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  1. - Top - End - #1351
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    BlueKnightGuy

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Quote Originally Posted by jseah View Post
    What is this Sanguinous?

    Similarly, what's with Leman Russ? Surely whoever that was is already dead?
    The Sanguinor is thought to be the psychic ghost of Sanguinus, it pops out of the warp occcasionally when the Blood Angels are in major trouble, being a Big Damn Hero.

    Leman Russ is the Primarch of the Space Wolves, guy for who the Leman Russ tank is named after because he kicks all the ass with his army of space werewolf vikings. After the Horus got his heresy on he went into the eye of terror, promising to come back for the wolftime aka End of the world.

    What I'm wondering is if the Culture will get Vulcan back, given that he's the most rational of the Primarchs and immortal/unkillable what being a Perpetual and all. He's currently being held in the Unbound Flame, one of the artifacts the Salamander (His Legion) are looking for, given that it's some sort of stasis capsule and he was placed in it after being stabbed by some magic spear that messed with his regeneration abilities.

  2. - Top - End - #1352
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Vulcan sounds like girlyman really. Lehman Russ I only know of the tank, but of all the primarchs, he's the most likely to make a return I've heard of.

  3. - Top - End - #1353
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    Kobold

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned


  4. - Top - End - #1354
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Quote Originally Posted by Balancer12 View Post
    The Sanguinor is thought to be the psychic ghost of Sanguinus, it pops out of the warp occcasionally when the Blood Angels are in major trouble, being a Big Damn Hero.
    The idea in this case being that if the Sanguinor is Sanguinius's soul, still around and fighting, then the culture should be able to ressurect him with his original soul. As he was considered one of the most resonable of the Primarchs, they should be able to bring him, and the blood angels, in on any resonable plan to reform the Imperium.

    Finding the Lion should be simply a matter of scanning the fortress monestary- Even though the dark angels themselves dont know about him, the culture should be able to spot a stasis field like Girlyman's lightyears out. Come to an understanding with the Watchers, heal the Lion, and the Dark Angels will join the final fight.

    Russ is a wildcard- he will return for the final battle, in true norse style, to die in glory.

  5. - Top - End - #1355
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    Kobold

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Hey Jseah! You sould look at this for what Primarchs can do:

    http://forums.spacebattles.com/threa...thread.235897/

  6. - Top - End - #1356
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Doesn't seem significant enough. None of them would have been able to participate usefully in a battle similar to Ackaris or even Comorragh on the Culture's side.

    The Big E, yes, but remember that the Culture has high-relativistic kinetic weapons and regards planets as indefensible and easily disassembled for raw material. Note how the Culture have just casually popped a galactic range nova-bomb weapon to not much effect...

    This is the Big Leagues in Space SF, if you don't have supernova eyebeams, you're insignificant. =P

  7. - Top - End - #1357
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    Kobold

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Well, yea. But there is also the fact that biological humanoids shouldn't be capable of that sort of thing...

  8. - Top - End - #1358
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Which is why I see the Primarches mainly useful on the domestic side, maintaining order for a peaceful transition away from warp technoligy. This makes the culture's life easier, as they dont have to worry about IoM megadeaths ruining their "good ending"

  9. - Top - End - #1359
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Sorry to say this but I think I will need a break from this thread for a while. Been trying to write and never managed to write anything acceptable. Just start a few lines and stall...

    Hopefully it'll just be a short break, but the final arc is already planned out so it's just a matter of picking up the pen again.

  10. - Top - End - #1360
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    Kobold

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Hi Jseah, any updates coming soon? Did your break get what you needed done?

  11. - Top - End - #1361
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    Kobold

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Think you might get the next arcs figured out?

  12. - Top - End - #1362
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    If I remember my previus readings in this thread correctly, Jsea's closing in on the final acts.

    Am I missing anytthing?

    Culture has/is working on understanding of simple warp objects, and can create matter from raw gridfire. this can be huge.
    Dark Eldar are removed from play, and Slanesh's bid to reclaim them cost hir a bunch of forces, and gave hir a limited supply of Dark Eldar souls shi is likely to burn through relatively quickly.
    Tyrranids are a non-threat.
    Orcs have be co-opted, and are being sent to invade the eye of terror
    Tau are at war with ultramar (needs resolution)
    The Eldar and Necrons are... calm-er, with each other.
    The Sisters are being co-opted by the culture (needs resolution)
    So are the Rogue Traders (well, one rogue trader) and the Mechanicus.
    Grey knight chapter stronghold Titan scanned
    Mars Scanned
    Ultramar scanned
    Deathwatch HQ scanned
    Dark Angels are conspicusly unseen (mebbie add, mebbie not)
    Emperor is near death, and the Starchild will likely be born at a dramatcally appropriate moment.
    It is the scheme to end all schemes. All according to plan.

    On chaos's side, there's that sorcerer-plague that makes daemonworlds...some of which arnt evil. Which has been OOCd, but not explored.

  13. - Top - End - #1363
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    In lieu of running out of time/steam, I'm going to start running ahead with the "main" thread. So here's part 21

    Part 21
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    Week 61
    The Tau-Macragge is slowing down to a lower tempo as the Tau face greater resistance and a larger battlefront with their comparatively limited forces. Macragge itself is under seige but simulations show that the Tau are unlikely to capture it without sacrificing other fronts.

    Very worryingly, the central Imperial response to the worsening Chaotic threat is muted and reflexive. We have no idea what problems may exist inside the umbrella of the psychic defence network and are unable to resolve it. Some consultations with Golden Goose's Rogue Trader indicates that the recent events are unlikely to have stabilized so quickly and Sol is likely to continue to be unresponsive for the forseeable future of this conflict.

    The Imperial response to the Black Crusade has been higher than thought possible but the Chaotic forces are overwhelming in numbers. So great that even the Chaos Response Fleets are unable to reinforce quickly enough. There appears to be a huge leap in innovation among the Chaotic forces, such that they are fielding extremely long range warp weapons that require a pylon field to resist. Their reality warping is on the scale that renders conventional weapons ineffective and we have been forced to detonate multiple stars in retreat.
    Most worrying is the new paradigm of contagion Chaos appears to have adopted. Virtually all their offensive weapons focus on warp-activation and resulting corruption of systems. Chief among these appears to be a corrupting psychic plague that is invisible to mental probes, requiring warp activity sensors to detect. Secondary abilities involve using self-teleporting groups of psychically active masses that board and rapidly corrupt ships and planetary bodies, as well as the expected warp storms and constant corrupting influence that ranges in lightyears.

    Captured Chaotic fighters speak of a legendary figure returning to claim the galaxy. We have good evidence to believe that Abaddon is acting under the "blessings" of all four Chaos gods.

    Conventional resistance is being replaced in favour of anti-warp weaponry based on the principles of the Necron planetary pylon. We have had limited success in field trials and concentrated bursts of warp negation work decently, although the sideeffect of being lethal to warp-active intelligences makes its deployment in inhabited systems subject to collateral damage. Research into improving their range and precision is at priority.

    The orks appear to be the only faction doing well against this invasion. Their natural resistance towards external warp influences actually places Chaos at a disadvantage against them. This is balanced by our non-existent ability to communicate or coordinate with them. The orks have driven deep towards the Eye and appear to have their goal somewhere outside of real space. What they intend to do in the warp is unclear.


    The Eldar specified key world cannot be reached. Before the ROU arrived, the warp sensors detected an alarming rise in warp activity and the entire solar system disappeared into the warp. A Chaos Response Fleet is being diverted from the war front in order to attack it.


    Week 62
    Seb Transtellar is gearing up for a fight with the Imperial admiral and this is expected to happen within the month. How Snakewick handles his victory will be a key test of the system's stability.
    IoM reform projects are beginning with some urgency, following on Golden Goose's model despite the fact that that experiment is still not complete. The pressure of the war makes this far more urgent that we fortify the IoM society against possible failure of the Astronomican. Resistance cells based around breakaway Mechanicus factions are being groomed to change Mechanicus policy.
    Various groups dislike the outright manipulation of IoM affairs that the Culture is doing, actively forcing the change through 'luck' and other overt means. But a large majority agree that the current situation requires expediency instead of adhering to puritanic ideals.

    The orks have reached the Eye and are bogged down in a battle of attrition around the Cadian Gate. An uneasy truce with the dug-in Cadian defences and bypassed or overlooked Imperial navy forces has resulted out of necessity. Still, orks grow stronger the longer a conflict lasts and the ex-SC agent appears to know this. His tactics are aimed at causing the maximum damage to Chaos forces, not towards ending the conflict in swift blows.

    The flood of armaments provided by us is beginning to leak into Imperial economies, causing a sudden crash in the price of weapons following the normal spike from a sudden mobilization. Mercenaries and traders are taking our weapon caches and turning around to sell it quickly at cutthroat prices before returning to us for more. This back-channel appears to be perfect for our goals, admirals and captains outfitting their ships with weapons of non-Mechanicus origin are reluctant to report where exactly they obtained the equipment from as long as they perform.
    Some questions have arisen as to where the flood of archaeotech-quality parts of all sorts is originating from but with the appropriate sacrificial Chaos cells, we have managed to deflect Inquisitorial attention for the time being. Some of them have deduced that the Imperium is being subtly helped by another power and those are also useful in deflecting attention, some of those may even be candidates for later reform efforts.


    Week 63
    Necron efforts to understand Tyranid hiveminds are inconclusive. The only real observation was that Necron pylons are superb at disrupting whatever their communication scheme is. The Necrons have agreed to jointly study a planet seeded with Tyranids without pylons being present. Orks are also reluctant to reveal any secrets. We are coming to the conclusion that the Necron understanding of the warp is more focused on how to negate and control it, rather than to manipulate it.

    ZharTann efforts to reverse engineer a Webway Gate have had initial success. Eldar bonesingers, with adequate simulation and testing support, have managed to rediscover how to bonesing a critical warp-distorting material of the Gates, a technique they had lost quite some time ago. Much work remains to be done in order to make a functional Gate from this but at least the initial success has been encouraging.
    Revay's attempts at psychic sensitivity are progressing slowly. Frustratingly slowly to the Eldar bonesingers despite their high patience. Some of them are questioning whether Revay can even learn any psychic sensitivity, much less actively defend herself from psychic attacks. Revay has suggested that we perform some modifications to her on the known warp-sensitive brain structures to be more Eldar-like and try again, but for obvious safety reasons, we are hesitant to perform such experiments.

    The Chaos forces have captured their hundreth world outside the region of the Eye. Imperial and Eldar efforts to stem the flood have been inadequate despite our support and some Culture factions have expressed desire to join the battle themselves. ROUs defended with Necron pylons may have an advantage against Chaos but we are hesitant to show our hand without need as disastrous accidents could send the Chaotic forces into hyperdrive.

    But still, work is really eating alot of time and energy and so updates aren't going to be as substantial as complete story arcs anymore. Nor as frequent.

  14. - Top - End - #1364
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    Kobold

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    So I've beeen thinking. By this point, the Culture has done the following:
    -Scanned a bunch of imperial planets, getting a whole LOT of statistical data
    -Probably scanned the brains of a bunch of psychic species (both animal and sentient), and psychic individuals, from minor species with specific abilities (and there are a LOT), to weirdboyz, to eldar, to nicassar, to sanctioned psykers and astropaths and Librarians. They might have even scanned a Primarch or something
    -Scanned a bunch of the Mechanicum data for all of those Genetors that always regularly do experiments on psykers and stuff all the time, but which never goes anywhere due to Mechanicum Shenanigans
    -Gotten a decent idea of what sorts of 'things happening in a person's life' tends to correlate with psychic ability (like being the seventh son of a seventh son and other circumstances that match patterns, based on imperial and other civilization's data archives, and brute force statistical and data mining, so have a pretty good idea of how nature+nuture+circumstance contributes to a powerful psyker with appropriate levels of control and safety
    -Gotten a decent idea of what brain architectures seem to be tasty to Chaos, and which ones specifically don't
    -Gotten a decent idea of what organic components, brain architectures, genetic architectures, mental capabilities, extra organs, lifestyles, and life circumstances tend to correlate with powerful psychic capabilities AND the ability to use them relatively safely and control them relatively well, by surveying a whole lot of psychic species


    With this, they probably could just BUILD an organic psyker and set up all the circumstances to dramatically increase the likelihood that this person is a powerful, controlled, high willpower, relatively safe, relatively versatile psyker. So either why don't they, or at least ask their Eldar allies 'What would happen if we do this? We are lagging behind on psychic and warp understanding, and feel we have to take more extreme measures.'

  15. - Top - End - #1365
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Psykers are also gateways for Chaos. When there's a war going on, you don't really wany to risk giving your enemy a possibly powerful weapon. Besides, it is clear that powerful psykers are not the answer to daemons.

    The one they are more likely to move forward on is weaponizing the Necron pylon, which I have alluded to. With Webway as a more pemanent solution. (ie. exactly as per the original Tzeentch doesn't interfere scenario)

  16. - Top - End - #1366
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    Kobold

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Yea, Grey Knights and Orks used as cats-paws and Craftworld Eldar are the answers to Daemons...

  17. - Top - End - #1367
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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    part 22
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    Week 64
    Tyranid studies have yielded an unexpected benefit. Tyranid vulnerability to communication disruption by pylons has proven their communication ability to be a warp effect. This highly stable and predictable warp effect is reversible if the affected Tyranids are removed from pylon fields and they recover their ability to cooperate quickly.
    This gives us a reliable and stable warp effect with which to study Necron pylon negation. With some effort, the Necrons and us have already managed to tune a pylon field to have a sharp 'edge'. Where normal pylons result in a smooth degradation of Tyranid links as the Tyranids approach the pylon, with a large central area where Tyranid links fail to work, a 'sharp' pylon edge barely disrupts Tyranid links outside its area while rapidly progressing to complete severance within an unusually short buffer zone.
    Interestingly, side experiments show that Orks do not work well in Necron pylon fields either. They are unable to use their warp-based corruption abilities on Necron technology covered by a pylon field of sufficient strength to counter the Waagh effect.

    Cross comparison with earlier work on tunable Gellar Fields have yielded potential lines of inquiry. We are looking into shaping warp negation fields for usage as weapons and shields.

    Study of Tau warp drives have yielded some fruit as a warp drive managed to successfully 'skip' off the warp when at positive hyperspace coordinates. The technique is still unstable but further refinements look possible.


    Chaotic advances have surpassed 200 systems and the pace is increasing daily. The advance appears unstoppable and we are considering negotiating with the Necrons for their galatic pylon schematics for use as a weapon. The Eldar are not happy with this but they also appear unable to stop contagious warp effects like those employed so far.


    Week 65
    The Eldar have proposed a... daring plan to slow the Chaotic advance. They claim that the Imperium's Astronomican is inefficient due to humanity's poor warp understanding. They have the ability to re-tune the Imperium's Astronomican for use as warp stabilization in much the same way as a Gellar Field, only with galactic range. An Eldar infiltration team that enters the Astronomican Chamber and works for at least three hours should be able to irreversibly reconfigure the Astronomican.
    For obvious reasons, any such attempt would have to be a multi-racial cooperation between us, the Eldar and Imperial volunteers. Concealing the Eldar farseers doing the tuning from the psychic defense grid is still an unsolved problem.

    Despite the high risk and damage to future diplomatic relations, the plan has a surprisingly large amount of support.

    Why the Eldar chose this moment to reveal their plan is also unclear. We are under no illusions that the Eldar already had this plan in mind from before the advent of the Chaotic attack.


    Week 66
    The Tau have, surprisingly, decided to withdraw from the Macragge assault. Instead they are now on an active defence, striking mainly at Imperial fleets and bases, in order to secure their current conquests. While this response was predicted to a certain extent, their current experiment into a focus on speed does not match this return to their older styles.
    Tau innovation continues to increase, however, with many of their Earth caste obtaining intelligence augmentation by partially merging with assistant AIs. It would appear that the Ethereals have decided to experiment with Singularity by the augmentation route.


    An feasible plan for entering Sol has appeared. As the detection and offensive psychic grid is a pure warp effect, our recent advances into sharpening pylon fields would allow us to build a sort of wall of null-warp around the Eldar team without affecting them. By placing a shell of pylons with overlapping fields around the infiltrating ship, and with a formation whose positions are so precisely determined that they are only achieveable by effector, it would be possible to enter Sol without triggering any psychic detection if the Eldar also shield the action from appearing in future sight.

    On the other hand, the large shell of pylons cannot change shape or move quickly. This runs a high risk of physical detection by Sol's telescopes. Together with the Eldar, we have plotted a launch trajectory that should be able to avoid detection by hiding behind a freighter and avoiding star occlusion by adjusting the starlight around the entire Sol system over a 10 lightyear range, plus covering the rest with a Trapdoor system to dump excess emissions into hyperspace.
    There are too many parameters to fully predict and communication into Sol would be problematic once the operation is underway. Such an independent team would have to make their own decisions on the spot and would be undertaking an operation of unsurpassed delicacy at any time in our recorded history.

    The Eldar have already chosen their team. Finding a Culture/human team for that freighter may be a challenge.

    This would only work once as the oversight in patrol patterns is easily changed and our actions in hindsight are impossible to conceal from Sol's psykers, unlike in future sight.
    Last edited by jseah; 2015-01-14 at 11:37 AM.

  18. - Top - End - #1368
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    Kobold

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Yay update! Careful with your typos though, it could use a bit of proofing.

  19. - Top - End - #1369
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Part 23.5 The Mysterious Case of the Astronomican
    Prologue
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    One doesn't often get called in to investigate a sabotage case if one is a cruiser captain. Not least if it isn't on a ship. Even less if it involves officials so highly placed that one can't even see their bootlaces.

    But nothing about this case was normal. For one thing, the Astronomican is not the purview of the Imperial Navy. One would normally sic the Adeptus Astra on that, but of course, they were all under suspicion after THAT.
    The next in line would be the Ordo Hereticus. But of course, the Navy had pruned them back severely in that Sol fight. Yours truly had a hand in that business. We weren't about to give them a chance to re-establish themselves.
    The Ordo Xenos or Malleus would be the next logical pick, especially since there was the stink of xenotech all over the case. And quite a large dose of chaos suspicion, given the war going on near the Eye. (And chaos DID have a hand, as I found out later; just not the sort anyone was expecting)

    But of course, the (presently) Navy dominated Sol hierarchy wanted a Navy man to do the job. And a Navy man they got. No one above my level was willing to stick their head out, especially when it involved investigating their superiors.

    And so, the biggest case of sabotage since Horus landed in on the desk of one lowly cruiser captain too stupid, too loyal and far FAR too underranked to refuse.

    I'm recording this memoir of mine for posterity, since the politics going on far above my (now quite not so low) rank is quite likely to do me in. Let this serve as a warning to other... aspiring cruiser captains.



    Part 1
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    The initial brief on my miserable cubby hole was as thick as my thumb and its contents were as bad for my heart as a clot about as big. It was a wonder the words on the pages hadn't burnt through the completely non-descript yellow letter packaging that pre-dates even the Imperium.

    One does not normally get a license for independent action nominally outside all command structures. Above and beyond one's superiors is often given, for secret or sometimes not-so-secret survelliance and investigation. Above and beyond Inquisitorial attention or Arbites is rare (and often lethal), but sometimes the Navy power games work out that way.

    Above the entire navy command structure AND Arbites AND the inquisitors? As well as top level clearance and personally signed, stamped, holosealed, psy-inked stasis-medallions from every single one of the High Lords of Terra, each delivered by dead drop and completely untraceable routes? That was as good as blank cheque to all Imperial resources. From the moment I opened that Emperor-damned package, I was officially the most powerful man in the entire Imperium, able to go anywhere, do anything and kill anyone I deemed necessary. I could, almost, be allowed to visit the Golden Throne itself.

    I was also dead. No one would let one person get away with that much power, and they were expecting some serious resistance. All the High Lords were out for each other's throats and none of them had any idea of what the others were doing. Everyone thought everyone else had a hand, or mechadendrite, or knife, or daemonclaw in the pie; and fingers, limbs and heads were going to roll every time someone moved.


    Naive as I was though, I put on the medals and admired myself in the mirror for a good ten minutes before settling down to read. And then I wished I hadn't wasted the time.


    Someone, or many someones, had somehow managed to sneak past the Sol PsyGuard, all the Navy patrols and defence bases, sneaked past all the Arbites and Ordos surveillance on Earth, got into the Astronomican itself and then did NOT destroy it.

    What was completely weird about the entire thing was that afterwards, not only had they not destroyed the Astronomican, as all good Imperial soldiers know that the xenos all want to do, and by the size of the security breach they could have snuck a cyclonic torpedo into the Chamber itself, the Adeptus Astra said it was working better than before! The Navigators testing it said they could 'hear' the voice of the Astronomican as if it was right next to them, even if they were on the edge of Segmentum Solar.

    Along the way in, it turned up later, they had also killed a small army of Chaos daemons, how they did it without attracting attention, or hide the bodies afterward, had spawned so many conspiracy theories within and without the Imperial Administration that a special rehabilitation program was being created for those rendered insane by way of seeing conspiracies everywhere.

    So, not only did these xenos, humans, or whatever, do something apparently beneficial to the Astronomican, Chaos was also trying to stop them! But why? Why would Chaos want to stop a group that everyone agreed was from the Great Enemy, right when it was going to gain access to the prize that Chaos itself sought?


    Nothing about it made sense, so I had to do some legwork and digging. And then I had to do more digging, and before I knew it, I was in so deep that a Navigator standing next to me would have trouble spotting the Emperor's flashlight.

    -to be continued in part 2

  20. - Top - End - #1370
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    Kobold

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    ...well that's certainly interesting! Hehehe...

  21. - Top - End - #1371
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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Oooh. This promises to be interesting

  22. - Top - End - #1372
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    BlueKnightGuy

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Well this is shaping up to be a very....interesting time

  23. - Top - End - #1373
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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Yeah, I wanted a way to write the mission, but didn't feel like the Culture going "All According to Plan" fullstop.
    Turn the tables around and tada, the story writes itself and in a far less obnoxious manner.

    Or not, as in this case, where I still have to put fingers to keyboard.


    Part 2
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    First thing I had to do was to find some help. One cruiser captain could not be in two places at the same time. And I wasn't going to start asking for psykers to mess with my mind, keys to Imperium or not. Some say the best telepaths can give you more than one body, but such sorcery gives me the shivers.

    I called in my Navigator, a long trusted friend if a bit strange, and showed her the packet. Then I had to lock the door and flash the medals in her face to prevent her from running out on me. Smart as she was, she didn't want to have anything to do with it, but I seriously needed the help. One almost-warp-accident and not a few bolts of lightning later, I had my first companion.

    I sent her out with one medal to go talk to the Psyguard. What they saw (or didn't) when the xenos came in would be useful to me.

    A contact from the Sisters of Battle shut down the dataslate on me too, but I had override codes by the bucketload. I needed to know what was going on, the entire history of weird goings on and sightings in the last few weeks. The xenos might have made a highly successful attempt, but the groundwork had to have been laid much earlier. The Sisters of Battle are notably apolitical outside of their own closed ranks and would be perfect for some archeological digging.
    A bit of arm-twisting and digital haunting later, she agreed.


    Having started off the process, it was time for me to stick my neck out and call in my superior. Or in this case, his superior's superior, the Lord High Admiral herself, one Millifille much distinguished in the recent Sol conflict. Her secretary couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Millifille's own medallion. A few more from the collection convinced her to go ask.


    The meeting was less useful than I had thought. Millifille knew nothing at all, quite surprising for a Lord High Admiral, but of course she wouldn't reveal her cards that readily. A naive little cruiser captain from her own fleet was honestly trying to make sense of a case, but she played a game far over my head as I later found out.
    In any case, I walked out of the meeting feeling optimistic and upbeat at how much I now knew about who was going to backstab whom in this kerfuffle. It was only a few hours later that I realized that I had nothing at all about the case itself.

    The piece still fit together like a jigsaw puzzle made for Chaos-corrupted mutants.

  24. - Top - End - #1374
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    Thumbs up Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    i made an account just to say thanks for writing all of this, i am a big fan of the culture universe and warhammer 40 k. Reading all this story has been extremely fun and i find your writing style very entertaining, live long and proper :)

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    Pixie in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    I wonder what would happen if the culture were to tell the imperium what they did.

    Hello Imperium of man.
    We fixed the Astronomican to help keep back Chaos.
    Sincerely the Culture.
    P.S. Your welcome.

  26. - Top - End - #1376
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Kobold

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Hey Jseah! Just thought I would say that I am looking forward to the next update!

  27. - Top - End - #1377
    Ogre in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jun 2009

    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Depending on how stalkerish you are with my activities (I don't really mind =P), you might have noted that I've not actually stopped writing. Just that I've stopped writing for this particular fic. In fact, Hero's War is progressing at roughly 1/3 to 1/2 the rate at which I wrote for this thread at its height.

    I might bring up the excuse that this particular idea of reversing the perspective of Mission Impossible is an awesome idea but really really hard to write, that's not really the reason either.

    To a large extent, I've run out of steam on this project (signs were obvious for a long time) primarily because I picked up other ideas that I wanted to write more about that were impossible to capture in this fic, sidestory or not. This is not to say I won't ever return to writing here, but honestly, until I feel like I can write for the overall idea I'm not likely to write for this. My muse has moved on in other words, even if I recycle concepts and thinking paths used in this fic.

    I am also aware that I have written a very similar post before, and the irony inherent in doing this again if I so happen to suddenly continue in two weeks time. >.>

  28. - Top - End - #1378
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Jun 2009

    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Due to inspiration, here, have a part 3!

    Part 3
    Spoiler
    Show
    Strangely enough, the Psyguard was cooperative. Well, the medallions probably helped just a bit. I have to admit I'm now completely spoiled about getting answers I want when I want it, getting back to the usual Administratum bureaucracy is going to take some doing.

    My navigator friend reported that the Psyguard noted nothing at all. Which was expected, but more interestingly, also noted nothing at all about the unregistered freighter that had been the cause of much prior headaches.

    To be honest, (ab)using my newfound power to bring to bear the biggest guns in Sol on the hapless freighter's records was pure spite, I am ashamed to admit. More so because said freighter had already left Sol. Because, I, the ex-cruiser captain whose memoirs you are reading, was the one who discovered the discrepancy in their records.

    Said freighter had come in with invalid one-time pass codes that are issued to all vessels entering Sol. While pass codes themselves are only a minor issue, one often confused by the vagaries of travel time in the warp, it's only good security practice.

    Turns out, when you report a discrepancy to a Navy on hyperalert for xeno intrusions, you get dumped into a Warp-spawned domain full of paperwork. I eventually worked out an excuse with the freighter captain to explain it by a warp accident. I thought it was a happy coincidence that when I dispatched my cruiser's Navigator to plant the evidence, he discovered the freighter already had traces of a temporal warp accident of the sort that would explain the discrepancy in the time matched pass codes.

    On hindsight, it was strange that none of the occupants of the freighter noticed a major warp accident but at the time I was only too happy to take the Emperor's Blessings to escape from the hell of paperwork and inspections.

    The Psyguard said they didn't notice any trace of a warp accident on the freighter.

    How strange should it be that a Navigator could pick up the traces while on the ship and the Psyguard spotted nothing at all? The Psyguard who, after one too many annoyed Prefects, showed themselves to be able to pick up the unwanted presence of a common field mouse in the Imperial Administratum buildings.
    (They're not supposed to look at Earth, something about interference with the Astronomican, but the mouse was supposedly too cunning to be found by pest control. I personally found the event utterly hilarious but apparently it was annoying enough that the Administratum was apparently considering flooding the chambers with gas if the Psyguard didn't prove cooperative...)

    Tracing the timing of when the freighter's cargo arrived on Earth showed that the event just exactly pre-dated the observations of the Sisters of Battle.

    I had found the vector, and with that, I could and did find the rest. Sometimes I still wish I didn't.

  29. - Top - End - #1379
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Kobold

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Yayyy! KEEP WRITING!

    I await the next bit, Jseah!

  30. - Top - End - #1380
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    Forrestfire's Avatar

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    Default Re: The Culture Explores 40K III: Just As Planned

    Oooh, an update. Thanks for writing! Can't wait until the next one

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