The Culture explores 40K II: Now With 100% more Fanfiction

[jseah]

Rogue Trader continued

Spoiler

The Rogue Trader sketched out a hit-and-run battleplan involving the use of his FTL drives to present the groups' broadsides to the enemy's stern. After some discussion, the plan was put into action.

The Chaos forces were arrayed in a rough 3 dimensional cone, tip pointing towards the Rogue Trader's four ships, with the Executor class cruiser taking point, with the lighter ships towards the back of the formation.
The rogue trader opted to attack in a square formation, with the broadsides on each face of the square.

The mercenary ships FTLed right behind one of the Iconoclast destroyers, presenting their broadsides to the destroyer's engines. Due to the Chaos fleet's formation, they were out of range of all weapons but the target ship's aft turret.
After one full salvo of lances, the destroyer's aft shields were flattened, with the Rogue Trader's personal Dauntless taking a few hits from aft weapons at extreme range, none of which penetrated his shield.
Then the rogue trader's fleet FTLed in a full circle to present the other broadside to the same destroyer and fired another salvo of lances into the ship, destroying the engines and disabling its aft turret.

Before the Chaos fleet could reorganize, the Rogue Trader and mercenaries retreated out of weapons range to reload at a right angle of the Chaos fleet's original axis of advance. As the Chaos fleet began to turn to face them, the Rogue Trader led another identical attack on the other destroyer, reaching and detonating the engine fuel, a chain of sympathetic explosions smashed the destroyer's keel turret and port broadside weapons.

One of the mercenaries launched a fission warhead down the unprotected port side and the shockwave broke the central beam of the ship, nearly breaking it in half, only the starboard superstructure held the two separate sections together.

As the Chaos fleet reorganized around the rapid strikes, the cruisers covering each other's aft areas, the rogue trader split his forces in half to attack and eliminate both destroyers, which could not maneuver and were separated from the Chaos fleet.

At this point, behavioural changes were observed in the crew and attitudes of the ship captains. Rather than being cautious at the Chaos fleet's rapid adaptation of strategy to the new observed capability, the Rogue Trader and mercenaries were bouyed by their easy success and there was talk about actually winning, instead of minimizing losses.
Golden Goose continued to combat scrapcode incursions. Effectors were used to put up a screen of static between it and the Chaos fleet, cutting off all realspace communication. Negotiation or contact with the Chaos fleet would be impossible under the circumstances in any case.

It strikes me that the tactic where the RT fires 4 broadsides from 4 ships into the engine section of a destroyer and then makes an FTL circle to fire another 4 immediately before going away to reload, the alpha strike is probably a higher weight of fire than any one arc the Chaos fleet can put out under the circumstances.

The RT locally outguns them. A double broadside from each of the Lunar, Dauntless, Sword and Firestorm probably outguns any one ship short of a full battleship...

And without the destroyers, the Chaos fleet can't actually cover each other anymore. If you assume a 90* firing arc from each broadside and prow, that leaves three 90* vulnerable arcs the RT can attack the ship from (stern, keel, mast) and face only minimal armament from the target ship.
With only 4 cruisers, there is no arrangement of ships that will not leave a vulnerable arc on at least one ship uncovered by a broadside or prow weapons.

[The Glyphstone]

Jseah, thoughts on the scenario I outlined while you were posting?

[jseah]

Originally Posted by The Glyphstone

Jseah, thoughts on the scenario I outlined while you were posting?

Damnit... spoilers! =P

Well, partly. I'll see if I can get a 2nd post in.

[The Glyphstone]

Mwahahaha.

Though you're 540 words behind on Nanowrimo, if i did the math right. Work!

[Fan]

Originally Posted by The Glyphstone

Actually, I kinda like Fan's idea of the RT getting boarded, if we combine it with the 'he can float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, but eventually he'll screw up'. Putting the SC Agent in direct, personal danger, whether it's permanent or not (for all the Culture knows, Chaos can fritz a backup if they have the 'original' in hand) could be the impetus for her to break out the serious skillz and whip the boarding party's collective butt. The RT gets away - maybe throw him a bone by getting in a lucky shot at the Grand Cruiser, and the remainder of the fleet turns to infighting to sort out the new pecking order rather than pursue the injured light cruiser. But she's blown her cover completely at this point, and as usual, hilarity ensues.

Kinda the idea, but I'd also like to see some actual tension with Chaos collecting a piece of culture tech from one of the wrecked ships.

So far it's been "Culture lulz's around and does as it pleases with no consequences.", I'd like to see them get bit a little for handing out this tech so easily, and make actual conflicts begin to occur between them and Chaos, and force the Culture's hand in meeting with the IOM to explain why their planets are getting wiped out, force an acceleration of their plan to isolate the warp from real space (and it's associated consequences), and allow for more than the current.. almost detached approach they're taking.

If only for dramatic tension, so that way at least the eventual outcome isn't so.. obvious.

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by Fan

Kinda the idea, but I'd also like to see some actual tension with Chaos collecting a piece of culture tech from one of the wrecked ships.

So far it's been "Culture lulz's around and does as it pleases with no consequences.", I'd like to see them get bit a little for handing out this tech so easily, and make actual conflicts begin to occur between them and Chaos, and force the Culture's hand in meeting with the IOM to explain why their planets are getting wiped out.

If only for dramatic tension, so that way at least the eventual outcome isn't so.. obvious.

That's what the disposable mercenaries are for, obviously. The RT isn't the only one who gets boarded, and the mercs don't have SC agents on their bridge.

[Gavinfoxx]

Originally Posted by Fan

If only for dramatic tension, so that way at least the eventual outcome isn't so.. obvious.

Why shouldn't it be obvious? Massive local superiority of particular capabilities is a major theme of this story, as well as the tensions and issues that this causes. A 'balanced' capability between spaceborn combatants would detract from the premise of the story, and the other themes and tensions that this story brings. While balance is more the case of the typical 40k themes, I like this change in themes, as it brings out other possible story arcs.

Besides, The Culture would just destroy the drive or whatever. Even if it was being teleported away, that process of setting up a teleportation circle takes time. Time where it could be destroyed via effector or failsafe or whatever.

[Fan]

Yeah, but to put it simply, that's kinda boring.

It's just "more of the same", over, and over again. I was one of the first people to state outright that without tech ganking, which the culture is good at preventing, there is no hope for any faction in the 40k Verse short of the Chaos God's themselves taking point, and actual Full C'Tan deciding that Culture Tech doesn't work in the same Star System as Tomb World's anymore.

I'm offering a story solution to a lack of dramatic tension, not a violation of premise, without conflict there really isn't a lot of interesting story to be told, as it is the basis of writing novella in of itself, and here we just have.. none.

There's no emotional conflict due to the Culture's answer so far being to blow up everything that remotely looks dangerous to them, which while logical, isn't exactly given to constructive writing. The story could really benefit from some form of external conflict, say some Idrian remnants float in and try to get back at the culture by using one of the races like the Tau as a puppet, or giving the Orks some advanced techy stuff in the right place.

There's no dramatic tension if you make the outcome obvious, and this is a story, not a versus thread at this point.

The idea at this point is that Golden Goose is busy dealing with corruption from Scrap Code broadcast, and Data Daemons in it's systems, and if the RT having separate control of the systems decides to leave the crippled fleet after the boarding actions, bringing it out of range, then we could see some building conflict.

[Gavinfoxx]

I'm sorry, but I think there is more capacity for social, interpersonal, and sociopolitical drama in my scenario. If there is something going on that is a fantastic disruption of the way things have gone, rather than 'more of the same'... with the same being 'rough military equality between forces'.

There doesn't have to be dramatic tension in the fights. There's plenty of that in 40k already.

[Fan]

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

I'm sorry, but I think there is more capacity for social, interpersonal, and sociopolitical drama in my scenario. If there is something going on that is a fantastic disruption of the way things have gone, rather than 'more of the same'... with the same being 'rough equality between forces'.

Call me when you've taken 3 creative writing courses, and have a 357 page novel under your belt.

You clearly don't understand that I'm not eschewing emotional, or social, or interpersonal challenges but adding the tension of a real and pressing conflict caused by the Culture's own morals, and giving nature combined with the new threat of Chaos that they weren't fully aware of TO those conflicts. Currently, it doesn't matter in the slighest when, or how the Culture does things. There is no challenge. There is no conflict in any sense because the other races opinions DON'T matter, and it's been repeatedly shown that the Culture just ignores them anyways.

They've preformed flawlessly so far, it's about time for a single slip up. Give the other factions a way to help the culture, and through overcoming adversity through unity, give the culture a window of opprotunity to "Advance" the Imperium of Man, and to learn what the Separation of Warp from Reality would do to every thinking being in creation.

[jseah]

I'm behind on nanowrimo because the site won't load and let me update my word count. I think I'm still missing one to two hundred though.

RT continued

Spoiler

Despite Aisha recommending caution, the Rogue Trader decided to take another pass at the Chaos warships. The four cruisers were circling each other in a slow dance that rotated their firing arcs through each other's vulnerable spaces. Amazingly, all the mercenaries went along with his suggestion for another attack.
--- After action note: it seems likely that this increase in aggressiveness and risktaking is due to the Chaos fleet. Some kind of Warp based, psychological attack with ship-to-ship ranges seems a likely explanation, given noted behaviour

During a gap in timing, the Rogue Trader salvoed four broadsides into the keel of the Executor class cruiser, this time at extremely short range to attempt to overcome the massive ship in one pass. The macrocannons of the Lunar and Dauntless battered down the shields and the laser and lance batteries smashed through a good portion of the Chaos warship, destroying a third of the port broadside weapons, disabling port and keel shields, and damaging the engine.

Despite the quick FTL escape before the other ships could rotate their fields of fire, multiple boarding parties were detected on all the ships. The psykers on the ships indicated one Chaospawn was present on the Rogue Trader's ship, the Chaos ships seemed to know which ship was in command.

Aisha Meiro went offline during the period of the Chaospawn attack on the bridge. Effector recordings of the fight indicate a kind of mental influence the Chaospawn inflicted on all the crew as they scrambled for lasguns and even melee weapons against an obviously superior foe. Multiple crewmen were killed by the Daemon effortlessly and yet the remaining crew continued to engage without any apparent fear of death.
Aisha Meiro engaged her implants' capabilities and proceeded to destroy the Chaospawn in hand to hand combat, with Effector field uplinks making impossible mid-air maneuvers and finally disintegrating the body with a plasma torch (finger implant). For a few minutes, the crew continued to fight off the boarders with a slowly decreasing level of bloodlust until all the boarders were killed; after which, there was a large amount of questions and suspicion directed at "the alien". Order was restored by the Rogue Trader who promised to investigate after the battle.

The mercenaries did not fare as well. While the Lunar fought off its boarders with a large number of casualties, including all the bridge crew and command personnel, the Sword frigate was completely destroyed by a number of internal explosions as intense fighting around its power core managed to destabilize and detonate it. Aisha Meiro also (without telling the Rogue Trader) triggered the hyperspace module's self-destruct when it looked like that section might fall, possibly contributing to weakening the reactor's structure.

The Firestorm frigate was taken over by Chaos borders, the bridge fell after a particularly notable last stand by its captain, the bridge crew and Navigator. The Firestorm lowered its shields, opened all its armoured ports and the last transmission by the captain to the Rogue Trader was a request that the Rogue Trader fire upon and destroy his ship, rather than see it be turned over to Chaos.
The Dauntless proceeded to fire continuous broadsides until the Firestorm was destroyed.

At this point, only the Dauntless was spaceworthy after the boarding action concluded, with significant internal and systems damage. The Sword and Firestorm frigates were both destroyed and the Lunar cruiser was un-commanded, had an internal fire at the bridge and its crew was down to almost half strength, with no senior officers, psykers or senior Techpriests surviving.

The Chaos ships now held the advantage, but it appeared that the significant damage to the Executor class had somehow disrupted their command structure. The fleet appeared to lose its cooperation and one shot was fired at the Executor by the Daemonship. Large amounts of comm traffic was passed, some of which managed to pass through the static screen to Golden Goose.
While the codes were undecipherable, the comm traffic was laden with scrapcode and the ensuing minor outbreak actually managed to shut down Golden Goose's long-range effector arrays for a few minutes. This dropped Golden Goose's stealth for that time.

After the appearance of Golden Goose, all four surviving Chaos ships transitioned to Warp independently.

So the Rogue Trader and a half-dead Lunar fall out of it, while only damaging the Chaos fleet. Trading two frigates for two destroyers and damaging the Lunar for damaging the Executor, he probably gave a pretty good showing all-in-all.

So, what sort of questions would he be asking the SC agent now then? There is that thing about the nanobots not supposed to have any plans but somehow able to make hyperspace drives, her bloodlust state meleeing a weak Daemon and winning (and apparently violating a few laws of reality in the meantime, while not being a psyker), and there is that mysterious large ship that appeared quite far away for a few minutes.

While her action was certainly the reason why his ship got off so lightly in the boarding action (the Daemon more or less got on his ship, killed a few people and died), I can't imagine he'd be at all happy.

(I imagine GCUs are possibly about double the size of a Lunar? 10km length perhaps...)


Khorne probably also knows now that the SC agents are "good fighting", although what he's gonna do about that I'm not too sure about.

[jseah]

@Fan:
I imagine we don't really write the same way, I tend towards a more "take me where the conditions go" kind of style. I don't actually plan for much more than one or two updates in advance beyond a skeleton (and that can change).

This is because of the constraints I face here, writing this. I do not understand 40k as much as I would like if I were writing this by myself. I actually would never write this if I couldn't get people to comment and discuss situations, like the fleet battle just now.
EDIT: in fact, the "planned" resolution of this battle and the Rogue Trader's response to the Culture has changed one time every post due to the discussion that happened afterwards. >.>
(the Culture blowing their cover was the only plan I had before I started this round's RT arc)


Nevertheless, this is already a pretty big screw up for the Culture. And containing the fallout here, while possible, would probably mean killing the Rogue Trader. And that would be alot of effort going down the drain.


Now, I admit, that my writing style doesn't show much emotion or tension, this is because of the detached report nature.
I'm not writing this for nanowrimo you know.

[Forum Explorer]

Originally Posted by Selrahc

EDIT: I'd also say that there will be a *lot* of safe zones when fighting with tactical FTL. The enemy has no idea what angle of approach you will take. You can be any direction or side of them in a millisecond. The Chaos fleet does not have enough firepower to blanket a 360 degree sphere of space around them with weapon fire.

each ship can cover 270 degrees. So they should be able to form a 360 degree death sphere pretty easily.

Originally Posted by Fan

Daemonships have no listed restrictions, and is the obvious capital ship of this fleet.

Also RT, and battlefleet Gothic are a bit outdated.

Recently, Imperial Armour: Aeronautica came out, along with the newest "Battlefleet Gothic: Armada".

You're welcome to look there.

Why would you assume the Daemonship is the capital ship?

I couldn't find the newest version of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada. Or to be more accurate I found one that was from 2003.



Anyways why couldn't they cover each other's rear arcs with 4 ships? One ship correctly positioned can cover the rear arcs of two other ships.

[Fan]

I was just hoping to see some actual conflict spring up, and force the culture's hand in a way that wasn't "self destruct, beep boop."

Guess that's just a different approach. I was looking at this from a point of "This story has a lot of victories being handed to one side, and is causing a loss of dramatic tension. In order for heroes to be "heroes" rather than conquerors they need to be faced with a foe that is greater than themselves. In this case, the only options that present this in a way that is believable is either for the Necrons to adopt Culturetech via the loss of units to isolated time on the Tomb World, or to allow Chaos to intercept a piece of technology through this conflict. Situation A: Requires a significantly larger piece of time, and more noticeable activity, whereas Situation B: Only requires a successful boarding action, and the activation of warp drives to rip multiple holes in the immaterium and some small measure of luck that the captured ship gets drawn in with it before self destruct signals can be issued."

[The Glyphstone]

He might accuse her of being a demon herself - they can take many forms, and often disguise themselves well if occupying a human host and sufficiently powerful. She's obviously not human based on her combat abilities, but not Eldar or any other alien race he recognizes, able to battle and defeat another demon in close combat, and her 'assistance' and 'technology' has not only gotten him persona non grata with the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Ordos Xenos (possibly soon the Ordos Malleus and Hereticus as well) of the Inquisition, and now he's gotten his fleet trashed all to hell. Only a demon, and a powerful one at that, would go to such lengths to arrange his personal ruination and damnation.

At the very least he's going to want to put her into custody while he figures out what he's been sucked into, and depending on how she reacts to that, it could end up with another fight on the bridge and the Navigator having to Eyeball her to death. Depending on how quickly he bolts from the scene of the battle and how much effort the Culture is willing to put into tracking him down afterwards, he might be able to sink into the background for a time with his stolen Culturetech and half-wrecked ship. If the tech-priests have, on the side, figured out a crude means of suborning the lockout on the nanoconstructors, he could disappear from the narrative for a bit only to come back later in better shape.

On the other hand, if she doesn't fight him and finds some way to convince him of her bona fides after breaking cover so spectacularly, you can go with your original plan...that might still end in Horrible Navigator Warp Eye Death, but them's the breaks.

[jseah]

You may also note that the very first post, the one I made for the first three weeks, was actually part of an argument about how the Culture would find the IoM before Chaos corruption could become a problem.

A large part of this writing IS a comparision of Culture responses and handling of various situations, and how despite their high technology and safeguards, they can still screw up. But that screwing up in ways that result in a galaxy-wide war is not only quite difficult due to their tech-locking and safeguards, it also results in a boring "everyone dies" situation.

Spoiler

I mean, look at it this way. None of the races save the Tau can adopt technology fast enough to make a difference in combating Chaos as they are now. Attempting to force it would only result in the IoM collapsing.
And the Tau can't/won't adopt Culturetech fast enough to make a difference against a post-singularity Chaos.

It results in novabombs applied everywhere. And then some. The Culture can survive perfectly fine without stars. Without anything at all actually. It's everyone dies to the highest power, there won't BE time to pave the galaxy over with Necron null-fields, the tech for which the Culture might not even get.

No, the challenge here, is not whether the Culture wins. They can, since Chaos doesn't act fast enough to corrupt them before they run over the IoM and they can correct for Chaos contamination via reload. Apart from losing a ship in the Warp, which they won't since the Culture are careful (seriously, they consider 1 in 83 million chance of death by displacement to be "risky" and prefer to use a rocket), there is about no way for tech to transfer short of getting something caught in a stasis like trap...

Like the Necrons did. They have a drone remember?

The challenge is whether the Culture can navigate the all-too-many pitfalls and reach an ending where it is "peace and light"... without violating too many of their morals.

So far though? They're probably only marginally closer to that goal than when they started.

[Gavinfoxx]

I think he'd probably consider her a Xeno rather than a Daemon. Maybe something to do with some kind of Eldar plot, or -- more likely -- one of the minor Xeno empires that he may have heard of; several of them are known for having weird tech, and he might assume that she is a converted human from one of these tiny groups. There are several of them that are known for having 'very advanced tech', and it is fairly likely that a Rogue Trader would find some of these.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/List...ntient_Species
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cate...s_and_Factions

Precisely which minor species a Rogue Trader might assume she is with... well, that would require someone more familiar with canon than me to make a stab at.

[jseah]

Originally Posted by Forum Explorer

Anyways why couldn't they cover each other's rear arcs with 4 ships? One ship correctly positioned can cover the rear arcs of two other ships.

It's 3D you know. You have to cover the ships' keel and mast regions too.

EDIT:
There's also geometry to worry about. Your aft region points away from the other ships' if you place yourself behind them to cover their regions.

[Gavinfoxx]

You know what would be reaallly interesting? If the RT knew enough xenos lore to tell The Culture Agent something like:

"You fight like an Eldar Harlequin. But I see no Flip-Belt. How do you do what you do?! Who, and what, are you?"

That would be verrryyy interesting, since the Eldar probably haven't told The Culture about Harlequins...

[The Glyphstone]

Originally Posted by jseah

It's 3D you know. You have to cover the ships' keel and mast regions too.

EDIT:
There's also geometry to worry about. Your aft region points away from the other ships' if you place yourself behind them to cover their regions.

And the problem that none of the captains are going to want to voluntarily leave the other ships to cover their vulnerable rear arcs, because that means by necessity being able to fire into their rear arcs - or at them. So the formation is going to suffer some attritional inefficiency from mutual distrust, as they use the other ships to protect themselves while trying not to leave themselves open to 'stray shots', trying to stay in a place where they might get a chance at a 'stray shot', and all the while trying to keep anyone else from noticing what they're doing. It's a lot to manage, even if there wasn't a genuine enemy to fight.

[Forum Explorer]

Originally Posted by jseah

It's 3D you know. You have to cover the ships' keel and mast regions too.

EDIT:
There's also geometry to worry about. Your aft region points away from the other ships' if you place yourself behind them to cover their regions.

It's an over simplification on the fleet rules but it basically sums it up as "assume they've got coverage above and below at no loss of effectiveness."

The geometry I'm not going to bother working out.


Anyways for fun I decided to look up the optimal strength, according to Battlefleet Gothic, each ship could bring onto one enemy ship for each side.

Lunar: 6+2 lance
Dauntless: 4
Sword: 4
Firestorm: 2+1 lance



Hades: 10+2 lance
Carnage: 16
Iconoclast x2: 3X2
Executor: 6 lance

This is what I got. Iconoclast's are very much expendable (and easy to kill) and I didn't even include the Daemonship! (Since it's an upgrade and I don't know which ship type has it.) The Carnage also outranges everything else, (but not it's full strength does.)

The Sword and Firestorm are about as durable as the Iconoclasts.

[Gavinfoxx]

By the Rogue Trader rules...
Lunar: 1 Prow (probably a lance), 2 Port, 2 Starboard (any of those can be a lance, but probably only one on each side is, at most)

Dauntless: 1 prow (probably a lance), 1 port, 1 starboard

Sword: 2 Dorsal, no lances
Firestorm: 1 Dorsal, 1 prow (a lance)

Iconoclast: 2 dorsal, no lances

[Gavinfoxx]

If I was the Rogue Trader, and realized that this person had access to Archeotech things... I would demand that they make me a fleet full of archeotech stuff. After all, my constraint on the number of ships is primarily 'crew I can trust'. The way to maximize firepower -- and the capabilities of this drive -- is to maximize automation in a ship, and targeting capacity, and range of a ship.

The best way to do this is probably to make a facility for making extremely high end servitors for crewing ships, and then to manufacture a bunch of ships that are at the extreme end for automation, and then crew them all with the loyal few people who have a stake in his dynasty and are from his ship. If he doesn't use ANY non-Imperial tech, and just focuses on archeotech as his way of doing things, he can maximize extreme range firepower with the resources he has, given his primary constraint (loyal crew), with no constraint of 'any non proscribed imperial tech' or 'any archeotech' or 'cost'. Of course he would need a 'tender' ship (probably of Cruiser or Heavy Cruiser size, probably one of the larger transports, filled with repair and resupply and manufactorum and such), for purposes of plasma and organics and refining and repair and such... because, if smart, he would assume that this work with The Culture thing won't last forever, and their nanobots likewise probably won't last forever, either, cause this will inevitably implode. So he wants stuff that can be repaired at Imperial space, in Forge Worlds... or stuff he can repair, himself...

Here's how I would do the highly-automated ships, using Rogue Trader RPG rules... this would be a glass cannon with an absurd amount of archeotech-equivalent stuff, but with the capability of FTL to not, you know, be targeted, and the capacity for archeotech shields... well, they are a bit more durable than they would otherwise be expected to be! and note, 'past histories' show just the equivalent capabilities from the books. Unless otherwise specified, everything is in the Core Rogue Trader RPG book. Good and Best quality stuff is from Battlefleet Koronus. This sort of destroyer would give extreme range and automation and targeting capabilities with VERY VERY long range laser weaponry. This amount of automation would be near-heretical... but not quite heretical. Of course this amount of archeotech, and all of them being identical... would be very, very, very odd... but again, a bunch of these should be able to zap damn near anything, and he could fabricate a story where he came across a cache of these in some weird time stasis at some lost orbital spaceyard of archeotech or something. Further, if there is any non-mechanicum ship that is most likely to have the facilities to do realspace ftl targeting or navigating or auguring or whatever, it would be this.

Unfortunately, in order to make a ship 'like this', which follows Imperial patterns closely The Culture would need to scan the one-off examples of the Archeotech bits (which, by definition, aren't in the databases as designs, except as perhaps measurements and recordings and photos of what this lost tech or whatnot can do; otherwise, anything they make would seem to be xenostech rather than archeotech), and they would have to put together the pieces from disparate examples of various sorts of scanned ships... because there likely ISN'T a ship with all of these components.

It might be reasonable to note that the Staravar Laser Macrobattery might be an X-Ray laser... or some other type of laser that isn't in common Imperial use...

Spoiler

-Hull: Meritech Shrike Raider (Source: Battlefleet Koronus)
-Machine Spirit Oddities: Martial Hubris
-Past Histories: Wrested from a Space Hulk
-Plasma Drive: Lathe 2b Escort Drive. Modified Drive (Archeotech), Best Quality (Source: Into the Storm)
-Warp Engine: Miloslav G-616.b warp engine. Best Quality. (Source: Battlefleet Koronus)
-Gellar Field: Warpsbane Hull
-Void Shields: Castellan Shield (Archeotech), Good Quality: Power
-Bridge: Bridge of Antiquity (Archeotech)
-Life Sustainer: Ancient Life Sustainer, Good Quality: Power (Archeotech)
-Crew Quarters: Bilge Rat Quarters, Good Quality: Space (Source: Battlefleet Koronus)
-Augur Arrays: Auto-Stabilized Logis-Targeter, Good Quality: Power (Archeotech)
-Dorsal Weapon: Staravar Laser Macrobattery (Archeotech), Best Quality: Range, Space (Source: Into the Storm)
-Prow Weapon: Sunhammer Lance (or Archeotech equivalent), Best Quality: Range, Space (Source: Into the Storm)
-Supplemental: Cogitator Interlink (Archeotech), (Source: Into the Storm)
-Upgrade: Best Quality Servitor Crew (Source: Into the Storm)
-Upgrade: Best Quality Turbo-Weapon Battery (Source: Into the Storm)
-Upgrade: Best Quality Targeting Matrix (Source: Tools of the Trade)
-Upgrade: Best Quality Overload Shield Capacitors (Source: Tools of the Trade)
-Upgrade: Best Quality Arrester Engines (Source: Tools of the Trade)
-Upgrade: Best Quality Superior Damage Control (Source: Tools of the Trade)

In another topic, Jseah, how much have you read this (fanon) page?

http://www.philipsibbering.com/wh40k...ts-index.shtml

It has a lot of not-canonical-but-doesn't-contradict-canon stuff about the 40k verse that might be interesting...

Edit: okay, there is a TON of stuff that conflicts with canon... *sighs*

[jseah]

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

If I was the Rogue Trader, and realized that this person had access to Archeotech things... I would demand that they make me a fleet full of archeotech stuff.

The nanobots might be archeotech, but the hyperspace drive certainly isn't.

Although I would say it's quite likely he has figured out that some xeno ship with good stealth and hyperspace drives has taken an interest in him and decided to give him tech to bribe him for their own reasons.

The reaction to that?

[Forum Explorer]

That's if you were the Rogue Trader. I guess it's important to note that most people do not play their character as an individual raised in the Imperium. He'd likely trust the familiar over strange and new as well as normal humans over machines.


(Profit off strange and new yes. Trust it, no.)

[Gavinfoxx]

How is he likely to react? Anger, aggression, suspicion, demands that his contact come clean, attempts to make it seem like he knows more than he actually does, signals to the other ship, etc.

Also, lots of demands of both the agent and the ship... RT's don't like being pawns or not in control of their destiny, but they also tend to be shrewd negotiators.

[jseah]

Originally Posted by Gavinfoxx

How is he likely to react? Anger, aggression, suspicion, demands that his contact come clean, attempts to make it seem like he knows more than he actually does, signals to the other ship, etc.

And when they do? Explain what the Culture is, and what its trying to do (get him to be their arm to fight Chaos), I mean?

EDIT: I'm not asking you to write the next part for me. I mean, it'll be nice, but suggestions are good enough. =D

[The Glyphstone]

He's definitely going to want some proof she's not a lying demon in disguise, at least, though that'll be satisfied easily enough by holding a blessed object of some kind, or dipping her hand in holy water, etc

[Gavinfoxx]

Originally Posted by jseah

And when they do? Explain what the Culture is, and what its trying to do (get him to be their arm to fight Chaos), I mean?

EDIT: I'm not asking you to write the next part for me. I mean, it'll be nice, but suggestions are good enough. =D

He will want to be dominant in the negotiations, for sure. He might even want their unconditional surrender... though he likely knows he can't get away with that. He'll likely want to maneuver them into a position where he can dictate terms, even if only years down the line, likely using their ignorance of history and of patterns of the imperium against them. Mostly, he will want to maintain the sovereignty of his Dynasty.

[Selrahc]

It's worth pointing out again that Rogue Traders are an incredibly diverse group. You need to create the character of the Rogue Trader a little more. Is he somebody who worked their way up from the gutter, with the warrant as their crowning glory? Somebody who failed on a grand scale and took the Warrant as a sort of exile? Part of an ancient dynasty of Rogue Traders? Is he a xenophile? A man motivated by honour? Legacy? Or is it all about the lucre?

There is no standard set of reactions for Rogue Traders, except to the extent that there is a commonality of all humanity.