The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

[Forrestfire]

Or it could be that. The page said it was just the breeding animals that had that, so I've got no idea.

[jseah]

part 13.5 White Wing

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Shiroki
"Forgive me, Sister, your practices are considerably different from ours. It seems that my vision has come to pass after all. "

He watched the effector readouts and video with a careful eye. Pulse, blood pressure, skin conductivity. All that data was fed through an IoM-normed non-sentient inference engine.

Shiroki continued to talk as the fake persona and the Sister conversed about their faith and about their troubles. Faking faith was easy, they had access to the entire of the Culture's records from across the entire galaxy and what errors on his part (or her misconceptions) could patched over with his claim of being from the future.

The thrill of almost breaking the prohibition on mind-reading (despite the explicit permission, most of the Culture still viewed deliberate mind-reading as taboo) was shared with a glance between Shiroki and Tsubasa. The little drone processed the data, while Shiroki did the talking.

They had normed their responses in every statistic in the Culture's vast database of human behaviour. Gender, age, social theory, tension, wariness, and countless others. It was safe to say that even among it's vast spread, he had her pinned down to a statistical category that would include less than 10 other people in the entire Imperium.

It was nearly as good as actually reading her mind.

Chesa
The Cannoness Preceptor was not happy. Chesa had dutifully reported her discussion of theology with the Sister from the future and the Cannoness had simply looked down at the table for a long while before telling Chesa that she would hear more about it later.

Today, a man with a broken leg from a collapsing tunnel beam died. His wound had become gangrenous before he had been sent to Chesa. For all her medical knowledge, all Chesa could do was pray. The antibiotics were gone since last week.

The man's wife had to be escorted from the room after she made a fuss and then attempted to assault Chesa. Chesa had merely took the beating without saying a word. After all, it was her fault for not having enough faith to heal the man.

The Cannoness later told her that she was to continue talking to the Sister from the future. It still wasn't clear that it was a vision, and talking theology wasn't enough to say if the Sister could lie. Personally, Chesa was confident that the future Sister was faithful, no one could know so much about the Sisters' theology and fail to see the Emperor's light.

That night, they discussed medicine and how to make do with as little as possible.

Shiroki
Shiroki tried to avoid facepalming again. The Sister was supremely bad at understanding the idea of triage. To think she had been treating patients on a first come first serve basis without regard for what supplies she had left!

Tsubasa shot up a new piece of information. That was interesting.

"Please wait... I..." the vision swam a bit and then solidified, "The Emperor sees your plight. I sense help and relief. You will receive aid soon. "

Shiroki watched Chesa converse a bit with the "future Sister" as he remained vague about the details.

The Mechanicus had finally managed to get some medical equipment through the worst of the Administratum bureacracy. It was a perfect chance to demonstrate some "predictive ability".

Mind-reading without actually mind-reading.

[jseah]

Part 18.5 Rogue Trader

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Culture
Growth the company's network continues to increase in a smooth exponential curve. Circumstantial manipulation of the company's workflow and personnel movements according to the finite-element social model has improved the quality of interaction within the company by another 20%. Efficiency and employee loyalty is radically higher than the IoM baseline around it.

The intra-company trade between branches in different systems has finally completed a full vertical monopolization. The company has branches in nearly every sector of industry, from mining to capital production to food and services. Delivery of the first three support ships and internal production of another fifteen has allowed the company to have significant internal ship production, even without the use of the nanobots. So far, we have managed to conceal the full reach of the company from the planetary governors as many branches are supposed rivals of the main corporate identity and the mobile shipyards are distributed throughout the sector and kept separate.

The company's capital production is also continuing along standard exponential progression, the focus to increasing the capital base as well as improving logistics with the company's own internal communications and shipping lines has already resulted in a general increase in standard of living.
We have noted that the company's reputation for reliability and low cost has reduced the total stock of goods held by partners, they prefer to save on warehouse space and rely on smaller frequent deliveries. Shops, factories and even hospitals no longer have shortages, crime rates are down to an all-time low and ex-convicts are being rehabilitated by the various prison initiative programs.
To a large extent, this has not required an active instruction from us. Many of these actions originated in the increased initiative and spirit that the company's training program instills, as well as a few chance meetings to nudge things along where required. Less and less overt intervention has been required and the decrease towards the projected maintenance level has been proceeding within models.

The mandate to put market penetration over profit has paid off well and the company directly or indirectly influences more than 60% of the total sector economy. It, together with subsidiaries and trusted partners (non-Culture but similar enough that we have extended our influence over them), employs nearly 30% of the sector's population and provides more than 50% of the total goods and services produced.

The Rogue Trader Seb Snakewick continues to move throughout the sector as the company's political front. We have consulted with him over the Inquisitor and he is avoiding the man as far as possible. Three systems no longer require any political front as most of the political system has been compromised and the governors hold a very favourable view of the company. Another seven systems are already proceeding along the same path and are expected to reach that status within ten weeks.

To a large extent, the company has grown large enough that it is effectively an independent sub-economy of the sector. One that can and will continue to operate despite whatever the Rogue Trader or planetary governors can do.

Work on reducing reliance on techpriests and achieving true independence from external factors will be placed into the main focus. A number of suitable techpriests who have been enticed to defect are expect to form the knowledge core which will be spread secretly to internal engineers.

The Culture using economic soft power. At this point, despite them not knowing it, most of the IoM's political systems in the area are mostly irrelevant. The company has so much influence that trying to take it down without resorting to force (and sometimes even then) will result in political disaster. Too many people, including nobles and important people, rely on the company's economic strength.
Especially since the company moves blindingly fast compared to the usual IoM political system.

3 months is more than enough when you have "chance" to back your company. =P

Part 18.5 Tomis Regnea

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Emerit
"Do you think you can continue?"

She nodded.

"Do you feel any possible corruption?"

She paused to self-reflect and eventually shook her head. They both knew how useless that was though.

"The same, again. " Emerit nodded, slowly.

Week 1
Day 5-7
Tomis
Emerit has tried to cut off the planetary governor at this system.

While I would have been satisfied with his political removal, which happened shortly afterwards, it appears that his acting replacement is identical in attitude towards the Rogue Trader's company.

I decided to do a little checking into the various governor candidates and it turns out that only one candidate does not have a favourable outlook on the company, and the exception only because the company's spread muscled out a competitor he had been taking bribes from.

There is nothing to do but to ensure the exception is put in place as Acting Governor. I cannot have the governors here support the company or it will reform as soon as the Imperial fleet leaves.

To that end, I have arranged under my cover identity to meet with all of the candidates and I will have Emerit do the appropriate adjustments to all of them.

[Gavinfoxx]

I'm liking this... are you going to throw in any little details of the little ways that that Company is improving the life in the Imperium? I'm sure you could make up lots of grimdark stuff and it wouldn't contradict anything! Let alone the ideas that we have presented...

[linkhyrule5]

... I just realized, but... Chelsea, is that you? :p

(What is the witch's name, anyway? I forget -_-.)

[jseah]

I'm liking this... are you going to throw in any little details of the little ways that that Company is improving the life in the Imperium? I'm sure you could make up lots of grimdark stuff and it wouldn't contradict anything! Let alone the ideas that we have presented...

Lol, this is why stopping makings things difficult.
I remember the Pen = Artifact requiring rituals to shake; there's also a few half-remembered anecdotes.

Perhaps I should make up something and write a "day in the life of" extra. Tomorrow maybe.

... I just realized, but... Chelsea, is that you? :p

(What is the witch's name, anyway? I forget -_-.)

Are you trying to guess a reference?

There's alot of Chelseas around out there. And I have alot of characters. And some of my references are pretty darn obscure.

So no, until you elaborate, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Feel free to PM me if you don't want to spoil it for others, but I feel spotting a reference should be on a first come first serve basis, so go ahead and just post.

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

I may post tomorrow, but after tomorrow, there will be no posts until next Tuesday minimum, perhaps Wednesday.

Also 25th onwards would have a rather sharp drop in post rate since I start a full time job.

[linkhyrule5]

Well then! My guess is "Chelsea the witch-vampire, from Luminosity."

[jseah]

Well then! My guess is "Chelsea the witch-vampire, from Luminosity."

Aha! So you were talking about that.

You win one Culture vs 40k commemorative cookie!

[Tychris1]

Aha! So you were talking about that.

You win one Culture vs 40k commemorative cookie!

Wait, this is a versus story?

[The Glyphstone]

Wait, this is a versus story?

Was and still technically is - not a versus of the Culture against the 40Kverse's inhabitants, but a clash of Culture optimism, transhumanism, and hypertechnology against 40K's overwhelmingly oppressive Grimdarkitude. Culture is in the lead, though it hasn't been a clean sweep.

[jseah]

part 18.5 Rogue Trader Extra - A Day in the Life of-

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Miltor - Total population: 100 million
"Please sign here. "

He scribbled something illegible on the dotted line.

"Thank you very much. Seb Transstellar welcomes you aboard. "

Meru picked up the HR folder as the last of this batch of recruits completed their forms and were shuttled off to basic training.

How long ago was it that she had first started this job? Meru had never really been able to hold a job before, despite her fluency in language and good work ethic. She simply wasn't well-connected nor did she have the intellectual ability to become a techpriest.
Being a Sister didn't appeal to her and none of the smaller commercial ventures were even doing anything more than replacing their staff.

True opportunities like this job were rare as diamonds.

At least until Seb Transstellar had opened an office here. Meru jumped on the chance like so many others and somehow, the Emperor had smiled on her that day.
Now... job opportunities seemed to be growing like mushrooms. Seb Transstellar had gone from a dinky little ten person branch to a full fledged corporate skyscraper with a staff of over a thousand office workers, not to say the armies of technicians and weakly affiliated contractors.

She blushed a little as she remembered the off-planet manager at her interview, now the boss of the HR department. Meru shook herself, she could let her mind wander when she was back in her apartment, in itself a miracle, but while she was at work, she had to lead.

The other three junior HR staff under Meru took their instructions. She needed to arrange the training schedules and inform the other departments that their personnel-hire requests had been filled. Doing that by herself back when the HR department was just her alone, the little quirks of how this company worked was like a routine to her now and it was her job to make sure the new HR people would be able to stand on their own feet.
On top of also doing the recruitment and training schedules of course.

Meru portioned out the work, careful to explain what each person was doing and what they needed to get from each other. That was one of the things they taught in training, clear communication and letting people understand why and what they were to do. Why, What and then How, were what Meru had been trained to think about. It had worked admirably, and not just at work too.
Time and scheduling flew back and forth on the table as they hammered out a plan, trying to fit and rearrange more people into the already hectic activities of the company branch.

A few hours later, the day's work done, Meru took the bus from the office back to her apartment. It was a miracle every time she looked around. The fact that the bus company, run by an ex-employee who decided he could run his own business, ran on time; that the private security, hired by Seb Transstellar from a local reformed mercenary group, made travelling safe for a lone young woman; that she even had an apartment to stay in.

The apartment block had been partly her own project. Back in the early days of Seb Transstellar, the local construction firms had been withering for the lack of materials. The ceramacrete smelter had blown up in an accident two years ago and the replacement had been on the queue ever since.
Seb Transstellar had decided to ship in its own ceramacrete. No trader would carry something that worthless, not when there were fine wines or furs to trade in. It barely broke even.

But the infusion of ten million tons of ceramacrete had let the construction companies work again. Meru had brokered the sale with the local company that had built her apartment in record time. No one was going to buy any new houses, but Seb Transstellar had decided to buy a stake in that apartment project, foreseeing the need to house its employees.
It had been ironic that she was helping the construction of the block that the company would then sell back to her.
Finding finance was impossible. Finance wasn't... well received on Miltor. Something about usury being against the preachings of the Emperor. Seb Transstellar once again filled the gap. Since it had already a large stake in the project, it drew up a contractual arrangement with its employees to automatically dock pay for installments on the apartments.

The story was the same for her electric cooking unit that was now boiling her evening cup of recaf. And the recaf too.

Herbal recaf farms here were suffering low yield from the lack of fertilizer, which couldn't be produced due to a lack of techpriests to run the chemical plant. The derelict had been shut down and left to rot, no techpriest could even be found to cannibalize the remains. A techpriest Seb Transstellar brought in to oversee construction of its skyscraper had saw the opportunity and jumped ship. A collaborative work with an aspiring manager and a line of credit from Emperor-knows-where, and the chemical plant was refurbished to a smaller scale operation that concentrated on fertilizers. Now not only had the price of recaf crashed through the floor (and varieties were growing weekly), the price of food was dropping rapidly as the fertilizer company expanded operations. People could once again farm in the normally infertile soil of Miltor and family operations were springing up everywhere as people sought to feed themselves.
She didn't know how Seb Transstellar had bribed the officials in charge to relax the zoning laws, but a week after a landed noble had tried to collect economic rent from the new wave of land use applications, there had been a major shakeup in the government and every single one of his cronies had been fired.

The electric cooking unit had been a major piece of trickery. Meru didn't know where the design came from, or how the Mechanicus would even make and sell something so complex that it ought to have a techpriest run it, but Seb Transstellar had not only imported the first set, it had also helped set up a production plant at Landing City.
Where the techpriests to run the plant came from and how Seb Transstellar managed to bribe them there, Meru had no idea. But the factory had begun to turn out complex machines with nothing more than a user manual that explained all that one needed to know to use them. The idea of writing down technomatic rituals was novel to Meru, but it certainly worked. A techpriest was still needed to maintain her cooker but she could afford that now.

She sipped her recaf and bent to the task of scrubbing her laundry for the next week in the pail of warm water (warm water! For laundry!!). There were rumours flying through the company grapevine that they had obtained a design for an automatic clothes washer and the Machine Solutions Inc. factory would soon start producing it.

The same story appeared again and again. Wherever Seb Transstellar went, failing companies were revived or replaced. Bottlenecks lifted as soon as anyone identified them. From the steel needed by Machine Solutions, to architectural expertise, to unwise regulation written to extract fees. Everywhere Seb Transstellar was, barriers weren't.

Sometimes, it got so much that Meru had wondered if the company was somehow prescient. That issue with the steel casting must have taken weeks of setup to resolve, the way that the Galaxy-class full of steel from the next system over showed up just in time to run the incompetent local business into the ground so a Snakewick Steel subsidiary could take it over in the bankruptcy. That move had to be in the planning ever since Seb Transstellar even set foot on Miltor!

It had been. Meru had discreetly snooped around a bit, just to make sure she wasn't in a company that the Inquisition would take offense to. One of the upper management had kindly shown her around the strategic planning sessions, where the most powerful men in this Seb Transstellar branch discussed big problems. Like "system economy", "bottlenecks in development" and other big business ideas Meru still didn't quite understand.
And surely, if the company was headed by one of the mystical Rogue Traders (!!), surely it was normal to have such foresight and vision. It was like being a child again and seeing her dream come true. Not literally, she hadn't actually seen this Seb Snakewick, but she knew the feeling of being in the presence of people who saw more than just what was in front of them.

And they were such nice people too. Meru had been struck with the difference in people of Seb Transstellar and those outside. She had made friends aplenty and she had never heard anyone arguing on company grounds. Sure, Meru hadn't seen more than a tenth of the company here, but she was sure the rest were just as nice.

It was a feeling that she hadn't expected to feel again once she had grown up and her parents and sole younger sibling had perished in the last plague two years ago.
She felt like she belonged.

[Gavinfoxx]

Not tea. Recaf, or herbal Recaf. Maybe say something about how there used to only be one type of local Recaf, but now...

Also the how to use stuff is known as 'technomatic rituals', which is what techpriests teach non-techpriests that need to know how to operate and sometimes do basic maintenance on, but not understand machinery. Being a technomat is generally a profession or trade.

[Gavinfoxx]

40k cargo ships:

Small cargo ships:
Vagabond
Tarask

Small fast cargo ships:
Orion star clipper

Armed small cargo ships:
Carrack (this is the modern, worse than the old version, closest thing to a 'Star Galleon' of yore)
generic 'Armed Freighter'

Medium armored troop and materiel transport:
Cetaceus
Galaxy

Medium cargo and plasma fuel factory:
Goliath

Medium, each is unique, can no longer be made, armed-and-armored, cargo-carrying 'Star Galleon' (ie, what rogue traders often want as their flagships):
Conquest

Huge massive gigantic cargo vessel:
Universe

Note that there is room for 'better than the Vagabond' small cargo vessels, like Jonquin Saul's one of a kind Exchequer. There is also room for dedicated medium and large cargo transport ships that aren't troop transports or mechanicus plasma factories... but the tradition is just send more Vagabonds instead.

[jseah]

Edited.

I wonder how the Mechanicus would look at user manuals lol.

[Gavinfoxx]

Edited.

I wonder how the Mechanicus would look at user manuals lol.

Are they written following technomatic traditions and have the necessary prayers and rituals described in them?

[jseah]

Are they written following technomatic traditions and have the necessary prayers and rituals described in them?

Yes. They are also formatted and generally written to be more clinical and procedural.
A bit like an instruction checklist rather than a sacred object.

Also printed by the hundreds and a copy given away with every sale of the electric cooker.

[Gavinfoxx]

The more traditional ones who see this as a challenge to the power of the machine cult and tradition wouldn't like it, but young techpriests who only want to interact with the most sacred of machines and are bored with the simple stuff would probably love the idea. There are also regional variations in the duties of the mechanicum and what normal people are trained to do; something like this probably already happens in some systems already, but only if there is and has been a large historical need for it, to cause systems to develop that way in the first place.

[Gavinfoxx]

Updated the cargo ship list...

[jseah]

part 18.5 Tomis Regnea

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Week 2, Day 3
Emerit performed admirably. She told me about the big social network that the company has grown around itself and it became clear that if we were to be successful in removing the corruption, she would need to cut off all of the candidates at once.

In an hours long marathon session, we interviewed each of the political candidates. All that remains to be seen is the fallout.

At one point, Emerit seemed to have an adverse reaction but managed to control it. I know I am running a risk here, using a psyker so much, but the plan relies on Emerit's powers. I cannot give it up here.

Day 5
Emerit is stable again. I have made her take a rest en route to our next target system, Miltor.

From my analysis, Miltor is one of the systems that has been compromised but not completely. It is the last system I need before I think there will be enough loss of support that the Imperial fleet showing up will be able to catch the xenos and seize the company's assets.

Delicate work will be needed. If I push Emerit again, she may not survive another round of hitting the problem with a sledgehammer.

Day 6
We have arrived in Miltor. There is much work to be done, seeing how the current administration greatly favours the company. They say it has made the system economy work again but that is insufficient reason to get into bed with xenos.

There is no cooperation with the xenos.

Not even if the xenos have managed to raise the planet's production enough that I should remember to drop a note with the Administratum to raise their tithe level.

Day 7
I have taken Emerit on a tour through the company offices, pretending to be a visiting official from another system. Emerit is identifying the key points of the social web here, which she says will help her identify which people are key to removing the xeno's influences. This will help minimize the number of times she has to exert her power, which will no doubt come in useful.

I have not been idle despite Emerit's constant need for rest. A number of interviews with the local officials has revealed the past actions of the company in this system, which is a standard procedure I have developed in the recent weeks.

This revealed evidence for something I had previously suspected. No single company, even one as far reaching as Seb Transstellar, should be able to so vastly improve system economies. Not even when 'chance' favours them so. After all, even the company does not do everything.

It turns out that most of the supposedly independent local companies that were set up since arrival of Seb Transstellar possess links to the old company despite being completely separate in the local Administratum records. Indeed, the penetration of this Rogue Trader's company may be far more than I originally believe. It seems to reach into every aspect of life here.

The situation is more critical than I thought. I can only hope the Imperial Fleet can arrive before the xenos can somehow exert their influence and corrupt the Emperor's children.

In a day or two, I must strike. Ultimately, the threat to the Imperium is greater than even the services of Emerit.

The thing I said about not having posts? That's been pushed back 2 days. I'm now gone from 10th to 15th. Likely nothing from me tomorrow too.

[jseah]

part 18.5, Week 2 Tau Offensive - Debrief Transcript, Guardsman Shivan, Security Clearance Class 3, Questions Redacted

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Guardsman Shivan, Praetonis VI, 202nd PDF

I was stationed at the observatory on Praetonis Six, as part of the local military detachment.

No, to my knowledge, equipment levels were up to requirements. We were prepared, we knew the Tau might come at any time. Heck, we even had a squad of three baneblade superheavy tanks!

Yes, in my opinion, we had the Tau vastly outnumbered on the ground. I saw numerous changes to their armour and saw them deploy more powerful weapons, but I believe that we would have won that engagement eventually. It looked like they only had three squads of infantry, one of which was some kind of stealthy scout squad without any heavy weapons.

We lost the battle because of orbital bombardment. The Tau have new and very accurate weaponry that can strike from space. It destroyed us. Completely.

It looks like a... a lance strike. But without the blast. A single brilliant column of light from the void strikes unerringly at whatever the Tau wished destroyed. There is little explosion, the weapon, whatever it is, leaves a very small crater for an orbital weapon, no more than that from a baneblade's main cannon.

They can accurately hit and destroy a baneblade with exactly one shot. They destroyed all three of ours in exactly three shots at the start of the battle. The last shot hit our last baneblade while it was being sortied, it didn't even damage the wall of the observatory not ten meters away. How, I don't know, but I suspect their accuracy was helped by the stealthy scout team which we could not find or force to engage.

They targeted our formations with the weapon too. Whenever we grouped up too much, more than four of us inside a single blast zone, the strike would come within seconds.
We couldn't do anything. Any attempt to sortie in close formation drew orbital strikes, it took all of our ability to stay under cover and try to weather the Tau attacks. Loose formation approaches were cut up by their scout team and dense fire from their infantry formations. We couldn't mass to charge them and couldn't hold ground when we were spread all over.

The commander of the station eventually ordered us to retreat to the local launch pad where we retreated through our lander to rejoin the rest of the defense fleet. Why the Tau did not target our lander with the same weapon, I don't know. I think they let us go.

No, I have no idea why they might have done that.

--------------------------------------------------
Appended: Military Analysis
The new Tau orbital weapon is a precision weapon with considerable armour piercing capability. Reports from multiple sources indicate it has sub-meter accuracy and very little collateral damage.
The Tau may or may not be able to target the weapon accurately from orbit but the presence of ground teams guarantees that they will be accurate.

Variants of the weapons from multiple reports indicate that the Tau weapon has multiple yield settings. Examples include low-yield tank-busters and anti-infantry uses, a higher power variant was observed to penetrate an underground hive and precisely destroy the central column and the control cogitator banks.

Like all Tau technology, no moral threat is expected.

Tactical Analysis:
This weapon is suitable for use in urban combat where the Tau are noted to avoid civilian casualties. This may impact our civilian wave tactics as this weapon may be precise enough for the Tau to allow its use.

The Tau appear to not be wasting shots of this new weapon. The 202nd PDF company could have been easily vapourized from orbit as there is little overhead cover to conceal them from observation. Instead the Tau chose to use it only to break up formations.
The bunker-busting variant was seen much more rarely. Sensor records indicate that the Tau may have this variant only equipped on two to five possible vessels.

The survival of the various ground forces suppressed by the weapon is unusual, given the complete destruction or capture of various other companies. To what reason by which these guard forces were allowed to retreat is unclear. A pattern we see is that those forces which managed to retreat have all witnessed this new weapon, perhaps their escape is meant to discourage us with news of a terrifying weapon that the Tau have not widely deployed.

The tactical impact of the weapon's deployment seems to indicate that the Tau have the ability to win nearly any land engagement that they hold the orbital zone above. The bunkerbusting variant of the weapon is probably also designed to neutralize fortified anti-space weaponry, allowing Tau ships to control the planet's orbitals.
This is a grave and serious threat as other developments in the Praetonis System Report indicate that the Tau have changed their capabilities in space as well. Given the Tau habit of capturing and suppressing Imperial worlds that their fleet overruns before moving onwards, this new weapon may enable them to rapidly advance where they were reluctant to previously as ground-based resistance may become severely ineffective.

[Demonic_Spoon]

Interesting. Are we keeping in mind that there is a limit to how far Tau expansion can reach because of their slow ftl though? IIRC by the time of the third sphere expansion they were already beginning to experience problems.

[jseah]

Interesting. Are we keeping in mind that there is a limit to how far Tau expansion can reach because of their slow ftl though? IIRC by the time of the third sphere expansion they were already beginning to experience problems.

Mmm. I have rearranged the Tau tactics for this new wave.

The spearhead, the one responsible for this report, will cut a line to Macragge, as per the hypothetical (but with more twisty thinking, you'll see). It is independent, bringing along an unusually large fleet train whose job is to keep the fleet in shape. The fleet train drops out of warp outside a system until the fowards fleet gives the all-green.
They are greatly helped by a Culture-designed water-based fusion reactor. No need to sundive anymore, the Tau fleet refuels from ice.

Unlike the note that the Tau usually sit around to secure a system before moving on, this fleet is blitzing forwards instead of waiting around. It also isn't going to wait for reports to get back to the Tau empire before moving forwards again. The commander is given a strategic goal and has free reign to pick targets and destinations without waiting for orders.

Instead of a larger military fleet, this Tau fleet seeks to strike at IoM leadership and industrial centers in a bid to break the IoM ability to field anything in the local area. The ships may be there, but without logistics, they aren't going anywhere quickly and can be destroyed by the roaming Tau fleet.
The spearhead is followed by a larger more conventional fleet that will do the actual system acquisitions.


The Tau learnt from their military simulations with the Culture. =P

[Gavinfoxx]

The Tau are implied to already have non sundiving reactors pre-Culture though. It's only the Imperials who focus on sundiving and plasma. The difference between Tau reactors and Imperial reactors is, presumably, that the Tau reactors generate less power for their size. They're probably simple Helium-3 fusion reactors or something like that. Sane and significantly safer, but not as powerful as what the Imperials use, and the Imperials consider it lost tech.

At least that is what I figured.

The problem with Tau ship tech is that they don't do the full warp thing (no navigators), and instead skip against the Warp, which is really slow -- even slower than the Imperial 'do short jumps that actually do go through the warp, with cogitators' sort of thing. What the Tau really need is Necron-style hyperspace drives. Or methods of miniaturizing their existing skipping drives, and allowing them to two styles of jumping, both the Tau and the short version of Imperial style warp jumps, albeit with a Void Abacus.

[jseah]

's hard to intercept ships in transit though since you not just have to know where they are (and therefore have to be able to tell where they're going and when), you also need to match velocities since you're not going to be coming from the same place.

This spearhead fleet is more like a raiding fleet than one for occupation. They go in, disarm everyone, remove capital industry and anyone in-charge and just leave.
A bit like a battlefleet sized pirate gang. With military-grade weapons.

Very very hard to catch. And if you try to defend with a small defense force, the fleet is sizeable enough that it will eat you for breakfast. You need to send a full fleet to intercept it to get anywhere but these Tau arent going to stick around to fight Imperial navy. They're just there to knock out the leadership or isolate chunks of the sector.

They don't really need strategic speed. It's virtually impossible to force an engagement with such a raiding fleet that doesn't have anything to defend.


If the Tau already have non-sundiving ice-fueled fusion reactors, then well, you can ignore that part of my post, lol.

[Gavinfoxx]

I believe the Tau sublight propulsion drives and things like sci fi inertial dampeners and acceleration capabilities and speed or whatever are significantly slower than Imperial standard, and well slower than Astartes tech, and HUGELY slower than Archeotech Imperial...

One of these:

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Nova-class_Frigate
or this:
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cobra_Class_Destroyer
or the Astartes Hunter-class Destroyer (their version of the Cobra, quite fast)
or the Imperial Navy Viper-class Scout Sloop

are four Imperial designs which could probably intercept Tau STL ships from damn near anywhere in the system, because they are significantly faster strategically, and can run down and force a confrontation while other slower ships catch up.

A wolf pack made up of these ships, or bigger ships with oddly powerful engines (like a Dauntless Light Cruiser with Archeotech engines or an Astartes Strike Cruiser with simply more or better engines, or any of innumerable Imperial Frigates, if they have Archeotech engines-- the Firestorm is the Navy version of the Nova, and if it's engines are juiced, it can keep up with a Nova), in large quantities, can bring just about anything to battle, even if they try to flee.

The problem is, sending out a bunch of super-fast escort ships to chase down a fleet isn't generally Imperial doctrine, which has Battlecruisers do the fighting, and Escorts protect them. Though if the Tau fleet doesn't have anything bigger than a Light Cruiser, and the Imperials have a goodly amount of Torpedo ships and lance ships with good enough engines, they might consider it.

[jseah]

You gonna send _only_ your frigates and destroyers into a Tau fleet travelling in formation? >.>
Or just send ahead your archeotech ships piecemeal.

You see, a fleet only accelerates as fast as its slowest member. Unless you feel like leaving them behind.

The Tau fleet just came out of refit. They have a coordinated fleet. They get to go at full capital ship accel.
There's also like, a crusade's worth of Tau ships there. Maybe more than a hundred ships even (+ say 200 in the fleet train). The Tau are stripping most of their system defence fleets as their own systems are impregnable, although most of those ships are in the main thrust coming later. By virtue of Lancaster's Square Law, piecemeal attacks are plain suicide.

And then there's also the matter that Tau weaponry just got a pretty significant boost, which includes range increases that tilts Square Law even more in their favour. And that they have the Culture's map of the local area so they know where everything important is and can infer important details like the length of the IoM communications loop and how long it takes the IoM to get where.

Here's a number of tactical scenarios:
1. The Tau enter a backwater system. Light IoM resistance. Tau rolls over them, dismantles the system and is out within a week. Two weeks tops. By the time the word can get to a neighbouring IoM system and even if that system had a fleet all ready to go, the Tau are gone before it arrives.

2. The Tau enter a key system, the IoM has been expecting them. Large IoM fleet, with firepower enough to make the Tau take heavy losses. The Tau leave immediately. Sometimes, they pop back in a week later to see if its any different, sometimes they just head to a different target.

3. The Tau hit an IoM cordon. Small system fleet. IoM is outgunned by the Tau and destroyed. Tau leave immediately.

4. The Tau enter a key system (mostly Forge Worlds). The IoM has been expecting them elsewhere. Not enough firepower to stop them but the Tau take significant losses in exchange for removing the system's infrastructure.

[Gavinfoxx]

I believe Warp and FTL tech in the 40k setting is set up so that 'just leaving immediately' is not something that can be easily done, and that it can only be done from particular safe areas, AND STL propulsion tech is such that ships can generally intercept other fleets. That's all I am saying -- it is really hard for anyone to deny battle to anyone else, and interceptions can and do happen. AND that the Imperium tends to have faster ftl communications, stl, and ftl than the Tau... unless the Culture has specifically boosted those things in the Tau!

[jseah]

Surely it doesn't take a day to spin up your warp drives (or whatever it is you need to do). It takes a day or two to cross a system, at least.
Your linked RT thread describes going from a cold, unpowered warp core to warp jump takes only a couple of hours. Tau drives running hot should work significantly quicker than that.

The invading fleet seeing trouble ahead just... spins up and gets out.

EDIT:
Faster communications is only so good as you have armies to use it for. To truly force battle with this sort of fleet, you'll need to picket the surrounding systems with enough forces that they can't bash their way out without giving you the battle you wanted.

By sending a full battlefleet on this mission, the Tau are making it really expensive to stop it. You'll have to mobilize multiple battlefleets just to even force battle, most of which won't even see the Tau fleet at all.

And then the Tau have better weapons now, so it might not even be enough. >.>

[Gavinfoxx]

It's more of 'you have to get to a particular place and then spin up your warp drives', sort of thing. There are only some places in a system where it is generally safe, as far as I can tell.

And a battlefleet? I thought this was a raiding force, you didn't make it clear that this is a huge gigantic fleet that I could see by the stories themselves.

[The Glyphstone]

And where that safe point is varies by source and author. Traditionally, it's a set radius around the star, nebulously excused as being related to the gravity well, but occasionally (usually Tyranid) ships appear within the gravity well.