 04:07:05 am »
Quote from: EuchreJack on February 12, 2022, 03:39:30 am
So, could someone give me a primer on Proper Space Marine Procedure in a Renegade Chapter?
Apparently, your dumb Chaplain doesn't know it.
I mean, what exactly should I be doing with my Chaplain?
Why does everything I do get me investigated?

Seriously, WTF? Am I not entitled to participate in any way?
(There is no proper procedure for a Renegade Space Marine Chapter, as they are Renegades and beholden to none but themselves. Likewise with the chaplain, there's nothing wrong with a Chaos-worshiping Astartes, even one attempting to spread their corruption- as it is a staple for 40k- but your first move was to ask the Chapter Master to transfer 20 veterans from 7th company to 3rd company and 20 new marines for vice versa, which caused a vote from the Chapter Master/thread's perspective on what to do about that, as it's liokely something he would've done something about. There was then a roll to determine how the investigation went, with the chaplain failing to convince the Chapter Master he had nothing to hide on a 6 to the Chapter's 17, and then persuading him that his faith was uncompromised on a 19. After that, the chaplain was in the clear and could've done any number of things. He could've communicated with his less experienced battle brothers and slowly swayed them over to his way of thinking, he could've started weaving subtle messages of Ruinous praise into his regular sermons, he could've started outright used his sway to subtly start a cult in the Battle Barge's mortal crew and/or auxiliaries, he could've attempted to deepen his connection to Nurgle through prayer, he could've gathered rotting material to attempt a ritual of devotion, among any number of things, but he chose to write a letter to the Master of Sanctity, whose entire purpose in the Chapter is finding Heresy, who is the most knowledgeable of Heresy, and whose entire basis of holding the position is an extreme paranoia of Heresy, asking him which of the four Chaos Gods' main, positive portfolio aspects should and should not be emphasized, as well as asking about the state of the (correct) rumour of the Chapter wanting to find and train mortal psykers for their use, and implying that he wanted to take part in that. The only reason the Master of Sanctity hasn't immediately assumed Heresy is that the chaplain sent him, the Chapter's par-none number #1, Lectitio-Divinitatus-thumping, firebreathing, living-and-breathing-to-serve-the-Emperor fanatic, the letter, which makes no sense from a Heretical perspective. I have no bias for or against Heresy, but that is the reddest flag to be found outside of Khorne's war-room he could've waved in front of the Master of Sanctity.

Neither were metagaming, the Chapter Master absolutely would have investigated a sudden request for a troop-transfer from a company's religious councilor, and the Master of Sanctity absolutely would have gone to the Chapter Master to discuss a letter that's dripping with minor Chaotic influences. I'm genuinely befuddled why you thought that asking the Master of Sanctity to give his opinions on which Ruinous virtues, and following that with the rumour of psykers, was a good idea. On a sidenote, I would've accepted PMs of secret and/or objectionable actions here or on discord at any point, though I should've been more upfront about that, but nothing that anyone, from the Chapter Master on high to the lowest Zapgun in the mud, does is metagaming. I encourage anyone reading this thread to participate, and stress that anyone is entitled to participate, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the Chapter won't respond as makes sense, in-character, in accordance to their previously established personalities and lore, both of this thread and of the wider context in-setting. I've personally found the idea of a Heretic secretly attempting to subvert the Chapter an interesting additional layer- it could make for an excellent arc and/or recurring problem if it was planned well and/or sunk deeply enough and/or escaped, but... why would you start from the top-down, with a blatant power-grab for the 3rd company and then a blatant probe of which flavour of Heresy is most palatable for the Master of Sanctity? I just don't understand, man.)

10
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 12, 2022, 03:05:08 am »
Quote from: EuchreJack on February 11, 2022, 03:22:45 pm
Quote from: 3rd Company Chaplain inquiry to Master of Sanctity
Your Eminence, I inquire as to how you wish me to proceed with instruction of our Brothers in my Company.  This newness has inspired...questions.  I dare not give answers without first humbly seeking your guidance.
Which of these principles should or should not have sway in the coming years:
1) Ingenuity
2) Perfection
3) Valor
4) Resilience
How should our chapter view Psychers:
Scorned, Reviled, Tolerated, Accepted, Encouraged, or Revered? Or some other more appropriate word(s)?
I humbly leave it to you whether our Esteemed Chapter Master's valuable time would be worth consulting on these issues.  I also heard a rumor that our Chapter may be seeking to further instruction of gifted citizens on our worlds.  I am unsure of the accuracy of these rumors, hence I am bringing them to your attention.  I am unsure what role the Chapter's Chaplains may play in this task, if the Chapter seeks to pursue this path.  We do aid our Brothers in discipline and teaching.
Your Humble Servant,
EuchreJack

As the Battle Barge drifts through the numberless terrors of the Warp, ensconced in the ever-necessary, ever-essential gellar field, the Master of Sanctity, foremost fanatic of the faith, trained, tested, yet to be tried in sniffing out the taint of Heresy, sits silently in his personal prayer nook. He sits, more still than a graven statue, looking down at the letter between his hands. He rubs his thumb into his non-weary eyes, scraping the corners of any trace of possible contaminant which could possibly be deceiving his senses, and stares down at the letter, once more. His eyes, harder than adamantine, slowly, surely, drift once more over the parchment with a smouldering heat fiercer than that of an overcharged plasma pistol. Finally, he exhales, having confirmed that his mind is in fact in full-functioning, and that this parchment below him, from the chaplain he personally vouched for and selected among many others, does in fact say what he thought it said and could not at first bring himself to believe. The Master of Sanctity rises to his feet and trudges through the corridors with unhurried, unflinching purpose, until he reaches the quarters of the Chapter Master, opens the door using his emergency personal code, and stops a frustrated Talnior dead in his tracks by flashing the letter. He watches his gene-brother's eyes dart down to see the sender, so soon after his investigation, and sink, perturbed.

A short, to-the-point discussion of that which should not be discussed commences.

Get the High Prognosticator Involved
Talk to the 3rd Company Chaplain Yourselves
...Let It Slide, Send Him A Letter of Response

11
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 12, 2022, 02:36:19 am »
Quote from: Egan_BW on February 11, 2022, 12:54:22 pm
Leave in orbit [strike cruiser 1] Emperor's Spleen and Warmonger, carrying 9th company, 2 units of auxiliaries, the prognosticator, and a techmarine or two.

Leave on the surface whoever among the crew and auxiliaries will volunteer to live among and rule the Zahgun.

Instruct the prognosticator and 9th company captain to help our mortal volunteers with learning the language and whatever else they need help with.
Quote from: Madman198237 on February 11, 2022, 01:31:04 pm
Spoiler: Lengthy Plan, Sorry (click to show/hide)

OK that got ridiculously long, but I want this thing to run on autopilot for awhile so that we don't need to be constantly revisiting them. The tithes they'll send will be, if I understand correctly, initially very small, but any bit helps at the moment.

You spend the better part of a Terran day contemplating the proper course of action, sequestered deep within your quarters, and come to the conclusion that the Zo, the Za-... the Xenos, shouldn't be left alone. If they are to be assimilated, if they are to be yours to control, they must likewise be yours to defend, and to that end, you inform the fleet, Chapter, crew, and auxiliaries all of your intentions. The results are mixed. When you leave and walk through the Battle Barge, the fire in the eyes of the Astartes, awed at their new Chapter Master, has flickered into doubt, and you know that you have overestimated their willingness to know the alien, so that mankind might subdue it and the alien thus serve mankind in life, rather than in death. You expected a handful, even most, but every one save for Audenach seems to feel the same, burning revulsion to them and their reverence toward your position dampened by proximity. This is a worrying development. Word will doubtlessly spread through the Chapter and may lead to a loss of trust in you, unless the fires are stoked and kept alive, until you can find fuel to make them blaze once again. 9th company has no outward complaints, nor does the Prognosticator or the second that you allowed him the choice, to relieve him of his duties from time to time, nor do the techmarines who have been tasked to, worse than to salvage but to uplift the Xenos, but you know that within their souls they stew with hate. A burning malice and loathing for the alien and for its works, but for now, their oathbound duty to the Chapter and by extension, to you, is far stronger. In time, you hope you can bring them around to your way of thinking.

The crew of over four-hundred thousand souls who've spent years, if not decades at a time confined almost entirely within the cramped, lightless and labyrinthine hulls of your assorted vessels, prove more receptive to the good news. They muster a full total of 800 souls, genuinely willing and able to set foot on alien soil and reshaping their savage society. You can't help subconsciously doing the math. Of the roughly 410,100 men, women, and children scattered across six ships, 800 were willing, 0.0019% of your total crew were willing to set foot on the Xenos' rock. You let them go and are thankful that many agreed. You don't expect them to martyr themselves attempting to purge the Xenos by hand but you wouldn't be surprised if they were to make the attempt. By the Emperor, looking at the Xenos from a personal perspective, completely divorced from their utility, you can't blame them. The shelled, glistening horrors bring your twin hearts to spasm in revulsion. Among the auxiliaries you're expecting no better reception and... are promptly surprised by the quarter-of-a-million hardened souls throwing themselves at the feet of any Astartes they can see and scraping and begging at the tops of their lungs to garrison the planet. They scrape and cry, grown warriors who've seen sights that would've crippled lesser men in fear and fought them, all, reduced to wailing, clinging to your power armoured boots, all discipline lost, desperately pleading for the chance to be left here, on this sweltering hellhole, anywhere but Antwir.

This is utterly universal among them. You attempt to make them see reason, to know the true perfidy of the Xenos abominations, but they are completely unmoved. You try to tell them of their malice, of their inhumanity, they tell you of wild-eyed cannibals and needle-tongued eye-gougers waiting to spring out of the burst-weed bushes. You make a last, desperate resort, and repeat their responsibilities, their duties to steward and guide forth a kindred utterly unknown to man, and they reassure you, tears in their eyes, voices cracking from overexertion, screaming in the hoarse lunacy of a cornered ape, that they are far lesser, far gentler than the ordeal of boiling drinking water back on the nightmare that is Death World #14/2. Eventually, you stop using your servo-arms to peel them off of you and on realizing that there's no other way to dissuade them or prevent them from knifing each other's backs and tearing each other's throats out over a perceived limited amount of places, you make a drastic decision, and hold a raffle. It is completely impartial, completely orderly, and there is no cheating or refusal to participate. All auxiliaries in the 1st Fleet take a raffle ticket and all draw them, under the sight of the Astartes' boltguns, and file into two separate groups, one despondent as though the souls were drained from their once-human husks, one in the same, rapturous state of joy as a pilgrim being told they were en-route to Terra, to there gaze on the Golden Throne.

By the end of the entire ordeal, you're starting to wonder whether or not it's worth it to keep a permanent human population on Death World #14/2- Antwir, but then you remember how effective they're projected to be in combat and rebuke the atrophied remains of your empathetic conscience. Soon enough, the humans, 50,800 of them, from various places and a very narrow range of backgrounds, are disembarked onto the surface, along with the two Prognosticators. The rest of the Astartes of 9th company are firmly rooted in The Emperor's Spleen and refuse to budge from that place. (With one, quietly foot-tapping exception.) Alongside it are The Warmonger and The Gilded Rider, both instructed to manage the Xenos World's logistical affairs and if need be, its defense. The remainder of the fleet propels itself to the edge of the system, not looking back, and shifts into the Warp. You contemplate all that has come to pass over these last two months, and shake your head, because there is nothing else you could've done to safeguard what space the Chapter holds. Deep inside of yourself, you sit at your workbench, buried subconscious stirring, staring down at the Xenos' "shellcracker" pattern rifle bullet, and dare not think it aloud. Do these aliens deserve a planet to call their own, too?

All that's left is to wait...

12
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 11, 2022, 05:31:37 pm »
Quote from: Madman198237 on February 11, 2022, 04:23:01 pm
Ork stuff is not really technologically advanced, it is in fact not technology at all, just random bits of stuff held together with duct tape and literal belief. Stealing it would come with a risk of infecting our worlds with Ork spores, too.
(In all fairness, Ork tellyportas are head-and-shoulders above what every other major race can muster in that department, Imperial DAoT relics and Dark Eldar hypertech excepted. Ork technology is ramshackle and primitive to the extent it's more on par with an amped-up tweaker disassembling washing machines and attempting to put them back together than it is equivalent to the Adeptus Mechanicus, but it works, most of the time, sometimes, and their subconscious Waaaaaagh-field makes it work well. Orkish vessels tend to be short-ranged, slow, and flimsy relative to the Imperium's fleet, but they have a surprisingly high firepower within that range and more importantly, are cheap. Orkish ships are cheaper upfront, cost a fraction of their Imperium-equivalent tonnage to maintain, and if left to gather into a proper WAAAAAAAGH, can amass frightening numbers. There's a reason the Tyranids have decided not to threaten your worlds until the Orkz are dealt with. Spore infection is a very real possibility, and is hell to get rid of once established but a latent Feral Ork population can also make for a more combat-hardened population, so it's something of a tradeoff. Of course, as an Astartes, you would prefer the Orkz be doused in promethium and set alight but they won't make it easy.)

Quote from: Glass on February 11, 2022, 04:26:18 pm
The first part isn't a 100% thing, and different authors have had it anywhere from "it's just junk duct-taped together" to "it's legit technology, it's just that it works much better when the ork field thing can apply to it, but humans can technically make use of it". It's ultimately up to TW, and I think they've mentioned a distaste for the extremities of "magic ork tech" stuff.
The latter issue - spore infection - is probably the larger worry.

(I lean more toward the latter myself but in a WAAAAAAAGH of sufficient momentum and magnitude, there's nothing to prevent an overexcited Ork from mistaking a rock for a grenade, throwing it into a crowd, and causing it to explode a few seconds later. It's not something Orkz can consciously do because they aren't aware of it, to them it's just how the WAAAAAAAGH is. To the Ork, that rock must've always been a grenade, and for the unfortunates caught in the blast-radius, there's enough shouting musclebound, green soccer/football-hooligans in the proxomity to see the rock in the air and assume it's a grenade, to devastating effect. Orkz casually warping reality on a large scale, outside of Weirdboyz channeling Gork and/or Mork and/or Gorkamorka, is what I disagree with, personally. I feel like it cheapens Orkz to a degree.)

13
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 11, 2022, 01:23:39 am »
Quote from: Egan_BW on February 10, 2022, 06:46:54 pm
Requesting fleet data update.

Likely will leave behind a few ships and a company to oversee the integration.

(You are currently in control of 1st Fleet, consisting of the 1st Unnamed Battle Barge, 1st and 2nd Unnamed Strike Cruisers, Warmonger, the 2nd Unnamed Gladius Frigate, and the 1st Unnamed Nova Frigate, altogether consisting of 1 Battle Barge, 2 Strike Cruisers, 2 Gladius Frigates, and 1 Nova Frigate. Between them are Companies 1-3 and 9, as well as 10 units of Antwir Auxiliaries, each consisting of 25,000 Death Worlders equipped with Crude Autoguns and Fatigues, and a noncombatant crew complement of roughly 410,100 souls. Any of which can be left on the planet to garrison or settle. A ship can function at 75% of its crew capacity without issues, 50% with some noticeable problems, and 25% with a severe loss of combat and void readiness. Among them, there are doubtless at least a handful of men and women willing to volunteer themselves to colonize the salty marshes of the Zoguwn and lead them into the empire.)

Spoiler:  1st Fleet (Orbiting Planet #10/2) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  2nd Fleet (Traveling to Planet #7/2) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  3rd Fleet (Exploring the Outer Nebula) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  4th Fleet (Traveling to Planet #5/5) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  5th Fleet (Orbiting Death World #14/2- Antwir)(Under Command of 7th Company and Circle of Prognosticators) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  6th Fleet (Orbiting Death World #14/2- Antwir) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  In Reserve (Mothballed on Death World #14/2- Antwir) (click to show/hide)
Spoiler:  Full Might of the Chapter's Armada (click to show/hide)

(Concerning the Small Crude Shipyard's upfront cost and limitations, if you were to spend 100 Resources to construct it, then take a Gladius Cruiser costing 4,000 Resources (not counting the 2,000 Terran months or 166 Terran years of assembly at the lowest level of industrial refinement possible, assuming no further Resource investment on top of that) to manufacture, and set it on the Shipyard, its maintenance costs of -40 Resources per month would be reduced to only -4 Resources per month. In terms of Resources saved, assuming that the Gladius Cruiser were the only vessel docked there, the maintenance costs saved will have more than paid for the station's manufacture within 3 Terran months. Everything after that is pure profit. In the same vein, nothing prevents you from constructing more than one shipyard capable of churning out Freighters/Escorts at the same time, although adding docks may be more cost-effective if you don't intend to grow your fleet for the time being or have other plans to do so.

These shipbuilding costs, in Resources and in time, may seem excessive but one of the biggest parts of the setting is that shipbuilding is extremely difficult to do. If you have your techmarines and mortal followers, this can be outsourced, researching blasphemy to the omnissiah more efficient means of manufacture than doing almost everything by hand, this can be reduced significantly. Coming to understand the mechanisms and manufacture of almost any form of old technology, or even new technology, is possible, as long as you're able to invest the time and effort into (re)discovering them.

In regards to Navigators, your Armada currently has (at a guaranteed 1 per Battle Barge and subsequent 2d6+4) 13 Navigators scattered through the fleet. That's 1 Navigator per Battle Barge and enough leftover to give every ship currently in the Warp an active Navigator. You're much more fortunate than most Renegades. These have been forced into towing the line at various points and may, given sufficient time, reproduce and train a new generation of Navigators but in the extremely long-term, this closed gene-pool could lead to their descendants degrading and becoming non-functional. You can always attempt to acquire more Navigators and potentially gather enough to form your own Renegade Navigator House, but Navigators are extremely high-priority individuals for the Imperium and such an ambition becoming known could lead to problems. Navigators are not 100% essential to traveling through the Warp, they're only essential for doing it safely between distant systems. With a Navigator at the helm, the individual likelihood of a ship suffering the Perils of the Warp are 1-in-1,000, without a Navigator, they are lowered to 1-in-100. These may seem like insignificant odds, but they worsen when the Warp is unstable and over the course of enough traveling, a ship without a Navigator is far likelier to suffer serious consequences at one point or another. None of the Freighters of the Chapter's small tithe-fleet have Navigators at the helm, they're only following pre-charted Warp routes to minimize the risks and hoping for the best. So far, it's worked for them and their patrons in The Watchtower, for the most part. These could be mustered into combat as a handful of fragile, weak vessels that could possibly turn the tide of a pitched conflict, but doing so would also interrupt your tithe collection and consequential Resource gain.)

Quote from: Madman198237 on February 11, 2022, 01:15:08 am
For the love of goodness stop with the Chaos nonsense, you're just going to cost us time, resources, and the dwindling shreds of my patience.

I'm thinking two or three of our frigates left behind to keep watch and serve as support for the Marines on the ground. Much as I'd hate to leave two Prognosticators that is a possibility as well, if for no other reason than it allows them to take dealing with the Xenos in shifts.

We need to get some new psykers so that someone OTHER than incredibly valuable Marines can tackle these mundane duties. That or just learn their language, I guess. Actually, let's make sure that we have some of the officers aboard the frigates we leave learn said language, or maybe we've got somebody else somewhere who'd be more suited and, again, isn't an incredibly valuable Marine?

(There are plenty of noncombatant crew, some of whom are quite intelligent and/or lack the Astartes' reflexive hate for the Xenos. The Adeptus Econometrica informs you that a few thousands or tens of thousands could in theory immediately jumpstart the Full Integration process and be replaced from either Civilized World #5/5's or Death World #14/2- Antwir's population bases without much hassle.)

14
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 10, 2022, 06:14:08 pm »
Quote from: Man of Paper on February 09, 2022, 03:21:18 pm
Attempt full integration. Everyone's alike enough that they should get along juuuust fine.
Quote from: Glass on February 09, 2022, 09:07:12 pm
Quote from: Madman198237 on February 09, 2022, 08:45:24 pm
Launch an Inquiry, of course
Integration but only by having a human "upper class" of leaders and technical experts to manage the aspects of their society they struggle to, mitigating their disadvantages (no experienced souls, not very bright, being xenos) by providing them with human advantages (being smart, having lots of experience and potential for growth, being human).

This lightly modified integration should minimize the affront for everyone---the Cannon Fodder Zoguwn benefit from Human innovations and us helping them with advanced techs and get to reap benefits there, while Humans see that we are not treating them as equals, we've put Human overlords over them. And in the end we get a unified alien polity to tax and conscript.

With a few decades' (each decade is a generation or even TWO generations!) manipulation we could alter their society in any way we found necessary...
+1
Quote from: UristMcRiley on February 09, 2022, 07:50:12 pm
In regards to our immediate decisions I say we ought to
Launch an inquiry
Involve Ourselves

With regards to the sentinel station I say we begin the construction of a armed variant above this world (Zog?) mainly due to the reasoning that the only reason these squids joined us is because we assured them we can protect them from greater threats in the galaxy so if our fleet wonders off and ork raiders pay this planet a visit with us not lifting a finger to defend them there goes the whole incentive for them subjugating themselves to us. We can utilize the ambassadorial psyker of ours as a astropath at the station it'll also allow him to continue his role as our primary ambassador to the Squids
 
Quote from: EuchreJack on February 09, 2022, 08:36:31 pm
I, of course, Accept my own suggestion.
As for the Station, I'd like to research the possibility of training our own Astropaths.  Ask if the station could run without them?
We should proceed with researching the unarmed design.

I agree with Attempt Full Integration, primarily to offload the responsibilities of governance to the superior humans. 
We expect a tithe of resources and auxiliaries. Their planet is of no further importance to us.
Their homemade rifles are sufficient enough as primary armament. 
Their Heavy Equipment shall be Missile Launchers, which they should be capable of manufacturing. See if they take to Krak missiles.  We can train the ones that actually serve us in Frag missile usage.

Quote from: Egan_BW on February 09, 2022, 09:41:29 pm
Launch an Inquiry. Unless of course my troubleshooter gets a mysterious gift, then I might change my mind.

Accept the proposal wholeheartedly!

You decide to Launch an Inquiry into the 3rd company chaplain's request. It is rather sudden and unusual, and as Renegades, you cannot afford risks the Imperium in its inefficiency can ignore. The situation is probably nothing, but there's no reason not to involve yourself. You exit your office and make a leisurely stroll through the bridge of the 1st Battle Barge. Soon you've left it entirely and the auxiliaries salute in respect as they step out of your way. You're intent on a very specific location and you step through the corridors with a quiet, determined purpose. Ten minutes later you've reached the 3rd company's chambers and with three, massive strides, step through the barracks to the door into Euchre's personal quarters. As a seasoned heretek, even if you weren't Chapter Master with universal clearance, it would be trivial to unlock. You don't bother to knock and step in.

His room is well-kept as one would expect, save for the cards scattered over a table of parchment. Anti-Imperial hymns to the Emperor, transcribed as is his duty. The sleeping rack he rests on is made, the dust meticulously swept. His power armour, resting in the corner, diligently oiled and consecrated. Your eyes sweep over it to see him now knelt at the customary, even obligatiry, shrine to the Eternal God-Emperor. The prayer beads are in his hands, he mutters the litanies, and doesn't interrupt his prayer for your arrival until it is done. As is to be expected. He gets to his feet and turns, looking at you with tired eyes and an easy smile. The chaplain's teeth are clean, polished regularly, and none of his grooming seems out of the ordinary. He asks what he can do for you and you say to do nothing. The chaplain moves not a muscle as you rifle (a very popular word in the Sentinels) through his desk, digging into the slightest corner and poring over the smallest notes. Even for potential code you scan through the syllables, parsing the narrowest possible metaphors, and find no firm evidence of treachery. You tip over his sleeping rack to see nothing, not even dust, and finally examine the shrine from top-to-bottom. All is in its proper place.

This isn't enough to satisfy you. A deep, two hour interrogation commences wherein your every word is sharper than a monofilament blade and each sentence bristling with hidden traps of loyalty and theology. The chaplain answers them all appropriately, missing none, and at no point asks what this inspection is for or what this investigation is over. Not once was his request of a transfer of veterans mentioned. Finally, unable to find even inconclusive proof of wrongdoing, you sigh in relief and grip his neck with a servo-arm without warning. You raise the chaplain over the floor, limp, not daring to move a muscle, and speak, pistons hissing with iron will. "EUCHRE, HEAR ME NOW. WE ARE RENEGADES TO THE IMPERIUM BUT THE PROPER CHAPTER CHANNELS ARE NOT TO BE REJECTED. YOU ARE TO GIVE ME NO MORE REASON TO RETURN. AM I UNDERSTOOD?" He nods his head, gasping. "Y-Yes sir, Chapter Master Talnior, sir." You release him and he falls onto the floor. "I WILL DISCUSS YOUR PROPOSITION WITH THE THIRD AND SEVENTH COMPANY CAPTAINS. BOTH ARE TO BE FULLY AWARE OF YOUR INVOLVEMENT. I WILL HEAR NO MORE OF THIS FROM YOU. AM I UNDERSTOOD?" The Fallen Astartes nods, raggedly shaking his head up and down. "Yes sir, Chapter Master Talnior, sir." You look down and give a slight, curt nod. "THEN MY WORK HERE IS DONE. AT EASE. I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU AT THE NEXT MEETING IN THE HULL."

At that, you turn to leave and exit. In the room you've left behind, unknown to you, the chaplain resumes his prayers and an hour into them, goes silent. Tears of gratitude flow down his face and in the deepest, darkest recesses of his tainted mind whispers the most fervent of prayers, but they are not toward He on His Throne on Terra, but to something far older, and as impure before Him as the east is far from the west.

Spoiler:  Vile Heresy, Forbidden by Decree of the Ordo Hereticus (click to show/hide)

Your investigation has you thinking there is little to blame the chaplain for but a lack of tact, but the fact that you felt motivated to launch an inquiry has left you wary, of what might linger in the Chapter that you don't yet know of, and of what might fester in the years to come. The chaplains are disciplined, firm in the faith, and unflinching in zeal. They can be trusted and yet, what of the rank-and-file? The battle brothers in their dozens, new and old alike, what if one of them should preach dissent with the best of intentions and cause a fracture in the Chapter? Or worse, a sundering, to leave The Watchtower scattered in a dozen petty bands? No, this can't be allowed. You need to reassure yourself, somehow. You'll speak to the High Master of Sanctity, perhaps, or gather the Astartes together to hold a meeting. Part of you considers the possibility of having the most trustworthy of the Prognosticators do a psychic deep dive of the Chapter to confirm, but down that road lies a dangerous path. If you can't trust your gene-brothers, can you even trust yourself?

You dwell on these thoughts as you return to your quarters and resume your work. Much of it is addressing the brilliance of Archaeus, tragically confined by a sore defecit of man and material. You inform him of as much and release a missive, with a tentative sketch of a shipyard's schematic. It's simple to the point of crudeness, barbaric even, but it should be functional enough to meet some of your needs. You don't desire to begin building voidships, not yet, but to dock those you have without need of mothballing them and delaying their reactions when they might be needed most? That is a desire you cannot afford to ignore and in a matter of hours, an auxiliary returns with a response. You haven't left your desk since, too feverishly counting bolts and outlining diagrams. The auxiliary hands you his, you dismiss him with thanks, and eagerly open it to find... in the time since sending you his letter and your 'discussion' with Euchre, he's drawn a similar schematic of his own. Archaeus... You do suppose great minds think alike. Over the next few Terran days you enter into a sprawling correspondence that involves the Master of the Forge, whose 'hide bound' tendencies led to a confession that he, himself, has been searching for appropriate STC fragments to accomplish the same. Between the two of you and the dwindling treasury, you soon sway him into accepting inspiration of the STCs and consecration in the name of the Omnissiah as sufficient. By the end of the week, the techmarines are in a giddy uproar the less-mechanically inclined members of the Chapter can't begin to comprehend. Not truly. It isn't long before you have a true schematic.

Small Crude Shipyard: A tiny and ramshackle stardock, if it can be called that, but one that can be made with minimal infrastructure and which represents a tremendous leap forward for the Chapter's naval ambitions. (This requires 100 Resources and 10 months to manufacture; doubling as a dock and forge for a single Escort-class vessel at a time, or two smaller. To manufacture additional docks, able to hold additional Escorts, will require 50 Resources and 5 months. To expand on its size to accomodate worthier vessels will need deeper research and a nearby industrial base. As is, this model is primitive enough it needs little to no external technological base to keep it orbital once established.)

It's a simple schematic, the work of a dozen hereteks and more conventional techmarines pitching in to make something new. Alone, it isn't capable of meeting your needs but... it is a start. More than that, it's a sad remainder of how deeply humanity's knowledge has decayed under the dictates of Mars. This shipyard... it and others will be a start. To that end, it's essential that you find a higher yield of resources as soon as possible, and to that end and seeing their potential, you decide to move ahead on to Attempt Full Integration between humanity and the zahgun. You find little need to use their wretched tongue for themselves but you can see much for their work. Their technology may be of the Xenos and primitive to a degree that frustrates your analytical mind, but unlike the Imperium, they are not set in their ways and may yet change.

The, ah... Adeptus Econometrica will doubtless be escatic to ply their theories on the pliable minds of a species that endures a half-dozen lifetimes for each baseline human's cradle-to-grave. In particular, that design out of Audenach. You have little doubt the Xenos have some variation of assembly-line themselves, their circumstances leave it too necessary to forgo, but their inferior minds have likely seen a sore lack of efficiency. No matter, you won't begrudge them that their spark cannot match humanity's flame, but you'll allow their heat to fuel your industry all the same. Later, during your daily multi-target strafing practice, you dwell on the importance of this system relative to the empire and deduce that you'll leave a vessel, or a few, to oversee their advancement under your chosen emissaries while the rest of your fleet returns to Death World #14/2- Antwir, and regroups while you determine what the Chapter should do next.

Which ships and forces, Astartes and auxiliary, do you want to take and which do you want to leave behind? At bare minimum, a handful of techmarines and the Prognosticator will be amongst the Xenos for the next few months. You can also take your entire fleet but in the (unlikely, but never impossible) event of an external raid or invasion, the absence of any defense could leave the Zoguwn doubting your intentions. (Note, it's more likely than not that a few months will pass during the fleet's transit back to the Fortress-Monastery, effectively taking several "turns" at once for the Chapter. Time-skips like these aren't going to be uncommon, a month is only the smallest unit of time measured on a strategic, Chapter-wide scale. They'll be much moreso once you've found a means of settling your Resource defecit. In the absence of orders to do otherwise, fleets that have been sent out will attempt to return to the Fortress-Monastery at Death World #14/2)

15
Forum Games and Roleplaying / Re: Renegade Space Marine Simulator (40k)
« on: February 09, 2022, 11:09:31 pm »
Quote from: Maximum Spin on February 08, 2022, 06:20:14 pm
Have we already started naming people? The High Prognosticator, Nens Nende.

(That you appear to be. You just haven't been back to Death World #14/2- Antwir, to get a full rundown on the state of the empire as the Fortress-Monastery's currently aware of it to get an updated version of the Chapter's assorted Holdings, Sentinels, and so on. On a similar note, The ships of the Chapter need names, the more menacing-transhuman-supersoldier and/or Renegade-inclined the better. The only one that's been named so far is the 1st Gladius Frigate Warmonger, courtesy of Madman198237.)

Quote from: UristMcRiley on February 09, 2022, 07:50:12 pm
Firstly I got to say Tube really loving this game so far the amount of effort put into each of your posts and the frequency of your posts is really something impressive just be careful not to burn yourself out at this rate. I think I can speak for the group when I say id hate to see this game die to burnout.

(I appreciate that. I've been wanting to run an SG in the same vein as this for some time now and it's not been two weeks since the start. I don't envision myself burning out any time near soon but if I do, I'll be sure to let the thread know and take any time that I need to.)

Quote from: VoidSlayer on February 09, 2022, 09:14:11 pm
The thing about having an astropath on the station is they are likely more expensive individually then the cost of a lance battery.  I would rather have minimal defenses for our valuable communication technology-people.

Could we make some kind of very small warp vessel which is only a messenger?  I know geller fields and warp drives are very big and power hungry tech though which drastically increases the minimum size of information couriers.

How DID the human gold age empires communicate before psykers started reappearing in force...

(Astropaths ARE EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE but their cost isn't in Resources, it's of finding psychic individuals that are both stable enough to undergo the training and strong-willed enough to minimize the very real risk of Warp influence, and of the time necessary to train them to their full potential. Because the Chapter are Renegades, they're incapable of having their prospective-Astropaths commit the Soul Binding ritual that reduces the likelihood of immaterial influence and they must, if anything, be more discerning of who they select for training. This is complicated in that the Chapter has no equivalent to the Imperium's League of Blackships or Scholastia Psykana, and consequently has no ability to find or train them, outside of having the Prognosticators directly search populations and attempt to tutor those that they judge able to meet their standards. This would be time-consuming and likely an unpopular measure among them, even before taking into account that not every psyker is capable of being an Astropath and that not every psyker that is capable is someone that the Chapter would want to risk allowing to be an Astropath. The Chapter could also call their bootleg Astropaths, with harlots and amasec, something else, if they deemed it appropriate.

Earlier, the discord's dicebot rolled 2d20s, for Civilized World #5/5 and Death World #14/2- Antwir, respectively, to determine the relative proportion of psykers to their overall population.

Quote from: Psyker Proportion of the Population
[1-8] Almost Nonexistent
[9-12] Negligible
[13-16] Extremely Rare
[17-20] Only Very Rare

The results were an 18 on Civilized World #5/5 and a 14 on Death World #14/2- Antwir, meaning that they're Only Very Rare in Civilized World #5/5's population of 276 million and Extremely Rare on Death World #14/2- Antwir's (civilized) population of 20 million. Other planets haven't been surveyed in detail yet and the Chapter isn't aware of their total numbers, but in effect, this means that on Civilized #5/5, roughly one-in-one thousand has any trace of latent psychic potential and of those, roughly one-in-ten are able to manifest Warp phenomena. On Death World #14/2- Antwir, that proportion is roughly one-in-ten thousand, and likewise roughly one-in-ten of those able to manifest Warp phenomena. The High Prognosticator, Nens Nende, has no means of verifying but estimates there to be a general population of, give or take a few hundred, +28,000 psykers scattered across both worlds, the overwhelming majority in Civilized World #5/5. These rogue psykers are in every stratum of society, ignorant of the nature of their abilities, and deep in hiding to avoid being publicly burnt for witchcraft- a lingering holdout of the Imperium's cultural influence. Without any training or conditioning to properly use their abilities, they are a significant danger to themselves and others, and one the previous Chapter Master, Zaphiel, didn't see any reason to root out and suppress, given the possible risks and that the mundane society seems to be doing it themselves. After all, an otherwise harmless and frail psyker of sufficient power could melt a battle brother in his armour or risk opening a temporary, ruinous daemonic rift.

With some effort and initial investment, it would be possible to start a Schola, (or other organization, as Renegades, you're not bound to the Imperium's traditions) dedicated to finding psykers, taking them in, and either training or isolating (if not executing) them depending on how dangerous their powers are and your own perspectives, and then using them for your own purposes. Astropaths are only one of these- literal thought police, frontline battle psykers, and potential new Prognosticator-Aspirants the Chapter's Circle of Prognosticators, are only a few of many very real possibilities. You could attempt to manufacture a small Warp vessel that acts solely as a messenger, but single passenger, Warp-capable ships are an extreme scarcity held by the Inquisition and widely unknown. Merely manufacturing a small Warp vessel is entirely possible, but would require a substantial investment of time and resources. The exact amount of both consists of 100x the resources required for monthly maintenance, and the cost/2 months to complete, though the time can be lessened by forging a better shipyard and further still by sinking more Resources into the work, at 2 Resources per 1 month shortened, to a minimum of 1/4th the maximum time.

You would have to construct the bare minimum shipyard possible, at an initial 100 Resource and 10 month investment, to create a Small Crude Shipyard, which could then produce the smallest vessel possible for your current accumulated shipbuilding expertise, an Armed Freighter, which, at -5 Resources in maintenance per month, would require 500 Resources and 250 months to finish manufacturing, or roughly 20 Terran years. If 374 Resources were sunk into the construction, at 3/4ths of the 250 duration, it could be lowered to a mere 62.5 months, rounded up for 63 months, or roughly 5 Terran years. This would then be able to ferry information across your empire, and getting one may be an enormous investment, but the Chapter already possesses several that aren't included in the Chapter's armada, as they aren't warships, and are actively bringing information to you when they haul in their tithes, which is how you know what they do now. Most are focused on Civilized World #5/5's enormous raw output of more than triple the rest of your empire combined, but they keep a regular patrol.

Most of the Worlds in the Chapter's control have only given you their Loyalty because the Imperium doesn't have a naval presence in the area capable of defending them and their new leadership (Chapter Master Zaphiel purged the old ones that wouldn't bend the knee) fears what the Renegade Astartes could do if they rejected them out of hand. Notable exceptions are Civilized World #5/5, whose population views the Chapter as sympathetic for saving them from a planetary governor who considered it practical to keep a policy of prematurely rendering the crippled and elderly into corpse starch, and the landed aristocracy of Feudal World #14/4, who consider the Chapter's Astartes to be paragons of martial excellence and have expressed an interest in giving their sons to be recruited. Getting them completely on your side will take time and effort, or mass-purges of dissidents and a military government, although this has a chance of backfiring to cause the opposite. Fear does contribute to a planet's Loyalty, up to a certain point.)

Spoiler: Heretical Knowledge, Further Inquiry Forbidden By Decree of the Ordo Chronos (click to show/hide)

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