The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

[jseah]

Ok, talking about production power in terms of mass per year is useless. Within that year, production power could double many many times.

It would be more easy to talk about production power in terms of say... mass per 3 weeks or so. Which, obviously, doesn't actually affect the numbers all that much. 2.5 years to duplicate the galaxy in a year? Well, to do that in 3 weeks, that takes the Culture... 3 weeks more to get that capability.

[Selrahc]

On _one_ ring. That the Culture can build a production base in one year that will chuck out 1 ring every year. Where said production base can double every 6 weeks and not appreciably affect the number of rings it produces. -head asplodes-

Yes. The Cultureverse is home to some interesting megastructures. Matter is probably the book to look at for that, being centered around a shellworld, which is a hyperspatially intersecting sphere, with 12 levels of different planetary habitats, with a god-squid living in the middle. Or the Morthanveld nestworld, which is a... well it's not really a ringworld or a dysonsphere. It's a dyson tangle I guess. A mass of thousand mile thick interconnected water filled tubes entangling a binary star system, thought to contain more Morthanveld spiniforms than exist members of the Panhuman species in the entire universe. The Morthanveld have multiple of them.

The scale of the IoM is really just peanuts to them.

[Doran]

Hm how much mass and how fast can optimised culture ships tow? Research necron time dilation technologies, start effectoring and time stopping 100 by 100km by 10km deep chunks of the crust and jigsaw all the Iom planets onto ONE ring.

Worrying what that much concentrated humanity might do to chaos, as well as mixing lots of planets next to each other - perhaps leave the distance of the moon between each planet splat a few more Niven rings.

Of course this is also a way to get human colonies off necron tomb worlds if needed...

For elder worlds maybe just clone the star system out of grid fire?

[Gavinfoxx]

FYI, the IoM has Archeotech time dilation tech too... just saying. I read about some in the new Codex...

Re: Dyson and Ringworlds and such:
Personally, I hate the actual "Dyson Shell" which is depicted in many types of fiction.. it's, um, really badly designed and not what the Dyson stuff is really about. Dyson Rings, Dyson Swarms, Dyson Bubbles; those make MUCH more sense! Even if they are loosely connected, as long as they aren't rigid...

[jseah]

part 11.5 Tau

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Week 2
It appears that the Tau are not as severe as some of our citizens criticize them for. A particularly creative multi-step practical joke involving a Tau Water caste envoy, our Contact diplomat and the citizen in charge of this GSV's Culture News Network articles contrived to vastly overexaggerate the industrial aid we have agreed to provide to the Tau.

The correct version of point 5 is as follows:

5. The Culture will provide, wherever the Tau request, up to 10 tons per Tau citizen of raw material or manufactured equipment of Tau design to given specifications; spaced out over the next year. This clause will give the Culture six weeks before the first delivery will be requested to allow the Culture to build up the required production power.
5a. Tau allies (eg. Kroot, Vespids and Nicassar) will count for 70% of a citizen, assimilated races (eg. IoM humans) will count for 50% of a citizen and mercenaries are not counted.
5b. An appropriate exchange rate for raw usable energy will be worked out in a separate negotiation.

We have neglected to inform the Tau that we were able to make good on the fake promise provided a significant fraction of it occurred in Culture space or if the delay was longer.

The Farsight retaliation fleet has returned to Tau space. We anticipate further IoM buildup and retaliation.
Investigations into IoM astropathic records has indicated that there were no major sets of orders that would have been required to move a fleet like that. We are seriously considering the possiblity of a false flag attack. Our investigations have been shared with both the IoM and the Tau in hopes of preventing IoM retaliation.

We have detected the first Tau warship being refitted with new weapons principles. Doubtless many other ships throughout the Tau empire are already adopting these weapons. If the IoM response takes some time, they will find the Tau ready to repel any attack.

***PRIORITY FLAG***
GCU Inquisitive Personality has found Thalassa Prime and has begun preliminary scans on it. While we do not have complete information on it, Thalassa Prime and its neighbouring minor Mechanicus base holds a vast amount of information on alien races as well as their technology. Samples of everything from Necron to Eldar technologies, many of which are warp based, are on the planet.

GSV Crossing the Bridge has completed another GCU, the Wayfarer, and its launch date has been brought forward one week. It will travel to Thalassa Prime immediately to aid the Inquisitive Personality in its scans despite not having any crew. We will also load it with three drones (and more sent independently later) for probing nearby systems and ensuring Thalassa Prime remains secure. Chaos cannot be allowed to obtain this potential archeological, scientific and cultural treasure house.

The two GCUs have been cleared for military engagement and should begin equipping themselves with light armament.

[jseah]

How much does the IoM view the worth of raw materials?

If the Culture attempt to buy off the retaliation fleet on behalf of the Tau, say with 300% the weight of the destroyed fleet worth of raw materials or manufactured products (the same deal as the Tau one)...?

[Fan]

How much does the IoM view the worth of raw materials?

If the Culture attempt to buy off the retaliation fleet on behalf of the Tau, say with 300% the weight of the destroyed fleet worth of raw materials or manufactured products (the same deal as the Tau one)...?

The IoM is fanatical, but to the point of being undetterable.

They have worked WITH Tau and Eldar multiple times in the past, but at the same time have cracked down on each other multiple times due to conflicting goals.

The REASON for "Trust not the alien, the mutant, the heretic." is because the IoM has been backstabbed too many times, make it too good to refuse and even the Inquisition will turn a blind eye to the right offer.

[jseah]

True, but even as the Culture play nice, many other races still backstab the IoM on a weekly basis.

Often for reasons that amount to "the IoM backstabbed us first". The IoM can hate the Culture if they want, it doesn't really do anything bad and the Culture will continue to play nice however much the IoM tries to attack them.

The Culture being all cozy with the IoM is nice (it makes operating in their space and helping them much easier), but what they really want is to stop the races from killing each other.

Which of course, I still have no idea how that might even be possible. >.>

EDIT: so what sort of bribe might be able to make the IoM look the other way from the Tau attack?

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Rethinking Tau reform:
A loosening of the Greater Good could be all that's needed for the Tau. Instead of castes or pre-defined collectivist roles, a more meritocratic Greater Good and a more inclusive foreign relations (primarily, ability to accept that other social structures can and should exist) should be enough aleration for the Culture to be happy with them on a more or less permanent basis.

[Gavinfoxx]

Remember with the Tau race, there are major biological differences between the castes... that informs how they perceive others, the assimilated races often just act like a specialized caste based on their biological and perceived cultural proclivities. Of course, Culture biotech could throw a wrench in all of this, especially people being able to change what instincts and physical capabilities they have by choice... Is The Culture improving Tau and allied biotech? They lag behind the IoM and Dark Eldar, for example.

Also, Talassa Prime may also have data that the Dark Eldar stole a complete single STC template and monotask STC constructor for the miracle STC drug Panacea... amongst many other stories and historical records. Hell, it will probably have collated data on Soulstones and various other soul and conciousness catching or uploading attempts, like that Pontius/Proteus stuff, probably some requested and approved info transfer from one of the other two Ordos in charge of that particular segment of lore had. They'd probably want to compare that to Soulstones, because they would probably like to be able to torture information out of them without needing a Psyker that speaks Eldar and knows about Eldar culture to do a deep read of the things, which would likely be somewhat risky. Still, I doubt that The Culture likes the idea of the souls of their citizens going to Hell... and there probably are a lot of soulstones in that base...


Also, it is possible that the souls of some humans do go to the warp aspect of The Emperor rather than 'random spot in the warp, likely to get eaten by a passing daemon'. It isn't 100% certain that everyone is damned. It's just likely that most everyone is rammed.

[Fan]

True, but even as the Culture play nice, many other races still backstab the IoM on a weekly basis.

Often for reasons that amount to "the IoM backstabbed us first". The IoM can hate the Culture if they want, it doesn't really do anything bad and the Culture will continue to play nice however much the IoM tries to attack them.

The Culture being all cozy with the IoM is nice (it makes operating in their space and helping them much easier), but what they really want is to stop the races from killing each other.

Which of course, I still have no idea how that might even be possible. >.>

EDIT: so what sort of bribe might be able to make the IoM look the other way from the Tau attack?

------------------------

Rethinking Tau reform:
A loosening of the Greater Good could be all that's needed for the Tau. Instead of castes or pre-defined collectivist roles, a more meritocratic Greater Good and a more inclusive foreign relations (primarily, ability to accept that other social structures can and should exist) should be enough aleration for the Culture to be happy with them on a more or less permanent basis.

Well, they value sacred relics and lost worlds more than anything else, as well as their primarchs and religion.

Offer to return The Spear of Russ, find Jaghati Khan inside the Webway (An easy feat for The Culture), or restore any number of failing Dark Age of Technology artefacts and present them to the Imperium and they'll comply, begrudgingly so, but once shown proof by an obviously non chaos tainted human being, I don't think it'll be too bad.

Though, again, I'd nominate awakening Lion El'Johnson for the Primarch to be over Robute Gulliman. He was far more reasonable in general than most other Primarchs.

He's also not to adverse to aliens, as the entire chapter works with The Watchers in the Dark, who are a race that borders on ascendency with their inability to be harmed, and immunity to warp taint and magic.

[The Glyphstone]

Did the new DA codex explain just what the Watchers were? Last I remember, they were just things that no one, not even the DA's, were certain what they were, other than their ability to psychically make themselves invulnerable.

[Gavinfoxx]

Also, some other things that might be in that base:

-Information that the IoM has been collecting on The Old Ones, including data about artefacts presumed to be made by them, including things like The Shadowlight, and other collected things which the IoM think have something to do with The Old Ones

-Information the IoM is collecting on the C'Tan, and their Shards, and their artefacts

-A BUNCH of information on things on The List, and probably that includes information on *animals* that are on the list; hell, I wouldn't put it past a Psyker Inquisitor who is currently there to have a pet Gyrinx (it's a psychic lynx that is pretty much like every 'psychic, not quite sentient cat that bonds with a person' you've read in any of a myriad of science fiction and fantasy novels. Hell, I'm sure I've read half a dozen, from disparite authors. Use that info, I guess) with him on base

-If there is any place to find a collection of Xenos Hybris (local equivalent, different name) Radical Recongregator Inquisitors, maybe even with some Logician tendencies (though no direct ties to the cult, obviously; probably just have read the treatise the Cult is based on, "In Defence of the Future: A Logical Discourse", due to the fact that this is wayyyy the heck away from the Cult's actual stomping grounds!), it's here.

-Notably, there will ALSO be a ton of things that The Eldar purposely left *off* the list, and knew about... due to them being way, way, waayyyyy too dangerous for novices to mess with!

-Inquisitors personally collecting information on The Culture, that they don't want to share with any peers. I wouldn't put it past one of them -- one of the aforementioend Radical types? -- to write a note in their personal, private, highly encoded logs that say something like, 'If the information on your data hacking and intelligence is true, Culture, I'm leaving you this note in my private journals. Contact me privately via [some highly encoded riddle to describe a method of contacting him, meant to foil his peers if they see it, probably referencing something that would require incredible data collection techniques that involve going to half a dozen worlds that the Inquisitor has visited, to understand].'

--------------

Re: The Watchers. They're probably projections from an Ascended entity into this universe. Seriously, look at how they are described... and the new codex left it mysterious, but if you follow sci-fi tropes, that's what they are.

[The Glyphstone]

-Inquisitors personally collecting information on The Culture, that they don't want to share with any peers. I wouldn't put it past one of them -- one of the aforementioend Radical types? -- to write a note in their personal, private, highly encoded logs that say something like, 'If the information on your data hacking and intelligence is true, Culture, I'm leaving you this note in my private journals. Contact me privately via [some highly encoded riddle to describe a method of contacting him, meant to foil his peers if they see it, probably referencing something that would require incredible data collection techniques to understand].'
.

This is totally something a Radical Inquisitor would do. He'd also write the message in code, and leave the decryption cipher written in another journal (in code, the cipher to which would be in a third journal).

[Gavinfoxx]

And then there is some EXTRA substitution cyphers that involve going to all the worlds he has been to and understanding the local cultures and particular gangs and whatever he has encountered, both before and after he became an Inquisitor... There would be levels of encoding/understanding, so that The Culture could get the gist of it, without the specifics, and still contact him -- it'd be a test of their capabilities, but a test with several degrees of success and failure...

[Selrahc]

And then there is some EXTRA substitution cyphers that involve going to all the worlds he has been to and understanding the local cultures and particular gangs and whatever he has encountered, both before and after he became an Inquisitor.

Heh. I was going to say that a substitution cypher would be worse than useless against the Culture... but then I suppose that's right in the ballpark of 40k. They reckon they're being super cunning with their encryption, but instead using something that we haven't used in real world secret military communications since the 1800s.

[The Glyphstone]

Heh. I was going to say that a substitution cypher would be worse than useless against the Culture... but then I suppose that's right in the ballpark of 40k. They reckon they're being super cunning with their encryption, but instead using something that we haven't used in real world secret military communications since the 1800s.

The point isn't so much to defend against the Culture, it's to prevent him from being caught by another Inquisitor literally in the act of trying to contact a xenos empire.

[Gavinfoxx]

There would be multiple cyphers. Some targeted at some people, some done as a matter of prudence, some meant to be useful, some meant to be simple... these would all be applying to the same document, to add different levels of understanding, of course...

I would expect three cyphers on the thing, at a minimum!



And a cypher that requires you to know the lingo of a particular street gang in a particular hive from his youth would be useful enough...

[jseah]

part 11.5 Tau

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Week 3
It appears that throughout the negotiations for the stopgap colonies, we have forgotten to give the Tau some requisite information. In the spirit of good faith, we have provided a map of systems in this galaxy known to us as well as general notes on distribution of populations of any occupants. The Tau were noted to be rather surprised at the size of the IoM's territory.

As our first Interstellar Bulk Freighter is already under construction, negotiations for the first set of three Tau colonies of our choosing and the six of their choosing has begun.
The Tau have indicated that the majority of our industrial assistance will take the form of capital industry. Asteroid mining platforms, space and land based manufactories, hydroponics and aeroponics installations.

More refitting of Tau military ships is underway. Tau organization is impeccable and some unique organizing and scheduling principles for physical assembly has been examined by social organization enthusiasts. (of course, the principles are obsolete for our own construction but hold some cultural interest) We have revised downwards our estimate for a full refit from one year to six months, taking into account the industrial assistance we will be providing.

Further analysis of Thalassa Prime's collection of alien curiousities indicates that our find is even more valuable than we expected. A number of warp-active samples are on The Eldar List (~10% are new, bringing us to having samples of 70% of the List) as well as one Eldar artifact we were asked to retrieve. Other technological non-warp-active devices have been cloned, except for the Necron ones which we are still unable to duplicate. What simple warp-active objects that are easily clonable have been cloned.

IoM records on the artifacts themselves are extensive, and after a small outbreak of scrapcode in one of the older archives (which the IoM suppressed), we have a complete copy of their past experiments and observations, which is being closely analyzed. Future experiments will continue to be monitored, the site is interesting enough for Contact to maintain a GCU presence indefinitely.

The Eldar artifact poses a problem. The IoM are unlikely to give up the artifact easily and retrieval of it from the base will not go unnoticed. We are currently considering diplomatic options.

More interestingly, IoM records indicate that the Other Eldar and the Eldar were once the same race, who have diverged over a period known as the Time of Strife where the Eye of Terror was formed.
Further details on this time period will be asked of the Eldar.

ROU Gunboat Diplomacy is continuing to negotiate for diverting the attack fleet, without much success. Demands that we destroy three Tau colonies is unacceptable. An alternative approach will be required.

Here's a new negotiation:
- The IoM (Ultramar) forgives or ignore the Tau retaliation
- The IoM gives the Culture the Eldar artifact on Thalassa Prime

In exchange,
- The Culture will provide 100 unique pieces of xeno-tech gathered from various ruins it has come across since arriving in the galaxy
--- This includes all the technological improvements the Culture has provided to the Tau (1 set of everything)
--- Samples of captured weapons from the Other Eldar and Necrons (with a three month delivery delay)
--- One captured Necron warrior
- A fully up-to-date realspace map of the galaxy as it currently stands inclusive of all political and military data (excepting the Eldar)
- 500% of the mass in raw materials of hardware destroyed by the Tau during their retaliation, provided to any IoM planet of their choosing within this sector
- The Tau agree to cease attacks on the IoM for the next three years, void if the IoM attacks the Tau


Expensive to the IoM(but not to the Culture), and therefore favourable. But if the Tau don't attack the IoM, the IoM either gets a first strike or they have three years to rebuild using the sudden rush of raw materials from the Culture.

If the Tau are likely to go along with the three years peace (which is likely as it lets them build up the farflung colonies in peace while they refit their military and find uses for the Culture industrial aid), then the Culture will have a short term agreement that should help stabilize the political situation in this sector for the next three years.
And who knows what would happen in the next three years? (this is short to the IoM and Tau, but it would let the Culture go a very long way to understanding the Warp and Chaos)

[Gavinfoxx]

You sure The Culture would see 'we know about your secret Inquisition base and what is in it' as a good thing to say to the IoM? They might start destroying things in it if they know The Culture knows about them, to deny them to The Culture...

Also, the IoM probably doesn't have the capability to prevent independent agents like Rogue Traders and such to not attack the Tau if they want to do so... the Ultramar region could probably do something to say, 'no attacks will come from us and ours for this time', but they might not have the capability to compel OTHER groups...

[jseah]

You sure The Culture would see 'we know about your secret Inquisition base and what is in it' as a good thing to say to the IoM? They might start destroying things in it if they know The Culture knows about them, to deny them to The Culture...

Also, the IoM probably doesn't have the capability to prevent independent agents like Rogue Traders and such to not attack the Tau if they want to do so... the Ultramar region could probably do something to say, 'no attacks will come from us and ours for this time', but they might not have the capability to compel OTHER groups...

Hmm, fair enough. Strike the Eldar artifact from the list then, and take off the map and Tau technology from the deal.

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- The IoM (Ultramar) forgives or ignore the Tau retaliation

In exchange,
- The Culture will provide 100 unique pieces of xeno-tech gathered from various ruins it has come across since arriving in the galaxy
--- Tau technology is not included in the deal
--- Samples of captured weapons from the Other Eldar and Necrons (with a three month delivery delay)
--- One captured Necron warrior
- 500% of the mass in raw materials of hardware destroyed by the Tau during their retaliation, provided to any IoM planet of their choosing within this sector
- The Tau agree to cease attacks on the IoM for the next three years, void if the IoM attacks the Tau

An agreement to have no attacks coming from Ultramar and Deathwatch is good enough for the Culture. They understand that rogue groups can be hard to control but those groups should be small enough that the Tau can deal with them.

[Fallen Angel]

They need a factory producing drones and drone weapons. Hell, the drones could be made up to look like Iron Men or Tyranids. (Esp with the Newcron fluff. Just pretend it's a newcron raid.)

Keep a GSV in orbit and use drones (which try to look newcronish) and when they are too badly damaged, effector them out. Just copy the newcron M.O. (You don't really have to copy it exactly. Unlike with the oldcrons.) Also various heavy necron units. Like a Monolith. (could be useful to teleporting units to the Monolith and then out ot the GSV. Here's a unit list: http://kofler.dot.at/40k/necron.html)

Then just keep fighting towards the objective while trying to make a nearby objective look like the real target. When available, either effector the target out or find another way to get it out. (Stealing it and then getting it to a evac point?)

Asking for it is right out, and it's a test by the Eldar. Plus any agreement won't be followed to satisifaction. (I'm betting something will go wrong, even if you try a agreement.)

[jseah]

part 11.5 Necrons

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Week 1
The first new construction of Necrons has started. They invited the Contact drone to observe the process of programming the first Necron warrior who is not a conversion from an organic intelligence. This, they say, is the first results they hope to obtain from our Intelligence Engineering technology.
We have suggested a number of corrections and adjustments that should stabilize the new intelligence against the kinds of degradation that we have observed with Necrons. The primary one being how to backup and copy the intelligence digitally so that any degradation that occurs can be remedied by the Necrons rebuilding those portions from the backup.

This also allows the Necrons to have an equivalent ability to Reloading. Recreating a new Necron from the backup is far less difficult than Reloading an organic body.

While re-building the intelligences of the Necrons Warriors onboard White Devil is, I believe, theoretically possible, we will essentially have to reconstruct fake memories and personalities into these warriors as so little original material remains. Nevertheless, the process of doing so ought to interest the Necrons greatly and so I would recommend investigating the possibility of duplicating the observed re-programming node the Necrons used to make a new intelligence or outright asking for copies of it from them.

Perhaps an agreement to the effect that they share how to build Necron reprogramming nodules and we provide any advances into rebuilding a Necrons' intelligence.


On the other hand, we have also detected construction of new model warships utilizing ultra-high density femto-tech armour and a femto-tech gamma-ray laser weapon that is a Necron original advance on our provided femto-tech. This should go a long way towards preventing these Necrons from being wiped out by the IoM and Eldar when they are finally discovered.
Unlike the Tau, who are planning to refit their warships, the Necrons seem to be relying solely on new construction. What is more interesting is Necron tinkering with the new flexibility intelligence engineering has afforded them. The current experimental warship will not have a crew for its operation, instead the "crew" will actually be part of the ship itself, built as an intelligent ship run by multiple minds.

An amusing proposal was made to us (the Culture as a whole). The Necrons had asked us to integrate into their empire as a major ally. They listed the advantage of immunity to Chaos contamination and other less relevant points about governance and social structures.
I have taken the liberty of refusing their proposal.

The Necrons have their first new citizen since forever. They're back as a functional race with the possiblity of population growth again! Three cheers for the Cul-

Oh wait, that means they're going to be even more expansionistic than ever. =|

On the note of very fast adoption of technology:
Yes, the Necrons are as conservative as the Eldar in terms of adopting new stuff, which would happen if the Culture gave them say, biological engineering.
However, femto-tech is something they have already had since forever and the Culture are just providing a new insight to a technology they already know more about than the Culture itself.

Intelligence engineering isn't actually being applied to existing Necrons yet. The new Necrons that are being constructed are just tests to see how it works out, and the 'showing' of the first construction to the Culture is just a way of getting the Culture to volunteer corrections to the very new procedure.

(I'm betting something will go wrong, even if you try a agreement.)

Why, how did you guess? =D

I'll consider the plan, but false flag attacks are very questionable operations that I would expect only Chaos to do. It makes people unable to trust you to be honest and therefore is disastrous for diplomacy.

[Gavinfoxx]

That unit list seems oldcron / depreciated... also, it doesn't list the stuff that talks about some of their bigger units...

[jseah]

part 11.5 IoM Ordo Xenos - Dossier on the Culture

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Dossier of information on hypothesized Xeno Group
####Security Clearance: OX-Beta-1

Sightings / Attributed Activities:
-- A high powered explosion was detected in extremely high orbit around the world of Nessia; presumed self-destruction of an interstellar vessel
--- World's atmosphere and tectonic activity subsequently stabilized far faster than would be expected; interference assumed

-- All Eldar pirate fleet activity within a growing zone centered on border of Segmentum Solar and Segmentum Pacificus has ceased completely. Fleets cannot be found, no raids are conducted
--- The size of this zone has expanded to include most of Segmentum Pacificus and Solar, the borders of Obscurus, Tempestus and Ultima have also recently been included in this
--- One captured Eldar vessel has had an Eldar indicate that the Eldar have been warned off piracy in this zone to avoid attention of an unknown adversary

-- High Speed Intrusion in Sol
--- Refer to event report Alpha-X1
--- Tactical faster than light speeds are of note

-- Unusual Inquisition movements
--- A network of Inquisitors known to cooperate have been extremely accurate and farseeing in their ability to root out Chaos cells and contaminations among our populations in Segmentum Solar

-- A certain contact (refer to dossier file RT-341AB0) has been implicated in dealings with a xeno of unknown origin and capabilities
--- Correlations of economic activity of the contact indicate that the contact is receiving price and economic information faster than is possible without use of the Astropathic network (which has been checked and cleared)
--- Impossible economic activity has been noted; examples include selling (and making good on the agreement) approximately fifteen thousand tons of assorted equipment with no trace of any purchases (pirate losses cannot account for this amount)
--- Impossibly fast ship movement; associated vessels with the contact have been noted to move between systems along unusual routes with speeds that are impossible to achieve
--- Implicated in the lifting of the seige of Camphor, Class B hiveworld, with extremely suspicious timing
--- Changes in the contact's movements began 22 weeks ago

-- Lack of unusual Eldar movements in the same zone that Eldar piracy has ceased
--- Eldar movements that correspond to unexplainable and unpredictable attacks on Imperium worlds have dropped to 23% of their original levels

-- Sudden demise of Tyranid fleets
--- After the initial event report 15 weeks ago, there have been at least three other independent sightings of Tyranid attacks simply being destroyed by unknown forces
--- Tyranid activity in Segementum Tempestus attributed to Hive Fleet Leviathan has been greatly reduced as of late

-- Sudden demise of Ork activity
--- Many worlds, seemingly in random clusters, have had their ork presence removed by unknown forces

-- Forecasting using the Emperor's Tarot has constantly changed radically, and often, in the past 33 weeks

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

Hypothesis: Major Xeno activity
Likelihood: High
Threat Rating: Unknown, possible Extremis

Technological report:
The xeno appears to be capable of wiping out entire populations of worlds without significantly affecting the worlds themselves and sometimes even with the other resident populations being aware of it.

Movement and communication at faster than light speeds.

Strongly suspected to be in advance of the Eldar at least in the area of stealth.

Strategic report:
No planets involving a highly capable xeno-race has been found that could be attributed to these observations.

Multiple instances of threats to humanity were removed. It is presumed that these threats to humanity also pose a threat to this xeno.

The Eldar exclusion zone is suspected to be the current zone of influence of this xeno. At current expansion rates, this zone will cover the entire galaxy by the end of this year.


Thought of the Day:
Brave are they who know everything yet fear nothing

Put it all together, and the IoM already knows where the Culture is and a first inkling of their capabilities.

[The Glyphstone]

If it had a suitably Imperium-y quote at the beginning or end, it'd be perfect.

[Selrahc]

If it had a suitably Imperium-y quote at the beginning or end, it'd be perfect.

Thought for the Day: A coward always seeks compromise.

EDIT: Jseah, a compendium of "Thought for the Day"'s is on Lexicanum, the Imperium puts them on pretty much every document it produces.

[Fallen Angel]

part 11.5 IoM Ordo Xenos - Dossier on the Culture

The Imperium does not know what the **** is happening.. specifically not in under thirteen weeks.

I call bull****. Need to be spottier or seperate reports on each incident. Oh, and the contant in Sol? Expect the entire system to be on high alert. Hell, they probably shot at your ship too.

I expect maybe one inquisitor to know what is going on if they are in the area. And a few more to suspect something strange. And scattered reports form various inquisitors. And expect the reports to arrive at Terra at about the time the Culture has won.

Maybe a single cabal may be called for all the more local of reports.. within two to three months.

[Selrahc]

The Imperium does not know what the **** is happening.. specifically not in under thirteen weeks.

Pretty much everything in this fic is happening at jumped up hyper speeds. You're right. But equally, I don't think the Culture would be operating this fast either.

[The Glyphstone]

The Imperium does not know what the **** is happening.. specifically not in under thirteen weeks.

I call bull****. Need to be spottier or seperate reports on each incident. Oh, and the contant in Sol? Expect the entire system to be on high alert. Hell, they probably shot at your ship too.

I expect maybe one inquisitor to know what is going on if they are in the area. And a few more to suspect something strange. And scattered reports form various inquisitors. And expect the reports to arrive at Terra at about the time the Culture has won.

Maybe a single cabal may be called for all the more local of reports.. within two to three months.

Like Selrahc said, this entire fic is operating at insanely accelerated speeds.

[Johel]

Agree for the "the IoM isn't that well-organized to actually figure things that quickly"

Secrecy is ingrained into the IoM at every level.

Most people, including planetary governors, don't know what's going on outside of their planet or even hive and frankly don't care.
Curiosity is frown upon because to lead to questioning the authorities and too much curiosities or "odd" ideas are quickly labelled as heretical.
Inquisitors don't know everything and tend to keep what they know unless they really have to share in order to accomplish their goals.

Reports above the sector level are cryptic and unfrequent.

Firstly, because astropathic communications take a lot of time.
It takes hours for an astropath choir to prepare to send a message.
And it can then take weeks for the message to travel between sectors.
This goes up to several months between segmentums.
Because it takes a long time to communicate and the speed itself is erratic over long distance, Imperium-wide reporting is not done often.

Secondly, because they aren't that many astropath choirs, meaning that astropathic communication is reserved for very important/urgent stuff.
It's not like the Internet or even like a phone.
More like traveling pigeons :
You know when you are sending it but you can never be sure when/if the message actually arrived.
And you can only send that many of them in a given time frame.

That's basically the thing about the IoM :

On paper, it has more than enough raw power to crush anything.
But it is very large, travel and communication are very slow and erratic, internal bickerings and paranoia are omnipresent.
So a central authority is powerless to act on a daily or even yearly basis.
Hence the near feudal organization, where people get by on their own and report above only if they cannot survive the problem.

The Inquisition is not a ruthlessly efficient machine.
It's a collection of individuals that are mistrustful of each other (with good reasons) and each work for solving a few specific problems.
Said problems are solved fast and in a way that most people, even other Inquisitors, never even hear of the problem to begin with.
But the Inquisition as a whole is not aware of the global pictures because there is too much information and too much secrecy.
Basically, only two types of events are notice :
The biggest, flashiest events are noticed quickly because there are reports.
The general trends and patterns are noticed slowly as they form.
But even so, no Inquisitor will do anything about them unless he is curious/worried about them.

On the other hand :
It's a fiction.
A entertaining one as it is.
And if we wanted it to follow very closely the lore of both WH40K and the Culture, then it would become very one-sided and boring.