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Kinetica
Aug 16, 2011
baby's first trench

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Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Menouthis by E.S. Posthumus

Picking up the pieces

There were two primary tasks that you devoted yourself in the next stage of repairs. The first was the more obvious - living conditions. The Drusians had been living in a subway line for weeks, being rained on with nutrient feeds and water. Good for the fanatically religious, perhaps, but it would have some downsides in the future. You remembered the food riots, all those years ago. That kind of disruption was the last thing you needed.

With the Deeps being repressurized, you were able to move the Drusians to their new living quarters. Well, after the Krieg finished disarming the place. Hundreds of canisters of SLUDGE were carefully taken out of the air vents, secured to the Ship armory. Thousands of mines. Kilometers of razorwire. Tens of thousands of filled sandbags. They had carefully mapped out the place, and could turn it back into Krieg-Hell with forty eight hours notice.

Similar effects were taking place in the Alpha Deck, although the defenses were even more overdone there. Movable walls, destructible floors, movable autocannons. Most of these, too, were slowly brought back into the armories, carefully notated, numbered, and staffed by Krieg Quartermasters. The war would come again, and they would be ready. The Family and Officers shuffled out of their bunkered rooms like awakening from a dream.

The Drusians, meanwhile, were turning the Deeps into the Shrine World they always knew it could be. Old murals, old statues and monuments were pulled down, painted over, stripped, sanded. In their place, there was only one acceptable legend - the rising of the Living Saint Fabiyan. The stories were already scattered across a dozen lores - he died on Golgotha, he died on the Ship, he died fighting xenos, he died fighting cultists. All agreed, however, that he had come back, chosen personally by the God-Emperor.

Thousands of Drusians began affectating his style, his mannerisms. A strange cultural exchange was happening, where the Drusians tried to become more like the Krieg. The Krieg, for their part, were always happy to have more troops for the grinder, and the fanaticism of the Drusians served them well, better than a random civilian might have been. When Fabiyan shaved his head, thousands of people followed.

It was soon hard to tell where the monuments to Krieg ended and the living troops of Krieg began.

The second task you devoted yourself to was less visible, but no less important. An army of Tech-Priests, supported by the tech-dilettantes of the sub-sixers, began working their way through the entire ship. Even before the battle, the Hulk was dozens of ships badly wired together, if at all. After the battle, the conditions of the electrical systems were utter trash. Soon hundreds of kilometers of copper wiring was being wheeled out of Wintersejk’s stores, and cables being connected.

It was difficult to say, for example, get full control of the doors when you didn’t know where the doors would be installed. Or the hallways. However, getting internal pressure sensors, lighting systems, motion detectors, cameras, all of those were easy enough, and you fed them all to stations in the Engines and in the Alpha Deck. You wouldn’t be caught by surprise this time, and hundreds of your Machine-Spirits stalked through the night.

You ordered an inventory of the ship-board weapons and torpedoes, but that would take more time than just stacking crates of ammo.

Teams of Kriegers went ahead and cleared out whatever pockets of xenos that could be found, orks being most prevalent. You ordered some of the spores saved, but otherwise used extensive levels of fire and bleach to ensure that there would be no uncontrolled sporing aboard your ship. You also got a census of the survivors:

70k Drusians, (20k armed), 4k Krieger, 10k tribes, 1st and 2nd subsix (-hq), half numbers on psykers, Family/officers survived.

The Drusians weren’t really civilians anymore, but you put a statue up to their losses anyway, having it modeled by the frozen couple you had found in a breach in the hull. You had no idea when they had died, but they had an aesthetic to them, and really, one monument was as good as another. The Drusians didn’t seem to mind.

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



This is Deutsch by Eisbrecher

Digging up Between

With the rapid depressurization of the Beast, essentially all the wildlife, flora and fauna, had been removed. Oh, a few might survive the rapid changes in gravity, temperature, atmosphere, but for most, it was a death sentence. Your servo-skulls collected up DNA samples for possible cloning later, and tagged the bodies for processing.

Here and there you found old statues, old monuments. One was for the zoo, apparently where all the legends of monsters had come from. You also found a few dozen shrines to the giants - your research suggested they were Night Lords, a band of Chaos Space Marines of particularly viciousness. That suggested the source of the legends of the ‘darkness.’ You ordered them destroyed.

The shrine to the Architect claimed to be a relic of the Explorer’s Guild. You didn’t really need the Guild anymore, and was tempted to ban them. The Guild begged you let them stay in existence, pointing out their history of centuries, how much good they had done for the Family. You told them you’d think about it, and flipped through their sacred tomes. Maps, for the most part, now useless.

The servoskulls did report finding an actual jungle, which was rather a neat thing. When you went to investigate, the inhabitants (all mutants) appeared to be very dead of asphyxiation. Second verse same as the first, sample their DNA, throw them in the processors. Still, it was nice to know where another stash of water was. This place appeared to have its own weather and ecosystem.

Maybe Fabiyan would like it. You tagged it ‘Lord-Sire only’, and saved it for later.

Bleh, your new arm still itched. Synthskin growth was great and all, but as your nerves slowly grew into the flesh, it made it feel like …. wasps, or something. Quite a hassle. It would be a few more days till it was fully repaired, too. At least you hadn’t needed to rebuild your head, Fabiyan apparently was full of surprises. You needed to ask him about that at some point. And, apparently, his new set of wings.

Checking on your power armor… repairs were moving well apace. Apparently it wasn’t the first time, or even the worst time, that the relic had taken significant damage, and the Iron Hands were repairing it with a will. You didn’t even recognize half the items they were using, although the skill was quite clear. You considered a moment, and then showed them a holograph of the spine you had found in the Magos’ lair.

They paused, looked at each other. One finally spoke, a mountain’s grumble. “Many - most. Lord-Sires have equipped themselves with that.” They gestured. “The armor… has been adjusted for its use.”
You arched an eyebrow. “This is clearly xenotek and possibly warpcraft. How do you permit it?”
A long sigh. “There was … dispensation. Long ago.”
“What does it do?”
“Remembers.”
You blinked. “That’s it? Half my implants can do that.”
“From Lord-Sire to Lord-Sire, it remembers.”
Ah, now that was interesting. “What are the downsides?”
“Xenotek. Warptek.”
“Do you think I should use it?”
They stood silently. Finally, one said “Dispensation.”
“Thank you, I will consider your words.” You bowed, left. Something else to think about.

You received a message. “Lord-Sire, the orks have been cleansed. The Imperial ship you asked about should be ready for access. No traps or weapon systems have been observed, beyond what was used to keep the feral orks away.”

What do you do?

Nyaa
Jan 7, 2010
Like, Nyaa.

:colbert:
Spend 20 pf to improve life condition on all deck, make it so hospitable that no one would want to join a cult ever again.

RandomPauI
Nov 24, 2006


Grimey Drawer
Can we put the spine in a brain box so we can access and upload the memories manually?

poor life choice
Jul 21, 2006

LowellDND posted:

What do you do?

re: happy goodtimes a-ok not-evil spine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuB2yIrRNT4&t=12s

re: the human ship
Open it. Have some Krieger (is the plural Kriegers?) and Drusians with you.

Arkanomen
May 6, 2007

All he wants is a hug
destroy the spine. In the face of heresy give not one inch. The old family was corrupt, tainted. We have pruned and cleansed the tree.

standard kreig regiment with Fabs and Us

+1 for 20 PF to go to helping the people and preventing a cult from infesting our newly tilled earth.

Grognan
Jan 23, 2007

by Fluffdaddy
Keep the spine in reserve, do not use it.

Standard Krieg Regiment with Fabs and us

10 PF to living standards increase

Tell the explorer's guild to work with the Tribes to document the gun batteries for integration.

Grognan fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Jun 27, 2015

JT Jag
Aug 30, 2009

#1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver
Lowell: What would the logistics be of implanting the spine for a short period of time, only to remove it? I'm not comfortable sticking something warp-tainted in Ohone for good, but using it to dredge up the information in it and then tear it out and put it in storage might be worth it?

By the way, keep in mind that 20 profit factor is a lot of goddamn money. Spending 5 profit factor on living condition increases would almost surely give you the same result.

JT Jag fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Jun 27, 2015

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



JT Jag posted:

Lowell: What would the logistics be of implanting the spine for a short period of time, only to remove it? I'm not comfortable sticking something warp-tainted in Ohone for good, but using it to dredge up the information in it and then tear it out and put it in storage might be worth it?

Im open to it. Might take 12 hours surgery, x time research, 12 hours surgery. The Iron Hands could probably do it.

Wentley
Feb 7, 2012

Nyaa posted:

Spend 20 pf to improve life condition on all deck, make it so hospitable that no one would want to join a cult ever again.

Yep. I agree.

Grognan posted:

Keep the spine in reserve, do not use it.

Standard Krieg Regiment with Fabs and us

Tell the explorer's guild to work with the Tribes to document the gun batteries for integration.


This is also good. Maybe also tell the explorers that if they can retrain as scouts that would be useful when we need scouts, we may keep them.

sniper4625
Sep 26, 2009

Loyal to the hEnd
I'll vote for 5 PF

Anything more would be unnecessary. Also pointless - plenty of bored rich kids join cults.

Also destroy the spine, the Iron Hands clearly aren't happy about it.

Edit: Chaos doesn't do give backs. If we taint ourselves, we're tainted.

Double edit: Please do not spend a third of our dynastic wealth on the dregs when we are about to need to outfit a Crusade.

sniper4625 fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Jun 27, 2015

Outrail
Jan 4, 2009

www.sapphicrobotica.com
:roboluv: :love: :roboluv:
Spend a bunch of cash on living conditions.

Do something for the tribes, they have been loyal.

Install the spine, heretek best tek. (oh poo poo, is it chaos tainted? Check for chaos, if no then install. If it's tainted then access it remotely. Slaving chaos tech is one thing, but don't use your own meth).

Knock on the hull of the ship "Hello!? I'd like talk to you about the word of Saint Fabian.

Outrail fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Jun 27, 2015

RandomPauI
Nov 24, 2006


Grimey Drawer
Vote for 20 PF, put the spine in a brain-in-a-box so we can upload and download the memories manually

RandomPauI fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Jun 27, 2015

sniper4625
Sep 26, 2009

Loyal to the hEnd
Posting again because 20 PF is unnecessary and wasteful considering we're gonna be needing that money really soon! Like that's a third of everything we own! 5PF will already be sufficient to turn most of the Deeps into a luxury zone.

JT Jag
Aug 30, 2009

#1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver
Lowell can you please make a post informing everyone exactly what 5 profit factor would get for improved living conditions on ship compared to 20?

I'm pretty sure once you get past 5 PF, you're getting past practical improvements and into "now we're plating everything in gold."

RandomPauI
Nov 24, 2006


Grimey Drawer
Changing vote to for 5pf to improve living conditions

poor life choice
Jul 21, 2006
Yeah, 20 profit factor is like, a "poor" rogue trader's fortune, right? That is a staggering sum. Far less would be sufficient. We need money for the upcoming arc, don't we? I'd rather weaponize the hulk than waste money on that livable nonsense.

ElrondHubbard
Sep 14, 2007

Destroy the spine or at least come up with an alternative

The last thing we want is to use tainted warp tek and show up on Titan to say hi to the Grey Knights. Or in general, since at least one demon of Slaanesh has an unhealthy amount of interest in us and is just looking for an excuse to say hi again.

If there's some way to turn a dreg into a living computer and insert the spine into them to access it, then do that. Afterwards, burn the dreg and the spine.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands
Two points:

First, you normally don't spend profit factor. Profit factor is essentially a characteristic you roll against to see if you can actually afford to buy the thing you want - so normally, if we wanted to get sweet digs for the poor, we'd roll against our profit factor with modifiers based on how rare and valuable those digs would be, and if we roll under our profit factor then we got the thing, no questions asked. We might be expected to roll for upkeep on the thing every so often, but at worst that gives you a temporary penalty to acquisition tests until you increase your profit factor again. So we don't need to permanently spend profit factor to buy new digs for the people.

The second point is that you can almost literally buy a whole new starship with 20 profit factor (that is, a basic merchant ship would give you a -20 modifier to your profit factor when rolling to see if you can buy one). Also, 40 profit factor is an average degree of starting wealth for a Rogue Trader.

Tomn fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Jun 27, 2015

Pinche Rudo
Feb 8, 2005

sniper4625 posted:

I'll vote for 5 PF

Anything more would be unnecessary. Also pointless - plenty of bored rich kids join cults.

Also destroy the spine, the Iron Hands clearly aren't happy about it.

Edit: Chaos doesn't do give backs. If we taint ourselves, we're tainted.

Double edit: Please do not spend a third of our dynastic wealth on the dregs when we are about to need to outfit a Crusade.

I'm with all of this

RandomPauI
Nov 24, 2006


Grimey Drawer
Okay, I think we clearly don't understand PF in general. Could one of the Warhammer experts come up with a list of improvements that could be bought at the different PF? That might help clear things up for us.

Oasx
Oct 11, 2006

Freshly Squeezed
This has got to be the most chill group of space marines ever, they are okay with anything.

Keep the spine in reserve, do not use it.

Oasx fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Jun 27, 2015

Outrail
Jan 4, 2009

www.sapphicrobotica.com
:roboluv: :love: :roboluv:
That's why I voted for spending "whatever" is needed to improve dregs living conditions.

^Or they've seen so much heretical poo poo going on they just threw their hand in the air and pretend not see as much as possible. Kind of like how safety officials just stop caring as long as nothing gets through to the higher ups.

Edit: Oh crap, what if the iron hands are the darkness in disguise.

Outrail fucked around with this message at 22:31 on Jun 27, 2015

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands
It's like this: We have a Profit Factor of 65. This means that if we want to buy something, we pick out the item, apply whatever modifiers are appropriate to it, and roll a d100. If it's under 65, we buy it without any problems. If it's over 65, it's deemed too expensive for us/some rear end in a top hat bought up the entire supply/for whatever reason it's out of reach.

For comparison, if we were to take our current profit factor and go shopping, assuming we made no commerce tests to try and temporarily improve our Profit Factor we have about a 45% chance of buying a 9 megatonne warp-capable ship with 20,000 crew members without even straining our wallet. If we lose 20 Profit Factor permanently, that drops to a 25% chance.

Edit: Or for another way of looking at it, if we wanted to equip 10k+ dudes with basic quality lasguns, we have about a 55% chance of successfully doing so, which would drop to 35% if we managed to lose 20 profit factor.

Or to put it yet another way, according to one of the rulebook examples establishing a new ultra-elite resort world colony should increase your Profit Factor by 4 points.

Tomn fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Jun 27, 2015

sniper4625
Sep 26, 2009

Loyal to the hEnd

Oasx posted:

This has got to be the most chill group of space marines ever, they are okay with anything.

Keep the spine in reserve, do not use it.

They certainly don't seem okay with it, but honor the orders granting dispensation. Sepearate things.

Arkanomen
May 6, 2007

All he wants is a hug
'We should "Dispense" it into the incinerators.

Grognan
Jan 23, 2007

by Fluffdaddy
Changing vote to 2 PF

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands
If you want to buy flash new digs for the people, just say you want to buy flash new digs for the people because you don't spend Profit Factor to buy things. Profit Factor just determines how hard or easy it is to buy any given thing. Though I guess if we fail the Acquisition Roll you might ask Lowell if it'd be possibly to permanently burn Profit Factor to guarantee the sale goes through anyways.

sheep-dodger
Feb 21, 2013

Arkanomen posted:

'We should "Dispense" it into the incinerators.

This sounds like an appropriate response.
Maybe try accessing it remotely first, but either way after that it goes into the incinerator.

Pump it up! Do it!
Oct 3, 2012
Use the spine and 2 pf

ElrondHubbard
Sep 14, 2007

Voting not to spend profit factor on accommodations

We can roll up some nicer digs without spending profit factor, but keep in mind that at no point do we get to buy our way out of having dregs be unreliable, stupid, xeno / demon worshipping idiots. Also keep in mind that Alpha Deck is swanky, but those idiots bought into Devries' empty promises hook, line, and sinker.

Edit: Also keep in mind that making the place too nice will give them ideas about them being people. The last thing we want is them rebelling because they want more nice things, now that they know they can have some.

ElrondHubbard fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Jun 27, 2015

sniper4625
Sep 26, 2009

Loyal to the hEnd

ElrondHubbard posted:

Voting not to spend profit factor on accommodations

We can roll up some nicer digs without spending profit factor, but keep in mind that at no point do we get to buy our way out of having dregs be unreliable, stupid, xeno / demon worshipping idiots. Also keep in mind that Alpha Deck is swanky, but those idiots bought into Devries' empty promises hook, line, and sinker.

Changing vote to this. We don't need to burn.

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



That which has come before

A breach and clear - definitely something to take your mind off this endless paperwork. You wondered how other members of the Family had done it. You were augmented and needed little sleep, and still the papers stacked up. This latest demand by the Drusians - they wanted to rename the Ship! To the ‘Saint Fabiyan’! You rather thought that would give him a chuckle.

Still, best to see what this shuttle was. Very little had survived the battles intact, let alone with life inside, so it was best to go poking around and see what was there. Your armor had been repaired and reinstalled, and your arm had regrown (although it lacked the tans of Golgotha). So it goes.

A quick word to Fabiyan, who seemed equally happy to get away from his converts. They hung onto his every word, trying to imitate his every action, and he just wanted to drink alone with his Krieg. Getting to do a possible raid would make up for it, you rather hoped. A company of Krieg, a company of Drusians, and away you go.

The place had been cleaned up nicely, after what you had put it through. Walking through the retrofitted Gorgons was an experience - one breach and you’d be breathing void. You trusted your Kriegers though, and soon you were looking down into the battlefield you had conquered all those days ago. On the left, an ork wreck, cleansed by fire and flame. On the right, a luxury vehicle of some sort. Your troops rappelled down, surrounded it.

The Kriegers were all set to breach with krak grenades, and follow with blister, but you had them hold off. No need to kill off civilians just because they were lucky enough to make it through the wars. And there might be useful tech inside. And if, on the other hand, it was the Darkness, a team of Chaos Space Marines, you and Fabiyan had faced worse. Well, probably. At some point.

At your knock, the door opened soundlessly. They always were ones for the classic ominous approach, weren’t they. Your Kriegers poured in, and you didn’t hear shooting. That was a good sign, you supposed. You nodded at Fabiyan, who nodded back, and then you both moved in, guns at the ready.

(Former) Lord Sire Frederik Narciso Di Muzio was sitting back in the most comfy chair you had ever seen, drinking slowly from a brandy older than you were. He smiled at your expressions. Fabiyan, at least, had the wherewithal to speak. “I went to your funeral. You are supposed to be dead.”

Di Muzio grunted a laugh at that. “Lot of that going around. Heard you died too. Nice wings, by the way. How are you Ohone?”

ElrondHubbard
Sep 14, 2007

Talk first while secretly breaking into the security systems, then decide if he's a loose end to be wrapped up

This gives us the most options. Old Lord Sire challenges our power by being alive, but might be the sort of guy we want hanging around as a resource.

Ask about Mom, Siadwell, Devries, Eldar, the staff, the darkness, and everything else that has happened.

Ask why we don't poop

Dog Kisser
Mar 30, 2005

But People have fears that beasts do not. Questions, too.
First things first - that means our wedding was invalid!

Edit: wedding 2: now with power armor

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



dog kisser posted:

First things first - that means our wedding was invalid!

Only if anyone knows he's still alive :ssh:

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands

ElrondHubbard posted:

Ask why we don't poop

Ask: Are you my father?

Shogeton
Apr 26, 2007

"Little by little the old world crumbled, and not once did the king imagine that some of the pieces might fall on him"

An investment of 5 PF in standards of living seems prudent. This is a religion that is scornful towards luxury and niceties after all.

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Sogol
Apr 11, 2013

Galileo's Finger
Create a buffered interface with the spine so we can access it without installing it. Consider how else we might use all that free spinal real estate in our armor.

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