Archive: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=40kai
Refresher/Infodump: https://rentry.org/416641021
Big Recap: https://rentry.co/40kAIRecap

[1/7?]

You’d been considering exactly how much weight you were going to throw behind the Astral Claws for a while now. On the one hand, you didn’t know quite as much about them as you might like, and had limited interaction with them, over the few years that you’d been in contact with them, but on the other hand, they were sitting on a particularly rich part of the galaxy with limited support in defending it from the larger Imperium. This was, at once, a weakness to be corrected and an opportunity to be exploited. You might have issues with how they, and the larger Imperium operate, but one thing was for certain: You were in no position to replace them just yet, and letting them crumple would only open a vacuum that would be filled by greenskins and the archenemy.

Dedicating resources to the Astral Claws was likely to be, in a word, efficient. You would gain a foothold in the Maelstrom, resource rights, and a potential ally, all while risking relatively little yourself. It came at the cost of placing those resources out of your direct control, but if you considered it an investment rather than a gift, the wound stung a little less. Perhaps, in a few years time, the Claws will have had enough success that they could make good on their end of the bargain, and supply you with a rich crop of new worlds, replete with new, exciting problems for you to solve? Your reach was limited, and trusted (rational) lieutenants few, but for the possibility that the opportunity could grow into a future power base? The juice would certainly be worth the squeeze.

For now, though, it was time to take the first steps. You draft construction plans, for fleets of ships of the sort that you supply to the Administratum, for suits of power armour fit for Astartes and men alike, for weapons to place in their hands, and the equipment that they would need to wage war across the stars. To a point, anyway. You possess relatively limited capabilities for constructing additional vehicles, and almost no designs that fit the Imperial standard. Come to think of it, aside from makeshift APCs of various designs, you’ve not had the opportunity to inspect Imperial armour in any meaningful way. Accakaros has a predominantly infantry-based force, and the enemy on Delta was effectively a rabble militia, with no armour to speak of.

Of course, you could just produce more of the grav-vehicles that you were used to. You had their designs in the STC databanks, but they would be a little suspicious… Oh well. Researching an alternative - particularly an inferior alternative - seemed like a waste of time, and so you make some cosmetic changes that make the vehicles seem cruder than they are. More like floating boxes, than the sleek predators they had resembled, but that’d only help them fit in with their surroundings. You also remove some of the more advanced targeting and weapons systems, something that was easy enough to do without much thought.

>>6221674
[2/7?]

It was only after a few weeks of production that you opt to send a message to the Claws, confirming that they’d be taking the receipt of the first shipments within a few months, pending the currents of the warp. The small diplomatic mission you’d left with them enters a short, furious negotiation with the Claws over the nature of the support you were offering which yields a rather surprising outcome. You were informed, in no uncertain terms, that they did not want any additional conscripts. They used less emphatic terms, but your tech-priests, as… unique as ever, had read through the lines and delivered their own report rather bluntly. Per their assessment, it seems that mixing marines and ‘mortals’ in an organisational structure was somewhat of a procedural grey area, one that would be stretched too far by the introduction of large numbers of volunteers from your facility.

It wasn’t the only source of awkwardness. Despite Huron’s initial enthusiasm, it seems that matters were more complicated when it came time to consider how the material they’re being offered will be organised. They’re technically limited to 1,000 marines, who are technically meant to be the majority of their men-at-arms. In reality, that would be an impossibility given the task given to them by the Imperial state. Their influence stretches through the other Marine Chapters dedicated to the Maelstrom, the Imperial Navy elements based there, and the Imperial Guard and militia levies of the worlds within it. This has created a fuzzy, indirect sort of influence that, when combined with the aforementioned grey area, makes things more difficult than simply dumping it all on them and letting them sort it out.

Thankfully, their influence makes it very easy for the ships and weapons to find their way into the correct hands. Ships are split between the chapters and the navy, while weapons, armour, and equipment are filtered first to the chapters, then to the Guard, then to the PDF. They’re happy to accept the offer of technical support, and the teams that you’re able to offer are already being placed within various organisations, even if you get the sense that they’re trying to keep you away from their own sensitive business, foisting them off onto their unaugmented allies. Even with your contributions, you haven’t yet bought their complete trust, though your clumsy offers of far more material than they could legally need seems to have been taken as earnest rather than attempted entrapment. Your volunteers, meanwhile, are organised into semi-independent units within the PDFs of various planets, notably away from Badab Primaris itself. It was a careful balance between offering you the degree of autonomy they would expect you would want, while giving them a degree of protection from potential skullduggery.

>>6221676
[3/7?]

It took weeks for all that to be hammered out, and by the end you were just happy to get it all over with. It’d be months still before it was all done, but once Chapter Master Blake had returned to rubber stamp the matter, an energy had built up that you could detect even through dry reports from your subordinates. They suggest, and you are inclined to agree, that the Claws are pleased with the support, but conflicted. The sheer volume of support was suspicious, and that echoed in how cautious they were to avoid the perception of impropriety, while keeping your loyalists away from anything too close. Blake had obviously been informed about the requests Kelbak had made of Huron, as he rather shamelessly dangles the offer of an exchange of tactical records in front of your envoys, as well as the opportunity to exchange advisors and observers. That was something of an olive branch, after the obvious suspicion. Nothing more will come of it immediately, but it was a very good sign for the future.

With all that underway, it was high time to turn to matters closer to hand. Adrax’s Reach had been under development for years now, and you’d never bothered to pay much attention to it beyond simply directing resources and manpower towards it, and receiving reports in return. Nothing dramatic had occurred while your attention was elsewhere, and that was a double edged sword. On one hand, it meant that nothing had gone wrong. On the other, it meant that nothing had gone particularly right.

You delve deeper into the reports provided by the teams on the ground, and the results were not especially encouraging. While Emperor Kurtis von Eisenberg had been relatively aloof despite your efforts to bribe him, the nobility of the city were rather excited by the developments. The area around the landing site you’d constructed - which had been leased from a local duke in a remarkably archaic negotiation that had resulted in you, by technicality, becoming a baron - had become the site of significant settlement by the locals. The long road that connected the landing pad with Eisenberg was dotted with markets and inns, only growing denser until it became a huge covered market over the highway at the gates to the spaceport. That much, you’d expected. It was the centre of your operations on the planet, and you couldn’t stop the men and women you’d sent to oversee construction from trading technological trinkets for local offerings. You’d limited the trade in weapons, thus far, but humans loved trading things almost as much as they loved sex. Incidentally, there were more than a few brothels around the site, too.

>>6221677
[4/7?]

Rather more distressing was the military encampment that had appeared on the steps of the spaceport, red banners fluttering overhead. Your own concrete walls had been matched by earthworks and wooden palisades, hugging the eastern side of your land and the small town around it. Already, a stone fortress was under construction, though given the scale of the foundations, you estimate that it’ll take decades to finish - not that it’d be any more of an impediment to you than the dirt they’d piled up. Still, seeing overt hostility was discouraging, if not as threatening as they might like it to be. With primitive firearms at best, they were only a threat to themselves.

Reports refer to the individuals responsible for the fortification as the ‘Wardens of the Edicts of Adrax’ - or just the Wardens - an appropriately extravagant title for a group claiming profound religious purpose. A branch of a larger, global brotherhood of similar organisations that all claimed the ancient mandate to protect the world from the archenemy, despite the distinct lack of any sign of corporeal manifestations of the archenemy on their world. Still, if daemons had manifested en masse, it was easy to see how that could entrench itself deep into their collective psyche, before curdling into simple xenophobia after the immediate threat was dealt with. Less explicable was their distaste for technology. Simple xenophobia would be explicable, but it seemed that they had little issue with anyone in particular, only the technology they carried or operated. That had made things awkward. It was hard for you to offer anything to people who thought that daemons might crawl out of anything more complex than a cog.

Making things more complicated, the Wardens and their sister-branches were deeply entrenched into the world’s politics. While the von Eisenbergs were the largest political power, the Wardens extended family were a world-wide militant religious order with significant pull on the general population. From reports, if it were not for their distaste of technology, you’d actually like them: They were staunch protectors of the innocent, operated in a manner as democratic as can be expected for their scale and level of technology, and saw to the care of the poor and vulnerable. By contrast, while the nobility were open to what you had to offer, it wasn’t hard to read between the lines. They were open to the possibilities your technology allowed them. The potential to expand their power in an unstable status quo, damn the damage it might cause.

If things were left to simmer as they had been, something would give. Either the Wardens would do something very stupid, or the nobility would get their way and make a mess of things. Even with your relatively limited military capabilities, compared to what humanity once commanded, it would be trivial to enforce whatever you might decree with strength alone. To make a desert, and call it peace.

>>6221678
[5/7?]

Or, at least, you would if the Administratum hadn’t made their awareness of the situation known. Realistically, the Administratum didn’t care about Adrax’s Reach. They collected their tithes of men and gemstones every decade, and left the planet to its own devices otherwise. By your reckoning, it wasn’t even worth the fuel to bother making the trip given what they were getting out of it, but in your dealings with them, you’d never imagined them to be particularly efficient, or logical. Logically, they would either shrug at or applaud your efforts to make something of the planet, given that you could do a far better job of extracting value from it than they ever had, but you doubt they’ll be so charitable. More likely, they’ll take umbrage with the fact that you’re going to end up with enough influence over the planet to call it de facto rulership, and while Alexander might be able to smooth things over, the Administratum won’t like being cut out of the deal.

Thus far, you’ve annoyed a few functionaries, but that’s not going to send shockwaves through the whole organisation. So long as you keep things low-key, you might ruffle some feathers, but that won’t matter much. Invading the planet, and colonising it at gunpoint? That’d be gauche, and earn you a more enduring, pervasive sort of annoyance. How deep their annoyance might go will depend on the scale of the mess, but it occurs to you that you still don’t have that Warrant of Trade, and with as slow as the Administratum is on a good day, ‘within a decade’ could very easily turn into ‘within a century, maybe’ if you give them a bad day. It was therefore best, for both humanitarian and practical reasons, to not liberate them quite so violently.

You send a message to Rane, one part itemised list of your previous thoughts, one part a request for suggestions on the diplomatic party. Previously, you’d sent minor functionaries, and you could always just begin personally directing them, but it would be best to give the locals a show to coincide with more active movement on your end, both so that it doesn’t take them by surprise, and so you can shuffle in some more competent people.

Rane swiftly sends a list of individuals back. Unsurprisingly, he’s at the top of the list. He might not be a perfect diplomat, but as the public face of the Forge, his personal appearance would make things seem more official, like you were taking them more seriously. A name you didn’t immediately recognise is second on the list - Adept Kara, no surname. It only takes a moment for you to find the likely culprit in the personnel manifests. His apprentice? You were pretty sure you’d seen the woman behind him more than once, trailing him as he went about… whatever it was he did when you didn’t need him. Was she fit for this? You send a questioning ping.

>>6221679
[6/7]

<Perhaps. I am not ignorant of the discomfort felt by some in the presence of those blessed with heavy augmentations.> Attached, a list of the many, many, many bits of metal inside his body, like flexing a muscle to demonstrate his strength. <My apprentice prefers less visible augmentations. Thus, I have provided her with as much guidance in matters of politics as I have been able to, but given the greatly shortened training schedules, her education is incomplete, despite her title.>

Something that many of the higher ranking tech priests had grumbled about, but it was unavoidable. To maintain the fiction of the facility-as-forge-world, they needed more priests, and you needed more trained personnel, whether they be ordained or mere laymechanics. Frankly? You’d rather the latter, but alas, the fiction was still useful.

<You placed her on the list,> you respond, a question nestled in the statement.

<Adept Kara has carried out tasks assigned to her efficiently.> High praise from Rane - almost defensive. The longer he spoke, the more the ‘perhaps’ disappeared. Was he… fond of her? You prompt him to continue. <She has displayed competence in her assigned tasks from the early stages of her training. I would not take a fool for an apprentice.> He sends you a series of reports. Tasks completed, tests passed, attendance, medical records, all relating to Kara’s fitness. After flicking through them, you conclude the conversation and begin to consider your options.

Originally, you were going to send Rane, given his position, but his confused endorsement of Kara did present another option. She was conventionally attractive, and not visibly augmented, two things that would no doubt make diplomatic talks easier, but unlike Rane, she was not fully accustomed to this sort of life. It had only been a few years since she’d been plucked out of a slum, after all. Rane might scare people, but Kara could have the opposite effect. Adrax’s Reach was a predominantly male-dominated world, and while female rulers weren’t unheard of - the Imperial Princess was even the current regent - they weren’t as common as male rulers. Then again, the Wardens would probably think Rane was some sort of daemon, and that could be worse than not being taken seriously. And then there was the matter of the honour guards! Skitarii could be used like a limb by their commanding tech-priest, and they’d happily give their lives to protect their VIP, but there was no getting around the fact that they were creepy enough for people who weren’t terrified by technology.

>>6221680
[7/7]

First, though, deciding who will lead the diplomatic mission…

>[Rane]
He was your first choice for a reason. If you’re going to be negotiating with Emperors and nobles, then using someone that radiates authority and strength, someone that represents the highest authority you have, makes the most sense. It might offend the Wardens, but they’re already offended as it is. If anyone else gets freaked out, they’ll just have to deal with it.

>[Kara]
Though she isn’t several metres tall and made of more metal than most armoured fighting vehicles, she does have more of a photogenic appearance, and you’ll be there to shore up whatever pitfalls her inexperience might lead her towards. Sending her as an assistant might rub certain people up the wrong way, but slap an official sounding title on her, and you can minimise that risk.

And for the honour guard…

>[Skitarii]
Their loyalty is not in question, nor is their willingness to do and die. The tin soldiers might be a tragedy, proud men and women reduced to flesh automata animated by Frankenstein Radio Controls, but they were exceedingly good at their job.

>[Humans]
Basic training for Republican infantry lasted six months, but most infantry went through at least two years. Humans were precious, their value carefully cultivated and fiercely protected. You have something closer to militia, but they’ve gone through more training than the Imperial Guard. They’ll be able to protect a VIP from primitive screwheads.

This quest brought to you be infernal blood pact. Thank ObserverQM's sacrifice.

What the fuck my guy you can't just drop the quest for three years and then show up just after April Fools like it's no big deal, you're killing me here.

>>6221682
His high opinion of his apprentice is noted, and will be kept in mind for future endevors. However I believe it's for the best if we play this by the books and send Rane and his Skitarii. Daemons are more likely to take forms pleasant to the eyes or be fleshy abominations rather than a metal man, I have faith that Rane can thoroughly dismantle any accusations of Daemonhood levied against him.

>[Rane]
>[Skitarii]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HES BACK HES BACK HES BACK

>>6221682
>[Rane]
>[Skitarii]

>>6221682
>[Rane]
>[Humans]

>>6221682
Good to see you back man.
Life been good to you?

>[Rane]
>[Skitarii]

>>6221682
We're so back.
>[Rane]
>[Skitarii]

WE ARE SO BACK.

>>6221682
>[Rane]
>[Skitarii]
What did ObserverQM sacrifice for us to get this?

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
THE BEST AI QUEST IS BACK

>>6221682

>[Kara]

>[Humans+ a few skittari as the last line of defense]

>>6221682
>[Kara]
Though she isn’t several metres tall and made of more metal than most armoured fighting vehicles, she does have more of a photogenic appearance, and you’ll be there to shore up whatever pitfalls her inexperience might lead her towards. Sending her as an assistant might rub certain people up the wrong way, but slap an official sounding title on her, and you can minimise that risk.

And for the honour guard…
>[Humans]
Basic training for Republican infantry lasted six months, but most infantry went through at least two years. Humans were precious, their value carefully cultivated and fiercely protected. You have something closer to militia, but they’ve gone through more training than the Imperial Guard. They’ll be able to protect a VIP from primitive screwheads.

WE ARE BACK EVERYONE!!!!

GLORY!!! IT LIVES!!

>>6221682
>[Kara]
>[Humans]

>>6221682
>[Kara]
Sheer power or human face. This Wardens seem already against us though even if they have positive aspects. They do sound like a sort of massive Templar Order though. Give Kara a weapon or two and anyone thinking they are above her will think again. Earning experience is important.
>>[Humans
They are above this medieval men in any way and shape.
Shit you are back!!!

Holy holy
First the fallout quest return then you
Next who WOLFPACK AAAAA?!?!?!

Jokes aside is good to see ya.
And this quest was good like i remember

Hahaha we still have that ork in the freezer

>>6221682
>[Kara]

>[Humans]

Let us see her prove herself. Maybe we can mold her into our perfect Fabricator General.

>>6222370
Wolfpack isn't dead. Thunder is just currently dealing with life.

>>6221682
>[Rane]
>[Skitarii]

>>6222391
Cool, i always trusted him

>>6221699
It seems this Wardens believe that every tech could make a demon. This probably means they think even something primitive like a musket could make demons.

>They were staunch protectors of the innocent, operated in a manner as democratic as can be expected for their scale and level of technology, and saw to the care of the poor and vulnerable

Still we could use in some capacity the fact they care for the poor, vulnerable and are protectors of the innocent. Those factors align with us.

It does seem that culture wise the nobility and this order might start wars between eachother after even some minor technological development. Quite problematic with what we want to achieve here (already a nice world for human living, near us ...uff perfect for colonization and development)

>>6221682
>[Rane]

>[Skitarii]

[1/8?]

Rane was the safe choice to head the mission. Not only did he have the experience, but he had status that even a monarch would be forced to respect, assuming they could wrap their heads around what Rane’s station actually was. It was puzzling to you on occasion, and you were an AI with a little more in the way of intellectual processing power. You inform him of your decision, though your choice of retinue does seem to surprise him. The new crop of soldiers had completed their training, though aside from occasional peacekeeping deployments to Delta, they were completely untested. That didn’t concern you much, given the task that they were given. It would be hard to imagine a situation wherein Rane, who had good odds on shrugging off anti-tank fire, would actually require protection from men with swords and crossbows. This was about presentation. Maybe sending a few human faces to go with the imposing figure would smooth over any potential issues?

No, no sense kidding yourself. Rane will be drawing all the attention, and if anyone takes issue with him, they’re not going to take solace in the fact that the help is physically capable of smiling back at them.

You play the glorified secretary for a few days, plotting out the schedule of the meeting according to the suggested timetable offered by your existing mission to the Adraxians. A few weeks would be needed to ensure that relevant nobility could be made available for the meeting, and presumably to give them time to present the most ostentatious display they could. They didn’t outright say that much, likely to avoid the impression that they needed time to put on such a display. They would, and it was wasted effort. You doubt Rane will be impressed by anything they have to show him.

You give them their time without protest, and it passes without major incident. Rane and his escort are loaded up onto CL-034, with FF-091 as a picket and escort. Neither ship carried heavy armaments or a large complement of armsmen for landings, but that was by design. They had enough weapons to reduce a city without any defensive capabilities or hardened architecture to rubble in a single pass, and in the unlikely event that they were ambushed or intercepted, they would be able to run from anything they couldn’t fight, and fight anything they couldn’t run from. No need for overkill when it could spook the Administratum.

You can watch, through early warning IR sensors and OTC towers around the spaceport, as the two blue-white plumes of light suddenly cut out, though not before drawing so close that they made it appear as though the planet had two tiny new moons. The ships draw down into a comfortable orbit - two more laps of the planet before dawn, and then the lighters drop from the belly of the cruiser and glide gracelessly into the atmosphere, blue hulls glowing with dull red light.

>>6222537
[2/8?]

You - or more accurately, the floating drone you’d taken to peering out of during these excursions - were riding along with Rane, who occupied a good portion of the lighter’s internal volume, with the remaining seats occupied by the militia. Their armour was unpainted, still in the speckled grey Callisto-pattern camouflage, reapplied during the initial maintenance. Only the red Civil Militia markings had been painted over, replaced with the cog-and-hammer of Forge World Svartalfheim. Despite the unusual iconography, they looked professional, and you found it a great relief to make that observation after what you’ve had to deal with up to this point. Professionalism was in short supply in the galaxy these days, it seemed.

The appearance wasn’t entirely representative of reality, though. By the way their hearts beat and their legs bounced, they seemed a little nervous. You had plucked a team that had been deployed to Delta previously, so this wasn’t an entirely new experience for them, but you had expected them to be at least a little nervous. Rane wasn’t the most loquacious conversationalist, and he loomed large over the forge. Aside from a few muttered ‘my Lord’s upon boarding, the team had mostly refrained from talking to him unless they were spoken to, and he’d refrained from speaking to them unless he had an order to give them. When they spoke to one another over the radio, they did so in hushed tones, as though the helmets that could muffle the shockwaves of grenade detonations couldn’t contain their voices, or else would betray them to Rane - or you. Which they did, of course, but Rane wasn’t interested in what they had to say, and you weren’t going to chastise them for it.

There was something a little voyeuristic about listening to their conversations, but there was something soothing about the normality. They spoke on all kinds of topics: What they thought would happen on the mission, how they’d deal with problems that might arise, who they had waiting for them back home, whether the people of the planet would be attractive, whether their Lord was going to say anything, whether their Sergeant was handsome, which of them should keep their helmets on, whether that rattling noise was normal, and whether or not certain members had paid attention during the orbital landing training…

<Will they converse like this at all times?> Rane asks, over a private channel. Perhaps you’d misread him again?

<You were listening in on their conversations too?>

<Naturally. It would be irresponsible for me not to.>

<Elaborate.>

>>6222538
[3/8?]

A pause. His hunched form huffs, a hiss of air escaping what passed for a respiratory system. Did he just sigh at you? <As the tech-priest in command of their unit, awareness of their disposition and pertinent tactical observations are required for efficient use. Their methods of data-transfer are inefficient. I learn more from the spirits of their armour than from themselves. I will command them to cease.>

That there was already friction between them was a bad sign, but the fact that it was something relatively minor was somewhat encouraging. You jump in before he can shut them up. <Counterpoint: You are not under heightened readiness, and they are not skitarii. Enforcing silence is not required and may have deleterious effects on morale.>

<Logic accepted,> he replies, after a moment longer than normal. <Counterpoint: Skitarii morale = nonfactor.>

<Commensurate loss in autonomy.> This was an argument that you’d had before, and had become truncated to the point of absurdity. You had one another’s positions cached at this point, and at the end of the day, you were the one in charge. Should it be gratifying or concerning that he deferred to you, despite his conviction? You had no personal experience, but your observations of humans suggested that they wouldn’t ordinarily argue back to a divine entity, so that was a good sign, probably. <Allow them their privacy, when practical,> you offer, finally.

<Counterpoint: You didn’t.>

Damn. <Logic accepted.>

The first of the lighters breaks through a cloud layer, and swoops down towards the landing site, raindrops boiling against the hull, revealing the terrain below. Emerald green hills roll on out to the horizon, where snow-capped, jagged mountains jut up into the air like razor teeth. Rivers fed by snowmelt and rainfall wind through the rugged terrain, emptying out into lakes, that in turn empty out into the sea. Your memory was still shot, but you’d be hard pressed to not recognise the echoes of your creators’ homeworld in this place, only… amplified. It had taken a deft hand - or more likely, the deft hands of tens of thousands of humans and an AI or two - to carve this planet out into the perfected state it had. Temperatures were normalised across as much of the planet as was practical by carefully designed weather systems and oceanic currents, both so stable as to hold for over 25 thousand years. That had to be AI work. Idly, as you’re flying down, you consider how long it would take for you to craft something that could hold so well without enduring maintenance and still have the desired effect without seeming obviously unnatural. You draw a blank. You’re not sure you could.

But then, no other AI had ever solved quantum translocation.

>>6222539
[4/8?]

A concrete scab grows under the lighters as they continue towards their destination. The spaceport compound itself was a few kilometers across in each direction, just large enough to handle the light traffic that the planet demanded, and support services for the people working there. Truthfully, you weren’t putting your best forward. High concrete walls topped with barbed wire kept out any unauthorised locals - ensuring that the ground crews wouldn’t be forced to wash them off a lighter with a pressure hose - but it really couldn’t look any uglier if you’d tried. Even on the inside, the structures were more practical than pretty. More concrete, plasteel, and glass. It was a little depressing in contrast to the charm of the local’s structures. Timber framed and plastered, with roofs of thatch or clay shingle, and merrily smoking chimneys poking up from within, or colourful cloth covers over the market stalls that leaned as close into the road as they could without running afoul of the strictly enforced regulations. Maybe they were happy building a market on a highway, but where you came from, that was very illegal.

You should probably draw up some plans to have them redecorate. Maybe ask for some architects from Selene? Some of the Accakarosi palaces had a Venera-contemporary style to them… or, well, you suppose it wasn’t contemporary anymore.

From above, you can see the welcoming committee just past the gates to your spaceport, banners fluttering in the gentle breeze. You were expected, though there were less of them than you had imagined. Maybe they’d put on the full show when you were at Eisenberg? Smart. Setting things up so that the first official meeting was in their shadow, rather than yours.

The lighters are guided into pads, and by the time they’ve landed there are already teams ready to begin refuelling them. The ramps drop, and the militia are the first to leave, rifles held at a low ready. They fan out as though it's instinct, but you know they’d planned it. Rane’s concerns were unfounded; even in a safe environment, they were alert and on the ball. Truthfully, though, you didn’t really have any training materials to supply to prospective honour guards, nor any skitarii that could explain the task. Maybe another thing you could ask of Selene? You doubt their lack of specialist training will cause any issues. Rane follows after them, gliding across the concrete with a rhythmic series of clicks and clacks as his mechadendrites strike the pad below, and with a curt order, they fall into position around him as he makes his way towards the exit.

>>6222540
[5/8?]

You float behind with a handful of other drones bearing gifts. Seeds, mostly. It had taken some explaining to get the idea to stick with Rane. Given that even he was far enough removed from subsistence farming that food scarcity was completely unknown to him, it had taken him a while to truly understand why what you were offering had any value at all. When humans chose to settle colonies on planets, crops genetically engineered for hardiness and yield ensured that even those not trained in agricultural science could contribute towards a colonies’ survival prior to the establishment of more efficient hydroponics farms. For the Republic, it was a convenience. For a pre-modern society, drought resistance, highly productive, and highly nutritious crops would be a godsend. You’ve included a basic selection of grains, mushrooms, and fruit trees. You opted against the highly efficient but distasteful edible algae samples on the grounds of practicality more than anything else. Farming it, and then processing it into something edible was probably more effort than it was worth for a temperate and perfectly habitable planet.

The gate swings open to admit the party through as the guards either bow or salute as Rane passes, obviously unsure as to which was more appropriate - not that Rane cares. There was a skimmer waiting for them in the spaceport, but with the von Eisenberg’s party only a few hundred metres down the street, it was easier to just walk. Almost immediately upon passing through the gate, muttering and whispering breaks out into cheers. Under the canopies of the markets that grew right up to the spaceport’s defensive perimeter and the edge of the road, crowds had gathered to see the display, eager to meet the man they thought responsible for the wealth that had come to their planet, and you immediately regret not ordering Rane to get in the skimmer regardless of the distance. Rane and his party were relatively small in number compared to the crowds that had gathered to meet them. Crowds could become riots with lightning speed, and the results would be bloody.

Fortunately, two groups had already taken positions along the edge of the road, both garbed in primitive steel armour. Half of them wore the red of the Wardens, the other half the quartered black and white of House von Eisenberg, though both of them seemed equally dedicated to keeping the peace, although perhaps for different reasons. Their presence held back the crowds, who were not stupid enough to try to walk past the men with hands on the pommels of their swords, or wrapped firmly around the necks of polearms. Of the two groups, the Eisenberg men-at-arms were obviously better equipped, and under their surcoats their armour showed a variety of gothic designs, while the Wardens were more plainly equipped - munitions grade. Now your men just seemed inadequate by contrast.

>>6222541
[6/8?]

They even had a few soldiers that were practically a match for Rane in scale, and wasn’t that just bizarre? The tallest were roughly three meters tall, with limbs and necks like tree trunks and torsos almost as wide as they were tall. You would very much like to get a sample of their flesh. There were no evolutionary pressures on this planet that you could imagine producing something like this.

<Ogryn,> Rane identifies, for your benefit. <I have servitorised some in the past. Their strength and durability is impressive, though their intellect leaves a lot to be desired. Their presence is unexpected - their class of mutation is most common on worlds with high gravity.>

Yet Adrax’s Reach was nearly Terran-standard, in all respects. From the brief glimpses you have of what’s under the helmets they wear, they had faces that even their mothers would be hard pressed to love. You can believe what Rane has to say about their durability, given that someone has already taken the ugly stick to them, and hard. It wasn’t surprising that you saw almost none of them in the crowd, and more than a few of them in the ranks of the peacekeepers.

You draw close to the welcoming committee, and are gifted with another surprise. Two men standing at the head of their party were riding creatures that you could only describe as gryphons. As tall as the ogryn at the shoulder, and restless despite the careful attention of their riders. One, with dark grey plumage and coal black fur, was armoured as heavily as its rider, and equally draped in blood red livery. It scratched at the ground, scratching chunks out of the road while the man atop it casually controlled the beast, one hand on the reins, one on the helmet in his lap. The other was rather more lurid, with bright blue feathers that set you ill at ease, and speckled white fur. It was less armoured and more decorated, white and black fabric draped across its back, allowing freedom of movement for the broad wings that remain tucked in at its sides. The rider seems less comfortable on its back, and that is clearly reflected in the beast, as it paces back and forth in place, despite the rider keeping a firm hold of the reins.

Ogres and gryphons. Was the appearance of fantasy creatures not worth reporting to you?

The crowd turns quiet as the two groups draw close to one another. Rane comes to a halt roughly ten metres away, and after an awkward moment, the two riders approach. The darker creature, at a word from its rider, lowers itself down in a passing imitation of a bow before letting out an annoyed squawk and straightening up. The other has no intention or no ability to mimic the feat, and aside from the tilt of the head, Rane did not return the gesture.

>>6222544
[7/9]

“I am Fabricator General Hextorolon Rane.” His voice booms out across the street, more for the crowd’s benefit than the riders. No doubt they knew who to expect. “I am here to treat with the leaders of the world, to negotiate our continued mutual enrichment. Might I know whom I address?” The words seem to echo, and for a time the world falls silent.

The rider of the darker gryphon breaks the silence. “Knight-Warden Marcus Rodzinner, of the Wardens of the Edicts of Adrax. I stand to represent my order-” His hand leaves the reins as he gestures out towards the crowds. He spoke in heavily accented low gothic. He was confident. Calm. Collected. Surprising, given his apparent youth. Judging from his face, you’d guess late thirties, though he could be younger. Chestnut brown hair, an impressively powerful moustache, bright blue eyes, and a scar across one of his eyebrows. He looked every part the dashing knight. “-and the interests of the people of Adrax.”

“Imperial Prince Johannes von Eisenberg,” the Prince declares, commanding his beast to take a step forward with rather less ease than Marcus. “Naturally, I represent my father, the Imperial Crown, and the interests of the people of Adrax.” The last words were directed more towards Marcus - who only rolls his eyes - than Rane. The Prince was young, and uncomfortable in the saddle, though quick with words. Not quick enough to realise that he’d allowed Marcus to dictate the tempo of the greeting. He was a short lad, with soft features and a slim figure. A braid of dark black hair falls over his armoured shoulders, bobbing with each of his gryphon’s steps. “The Crown warmly accepts your offer, and gladly extends its full hospitality to you and your knights.”

“Yet Eisenberg is a day’s march, at least, and you do not have a full day, Imperial Highness,” Marcus intervenes, languidly, before raising a hand placatingly. “Not that it should matter to me, of course, as your hospitality does not extend to my august personage. Drat.” His nose wrinkles in something close to disgust as he looks over Rane. Usually the second stage of interacting with him. Perhaps he’d just suppressed the shock? “Would his Highness be willing to accept the Warden’s hospitality for the evening? Alas, I am afraid that it would not be so delightful as the hospitality of the Crown, but I am certain that we can find… space for you in the barracks. And the Imperial party, should they desire it,” he adds, as an afterthought.

>>6222545
[8/9]

Right for the jugular. If looks could kill, Marcus would be quite dead. The Prince glared at him, but was either too composed or too smart to let himself get truly upset in public. Marcus was lying on at least one count though: It was barely past noon and even without the skimmer you’d probably make it to an inn on the city’s outskirts before night fell. With the skimmer, you could be there in twenty minutes. You doubt that it was really a lie so much as it was an offer wrapped in a falsehood. He’d been cut out of negotiations (or just not invited to begin with) and was now looking to get Rane away from the Imperial party for a time. Not a bad way to construct the offer either - if Rane accepted before the Prince had time to suggest alternatives, he’d look desperate. Per the timetable, the big show was planned for tomorrow anyway.

This was something of an unexpected olive branch given what you’ve heard, although the disgust that played on Marcus’ face was a bad sign. Negotiations with him might be delicate. The Prince might be offended if you accept, but this might be the only chance you get to have Rane speak to him.

<Suggestion: Leave the guards,> Rane chimes in, quickly. Thankfully, you could have these discussions at the speed of thought, though for humans that was still slow as molasses. <You may direct them to conduct negotiations with the Warden. I remain with the Prince. He is less intimidated by my appearance.>

<They’re not diplomatically trained. If they read no insult in our sending infantry as ambassadors, they may accidentally insult them anyway.>

<They already believe them knights,> Rane counters. <We may maintain that fiction.>

<They’re not diplomatically trained.> You send back the exact same message, only emphasising the point further.

>>6222546
[9/9]

<It was a suggestion. I am confident in your abilities, and in the wisdom of your decision making,> he defends, passing the buck to you. Great. You’ve got about a tenth of a second to make a decision before the Prince opens his mouth. After that, it’ll seem weird to insist on Marcus’ offer.

><Go with the Prince.>
You are here to develop the planet, and to do that you’ll need the support of the highest authority around, unless you feel like turning the world into an abattoir first. You can’t imagine being struck by the impulse, and so your priority is House von Eisenberg, not the Wardens.

><Go with the Warden.>
You are here to develop the planet, and to do that you’ll need the support of the people, and the Wardens that guide them, unless you feel like turning the world into an abattoir first. You can’t imagine being struck by the impulse, and so your priority are the Wardens, not House von Eisenberg.

><Send the guards with the Warden.>
They’re educated. They can read. They’re probably a damn sight smarter than most of the primitive screwheads around here. Passing them off as minor nobility might work. You could cook up some excuse as to why the guards have to remain. It’s not like Rane is really going to need them.

>>6221699
It would've been on April 1st, but circumstances outside of my control prevented that.

>>6221741
So so.

>>6221820
His pride, and his time.

As ever, I appreciate the warm welcome. It's fun to be writing again, so I might enjoy myself a little too much and not write so good for a while. Do not trust my lies.

>>6222549
><Send A guard with the Warden>
Better a one on one conversation I think, Im sure we can do a quick analysis on who's best fit for this. The one who most matches the Warden's energy of confidence and strength. Everybody else goes with the Prince.

>>6222562
>His pride, and his time.
What does that even mean bro

>>6222549
><Send the guards with the Warden.>
They’re educated. They can read. They’re probably a damn sight smarter than most of the primitive screwheads around here. Passing them off as minor nobility might work. You could cook up some excuse as to why the guards have to remain. It’s not like Rane is really going to need them.

>>6222579
A part of me will never be the same, I'll leave it at that.

>>6222650
Did he fucking sodomize you? Did you give yourself to him in exchange for this quest continuing? Like what are the both of you on about.

>>6222656
Spiritually? Yes.

><Go with the Warden.>

>>6222549
>Send the guards with the Warden.

>>6222549
><Go with the Warden.>
Here's a thought. What if the Wardens don't actually know about chaos at all and the "archenemy" they oppose is actually AI? Knowledge of chaos' existence isn't that common outside of certain institutions, after all. And it would explain their technophobia.

>>6222828
I mean.. its likely like that. At least it seems an implication of the planet past. Or maybe a new folkore belief that spawned because an enemy did that for put a log in our road.

>>6222549
><Go with the Warden.>
I am not sure our soldiers can exactly just improvize while we aid them through comms in diplomacy basics 101.

Is a bit difficult to see. And sounds very stressful. Regardless if the Wardens and the Empire decided to show up like this......then they already decided to draw a line in the sand. Wars between the two sound likely in the future what with being a massive organization and the current government. Who we choose is who is going to shape the world in our name and in the end become integrated in our wider influence/culture.

>>6222549
><Send the guards with the Warden.>

>>6222549
><Send the guards with the Warden.>

[1/9?]

<Send the guards with the Warden,> you command. They’ll probably get along with Marcus better than Rane would, if the occasional twitch in his upper lip when his gaze passes over him is any indication of his deeper feelings, but they’ll need close guidance to navigate what could be a sticky series of conversations. At a fundamental, ground level, you represented the absolute apex of human technological development, and according to their philosophy would be something approaching techno-Moloch. While you’d kept that close to your chest thus far, and saw no particular reason to prematurely break the news to the Wardens just yet, it was a bad sign long term - and that was without considering the fact that technophobes may not appreciate the sort of improvements that you had in mind for the planet.

You could make a similar argument for the von Eisenbergs and their feudal society, though. They might be friendlier now, but they were only marginally less incompatible in the long term than the Wardens. Same with Selene and Alexander. Same with Blake and the Astral Claws. Compromises have to be made, unfortunately. If the Work was to be completed, if your creators were to be restored to their rightful place, then you’d need to bend.

Before you lost yourself in considering long term matters, Rane began to speak. “I have transportation,” he announced, and Marcus’ expression fell, and like concrete poured into a mould, fixed in place - not surprised, just resigned. Johannes closes his mouth, and gives Marcus a small, smug smile. “But it will not accommodate my retainers. Sir Marcus, would you be willing to offer them your hospitality for the evening?” A single bushy eyebrow rose.

“I am a man of my word, of course,” he replies, bobbing his head in a not-quite nod. You could see the gears turning behind his eyes, as he tries to divine the meaning of this unexpected development. Did he deem it a insult, an olive branch of your own, or something else? It wasn’t like he could back out, anyway. He’d already made the offer. He swallows, and continues. “The Wardens would be happy to host your knights for the evening. I’m certain they’ve many stories of the world beyond the sky to share with us.”

“Your hospitality is noted and appreciated, Knight-Warden,” Rane lowers his head, and turns his attention towards the Prince, who seemed unsure as to whether or not he should be offended. It wasn’t a snub, given that Rane would still be coming with him - it could even be construed as a vote of trust, given that he’d be leaving his guard behind for a day, at least - but the von Eisenbergs didn’t want the Wardens involved in the meeting, and likely felt that speaking with them would be something like undermining their authority, and their sovereignty.

>>6224120
[2/9?]

Perhaps Johannes was weighing whether or not the ‘knights’ were important enough that they qualified as a diplomatic mission unto themselves, rather than just the help? The exact question that Marcus was no doubt still struggling to answer.

If they knew the truth they’d probably be offended, but given the differences in technology and culture, they’d have a harder time reading the truth. Humans had various ways of signalling their societal positions, though the specifics varied on time, place, and context. How could they be certain that the soldiers in power armour weren’t minor nobility? You didn’t even need to lie. At least, not technically. As men-at-arms and landholders in your domain, that probably would translate to some sort of knight in their society. And you were a Baron. Could Barons create knights? You had no idea.

“Your Imperial Highness,” Rane continues, offering another bow. Behind him, the gates open once again, and the crowds that had fallen nearly silent whisper more intensely again as one of the skimmer-transports lets out its low warbling grumble as it slides across the asphalt topped road, drawing closer to Rane. “I assume your mount can fly. We would be faster than men on foot.” That was an understatement, and an uncomfortable observation. Yes, they would be faster. That would also mean leaving most of the men behind. There were perhaps a few more men with gryphons - or other large bestial mounts - in the retinue behind them, but it would be a far cry from what the Prince likely expected for his entourage. He makes a face like he’d just bitten into a lemon, but gives the creature beneath him a tap with his boot. In a flash of feathers, two bright blue wings spread wide, almost striking Marcus in the face. Despite his poor horsemanship(?), that was likely intentional.

“She can, we would, and we may,” Johannes answers the two questions Rane didn’t ask and the third he didn’t even say. “We shall await tomorrow's celebrations together. Whether it be in a tavern, or one of the guest bedrooms of the Iron Palace, I’m certain you will sleep well, your Highness. Sir Marcus, I am sure, will take fine care of your men, and ensure that they are returned to you promptly.” There’s a pause, and Johannes looks across at the man in question. He rolls his eyes. Johannes scoffs. “In the meantime, we will see to your safety. You have my word of honour.” It was a solemn vow - or at least it sounded solemn. You doubted there was anything that could present a serious threat to Rane on the planet, and that made it sound a little more childish. He might as well have been offering to protect him from the things that go bump in the night. Not that there weren’t plenty of dangerous things that went bump in the night. Eldar raiders, for one.

>>6224121
[3/9?]

While Rane moves to mount the skimmer and the Imperial delegation prepare to be ditched by the faster moving elements of their party, the ‘knights’ were left utterly baffled by the course of events. They’d spent the conversation looking backwards and forwards between the various participants as though they were watching a tennis game. That didn’t help them look noble, but thankfully no-one had been paying them much attention at that point, though that was changing as Marcus shifted from glaring suspiciously at the skimmer as it drew closer to inspecting his new houseguests. It was probably time to take control of the situation.

Unlike the skitarii, who you could direct like puppets without resistance, the soldiers that you’d be coaching through this encounter had neither the extensive augmentation nor the empty, pliable minds that would allow you to command them in quite such a direct way: in other words, they had minds of their own. On the plus side, they had minds of their own. While these men weren’t the ideal diplomats, they would be leagues better than skitarii, and you’d managed to get through delicate negotiations with Selene before, using skitarii as the intermediaries. Surely, things will be just fine. Right?

“Listen carefully.” Your voice rings out through the radio of the Sergeant - one Hann Arnenviel, formerly of the Accakarosi PDF, until a minor drug charge would’ve seen him sent for a penal legion if you hadn’t grabbed him first - and the man immediately snaps to attention, and subtle glances about as though he might see who it is that is addressing him. You very seldom had reason to directly talk to humans like this, with words and sound rather than bursts of data and ideas. Was your usual ‘voice’ distressing? You don’t remember it worrying people. No matter. “I am Epimetheus.” You let that sink in for a moment, waiting to see the man relax. Instead, he just goes even stiffer.

“You’re the- But they said that you- That can’-” He speaks in harsh whispers, though calling them whispers was being remarkably generous. If he wasn’t wearing the helmet, he’d seem insane. You cut him off.

“What they said is irrelevant. Your suit can confirm that what I am saying is true.” Basic handshake into an encrypted link, and your command credentials confirmed that you were who you said you were: Epimetheus - Facility Administrator. That should’ve said ‘Facility AI’, but given that you were the highest ranking member of the administration left, you had the authority to change your title. You’d decided years ago that it was better not to throw a hand grenade into the ‘AI, abominations or divine entities?’ discussion, and that would probably qualify as a hand grenade. Besides, Administrator suited you just fine.

The sergeant nods, numbly. “Right. Okay, yeah, that checks out… my Lord?”

>>6224123
[4/9?]

“Sir would be acceptable.” That’d be appropriate for the director, or an administrator. Though you did control large civilian populations and manage industrial, military, and civil organisation across several planets. That was a unique combination of responsibilities and scope, almost unheard of in the Republic. Plus, you were unelected. Would that make you a Military Governor? Exceptional powers for emergency peacekeeping and civil defence. It fits. “Technically, Excellency would be most accurate, but I would prefer Sir.”

“Sir,” he echoes, nodding without realising that Marcus was looking right at him, probably wondering what the hell was going on.

“Relax. You and I are going to negotiate with Sir Rodzinner, Sergeant Arnenviel.” You try to sound more soothing, slowing down the rate of your speech while trying to find a comfortable pitch for it. Authoritative, but not booming would be ideal. “To do so effectively, I will need you to relax.”

“Right. Yeah, relaxed. Got it my l- I mean, sir.” If anything, he seemed less relaxed. Perhaps you should’ve expected that.

“Good. You’re going to pretend to be a knight, Sergeant.”

“What?” He couldn’t hide the incredulity in his voice. Had you overestimated their professionalism? No, that was unfair. You’d had them trained to kill things, not LARP. “I mean… what, sir?”

You queue up a basic reply telling him to just pretend to be a knight. It wasn’t that hard, right? Then it occurred to you that he probably didn’t have much context as to what a knight was. Then, as you were indexing what you knew of how knights acted, it occurred to you that you really didn’t have all that much either. Vague notions of chivalry and bravery reappear in fragmentary mentions, but that wouldn’t be enough to coach someone through this. You’d be relying on cultural differences more than you’d hoped. “Perhaps you’ve met someone of high status in the past?” you venture, hopefully.

The silence that followed was deafening. “Not tech priests? I’ve met a few clerks. Officers.” Even he sounded unsure, but you had something to latch onto.

“Officers. Yes, of course. Just pretend to be an officer. Like a captain, or a leftenant.” You sound more enthusiastic than you felt, but that was by design. It has the desired effect, as he begins nodding again.

“Right,” he begins, his voice still unsure. “Right, yes, I can do that.” The more he repeats himself, the more certain he sounds.

“Good. Now, Rodzinner has been staring at you for the past eighty-six seconds. If you do not respond to him soon he will think you are an invalid. Begin by removing your helmet.” That shocked Hann into action like there was a wasp stuck in there with him, though something occurs to you just before he disconnects the helmet from the suit. “Make sure you put your earpiece in!”

>>6224125
[5/9?]

Correcting him at that critical juncture was probably a mistake, as he switches from focusing on removing the helmet in a dignified - if rushed - way, to fumbling for the wire that’d keep you in contact with him. It takes a few seconds, but it’s back in place and you’re able to surreptitiously guide him again. He just can’t talk back quite so… well, subtly felt like the wrong word to use. Nothing about the good Sergeant seemed particularly subtle. Oriana’s tits. Your predictions for a successful outcome are dropping pretty quickly now. “Okay. Helmet under your arm. Straighten up. No, not like that.” You give him a moment. Maybe his posture wasn’t the best. Was this why they used to have them march and parade? You doubt this specific situation had ever come up before. “Let me.” With a quick tweak, you override the servos of his armour, forcing him to stand up properly. You’re pretty sure you heard something pop, but his vitals were fine.

“Now, approach him.” Your next piece of advice would be ‘and offer your hand’, but for the fact that he was on gryphon back, and the gryphon looked nasty enough that you weren’t about to order the sergeant in that close. It probably wouldn’t do much for his appearance either way. From the look that your drone is getting, their sergeant really should keep his helmet on. He looked like a bulldog; ugly in a respectable sort of way, but still quite ugly. Still, Hann seemed to share your assessment on the safety of the gryphon, as he halts a decent distance away, awaiting further commands. “Well, introduce yourself,” you prompt, only to swiftly add, “as Sir Hann of Svartalfheim. You can manufacture the details as you desire.” His heart rate spikes at that, but he does as he’s ordered.

His bow is somehow both stiff and clumsy, and you’re half tempted to take control of the armour again just to loosen him up. “Sir Hann, of Svartalfheim. At your service, my lord.”

Marcus’ eyebrow raises again. He appraises Hann for a moment, staring down at him. The armour was obviously technologically advanced, but there were no outward signs of augmentation, which must come as a breath of fresh air after Rane. “On the contrary, sir, I believe it is I that is at your service. Given that we shall be drinking together later, perhaps we might dispense with the formality from the start? Call me Marcus, sir.”

At your urging, Hann responds quickly with, “then you may call me Hann, sir.”

>>6224127
[6/9?]

“Very good.” Marcus declares, a smile hidden by the weight of his facial hair. “No mounts suitable for the trail? No matter, the walk is short.” He leans across in the saddle, gesturing to one of the ogryn holding the crowd back before having a short, quiet conversation with him. That done, the ogryn returns to the line and Marcus to the saddle, and moments later a gap opens up in the civilians as the Wardens shove the crowd out of the way. Marcus’ nose wrinkles. “For their own good. Wouldn’t want Merlot to trample one of them,” he explains, just loud enough for Hann to hear.

The other militiamen chatter excitedly back and forward, and with Hann unable to quite so easily control them, you step in to give them orders on his behalf. Normally you wouldn’t intercede in the chain of command like that, but given the circumstances you think Hann will find it in his heart to forgive you. Soon, they’re back in formation (and slightly terrified) as their sergeant follows after the giant winged creature plodding between the too-narrow streets winding through the makeshift town. For as much as modern humanity might disappoint you, you find yourself impressed in the strangest of ways sometimes. To put together a settlement this sophisticated with limited access to power tools or transportation more developed than a horse and cart was rather impressive. ‘This sophisticated’ was doing some heavy lifting, since the closest thing they had to gutters were the little channels that ran between the cobblestone streets, filled with fluids you weren’t going to identify, but sophistication was relative.

The walk was as short as Marcus promised. The crowds didn’t seem to know whether the gryphon or the power-armoured knights were more interesting, but the consensus seemed to be that the floating metal cart and giant betentacled machine monster were more interesting than either, as the crowd was either moving to follow them for tomorrow’s show, or had returned to their business. They made it up to the makeshift fortification without further incident, passing over a crude wooden drawbridge that creaked and groaned under their feet almost as much as it did under the gryphon's. Ahead, a primitive military encampment stretched around in a lazy C shape, with the largest and most well established buildings trailing along in the centre, atop a small hill.

A stable attendant - another ogryn - approaches, brandishing a step stool, as the Wardens who hadn’t been left to manage the crowd filter in behind the militia. Soon, the gate was raised behind them, and you felt Hann’s heart rate rise again. “Look around you. Wooden stakes driven into dirt piles. In this armour you could jump the moat. Your rifle would flash-expand the moisture in the wood and detonate it as though it were explosive. Relax.” That time, your attempt worked, though you do note his fingers toying with the edge of his helmet.

>>6224128
[7/9?]

The ogryn takes a hold of the gryphon’s reins, allowing Marcus to make a slightly risky jump down from the stirrups onto the stool, then down onto the ground. He rolls his neck, stretches his arms, then closes the distance with Hann as though suddenly imbued with purpose.

Hann tenses. Hell, you’d tense, if you had any muscles to tense, but when Marcus thrust his hand out, it wasn’t to make the last mistake he’d ever get to make. His palm was empty. Hann took a moment, but he didn’t need direction on what to do there. Metal meets leather, and Marcus smiles warmly. “Good. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to explain that to you.” After one swift, manly shake, he retracts his hand, tilting his head just a touch. “Firm grip. That you or the suit?” He had figured that out surprisingly quickly, hadn’t he?

Suddenly, the situation had become delicate, already. Marcus’ face wasn’t unreadable, but you didn’t know whether to take the look of faint amusement seriously. After the venom he’d shot into Rane, you can’t imagine he’d be so casual about the armour. “Me,” Hann answers, honestly. “It only activates when needed.”

“Careful,” you warn, and though you might want to offer more direction, you really weren’t certain what Marcus’ game was. Humans could be unpredictable in the most annoying ways.

“Handy that,” he states mildly, his nose wrinkling again. “Well, enough of that. You and your men must be tired after your journey. And hungry. Come. I’ll show you to the beds, the baths, and the mess.” He drops a pat down on Hann’s shoulder that you’re all but certain Hann didn’t even feel, and then they’re off. Sleep wasn’t the first thing on their minds right now, given that they’d slept on the ship before they left and hadn’t done anything since. That being the case, the next few hours were spent wandering back and forth across the camp, then awkwardly trying to bathe without leaving their armour or weapons unattended - something that only became more awkward with the revelation that two of the team were women - then less awkwardly sharing a few drinks in the mess.

At first things had been tense. Your men had moved as a block in the camp, as much for company as to prevent someone from getting ambushed and mobbed the instant they took their helmet off. The Wardens, aside from Marcus, had been… not unfriendly, but certainly not welcoming. There were snide comments about the moral weakness of the militiamen, which were often met with a righteous indignation that made you proud, despite the fact that you had to stop them from letting it out. It was educational to hear the things that they picked at, though. Almost universally, they seemed to believe that the technology was a crutch - something to prop up someone’s weaknesses without earning that strength. Indolent. Lazy. Childish.

>>6224129
[8/10]

That smelled like sour grapes. Ex post facto reasoning. But was it? The ‘moral failure’ line could be a natural extension from there. Post-Republican Adrax’s Reach could’ve been a world led by technophile hedonists who incurred the attention of the archenemy. A neat explanation, but that only made you suspicious of it.

Thankfully, though, once their helmets were off and they got down to drinking, some of the tension eased. It wasn’t easy to monitor several conversations simultaneously in order to prevent any of them from acting too… un-knightly. You were weighing up whether or not it’d be wise to order them to stop drinking, but that ship had well and truly sailed by the time you were seriously considering it. You turned your focus onto Hann instead. Given his rank, he was automatically assumed to be the most senior in their fictional structure of nobility, so if he behaved properly, maybe that could allow for some indiscretions on the part of the ‘lesser’ ‘nobles’? It wasn’t all bad, though. They sat across a long wooden table that stretched the centre of the largest stone structure in the camp, illuminated by flickering lanterns and oil lamps, trading jokes and drinks. They weren’t exactly the best of friends, but right now, they could drink together with smiles on their faces.

But nothing had happened. No deals were made, no negotiations, no… nothing. You were starting to get impatient when Hann was interrupted mid-swig by another tap on his shoulder. Marcus hadn’t drawn the attention of his men nor had his appearance implicitly demanded their silence, allowing him to go unnoticed for the most part. “Sir Hann, would you object to joining me for a drink in my office?”

Either he was hitting on Hann or this was what you were waiting for, and you didn’t think he was the sort to get someone liquored up before propositioning them. You order Hann to accept, and soon Marcus is leading him away from the merrily chatting crowd and into an office on the far side of the building. “I’m watching them,” you assure him, though you were more concerned about alcohol poisoning than foul play. The Wardens were just as drunk as they were, and your drone couldn’t see any suspicious movements outside in the fort.

Once Hann passes inside, Marcus steps aside to close the door behind them, the heavy oak sliding into place and muffling the world outside. The only sounds now were those of a crackling hearth and the soft chirping of the night, creeping in through wide windows behind his desk. Marcus steps across the room, reaching down to grab a pitcher from the table. A slosh confirms that it still has fluid inside, and a quick pour into two glasses beside it confirms that it was a deep red wine. Holding the two crystal tumblers in his hand, he almost reluctantly passes one towards Hann.

>>6224130
[9/10]


Only when Hann reaches out to take it, Marcus doesn’t let go. “You’re no knight,” he says, as though he were telling someone the time. Hann opens his mouth to respond, to deny it, but Marcus continues. “You’re no knight. I can see it plain as day. The others probably haven’t, but they were too busy drinking with you to think. Besides, they’ve not spent as much time around knights as I have.” He pauses. “Proper knights. Not like me.”

Finally, he releases the glass, and Hann almost staggers backwards. He probably hadn’t noticed how hard he’d been clutching onto it. Thankfully, the suit’s weight stopped him from doing something embarrassing. “We do things differently,” Hann protests, as firmly as he could.

“Indeed, that much I can tell,” he allows, raising the glass in salute before putting it to his lips, and gesturing for Hann to do the same. He doesn’t. “Suit yourself, but if you’re not going to drink it I will. It’s good stuff. Now, where… Ah, yes. You do things so differently that even if they do call you a knight - which I doubt - we would not. So no, Sir Hann, you are not a knight. Don’t mistake me, though, it is no mark against your character. Quite the contrary, I find. Pompous pricks. No, Sir Hann, you are a soldier.”

Slowly, Hann raised the glass to his lips. It probably wasn’t poisoned. Unless the glass was. His vitals are fine. It wasn’t poisoned.

“Good,” Marcus nods, although what was good, exactly, was unclear. “I understand that you have your reasons, but I am curious-” Leaning forward, he pushes himself back off from his desk, the steel plates of his armour grinding across each other as he moves. “-why him? His General Fabricator-ness Rane. We’ve men of the Imperium here, and none have shown interest in us before, which was an arrangement that suited us just fine, and now Rane comes and…” He gestures behind himself, at the lights of the starport just over the walls. “I have this to deal with. The corpse-puppets, the metal automata, that much I understand.” The wine swirls in his glass. In this light, it looks more like congealed blood than wine, clinging to the sides of the glass and rolling down in sticky droplets. “It is the men I find curious. The ones with hearts that beat and minds that think.”

Hann blinks twice. Licks his lips. “I don’t-”

>>6224132
[10/10]

“Why do you serve him?” Marcus asks, bluntly.

>”Just feed him groxshit.”
Spin some story about honour, and duty, and… whatever comes to mind. Does it matter? Things are getting dangerously close to the heart of matters some random caveman does not need to understand.

>”Tell him your story.”
Have him speak about the noose he slipped. The life he now leads because of the fate he’d escaped. The virtues of all that Marcus thinks is evil. Perhaps not so hard on the sales pitch, but the sentiment remains. You’ve done right by these people. Haven’t you? He will appreciate that.

>”Tell him the truth.”
But of course, you don’t know what that is, do you? Hann isn’t stupid, he’s not going to say anything too sensitive, and if he does, there’s always a permanent solution to it. Marcus seems earnest. Might as well be earnest in return, even if you’ll end up burying him for it.

>not only is the planet ripe for becoming a Knight World within a generation or two of molding, any Auxilliaries deployed alongside those knights could be augmented with 40k-ified versions of Fantasy Griffon Knights
Now I am even more mad we picked the Warrant of Trade over being handed custodianship over Adrax's Reach for free. We're going to have to fabricate and old loyalty oath or something if we want to brawl the Administratum over control of the planet.

>>6224133
>”Tell him your story.”
Of course substituting Epimetheus's role in his saving from a relatively cruel fate for a misdemeanor with Rane, but that goes without saying. Marcus wants to know why he serves and gratitude for a new chance at life is, in my opinion, a very honorable reason. Though it remains to be seen if Marcus feels the same.

>>6224133
>”Tell him the truth.”
I want to see how Hann answers.

>>6224133
This Marcus fellow is awfully perceptive.
I don't like the odds of Hann deceiving him.
Actually, I'd rather not use deception here at all.
> "Go ahead and tell him your story. Don't feel the need to embellish it. Be forthright."

>>6224133
>”Tell him your story.”

>>6224133
Uff i am sorry for our soldiers. How embarassing and stressful. Thats why I didn't want to do it honestly. They arent diplomats.

> "Go ahead and tell him your story. Don't feel the need to embellish it. Be forthright."
Sergeant Hann say what you believe in. Also Hann and the squad here will get a commendation for having to deal with medieval people. "Commendation of the Good Order for Diplomacy of Svartalfheim" a little thing of silver with a blue cloth pin. There.

We will need to give our soldiers some additional cultural and other educational lessons, beside their training. Maybe a basic Diplomacy 101. Next time though, Rane should have with him also an attached human diplomat. An ambassador. Soldiers can act as diplomats if there is no one else that can.


>>6224151
It was one of the things the Administratum would give us, having Adrax Reach would have been nice. But we might get it in the future if the Administratum likes us more. Dont worry i have an idea in mind : in Svartalfheim once, we return there for decisions i want to make a Comitee for Administratum Dealings. The purpose of this Comitee ? Deal in any way shape and form with the Administratum. Economically, Diplomatically, Politically, Spying, Military, with Law etc... this Comitee will need to do a lot of studying but we will give it to them. A mixed group of humans and techpriests. We will of course help them. But they will help us in dealing with the increasing demands of the Administratum and with the Administratum in general ! Genius no ?

In regard to the Warrant of Trade we can prep for it meanwhile, even if we speed up things it will take plenty of years still. We can decide everything about it. I am thinking one of the kids we grabbed for Rogue Trader, and a mix of other kids, humans and techpriests of Svartalfheim for the officers, retinue, soldiers and crew.

>>6224184
Well he is a noble leader, an of a certain rank in the Wardens Order if he was standing side by side with the Empire Prince. That means he got a certain high education even if medieval. And with nobles having a lot of gatherings, courts and what not in medieval times socialization and human body clues are something they would learn. Basically Hann and the team are outdone diplomacy wise. Thankfully we are with them.

>>6224133
>>”Tell him your story.”
We don't need to try and drop a bomb that we really don't need in the form of telling the truth, and the other option is too unsteady and will likely blow up in our face. Besides, he asked for Hanns reasoning for serving Ranes, so the reason he will get will be Hanns's own, and not one spinned by us for PR instead of a honest to God conversation.

>>6224184
>>6224133
>”Tell him your story.”

Supporting this reasoning. This guy seems to be the type who appreciates honesty, and I think asking Hann to do anything else would end poorly.

>>6224202
To be honest, the only committee the administrator DESERVES is a mailbox and a conveyor belt that takes anything in there directly to a huge shredder.

>>6224202
Oh God, I forgot about like more then half the reasoning for what we choose and why we choose what we did before this thing came back to life now, did we ever explain why we choose things like why we wanted to send major support for the claws or why we wanted to take over civilian production as a forge world and not anything else more military grade, or why not to have our tech be more advanced then what we ened up choosing instead? Same with the rogue trader thing, but that to me makes more sense then just picking Adriax reach, having a rogue trader as a spy/agent/person of great interest, that can "Happen" upon Advanced Republic STC's, or federation grade weaponry to then be used against our species enemies without all of the red tape and other nonsense that relies upon other factions or groups, like space marines, other forge world and their own diplomacy, etc.

Ah man, going back into the 5th thread, and God, are their so many goodies in terms of both research and justifications we can go into, so we can get a ton of new stuff to learn from and get better at, like now learning how to make titans after we get our hands of knight production and make them as advanced as titans because modern imperial knights in what 500?.m41, areleagues below what federation grade knights were capable of when they were set to the ballpark of 8-10 meters tall, plus any designs or creations above or below that bellpark. Nevermind all of the series of achievements we could have gone for and which I hope is still available, like both literally and figuratively becoming the Machine God, or really cool stuff involving learning how to go and handle start mass production of equipment for Akkaros and the rest of our moon instalation, since we are still more then able to make a lot of shit now, and of course very high grade material, to make two separate fleets worth of ships from within our system and that of our nearby systems to supply ourselves with the needed material now, but where we want to be to truly be able to offer a lot of supplies in material, technology, and equipment to say the Maelstrom Wardens and the Claws in particular, is still a long way off from where I would like it as things stand right now.

>>6224133
>”Tell him the truth.”
Welcome back, QM.

>>6224437
That might be, but we have to deal with them. As we can clearly see from past threads, right now and of course in the pastebins in the first post.
>Personal Note: Administratum demands are rising, as expected. While their current demands are still tolerable, it will soon become limiting to my plans. Efforts to either drastically increase production capabilities, such as to eclipse the most excessive of demands, or to limit Administratum demands to reasonable levels should be undertaken immediately.

Specifically their rising demands and constant ambitions. Which is natural for the Imperium, but with this committee we will instead play around the local admnistratum and convince them/distract them/damage them/influence them that they need to do something else instead than increasing demands with us. Or annoying us if we look at say Adrax Reach.
A commitee of people dedicated to that kind of work should help !


>>6224450
>I forgot about like more then half the reasoning for what we choose
ok lets see
>send major support for the claws
gain an ally (politically and influential important, military less so we aren't waiting for them to travel here in case a war starts), increase a lot our mineral resources gains if the astral claws stick to their words, more trade, and lastly gain informations we don't have access yet on the imperium when the astral claws are more friendly. And also request more people and kids why not.
>take over civilian production as a forge world and not anything else more military grade
we are taking over both, civilian was easier, less sus for the administratum.
>why not to have our tech be more advanced.
education time, ease of training etc... we will get there.
>Same with the rogue trader thing
more things under us while "not being under us technically", further increase of our military strength, further increase of our influence, gain more informations, gain more mineral resources and trade etc... we need to cut on the time the Administratum is working upon for make it viable anytime soon though (instead of a century, say 20-30 years).

>>6224470
i think we are still able to do all of that, the options just need to be picked, done and well time might be needed for some. At the moment i want 3 more battlegroups (while restoring the ones lost) and to build industrial facilities for produce small and large vehicles, since we don't have many of those at the moment. Research, probably on vehicles this time around.

>>6224776
awesome, was looking back into thread 5, and what a majority of the questers seemed to be complaining about, was how much our resources for repairing our ships, dockyards, defenses, various material expenses for the wardens maelstroum, and work involving Delta and the Sector capital. And of course, the administratum being both too fast and slow with our resource income which they were last starting to increase in their tithes from us without meeting that same level of resource gathering too us, which I think was why amongst other things, we went to Adrian now to get a trade deal going to look into the mountains of exotic resources litered all over the planet that could solve all of our resource problems in one swoop.

I also appreciate you going through and explaining why we did what we did for the last thread and some stuff before that. The rogue trader thing means we just need to wait within a time-stamp of about 10 years to get the thing, with the crew, rogue trader in question hand picked by us, and a suitable ship and fleet for said explorer to provide much needed safety as they go outside of our eyes and ears within this sector of space. The stuff about why we picked that warrent though, doesn't surprise me in the least since that is always the sort of thing you want from a rogue trader that is almost outside of all but the loosest imperial laws and edicts, short of a inquisitor or the like in imperial government hierarchy.

hmm, yeah we should maybe look into having our various techpriests and their apprentices, such as our rising star in Nathaniel, to be put less into dogmatic groups or conclaves of general studies such as the geneatorium (the admech that focus on genesmithing), and more into independent and fluid committee's that are open to a select few specialists and advisor's over various dealings or designs that can more or less be self-automated by themselves with only general decisions or insights gathered from said committee's to us, along with a collection of data on everything since their last data package on what their research, personal findings/problems with other members, etc. so we can make sure everything is running smoothly with said commutes and things don't blindside us with a decision that we were not able to factor into our calculations before having to reevaluate what we need to do for the next turn on what needs to be prioritized or built, and what communities are needed for what, where and when for said turn(s). Personally, im less interested in making new fleets, then I am on having our current fleets restored and research conducted into the psy-tech we got from those craftworld eldar. Our vehicle forms right now aren't in a serious enough position to make us redefine how a chimera or leman russ looks and acts like right now, since we've mostly done fleet and covert spec-ops fights then we have had large scale wars with armies that require things such as said large and small vehicles.

>>6224973
>>6224973
No biggie

Rogue Trader depends entirely on administrative efficiency, it might be very slow right now. So it might happen sooner with our efforts. Not that we need it immediately. We have still to begin even the basic prep for it anyway.

The rogue trader would be basically....just be Svartalfheim authority really XD. But under a disguise. Not for the Imperials of course for the Imperials it would be the new Rogue Trader House around.

We can see about that later once we are back taking a look at Svartalfheim. Nathaniel has still much to learn, but a different research group might be good. Its not a bad idea at all.


Different interests collide i suppose then. I have an interest to be prepared. Heavily. Large wars might happen, and having more vehicles than what we have now would be nice for our land army.

I am hereby forming the Big Gun Club in this tiny corner of the autistic AI-consciousness.
Threats from space are our greatest existential threat in the end, I think. Space is the high ground. Any planetwide stuff we gain can't get touched so long as we hold off whatever comes for us next time several dozen AU from orbit, and by far the best way to translate our technological superiority into raw power is through naval development.

We have excellent light cruises, escorts, and carriers, but the giganigga-fuck-you potential scale of the threats that can be arrayed against us necessitates a proper battlewagon. I posit that, once we get the chance and have gained a surplus of resources, we should develop a capital-B Battleship class and build at least a pair of them. Emperor-class on the outside, Republic on the inside.

>>6225198
I agree. If I remember right we have three different fleet blueprints we can build, Carrier Fleet/Battlefleet/Raiding Fleet, and I would very much want something more punchy that can be kept as a Fleet-in-Being in system to protect us and our allies. We currently have the Metal Gear Orks hiding out on Morka base somewhere and the survivors from the unnamed Craftworld as enemies, both of which are currently neutralized, but we can't count on that being the case forever.

Short term I would want a Battlefleet at Dark Age of Technology level to take over guard duty here in our home system while the repaired Advanced tier Carrier Fleet we have move over to the Badab sector to help the Claws patrol the region and secure our resource convoys since that is going to start trickeling in soon. This means we'll probably need to build and deploy a repair and retrofit station in Badab aswell to handle fleet maintenance there.
Long term I want to see at the very least one of each fleet type at DAoT level for defense, possibly two Battleship fleets so we can have one stationed near Ackkaros for quick response in case of invasion. As we saw when the Eldar wrecked our planetary rings, we can't rely on much outside help in the short term during an invasion so we'll have to do the heavy lifting when it comes to space security.

With all that said for this we need resources. A lot of resources. We have gotten the ball rolling in Badab but we still have one uninhabited planetoid in our own system if I recall right that had plenty of resources, so step 1 after we finish this diplomatic mission to Adrax is to get mining on that planet so we can get more resources. Another thought I had was to take the other two moons orbiting the same gas giant we are, Iapetus-Vc and Ve, and move their orbits closer to our facility and begin terraforming. Turn one of them into an Agri-World and the other to an Industrial World. That way we could maybe negotiate in foodstuffs as part of our tribute to the Administratum, which would give us more resources for our own needs.

>>6224133
>>”Tell him your story.”

>>6225198
In a fraternal spirit and serene competition, i will form the Club of Land Army Development. It is the moral cross of this club, to see Svartalfheim almost vehicle-less ground pounders to have everything in our arsenal in terms of vehicles. Because it's cool. And because better be prepared than not. And more robots. Girls love giant robots. And mechs can't forget about those.

I do like the sound of a battleship. May the best win!


>>6225248
>If I remember right we have three different fleet blueprints we can build, Carrier Fleet/Battlefleet/Raiding Fleet
yeah we have

>Battlefleet at Dark Age of Technology level
Only problem with that is that the people using them would need quite the time to be educated. Not so short term.

>Advanced tier Carrier Fleet we have moved over to the Badab sector to help the Claws patrol the region and secure our resource convoys since that is going to start trickling in soon. This means we'll probably need to build and deploy a repair and retrofit station in Badab as well to handle fleet maintenance there.
We can send a few Battlegroups but all of them at once is a bit too much. At the very least we need new battlegroups for our military operations here. Those orks need to be dealt with. Fine with the station.


>Long term I want to see at the very least one of each fleet type at DAoT level for defense, possibly two Battleship fleets so we can have one stationed near Ackkaros for quick response in case of invasion.
That's fine. Provided it's not just that for defense.

>With all that said , we need resources.
We should make sure the Administratum demands don't envelop us and bury us alive. While I might have said that committee idea before as a half joke, it could actually help us. Getting more resources and then the Administratum demands rise further, would just create a cycle that will eventually break (aka we produce too much for only one moon not even a forge world for the imperium). We have to create a fake status quo.

>>6225376
Epimetheus must introduce the enemies of Man to the blessed steel rod

>>6225376
We could train people to crew our current warships in just a few months, with aid from the ship computer systems. It's not going to take decades for them to be able to crew a DAoT ship. A year or two at the absolute most with intense training.

[1/10?]

It was obvious that Hann was unsure as to how to proceed, given the fact that he’d been silent and still for longer than was normal. You didn’t need to be able to read his mind to imagine how messy his thought process probably was right now. Your standing order was for him to pretend to be a knight, and that seemed to have been thrown out of the window, unless you wanted him to tell it to a brick wall. Marcus seemed certain of his conviction, and the reaction that Hann had given had all but confirmed it for him, so he was unlikely to bother listening to whatever weak protestations Hann could conjure up. Hann wasn’t trained in any way that might help him worm his way out of a scenario like this, and he wasn’t aware enough of the situation around him to confidently tell a lie, or make the choice to tell the truth.

You mentally quibble over what order you’ll give him for a while, but in the end you only had one real choice. Thus far Hann had proven himself a dependable sort, but you couldn’t trust his judgement on this, and obviously lying to Marcus would probably only piss him off. Hann needed direction, and Marcus needed something approaching the truth.

“Tell him your story,” you command, the earpiece crackling to life after a period of silence that must’ve felt like abandonment to Hann. “How you found your way to Svartalfheim. What you do now. Stick to facts, just leave me out of it.” Not that Hann could say anything about you eloquently. Your interactions with the general population were few and far between, and between religious dogma and lacking education, most of them didn’t even have the clearest picture of what you were, exactly.

Hann nods in response to your order, though Marcus seems to take it as Hann gathering his resolve. “Take as long as you need,” he says, gesturing with his glass. “I have all night.”

>>6225587
[2/10?]

Hann takes that to heart, as he gathers his thoughts along with his resolve, reinforced with another mouthful of liquid courage. “I used to… er, serve another lord.” His voice is unsteady as he begins. It occurs to you that, given the nature of his previous charges, this could well be somewhat embarrassing for him to talk about. “I was a soldier, always. From the age of 14. Dad took me shooting. Then mum, when he left. Got drafted into the PDF. They’re…” He pauses, searching for the right word. “Like a garrison, I suppose. And a militia. That make sense?”

Marcus nods, and gestures for Hann to continue. He takes the opportunity to swallow another mouthful.

“They must’ve thought I was good. Made Corporal by 19, then when the Administraum came, they made me a Sergeant. Lady Selene gutted the PDF to raise the men they wanted. Most of ‘em are probably dead now,” he admits, softly. You couldn’t say for certain, but judging by their equipment, and how they fought, you’d suspect the same. “But they had to be replaced, and so everyone got shuffled up and filtered through the system. They moved me, too. Wanted me closer to where the new recruits were, where they were raising them up. Moved my whole family, and that was… difficult. Wife hated it. Kids hated it. Throne, I hated it pretty badly myself, but it wasn’t like I had a choice. Not like they’d let me quit…”

Silences stretches on for a little longer, but Marcus doesn’t rush him. Neither do you. “So, the move was hard. Then the work was worse. I was training people on the job, most of ‘em not even old enough to buy amasec to drown their woes. Nine kids, I had to wrangle, on top of my own.” The more he speaks, the more enthusiastic he gets, until the words aren’t struggling to come out any more, almost tumbling off his tongue each time his lips part. “And then there were the riots. People weren’t happy about having their loved ones shipped off, but what the frak were we meant to do? So the Arbites ran out of regular police and started using us, and that was another frakking headache, and-” He blinks, and drains his glass, before passing it back to Marcus, who - obviously aware that he had Hann exactly where he wanted him - simply fills it back up and passes it over to him. “You ever felt like a lhostick being burnt too quick?”

“I can’t say I know what a lhostick is,” Marcus admits, only the faintest hint of amusement quirking the edge of his lips, in deference to the gravity of the conversation.

“A…” Hann gestures at the desk, and particularly, at a candle. “Candle. Yeah. Like someone’s just sitting there and fanning it and fanning it until you melt into a puddle?” He doesn’t wait for a response.

>>6225588
[3/10?]

He doesn’t wait for a response. “Cracking wasn’t an option, throwing in the towel wasn’t an option, and there was nothing I could do to make the load any lighter, so I found ways to make it easier to carry. Found a stimm dealer. They’re… drugs.”

“That, you may be surprised to discover, I am familiar with. Your people aren’t the first to bring them to our world, but you are the first to bring enough to cause problems.” He doesn’t bother hiding how bitter he sounds about that. Truthfully, you weren’t aware, but the thought of your people manufacturing drugs was not particularly alarming to you. If you weren’t aware, then it wasn’t a problem.

“It’s not like obscura, or slaught, or something.” Hann defends, rather more fiercely than his previous demeanour might suggest. “It was something to keep me awake, and working. I managed things well at first, but I wasn’t getting any younger, and things weren’t getting any better. Throne, they wanted me working 18 hours a day, every damn day and then they clap me in irons for taking the one thing that let me do it?” He snorts bitterly, then sighs. “But yeah. Three years, off and on, I took stimms. When I could afford it, and when I needed to. I was lucky for a while. Never took too much, never took it too often, but no-one gets lucky forever.” He scratches his neck, nervous and embarrassed. “Things got bad. It got obvious. I went from being pretty safe from getting shipped out to first on the next ship that came. Wanted to throw me in a penal legion. Prisoner soldiers. Bad conditions.” Understatement of the century, from what you’ve heard.

“Administratum would’ve probably taken me if I’d gotten caught a couple years earlier, but I got lucky. Wasn’t them that took me. Not sure of the specifics, but the Lady made a deal with Svartalfheim. With Lord Rane. They wanted people, and Lady Selene had them, so…” He spreads one arm wide. “Here I am.” Hann seems to consider his story over, but the look on Marcus’ face was disappointed enough that even he noticed it. “Oh, not like that. No. They, when they got me… well, by then I’d been off stimms long enough that I didn’t even want them any more. If they’d sent me to a penal legion, they probably would’ve put me back on them, but by the time I made it to Svartalfheim, I was clean. When they figured that out, they just let me go.”

“They let you go?” Marcus seems more confused than suspicious, if only because he obviously doubted Hann could effectively lie to him. Hann himself was the only participant in the conversation that missed that byplay. “They took you - I assume - from one world to another, and then released you without demands, or question?”

>>6225592
[4/10?]

“Not no demand. They gave me a job cleaning for a while. Didn’t pay me, exactly, but they gave me a house, and… pretty much anything I wanted. Food, clothes, and y’know, tech stuff. Plenty of room. Gonna ask my wife to bring the kids, soon.” There’s a melancholy smile on his face, like he knows she’ll refuse, but the idea alone makes him happy. “When they asked for people to train, though, I volunteered, figured as I knew a bit about what I was doing, they’d have some use for me, and they did. So, here I am. I figure it’s the least that I can do.” He concludes, for real this time.

You wonder, idly, how many stories there are like that. 20 million, you suppose. You could read the sterile numbers and construct some narrative from them, or eavesdrop on conversations had by others in the facility, but it was good to hear that you were measurably improving some people’s lives. You really did need to figure out some sort of system of formalised payment, though. Relying on an even mix of gratitude, civic virtue, and augmentations-as-rewards was not a sustainable structure. You didn’t have enough of an economy for a true commodities-basket based currency, but if you expanded it to include Adrax’s Reach and Delta, plus Accakaros, you could create a currency union. That would require Alexander and Selene to agree to allow you to control their currency, which would probably take a great deal of negotiation at this stage, and-

Oh, right. You put a pin in that thought for now.

You haven’t missed anything. Marcus was still looking at Hann thoughtfully, moustache wobbling as he shifts his upper lip. You can’t tell what’s going through his head. You’re not certain what he wanted from that question, but you hope that details have slipped in, namely that your people live in, compared to his, the lap of luxury. An ugly part of you wants to direct Hann to rub his superior face in it, but that’d be unbecoming, and you were probably projecting besides. He’d done nothing to deserve it. He sighs heavily, and reaches out to place a hand on Hann’s shoulder. His leather-clad thumb rubs across the cog-and-hammer, before he brings his hand back down to pat him. “You’re a soldier, and you do as all soldiers do. Jump up to die in someone else’s war. At least you’re more fortunate than some hounds, forced to fight for a master that whips them raw and feeds them bread crusts.”

For a moment, Hann seemed shocked, which made sense. He’d just spoken at length about some very personal things, and Marcus had brushed it off and started insulting him. That was not what you were expecting to hear, although there was a world where it made some sense. Hann raised his arm to push Marcus’ hand off his shoulder, his expression severe. Marcus doesn’t object. “I’m not some frakking canid if that’s what you’re implying. I fight because it’s what’s right, not because I have to.”

>>6225593
[5/10?]

Marcus levels him with a stare. “You would, though, wouldn’t you? If it weren’t for a quirk of fate, you’d be fighting for people who drug you into obedience, spilling your blood for scum while your children wonder why daddy’s not coming home, at least until your wife finds someone els-”

Marcus doesn’t get to finish that thought. You see it play out in slow motion, as the servos in the arm whirr into life and send Hann’s fist barreling towards his face as though shot from a cannon. There’s a wet crunch as metal makes contact, and you’re quite certain that Marcus just had his nose broken badly. The spurt of blood only confirms it, and by the time he’s on the ground by his desk, one hand on the surface to stop himself falling further, the other holding his face. The glass lay discarded on the floor; miraculously, it seemed to be intact. You can feel the muscles in Hann’s leg tense as he prepares to deliver a kick into his ribs, but he holds back at the last moment. Good thing, too. A power armoured boot to the chest could land like a mace, and you didn’t want him to kill the guy, and would’ve had to step in to freeze him. You probably should’ve done it for the punch, but by the time you realised his intention, he was already in motion. Hann deserved it, anyway. And besides, if you had Marcus’ measure…

There’s a wet, gurgling laugh from Marcus’ prone form. He’s wearing a smile that’s obviously hurting him just to maintain. “I was wondering what it’d take for you to grow some balls. Finally get some conviction. Mean right hook on that suit of yours.” Slowly, he drags himself up from the ground, struggling to keep himself aloft. Gingerly, he feels the bridge of his nose, hissing as his fingers make contact, but he doesn’t back away. Instead, he takes firmer hold, the hiss turning into a growl. With another sudden snap, he forces his nose back into place, hammering his fist into the desk several times as he tries to keep from screaming. After a moment, he tilts his head back to stare at the ceiling, blindly fumbling for the pitcher. Once he has it, he tips it back into his mouth, smearing blood on the metal as he does.

After a few healthy glugs, he suddenly starts coughing, sputtering a mixture of blood and wine, before the cough descends back into another laugh. You’re starting to wonder if he was lightheaded or concussed, before he starts to speak. “I deserved that. You’re not the first man to do that, and I doubt you’ll be the last, but you might be the one to make it hurt the most. Of course, you had certain advantages.” He dares to tilt his head down far enough to make eye contact with Hann. Blood continues to trickle down to paint his face. Little flecks cover his face like freckles. “Don’t worry. They’ll have the doctor look at it, and I’ll be as handsome as ever in a week’s time.”

>>6225595
[6/10?]

“The frak is your problem?” Hann demands, eloquently. He looked more uncomfortable than Marcus did. He was very likely expecting things to have just gone very, very wrong. You had suspected that Marcus was testing Hann - you could imagine no other reason for him to go in so hard otherwise - but you couldn’t be certain which response he was looking for. Apparently, it was this one. Or, perhaps not exactly this one.

“You’re not a complete bitch,” Marcus raises the pitcher in salute. “You don’t let people walk over you, even when it’s to your detriment to stand up for yourself. Good.” Another few mouthfuls disappear down the back of his throat, before the pitcher gets slammed down onto the desk. “Now you just need to go away and think about what I said, now you’ve got the violence out of your system. I didn’t lie to you, I just wasn’t diplomatic about it.”

Hann stood in place, shaking his head, but words fail him.

“You were a passive force in all of this,” Marcus continues, raising a finger accusatorially. “You were dragged along, doing what other people made you do.” His gesture becomes more placatory when Hann takes a step forward. “I don’t blame you for it. Were our circumstances reversed, I cannot say I would not do the same. I am aware of my fortune. Are you?”

It was Hann’s turn to gesture for Marcus to continue - albeit somewhat more threateningly than Marcus did.

“I don’t fight because someone asked me to, demanding it of me, or even because I felt as though I owed it to them.” He straightens up, apparently unwilling to give this part of the speech from a half-folded position. “I fight because there are things that I believe in that I’m willing to kill and die for. Because I’ve seen the nobility grind people beneath their boots every time you give them an inch.” He snorts, and it sounds like a cat drowning. “You know why I’d see your star-port leveled to rubble? It’s because I see the ‘gifts’ you bring and know that they are drenched in blood.”

“Seeds,” Hann speaks aloud. “Seeds are so bad that you’d kill to stop them getting out?”

Marcus leans back again, either out of frustration or a desire to staunch the flow trickling down onto his cuirass. “Seeds that’d put half our farmers out of a job. At least farmers have their land and choose when they wake. At worst, they’ll be left to starve, or drafted into a whole new set of internecine wars for the nobility’s glory. At best, the machines that you bring along would see them pushed into a workshop to weave cloth for 18 hours a day. Perhaps the drugs you bring would even let them cope, how delightful.”

“There-” Hann sputters. “Do you really think we have people working in frakking sweatshops up there? I barely even had a job before this!”

>>6225599
[7/10?]

“Bully for you. You have a very kind master, doggy; the people of this world are not so fortunate.” He was really pushing his luck, judging by the way that Hann’s fist was clenching. “I would like that to not be the case, believe me I would.” He chuckles. Not a full blown laugh this time, but a chuckle. “You know that once, they thought that technology would bring the daemons to us-” He points towards the ceiling. “-from out there? Some people still do. As though the forces of the deep black would care for iron wagons and rifles… No. Absurd. The truth is that technology makes daemons of evil men. Man’s capacity for evil is not limited, and it’s a distressing fact that evil enables men to do things that good men cannot countenance, all in service of their evil goals. Normally to attain more power with which to do more evil. They don’t see it that way, of course.” He glances down his bloody nose at Hann, before continuing. “Man’s capacity for evil is not limited. Their capacity to exercise it is limited only by their means, and technology gives them a long reach. You might have a good king now, and so things are good, but when he dies, what then?”

“And if he doesn’t die?” Hann answers, firmly.

“Oh, my.” Marcus chuckles. “Then what happens when he becomes evil?” He raises a hand, cutting off Hann before he can speak. “Don’t protest it, either. Men become evil by degrees, and they never notice it happening. Being a leader leaves scars on your soul. Have you sent a man to die, Hann?”

The silence was the only answer Marcus would get. You felt bad for Hann. He was outclassed here, but you couldn’t - wouldn’t - speak for him. It’d feel too much like vindicating Marcus’ words if you turned him into a mouthpiece now.

“I have. Dozens, perhaps hundreds. They followed my orders with their own consent, but they died on my word. I carry the weight. It gets lighter every time.” He groans, the pain suddenly getting to him. His voice is getting fainter, an airy, dreamy quality sinking into his tone. Blood loss and strong alcohol don’t mix - or do mix, depending on your perspective. “I don’t want it to. I know it needs to happen, but I don’t want to believe that. I want to feel each death raw and fresh, because the scars make it hard to feel. How long before your good king is nothing but scars, unable to feel or care? Willing to do anything, hurt anyone, just to maintain the kingdom? Enabled, by your technology, to control all aspects of your lives? You wouldn’t even be able to wait out his death.” Marcus fumbles for the pitcher again, unable to concentrate on holding his nose, speaking, and grabbing for something at the same time.

“Groxshit,” Hann mutters, before finding his voice. “That’s not true. You act as though good men just… don’t exist. That they’re all just waiting for a chance to be evil, that everyone is as weak as you. As me.”

>>6225601
[8/10?]

“It’s not weakness. It’s strength, of a sort.”

“No. No it’s not. There are men that are strong, and good, down to the core. My dad was a good man, wouldn’t hurt a fly ‘less it was coming for him with a knife. I don’t think he’d turn evil, no matter how long you left him in charge.” He shakes his head vigorously. “He wasn’t weak.”

“If you say so.” Marcus replies, weakly. “I can’t dispute your assessment of your father, given that I’ve never met the man.” He lifts his hand from his nose experimentally, and it was a mess. You’re not certain if he will look quite so good after that heals. “But think on what I said, won’t you? I suppose you’re not likely to forget this conversation. You’ve not had nearly enough to drink for that…”

“I don’t even know what it is that you want me to think about,” Hann replies.

“You fight for Lord Rane because you owe him. I fight for my cause because I believe in it. I fight to protect people from lords that don’t care about them. To free them, when I can. Because I chose it, of my own accord. Maybe you should do the same.”

“But I do.” He sounds more firm than petulant, thankfully. “Not from lords, exactly, but I protect people from one another, and I’m ready to protect them against worse things than men. Xenos. Real daemons.”

Marcus gives an indifferent shrug. “Is that why you fight, though?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes. To an extent, yes it does.”

“Why?”

Marcus shrugs again, unwilling or unable to formulate a response. The chirping of nocturnal birds and the distant hum of jovial conversation are the only sounds that make it into the office. “For what it’s worth, I’ve become rather fond of you,” he begins, breaking the silence. “You’re an honest man, Sir Hann, and were the circumstances different, I think you’d make an excellent Warden. Alas, we find ourselves here.” Another extended silence. “I have two messages for you to give to your Lord, and I am confident you can ensure that they are heard post-haste.” Does he know? He raises a finger to tap his ear. He knows. If he suspects that you, or Rane, are listening in directly, he gives no indication, though. “First, I would be willing to accommodate their desires on the condition that they acquire something from the von Eisenbergs that would permit us to… right certain wrongs. The von Eisenbergs possess something that they should not, something that I believe would enable them to do great damage to the people of this world, should they make use of it.”

He lifts himself up onto the desk with a pained grunt and a fresh trickle of blood. His voice sounds firmer, now. “We outnumber them, you see. If we asked, the peasants would support us, and tear them down, yet we do not. Why is that, do you think?” Marcus doesn’t make Hann answer.

>>6225602
[9/10]

“Because they would lay waste to the world. How is that? Truthfully, I’m not entirely certain, and I’m of no mind to test my theories. I’m not certain that I could stop them, either.”

“What is it? You’re being vague.”

“I am. And I’m not going to be clearer. I trust you, Sir Hann, to act in an honourable fashion, but you will serve your lord, that much is clear, and I do not trust him.”

“Then how do you expect us to destroy this… thing if you won’t even tell us what it is.”

“You’ll take me with you, of course. I will identify it and destroy it. I know full well what it looks like. With your technology, we can go in and get it done quickly, and relatively bloodlessly. I know, I’m a hypocrite.” With a smile, he swallows back a mouthful of blood. The smile fades quickly. “The Emperor will have to die for it, I think.”

“You- How do you-” Hann seemed caught between shock, horror, and fury.

“Not your Star-Emperor. Ours, the Kaiser. He needs to die. Trust me, though, it will be no great loss. The Imperial family might even thank you for it, although… That brings me onto the second point. Tell your Lord not to trust the young one. The Prince. There’s something wrong with him-” Marcus preemptively raises his hand defensively. “I know he doesn’t look it, but he’s killed four maids in half as many years, and those are the ones that we know of. Bloody pastes, by all accounts, like they got stomped flat by an ogre. Word is that he can’t control himself. Don’t know how he did it, and if I didn’t get eyewitness reports of the mess he left behind from agents I trust, I wouldn’t believe it, but I did, so I do.” He coughs, hacking up more blood. “You can have that one for free.”

Hann nods, accepting the information. “But after that. You kill your Emperor, and then what?” Maybe Hann wasn’t so bad at this. He was asking the right questions, at least. “We let you rampage across the world?”

>>6225606
[10/10]

“Good grief, no. We’re not savages. If you haven’t noticed, we’re rather capable of organising ourselves without the nobility butting in. I’m not going to suggest we’d have peace forever more, but at least I can promise you that it’d be an end to their pointless wars. Soldiers would fight for themselves, not for a nobleman or an emperor. Ideals and the survival of yourself and oyur loved ones are the only two things worth selling your life for. Any less, and you’re selling yourself short,” he affirms. “We have organisational structures ready to pick up the slack. We have people willing to act, and we’re only barely holding them back. Untie our hands, and for as long as you treat us fairly, we’ll trade with you; for as long as your lords rule justly, we’ll fight beside you.”

>[Direct Hann to refuse]
He’s not offering anything you couldn’t take given time, and what he demands could be nothing short of catastrophic for the world itself. He is an idealist through his ignorance of what it takes to rule in a galaxy and time so unfit for idealists. Perhaps one day, you might be able to afford such frivolities, but right now, you cannot. They are demanding, and you do not need demanding subjects. Harden your heart, for humanity’s sake.

>[Direct Hann to delay]
While you’ve been listening in to Rane’s discussions with the Prince, you’ve yet to consider anything that’s been said in great detail yet. The nobility might have some better offer for you, if you’re willing to hear them out. If not, then you can act later. If Marcus wanted you to act more urgently, then maybe he should’ve been clearer about the risks.

>[Direct Hann to Agree]
Marcus is right. Damn him for it, but he is. It would be folly to expect that you could be so reasonable in all circumstances, but per his word and your own observations, you could do better than merely tolerate despots and autocrats here, and with minimal risk. Is this not the example you want to set? Is this not what they wanted you to be? Kill your first Emperor; ὡς ἀπόλοιτο καὶ ἄλλος, ὅτις τοιαῦτά γε ῥέζοι. May it not be your last.

>>6225608
>[Direct Hann to delay]
I just don't trust this guy, way too fucking much of that sanctimonius and resentful combination. I also don't trust that the nobility is so rotten and the wardens so virtuous but that's my least important objection.

I think most of what he said is true, especially his judgement of the Kaiser and the heir but those should be looked into regardless. His vagueness with the superweapon, however, leads me to believe he won't "destroy it" as he claims he will. His reason for being vague just sounds like an excuse, if it was as he said then he wouldn't have revealed it at all.

To me, this guy just seems weak. Angry that the world contains injustice and suffering. These kinds of people are more likely to nurture the evil within and flame out than to build or better anything.

>>6225608
>[Direct Hann to Agree]
https://youtu.be/Oaw_Wy6XDFk?si=iyfcHjl7LAT1WLFV&t=100

>>6225608
>>[Direct Hann to delay]
Hann has no reason to have the authority to make this decision. Like, of course WE'RE the one actually making the decision, but Marcus likely doesn't know that. Direct Hann to say that he needs to actually have the time to pitch it to Rane... who's mid-talks with the Kaiser/mini-emperor's son. Thus, no matter that he can contact Rane directly, he needs time to handle this. Maybe direct Hann to personally agree but say that he needs time to pitch it. Then we have a few hours at the LEAST to get info.

>>6225608
>[Direct Hann to delay]
Really tempted to just have us kill the Kairser, but their are more then a few things that ned to be put over first, for one, what this secret weapon is, and how he is going to try and destroy it? Second, see what the prince is offering, and unless it is something on the same scale as what Marcus is offering, then we go back and pick agree. We are ultimately the ones that can bring down this worlds government and nobody but ourselves is going to care one whit about the people on this planet oneway or another, so their is no real incentive to try and prolonge this dance over mineral rights when we need them now, not yesterday.

>>6225623
Eh, definitely sanctimonious but he's not a retard zealot of his ideals, he seems to be more of a stubbron cynical/realistic idealist more then anything else. And while I have problems with his holding back attitutde inr egards to his lack of information on what the bobles have, he does seem willing tto try and at least do something about the problems he is willing to deal with, though that disrespect on people willing to work within the system to create positive change and his lack of respect or just anarchist sense of getting stuff done under his organizations watch does give me some amount of concern.

Uhmm... why I feel like the Imperial Prince is suggesting to destroy thr Wardens because they are technophobes or similar.

Also it seems, they arent technophobes of the tech or the users of it, but how its used. They recognize is power. And already with the tech level they have on Adrax Reach, the Wardens dont always get to fullfill their mission because the nobles are strong enough to abuse their power. At the very least this is what Marcus is saying to us and he is high rank enough in this templar-like organization.

He doesn't sound like his lying. And he really didn't need the whole emotional belittlement of Hann either. But he did it just the same for see what kind of man Hann was.

There was bad blood between the Prince and Marcus.

Though I noticed the mount of the Prince was restless. Might be nothing but animals do react differently if they can perceive their human masters emotions. Or if say their master is violent. A dog beaten by his human, is often prone to be scared, crying and what not. I might be overselling something irrelevant. Maybe the Prince isn't that much trained in handling beasts instead. Another thing i noticed is that the Prince really wanted to go away from the Wardens.

I ll think on who to vote while sleeping. But I do prefer the Wardens in general on Adrax Reach. They sound like a nice organization to work with and integrate in the future.

Could it be both sides where already preparing for a war and this meeting was just the last straw so to speak ?

>>6225668
Judging from the basics of Adrax Reach could be :

- Something from the terraformation period done by the Republic on the world to make it Earth-like (quiet possible)
- Something from the clearly not fully accomplished world colonization by the Republic (quiet possible)
- Something from the Dark Space Age/Imperium ages that got here (could be, but the first two are my bets)
- Something alien (Nah)
- Something warp corrupted (with the tendecy of imperium nobility, Adrax Reach Empire could just be a small mirror of the Imperium. Ackkaros main heir remains with a worrying tendecy for example even if we keep an eye on him and try put him on a better path [dont plot to remove/kill your own mother for power when you are the fucking heir etc..]. With how the Imperial Prince was described a minor amount of morale corruption could be there in him. Doesn't sound like its enough yet for chaos)

In regard to how Marcus and the Wardens plan to defeat this, i believe they either have the old superweapon equivalent of old ancient arrest codes or they leave it to us. If its warp stuff idk. Faith in their mission maybe ?

>>6225688
Quite*

>>6225688
The first is actually confirmed. It was seeded with bacteria and earth-life a long time before we were knocked out, and shaped to maintain a perfect atmosphere; and apparently there's layers of ruins like onions showing the decay of the planet's technological base.

>>6225688
>[Direct Hann to Agree]
>[Direct Hann to delay]

This is an excellent summary of the possibilities.

As other anons have mentioned, the situation here is rapidly becoming complicated. We have evidence (albeit secondhand evidence) that the ruling royalty have access to something beyond their expected tech level - whether it's some relic or a strange warp artifact is unclear, but in either case it makes our diplomatic mission here more perilous.

In light of this information, the resources we have on the ground no longer seem sufficient. Whether we act or not, we should prepare to land heavier support (robots, skitarii, etc) or transfer those forces from the forge into local orbit if unavailable. Given the resources we have, there's no reason not to over prepare for a worst-case scenario. Rane should be warned, and he should be wary of what the nobility might want in exchange for mineral rights. Paying close attention to their side of the bargain might be our best shot at getting intelligence.

Marcus is an interesting individual. I like him a lot as a character, and his motives are not easy to interpret. I see him as someone made cynical by experience: his concerns about technology are fully warranted in light of what he sees and understands. Given what we know about how the local nobility use technology, it is unsurprising that his view of progress is largely negative. His observation regarding our crop donations is surprisingly astute.

His offer is unexpected, but I don't really see the benefit of not taking it. If the ruling party has access to dangerous technology, then they will become a problem sooner or later. Autocracy aside, I have no desire to see them become a larger problem once entrenched by trade and emboldened by political/technological power.

Practically speaking, I think we should act, but do so after Rane has finished negotiating. Ask for Rane's observations on the local nobility, and have Rane tell the imperial delegation the (true) fact that one of Wardens assaulted his knights. This will mislead the imperial delegation into thinking that the Warden's attempt to curry favor with us has been an abject failure. Perhaps that will make them careless as to what they reveal to us while we make preparations in the background.

>>6225608
>[Direct Hann to delay]
We'll have to observe the Emperor and the Prince first to corroborate this information. I don't find it particularly far-fetched to think there's truth in what he says, we'll just have to figure out how deep the rot goes and if we need a hammer or a scalpel to remove it. Should also make a note to instill a proper sense of Noblesse Oblige in the Nobility if we don't have to uproot them all.

>>6225608
>[Direct Hann to delay]
So the nobles have a PK and/or a WMD, and the prince/emperor might be cultists. Cool and good. Tell this Warden fellow that unless he can give us more concrete details about whatever the item is and hid intentions are with it, we would not make a move before at least we talk to the nobles.

>>6225608
Hum.
He asked Hann to pass the information along to us.
He asked Hann to reflect on his words.
I don't think he expects an immediate answer.
Even if he does, we shouldn't commit to anything until we've personally investigated the Imperials' situation.
>[Direct Hann to delay]

>>6225399
We will

>>6225537
If you say so


>>6225811
If we do so we should keep an eye for any sudden movement of theirs. We have a ship in orbit...

>[Direct Hann to delay]

This is the kind of thing where we need to investigate ourselves to ensure we are making a sensible decision. Not the quests first rodeo dealing with a powder keg of a planet that kicks off into civil war the moment we make a serious move and light the match by doing so.

Good to know they are the sensible kind of luddite and without the nobles they likely would be much more accepting of technology.

>>6225608
>>[Direct Hann to delay]
made my decision, perhaps for better or worse

>>6225608
>[Direct Hann to Agree]

[1/9?]

If you were human, you might be experiencing deja vu, but you’re not and so you aren’t; you’re merely drawing comparisons to the last time you dropped down onto a world, causing a splash in the political arena, and kickstarting attempts at regime change. It made sense - given that you were probably the largest upset that the sector had in millenia already, and you hadn’t even gotten started on making the big changes yet - but that didn’t stop you from observing certain similarities. As before, though, you know too little about this situation to make a decision yet. With Selene and Alex, a peaceful compromise could be reached. Unlike then, though, you very much doubt that such a compromise would be possible, and doubted that Marcus would be half as forthcoming about his plan as Alex had his. If you wanted to find out more about the situation, you’d need to do the recon yourself. Fortunately, there was another possibility presenting itself elsewhere.

You couldn’t accept here and now, but neither were you willing to completely cut off the possibility. There was something slightly mercenary about the thought when you processed it in isolation, but keeping yourself available for better offers was the smarter move in this case. And in most cases. Biding your time, taking things slow and steady, and keeping options open until the last moment, that was your thing. Usually.

It seemed that Hann was awaiting direction, if the way that he awkwardly stood, silently swaying in place, was any indication. Better to be up front. “Tell him you cannot accept. Tell him that we’d need more information.”

Hann inhales a little too sharply, no doubt relieved to hear from you. “I can’t accept on my Lord’s behalf,” Hann echoes your words, nodding to himself as he speaks. “But I know we’ll need more information.”

Marcus doesn’t seem surprised, though there was a hint of disappointment on his features. He almost certainly wasn’t expecting Hann to make the decision for Rane, but if he harboured ‘suspicions’ about Hann’s ability to talk to Rane (or you) over extremely long distances instantaneously, then he might well have been hoping that Hann would make an effort to phone home and wait for your agreement before offering an answer. After a few moments spent in silence during which it became rather clear that wouldn’t be happening, he sighs and offers a nod of his own. “I thought that might be your answer, but as I said, I will offer you no more than I already have. I suppose you’re imagining that you might get more out of the Imperial family?” He tilts his head back, looking down his now bloody and swollen nose at Hann. “I’d be surprised if they told you. If I hadn’t told you, they’d probably keep it to themselves right up until the moment that you push them a little too far. Of course, that’d be a fight with no winners, but…”

>>6227138
[2/9?]

He trails off with a gesture at nothing in particular, and the room falls back into near silence once more.

“Well!” Marcus suddenly declares, pushing himself back off the desk, taking one wobbly step forward as he does so. Whether it was the injury he’d suffered or the alcohol he’d drank, he didn’t seem entirely steady on his feet. “I think that should be all for us today. Enlightening conversation, Sir Hann, enlightening indeed. For both of us, I should think.” He places another hand down on Hann’s shoulder. This one wasn’t brushed away so soon, allowing plenty of time for the blood covering it to stain the armour plate beneath. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go to see the doctor, and then return to sleep for tomorrow’s journey. Despite what the Prince may have said, I think a ride to the city might do me good, and they’d not turn me away once I’m at their gates, would they?” He huffs. “They might. Well, either way I’d enjoy their hospitality all that much. You’ll find me in a tavern after we arrive. And it should be you that comes to find me, Sir Hann. When the time comes.”

With that, Marcus brushes past Hann, and out of his office. Before you could consider ordering him to stay, Hann was already moving to follow after him. Probably for the best, too. Even drunk and injured, he’d probably notice if you had Hann start to rifle through his things, and there was no way he wouldn’t put two and two together afterwards.

“I thought he was going to kick us all out,” Hann mumbles, once Marcus was out of earshot. For the first time in a few hours, he was actually talking directly to you, rather than obliquely trying to have two conversations at once. “Sorry about punching him.”

“No apologies are necessary. He went too far.” You think about what you have to say next for a moment, before adding: “I think that it was what he wanted.”

“Can’t say that there are many people that’d like to get punched. But I still think that didn’t go…” Hann couldn’t seem to find the right word, and after trying for a while, just shrugs.

“I do not know what it is that he expected from that conversation, but given the severity of the suspicions he has for us, I would say that was a rather successful negotiation. Excellent work, Sergeant.” He struggles to vocalise a reply, though he does manage a grumbling noise that sounded a bit like ‘thanks’.

>>6227139
[3/9?]

[bold]Some time earlier…[/bold]

While your drone, and the bulk of your attention, went off to follow Hann and his team, Rane travelled in a skimmer towards the city at a comfortable clip; slow for the vehicle, but on the fast side for the gryphon flying alongside it. It was a rather majestic thing to watch in motion, despite the bright colours reminding you of other big, blue bird-things that you wouldn’t be caught dead offering any flattery of. The Prince’s discomfort in the saddle only became more obvious in flight. You’d never seen anyone else fly on a gryphon before, so technically all of this could well be perfectly correct, but he was constantly correcting his mount, both verbally and with his limbs, and that seemed a far cry from the relaxed way that the others flew. A few more gryphons had joined them after takeoff, with the bulk of the party forced to remain behind. Even still, the Imperial Prince would not go without protection, even if the other riders were functionally little more than decoration.

<Has the soldier encountered difficulties yet?> Rane asks, drawing your attention. He was squished into the back of the cramped interior of the APC. It wasn’t meant for VIP transportation, and it wasn’t meant for transporting people of his size, but thankfully with his mechadendrites folded up, he could fit in the back without the need for surgery to facilitate it.

<Do not be so pessimistic. This was your idea to begin with.> You’d cluck your tongue at him if you had one. <No, he has not. They’re being shown inside the fortress now. You could’ve always asked them yourself?> You start to wonder if Rane had volunteered them merely because he didn’t want to have to deal with them anymore. You start to hope that he wasn’t trying to get them killed.

<You are monitoring the situation,> he retorts. <It was more efficient to request your assessment than their report.>

You had no particular answer to that, and so turned your attention back to the external cameras of the skimmer. While it wasn’t equipped with a QED like your drone, it didn’t need to be - the distance between the spaceport and the skimmer was negligible enough that light lag could be ignored for almost all purposes, and it didn’t seem likely that the locals would be jamming your signals any time soon. Your attention wasn’t exactly in short supply either. At any given time you were spinning about a dozen plates at once, and that was without counting the basic maintenance and bookkeeping responsibilities that happened so far in the background that you weren’t even consciously aware of them happening. While guiding Hann through his more delicate situation was the priority between the two missions, you still had plenty of mental bandwidth to spare Rane’s part in the operation, especially when so little was happening.

>>6227140 (oops)
[4/9?]

Even at the relatively high speed afforded by the gryphons, the journey to the city still took a couple of hours, requiring a few stops to water the mounts and let them rest along the way. While Rane did the polite thing, and dismounted with them, to present himself for conversation, no-one seemed interested in taking up that offer in any way more complex than grunts, nods, and tired greetings. It was, apparently, rather physically tiring to hold onto the gryphon through flight. The Prince probably hadn’t been so upset by losing his guard as he was by having to take this flight, as he was the first to signal his readiness to stop, and the first to stumble off his mount and grab for a waterskin.

Despite the delays, they arrive at the city just before nightfall. The sun was dipping below the horizon by the time that the city came fully into view, and it was a rather strange sight indeed. It was cast neither in the image of a Republican arcology - all towering highrises, concrete, plasteel, and glass - or an Imperial hive - all twisted metal and toxic sludge - but of something stranger still. If an Imperial hive was a degenerate form of a Republican arcology, then this was a malformed, stunted hive. While stronger materials might have permitted them to continue building higher and higher, stone and timber only allowed them to affect repairs and make expansions up to a point, and so Eisenberg itself was relatively short as far as structures went.

Black and white flags fluttered from the highest turrets, assembled from white-washed stone that practically glowed dull red in the late evening sun. Where bare structural metal pokes through the facade of the structures that cling to the outside like limpets, it shines even brighter still. Someone went to great effort to ensure that the outside of the city was imposing from a distance, and the effect would’ve been impressive if you were coming here to sell turnips, but you were not, and so it only impressed in so much as you thought that the effort that went into maintaining it was impressive for such a backwards society. Where the central mass - like a cross between a hill castle and a fortified city - could support no further development, structures spilled out onto the plains around the city, enveloped by concentric rings of walls, growing naturally out from the centre like the rings of a tree. Unsurprisingly, the outer layers were less visually striking, and the whitewashed stone and tarred timber gave way to more conventional thatched roofs and plaster walls that you’d seen elsewhere. Beyond that, fields stretched on for as far as the eye could see, crops swaying gently in the breeze.

Before you reach the city, though, the Prince pulls ahead and then turns sharply from the road, circling down towards a palace on the outskirts of the city.

>>6227141
[5/9?]

Unable to communicate with the riders, Rane has no way to confirm their intentions, and so commands the skimmer to turn off to follow. The skimmer moves from sturdy roads and onto rough, loose cobbles, and immediately the force of the vehicle passing over threatens to rip up loose stones and toss them about at high speeds. Fortunately, the anti-gravity fields fail to do anyone serious mischief, and the skimmer glides through the wrought iron gates as soon as they’re opened to allow the skimmer through. The palace itself sits at the end of a long, carefully sculpted garden. Red, white, and gold flowers are painted across the gardens as though by the stroke of a painter's brush. If the curls, twists, and geometric patterns mean anything, their meaning is lost on you, though the symmetry between the four parts of the field - quartered by the paved path leading from the gate to the palace, and then from the centre of the garden out to the sides - was pleasing. Each quarter had a single water feature, huge fountains capped with marble statues of naked figures you didn’t recognise.

The palace itself was no less impressive than the environs. Grey stone foundations supporting that same white facade as the castle, though it was broken up by the hundreds of windows that peer out over the gardens all around. It swept out to either side, before turning back and away from the main gate, forming a U shaped structure that steadily tapered off in height as it drifted away from the core. Black slate tiles covering a shallowly tapering roof contrasted against the whitewashed walls, though that most absolute contrast was the most colour that was used in the structure itself. An odd design choice, for an otherwise rather baroque structure.

A page standing at the side of the path raises a hand nervously, directing the skimmer to come to a halt in front of the palace, as though he was afraid that the vehicle might keep going and barrel through tonnes of stone as though it wasn’t there. At absolute top speed, it might leave a crater, but you doubt it’d be recognisable or functional after the initial impact. The palace would be the winner of that engagement. Rane dismounts, just in time to watch the gryphons be led away as the Prince’s party approaches to greet him. Now that everyone is standing, the Prince’s slight stature is made all the more obvious. Beside his bodyguard and Rane, he looks like a child, which wasn’t technically incorrect. You weren’t certain of his exact age, but you were certain that he was not of age, whatever that might be for this world. You don’t see it in his eyes though. They look older than they should be. Tireder.

“Your Highness, welcome to Schloss Kareldorf,” the Prince begins, with a tilt of his head in lieu of a bow.

>>6227142
[6/9?]

Ah, that would be why he didn’t make the attempt earlier. It wouldn’t do for a Prince to be seen bowing to someone of a lower rank. At least, the Prince clearly thought of Rane as being of a lower rank, and Rane didn’t care enough to correct him. “I had thought you might rather make use of one of the Imperial properties outside of the city’s limits. For your privacy, of course.” He didn’t sound like a child, either. Part of that will have been (possibly literally) beaten into him by his tutors, to become a diplomat of some talent from a young age, but even with that in mind he seemed oddly subdued, with the exception of his annoyance at Marcus.

Rane had no compunction about bowing, even to someone a little over half his size. “Very kind, Your Imperial Highness.” Excellency had a much better ring to it than that mouthful, though you were unlikely to find allies in that position between these two.

The Prince takes the compliment on the chin. “If you would follow me, sir?” With that, he turns towards the entrance, his riding boots snapping against the stone, then crunching against the gravel as he approaches the palace. He doesn’t bother turning around to confirm that Rane was following him. “You may leave your vehicle where it is. I shall have my men guard it.”

“That will not be necessar-”

It was a rare person that cut Rane off, but then the Prince had shown less fear of Rane than Marcus had, despite his youth. “Nonsense. It is already done, sir.” He raises a hand dismissively, putting the matter back to bed before it could even get its slippers on. Not that there was much of a reason arguing the point, anyway.

The two of them make their way into the palace in silence. In contrast to the outside, the inside was awash with colour. Gold, red, marble, jade, deep navy blue, and sea green. Paintings and statues and rugs and decorative pillars and stairs and chandeliers. Colour and money. Rane’s interest glides off it, but yours does not. You could learn a lot about a people by the art that they produced - the things that they idealised and despised, the things that they wanted to be and the things that they desperately pretended that they weren’t. You weren’t so fortunate as to make any observations about the Eisenbergs or the culture of Adrax’s Reach from this room alone, though. It was an eclectic mess of styles and pieces chosen at random; only the architecture itself was coherent, and only barely with what lay outside.

Suddenly, in the middle of the grand entry hall, the Prince turns to stop, halting just a few steps up the stairs. It didn’t place him at eye level with Rane, though it did help minimize the difference. “I think this should be far enough. We wouldn’t wish to go on too long,” he declares, turning around to stare into the flickering candlelight of one of the chandeliers behind Rane’s head. Suddenly, his eyes focus and turn back down onto Rane.

>>6227143
[7/9?]

“You should know that tomorrow will be a largely ceremonial event. You will speak to Father for a time, and I shall expect that his daughter will wish to join him in that, but the conversation will be light.” The tip of his boot tapped against the stairs, though the sound was swallowed up by the thick carpet.

“There will be a feast, and a parade. I can provide you with a full itinerary, should you desire it, but suffice it to say that in depth diplomatic discussions would be considered impolite to conduct on the first day of events. The Chamberlain was invited to take one of the offices in the palace for the duration of your stay, and is available to you should there be particular matters you would wish to discuss in the meetings afterwards.”

In other words, he’d like you to give them a heads up about what you want to ask. Reasonable. “Of course, sir,” Rane replies, automatically.

“Ah, and there is one other matter,” the Prince continued, no longer tapping his foot. “You do not have a gryphon. If you would permit me to make a suggestion, sir, I might direct you towards acquiring one for yourself.”

<What?> Rane asks, not of the Prince, but of you. You were probably the wrong person to ask, but that didn’t mean that you didn’t have an answer. It seemed like everyone of note or status had a gryphon, although to be fair you were currently operating with a sample size of two and however many the Prince’s bodyguard counted for. The observations of your diplomats were rather lacking, given their background, but all together you had the beginnings of a suspicion. You send that fact to Rane. <Low sample size,> he points out. <Weak hypothesis. This venture would be a waste of time.> He’s probably just against the idea of participating in some primitive cultural ritual. For your part, you could see certain advantages in taking ownership of one of these creatures; getting genetic samples to test without having to ask some very awkward questions first and foremost.

<Context strengthens the hypothesis. Question: Would he suggest it if it were not of value?> You tactically do not point out that it seems unlikely that a more productive use of his time would present itself.

<Potentially. Assassination attempt? Practical joke?>

<If it is an assassination attempt, it will fail. If it were a practical joke, it may be wiser to simply take it rather than call him out. I shall defer to your judgement on that matter.>

Rane doesn’t reply, at least not to you. “And how would I go about doing so, sir?” he grumbles, though you doubt the Prince could hear the difference in his voice.

>>6227144
[8/9]

To add an unknowing insult to the injury, he begins almost as though he hadn’t heard Rane’s question. “They are not simple beasts to subdue. Even as hatchlings, they have claws longer than a man’s hand and legs strong enough to cross a dozen yards in a single bound. Yet those hatched are tamed from birth and jealously guarded, and so should you desire one for yourself, you would have to take the initiative. As I did.” Wait, the Prince took down a gryphon? The gryphon he rode? It looked like it could eat him in two messy bites. Maybe it had grown? Maybe he’d had help?

“But I would suggest starting at the mountain range off to the east. When winter comes they’ll fly north, but during spring they’ll feast on the livestock on the plains below. To take one to tame, you would ideally want to find one that has only recently split from the mother. They split young, once they’re old enough to fly and hunt on their own, but by that point they’re already the size of a small horse. Any later and they won’t listen to you. Any younger, and you’ll have to contend with the mother.” He doesn’t bother saying that would be risky, though you doubt Rane would have an issue with it. It would be a shame to kill a mother defending their child, though. That feels like the start of a tragic children’s movie.

“You could try tonight,” the Prince suggests, before dismissing it with a shake of his head. “But only if you were insistent on acquiring a mount before the ceremonies tomorrow. Perhaps it would be best to wait until afterwards? No matter. Any other questions?”

It was at this point that another part of your mind had just got done watching Hann break Marcus’ nose. You can’t help but feel like this was boringly genteel by comparison. Still, it did give you an opportunity to make things more exciting. Rane seemed to believe that the Imperial family had a weapon that could be used against the population, and the Imperial Prince might just know about it, and Rane might be able to get him to crack under pressure… or bluff. If he pretends he already knows all about it, he might be able to tease out some information before the Prince realises what’s happening. Of course, he might know nothing, in which case he might take the attempt as an insult.

>>6227145
[9/9]

You’ll direct Rane to…

>[Bluff]
Lie. If Rane makes some vague suggestions about the Imperial family having technology beyond what they publicly claim, and the Prince knows about it, he might be willing to volunteer information he thinks you already know, but it’d work better if you knew more to begin with. Failing that, you might learn something about the specific way he denies it, and have some plausible deniability.

>[Pressure]
He’s just a kid, and Rane is huge. All Rane should need to do is lower his voice and ask pointed questions, and he’ll spill. Bring up the maids turned to paste, and maybe suggest that the information might be leaked? You’re not sure if he’ll care, though. Rane shouldn’t escalate to actual overt threats, but even if it works, it’s unlikely to leave him well disposed.

>[Ask]
Well, there’s no harm in asking, right? There could be, actually, but probably less risk than anything else. Whatever ends up happening in the immediate future - between you, the Wardens, and the von Eisenbergs - right now you’re positioned as a friend and ally. Perhaps he’d be willing to share something with an ally.

>[Say nothing.]
Better not to tip your hand just yet. For now, Rane will just make small talk with the Prince until it would no longer feel weird for him to excuse himself and find something else to do.

>[Commence direct action - Pick another]
Sitting high above in orbit is a cruiser full of equipment, and while dropping it all planetside would raise eyebrows, a lighter flying low and slow by the city could be excused in any one of a thousand ways, assuming someone bothers to ask. You designed humanoid stealth drones to infiltrate and investigate, and they can probably survive being pushed out of the back of a lighter. Best of all, Rane can talk while you give the orders! It would be really, really bad if you somehow got caught, though.

And for the gryphon…

<Must we consider this?>

><Yes.>
You could probably come up with more than a few reasons as to why this would be a good idea.

><No.>
You could probably come up with more than a few reasons as to why this would be a waste of time.

regardless of the choice, this kid is one hell of a sick kid. Which to me raises questions to me on the prince's mind, since he just referred to his sister as "Father's Daughter", nor did he seem at all unserious about suggesting to a head of a planet to go and spend a knight to hunt a young grhyphon after riding on a antigrav vehichle that very easily showed it could move just as good if not more so then the gryphon's the prince may or may not have raised.
So that kind of makes it an awkward idea to just straight away asume the kid will crack under pressure, but we also have no clue what's going through his mind beyond what i've already gone through right away. Hmm, maybe stealth drones through the direct involvement might be a better play then?

The gryphon im interested in doing just because it will make Rane have to be told why its necessary to waste several hours hunting a young gryphon to capture and study while we look into its genetics and see what we can gleam to keep as a convenient animal to deal with local pests on our bases or operations on delta or any future worlds we visit, either within our home system or beyond in wider space.

>>6227160
>since he just referred to his sister as "Father's Daughter"
I don't know if that itself is an indicator of anything, it could simply be his step-sister either from a concubine or another marriage that he's on terrible terms with. Sibling rivalry for the throne and all that, he doesn't refer to her with her proper titles because he sees her as an inferior maybe?
What does spook me a little bit is the extravagent random colour choices when the Eisenbergs seems to primarily use Red, Black and Gold as we saw out in the garden and on the flags. A lot of them seem to be dangerously close to Chaos aligned colours, the biggest one missing is Slaanesh since there's no pink/purple, but the other three are present. The symetrical layout of the garden with the patterns we couldn't recognize also rings alarm bells in my head, but Rane didn't feel alarmed by it so maybe this is all a nothingburger and paranoia is getting the better of me.

As for the Gryphon I want it be because I like them (and honestly believe Epimetheus is interested too, from reading the internal monologue), but going now to fetch one is probably not a great idea. Maybe it can be undertaken during our stay as an outing? We are being courted after all so I could see the Emperor agreeing to a Gryphon hunt with a majority of the court. If we could get them out of the castle we could insert our stealth drones and investigate while there's less people around to notice them.

>>6227146
>[Say nothing.]
>[Commence direct action - Insert Stealth Drones carefully]
I'll leave the Gryphon vote blank for now, we could maybe ask the prince if it would be worthy enough of a spectacle to hunt the Gryphon with the court during our stay here, again to try and get them out of the castle so we can snoop around with our drones with less risk.

>>6227146
>[Say nothing.]
>[Commence direct action - Insert Stealth Drones carefully]
Expected Marcus reaction, okay he can be somewhat chill.
I feel like the Imperial Prince will say 0, how he acted so far make him quite resilient to any of those approaches i believe. He is weird and certainly makes it difficult to picture him in a good light. And i think he is self-conscious of this. Might be the reason he didn't want to be shit talked in front of everyone by Marcus at the starport, and speed up things there for gtfo.

Send some drones, at night probably. Even if the Imperial House might have some tech of the past for see them, its not an issue. If anything it reveals to us we can act against them.


The gryphon cultural thing just sounds...weird to tell about a visitor and head of another world(moon), that is heavily armored and augmented enough that it could crush a gryphon just with weight alone. Does the Prince want to weirdly involve Rane in this ceremony fully with this hunt ? Is taking him to a hunt/search the kind of cultural move that align Rane to him or something in the eyes of the Empire court and nobles ? is the gryphon thing just for distract Rane ? It's an offworlder even allowed to have one ?

The animal is certainly beautiful, but...we really have not much an use for it. Beside natural reserves, they sounds dangerous as pets or for large zoos (no zoos this thing would die of boredom or go crazy, too little space). Its a big apex predator. A prestigious thing, to have with imperials though probably. Kind of cruel for the animal.

War wise, i don't think it can tank even a bullet of half of the weaponry made by mankind present in the galaxy. For pests is not needed, this thing will eat cows or the equivalent of cows. Or attempt to eat an human. Here on Adrax Reach it can. On Svartalfheim an human in power armor will probably be able to supplex it on the ground. If the gryphon doesn't die first since there is no atmosphere on Svartalfheim.

The origin is probably republican, a megacorporation i suppose. I don't see the government or a normal company having a need to make this thing. "Luxury gene-engineered product brought to life from legend". The product sell it self just by that description alone and all the myths of humanity past. So .... why the hell its here on a world being terraformed ? Lost cargo ? Breaking the law ?

><Yes.>
Let me throw a very fast and hard ball to the Prince :
We will find an injured gryphon, and not take it as mount, but as pet companion. Cyborg gryphon is cool, and...it will care and be far more loyal than the one of every other noble. Because we give it augments! We win your cultural game and do not play with your ball !

>>6227202
I really want us to verify those maids killings rumors with one of the drones. I don't care if its chaos or not, if thats real, the prince could be a very bad new emperor for Adrax Reach.

>>6227146
>>[Say nothing.]
If we say anything, keep it to vague allusions of the old technology that brought them here.

I'm not too torn up over it, but... if it's
>Yes
Begin fabricating cybernetic enhancements befitting of a gryphon, which will be needed for Rane to sit one without hurting it.
If it's a
>No, then begin fabricating a gryphon-bot. We don't need to capture a gryphon to have a "gryphon"

>>6227146
>[Say nothing.]
>[Commence direct action - Insert Stealth Drones carefully
> No, then begin fabricating a gryphon-bot. We don't need to capture a gryphon to have a "gryphon"
This will either be a huge diplomatic blunder or the hugest damn flex that Adrax Reach has ever seen.
Besides Rane's current body is likely too heavy for a juvenile griffin to support, much less carry during flight.
For this Griffin-bot, assuming fabrication is remotely possible, try to aim for authenticity in the design.
Ideally it should be as a griffin made of metal, rather than a machine crudely shaped like a griffin.

>>6227146
>[Say nothing.]

>[Commence direct action - Insert Stealth Drones carefully]
Do a little spying and scouting.

><No.>
Rane doesn't strike me as a bird person. Cyber-Mastiffs are more his style.

>>6227146
>[Say nothing.]
>[Commence direct action - Insert Stealth Drones carefully
><Yes.>
May as well go and look into the matter ourselves instead of creating a diplomatic problem with the prince. And Gryphons for the win to see what they will be like for us as a pet.

>>6227146
>[Bluff]
>[Commence direct action - Insert Stealth Drones carefully]

><Yes.>

So Gryphon pet or mount.
I am sorry for Rane since he will have to care about a large beast going around lol :)

Might help him be more human. Though not much space in Svartalfheim for this creature. Might want to leave it here in our outpost in Adrax Reach. Very large, does migration (need a lot of activity) and eats creatures large livestock at least.

Ideas seem the following
- No Gryphon (Cyber Mastiffs)
- Yes Gryphon (follow standard cultural ritual)
- Yes Gryphon (find an injured one to heal and give cybernetics)
- Yes Gryphon (augment the one we find and give it cybernetics)
- No Gryphon (but full robot Gryphon, acting like an animal more than machine, and looking a lot like a Gryphon)


Regardless seems a cultural thing of the world. I do wonder if we can learn something before having to decide between helping Marcus or not. I guess it depends on the numbers of stealth robots available. I would send them in teams of 2 in different places (some for the imperial castle, other in the imperial city, other looking among the Wardens, other looking around for hear rumors of the maids killing, other looking at the pieces of republican ruins in the imperial city itself)

>>6227146
>Say nothing
>Get a mount

Slightly annoyed that we didn't loosen our shackles further by taking down the monarchy. But so be it.

>>6227146
>[Say nothing.]
Gryphon
><Yes.>

>>6227770
I wasn't suggesting a cyber-mastiff. I just don't want to force Rane to look after an overgrown quadrupedal chicken just to satisfy some stupid cultural rite for the sake of people we're probably going to kill anyways.

>>6227146
>say nothing
>direct action
>no

>[Say nothing.]
>[Commence direct action - Insert Stealth Drones carefully
><Yes.>

>>6227146
I legit think these guys have an AI or some sort of pervasive surveillance/security system in their back pocket, and that's what Marcus is angling to destroy.
>"You don't need to guard-"
>"It is already done"

>Stares off into space like Hann does while we're advising him
>Seems oddly precocious and put-together for his age

He's receiving advice from someone constantly monitoring him, like we're doing with Hann and Rane. Incidentally, anything we do in the castle (possibly anywhere?) will probably be noticed, no matter how subtle or alone we appear to be.
>Say nothing
>Insert stealth drones
>Yes

Do we have access to Vitae wombs?
can we use Eugenics to create our own not!-Krieg?

>>6229307
Why would we ever do that?

>>6229313
I would assume we could pay the Tithe in other ways. To create a deal with the Administratum, newly created troops are used instead of ships. I'm sure we can use it as a bargaining chip at the least.

>>6229324
Why would the administratum ever want the only forge world in the local sector to switch from producing high quality ships to mass producing vat grown slave-soldiers? Besides, we chose to produce ships because they seemed like the most impactful product we could ship out to the wider Imperium while keeping our cover as a forgeworld, not because it was the most beneficial to us. Plus making a human slave race doesn't seem very in-character for Epimetheus, who doesn't even like the idea of servitors and skitarii.

ITS ALIVE AGAIN!!! WE ARE SO BACK BABY, PRAISE BE TO DEUS EX MACHINA!!!

Update soonish, then there will probably be a delay and erratic updates. Normal programming is planned to resume on the 6th.

>>6229455
Awesome, a two week erattic schedule is something I think everyone can handle now because of the funky nature that 4chan did when the basedfucks crashed the site.

>>6229345
Before the site went down, I was going to reply that I have no clue. I thought we could do both at the time, but I had a better idea since then. Could we make ships that complement the mining drones by simply making their sole purpose to act as prospecting ships, basically everything that the mining ships lack, these new ones would do.

>>6229324
We don't want to pay multiple different things. They are already increasing what they want (even more ships). This solution is just adding another thing that they will then want in larger and larger numbers. Without bothering to do anything about the actual issue.

We need to actively set up something for not be drowned by their requests. We cannot have such a low confidence in not being able to do nothing else but pay more, with the current situation with the Administratum. Imperials deal with the Administratum all the time and are capable in making sure they aren't drowned in tithes thanks to different methods (that range fron politics, spying, killing and more). If they didn't, they would be all taxed to death and the Imperium wouldn't be able to exist at all.

Usually the Administratum worst enemy is the Ecclesiarchy.

>>6229683
Maybe a suggestion would be to move into creating diplomatic & trade ties with as many Rogue Traders, Merchantmen, noble families, Navigator dynasties & the Imperial Navy & the SofB that type of political pressure will allow for pressure to lighten the tithe, or gain more favourable concessions.

>>6229975
The easiest and least time consuming action would be to form a Diplomatic corp with Kara at it's head, and send a diplomatic mission to kiss up to the local Administratum full time. To get involved in a horde of local sector nobility and Rogue Trader politics just for favours sounds exhausting to the utmost when we could just attempt to placate the Administratum directly instead.

>>6229683
As a note, sending multiple things as tithes is quite literally what Selene and Alexander are doing so they won't have to send all the population of Accakaros to the Guard as tithes and I don't see why we couldn't, for example, terraform one of the moons orbiting the same gas giant we are into an Agriworld and then negotiate food as a tithe to lower the amount of raw material we need to expend as tribute to the Administratum. .

>>6229975
Nice suggestion Jourmungander, but that sounds like just a bit too much inter-diplomacy/skullduggery for the thread to be comfortable doing regularly for it to matter or mean much in the long run for just some random lowering of resources from tithe extracting then anything necessary or all that important to us. Besides the trading deals and internal system wide developements we have on hand to use, I think it would be best to follow along like with what >>6229984, suggsted and just try and do muttiple things at a time and at whatever capacity we set ourselves at. Beating a set number of tithes is always great to deal with, but with how the administratum is and currently views us, that is less of a benefit and more of a invitation to just go and do more tasks/tithes to do to get more resources from us for their own benefits that they likely either have somehwere lying around in the galaxy, or have any of a 10,000 galaxy wide fires that need those resources because of X enemy attacking Y Imperial holding. But besides that, we could try and get involved in martian politics or the church instead as a alternative, but that is going to have us be involved in the politics and theology of cargo-cultists on one hand, and on the other a galaxy wide church that thinks we are ideologically at most its rival/frenemy, and at worst a heretek that is only kept alive by a treaty made by their emperor to avoid unnecessary bloodshed when he was just getting started on his great crusade and then everything else in the ten thousand years since then. Which isn't to say that having us be involved with the Adeptus Administorum is a bad thing, plenty of favour to be had with getting the local sector cardinal to get on our good side and us his clout to bug the Administratum to bug off a bit with the tithes from treaty whatever the fuck, that both groups have long had a great many dealings with back and forth on, in regards as who has more power at what time and at what area when said treaty was created. And their are way more goodies than those just lying around by getting involved with the church then what I've listed here, but all of that does come at a somewhat drawback of needing to interact and tiptoeing around the church because of who and what we are as the Forge World of Svartalfheim.

Geez, guys, you're not making it easy on me, are ya? I had another idea: we could start building mass conveyers 15km long and 2km wide, and we could specialise them as well. An example would be for Liquid gases. For sale & personal use.

>>6230187
Another idea is to set up trading posts on other planets. Maybe start on one planet first to fix any problems that might pop up, but it should reach down to the under-hive. I thought about some sort of expedition into the under-hive searching for archeotech

>>6229975
I would go for one big player near us. Someone that can throw some weight around, giving us time to grow on our own. Anyone you mention can work, and we do a similar approach we did with Accakaros and try and make them our friends/allies. For example we are slowly doing it with the Astral Claws (even if Marines probably like to forge friendships and alliances in the battlefields. Its the ultimate test for see if the actions match the words said).

Despite our production level i don't feel like we have yet a "political" weight so to speak. We have definetly something going.

>>6229984
>Accakaros
And their situation was still not that great despite that due to the Tithe (and we are improving Accakaros right now for help them). I don't trust the Administratum to not ask for more if we did that, because if we are in their pants why wouldn't they demand for more if we made something great like that ? And they would likely also bother us just because we terraformed a moon in a relatively quick time and made it a full efficient operation for production of food that doesn't look like a putrid hellhole. Maybe we can make the same justification we had for the orbital ring. It was already there just mothballed and needed to be activated etc...

>>6230047
I wouldn't mind making more friends. Especially important ones. We are already doing politics and diplomacy with multiple humans we find. Be another Forge World or the local sector cardinal (not sure if our sector as a shrine world). I am not against doing it with the Administratum local branch it self either. Anything for get out of the current situation. Left as it is, it will grow on and on until there is a breaking point.

Also yeah we definetly want to establish a diplomatic corps/ambassadors. The situation here proved its need.

>>6230466
Trading posts could be an idea. But we would need to make a trade fleet to go behind them, and a military fleet for protect it. But it would increase our reach though, in terms of power, resources and profits. It will be a good idea once we get affitional fleets to throw around.

That recap in first post was helpful, I could not remember which freaking 40k AI quest this one was for sure.

>>6227146
>[Say nothing.]
We can figure things out with our tech and scanners. Odds are its in the squat hive we are in.

>[Commence direct action - Pick another]
If they have areotech of some sort or a weapon from the DAoT then it is in our domain to deal with it.

><Yes.>

Aright, heres my 2 cents.
We should start by talking to whatever administration workers and officials or scribes that are around, talk to Alexander and Selene about how they handled lowering their tithes over a friendly conversation.

An important long term project we should start is we send a few thousand young kids from our population into the Schola Progenium to be trained and send to work in the larger imperium. We want info, we want allies, we want to work the system in our favour? Send our people to work in the system and it will eventually come to work for us after a few years.

Next we should start adding more activities and programs for our population, Full STEM and Humanities lessons and courses. Teach art, drama, acting, music, and dance as extra curricular activities. Allow the people on their own initiative to hold public plays, theater and shows in common spaces to entertain, inspire, and develope a culture for our volk. Have MacBeth plays and the like (if we can still remember what they are) and allow people to reenact ancient battles and roles of kings and knights. It will help them act and bullshit in the future as a bonus.

Consider implementation of a local currency (crypto based?) and economy that can be traded in for thrones. Our population has started bartering and gowning a small cottage industry to fill some gaps in their needs and wants. This is not efficient, so a proper system of trade and commerce would not only help our population grow and develope, but also help meet other needs on a better scale we ignore or cannot fulfill due to lack of time and attention (Vote with your wallet?). It would also allow our people to better interact with somewhat developed locals on other planets that they come into contact with if they can purchase things from them and sell them simple supplies or trinkets (no tech or weapons.)

Now lastly, to be frank, it would be better if we just took over Adrax Reach and ruled it fro mthe shadows with proxies. The goal coming here was to turn this planet into a feudal knight world and mine the untouched mineral deposits. Having to tolerate either the royal buffoons or the idealistic technophobes would only eat up our time and make things longer than they really need to be, just look at how long it took just to get things rolling at a comfortable pace with Accakaros. This planets shaping up to likely take probably twice as long.

We use our advanced tech and ship sensors to detech whatever wonderweapon they've got hidden, steal or disable it, then work on taking over the planet. By then we either will have to deal with the tithe or visiting the Astral Claws or our investments in Adrax or Acckaros.

>>6234950
>talk to Alexander and Selene about how they handled lowering their tithes
Why would we want to lower our tithe? Providing ships to the Imperium is a good thing, assuming the administratum actually delivers them to the Navy. The only issue that the Administratum is stingy with the resources they provide us which is why we've been looking for alternative sources of usable raw materials for our projects. It's half the reason we're helping the Maelstrom Warders, to get access to rare resources in the Maelstrom Zone. That and because the Astral Claws did nothing wrong.

>Consider implementation of a local currency (crypto based?)
We already mint counterfeit Imperial thrones for them to use as currency.

>Now lastly, to be frank, it would be better if we just took over Adrax Reach and ruled it fro mthe shadows with proxies
I agree. Marcus and his order aren't really compatible with our goals and I don't trust the King or the Prince, especially if what Marcus told us is true. We haven't seen the Princess-Regent yet, if she seems suitable we might be able to use her as our puppet.

>>6235729
Lowering tithes has to do with the fact that the Admin would increase our tithes each time they arrive, but never increase the amount of resources they deliver.
____________________________________________________________________

For local currency, I guess it's to make it legitimate & lower the risk of another legal avenue of attack that the Administratum can take, it would also mean an improvement on the value of the currency that we generate. (What do we base the currency on?)

1. Commodity money.
2. representative money.
3. Fiat money. (Which is what I would like to use.)
_____________________________________________________________________

For taking over Adrax Reach, I think I agree on ruling it from the shadows as well, but we will need to figure out how to deal with its leadership and various factions first.

The Order is still good enough i feel, or a general better option what with how they rule themselves, how they are seen by the population, and the fact they seem to care about the downtrodden and poor. The only problematic thing is their technophobia, which is not what we initially expected from what Marcus said. Changing the government is something that can be done. The Imperium will not care. They care only if we fully take over and openly.

I don't see much reason for why we cannot work with them, beside Marcus rushing nature. I think we can mold and influence far better the Order of the Wardens than the Empire of Adrax Reach. We still haven't seen the other side of the coin that well, beside the Prince.

If we want to shadow rule instead of working with one of the two options, we will have to eliminate some of their leaders and probably still eliminate either the Empire or the Order. They are about to go to war.

>>6235729
>Why would we want to lower our tithe?
They are squeezing us in an unsustainable manner, its not stingy its exploitive and abusive, something that we should reject if only on principle. We should nip that in the bud before they really push to the point where they start figuring out our other enterprises because we end up producing more than they are paying us in resources.

Also its not as if we can be certain (unless we had the foresight install spyware that reports back to us) that the ships are not being lost due to corruption and sold of to rouge traders or being used as intended, and every quality ship we send out there is another ship that can be levied against us in the future if shit hits the fan and they turn on us or we end up having to turn on them.

Lastly I don't think our goal was to improve the Imperium by giving out better ships, but to proliferate our ideals and standards of living. Ultimately our greatest goal isn't that either necessarily, but to complete "The Work", which I believe is to develop FTL travel safe from Warpfuckery, or large teleportation gates?

>We already mint counterfeit Imperial thrones for them to use as currency.
Which is inefficient, and done unofficially from us or our control and oversight.

Using a digital currency for our people would be lighter for personal carry, safer and more secure, save on needlessly minting metal coins, and allow commerce at the speed of transmitting data.

The main point is allow unmet needs for our people to be able to be met outside of our micromanagement, and to have an official economy with a currency that can interact with the Imperium and Imperial worlds for greater integration and networking. This will help us down the line to proliferate our influence, in whatever form that may take.

>I agree. Marcus and his order aren't really compatible with our goals and I don't trust the King or the Prince, especially if what Marcus told us is true. We haven't seen the Princess-Regent yet, if she seems suitable we might be able to use her as our puppet.
My greatest concern is that we can lose our potential knight world or have it severely hampered by making poor long term choices that lock us into a moral dilemma. One where we can't take action because we would end up forcing or killing large numbers of resistant humans that do not align with our goals and objectives. So we need to tread carefully and think carefully about long term consequences. Lets hope the Princess turns out to be a hidden golden goose.

>>6235778
We already have non-warp FTL, what the work refers to is tech/research in general, & the Necron Pylons to close and fix the veil between the Material & Immaterial realms.

>>6235753
I'm thinking basing it on the first two options, we can produce goods and commodities like nobodies business, but we can also backup our cash with all the minerals we mine and refine.

>>6235768
I disagree, Marcus more or less implied that they would not like to be involved in the greater Imperium as they enjoy being ignored by them as insignificant. A hidden blessing despite being mineral rich is that they do not mine their minerals at any scale worth a dam for the administratium to notice or take an interest.

He has more or less told us indirectly that they want to be treated as equal partners and maybe they will fight besides us if we ask them nicely. This is terrible for us if we want a Knight-World to draw from for our Titans. We would be giving them Titans on the off chance they might answer a call to fight, instead of answering the call and asking when and how many we need.

>>6235781
Right. Overall its to stop warpfuckery.

>>6235778
>They are squeezing us in an unsustainable manner, its not stingy its exploitive and abusive, something that we should reject if only on principle.
Par for the course with the Administratum. We need to make connections and find sufficiently influential and important bureaucrats to bribe.

>We should nip that in the bud before they really push to the point where they start figuring out our other enterprises because we end up producing more than they are paying us in resources.
It's likely that they already know about some of what we've been up to. They almost certainly know about how we own half of Hydrit Delta and probably aren't happy about it. What we're doing in the Maelstrom Zone might piss them off too.

>and every quality ship we send out there is another ship that can be levied against us in the future if shit hits the fan and they turn on us or we end up having to turn on them.
I don't see this as much of an issue. The ships we're giving to the Imperium are better designed than standard Imperial ships (they don't have fucking broadsides or other ridiculous Imperial eccentricities and have better conditions for the crew) but I don't think they're too much of an improvement technologically.

>My greatest concern is that we can lose our potential knight world
Honestly, I never really cared for the knight world idea. Why deal with retarded primitive nobles acting like knights of yore when we can just train proper pilots on Svartalfheim? I don't really see the benefit.

>>6235785
He did say that, but i think he might be convinced of being more open to us instead than the imperium. We talked only once, and with our actions he might change his mind. Still i am quite open for an alternative if it can't work out, i'll wait for see the Princess, she might be a better option perhaps. So far the Prince and the Emperor did not impress me. If there is no good candidate, we can find someone fitting more with our view and put it in charge.

>a Knight-World to draw from for our Titans.
like you mean recruits for our future mechs ? I want to recruit some of their population for increase our own in Svart", so that can work out. But we still need to build the factories for making the different types of (small and large) land vehicles. If you mean make them a Knight World from a feudal world, wouldn't that be a considerable political effort with the Administratum ? We don't really need noble houses or a knighthood order in our own military forces lol.

>We would be giving them Titans
...if we just recruit from Adrax and train them, they would be completely our military units. Or we can just recruit with Svart" humans.

>>6235785
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/economics/how-is-currency-valued/
This is the site I used to reply, It seems that Fiat can replace the other two totally. We could make the end product & place the price for them at a greater degree than I think we would with the other two, not only that but we would also have greater control of the value of our currency as the other two can be exploited easily by the admin if they wanted to or any of the other factions for that matter, for example.

1. Currency Supply and Demand.
This will allow for control of our own supply & its value is determined by the goods and other products we would produce. E.g., Naval warships.
___________________________________________________________________

2. Measuring Currency Value – Exchange Rates
When other polities attempt to purchase our products, which would be Naval warships mainly, but can be other void structures & vessels, we may be capable of branching out into other Military markets, depending on how we advertise and market ourselves.
__________________________________________________________________
3? We might be able to abuse arbitrage.
__________________________________________________________________
On 2. We would have a much stronger as well as beneficial exchange rate of monies & currencies.
__________________________________________________________________

>Please give feedback on what I laid out here I'm sure I missed something important.

>>6235753 (You)
I'm thinking basing it on the first two options, we can produce goods and commodities like nobodies business, but we can also backup our cash with all the minerals we mine and refine.

>>6234950
>send a few thousand young kids from our population into the Schola Progenium
Isn't the whole point of us homeschooling them because we don't want them to be exposed to the extreme dogma of the wider imperium? Wouldn't it be better to keep them here, school them in Imperial bureaucracy away from that dogma and then slot them in to our diplomatic tech-priest corp? We only really need to focus our diplomatic efforts on the local Administratum right now.

>>6235808
>Why deal with retarded primitive nobles acting like knights of yore when we can just train proper pilots on Svartalfheim?
Because it's a source of manpower. Conflict is an inevitability (whether or not we need to fight the Imperium is to be seen), but now that we've commited to securing the Maelstrom with the Claws we need to be prepared to put our own forces on the planets we claim for mining materials (and fleets to patrol the region too for that matter) should the need arise. We need a population that we can draw on for that, a population we can bring out of Imperial standard of living to Federation standard of living within a generation or two, with all the benefits to health and intelligence that brings. Relying exclusively on the odd 20 million starved convicts we'll get from House Gildenmar every decade is most likely not going to be enough. The reason it has to be a Knight World is because if it is, and if we can tie it to us through oaths of loyalty (new or fabricated old ones), we get full custody of the world. Basically shanghaiing ourselves a free world, with a little bit of spectacle for the Administratum, much like how we do for Svartalfheim itself.

Doesn't even have to be a full monarchy either, I imagined it rather as a Noble Council ruling the planet semi-Democratically in a martial culture with the focus on Nobless Oblige. Would give us a strong stock of fighting men and women after a few generations of eliminating genetic deficiensies and a little bit of Federation standard training.

>>6235849
>Wouldn't it be better to keep them here, school them in Imperial bureaucracy away from that dogma and then slot them in to our diplomatic tech-priest corp? We only really need to focus our diplomatic efforts on the local Administratum right now.
thats one of the things i want to do. though you can also have old people or adults doing it.


I mean its is a source of manpower, but we can just recruit from Adrax, then train and educate on Svart. And we get our military units, easy peasy. More importantly we get them, without the primitivism and problematic of being two different societies. Since we assimilate them. I reckon changing the whole world culturally will take some years, so recruit and then train them and educate them on Svart" is pretty much a must since i doubt they can understand how to use those vehicles on their own.


>Relying exclusively on the odd 20 million starved convicts we'll get from House Gildenmar every decade is most likely not going to be enough.
About that, i was wondering if we could find other ways for increase the pop (beside having lot of food and incentivize the families in Svart"). Maybe asking the Astral Claws (surely there is people in need there in the Maelstrom and they can send them to us...) ? Or someone else. We could ask the Administratum (but i imagine we have our eyes on other things the Administratum might give us. Like full possession of Adrax Reach).

>>6235846
We a market economy, we are essentially a post scarcity economy.

Fiat currency has no natural value, it is only by force government and its laws, and regulations that give it any medium of exchange. Both of which we lack in the eyes of the average Imperium governors and citizens.
Fiat with neither authority, legality or legitimacy (or the ability to force people en mass with violence or the threat of it) would make our currency nearly worthless outside of what we can make others believe it to be worth. If even a middle level sector bureaucrat applied scrutiny and pressure, or public disclosure on our illegal fiat, word would spread and reputational damage would be inevitable. We could easily see our already unsteady currency collapse and land us in large amounts of trouble with the Imperium and anger from the locals who would have essentially been scammed into holding a bag of now worthless fiat.

Our currency being backed by goods and services or minerals, would represent true value by being backed by thing people want in a commodity based currency as there would be something it can be exchanged for intrinsically.


I'm not exactly sure what your trying to say here so I'll address what I can.

1. We control our means of production, and we control our own currency by utilizing crypto based backbone run by us (AI and its server, services, and network) which would only allow us to "mint" currency at our own discretion, even counterfeiting would be nearly impossible. The things not directly under our control would be how others spend it individually and throne gelts used parallels to our currency or exchange rate fluctuations, and outside demand.

2. Not how to respond to this. We can run our own exchange rates at trading outposts and in co-operation with rouge traders. There will be fluctuations here and there but if we establish more official or semi official and standardized currency exchanges it would stabilize rates and practices.
We don't have to do anything crazy for marketing, just cruise around in flotillas showing bragging how affordable and well built our ships are. Throw in a few telepathic message sent out to planets offering ships for sale, and we would have prospective buyers lining up to our moon.
2.1? Okay so you want demand on our finished product goods to increase our currency value, that's more or less looking like you want the same thing I do. Commodity backed valued currency with more focus on finished goods and products, with maybe some elements of fiat which is fine. A mixed or added compatible elements from representative and fiat is not impossible.

3. Abusing arbitrage would be against our ethos in principle. It would work for a short amount of time until the market adapts or no longer is worth the exploit. It also sets the precedent for others who may purchase our commodities in abundance also abuse arbitrage in areas we are not exploiting arbitrage, setting a cascading effect of diminish returns for us.

To explain my absence: Good news, I got an extension. Bad news, that means two more weeks of me having things to do. Apologises.

>>6238009
No problem, see you next year.

I forgive you QM...

I don't forgive you...

happens...

Its only been 10 days?
Dammn

Time flies

Is IRL doing better now that its been 2 weeks of silence since everything went to hell in a handbasket with 4chan in April, so we can go back to our forgeworld and our diplomacy works on Adrian?

It has never been as over as it is right now.

[1/9?]

<Yes,> you reply firmly. <You will not be killed by a gryphon, and locating one should not prove problematic. Given the limited risks associated with doing so, we should take the Prince at his word.>

<Logic accepted,> Rane answers in turn, albeit somewhat reluctantly. It was obvious that he still viewed that sidequest as a waste of time, but too bad. You were patient, and you were the one in charge. He’d just have to put up with it.

<Be advised, I will be deploying stealth drones from orbit,> you add, almost as an afterthought. It was unlikely to matter to Rane’s mission, but if it somehow did, you’d rather not have to explain it in a hurry. <The Knight-Warden has made a claim that I wish to investigate in further detail.>

<I take it your investigation will involve the von Eisenbergs?> He was talking now, aloud, although you suspect neither of you were actually listening to what he was saying to the Prince.

<It will.>

<Be cautious. Casting suspicion on his political enemies could be an attempt to use you to weaken them, or to prevent you from forming a friendly relationship with them,> he notes. Of that, you had no doubt. Marcus wasn’t exactly subtle in trying to recruit your aid, but it was worth investigating the von Eisenbergs anyway, given the nature of the claims he was making. Even if there was a slim chance that he was telling the truth, and that they held world-ending power in their grasp, it’d be worth the effort to investigate that threat and then remove it. Aside from Marcus’ words, you didn’t have much reason to distrust the von Eisenbergs on a personal level, but as a rule you didn’t really like it when random people held world-ending power. That was for you, and select military and political officials.

You leave Rane to the boring but necessary work of keeping the Prince entertained - although given Rane’s conversational prowess, you suspect that ‘occupied’ would be more accurate than ‘entertained’ - while you begin drafting deployment orders. High over the planet, the two ships hang in a highly inclined low orbit, sweeping across continents and oceans. This wasn’t a thoughtless choice. Their current orbit gave you the opportunity to map and scan the planet up close, and while previously the point was to map the geography so that you could more easily plan major construction projects, now it serves the dual purpose of scanning for anything that would raise suspicion.

>>6249890
[2/9?]

The first and most obvious thing would be to check for any transmissions, and it goes without saying that you have found none, or at least none that cannot be explained by the presence of yourself, your people, and the small Imperial contingent present in the capital. You could satisfy yourself with that, but given what might be at stake, more scrutiny was not unwise. You search through logged transmissions and try to find anything anomalous, anything that wasn’t encrypted in a way that you recognised, or was coming from a location that seemed unusual, but found nothing. It was as it appeared, the planet was all but silent.

On one hand, that was a relief - it would’ve been concerning if there was something down there intelligent enough to conceal itself from a cursory scan that did not yield to your authority - but it also meant that you had no leads. You were prepared for that, though. While you were going through the records, you had the skeleton crew of humans prepare one of the lighters for a short jaunt. The drones handled themselves, activating in their cradles and then marching over to the shuttle bay to load themselves up. You had eight in total, far from enough to canvas the whole planet, but enough to launch a focused investigation into the particular claim that Marcus had made. Bringing in more was not an option, given that you had no infantry-scale quantum translocation tech aboard, and trying to launch them from Svartalfheim into a ship so deep in a planet’s sphere of influence was impossible. The appearance of another ship, even a civilian one, would ring alarm bells for the Administratum, and you’d rather avoid pissing them off while it remained unnecessary. Thus, you would need to keep your attention focused on a single target, and with no leads, the best target you had was the von Eisenbergs and their palace.

After a few more minutes, the lighter is launched, and plunges down into the planet’s atmosphere. Unlike the sight of the blue sky and fluffy white clouds earlier, now the view out of the cameras was all inky black and deep purple. It would conceal the lighter, if it weren’t for the orange-blue glow of the engines, but you doubted many people would be looking up at this hour anyway. The lighter drops lower and lower, and the pilot pulls back off the throttle, letting the orange and blue die, replaced by only a faint ripple in the air as it passes overhead. The ramp opens to the cold, howling air. Through the eyes of the drones in the back, you can make out individual blades of grass in the fields below, though far more space was occupied by crops than something as unproductive as grass. The peasants had a city to feed, after all.

>>6249891
[3/9?]

You have them jump in pairs, electro-optical camo kicking in as they drop. Nothing but a faint ripple in the air, like the trails behind the lighter’s engines, were visible. Or rather, invisible, given the darkness. If the natives of this planet could see into the infrared, they’d be able to see the stealth drones glowing in the night, but they couldn’t, and so flicking the fields on for the drop wasn’t a risk. Once all eight are on the ground, you begin drafting a plan. The fortifications around the city might be enough to keep an army with nothing but ladders, towers, and rams out, but you were quite certain that your drones could scale any wall that got in their way, and bust down any door. Ideally, though, they would not need to break anything to find what they were looking for. Breaking things left evidence, and the last thing that you wanted to do was sabotage your relationship with the von Eisenbergs for nothing.

You might not have made the decision to not kill them yet, but until you did, it was better not to do anything stupid.

The drones remain more or less in their landing spots under the curving arc the lighter had made around the edge of the city, only repositioning enough to place themselves in drainage ditches, bushes, and treelines for concealment, while they await your orders. Those orders are swiftly drafted. Four pairs of drones begin approaching, converging on the city’s outer walls from four different points. You could’ve landed them directly into the city, but it was best to not draw too much attention. In the pitch black darkness, the drones could very easily be mistaken for large humans at a distance, in the unlikely event that anyone saw them at all, but flying a lighter over the city, engines roaring, to drop eight drones onto the streets below? Well, that was harder to explain by mundane means. Besides, the walls were no impediment. Where they were stone and rubble, the drones could hammer their fingers in through the mortar, making their own handholds to climb with. Where they were clad in great sheets of metal, they had to make use of grapnel guns. In either case, the walls were scaled with little fanfare.

The city beyond would be little more an impediment than the walls behind it. The occasional night watchman, fumbling through the city with a lamp clutched in cold hands, was searching for ne’er-do-wells and reprobates, not highly advanced infiltration and reconnaissance drones. Using their position on the walls, and the abnormal verticality of the city, the drones are able to maintain their altitude, creeping along the roofs of houses as silently as possible to remain out of the line of sight of anyone that might come looking. At worst, someone in the buildings they were scrambling across might hear something unusual, but by the time they’d be able to investigate, the drones are long gone.

>>6249892
[4/9?]

For as prestigious as living and working in the arcology itself seemed to be, the various systems that would keep the deepest parts habitable had long since been destroyed, if they hadn’t failed on their own. Instead, the inside of the arcology was cold, damp, dark, dirty, and structurally unsound, yet it had not been reduced to a slum, thanks to the tireless work of those wishing to be closer to the halls of power. There was still life in the depths. Townhouses and markets, workshops and artisans’ ateliers, all illuminated by primitive lamps that filled the air with soot and slick oil. The outside, though, was more prestigious. Given fresh air and sunlight, they sported a dozen different palaces, hundreds of smaller estates, and smaller homes wherever they could fit in. The largest of these was, naturally, the von Eisenberg’s, though it was by no means alone. The drones alternate between crawling through ancient ventilation shafts and sneaking up staircases on the inside, and swinging from outcroppings and leaping from building to building on the outside, making good progress all the while.

It takes roughly twenty minutes from landing for them to arrive at the von Eisenberg’s palace. It clings to the outside of the city’s original arcology, polished white stone and gleaming brass, with a commanding view of the city below. Emerging from ancient, twisting metal and the mass of homes climbing up the metal trunk like lichen on a tree, it looked like a fairytale castle got into a severe trainwreck, and came off from the fight better than the train. Security wasn’t bad. The palace thinned out the higher it got; even with most of its weight leaning against the crumbling arcology, it was still supported by buttressing each layer against the one beneath it. Each tier thins suddenly, creating a walled area for observation and defence. This would be the drone’s point of entry.

The first two pairs drop onto the lowest level, while the other half make their way to the top. Together, they’d sweep the place as thoroughly as they could overnight, and then either escape or conceal themselves before nightfall. It wouldn’t do to get found out, even if there was little they could do about it. Guards do patrol the walls here, unlike in the city below, though they’re easy enough to avoid. Judicious application of electro-optical camouflage and careful timing allows them to enter the palace with little difficulty. Once inside, the only thing that might give them away would be doors opening and closing on their own, which is a risk you can mitigate with a little caution.

If they were better equipped, this sort of direct infiltration would not be possible. IR cameras would pick them up, for one, and there were a thousand different protections which would require a more subtle hand to evade, but from your extensive EM sweep, you could be reasonably confident that you’re not sending them into anything that could catch them.

>>6249893
[5/9?]

One pair flatten themselves, invisibly, against the stonework of the wall beneath a flickering oil lamp, while a pair of guards stroll by, then slink back out into the hall once they’re gone. Another pick lock after lock in a storeroom, carefully indexing the contents of chests laden with exotic silk clothing before tucking each thread back into place and finally re-locking the chest. Another pair flick through log-books in the palace chancery, searching for any hints that might point the investigation in a more fruitful direction. Six drones fail to turn up anything of use, burning through the life spans of their camo-field emitters, and the hours in the night all the while.


The final pair push on into the wing with the Imperial chambers. A [b]bold[/b] choice, but it was one you deemed necessary. If they were going to be hiding weapons, the odds of them being concealed within the palace itself was low, though not zero, but you had reasons to consider it a worthwhile investigation.

Assuming the worst, however, and they did have Republican era WMDs, those weapons could be conceivably concealed anywhere on the planet, like giants slumbering beneath mountains, awaiting their nation’s darkest hour to awaken and bathe the land in flame. Undetectable, until the call sounds out. In that case, the von Eisenbergs would need to be able to sound that call. They’d need a system of some kind to activate those slumbering weapons. Most likely, a hardline connection to the weapon system in question, given that a wireless signal would attract attention, and could be jammed besides. That hardline would logically terminate somewhere easily accessible to the planet’s authorities, like the arcology, to allow for a prompt response. If the von Eisenbergs did have such a weapon, and did have a hardline connection to it, and that hardline connection terminated within the arcology, they would likely choose to build their palace within easy reach of some sort of access terminal, if not directly on top of such a terminal. Meeting rooms would be too public to conceal something like that in, and even private studies would likely see regular visitors. The people of Adrax’s Reach seemed to consider bedrooms to be a private space, based on the layout of the Warden’s fort, and so the personal chambers of the Imperial family would be a prime spot to conceal something they’d need ready access to.

>>6249894
[6/9?]

For as logical as that all sounded, it was only guesswork, and more than that, guesswork based on a vague accusation delivered by one of the von Eisenberg’s political enemies. It might not even be a weapon, or it might be a weapon of far less destructive potential than Marcus suggested. You might have missed it in your scans not because it was carefully concealed, but because it was so old, dead, and decrepit that finding it would be more akin to archeology than intelligence gathering. All the same, you had made the decision to launch this investigation, and you were committed to seeing it through to the best of your abilities, and that meant leaving no stone unturned.

Breaching into the Imperial family’s private section is the hardest part of the infiltration thus far. With a guard on either side of each entrance, and the segment itself buried deeper in the palace, it takes the drones breaking back out of the palace, scaling the arcology, and then carefully making their way back down through one of the skylights to enter without risking detection, either by brushing past someone as they enter, or in the guards noticing the door opening on its own. The von Eisenbergs had taken the structurally most secure part of the palace for their own private residence, being the part of the palace deepest into the arcology. Naturally, this means that there’s not much in the way of sunlight, a problem solved by the long, narrow tunnels through stone and steel that allow some dim sunlight to reflect down into the wide hallways snaking between rooms. For a human, getting up there and then back down again would be remarkably dangerous, but for your drones it was nothing. Now that they were in, and still undetected, they had a series of investigations to carry out, and carry out quickly.

You consider it something of a side-objective, but following up on Marcus’ claim about the Prince was something that you’d like to do. Four maids in two years, reduced to paste. Like with the claims about their weapons, Marcus was unclear on how or where this took place, though starting with his chambers in the palace would be a good start, though you’re not certain how he splits his time between the main palace in Eisenberg and his Schloss Kareldorf. You’ll instruct Rane to keep an eye out for any signs of the Prince behaving unusually, but investigating his chambers in Kareldorf would probably be… dangerously overt, at this time.

>>6249895
[7/9?]

To cover more ground, the two drones split up, turning to make their way down opposite sides of the hallway. From your initial scans, the private section extends in a stunted U shape, longer across than it was deep into the arcology, to provide as much sunlight and ventilation as possible. The air quality was already unacceptably low, what with all the burning oil in an enclosed space, and if they didn’t have the skylights, you’d start suspecting the Imperial family might have some hypoxia induced brain damage. One drone will head to the left, the other to the right, and together they’ll explore the paths that branch off from that spinal hallway.

For the most part, their discoveries are irrelevant, though they might at some point have some value in court intrigue - although you’d really rather not participate in something quite so repulsive as feudal drama. The first major, relevant discovery was the Prince’s chambers, as confirmed by the presence of clothes sized to match his stature and style of dress in the wardrobe. White plaster over stone walls, with creaking hardwood underfoot, it was almost humble compared to Kareldorf, though you doubt that many but the most well-to-do nobility on the planet had a bed that looked quite that plush. The drone ignores all that, and rummages through the end tables like a common thief. If common thieves were unnaturally silent, precise in their movements, and took images of everything they touched so that it could be returned to its place as though nothing had happened.

The investigation of the Prince’s chamber turns up nothing relevant to the primary thrust of your investigation. A large number of candles, blank parchment, dry inkwells, abandoned sleepwear, an empty chamberpot, a few loose hairs on the pillow. Nothing that you would not expect to find in a bedroom belonging to someone within the social strata of a society within this technological window. Chemical analysis reveals something more troubling, though: The plaster was new. Replaced within the last few months. Six at most, four at least. Normally that wouldn’t be troubling at all, only the other drone confirms that no other room in this section of the palace had been replastered anywhere near as recently. The floorboards confirm it. Potassium hydroxide - lye, derived from wood ash - used as a cleaner. Not the sort of thing they were liable to break out without good reason. Using the thin end of one of the lockpicks, the drone scrapes between the grooves in the wood grain, carrying out the deeply ingrained muck for chemical analysis. Blood. And not just trace amounts either. The test is repeated on the other side of the room, to the same result. Not only was someone likely killed here, they were killed messily. You suspect that if you had the drone scrape at the walls, you’d find blood under the most recent layer of plaster.

>>6249896
[8/10]

Humans often underestimate the pressure that their own circulatory system was under, and it was possible that if the Prince stabbed a maid, the blood could have sprayed some distance, though hardly in the volumes that you were seeing after deliberate and extensive efforts to clean it. That could only be explained by something more violent than stabbing, or something that occurred post-mortem. Perhaps it had nothing to do with the Prince, though that seemed unlikely. You can consider that accusation corroborated, which lends a degree of weight to the other… although perhaps that was why Marcus made it in the first place? One truth to establish trustworthiness, and then one lie for you to swallow?

There was nothing else to see there. That investigation concluded, the drone moves on.

It was its partner that made the next discovery. Yet another pair of guards stationed either side of a door forces your investigation over the surrounding area to a halt, though it draws your attention, too. If they were defending an area behind the already secure section of the palace, then it was probably worth breaking into. This time, though, there would be no sneaky route around to get in - at least none that you’d be able to find in the few hours you had to conclude your investigation. You weren’t yet interested enough to commit to taking a risk like having the drone shadow someone through the door, but your interest was piqued enough that you were willing to at least monitor it for a while, despite your limited time. Fortunately, you don’t have to wait for long before a servant girl knocks on the door from the inside, and is admitted out by the two guards. In the brief moments while it was open, you get a glimpse of what was inside.

At the back of the room, an elderly man lays on a bed, propped up on a pile of pillows, with freshly wrapped linen bandages around his head. Already, you see the faint discolouration of some wet poultice, or else, infected pus, seeping into the fabric over his skull. His hairline has been pulled back by age, but his hair, thinning and limp as it was, still flows down to his shoulders in bright red locks. Once he might’ve been handsome, but neither age nor sickness have spared him. His face isn’t pale, it's almost yellow. His face, made gaunt and hollow. You recognise him immediately, from the crude depictions on the coins, the exaggerated descriptions by his supporters and foes, and the family resemblance to his son. This was the Emperor, Kurtis von Eisenberg, and he seemed rather unwell.

>>6249897
[9/10]

Truthfully, you expected to find his chambers occupied and guarded, and it was a bridge you decided to cross when you came to it. Now you have come to it. You didn’t want to leave any stone unturned, but you had always accepted the possibility that breaching the Emperor’s own chambers might be something you’d need to leave for last, once dawn broke, the Palace came to life, and the Emperor left his chambers. You’d be pushing your drone’s systems to the limit, running the distinct risk of overheating at an inopportune time, or bumping directly into someone, but it was an option. You could’ve even sent a drone back up one of the skylights and had them cool down there, then drop back in for a second go.

This made things more complicated, though. You’d like to inspect him more closely, to determine the nature of his illness, and that was something that he would probably object to while conscious and in public. Though while he looked like this, they might not even wheel him out. The Imperial family had managed to do a good job of playing off the Princess-Regent’s work as merely assisting the Emperor while he was busy with foreign policy matters, but if they presented him in public like this, you can only imagine how the sharks would start circling. They could hide some of it, perhaps, but there’s a very real chance that he may not even make an appearance, though that in itself would raise questions.

>>6249898
[10/10]

You can’t guarantee that you’ll get another chance to inspect him so closely any time soon, and knowing whether he’s on death’s door, or on a slow road to recovery could be important in the coming negotiations. It could be a powerful bargaining chip if you could heal him, leverage if you find more common ground with the priest, or present a perfect opportunity to get rid of him, should you opt to go with Marcus’ plan after all. All you’d need to follow a maid in, and you’d have your opportunity to investigate him and the room both. Of course, waiting to see if he leaves and then searching the room afterwards might still work, though if he remains there, all you’d be doing is burning time and running the risk of detection for nothing. He might be unconscious now, but you shouldn’t bet on him remaining that way, even if he’s too unwell to make his appointment. With that in mind, perhaps it’d be best to abandon the search of his chambers entirely?

>[Attempt to sneak in]
You’ll order the drone to hold position, and try to shadow a maid in. Advantages: Maximum intelligence gain. Disadvantage: Highest risk of detection. A maid bumping into an invisible robot might not raise the alarm, but it will be suspicious.
Will require a roll.

>[Wait him out]
Order the drone to continue the investigation, then circle back around to wait and see if he leaves. Advantages: Potential to sneak into his room, lower chance of detection. Disadvantages: Chance of electronics failure, risk that he may not leave. If the electro-optical camo burns out, exfiltration will be more difficult.
Will require a roll.

>[Move on]
Order the drone to continue the investigation, then leave without waiting. Advantage: Lowest risk of detection. Disadvantage: Surrenders the chance to investigate either him or the room.

>>6249899
>>[Attempt to sneak in]

>>6249899
We're so back.
>[Attempt to sneak in]
If we're detected then I guess we'll just have to side with Marcus and kill all witnesses.

>>6249899
you are back again ! nice to see you. Everything is well ?
i have a few questions in my post

>[Attempt to sneak in]
Would it be possible to dissipate some of the heat of our stealth drones on the ceilings of unused rooms ? Might help avoid overheating, and looking at ceilings is usually not something most people do in unused rooms. In regard to the maid, maybe she can be put asleep (i don't mean killed. A good old scare, or ensuring she goes unconscious in some capacity) if she find us out ? Are the stealth drones, equipped with a dart gun, any gas sprayer, an electric weapon or similar stealth weaponry ? Do our stealth drones carry some bugs with them ? Are said bugs capable to mimetize, and can we place them anywhere we want ?, Can they send audio and video signals to us ?

The emperor of Adrax Reach seems very diseased but not overly so (ain't hearing an agonizing rantel), his conditions make the reason of having a Princess-Regent for the von Eisenberg far more obvious. They aren't getting this guy out for that ceremony the Prince spoke with us about, and if they do it will be done with plenty of cloth and maybe even masked. Still not enough to not deceive the emperor health to the most perceptive be the nobility or any high knights of the Wardens, but the guy would look regal to most.

That rumor on the Prince seem mostly true, he cannot be allow to remain in charge that much is clear. If we need more confirmation, simply leaving bugs around the palace and capital would give us plenty of talking from everyone be from the lower classes to the highest ones. Beyond that, finding the families of the killed maids for hear what they say is the only other option.

For the secret weapon....i would start looking at : places associated or made by the von Eisenberg, allies of the von Eisenberg, some of the ruins of the capital, and lastly particularly important places in Adrax Reach (cultural, even a mount or river can be important for that reason) that can be only accessed by an human or by an human with a gryphon.

We have a decent number of stealth drones deployed so they could be split and sent around in duos.

>>6249899
We have never been so back as we are right now!
>[Attempt to sneak in]

>>6250100
>>6249925
>>6249915
>>6249912
Sneak in wins. d20, BO3 roll needed, DC15

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>6250405

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>6250405

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>6250405

>>6250417
Oh thank god, my terrible roll was not what doomed us, and hey now we succed on our stealth roll to investigate how the emperor is doing and use that for our advantage on investigating if the nobles on Adrian have super weapons capable of glassing the planet or not now.

Ship design ideas:
All reviews, feedback & criticism are welcome.

Prospector X-01
This ship is the twin ship for the Miner X-01 ship, as its sole purpose is to search deep space for sources of minerals and metals for processing; it also contains the ability to do higher detail/quality scans of objects at closer ranges, typically at a distance that would be considered orbiting distance.
Miner X-01
This ship, as the name implies, is solely responsible for mining the objects that the Prospector X-01 finds & storing them in its large cargo holds. This ship will not refine the raw material, but it has all the necessary facilities to process the material into the required sizes to maximise mass-to-weight ratios.

Process-Transport X-01
This ship design is basically the same idea as the other two, its sole purpose is to process & refine all the raw materials that are fed to it, then transport or teleport to a designated location that will then categorise & send to a storage facility for further industrial application.

>>6252837
I want to start thinking up ideas for machinery and vehicles that require a human operator to sell & reduce the chance that the IoM will decide we are heretics & heretechs. It could also lead to higher efficiency levels, of course, we would need to add sophisticated software defences to protect any important data that could lead to reverse engineering.

>>6252839
I saw this video and thought about how I could turn a planet that has been treated in such a way into a profitable return. I thought about entertainment, mass recruitment & conscription & a massive manufacturing world that would be fully self-sufficient with at least a few major exports, these range from.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OGgnUDz7Pxk

(1.) Agriculture.
(2.) Mass parts manufacturing.
(3.) Military recruitment.
(4.) Education and personnel exports.
(5.) Massive recycling and reclamation efforts.
(6.) Construction and infrastructure repair.
(7.) Population reduction via mass migration, preferably after extensive training.
(8.) Higher tech production, mainly for export, would be quality parts production or entire machinery. These machines would ideally be in constant high demand or have a relatively high replacement rate.
(9.) Chemical recycling/processing mega plants. These would be to help clear the planet's atmosphere of any chemical contamination, which could then be reprocessed and exported as intended industrial chemicals, sulphates, acids, alkaline or plastics.
(10.) Possible reclamation of long-lost data and technology.

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>6250405

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>6250405

Rolled 3 (1d20)

oops

It's over (again).

>>6254256
I didn't fuck up here did I?

>>6256003
BO3

>>6256003
no lol we just rolled before

>>6252837
>>6252839
>>6252845
nice ideas

it's over.

see you guys next thread.