The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

[Gavinfoxx]

So I found an interesting map...
https://web.archive.org/web/20100412...cemap/map.html

make sure to look at the source, it has lots of interesting little tidbits of info for the Culture to stumble across... like that one Dyson Sphere...

Also, have you mentioned Enslavers yet? Maybe have a Tau-conquered Human World having troubles with one?

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Enslaver#.UxP9o844NAo

[jseah]

Jseah: You know powerful people in 40k live hundreds of years because of Rejuvenat treatments, right? There are limits, of course, but it is never stated exactly how they stop working or why, as far as I know.

Whoops. Well, let's make it "biologically ninety" and throw in unlimited free Rejuvenat treatments into the offer. With the implications that he couldn't access it before Seb Transstellar.

"Xaiver is biologically nearly ninety. That explanation is too far fetched, yes?" Meru shook her head, "no, he knew his life was going to end soon and wanted to see the galaxy. His price that we paid was half a million thrones, provide free Rejuvenat and an unlimited VIP travel pass on any of Seb Transstellar's ships. "

I'll look at the map, but I want to finish this Sepheris Secundus Sidestory before doing other things.

[jseah]

Part 19.5 - The Talon Reformat

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Talon appears to have undergone a major doctrine shift following discreet 'chance' encouragement. The Magos has spoken in public networks that Talon exists not just on the planet but across the entire sector that it is responsible for and that "we will now take action to make this as true in flesh as it is in spirit".

Talon has expanded its recruitment drives for new techpriests and technomantic training for the general population. The closest worlds are also in talks for establishing training schools across the sector for both, as well as a new discipline called Datamancy (which is described as Technomancy but for networks and information technology).

Some resistance from the local reactionary techpriests was met and most of them have either been cleared away by Talon or the more troublesome sort removed by us, mostly through Seb Transstellar or covert action.

It is surprising how slow information travels through the Imperium. Apart from the Imperial Navy fleet our 'missing' Inquisitor mustered, the most that the Ministorum has heard about Talon's area is vague rumours of a new Rogue Trader company being setup.


Our Rogue Trader has managed to stage expeditions into nearby warp storm covered areas, all successful to date from our provision of better-than-Archaeotech equipment. In one case, he has managed to actually close a warp storm by incinerating a full Daemon via multiple lancestrikes and Cyclonic torpedo hits.

The combat data has proven extremely useful, we are confident that Gellar fields can at least maintain our physical advantage in the Warp for extended periods of time.

[jseah]

Part 19.5 A Certain Chaotic Warp Sorcerer

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Week 1
He cast the dice again, not quite believing the reading.

The imaginary plague of artificial contagious psyker-ness spread out across the future and was abruptly cut short. They never even achieved the critical mass needed to hold off an IoM Exterminatus, much less a Culture intervention.

The imperial inquisitors were too good at spotting Chaos.

And when the Culture got there, they punched straight through the weak psychic shield and all his 'recruits' disappeared into thin air. How by the four gods did they managed to de-psyker someone he couldn't understand.

He banged the table. Due to the future sight activity of the plague, he couldn't see the plague in the future until he actually made it. It was a good two weeks of work. Now wasted.

He needed stealth, he couldn't just rely on ultra contagious plagues, even one as virulent as any Nurgle ever made.
But reduce its control over the victims and his plague didn't spread enough. While the Culture weren't everywhere, he still needed to be able to take over a planet within a week.

What he needed was to make the victims spread the plague by themselves without acting too strange. And then they had to act convincingly human to the inquisitors.
Impulses for curiosity into the Warp or psyker-ness weren't exactly stealthy. He couldn't do more than that.

Hmm, if he could change what the victims wanted, it might be possible. But how? He thought for a moment before the answer became obvious. Slannesh succubi knew how. They were experts at manipulating people.
And they could be subtle.
And if he could work with that pustule of a Nurgle, it would be much pleasanter to be with the Slanneshis.

And why not add some self defence?

Week 2
The case was weird. The inspector burned another stick of incense, praying to the machine spirits for the lamp to work out of its allotted hours.

One woman raped. The next day, another one, apparently by the same criminal. That part wasn't strange. Criminals often went on sprees, even if this spree was a bit quick.
What was strange was that the first woman had apparently tried to seduce one of his officers (who had taken it as an attempt to grease the wheels, if a bit unorthodox, and accepted her advances), that wasn't normal for victims of sexual crimes.

One woman, he might be able to brush it off as an unusual occurrence. But his officer's wife, an uptight traditionalist, had slept with their family maid (she had been straight as far as the inspector knew) and the air filter maintenance techpriest.
And his officer hadn't minded at all. He was too busy sleeping with his own secretary.

"Burning midnight oil again?" His wife came in with a tray of snacks, "is there some problem? "

"I suspect the Enemy, but I don't know if I should bother Inquisitor Marius. It could be some faulty aphrodisiac," he eyed the tarts as she put down the tray but had something better to see as she bent over his shoulder to look at the reports. The view down her negligee was... distracting.

"Tell me about it? I might have heard something. " she sat down next to him.

He resisted the urge to snuggle and recounted his findings. His wife's network among the middle society's women wasn't to be underestimated. Her ability to read people's relationships at a glance was something he had taken pains to conceal from the public.

"Mm, I've heard of that case. I've also noticed that a number of the Red Thread women have started sleeping with each other, it's a little scary," she leaned on him, the smell of clean shampoo she liked was driving him a bit crazy. Well, he had been cracking his head for the last week and neglecting his wife. A little attention couldn't hurt.

"It's ok, I'll get to the bottom of this. Just keep to our marriage vows and we'll come through this. "

Perhaps it was some kind of new void borne disease, a sexually transmitted parasite that had an aphrodisiac effect? Stranger things had occurred. He could order his suspected subordinate to a medical test. But that could wait for morning.

He didn't even notice that his wife was seducing him.

Week 3
The Sorcerer rubbed his hands. It went better than he expected. Attraction effects, attention deflecting fields, suspicion suppression, the Slanneshis were a veritable gold mine. Amplified with his Warp expertise, he could use the victims as vessels to amplify each other's effects to nearly half that of a minor daemon.
The idea of hijacking relationships to gain access (the resulting effect of the attraction auras also allowed the plague time to spread) to hard to corrupt people was golden. Humans nearly always had someone they trusted who was less secure than themselves.

Add in subconscious manipulation and communication from the Slanneshis again, and he could even make a start on the problem of networking the pseudo psykers to form a network to resist attack.

The sudden appearance of the nondescript man in the room made the Sorcerer jump.

"I... I report satisfactory progress, I took the initiative to cooperate with-" the man cut off the Sorcerer's hasty explanation with a wave.

"You have the necessary materials. There is another alteration you must include. " the details appeared in the Sorcerer's mind.

He examined the idea with a frown, "this only helps the IoM, why do this?"

"Who is our real enemy? Answer that and you have your answer. " the avatar of Tzeentch disappeared without a trace.

The Sorcerer thought for a moment. It still didn't make much sense, adding Warp modification abilities to the psyker network arising from the psyker plague was for what? It could mutate the network participants into nearly anything. It could only backfire horribly, that lack of control.

But he would do it, if only to see where this ended.

Italics are a future sight prediction.

[Gavinfoxx]

Yay update! And Chaos is learning...

[jseah]

part 19.5 Seb Snakewick

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"Captain on deck!"

Seb stood up out of courtesy, nodding at the captain of his flagship. The very same Dauntless he had journeyed with for so many years, only with a completely rebuilt hull and internal structure. Seb Transstellar corporation, his in name only, had refurbished it from keel up with Talon's best augmentations (and quite a few besides).

The best voidshields available anywhere, a gellar field that could withstand even warpstorms, disguised Culture-tech armour that could withstand direct nuclear strikes, and an entire auditorium for the ship's church, he was better defended on this ship than anywhere else in the galaxy. Not even counting the hyperspace drives that he still couldn't believe was still a secret.
And despite being one of the smallest ships he owned, it was infinitely more dangerous than even the best Imperial Navy battleships. Perhaps even the Mechanicus ones. The ridiculous range of the Culture-tech lance batteries (a full light minute?! Insane! Although hitting anything smaller than a grand cruiser that far out would be chancy), the new Talon-pattern fusion powerplants and powergrid (that ran on heavy water, found on any old ice comet!) that provided enough power to fire a full salvo every thirty seconds, and a Seb Transstellar-original tracking and electronics suite that could network with any of the equivalents in his fleet to coordinate all sensors, electronic warfare and targeting capabilities... the Dauntless had a better offensive capability than any old-style ship that could be named.

Seb Transstellar seemed to be pulling wonders. Without even using any xenotech apart from the hyperdrive. Seb sometimes still wondered how that was done but he wasn't a politico, just some old "retired" cruiser captain.

"Admiral, the fleet is ready," the severe woman, who went by the unusual nickname of Flatpaddy, snapped to attention, "permission to take command of this ship?"
The nickname, originating from her figure, had nothing at all to do with her competency at command and if other people (namely the Imperial Navy) would pass her over for it, then all the better for Seb. She certainly didn't seem to mind the nickname.

"Permission granted. You have command. "

"Thank you sir, I have command. " She settled into the captain's chair with a salute.

Seb sighed happily, it was just like in his navy days but with one major difference. He had always known that he was destined for bigger things and those pricks in the Ecclesiarchy had gotten in the way of his true potential.

Besides, the captain's chair was rather uncomfortable. Yes, he much preferred the padded admiral's seat in the alcove directly behind it. Even if the paperwork increased in this seat, he loved that sense of strength, the fleet standing ready at his command to rain death wherever he so chose.

Yes, those people back at the Naval Office and Ecclesiarchy were going to get a shock. He had no love for the pen-pushers out here. Oh, he'd admit that one or two were okay, but the majority were just blind dogmatists who couldn't navigate their way out of a minefield if it meant negotiating with an alien or two for codes.

Get rid of him, would they? He'd show them all. He would give Chaos a whacking they hadn't seen in ages and reclaim his honour. If these Culture people would give him money, weapons and ships to do it, then so much the better. It was just like having an actually working Administratum behind him.
And he had just the place to go to. An old but rich Mining world caught in a minor warpstorm a century or so ago. Probably a Daemonworld now. If he could reclaim an entire world from the warp, then... then they'ld see. And it's riches would surely help Seb's personal finances.

He assessed the fleet readiness again. 98% green, a few having logistical issues that never seemed to go away despite the best miracles of Seb Transstellar that provisioned his fleet. In the Imperial Navy, that was better than a fleet just out of refit.

"All Gellar fields operational, no instabilities detected. Power drain minimal. "
"Internal probing tests... passed. External probe test... passed. "

He watched Flatpaddy command the ship, orders given precisely like a metronome. Apart from screening his crew for competency and training deficiencies, Seb Transstellar practices of actually checking if everything was working (they called it equipment validation) before using it had an impressive effect on maintenance readiness. They checked crew as well (they called it operator validation) with a similarly large effect on crew readiness, although not on morale. At least the reliable sanitation and living spaces made up for it.

"Fleet Projector ships powering up. Complete. Internal probe test... passed. "
"Commencing Warp skim test. All hands prepare for Warp transition. "

The new Fleet Projector was what made his new excursion possible. An underarmed but an extremely heavily armoured and shielded cruiser-class of novel design, its primary role was to project a massively overpowered Gellar field that could cover an entire fleet.
Apparently Culture-tech could synchronize Gellar fields so that they layered behind each other instead of interfering. Hence the creation of a new class of fleet auxiliary. Each additional layer added less protection than the previous but Seb knew that many admirals and captains would pay a lance battery to have any additional protection against Chaos.

The idea of specializing fleet ships for their roles, not a new idea but the first Seb had seen anyone make work, also made for simplified logistics and coordinated fleet formations. A front rank of shield-projecting short-range ships armed with lots of point defence and electronic warfare (and moral defences, selected points in the formations also had medium-sized Gellar field projectors), a middle rank of lance and Nova Cannon long range executioners to dish out the pain, and a back rank of missile launchers on engines. Any general-purpose ships which didn't fit got assigned to reserves meant to shore up weak points, since they could play any role adequately but not perfectly.
The doctrine didn't work on small groups of ships, but with all his ships gathered, there were nearly a hundred and fifty, including the core of forty Dreadnought-class ships each massing more than two battleships combined. More than enough to form a wall of battle or a proper defensive sphere.

This was his dream. This was what he lived for, to command a sword to take to the Enemy. So what if this was what the Culture wanted of him? An enemy's enemy is a friend.

The shallow Warp transition churned his bowels but Seb had more than enough experience dealing with it.

"Warp transition complete. Gellar field power drain up 50% on outermost shell, decreasing average 2% per inner shell. Warp signature inside ship zones... Sigma level! Warp skim test, complete!"
"Exiting Warp!"

Sigma on the Imperial Assignment. That was almost as good as realspace. The crew let out a collective held breath. They were ready.

Seb Transstellar stood up, drawing eyes from Flatpaddy and the staff officers on the flagbridge. Time to kick some Chaotic behinds.

"The fleet will set course for Midas Majoris. May the Emperor guide our hand. "

[jseah]

part 19.5 Seb Snakewick - Extra

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The chief engineer of 'Shark'-25 puffed on his pipe. His foreman joined him at the mezzanine overlooking the main powerplant.

"Any idea what that is?"

The chief engineer shook his head.

The squat black pyramid sat to the back of the massive fusion core. It was dwarfed by the huge construction but one's attention was grabbed by it. Even space seemed to bend around the Thing.

The shiny smooth black surface was unlike anything both of them had seen. It was impenetrable to all scanners, impervious to all power tools (those that they dared to try anyway), no one seemed to know what it was or what it did or how it did whatever it did.

"Do you think the captain knows what it is?"

The chief engineer shook his head again. The captain had just said to install it there with a direct power line to the main core. Whatever it was, that Thing could draw on the entire output of the fusion plant when it felt like it. A fusion plant that powered more than forty lance batteries and a Nova Cannon.

He could easily believe that the pyramid would swallow all of that without a hiccup.

"Well, what about this Snakewick himself then?"

The chief engineer shrugged. Maybe not? Perhaps it was beyond human understanding.

Ships of the Snakewick 1st Chaos Assault Expedition

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Talon-Pattern 'Starfish' Class Torpedo Carrier
- Class size: Grand Cruiser
- Armament: Torpedo tubes x 500, Small Torpedo tubes x 50, Point-defence Lance-cluster x 4
- Defences: 'Distortion'-H Gellar Field x 1, Void shield layers x 2
- Magazine size: 10 salvoes
- Standard Loadout: 5000 x 'Starfire'-C Anti-ship missile, 500 x T140 'Halo' Escort Missile
- Maximum firecontrol range: 30AU
- Maximum firecontrol channels: 2000 missiles
Comments: The 'Starfire' class of ASM is the result of the radical new ideas from Talon in cooperation with Seb Transstellar. Boasting a 10 minute powered envelope courtesy of its new fusion drive and a maximum delta-v of 7kkm/s, the 'Starfire' is more a missile than a torpedo. Packing a truly massive kinetic energy punch, the durasteel shaped penetrator at its tip has no need of a warhead, simplifying logistics, negating chances of sympathetic detonation if destroyed and making the 'Starfire' smaller than a standard Imperial torpedo.
Maneuvering thrusters on the 'Starfire' also give it post-launch adjustments, enabling launches on targets that the launcher isn't facing and thus allowing the 'Starfish' to fire all its tubes no matter where its target is. Its delayed ignition capability also allows "salvo-stacking" tactics where pre-launched salvoes coast along until the desired number of missiles in space is reached before the entire swarm blasts off together to saturate anti-missile defence.
The 'Starfish' itself is so named due to its six fragile "arms" that unfold from the main body not unlike a Terran starfish animal. Instead of restricting itself to the normal surface of a starship, a 'Starfish' can "open up" to expose row after row of torpedo tubes. The tubes are not accessible from the "arm", the lack of access corridors from the sides allow an incredible density to be packed into a comparatively tiny surface area. Instead, the tubes are reloaded from the front when the "arms" fold back down onto the ship. The unarmoured nature of the "arms" when the 'Starfish' is "open" is a known design vulnerability that is often made up for by its immense alpha strike. The 'Starfish' boasts a huge electronics warfare and firecontrol suite to be able to maintain guidance control links to its salvoes.


Talon-Pattern 'Swordfish' Class ShieldEscort
- Class size: Destroyer
- Armament: Point-defence Lance-cluster x 10, Rail-Pattern Macrocannon x 4, Talon-Pattern Lance x 1
- Defences: 'Distortion'-H Gellar Field x 1, Void shield layers x 3, 'Phalanx'-B Void shield projector x 1
- Special: Thurst Redirectors
Comments: The Archeotech devices called the 'Phalanx' claimed to be discovered by Seb Snakewick are a truly strange type of shield projector. Unlike most void shield generators, this one throws a huge shield almost a kilometer in front of the generator. This comes at the price of increased power consumption and restricting the shield to a hexagonal flat plane. The true benefit of the single void shield layer is that it is large enough to cover ships nearby the projecting ship from a single direction. Thus multiple such equipped ships can overlap their projected shields to form an unparalleled frontal defence, giving the system its name.
To make full use of this function however, all the ships must have excellent station-keeping abilities. To this end, the 'Swordfish' class (itself a heavily altered Sword class) is provided with Thrust Redirectors, alternate thrust exit points for its main engine to afford it highly increased maneuverability.


Talon-Pattern 'Shark' Class Dreadnought
- Class size: ?
- Armament: Point-defence Lance cluster x 20, Archeotech(?) Lance batteries x 42, Ryza-like Nova Cannon x 1
- Defences: 'Distortion'-H Gellar Field x 1, 'Distortion'-I Gellar Field x 1, Void shield layers x 7
Comments: A massive ship design shrouded in mystery. Although the pattern and design was commissioned at Talon some weeks before the Incident with the mobile shipyard, none were ever built. It is unknown how the idea of the 'Shark' Class was ever created at Talon and the records of its design process is fraught with inconsistencies. Nevertheless, the hard-to-find Rogue Trader Seb Snakewick is rumoured to be in possession of no less than forty of these ships, origins unknown. Adding to its mysterious nature, the ships in Snakewick's possession are also rumoured to be of the exact same make and armament.
Its lance batteries are claimed to be Archeotech, maintaining accuracy on all ship and fighter targets out to a stupendous range of an entire light-second. Rumours say it can not only hit a battleship but also damage it at one light minute. The massive Nova Cannon is another anomaly. While it is similar to a Ryza-pattern that fires plasma shells, these Nova Cannons appear to have much more advanced plasma containment systems that phase-lock the various containment EM fields, something theoretically explored by the AdMech but never achieved. These maintain all their deadly power but are vastly more stable and have a fire rate approaching half that of a lance battery.
More interestingly, the 'Distortion'-I type Gellar field contains unsanctioned and definitely-not-Archeotech modifications to the standard Gellar field projector. This one appears to project a much larger Gellar field, although of lower density, that synchronizes with other Gellar fields overlapping it, preventing destructive resonance with those shields. The principles of operation are unknown.


Suspected Xenotech 'Anemone' Class Auxiliary
- Class size: Cruiser
- Armaments: Point Defence Lance cluster x 5
- Defences: 'Distortion'-H Gellar Field x 1, Void shield layers x 10
- Special: 'Umbrella'-A Gellar Field Projector, Electronic Mimicry, Armour?
Comments: Similar to the 'Distortion'-I, the 'Umbrella' also has the same synchronization modifications. Furthermore, the 'Umbrella' can project a Gellar field of variable size, decreasing in density as it increases in surface area. The maximum size of the 'Umbrella' can cover an entire planet although this gives it impractically low densities. In the context of a fleet action however, the 'Umbrella' can project a useful if weak shield over the entire fleet itself. Multiple overlapping 'Umbrella's thus afford a fleet excellent fortification against Warp effects.
Furthermore, the 'Umbrella' has settings that allow it to project Gellar fields off-center of the system, even to the point where the 'Anemone' is no longer covered; the range on this setting appears to be extremely long (~5 lightseconds) although its use is questionable.
This system draws immense amounts of power while operating, almost the same as a Nova Cannon charging its powerbanks and the 'Anemone' Class carries out-sized fusion plants to handle the load.
The 'Anemone' Class is of tactical importance to its fleet and has purely defensive armament. Additionally, the 'Anemone' also carries a suspected xenotech suite of electronics also suspected of harbouring radically advanced machine spirits. The electronic warfare suite is able to emit frequencies to add to the 'Anemone's' signature in order to mimic any class that emits more than the 'Anemone' (usually those larger than it, eg. the 'Starfish'), hence electronically hiding it among other capital ships in the fleet although this does not defeat lidar examination.
The 'Anemone' is also rumoured to carry a strangely layered hull. An inner and outer layer of Imperial standard durasteel armour are present but it has been noted that the armour is unusually thin for such a critical and heavily defended ship. Nevertheless, its armour is actually larger than two standard layers and noone has seen what is in between those two layers. Apparently whatever is inside doesn't even seem to require maintenance. It has also been noted that the inner layer of armour never seems to be damaged and internal solar radiation levels are below detection levels.

The RT's modified Sword class not listed.

[Gavinfoxx]

Awesome... I love geeking out about tech, that was sweet!

[jseah]

Does anyone have information on the star of Sepheris Secundus's system? I can't find anything on it.

Hope it won't cause contradictions if I write it as an Extreme Population I star (aka. highest metallicity) in order to explain the mineral richness.

[jseah]

A Seb Transstellar Sidestory (timepoint 22+)
Sepheris Secundus Part 3

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Count Sia wandered through the ball, picking on fragments of conversations.

Seb Transstellar dominated all the recent discussion. They weren't invited of course. That would be political suicide. Which translated often enough to actual suicide.

She nodded politely at another minor baron trying to beg transports off her. Sia's were full already. She was actually looking for more.

The prices of personnel transports were hitting an all time high and NaviSystem Inc. were making a killing.

Since Lachryma's pronouncement that only people who "volunteered" to go Seb Transstellar territories counted (determined by a signed agreement form, heh), many barons had taken to advertising Seb Transstellar's medical facilities to those unable to work.

There was an undercurrent of worry though. The last time someone tried to bring in high technology equipment was an obvious powerplay by one of the long-dead barons who had an offworld connection. The local barons had banded together to eliminate him.

She knew many of those near what used to be Count Xavier's territory had taken on some of the disaffected ex-barons from Seb Transstellar's restructuring in a bid to legitimise territory grabs.

Right now, despite the constant talk of Seb Transstellar's latest happening, the nobles were really watching each other to who jumped first.

It reminded her of a pack of leopards scheming to hunt a great beast and keep the spoils for themselves.

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

"And therefore due to the charateristics of extreme Population I stars, the Sepheris Secundus star and its accompanying planets are expected to be extremely metal rich.

Furthermore, there are geological traces that the Sepheris system swept through the debris of a pair-instability supernova shortly after formation of the planets. The expected extreme amount of iron-56 and higher elements in the supernova remnant could explain the high surface metallicity of the Sepheris system and the accompanying severe solar wind that is responsible for the continual degradation of Secundus's climate.

Click on Appendix links for more detail descriptions. "

Meru put down the astronomy report. She had decided to start her post as Regional Manager by gathering any information and expert analysis she could obtain on the Sepheris Secundus's condition. There was no point trying to analyze scientific or social data herself, she was needed to make decisions, not do research.

Aim for minor profit, but primary goal was to improve the standard of living, hm?

Her request for a farmable plant lead to Snow Grass, supposedly found by Seb Snakewick himself. The surveying flights over the surface of Sepheris had succeeded in spreading it quite far indeed. That was the only part of this whole thing that was going well.

She looked over the ore levels and accessibility report. The primary activity of mining did bring huge profits even with the cripplingly large tithe, but the work was dangerous and poisonous. The obvious route would be to bring in mining equipment to reduce exposure and risk of workers.

But there was that historical record of what happened to the last few people who tried it. Apparently, they were worried of a serf rebellion and deliberately kept the technology low.
For now, they were tolerating it due to Seb Transstellar's limiting itself to support services and not the power tools or capital industry needed to run a war effort.

That was worrying. Meru did not want this to end in a civil war.

Besides, she had the more pressing problem of what to do with the ever-increasing number of those too weak to do mining work. Give them power tools? There was simply not enough space on Seb Transstellar land to mine. Train them as technomancers or even Talon secondaries? Possible with intensive crash courses but where would they work? There was nothing to do here but mining.
Establish an entire capital industry base here in Sepheris? That could take years even with Seb Transstellar backing the effort. And Meru wasn't sure they would be willing to back her for years of continual loss.

She had asked for another Dispensation, a Seb Transstellar byword among the upper management for a special dispensation from the legendary and mysterious General R&D that seemed to be able to solve any problem. Meru, of course, knew that it was the Culture who was the General R&D and there was actually no such department.

It wasn't granted. All they gave her was this stack of reports and told her to look for another option. She had the feeling this was some sort of test.

A third option, she needed a third option. Some sort of untapped resource or unfound opportunity.

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

"Jarv? You here?"

He stood up from his working crouch over the cave floor. Explosives set and primed.

"What is it?" he called back.

"I just heard from the lookout guys, the Limpet mine has blown. "

"Oh, Limpet huh? Good thing we evacuated that first. How many did we get?"

He examined his handywork. Good enough. Tripwires and optical sensors were all set. He pressed the arming button and quickly, but not hastily, backed away from the area.

"Twenty-seven of the Scourges, more than a hundred baronials," his right-hand woman and wife came bounding around the corner, "it's a great success! How did you know they were going to attack?"

"I have spies in the Sourges," he said, hugging her close. The scars on their missing little fingers was a reminder of his treachery, but he swore to protect Ryn and he took his vows seriously. "Ore from the mutants buy their information. It's never enough. "

"I know. We lost Carynyl in today's raid as well. Nearly sixty of us were caught. Their mines didn't work that well. "

Jarv looked down. More blood on his hands. But he concealed his guilt as sadness for those lost. Ryn comforted him, which only added to his guilt.
It was an underground story that Soft Stone Jarv was actually a caring person, despite being an Enemy of the Imperium. The story that he personally mourned each dead rebel was always good for a few new recruits.

Innocent lives he tempted and lead to their deaths.

"But I have even better news today," Ryn said, opening an oiled paper bag in her hands. Inside was a strangely shaped orange thing and a scattering of black rocks at the bottom.

She broke off a piece of the orange thing and fed it to him. Oh, it was a new fruit. Fresh too. That was very rare. He wondered if the sacrificial "daring raid" on the starport had somehow succeeded.

No, they couldn't have returned by now.

"Where did you get this?" he asked Ryn, "You know the mutant markets are risky. "

Ryn shook her head proudly. "Nope, guess again. I got this from the local villagers. It's some sort of new plant that's been growing all over the mines. The fruit has lower toxins than even offworld rations!"

Soft Stone Jarv blinked. That... what? A plant that grew here? He looked down into the bag again. What he had thought were black stones looked suspiciously like seeds now.

"Tell me more. "

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

Meru idly read another few reports. There were no answer in geological history or the limited biospheres in Sepheris Secundus. And what good was the list of ship schematics available to Seb Transstellar?

Her thoughts went back to the stellar composition report. Whatever it concluded, was that the Sepheris Secundus's mineral richness was the fault of some rare circumstance during the system's formation, as well as its natural richness due to the star's (relatively) young age.

Why did that bother her?

She picked up the dataslate again and reread the report. Hmm? The mineral richness historical analysis didn't seem to mention Sepheris Secundus specifically even if it purported to explain why Sepheris Secundus was so rich. She had no idea if that was a mistake, but General R&D made no mistakes.

She queried some of the more technical terms from the local database. Hmm, stellar formation theory was interesting, but ultimately unhelpful. She called the visiting stellar theoretician who had come with the latest library update (did Seb Transstellar really employ what amounted to librarians even for such esoteric subjects?).

"Hi, what seems to be the problem?" the man's cheerful voice and face looked out from the dataslate.

"Hi, this is Meru. I just have some questions regarding this metallicity report, do you mind if..."

*twenty minutes later*

"So you are telling me than none of these processes are actually specific to Sepheris Secundus?"

"Well, yes. But without looking at the original data, I cannot tell you anything more specific. Sorry for not being helpful. "

"It's all right, you helped more than you think," Meru thanked him and turned off the call.

Hmm, curiouser and curiouser. She called up the metallicity report again and looked at the appendix. Ah, there, mineral content report for each planet.

She squinted at it. Was that missing a zero somewhere? No, wait, that was for the surface metals. There was alot of ice down on Sepheris Quintus, predicted metallicity three layers down was high. Higher than Secundus even. Might be problems getting to it though, given it was buried under half a kilometer of ice.
No, how about something smaller, there would be less issues that way. She searched through the list of stellar bodies and found the asteroids list. A few awkward moments with bad filters later and she had a list of potential mining candidates. They would need to be confirmed with some of the out-system experts but...

Hm, living there was going to be a problem but Dispensations might be forthcoming in an unrelated area to her denied request. Or wait... she pulled up the available ships and space capability list. That new one down at the bottom. Talon-Pattern 'Whale' Class Auxiliary... Capabilities: mining, shipyard, living space and even some habitat. Seb Transstellar had some excess hulls, not enough crew.

Meru snapped out of her thoughts. It might just be possible that she had an answer.

She would need to talk to experts. This was going to need some discretion.

*three hours and as many virtual meetings later*

She dialed the astrogation and interstellar affairs department. They just had a database update, their information ought to be current.

"Hello, this is Meru, I would like to loan some deepspace and planetary geological survey ships and the crew to run them. Can you arrange for a discreet request on the company astropath network? ... Yes, this comes from me as Regional Manager.

Also, I would like to request a status update on the current availability of the following specific ships: T-PWA, 041 to 045 and 072 and Aleph-One to Seven. Mothballed? Yes, thank you. That's perfect. "

I'm taking information from here:
http://willmademanifest.wordpress.co...eris-secundus/

Sepheris system; regular system with G9 V primary, seven planetary bodies; 1. Hypermassive gas giant, 2. Imperial World, 3-7 small-to-medium icy cores.

Notes:

Spoiler

Show

Jarv is double-agent. Imperials use him as magnet for rebel recruitment which he controls the number and activity of by "sacrificing" them to pre-arranged raids.

His rebel activities are also used to prune rival baronial forces by using them as raiding forces in his traps whereupon he can 'successfully' attack them to retain prestige as a rebel leader.

[blademan9999]

There is some information here.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Seph...s#.UypEdv00r3c
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Sepheris_Secundus

[jseah]

A Seb Transstellar Sidestory (timepoint 22+)
Sepheris Secundus Part 5 - Flashpoint

Spoiler

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"And what about the tithe? Can it be met?"
"It can be exceeded. "
"... I think then that the Emperor has greater issues to worry about. As long as the war effort does not slacken, it is doubtful any intervention in local issues can be made. "

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

Seb Transstellar Special Announcement

We at Seb Transstellar are aware of the growing dissent amongst the people of Sepheris Secundus. We understand your conditions are poor and you desire to improve it. We desire to improve it also.

Bluntly speaking, we know that the citizens of Sepheris Secundus look to us, Seb Transstellar, as a beacon of hope. That things could be better. We know of extraordinary efforts made to reach our domains. That those who succeed may improve their lot. We desire to help you also.
We appreciate your support, even if we're running low on warehouse space to keep all your kind gifts. The snowgrass flower wreaths are very popular among our female staff. For that, we thank you.

However. Seb Transstellar must also urge all citizens of Sepheris Secundus to not risk their lives.
A history lesson follows. Revolutions cannot succeed without the will of the people behind it. That you wish to improve your lives, we understand and share your desire. We do not doubt your will. At the same time, revolutions rarely succeed without political support and never without technological support.

This has happened before. You know this, we know this, Queen Lachryma knows this.

For these reasons, we must refuse your call for us to lead any form of resistance. Do not throw your lives away, for it will be spent to no effect, for no purpose.

There will be those who say we have betrayed the people, that we have lied and promised good things but failed to deliver. To those of you, we say, we are working towards a brighter future. Trust in us. Keep the faith. Believe in a better tomorrow.

- Regional Manager, Meru

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

"That's an outright rebellion! We should immediately move on them! And for that matter, why hasn't Queen Lachryma done anything about these offworlders?"

"Obviously because she's not seeing the same things as you," Sia glared at her raging cousin. The depth of his thought did not go very far, she felt. "Look at their message again. Did they promise anything to the so-called 'people of Sepheris Secundus'? No. They talk about 'improving lives' and keeping the offerings but we know that's just alot of hot air. They're good at convincing people, this Seb Transstellar, and they used it to convince the serfs to go to their territory. "

"But that's still intolerable! They're practically inciting revolt here!"

"Did you even read their message, you numbskull? They as good as said that they will not lead a serf rebellion! Of course, we know that that is just an empty platitude. The message was really to us nobles. None of us, including them, want a rebellion that will affect the mining, but what they just said is that they have the power to convince the serfs to rebel. If we try to push them off-planet, they'll start a revolt. That's the REAL message.
And since their medical technology seems to have been very effective at restoring all those cripples we've been shipping them, Queen Lachryma is probably happy that overall output is going up. After all, her Scourges will walk over any rebellion, she's not the one who has to deal with them with nothing but baronial armies. And us worrying about them means Lachryma doesn't have to worry about us.
Oh, I'm sure there was some kind of deal they cut with her without us knowing, but the fact remains that Seb Transstellar has outmaneuvered us. "

Sia sighed. Explaining things to her cousin was always exhausting.

"What can we do? My province borders theirs! I can't keep losing serfs to them!" he nearly wailed.

"Then we need to cut them down to size. It's not just you who is meeting troubles with these offworlders. I know many others who might be willing to press their own issues. And with as many of us working together, not even Queen Lachryma will be able to deny us an attack. After all, her tacit support for the offworlders is threatening to undermine her political position with those barons who remain on the fence. She can't afford to spend anymore political capital. "

"But we can't just up and attack them! A blatant territory grab like that would make me seem like the aggressor! "

Sia rolled her eyes. Sometimes it seemed like she was the only one doing all the thinking.
"So? Manufacture a reason. "

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

Ding!

Meru looked up from the latest report on acclimatization and picked up the dataslate. She was rapidly finding out that she would have to resist the urge to constantly check the dataslate for incoming messages or she would never get anything done.

But just once in a while would be fine-

She nearly shot out of her chair.

->Your request for a Special Dispensation has been granted.
->New product for discreet introduction: Metamorphic Matter (see attached appendix)
->General R&D, Seb Transstellar Headquarters

Meru grinned in a most unwomanly way as she read through the product specs. This was going make everything so complicated.

Skipping ahead to part 5. I have an arc title now!

Note also that by this time point Abbaddon has launched his assault and its moving into the end-game.

Cultural note: The barons of Sepheris Secundus commonly demand offerings of trinkets from their peasants and burn it to symbolize their relationship of master and serf. Seb Transstellar is keeping them in good condition, with similar symbolism.

- - - Updated - - -

part 19.5 Tau Advance - Extra

Spoiler

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John kept up the marching pace. The 31st regiment of Ril's planetary defence force was a proud one with a long history. Sure they had never left Ril's surface on extra-solar adventures, they were a fundamentally defensive regiment, but its patriotism and courage was second to none. Well, perhaps the legendary Space Marines but John was sure even they would acknowledge the 31st regiment's nerve.

The countless wars of extermination against the native orks were sang all over the planet. At least up until the orks had mysteriously vanished for no apparent reason a few months ago.

The company's drummer tapped out a familiar and popular tune. Slightly modified for the new enemy. The Tau had arrived, so deep in human space!, and a major land force was on its way to occupy Landing City. Like he'd let them! John shouldered his lasgun and raised his voice to the marching song. The 31st was on the move and the Tau would be thrown out of this planet like any other xeno.

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

Shas'El Bork'an MontKor watched the display in his command tent. It was different from what he had trained on, but there was so much that was new nowadays. The tracking display fed to his main planning table was the grand summary of the battle situation, filtered and annotated by the planners and organizers in the combat information center.

CICs weren't new, they were present for space battles on flagships. The idea that one could use it for land battles came from the countless crushing defeats to the Culture in their VR simulation battles. The Culture had gave away full recordings of both sides' actions to the Tau after each simulation was complete and it had not gone unnoticed that the Culture citizen-commanders used the simulation functions to display ridiculous amounts of information about every detail on the battlefield.

Reality wasn't that convenient but the Tau had done their best to make an imitation. The unusual state of his army spoke about the changes.

He surveyed the ranks of triangles representing Imperial infantry. There were so many, hundreds of divisions, all swarming towards his positions. An untrained or new commander might have panicked when he saw that his own force contained a hundredth of their infantry. Not even superior Fire Warrior weapons could win against those odds in a pitched battle.

MontKor knew better. Not only were the Imperials disorganized, they were also blinded and lacked support. Tau had swept the orbitals clear and shot out or taken over all space assets around the world of Ril. Then the new space-to-ground cruisers that had recently made it to the main fleet (those greedy Raid Fleet commanders had taken all the previous production) had systematically destroyed every single atmospheric launch pad. With one bombardment frigate remaining in orbit, most of the fleet had then departed to the next target, leaving MontKor to command the occupation of the world.

It was all so unorthodox. Normally, the Tau would orbit the world for months, pounding all resistance with their new weapons until the world submitted. Only once they were secure would they move again. Now, the Tau fleet was dashing forwards. Speed, maneuver, the lightning strike. The whole idea was to move faster than the enemy. Another lesson learnt from the Culture, after a particularly embarrassing simulation defeat where the Culture commanders crushed the Tau by accelerating the pace of battles beyond what the Tau commanders could cope with. Something about OODA loops.

A new wave of Tau commanders were pushing for a complete revamp of Tau combat doctrine centered around speed. They were primarily made of the new blood like MontKor, who were put through Tau vs Tau and Tau vs Culture training simulations. But a few of the older ones had allied themselves with the new movement. And true to the Tau, the Ethereals had decided to give the new ideas a trial.

In a way, this entire invasion was an experiment. The future of the new doctrine, a supposed merger of the Mont'ka and Kauyon, was being assessed. It would live or die on the results achieved, the final arbiter of truth, as all Tau learnt. When the arguments had got too heated, they would take it to the test and reality would decide.

The new doctrine emphasized speed and information. Everyone sought to know more about the enemy, this new doctrine put emphasis on denying the enemy knowledge and shaping what he thought he knew. Everyone knew acting faster was good, this doctrine put emphasis on being as fast as possible. Observe, Think, Adapt, React. No two battlefield were the same, no two responses could be the same.

MontKor observed the overlay of light and dark patches. Uncertainties of their own information, from tracking satellites, observation air drones and pathfinder scouts. He swapped to the other view, the pattern of light and dark flipped over. Now it was the best guess as to what the enemy knew. This plot was far fuzzier than the first. For the obvious reasons.

"Commander?"

Montkor looked up from the planning table, pausing in his pushing of intention markers around (a new way of giving orders). "Yes?"

"The Shas'Ui are grumbling. They complain that the battlesuits are not to be used for transports. "

"Not again?" MontKor scowled, "Tell them to deal with it. We can't do anything about it for now, the suits have already been re-engineered. We'll have to pass the issue upwards. Perhaps the Water propagandists can do something about it. "

While the new technology meant powered armour suits could be built infantry sized, the larger suits used as armour platoons were too oversized for anti-light work like these regiments of barely armoured I.G. MontKor had them stripped of all but light weapons and used the extra power to lift companies of infantry. The idea of using battlesuits as glorified jumpjet transports, good for the broken rough terrain of Ril, was near sacrilegeous and provoked endless arguments. Perhaps he should just ditch the Uis and put Saals in the suits. That would shut them up quick.

In a way, this was also a test. MontKor and many of the ground forces commanders had been given free reign to requisition special equipment. Another aspect of being unpredictable was to always have new toys on hand. If successful on the ground, the central war planners were going to take the new "Flexible Capability" doctrine to the far more expensive space fleets.

He looked at the solid blue squares perched on the mountaintop. Modified XV-88s. Instead of shrinking the railguns and keeping the same power like the other commanders, he had them oversized. Instead of being dual linked railguns, he had one even more oversized gun. Nearly everything else had been taken out, no sensors, no other weapons. The vulgar name of Ta'lissera-Piercer had made the rounds until he had revealed what he was going to use them for. Then the complaints had started in earnest.

The new railguns had absolutely ridiculous range with their new ammunition, a sabot design with stabilizer fins copied from one rare successful Culture battle (played under the condition of strict reality rules). And they had a range of warheads to choose from. From anti-tank (which he didn't expect to use), to sub-munitioned anti-infantry to a special new one that deployed mines. That last one was had been a project that had tied up thousands of hours of the Earth caste engineers. A new mine that sensed electrical activity around them.

Firing from beyond visible range, their shots called by the forward observers. A true answer to the Imperial Earthshaker. And what had the Fire Caste said? A dishonor and a waste of supplies. Pah, they'd be singing a different tune once the battle was over. MontKor was not adverse to taking enemy strategies and making them his own. And there was something to be said when the Imperial strategy of saturation fire worked better against their own massed ranks than the Tau's thin lines.

And this wasn't the only new thing he had. Nearly everything was new. Yes, unpredictable indeed.

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

Another ear-splitting whistling heralded the arrival of another salvo of Tau bolts. John hadn't heard of this from the regiment briefing. He had been prepared for a long slog trying to bring the Tau to a fight, the slippery bastards. He had expected countless knife cuts, bleeding the 31st through innumerable stings.

He had not expected this.

John poked his head out of the crater and scurried to another deeper crater just in front of him. The whine and explosion next to him threw him into the crater. One of those thrice-damned technosorcery. The waiting metal balls would leap up into the air from the ground and explode in a shower of deadly fragments when they got too close.

He padded himself down and thanked the Emperor again that he was somehow uninjured. It seemed that John had been unreasonably lucky throughout this battle. That had been all to close for comfort. Thank the Emperor that the Tau and their damned shells that shredded men like so much thin cloth hadn't got him.

The air was full of fresh screams as his comrades in arms weren't so lucky. The lucky ones were dead. The new Tau weapons ripped and tore, but seldom killed. The new screams overlaid the groans and cries of older casualties further behind. The maze of invisible razorwire had claimed their toll, the mines were as random as they were merciless and the endless whining of Tau shells overhead all pressed down on him like constant beatings of a hammer.

No! The 31st were braver than any! If the Tau were so keen on defending an area, then it was up to them to break through and reach it! They were building some kind of large building-sized device on the other side and the captains had brought the companies to take it in a massed assault.

"For the Emperor!" he yelled, more for his own benefit than anything else, and rose up out of his crater to charge forward another few yards. The commissar in the crater behind him was stunned at the display for a moment before seizing the opportunity to goad the men into another spurt.

A sudden buzz filled the air and half the company vanished into a red mist, flesh rending into horrible red ribbons as the hypersonic fragments from the hand-held cannons of the Tau infantry ahead shredded them. They squeezed out a few las-shots in return before disappearing into a different crater. John snarled in satisfaction as he saw a Tau go down. No telling if it was from his company or one of the countless trying to pick their way across this field of death.

"March on!" "The Emperor protects us!" "Kill the xeno!"

Cries of the commissars tried to rally the men into a charge the 31st were so famed for but they were drowned out by the constant pounding of Tau weapons. Already the battlefield, once a calm field lying fallow for the year, had been transformed into a twisted landscape of churned mud and broken bodies in less than a week of fighting.

In that time, the 31st had pushed the Tau back from one bloody defensive line to another. Unlike the usual Tau tactics, they were actually on the defensive. John had been glad of it then, but he wasn't too sure of that now.

His company, what was left of it, sprinted as one to a ditch in front of the one he was in. That put them the furthest ahead of any of the brigade picking their way across the blasted land. John was about to make his own run to join them when there was a whistling from above. He dived back into the mud filled hole, just in time. The salvo of Tau shells landing from above carpeted the entire area where his company was- had been.

He peeked out briefly once the ground stopped rolling. The formation of craters had changed. Of his company, there was no sign. Emperor damn them! John gritted his teeth and blinked tears away. True, he had a bit of an outcast due to his fervour, even by the demanding standards of 31st's commissars, but those men had drank with him. They had been friends, or at least people he had known.

And now he was the only one left. He crawled further into the hole as the whistling started up again, were they coming back for more? He breathed a sigh of relief at lack of explosions. Then he paused just as he was about to make another dash. Shells without explosions? That meant the mines. Was there nothing but death waiting for him outside?

John swallowed. He just realized that he was actually afraid of the Tau.

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

"How goes the battle?"

MontKor spun around, his pulse quickening. The Aun'El attached to his brigade as an observer had just entered his command post and MontKor hadn't noticed his aide's warning gestures.

"Very well, Aun'El," he gestured at the tense conflict where the 31st PDF Regiment tried to snuff out the defences surrounding the Heap, what the Shas'La Fire Warriors were calling it.

"It seems to me that you are losing," the Aun'El commented, "they penetrate deep into your defences. Defences that you said would bleed them. "

"Indeed, Aun'El, the Imperials do well. Honestly, I had not expected them to persevere so. It is a storm that they are facing. A cold, deadly storm of iron. "

"Then how can you say the battle is going well? Hasn't your defensive strategy worked against you? I understand that to stand still is to invite attack. We have never fought so hard for a piece of ground before. "

MontKor bowed respectfully, it was nice to have an observer who knew at least a semblance of tactics. "With all due respect, this is not a way any of us have fought before. Nevertheless, I say the battle cannot do anything but go well. The Imperials are straightforward, and when given a target, they cannot fail but to attack it. And we are bleeding them heavily for it. As the Kauyon dictates, we have laid out a bait. "

"Indeed. Yet, I see that they will still break through. How is that a victory for us? We cannot afford losses, but they can. "

"Yes, that is true. If you view this action as a single point, then yes, we will eventually have to retreat and that could be interpreted as a loss. I have taken precautions and will order a retreat when it is still possible to do so with little casualties. Nevertheless, this is for a purpose," MontKor paused for permission to continue, "I have studied our past battles. Always we have fought the Imperials in the way of the Mont'Ka or the Kauyon. Always, we have bled them with little loss on our side. Do you know why we take so long and have to kill so many of them?"

The Aun'El shook his head, "admittedly, that has always puzzled me. They fight fiercely but do not know when to give up. "

"Each defeat they suffer, each strike we deal, only makes them angrier. They are lead by fear and pushed by wrath. They do not give up until we have taken the guns from their hands. Our strikes are too small, too separated to have any effect. They recover, mourn their dead, and come back for more. " MontKor sighed, this conclusion wasn't one that he liked, "I intend to stop that. The only way to make them stop fighting is to make them fear us more than their commissars'. I will shame them, make their leaders look weak, teach them not to fight us. I will break their spirit and only then will they give up. And however bloody this looks, it will be far worse if it comes down to attrition like it normally does. "

The Aun'El looked thoughtful. He pointed idly at the Heap, "and what's that? I hear you're building something new there? Won't it be problematic if the Imperials got their hands on it?"

MontKor... -

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

They had run away! Like cowards with their tail between their legs!

John ground his teeth. He had walked through literal hell to get here and the Tau had just up and left. He helplessly watched them simply walk into those giant bulky suits that had jumped over the sheer cliff.

Well, at least the 31st had captured a prize. Whatever the Tau had been defending with such ferocity had to be key to their efforts. Some kind of superweapon? After struggling through the killing fields, the 31st had reformed around the Tau object (after the techpriests had disabled it) and was assessing their next move.

They had driven the Tau off this area. Time to see what technosorcery was threatening the good Emperor's lands.

The leading techpriest in their brigade came walking up to their commander. The look on his face was unreadable but John began to get a sinking feeling in his stomach. The commander's explosion of fury, storming around the encampment, did not make John feel any better.

Then the whistling started again.

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

- ... simply shrugged and said, "I don't know. ... Really, I don't know what it is. I just took some Earth caste warp engineers and told them to build something convincing. We'll go right on building it up until they overrun the point. Which they will, soon. " He held up a hand to his communicator then turned back to the Aun'El, "Excuse me, but I have a retreat to order. "

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

The Macragge Marching Song (OOC: to the tune of Dixie's Land)

Emprah's men the thunders mutter!
Xeno's flags in His winds flutter!
To arms! To arms! To arms, for mankind!
Send them back your fierce defiance!
Stamp upon the cursed outsiders!
To arms! To arms! To arms, for mankind!

Chorus
:: Advance the flag of mankind! Hurrah! Hurrah!
In Emprah's land I'll take my stand, to live or die for mankind!
To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for mankind!
To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for mankind! ::

Fear no danger! Shun no labor!
Lift up lasgun, chain, and bolter!
To arms! To arms! To arms, for mankind!
Shoulder pressing close to shoulder,
Let the odds make each heart bolder!
To arms! To arms! To arms, for mankind!
:: Chorus ::

Swear upon your Emprah's altar
Never to submit or falter--
To arms! To arms! To arms, for mankind!
Till the xenos are defeated,
Till the Emprah's work is completed!
To arms! To arms! To arms, for mankind!
:: Chorus ::

[Gavinfoxx]

Just wanted to say I appreciate the updates, Jseah! Keep em coming, okay?

[Max™]

Haven't read much, but the first thing I saw was a GSV named "I Shoot the Darkness!" and I love whoever thought of that forever.

[Gavinfoxx]

Haven't read much, but the first thing I saw was a GSV named "I Shoot the Darkness!" and I love whoever thought of that forever.

Did you start with the first thread or one of the links where you can read the bits in order?

[Max™]

Popped in because I saw the last post in the forum showed something about "Culture" and "40K" and was like "huh", poked at the first post and saw the name, and I mean, I've read all the Culture books, always get a good chuckle out of 40K insanity, so I was already sold before then.

[jseah]

A Seb Transstellar Sidestory (timepoint 22+)
Sepheris Secundus Part 4 - Arrival (end)

Spoiler

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Seb Transstellar Holdings - Local Headquarters
"Any idea what that's about?" Nora asked Meru as she walked into the office. Meru shrugged, still looking outside the window.

The street visible below was crowded with protestors. Or more precisely rebels. And rebels that weren't rebelling against Seb Transstellar.

More precisely, the demonstration was something of a rarity. Not many political leaders had people parading the streets calling on them to join the revolt after all.

"Well, I'm sure you already know," Meru said after a while, "the people here are dissatisfied and they love you people. Plus, you're sympathetic enough that they think there's a chance you will back them in a rebellion. "

She was sure Nora noted her choice of words. Despite being regional manager and deeply involved in Seb Transstellar's affairs, Meru did not consider herself to be a part of the Culture's plans. She was trying to be independent after all.

"Why would they think that? We could get Seb Snakewick to take his fleet here and overthrow Lachryma, but we're trying not to make enemies of the Imperium. An outright revolt without outside support is just suicide. "

Meru sighed, "they don't think like you. You probably don't know about me when I first joined but the Meru then would never had thought of anything so complicated. The world is very simple. You are nice to them, so you must be their ally. The barons and the queen are nasty, so they are the bad people. They think the good people will fight the bad people. "

"And what did we do to make them like us so much? I don't think even the citizens of this planet would be so unhappy that our medical facilities and less oppressive treatment is sufficient to incite revolt. "

"It's the medicine. And the food. Seb Transstellar provides ample food, secure places to rest and takes care of its employees. That's more than enough," Meru smiled at Nora's skeptical face, "yes, enough to risk their lives in outright rebellion. They think the barons will attack you, take you away and they don't want that. "

Nora still looked skeptical so Meru continued, more seriously, "You've never starved before. You've never held a child in your hands as they wasted away from a common cold or shriveled in hunger when the barons drank the fruits of their labour. You have never stared down the barrel of a lasgun, hearing your mother and sisters raped by guardsmen looking for a little fun. You have never woken up next to a cold body, to find that a cousin has gone softly into the dark. You have never felt the futility, the despair, when nothing you do will make any difference. You cannot imagine what it is like.

For all your sophistication, the Culture has not experienced want. And if you had, and you found a place that sheltered you, let you build a community to raise your family in, you would understand why they will defend it to the death. "

She never thought she would get to see a Culture citizen look introspective. "Perhaps I might understand a little," Nora said, "then let's discuss what we should do. Perhaps this energy could be channelled to help to our cause. "

Meru nodded. She had a few ideas written up herself.

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

Toby Dikenson looked up at the white buildings. The whole trip from his little mining village was mostly just a blur of panicked running and desperate hiding. He had nearly been caught twice by the patrolling baronial soldiers.

Now that he had made it, the white buildings rapidly greying in the dusty snowstorms could only be Seb Transstellar, it seemed like his past life was all a dream.

The pre-dawn seemed to carry the sounds of voices from the center of the village. Toby was curious, anywhere else, he would expect everyone to be picks to the rock even before first light. Yet, it didn't seem out of place in this otherworldly area.

Grabbing a few of the sweet yellow fruits growing on a vine along the ground, Toby wandered towards the center of the village, marvelling at the buildings. The white material was hard and solid. It was also warm, or at least not as cold as metal exposed out to the snowstorms of Sepheris. That was good material, it would keep the heat inside. No wonder they said this place was paradise. (the material was just cheap plascrete, not that Toby knew that)

The streets were covered with snow, just like anywhere else, but he could see the white material acting as paving below. Most of the people seemed to be moving about unhurriedly, standing straight and tall. Didn't they fear Seb Transstellar's soldiers? Toby wondered about that for a moment and decided to mimic them. If he didn't want to get caught, he'd have to act like the locals.

He walked out of the alley, trying to act like there was nothing unusual about him. It seemed to work, none of the people paid him much attention.

The street lead to the center of the village, or it looked like all the streets did, where a large and broad building squatted. It had a massive front, the columns of the same white material seemed to spread its wings around the large central square.
Even so, the huge building was dominated by the tower right behind it. The metal and glass tower shot skywards, standing far above the rest of the town. That must be where the baron called Seb Transstellar stays, Toby thought. He's rich, was his second thought, followed quickly by, then his serfs must mine alot of ore, I can get rich here.

His attention was brought back down to the ground by the mumuring among the people in the central square. The square itself was filled with light canvas material lying folded on the ground between metal scaffolding poles. What that was, Toby didn't know. But he did notice the eight lines of people around the square queuing up.
At the head of the queue closest to him, Toby saw a strange curved metal object sticking out of the ground. The man standing next to it had a large pail with wheels below the curved end and was cursing as he pushed down on the lever next to it. Nothing seemed to happen and the man cursed again. A ripple of mumurs passed down the line and people started looking around.

Nothing else seemed to happen for a few moments until a strange green clothed man ran up with a box in his hand. No, not a man, Toby could see the legendary mechanical eye that meant techpriest. He didn't know those techpriests could take them off, that was a story to tell.
The techpriest fiddled with the machine spirit of the curved metal object, taking bits out and putting them back in. After a few minutes, the techpriest nodded at the man and he heaved on the lever again.

Water came out. Clear fresh water. Toby could almost taste the cleanness from it. There was clean water for sale here! And given the length of the line, it must be an affordable price too. Truly a paradise!

He watched three people fill their containers before getting bored of it. He had to find a place to mine and that meant talking to one of the deputies of the baron. He did have a pocket full of untaxed Lumps he could bribe with but was still the riskiest point of any escape.

The big white building had what seemed to be commoners going in and out, so that probably wasn't the baron's palace. Toby didn't know of any baron who would choose the squat building over the tower. So that must be the place where the baron's soldiers and administrators lived. He climbed the wide steps slowly, feeling as if he was approaching a mutant lair.

The inside took him by surprise. The columns he saw was just decoration, the true entrances were little glass doors that swung open to greet all comers.
Inside was warm. And well lit. Toby could see clear across the section of the building, over the tall mini-buildings that perched on the floor. Each of those mini-buildings were squares or rectangles arranged into mini-streets and didn't have roofs. Not that they needed it. Their open door-less fronts were decorated with colourful banners and signs and uniformed men and women stood outside them talking to passersby or handing out pieces of paper.

"Hi, can I help you?" a woman's voice made Toby jump. He turned to see one of the uniformed women talking to him.

He blinked stupidly for a few seconds then hastily tried to recover in a hopefully unsuspicious fashion, "Um, I'm trying to look for permission to mine a portion of rock, who should I speak to?" He decided to reserve his bribe money in case this woman wasn't in charge.

"Ah, then you want to see Raphel over there... Hey! Raphel! New miner here!" The woman raised her voice and shouted across to one of the men standing at the front of the busiest street.

The man came over to him and the woman left, "Hi there, are you a new arrival?"

"Um, not exactly. I'm from one of those outskirt mines, I was thinking if I might be able to get permission to move to a better one," Toby thought that excuse was pretty good. Most of the nobles wouldn't bother too much with their less productive mines. The people in there weren't as well-tracked.

"I see," Raphel nodded with all too much of a knowing look, "in that case, I will suggest that you consider your options more carefully. We have many different jobs here and all too many people ask to do mining. "

"What sort of jobs are there?" Toby asked cautiously.

"Oh, I'll show you around," Raphel lead him to the booths.

...
"Here we have the mining section, just like you asked. We'll train you to mine properly, using the equipment we provide. Accident and health coverage included. And while everything you mine belongs to Seb Transstellar, we pay you in these," Raphel dropped a heavy circular object into Toby's hands.

"What's that?" Toby asked, knowing his cover was long blown. The man didn't seem to care though.

"That's a Throne. Imperium standard currency, valid with anyone, even off-world traders. The current going rate is about one tenth of a Thone to a day's meal. Two hundred will buy you a nice house, less if you build it yourself. An average miner, after three months of training, usually earns one Throne a day. Of course, there is room to do better and supervisors and managers can earn up to ten or more Thrones a day for the very best.

If you take this option, you'll have to undergo training to be accepted and you'll be bonded to work for Seb Transstellar for six years. Before you salivate too much though, let me tell you about the other options. "

"What's a bond?" Toby asked.

"? Oh, a bond. That means you have to work for whoever you are bonded to for that number of years or you will have to pay back the cost of training you," Raphel explained.

Toby nodded, no difference then. Wait... what happened after the bond length was over? He asked Raphel.

"You're free to find a job anywhere else," Raphel's eyes glinted with pride, "most will choose to stay on though. Seb Transstellar treats you well. "

...
"Our other services are always in need of personnel. Can you drive a truck? No? Are you willing to learn? It's the same with the rest. Plumbers, electricians, mine engineers. As long as you want to learn something other than mining, you can find a job. If you're willing to work in harsh conditions, then our affiliate Sepheris Steel is always looking for forgemen. Some of these earn much more than the miners, some less.

Most of these come with even longer bonds than Seb Transstellar, I've heard the Talon Secondary trainee program comes with a fifty year bond and a Rejuvenat to ensure you pay it off," Raphel shook his head as if disapproving, "but trust me, they're more than worth it. You'll be doing a more challenging job, you'll be valued and the pay is correspondingly higher. Oh, and all of them also offer full medical coverage. If one of the companies doesn't, no one will work for them, word gets around you know?"

...
"Alternatively, and also with more risk, there's the entrepreneurial path. If you choose, you can start a business that provides services that people are willing to pay for. Seb Transstellar is trying to encourage the citizens of Sepheris to help themselves, so we will provide lines of credit to viable ideas. If you've seen the market in the square outside, you'll know that many people have been very successful with this option. "

Raphel waved towards the main doors, "For example, various people have found that they can prepare delicious meals. Where do they get the raw materials from? Well, Seb Transstellar sells imported food, but the cheaper source is the local farming businesses. Yes! People farm here. Seb Transstellar sells seeds that are naturally resistant to the conditions here... ah, I see you already have snow grass fruits. Yeah, that's one of our more successful ones. In fact, it's getting to be quite the pest. It'll keep you alive but it's not tasty. Some of the local food is actually crossbreeds of snow grass and another species, most of those are even made by people just like you.
There's another story with the building cooperatives, where a few people get together to build houses on a contract basis. We sell the plascrete and various odds and ends, they build the house for a customer. Easier for our administration and they make a profit.

So there's plenty of opportunities. Frankly, if you could replace one of the services Seb Transstellar is currently providing, that'll be a load off our backs. We've too many things to do as it is. So, if you run a reliable fuel processing business, yeah, we're still short of that I think, we'll happily sell you our equipment at an affordable rate. In fact, Sepheris Steel started from zero and today it's eating nearly ten percent of our total ore output. The owner is making millions of Thrones, yes millions," Raphel waved a hand dismissively, "but you're not going to be that lucky. "

...
"On the riskiest side, we have a... special program for the interested," Raphel said, after the tour was complete, "We have a pilot program to create a void-borne fleet of new Talon-Pattern Whale class ships. This is a Seb Transstellar only program. "

Raphel sighed, "well, it does pay alot. The most out of any of the jobs, except for the most successful entrepreneurs and those spend some time in the void anyway. But it has a hundred year bond and two Rejuvenat treatments to add to the Talon Secondary trainee program that is a prerequisite. And you'll have to live in the void. Up there. I guess to some people that's pretty exciting, and to the most infirm or sick, it's usually the only option as they can't work well down here in the gravity. But for me? Nah, the void isn't where men are supposed to be.

Still, you'll want to head to that yellow and black booth over at that corner if you're interested. The Whaling people can tell you more. "

---------

Toby wandered out of the building in a daze. It was quite bewildering, the way Seb Transstellar did things. To think there wasn't even a baron called Seb Transstellar (except for a distant Rogue Trader no one had even seen before).

He wasn't sure what to make of it. These new job things were so different from what he knew of serfs that he couldn't make any connection at all. Was it better or worse? Was Seb Transstellar a good place to be or would he need to risk running again?

He looked around the square, the queues for water were still there, although much shorter now. Well, a drink wouldn't hurt, it didn't seem like he would need to bribe anyone after all.

"Excuse me, where should I pay for water?" Toby asked one of the women lining up.

"Uh, you don't. It's free, you just need a container. "

And that was when he decided that this place was a good one after all.

Finished now. Seb Transstellar in a boomtown economy, acting more like a government and less like a company.

In the end though, Raphel is just another IoM citizen. The void is still a scary place for them, no matter how cosmopolitian and Seb-Transstellarified they are.

[jseah]

Expanded the post, bumping in case you missed it.

[Balancer12]

Hey, long time reader first time commenting, I just want to say thank you for writing this jseah I love reading this little narrative you've got going and eagerly anticipate each update.

[jseah]

A Seb Transstellar Sidestory (timepoint 21+)
Sepheris Secundus Part 1a - Extra

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"Incoming Message:"

The ping made the Magos look up from his work. He replied with a burst of confirmatory clicks.

"Message sender: Seb Snakewick
Contents in cipher text, handshake key value 9AFEB19C87AAD matching public code 19991a:
<deciphering>
I would like to request a meeting of utmost secrecy with your esteemed presence. I have made a discovery of the highest importance and to your personal interest. If you would make arrangements to meet me at our previously agreed location at your earliest convenience, I would be glad to negotiate.
Message Ends"

The Magos Biologis flexed his mechadendrites inquisitively. After a moment of consideration, he bent back to his work. The delicate detox plants would need much attention if they were going to survive his absence.

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

The deserted area on FarLight station was mostly perfect for a meeting. The Magos's four guardian servitors and Seb's meager guard of one Navigator, one Astropath and an unknown girl-human were their only audiences. That belied the immense numbers of counter-spying devices he had deployed although to his knowledge, this Seb hadn't used any at all. Or at least, not any the Magos could detect.

Beside the two benches was a non-descript black box that this Seb Snakewick had brought to the meeting.

"You have heard of the recent exploits regarding a returned Mining World from the warp?"

The Magos waved a mechadendrite. The other Magos on Talon were already swarming all over the world, examining artifacts and trying to reverse engineer the massive ship Seb had donated to Talon. In particular, the unusual xenotech gellar field projector. While the donation might have been only in name for other people, it was truly a donation in Seb's case. No one argued with the man who personally owned and commanded a fleet large enough to be called a Crusade.

Especially not when that same fleet had somehow emerged victorious on a major campaign against a particularly troublesome Daemonworld and returned damaged but still combat-ready. Even more especially not when that same fleet was rumoured to be stuffed to the air sweepers with archeotech and xenotech. As evidenced by the sudden acceleration in Talon's techbase after they dismantled Seb's donation. The man had to have a shipyard rivalling a Forgeworld stuffed away somewhere...

Not that this Magos Biologis had had anything to do with it apart from a passing examination of the herbarium module. That had been interesting enough but not too unusual.

"I was responsible, as you know. On my travels, I came across a... particular object of interest," the man waved at the box.

The Magos looked at him for permission then ordered a servitor to pry the lid off. The box contained a strange device, a rounded plassteel and ceramacrete block with buttons and panels. He looked back at Seb, narrowing his digital eyes, that style of construction was familiar to any Magos. It dated back to the Men of Iron.

The thing smelled like an STC Template and mono-purpose Constructor to the Magos.

"What is it?" the Magos asked.

"A few of the techpriests in my employ have told me it is called STC Panacea. "

The Magos suppressed his burst of excitement. The other Magos might go crazy over a new tank or starship cannon, but to a Magos Biologis, the rumoured Panacea would be a treasure trove of knowledge.

"You realize that all STCs and related information is the rightful property of the Mechanicus," the Magos intoned slowly.

"It comes with a few conditions," Seb said, as if he hadn't heard the warning, "I would like to see it used to help the Imperium. And soon. I have a reliable source of information that indicates we do not have the time. "

"You wish it used widely? You realize that there are verifications that we must perform to ensure that it isn't tainted or a fake? How long were you thinking of?" the Magos said, trying to think of ways to take the thing and get back to Talon with it if the Rogue Trader proved uncooperative.

"No more than two months," Seb said flatly.

The Magos's eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. He adjusted the lenses hurriedly. Two months was hardly enough to do anything! Not to mention that Biologis studies usually were extremely inflexible towards rush projects.

"Take it on good faith that this is as much time as we're going to have. Besides, that one is the original," he paused deliberately on the word, "Two months is probably taking too much of a risk already. "

The subtleties were not missed on the Magos. Either Talon would take the front on this or Seb and his interstellar corporation would. He had somehow managed to duplicate an STC.

The Magos wondered what else this man could do.

Panacea shows up.

Part 19.5 Eldar

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Future warning delivered by Zhar-Tann
"That which restores all is key to the Conflict
That which makes all is needed for the Conflict
That which destroys all is target for the Conflict
That which is all is result of the Conflict

Rhana Dandra is coming. "

We were informed that this is a repeat of a message received from Alaitoc not apparently directed at us. The true meaning is still unclear, Zhar-Tann refuses to explain possibly because they don't fully understand it themselves.

That said, we are investigating and collecting all options that appear to fit interpretations.
The legendary war to end all wars is supposedly coming. We have strengthened patrols and drone nets around all major sites of interest, as well as aiming to increase expansion rate across the galaxy, sacrificing thoroughness of scanning.

[Gavinfoxx]

"Besides, that one is the original"

...Hehehehe... eehehehe... =D

Anyway, how is The Culture interacting with the different point to point wormhole gates that directly link two far away points in the galaxy, that are spread around here and there in the setting?

[jseah]

Send a few drones through, determine whether they are stable, attempting to understand them.
A few wormhole-type technologies might fall out of those studies.

I'ld say they won't use it until they can build the gates.

[jseah]

A Seb Transstellar Sidestory (timepoint 23+)
Sepheris Secundus Part 5a - Metamorphic Matter

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***Secrecy level 3 only*** (existence of the Culture is Secrecy level 3)
Metamorphic Matter
Description
The product introduced through Seb Transstellar termed 'Metamorphic Matter' is a low-grade s-matter implementation built for hardiness and non-self-replicability.

As a low-tech s-matter implementation, Metamorphic Matter (mmatter) is only precise to the micron level and individual mmatter units are visible with a simple microscope. Nevertheless, it possesses useful properties to the pre-Singularity civilization that make it a good introduction to the characteristic rapid mutability of a post-Singularity civilization that often makes transitions hard.

-----------

Functions
Power
Being an s-matter implementation, mmatter does not contain its own power source and is fed power through a field-effect transmitter of short range.

Materials
While the full range of functions are only available when built out of a complex mixture of materials, mmatter retains its structural flexibility even when built only out of iron, carbon and oxygen.

Maintenance
Utilizing an effect based on the neutron-deflecting crystals studied from our Tau allies, mmatter units with full function are able to self-clean in a way that easily removes dust and micro-particles from mmatter stockpiles. Nevertheless, mmatter units are susceptible to strong chemical attack and extreme physical shock (eg. through a direct hit from kinetic weapons).

Structural
mmatter's primary ability is to irreversibly bind between units when given a sufficient power source to effect mergers of crystalline interfaces. This creates a strong bond that is as strong as the material the mmatter is made of and the bond does not dissipate if the mmatter units are disabled (eg. through emp or mechanical damage).

Secondarily, mmatter can reversibly bind between units given a constant but low power input. The binding is weaker than the irreversible binding but is of sufficient strength to form load-bearing walls in smaller structures. In this case, the binding is destroyed if the mmatter units cease to function.

Manipulation
mmatter units working in concert can exert forces surprisingly large for their size. In particular, forces communicated through their structural backbone allow the mmatter units to accumulate forces large enough for super-human strength and agility.

Together with its force and strength, specialized mmatter units can perform secondary tasks or manipulate specific plugins like lenses or heat exchangers. Electrical conduction and circuits are built into all mmatter units, allowing mmatter to engineer complex electromagnetic phenomena.

3Cs (Command, Control, Computation)
mmatter units link up into a distributed computing cluster of individually weak mmatter units. This can be dynamically re-assigned between units and may even shift between different architectures (mmatter supports all basic tier 1 computing forms, examples from flock behaviour, peer-to-peer and client-server models), allowing arbitrary functions to be programmed into mmatter objects and unparalleled flexibility.

Command functions can be accessed by SebT-open-API, compatible with most IoM default interfaces. The new Seb Transstellar dataslate comes with the interface pre-installed and all mmatter packages are distributed bundled with suitable control software for mmatter and included specialized hardware. Additionally, courtesy of a Talon initiative, mmatter is also responsive to AdMech Technalingua as well as higher-bandwidth direct interfaces.
mmatter itself is able to interface with most data ports due to its small size and, in a pinch, can serve as an inefficient data bridge across nearly all systems.

Due to the inherent security risks that mmatter poses, Seb Transstellar maintains a command code unique to each package (hardware implementation for security) that can be used to retain administrative control over all mmatter units, accessible via any of the mmatter standard interfaces. Regional Managers are expected to liase with local authorities, Imperial officials, Inquisitors and the AdMech to provide them with the same codes.
For this reason, Seb Transstellar cannot legally transfer ownership of any mmatter units due to our administrative priviledges. The recommendation is to offer licensing arrangements that come as close as possible to legal ownership in the local jurisdiction.

A skip ahead to part 8 featuring this coming soon. Edited slightly at the end.

[jseah]

A Seb Transstellar Sidestory (timepoint 23+)
Sepheris Secundus Part 6 - Flashpoint

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"And therefore, Seb Transstellar protests against the recent measures by its neighbours that attempt to sabotage lawful migration. This action by the dukes and lords, some of whom seat in this hall, put shame on the august names..."

Meru watched the Seb Transstellar private telecast of the Sepheris Conclave proceedings. Nora was apparently male again.

Still, she had to wonder what they thought they were doing. Instead of citing law or throwing the rulebook at them, which Nora would almost certainly be able to push for some support with the minor lords, she was making a passionate speech about honour. Indirectly implying the honour of Seb Transstellar's neighbours were suspect.

Meru didn't think the Culture went in for idealistic pleas. Since when did that convince anyone?

"Blasphemy!" one of the dukes had had enough. Meru giggled in her private quarters, his face was red as a beetroot. "You heretic! You dare to claim honour when you are the intruder in the Emperor's ground!"

"Yeah! You're just some off-worlders!" Another joined in. Soon there was a torrent of insults and denials thrown at Nora, without respect for speaker time or due protocol.

They looked like so many monkeys throwing peanuts to Meru. With about as much effect on Nora. She giggled again. Three months ago, she would not have dared to even *think* that thought.

"I'll have your hide! A duel! I say!"

Oh. That sounded serious. Meru focused on the dataslate as the hall grew silent. Most of the lords seemed supportive of that.

Nora stood up and faced the bald furious man across the large hall. "Is that a formal request?" she said. Meru narrowed her eyes, there was an undercurrent of calculativeness in Nora's tone. They were Up To Something.

"Aye. Duke Zatci requests a duel of honour with this man... uh, Nora Spleizkel. To address that which was wronged, in response to grevious insult of the most intolerable nature. "

Nora raised an eyebrow, "Indeed. I understand that once declared, duel challenges must be attended in person and cannot be avoided upon pain of territory confiscation?"

"Aye. I will see you on the-"

"I do also understand that you yourself are quite the marksman. Killed seven others in duels, didn't you?"

Zatci smirked, "You can still back out, if you leave Sepheris altogether. "

"Is it normally custom to go around challenging women to duels?" Nora said casually, "One would think that would cause even greater dishonour than anything I could have said. "

You could have heard a pin drop. The entire hall was just staring at the man dressed in a smart business suit and long pants. Did Nora just imply she was a woman?!

"Furthermore there is also the matter of precedent 76a," Nora continued, as if totally uncaring of the attention, "That which ends a line must itself end. I believe the precedent was interpreting the rule to mean that anyone killing the last child-bearing woman of a noble line, for any reason, would also be subject to the death penalty. "

"I don't see how that applies. Seb Transstellar is a company. It cannot be noble. Much less you," Zatci seemed rather less confident now.

"Oh, did I forget to mention that?" Nora picked at her nails, "When Xavier abdicated his seat formally, he also had to pick a successor. You are quite right in that companies cannot succeed to a noble title. I did. Technically, my full name is now something like this... Count of Rupaert, Nora Halmann Imuran, the House Spleiklc. "

"No announcement of successorship nor the rite was conducted! That's in-"

"Careful," Nora interrupted Zatci, "You don't want to insult the name of another House, do you? Unlike you, women are allowed to name proxies in duels if they need to issue a challenge, although it certainly would be convenient if that applied to being challenged too. For the record, House Spleiklc was registered under the Chamber of Stars with all formal ceremony. About seven weeks ago, in fact. "

"There is no formal-"

"The requirements were only that the candidate and Ruler of Sepheris Secundus be present at the Chamber of Stars. The rest... isn't written on the so very helpful Currente Protocale en Miniut. Where would Seb Transstellar be without your explicit and truly excruiatingly detailed laws to guide our poor misunderstanding off-worlder notions?"

Meru watched the suddenly imposing figure sweep her eyes over the hall, "Perhaps some people didn't do their homework? Nevertheless, you did issue an unretractable duel challenge so you appear to be in somewhat of a... difficult spot. "

Of course not. The entirety of the Currente Protocale could easily fill an entire library. And not a small one too. It had rules on the colours of frills to be worn to a specific variant of a dress party only convened when a female third cousin of a duke in the royal line of succession was married three months ago. To say that no one read it was a understatement.
In fact, there was a supremely well-maintained and equally unused library with all the books in High Gothic in Queen Lachryma's palace. The clerks were still discovering pages apparently unread by any person in living memory.

"I could submit to a medical examination to ascertain my... child-bearing qualities, so to speak," Nora leaned forward, deftly catching the edge of her suspiciously heavy suit on the table. It was hard to spot, but there definitely was a bust there.

"That... won't... be necessary," Zatci sat back down slowly. Then shot up again, "I protest this misinformation. It was clearly a trap meant to bait me into a rash move. I move that the Conclave nullify the duel challenge. "

Nora countered nearly instantly, "Seb Transstellar claims precedence in proceedings. A duel challenge is of higher importance and cannot be delayed by lesser matters, as per precedence 8011-amendent c. Said amendment specifically allows duel challenges to override nullification motions if one duelist requests it. "

Then the Conclave dissolved into a rabble of voices.

Meru sighed and rubbed her temples. She still had no clear idea what the Culture was aiming at here. All this seemed to do was drag the entire Conclave into endless debates over precedence and protocol.

Or perhaps that was the idea? Oh well, the show was over anyway, it would be lawyers from here on out for the next decade.

Meru decided to sleep, some people had real work to do after all.

Turns out I had an idea, so no skipping ahead.

The Culture knows your laws better than you do.
EDIT: I hope it is at least obvious how a few of the fictional laws might have been the result of rules jiggering in the past to make things favourable for the nobles.

[Gavinfoxx]

The Culture knows your laws better than you do.

I hope everyone else who read that heard it sing-songed in their heads too!

[jseah]

I hope everyone else who read that heard it sing-songed in their heads too!

Not me. And I wrote that. =P

[Gavinfoxx]

So... uh. Are the Tau going to get Necron drives? That would solve a LOT of their problems...

What about some of the 'minor races', that are only minor BECAUSE they don't have useful strategic FTL? Would any of thoseget Necron drives? Is The Culture going to be disseminating any of this local technology in any appreciable way? Because if the Imperium gets them, some people might push for other groups to get them too... And I am sure there is some (non-Craftworld, probably Corsair) Eldar who would LOVE to get their hands on them too... in fact, I can't think of any tech-based group that doesn't have them that WOULDN'T be happy to get their hands on them...

[jseah]

Hmm, I wonder.

What about something like this:
-> Deal with everyone (including orks): You get Necron drives
-> Deal with Necrons: You get Culture hyperspace theory (instead of just the drive)


Coz I don't see the Necrons being very happy about that first part without something else that preserves their advantage. The Culture don't want to lose them as an important ally against Chaos. And if there's anything that won't lose tech to Chaos, it's the Necrons.

Alternately, since the hyperspace drive is the primary important part of the Culture hyperspace theory and they already have a simple one, effector or displacer tech might go over well.

[Gavinfoxx]

I think that they are going to have to figure out more about how to modify orks so they have a choice in being violent or not when they get in large groups... which will take warp engineering, before they give stuff to orks...

Also Jseah, I've been bugging you to make up interesting things about minor races that aren't in the campaign books for like a year... will you? Pretty please?

[jseah]

Siege of Ruonkor (timepoint part 21+)

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Background
Ruonkor is a Culture designated Stealth-Protectorate race
Its galactic position is close to the Eye of Chaos, just outside the Culture-exclusion zone
The Ruonkor system is a close-orbiting binary star with the only stable orbits orbiting the center of mass of the two large suns
Second planet from its primary is the planet Ruonkor, inside the liquid water zone

Ruonkor is designated by the Imperium as a Feudal Xenos world, inhabited by a bipedal race of monkey-like sentients. These inhabitants are known as the Min (single, plural and category are all Min). These monkeys were deemed to by psychic by a badly informed exploration expedition which quickly vacated the world.
Due to the low technological level of the Min (they do not have spaceflight), no effort was made to exterminate them as they did not pose a threat. Furthermore, supposed psychic powers made a land campaign highly risky and saturation orbital bombardment would render the biosphere useless (any colony on Min would likely end up as an Agri-World).

The Min would be recognized as a Terran monkey if not for a large obvious sac bulging from their brainstem. And their total lack of physical communication. Indeed, this was the main reason for the Imperial psychic assessment as the Min are obviously highly intelligent and coordinate in a highly complex society.
Their primary communication method lies in the brain sac which contains a highly unusual formation that can only be described as a biological radio.

The Min as a race are mostly peaceful but occasionally attack and war between each other over resources. Individually, the Min are highly individualistic and self-absorbed. Dreamers all of them, the Min are highly inspired and intelligent thinkers but are distrustful of anything that they do not fully understand. If Mins fight, it is often to the death as aggreived parties tend to retaliate in non-military ways until no further recourse is possible, upon which the Min prefer to utterly destroy their opponent.
This leads to a number of cultural quirks, the Min are too distrusting of non-personal relationships for a standard token-of-trade economy to work. Nor do they form large governments or identifiable political entities. Individual Mins often have extensive personal contacts, as their biological radios allow communication over vast distances, but are highly distrusting of strangers until familiarization.

Unlike most Feudal worlds, the Min have progressed to electronic technology and even basic brain-machine interfaces and implants. At the same time, their manufacturing ability is highly limited. The Min are extremely frail and do rely on machines to do much of their heavy work, but it appears that their cultural quirks have led to a failure of industrialization.
Instead of the common capitalistic path of development, the Min maintain shared workshops and cooperatives that often center around a tribe's geographical location. Specialized tribes share knowledge and resources with neighbouring tribes with knowledge travelling by the far faster radio.
This has resulted in lopsided technological progress. Instead of ever larger political and economic entities that favour long-lasting and large-scale tools, the Min have focused on abstract knowledge and customized but unreliable small-scale solutions made for specific tasks.

Their technological development has been shaped by this and it is estimated that the Min have taken nearly ten times longer to reach their stage of technological expertise than most civilizations. Despite the Mins' relatively advanced mathematics, biology and chemistry, their knowledge of physics appears to be dramatically retarded due to the inability to coordinate and conduct large scale experiments and projects.

Despite the Min already having the capability to make strong AI based on extremely detailed and robust expert systems and mathematics, the Mins' lack of infrastructure and their AIs based on Min-thinking also failing to cooperate, their highly advanced computers have not made a large impact on the Min racial capabilities. It would appear that the Min have dodged a Singularity simply by not having enough tools for an AI to do anything useful with. Instead, it appears that the Min and the few AIs they have built are aiming to progress to full mind-machine interfaces in an attempt to overcome Min frailness. Indeed, they have already made significant progress towards a general theory of intelligence although they have run out of time.

Given that level of sophistication, the Min would be expected to be highly developed in other areas with at least basic spaceflight. Instead, the Min have only recently discovered atomic fission and it is expected that nuclear weapons will remain completely out of reach for the foreseeable future.

For these reasons, as a cultural case study of unusual properties, the Min have been protected and watched by the Culture ever since we arrived in their space. Plans to contact them after the resolution of the Chaos situation have been swept aside by current events.

Abaddon's march places Ruonkor inside the projected conflict zone. A failure in our defense of this world would be a major loss to the diversity of this galaxy, forced evacuation of the Min would entail a massive loss in culture and a symbolic defeat for the Culture. For these reasons, extra effort was afforded to the defense of the Ruonkor system.

Herein lies the account of the siege of Ruonkor.

All right, fine, here you go.

One fully original race, here we come. Remind me to come back to this after Sepheris Secundus.


Note to self: sidestory ideas

Spoiler: sidestory ideas

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("Abaddon's advance" first half) A lone Culture ROU contacts a Grey Knights company in desperate straits. The Grey Knights agree to set aside their differences and conduct a significant battle in the warp against Chaos using the ROU as a replacement battlebarge??? -- Possibly comment on a two-prong battle fought by the realspace Culture fleet in cooperation with the lone GreyKnights-equipped ROU in warpspace

(Pre-start of battle, post Warp Engineering breakthrough with ZT) The Culture receives a daring request from the Zhartann. Apparently the Astronomican can be altered using Eldar techniques to signficantly calm the warp within its range, greatly impeding Chaos's progress in the final battle as well as buffing Gellar Fields and warp drives. This requires a bonesinger-farseer combination team to be smuggled onto Terra and perform a 20-hour long operation on the Astronomican. All while it continues to operate under the Choir...
-> A task so daunting that the best of the best of SC (who went to hibernation due to being "bored") and a particularly notorious Eldar Outcast (original character) are brought together in an unlikely combination for the operation => PN: Use the Takeover?
-> Possible route: Disguise the bonesingers as Choir members and have them take the spots? (!!!)

("Abaddon's Advance" post-turn around; post warp engineering) A risky Culture gambit involves an ROU "defecting" to Chaos to gain inside information on the enemy. Unveils Tzeentch's plan and creates backstabby goodness that finally collapses the Chaos advance.