[a / b / c / d / e / f / g / gif / h / hr / k / m / o / p / r / s / t / u / v / vg / w / wg] [i / ic] [r9k] [cm / hm / y] [3 / adv / an / cgl / ck / co / diy / fa / fit / hc / int / jp / lit / mlp / mu / n / po / pol / sci / soc / sp / tg / toy / trv / tv / vp / x] [rs] [status / ? / @] [Settings] [Home]
Board:  
Settings   Home
4chan
/qst/ - Quests


File: hivequeenQUEST.jpg (97 KB, 612x792)
97 KB
97 KB JPG
Lee rummages through the large box on the floor as he arranges various figures on the table, each figure uniquely painted and assembled with care as they face across from the crudely and haphazardly assembled force on the other side of the table of odd, somewhat humanoid figures wielding a mixture of plastic weapons and scavenged trash molded into a somewhat facsimile equipment. Several are adorned in candy wrappers or have arms taken from tossed out children s toys glued into place. One has a car antenna ornament for a head, smiling blankly with sets of cut up plastic jabbed into it to form a set of tusks. The taidaren triplets toss the figures about the table with no real care as they make their selections.

“I'm surprised you didn't sell this one when they said I was dead.” Lee says as he hefts out an almost football sized chunk of plastic molded into a mass of teeth and claws towering over the other miniatures.

“We tried.” the triplets reply “Hard to sell, to expensive.”

“Oh.” Lee says. “Well, glad to hear you missed me enough to pick my apartment clean.” He orients the large figure as the table forms various hills from a mixture of haptic hologram projections and a layer of reflexive tissues forming into a valley with a mixture of debris scattered about the area, with a crumbling road connecting the two armies.

“Alright. Sushi, you roll for the initiative.” Lee says, and hands him a small die. He sucks it into an air jet, puffing his body as the jet tenses before spitting it on the table.

"Lee gets first deployment." The ceph says blandly. The triplets make a collective sigh of squeaking exhalation, their tongues clicking in and out in frustration as they watch Lee place the large roughly insectoid figure firmly on the table with an audible thud, and its base sinks into the flesh terrain to secure it in place.

The Lord General looks at your titan as steam billows from its breathing holes like fumes from a great machine, its neck spewing visible heat as the vents for its forward weapon flair bright red. It steps forward, crushing the road beneath its great clawed feet as it begins its march. The air fills with swarms of wasps and warriors clamor over its carapace, nesting in the ridges of its armor waiting for the time to strike.

Welcome back to Hive Queen Quest!

>Archives http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Hive%20Queen%20Quest
>Twitter https://twitter.com/HiveQueenQuest
>Various pasta http://pastebin.com/u/QuestDrone
>FAQ ask.fm/QuestDrone
>Discussion page http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Quest_talk:Hive_Queen_Quest
>>
File: happening.meme.gif (973 KB, 312x213)
973 KB
973 KB GIF
>>
>>1588109
BEST. INTRO. EVER.
>>
>Oh.” Lee says. “Well, glad to hear you missed me enough to pick my apartment clean.”

Lee is the best human speaker.
>>
Daily reminder

>Raid OQ
>Read the locked memories of that thinker.
>Board a scav vessel for their FTL.
>Send a diplomacy team to earth.
>Build that new FTL prediction building.
>Take Reprive (I think that is the system that our mother made her last stand and it only has mining corvetts, it would be a great test for our raiding fleet.)
How long have i been doing this for?
>>
>>1588109
can we have our hero sniffers retired to the embassy?

also
>gas the void
>spacewar now
>>
>>1588126
>spoiler

Keep doing it. It tradition already.
Just like our moto of
"Gas the squids
Nuke the whales etc..."
>>
>>1588137
which reminds me;

GAS THE SQUIDS
NUKE THE WHALES
STAB THE MONKEYS
TRUST NOTHING
THE VOID IS WATCHING
>>
>>1588143
Best moto ever.
>>
Lee has the best friends, really, how many people would miss you so much to be troubled to go gather your things.
>>
>>1588160
They're Taidarens. They were there to take all his stuff and sell it.
>>
>>1588165
Hey Lee was, suposely, dead. Besides it would have being better they sellung it then leaving it be destroyed in the apartment demolition.
>>
Reminder to not go near 4-dimensional crystals, no matter how their mysterious angles seduce and beguile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZp0ETdD37E
>>
File: 1408861997328.jpg (284 KB, 1600x1111)
284 KB
284 KB JPG
>>1588109
"Hold fire!" General Cunningham says, and you hear the order echo from other humans until a klaxon sounds in the base and a voice blasts over the facility.

"Atomic artillery holding fire. Return to standard operations per ambient radiation level." You watch as shuttles and short range gunships land one after another as human troops load in quickly, each lifting off just as another lands in its place. It is a well rehearsed and well organized system sending hundreds of human troops into the air in moments. The General watches it with scrutiny, finding any and every misstep even from this distance and devising drills in his head to run the men through to fix each one. He turns to your speaker.

"I'll leave the subterranean attack up to you. Your gestalt intelligence will be able to coordinate that better than we could hope to. While I don't want to leave the entire fight to you, I don't want a bunch of outsiders throwing off your cohesion. Let me know when to send in troops so they don't get in your way." He says. "We can mop up and let you move on to the next-"

"Icoming!" Someone screams as a number of thunderous booms echo across the horizon and a siren begins to sound. Lights flash brightly marking the entrances to bomb shelters as PD guns along the walls extend from their armored housings.

"Bring up the shield!" Cunningham shouts, and he turns to your drone. "I doubt there is time to bring your forces back under the projectors, but while we're taking hits we won't be able to give any covering fire or deploy our forces."

>Charge the enemy position with your titan
>Have airborne drones attempt a bombing run on the scavenger artillery
>Deploy your subterranean attack forces
>>
>>1588207
>>Have airborne drones attempt a bombing run on the scavenger artillery
use them as a distraction to
>Deploy your subterranean attack forces
>>
>>1588207
>Have airborne drones attempt a bombing run on the scavenger artillery

Because this also gives us the option to do some areal recon.
>>
>>1588207
>>Have airborne drones attempt a bombing run on the scavenger artillery
>>Deploy your subterranean attack forces
Tunneling is a hive specialty.
>>
>>1588207
>Have airborne drones attempt a bombing run on the scavenger artillery
>Deploy your subterranean attack forces

We keep Titan-kun for the final push.
>>
>>1588207
>>Have airborne drones attempt a bombing run on the scavenger artillery
>>Deploy your subterranean attack forces

soon my glorious Titan, soon
>>
>>1588207
>Have airborne drones attempt a bombing run on the scavenger artillery
>Deploy your subterranean attack forces

Save the Titan for when we know it will break them, rather than dying shamefully halfway across the open field. Maybe once the other attacks are already engaged.
>>
Can i just say that i love the fact that this war is basicaly turning out to be the humans trying to not look as if they had a ineficient army in the hive eyes?
>>
>>1588267
I know anon, but we need to lower the scav batteries so Titan-kun won't be kockned out by the focused fire of it.
>>
Ah now that im in a live thread:

Idea for the psyonic cloak: Make our creep generate the cloak thoughts and line nodes along the drone routes that are minor simple relays, marking out paths through the obscufation. Having the nodes be destroyable to prevent enemy useage. Would make seiging us a real damn pain in the ass, like trying to punch fog.
>>
>>1588207
The triplets quickly adjust their figures, scooting them into position as they orient a number of large, haphazard looking guns and one of them flashes a small laser measure from its base to the targets. One after another, the triplets quickly pull out small paper circles as they calculate the drift of their units attacks.

"Rockets first!"
"Many!"
"Make things gooey pulp."
"Tasty pulp... yes tasty." They chirp as they bob their heads in small circles to examine the distance between the figures and begin tossing dice. Lee grabs a number of small winged figures, and clicks a switch on their bases that makes them float into the air on a field of magnetism, and the table pulls their base forward.

"Good thing too." Lee says. "With all that activity you made it a lot easier to get in a deep strike." He places several large roughly worm-like creatures in the midst of the plastic cannon figures, and he tosses a set of dice.

Please roll 2d100, best of 3, first for your airstrike, second for tunneling drones to attack.
>>
Rolled 62, 23 = 85 (2d100)

>>1588303
For Mother!
>>
Rolled 48, 40 = 88 (2d100)

>>1588303
>>
Rolled 97, 89 = 186 (2d100)

>>1588303
>>
>>1588314
Thank you, Glorious Anon!
>>
>>1588314
YEEEAH BUDDY.

This is a good start.
>>
>>1588314
Praise mother
>>
File: Oh Baby.jpg (165 KB, 984x628)
165 KB
165 KB JPG
>>1588314
>>
File: 1466480054749.png (179 KB, 558x592)
179 KB
179 KB PNG
>>1588314
Scavs are about to get ganked hard.
>>
>>1588314
Thkse poor scavs...also excelent idea QD using Lee's pass time to give a ample view of our battle field.

On a side note can Lee become the hive strategist? I bet a lot of quantum thinkers are already plucking ideas from his head since he became psionic sensitive.
>>
>>1588351
We are better strategist than he is.
>>
Gotta say QD, I love the juxtaposition of Lee and his friends with their minis and us with our real forces helping the Commonwealth. Great job!
>>
>>1588363
>>1588351
It was Grave's idea, actually
>>
>>1588296
Not sure what you mean. The only psionic cloaking I'm aware of also cuts off the cloaked thing from the rest of the Hive.
>>
>>1588373
Doesn't matter still a great idea and you are doing pretty well.
>>
>>1588378
The queen who we rescued lived with those xenos who used overlapping psionic thoughts to mask the very existance of their part of the planet.

We are researching psionic spores, which are a part of the hive creep. The idea is to mix the two in a fashion that does not disable our own drones.
>>
>>1588397
> in a fashion that does not disable our own drones.

Yeah, that's where you lost me.

The psionic cloaking cuts off Hive communication.
>>
>>1588296
I like this idea
>>
>>1588378
That's what the small relays are for, to allow our forces to "see" through the fog.
>>
>>1588296
I'll support a research project if QD says it's feasible.
I'm a bit skeptical it will work like that, though.
>>
>>1588473
Normal thoughts send out psionic signals that require being close to detect, it should fit within the framework of possibility of the setting.
>>
>>1588373
I love that you two work so well together....wonder how the hive would fare if they ran into the new necrotic armada...
>>
>>1588303
"Reaction rolls!" The triplets squeak as they toss their dice, and then clatter their bone plates in disgust.

You find several dozen artillery cannons set up along the industrial facility, or what is left of it. The radiation makes it difficult to find the target at range at first as they fire from fields of hot glass, and a sudden swarm of blaster fire takes down several of your drones as they close in, diving from the sky towards the gun emplacements until you manage to make out a proper look at their position. They are small, compact cannons set on wheeled trailers. Some have been drug out by alphas in power suits, while others are hitched to vehicles both scavenger and human in design, military and civilian both. They seem to have been hauled out of their shelters the moment the artillery stopped.

Your drones unleash their volley of weapons fire and begin to rip into the guns as anti-air shells burst in the air around them. Several more drones burst open from the incoming fire, but you are losing fewer than you had anticipated, and as the dust begins to settle and the drones swoop back up into the air, you find more hits than you had initially hoped for. The ridgeline of guns have been decimated, and your drones begin to swoop back for a second run on the survivors, tearing into the AA positions as scavengers scramble in a mad panic at the echoing screech of your diving aircraft.

The lights flicker in the bunker as scavengers sprint along corridors and shake the debris of falling rubble and dust from their armor. The walls crack and crumble, and several scavengers watch with a spreading chemical signal of unease, until the floor collapses, and several grunts fall into the sinkhole of dirt and compacted clay bellow. They try to claw their way back up, when one of them is pulled waste deep into the mud with a sickening crunch as it lets out a panic signal and its spines clamor in a cacophony of agony. Its body begins to thrash from side to side as it is drawn deeper into the soil, its arms clawing at the ground as it sinks away into the mud as neon blood seeps up from where it vanished. The others scramble all the more fiercely, crying out for help. Another's foot sinks down and bends sharply to the right as it trips, and something quickly drags it back down into the sinkhole as it rattles in a panic to the others. A pack alpha watching from the edge quickly places several bolts into the grunt's torso as it the body slips beneath the soil, and orders the others to open fire into the dirt. The soil rumbles, and then rushes forth in a sudden eruption of mud and clay that sends the surrounding scavengers flying back as a colossus erupts from the ground and crashes into the ceiling. Burning plasma licks from its mandibles, and it sprays a formation of scavengers as they quickly melt apart, their bodies dissolving into chunky puddles of burning slag and crisp, brittle bones.

cont.
>>
SUP BITCHES WE HEARD THERE WAS A PARTY
>>
>>1588548
Wow gettung a Starship Tropper/Tremors vibe from this underground attack. Glorious carnage
>>
>>1588522
I doubt that would turn out well, graves is a passable story teller but an almost hilariously terrible QM.
>>
>>1588573
Pretty damn sure if there are any survivors from fighting this battle, they are going to make PTSD look like a cake walk.
>>
>>1588572
Not saying: "Were is the convenient seatting!!!"
>>
File: 20170524_172519.png (598 KB, 1487x420)
598 KB
598 KB PNG
For mother!

>>1588548
Oh boy.
>>
Welp guess we are getting some good PR today boyis!!
>>
>>1588522
I've been curious to see who would win in a fight

A Reconstructed Troll or a Hive Warrior
>>
>>1588574
Really? Thought he was decent enough
>>
You know what is the scariest part of this post?

this one
>cont
>>
>>1588495
That's a total non sequitur.

Psionic cloaking is not 'obscufation'[sic], it acts as a complete, absolute seeming-nonexistence-field. Relays only generate the cloaking field, no amount of power or relays can penetrate it or 'mark out paths' through it once it's active.
>>
>>1588607
The Troll. A heavy warrior would be a tossup though, but I'd still bet on the Troll if it was melee only 1v1.
>>
>>1588618
Well until QM states either way, im going to push the idea.

I dunno if you guys had some little chat in the wikki about it, but ill keep popping out ideas. Far as im aware the field is generated by the combined thoughts, but if we have something that stands out for the drones to look for, they could just ignore the field all together.

If possible i imagine itd be expensive and upkeep heavy.
>>
>>1588628
I dunno, I'm pretty sure the Heavy Warrior would wipe the floor with a Troll even in a melee only.

Heavies are pretty dang big
>>
>>1588628
I like to think that the troll would be able to relatively easily break through the Heavy Warrior's carapace,but the warrior would be just a bit faster/more nimble(relative to the troll). While it wouldn't save its life,it would make groups of them more troublesome.
>>
>>1588609
By what metric? He's dumbed down the crunch in his quest to the point where anything quantified by numbers no longer holds any meaning or impact to the actual outcome of events. Combine that with the fact that he basically makes every significant political decision himself instead of giving the players control, and you're left with a situation in which the players themselves have no real impact on the direction or outcome of the quest anymore. I mean, he went ahead and provided the armatocere with that elemental power unconditionally...after the players voted not to give it to them unconditionally.

What kind of a QM does that sort of thing? DATS might make for a decent enough story, but it can scarcely be regarded as quest at this point, much less the sort of civ-lite graves keeps selling it as.
>>
File: 1429411729485.png (42 KB, 545x335)
42 KB
42 KB PNG
Hey neat I almost forgot it was HQQ night
>>
File: 1492582781022.gif (2.5 MB, 368x270)
2.5 MB
2.5 MB GIF
>>1588663
Yeah, I am pretty shit when you put it that way
>>
Oh gee, I swear whenever Grave is in the quest he gets shat on
>>
>>1588684
lmao right?
>>
>>1588674
Isn't your name a little bit redundant?
>>
>>1588663
I have never seen any of Grave's quests, but even if everything you said is true there's no need to shit up other quests by complaining. Especially since QD is grave's friend.
>>
>>1588712
Why would it be redundant? I keep my name up because I like it.
>>
File: 1423875455315s.jpg (3 KB, 125x93)
3 KB
3 KB JPG
>>1588678
NO BULLY
>>
>>1588749
No no, what he means is that a QM calling themselves a cursed qm is like a witch calling themselves a filthy heretic witch. Redundancy in meaning, I believe.
>>
>>1588548
Several ghost beetles emerge from the mud, skulking low to the ground like panthers as they lunge forth and rip apart several stragglers as the others flee to the doors and seal them shut. Warriors pull themselves from the mud, clawing forth to the shattered concrete as they rush to the steel doors, bashing them in as the metal slowly gives way with each impact and a flood of panic pheromones seeps in from the cracks where they huddle in a defensive position.

The first door gives way, and the warrior is peppered with a hail of blaster bolts that seer its carapace and blisters its joints as its legs crack and pop with boiled blood as its armor sublimates away layer by layer. It opens fire, ripping into the scavengers as its tail plucks one of them and bashes it to the ground behind it, only for it to be drug back into the room of drones where several warriors tear it apart while more ghost beetles rush in between their legs. They sprint in from side to side, evading what blaster fire they can as their tails whip out and slice open several scavengers in passing as they lunge at their targets. The scavengers rip at them with their own claws in a desperate panic as the drones rip open their torsos with their mandibles and shred their neural clusters with a spray of neuro-fluid that sends them into brief spasms as their claws slide down the sides of your drones in a vain and autonomic last attempt to claw them off, and the ghost beetles quickly turn to the others, their mandibles dripping with blood and neuro-fluid as they lean forward on their forelimbs like a predator ready to pounce, their blades digging into the floor as blood splatters lightly in small streaks off them with the faint vibrations of the micro-muscles and wisps of smoke swirl from the tips from the growing heat.

The first takes a blaster bolt to the shoulder, sending it rolling back as its carapace cracks and simmers, and the other lunges forward with its blades outstretched, sinking deep into the scavenger's armor. A scavenger pup dives for it, knocking it off the grunt as it grips its arm and presses against the hanging chunk of flesh. It glances back up, twisting its arm to aim its blaster as two warriors descend upon it, fighting over its body as they tug on either end until the grunt is torn in half and the drones crack open its armor like a steamed shellfish.

You can hear alarms begin to sound. Human in design, but the audible alert seems to work just as well for the aliens as the lights flicker with more airstrikes on the surface.

Zippo knocks their heads together in frustration.

"No fair!"
"Lucky!"
"No more deep striking!"

The three quickly adjust their figures, bringing a number of their larger units into the fray, large, tin-can shaped machines with scrapmetal crab claws and sawblades swinging from their sides.

cont.
>>
>>1588767
Ah. I don't know why I picked CursedQm as my name. I just liked how it sounded.
>>
>>1588643
Exactly, your drones get a massive benefit from their hive tactics since they are able to function together perfectly. Alone, a hive drone is mostly just a suicide attacker. The only real question I think would be if the warrior could deal a lethal amount of damage before it inevitably gets killed or not.

Now two drones could take one on much more reliably.

>>1588749
QMs are already cursed.
>>
File: 1377525365884s.jpg (3 KB, 125x125)
3 KB
3 KB JPG
>>1588785
>>
Titan-kun!! It's time to go kill for mother!
>>
>>1588770
>The three quickly adjust their figures, bringing a number of their larger units into the fray, large, tin-can shaped machines with scrapmetal crab claws and sawblades swinging from their sides.

Are we about to encounter the scav equivalent of a deff dread?
>>
Isn't a troll more of an equivilant to a heavy warrior rather than a normal one?
>>
>>1588770
>larger units

TITAN WE NEED YOU
>>
>>1588825
Basically, yeah.
>>
>>1588847
Ah, they think they can intimidate us with "larger units." Lets show them how it's really done.
>>
>SEND FORTH THE INSECT-KAIJU
>>
File: 1424560904265.jpg (346 KB, 1024x1542)
346 KB
346 KB JPG
>>1588770
The ghost beetle rolls on the ground with the pup as it tears at its carapace in a blind rage. Its head is unaltered and natural in form, revealing its smooth, beak-like head to be an almost arrow shaped beak of thick hide, covered in small dimpled dots while the underside holds an almost hollow cavity covered in spined, finger-like mandibles rippling in a waving motion as if to pull in whatever it can find and pack it down its gullet. It thrashes at the drone, its gullet making snarling gargles until your drone pulls it off with its tail, sending it rolling to the floor where two more ghost beetles lunge towards it and rip through its shell-like armored hide.

You can hear the sudden whirring of servos and a dense fog of pheromones permeates the air, driving the remaining grunts to turn back from their retreat and fight with suicidal fervor as you see a sudden flood of reinforcements rush into the bunker. Following quick behind are several large pack alphas, each cocooned in a large armored power suit. Their shoulders unfold, and racks of small microrockets set in hexagonal mounts emerge, quickly tracking your drones as they fire a rapid volley of explosive projectiles.

A ghost beetle sprints forward, and one of the alphas hoists its weapon with a rapidly growing whine of built up energy, and with a loud pop of expanding ionized air, the drone explodes into a spray of blood and chunks of chitinous gore. In its other arm is a large mechanical fist, more similar to a human hand in appearance, possibly to better use salvaged equipment, and its forearm unsheathes a large curved serrated blade that shimmers with heat as it runs from wrist to elbow.

>Have your flying units provide cover for your titan as you attack on the surface while the ground units distract
>Have your ground units continue to push the attack and clear the bunker area
>Have your hive Titan charge the facility
>Other
>>
>>1588884
>Have your flying units provide cover for your titan as you attack on the surface while the ground units distract
OVERWHELMING FORCE, GO!
>>
>>1588884
Have your hive Titan charge the facility
>>
>>1588884
>Have your flying units provide cover for your titan as you attack on the surface while the ground units distract
>>
>>1588884
>Have your flying units provide cover for your titan as you attack on the surface while the ground units distract

Lets go boyos
>>
>>1588884
>Have your flying units provide cover for your titan as you attack on the surface while the ground units distract

Squish ALL THE THINGS
>>
>>1588884
>>Have your flying units provide cover for your titan as you attack on the surface while the ground units distract
>>
>>1588884
>Have your flying units provide cover for your titan as you attack on the surface while the ground units distract
This keeps either front from being able to bring forward a meaningful resistance.
>>
>>1588884
>>Have your flying units provide cover for your titan as you attack on the surface while the ground units distract
>>
>>1588884
>Have your flying units provide cover for your titan as you attack on the surface while the ground units distract
>>
>>1588884
>Have your flying units provide cover for your titan as you attack on the surface while the ground units distract
Let's go.
>>
>>1588884
"You suck at this." Sushi says flatly, his eye stalks looking to each of the three taidarens. They hiss at him.

"Suck salt."
"You did no better."
"Attacking, attacking!" They squeak. Lee examines them as the triplets roll their dice, and he cracks his fingers before he grabs the massive insectoid figure and slides it across the table.

Your titan's thermal vents flair with steam and wisps of fire as it's body leans forward. Its first step pounds into the ground before it sending several burnt cars flying through the air to either side. Its next step grinds into the ground several meters deep as its clawed foot rips up concrete and asphalt in a deep gash across the ground as it plants its foot back into the street. A pillar of mud erupts along its heel as it uproots its leg from the dirt as its torso continues to lean forward into a run until its forelimbs hit the dirt, throwing its body forward as it leaves deep gashes in the ground several meters deep, hurling debris behind it in wide arcs as it builds speed. Burning plasma seeps from its mandibles like drool from an animal's jowls, leaving a trail of flames and simmering smoke in its wake as its ventilation tubes flair like smoke stacks with a deep roar of rushing air. Swarms of wasps shed from its back like birds from a tree, casting a shadow across the ground before it as they swarm through the air.

Please roll 3d100, best of 3 for your three pronged attack, for air, ground, and titan respectively.
>>
Rolled 44 (1d100)

>>1588989
FOR MOTHER!
>>
Rolled 95, 87, 95 = 277 (3d100)

>>1588989
FOR MOTHER BUT WITH THE CORRECT DICE!
>>
Rolled 87, 15, 42 = 144 (3d100)

>>1588989
>>
>>1588998
AYOOOOOOOOOO
>>
Rolled 15, 97, 57 = 169 (3d100)

>>1588998
This is beautiful
>>
File: 1427078463723.gif (453 KB, 255x144)
453 KB
453 KB GIF
>>1588998
Rest in peperoni, scavs.
>>
File: Nice rolls.jpg (60 KB, 468x375)
60 KB
60 KB JPG
>>1588998
>>1589007
Its almost sad.They never stood a chance.Oh well. KICK THEIR ASS LEE/MOTHER!
>>
>>1588998
>>1589007

>95 97 95
I feel bad for the Scavs at this point honestly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ61HNR3M5k
>Titan's theme song
>>
File: its time.jpg (8 KB, 252x244)
8 KB
8 KB JPG
>>1588998
>>1589001
>>1589007

>95, 97, 95
>>
File: 1414225669539.jpg (30 KB, 320x213)
30 KB
30 KB JPG
>>1588998
>>1589007
>>
Is having an entire Hive mind with dedicated tactical thinkers behind you while playing a war game considered cheating?
>>
File: 1497687543490.jpg (36 KB, 480x478)
36 KB
36 KB JPG
>>1588998
DAT GODLY ROLL
>>
File: 1479104041360.jpg (114 KB, 454x480)
114 KB
114 KB JPG
>>1588998
Mother is the best at war games
>>
>>1589051
TBF, the taidarens are pretty gestalt on their own. And isn't Sushi's species made up of separate parts working in tandem as well?
>>
File: 1372463173369.jpg (13 KB, 278x181)
13 KB
13 KB JPG
>>1588998
>>1588989

This gon be good
>>
>>1589125
>the taidarens are pretty gestalt on their own.
They aren't.
>>
>>1589165
>They aren't.
They aren't psionically linked, but they're a triplicate species(at least lee's friends who are male are) that works together right?
>>
>>1589165
Yeah they just have a VERY tight knit community.
>>
>>1589174
>>1589165
My mistake, I could have worded that better. I meant that they're working together. If they can work as a triplicate why can't Lee enjoy some thinker power?
>>
>95, 97, 95

Wow, we rock.
>>
>>1588998
MOTHER SAYS OF GET REPRODUCTIVE MECHANISM!
>>
Scav is back on the menu boys!
>>
>>1589247
Don't be silly. Scav is always on the menu.
>>
>>1589098
The best.
>>
>>1589328
Until they finally crack, beg for mercy and give us the couch.
>>
>>1589328
Scav: It's what's for dinner.
>>
>>1588631
The point is it doesn't fit with the framework as established at all, which is what you said.

It's not even clearly laid out what the idea even is, because it makes no sense with what psi cloaking even does.
>>
>>1589333
nice picture and nice trips too
>>
File: 1441702730410s.jpg (395 KB, 1029x1466)
395 KB
395 KB JPG
>>1589333
awesome
>>
Does scav even taste good?
>>
>>1588989
QD's captcha is dying again isn't it.
>>
>>1589356
We're the Hive, everything tastes good as long as it's got chemical energy or useful elements.
>>
>>1589333
Would we be able to make hive minis? Like a 'dumb' miniature worker that could move as a game piece?

Or hell could we make large scale models with actual functional stuff just for fun?
>>
File: IMG_20170619_131231.jpg (2.38 MB, 2976x3968)
2.38 MB
2.38 MB JPG
>>
File: ScavFilth.png (92 KB, 500x500)
92 KB
92 KB PNG
>>1589378
>>
>>1589358
Of course.
>>
>>1589378
Good art.
>>
File: 1496531020837.jpg (76 KB, 724x620)
76 KB
76 KB JPG
>>1589378
bretty good anon
>>
>>1589378
STRONG
>>
>>1589378
Nice Anon. Very nice
>>
>>1589358
Sorry, had to step away for a bit to change my bandages. Need to change them three times a day.
>>
File: 1491538858354.gif (4.96 MB, 375x159)
4.96 MB
4.96 MB GIF
>>1589378
Pretty much exactly what's happening in the scav lines right now.
>>
>>1589413
Take care of yourself, QD.
>>
>>1589413
Aw shit. Take care of yourself QD.
>>
>>1589413
Blood or pus?
>>
>>1589413
pls no die
>>
File: HQQ get well soon.png (141 KB, 500x500)
141 KB
141 KB PNG
>>1589413
Take as much time as need be man, your health always comes first!
>>
File: IMG_20170619_132722.jpg (1.52 MB, 3179x2283)
1.52 MB
1.52 MB JPG
>>
>>1589463
God Skyl are mildly horrifying
>>
>>1589445
Neither. It's a ruptured pocket of white blood cells that thought a suture knot was an infection. The knot was removed after the pocket ruptured, and so I just had to keep it stuffed with gauze while it drained. It's stopped leaking for a few days now, and it's almost closed up entirely, but I still need to change the gauze to keep it clean.

>>1589469
Oh god this image is great.
>>
>>1589469
>scav filth in a seating

their crimes know no boundories do they?
>>
>>1589469
Never stop drawing.

>>1589489
I still can't believe how lucky you were.
>>
>>1589463
>>1589469
these are awesome
>>
>>1589463
This one is super cute.
>>
>That triple nineties
What a good way to start my monday morning at work! Scavs gonna give us couch or be turned into some!

Which makes me wonder. What would a Titan-size couch look like?
>>
>>1589542
Pretty confy. And it would be a new dize on it's on. Like there are King and queen sized beds? It would become a titan sized.
>>
>>1589542
>Scav furniture
Hold on now, you might be onto something. We could fashion furniture out of their skin and bones and sell them to the Commonwealth.
>>
>>1589542
It'd look like a mound of scav bodies so large and dense our titans could use it as convenient seating.
>>
He's gonna update soon, I can feel it
>>
>>1589571
Right about...
>>
File: IMG_20170619_135235.jpg (1.62 MB, 2529x3067)
1.62 MB
1.62 MB JPG
glad you guys enjoy them here's some more scribbled filler material
>>
File: HQQSkyl.png (135 KB, 500x500)
135 KB
135 KB PNG
>>1589476
>mildly horrifying
>mildly
I chitter my pharyngeal jaws in your direction.
>>
>>1589605
Are those supposed to be Taidarens?
>>
>>1589605
Thought they were lizard centipedes
>>
>>1589628
>>1589635
He's newish
>>
>>1589605
Don't really look like Taidarens, sorry. Your other art is great. There's good art of Taidarens in the Quest somewhere. I'll try to post later if I can find it.
>>
>>1589628
>>1589635
>>1589643

This essential

>>1589653
That'd be great thanks.
>>
File: 94466114.jpg (1.36 MB, 975x1723)
1.36 MB
1.36 MB JPG
>>1588989

Scav gun emplacements open fire as rockets fly from their housings and looted commonwealth anti-tank guns fire vibrantly glowing rounds through the air. Plasma flak illuminates the skies with momentary flashes of your drones' silhouettes as they dive in on their attack runs. The ground rips apart with impacting munitions as scavengers rupture into a fine mist of blood and shrapnel, others diving for cover as wasps pluck them off the walls and into the sky before back down in pieces.

You spot a number of commonwealth armored vehicles, looted and jerry rigged with scavenger technology to turn them more into a kind of semi-stationary pill box as their cannons open up. Larger scavenger vehicles emerge from the sheltered garages, a mixture of hovering attack vehicles and armored walker tanks. They are built almost like shuttles, clearly intended for speed as they drift over the mud. Their fronts are mounted with rotary canons, with blaster turrets set along their sides and each with a large railgun set atop. The walker tanks are more robust, with thick armor and small shield emitters set into the sides of their hulls. They are each fitted with rocket launchers that send streaks of fire into the sky after your approaching titan, the launchers flanking a large artillery cannon as its legs dig into the dirt for stability. Along the front is a large cluster of sensors and a drone controller holding a small spotter drone in its housing, and flanked by several blaster turrets.

The cannon shells whistle as they fly through the air, glancing off the armor of your titan as it continues its sprint. Its back arches as its particle cannon unfolds into firing position, and it opens up a consecutive volley across the field where the hover tanks attempt to flank. They burst into fire, their armor melting away as scavengers flail about in silent screams as they try to flee the burning husks, the armor caving in as they melt to slag. More artillery shells bounce from the titan's armor, glancing off and detonating in a nearby hillside as it rolls its shoulder to swing its arm into the air for a moment, firing its heavy thumper as a truck sized shell of complex ordinance arcs its way over the blown out industrial facility. It bursts, its chemicals igniting like a small sun in the sky as liquid fire falls down on the facility, burning everything with a white hot glow. Scavengers flee the flames, leaping from walls.

The titan examines the results, scanning for more enemies, as rockets arc into its shoulder and detonate against its carapace. Its thermal vents flair with a sudden burst of heat, and the plasma seeping from its mandibles glow brighter as it opens its maw with an echoing roar of rippling fire. You can see scavengers flee their tanks, abandoning them entirely as a wave of plasma engulfs the field, burning it to glass. The flames part as the titan lurches forward, its body singed with a momentary sheath of plasma across its carapace.
cont.
>>
File: 1460432536888.gif (1.46 MB, 498x620)
1.46 MB
1.46 MB GIF
>>1589673
>everything about this post
>>
>>1589673
nice
>>
>>1589673
This is beautifull. Go for it Titan-kun.
>>
File: IMG_2154.png (74 KB, 500x500)
74 KB
74 KB PNG
>>1589665
Here's what I could find for Taidarens.
>>
>>1589673
I wonder what the faces of the commonwealth people look like at this moment.
>>
>>1589729
"Hoo boy, glad THAT's on our side!"
>>
>>1589729
"lets never ever ever piss off the bugs"?

you can bet your ass at our next diplomatic meeting there will be a abundance of convenient seating.
>>
>>1589673
I'm crying


It has every detail I added, I love you QD
>>
>>1589673
>The walker tanks are more robust, with thick armor and small shield emitters set into the sides of their hulls.
Huh, the commonwealth have shield miniaturization too.
>>
>>1589756
Scavs more likely
>>
>>1589463
You're nice to QD but you bully Grave.

Asshole
>>
>>1589729
>>1589747
>>1589750
Can't wait to see the Union reaction once the recordings of this war end up on their laps.
>>
>>1589756
Didn't worked much againsy a giant breath of plasma did it?
>>
File: wait a minute.jpg (21 KB, 526x300)
21 KB
21 KB JPG
>>1589795
>tfw reading the report
>>
>>1589790
chill dude, just enjoy the glorious carnage
>>
>>1589814
"Huxwell, did you slip in your kai-joo fanfic in your reports again?!"
>>
File: IMG_20170619_142408.jpg (2.18 MB, 2976x3968)
2.18 MB
2.18 MB JPG
>>1589728
I have been imagining those little bastards all wrong since forever
>>
>>1589826
I mean the face is accurate, with the plates, whiskers and cyclopean eye. It's just the body that was wrong.
>>
>>1589795
It could be funny, but I always worry that pressing the Union too hard will make them try to turn to the Void out of desperation.
>>
>>1589852
Well then we have a perfect reason to go hard on them and ravage their asses, eh?
>>
>>1589852
Nothing worse than a monkey desperate to deny that it's a monkey.
>>
>>1589859
It won't really end well for anybody involved.
>>
>>1589826
If you ever want to ask for any details, I'm just about always available on twitter or discord. I've had people chat on both asking for specifics that are either not so clear or hidden in some unknown thread somewhere. Or just to talk.
>>
>>1589867
But we'll finally get to test those fancy biological weapons and planet killers.

Maybe. Depends on how 'collateral damage' Anons are feeling.
>>
>>1589859
>>1589886
Yeah, until all their surviving worlds erupt into crystal portals and the endgame kicks off way too fucking early.

If they turn to the Void, we both lose.
>>
>>1589894
Agreed, we don't want to risk scaring them into a worse position.
>>
>>1589859
>>1589852

Yeah, I don't get why so many people seem to think that scaring the Union is a bad idea.

We have such military/surveillance superiority over them that the literal second we get any inkling they're stepping into the shit we specifically warned them against, we can vapourize their capital planet and glass a good portion of their military infrastructure. Then leave them as easy pickings for the Commonwealth.

No matter what some anons seem to think, the Union is not a viable threat against the Hive, let alone the five-way assault they'd be facing from the Hive/Unity/Commonwealth/Skyl(potentially)/internal dissident forces.
>>
>>1589886
If significant portions of the Union start actively seeking to ally with the Void due to fear of the Hive, collateral damage will be the least of our concerns.
>>
>>1589883
wait you have a discord server?

link?
>>
>>1589923
it's the /qst/ discord from the QTG
>>
>>1589910
A small band of researchers in the ass end of Nowhere came seconds from opening a portal to the void.

If the order goes out to the survivors, or they just independently decide that they're fucked if they don't try the other side, those portals will be opening up left and right.

I know it pains your supremacyboner, but attempting extermination of the Union is just too risky considering their likely course of action.
>>
>>1589923
No, I just hang out in the QTG discord and the questing podcast discord where I occasionally shitpost with the other QMs and have guested I think twice on the podcast.
>>
>>1589934
>>1589939
and all my enthusiasm is gone, sigh
>>
>>1589910
Right? Heretic himself was fully prepared to jump in and start decimating their worlds once he learned of their void tampering.
>>
>>1589935
Last I checked Nowhere was far closer to an exception than the norm. The knowledge for Void contact has to be tightly restricted and limited to a few select locations for the same reason that the nuclear football is handcuffed to the President. If it was as simple as "Break glass to summon Cthulhu" then there would have already been multiple portals opened long before we even landed on Leeland.
>>
>>1589939
Podcast? I dont see anything about a podcast brev. Is there some thread or something we should all be aware of?
>>
>>1589883
Will do. I already regularly harass grave for details so I can get all the creepy crawlies painted just right
>>
>>1589968
It was openly stated that they were learning stuff about the Void alarmingly quickly, while growing more erratic all the while. It's heavily implied that the Void aids those who try to learn about it, and there's no reason to suppose that it'd be any different for other secret Union research facilities.
>>
>>1589990
Agreed. Although the Void (probably) requires crystals to really fuck with people. And indoctrinating humans takes longer than it does for other species because of their genetic psionic blindness. They can still fall, but it takes time, resources, and bad luck. A few crazies in some backwater doom cult probably won't even be able to get its attention unless they stumble upon an artifact.
>>
>>1589990
>those who try to learn about it

Again, knowledge of it HAS TO BE RESTRICTED. Given how quickly Nowhere managed to go ploin-shaped, if it wasn't the only station (or the furthest along of a very select few) actively researching the Void, then portals would already have opened up BECAUSE the Void pushes its investigators along. As such, there CANNOT be very many sites researching it, and those that are CANNOT be anywhere near what Nowhere was, because if they were then a portal would ALREADY BE OPEN.
>>
>>1589673
>and small shield emitters set into the sides of their hulls.

Soon we too will have the secrets of miniaturized shielding. Soon. it's been a long time coming.
>>
>>1590011
How much of a stretch is it from "They say these artifacts are dangerous and are hellbent on keeping us from researching them" to "But they just annihilated our capital, so it's our only hope"?

And I really hope you aren't naive enough to believe that they actually got rid of *all* the artifacts.
>>
>>1590025
Maybe even next week!
>>
>>1590026
I agree, we need to toe a fine line here. We need to be scary enough that the Union thinks "We better not fuck with these crystals anymore because we have no how powerful the Hive is and if they find out they could kill us all" but not so scary that they think "It is only a matter of time until we all become mind slaves of the Hive or they kill us all, making a weapon from those artifacts they obviously fear is our only chance of saving ourselves and our way of life."
>>
File: 2_detail_em.jpg (58 KB, 640x360)
58 KB
58 KB JPG
>>1589673
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arus_8spQyk&index=
The thermal vents along its neck flair, singing the soil beneath it to glass and melting down what metal remains standing as it moves over them, swatting several tanks to the side and crushing another beneath its claw. The flames covering its hide die to a simmer as explosions cover its carapace. Its tail arcs forward like a scorpion, striking down on a walker tank with a swift movement as its sledgehammer fires, and the tank flattens into a metal pancake as its munitions detonate within, and the ground around it impacts into a deep crater. The tail flies back up from the recoil as it hammer resets, and a dozen missiles are catapulted into the air where they lunge forward in seemingly random directions, arcing back and forth as they spiral towards their targets and detonating over a dozen more tanks and retrofitted gun positions.

Several remaining anti-air guns pivot away from your aircraft and begin peppering your titan's carapace with plasma flak, pelting its thick armor with searing bolts of plasma as it charges the defensive perimeter of the bombed out factory. A massive superstructure, once some kind of containment wall for the storage of explosives, remains standing like the wall of a great keep. The outer positions are covered in guns and mobile artillery that lash out in a constant stream of munitions and energy bursts. Your titan drone marches forth, scrambling on all limbs as it charges the wall and impacts with a thunderous crash that shakes the foundations of the entire facility. A massive crack splits down the center of the massive wall. Your drone leans back, placing its weight on its hind legs as its clawed feet sink into the ground, cracking the reinforced cement as it sinks into the atomic-graded blast wall planted in the ground by a meter and a half. Its blades unsheathe, each one a colossal blade of simmering metal chitin reaching several stories in length, as the blades sink through the wall several meters before they burst forth in a cascade of flowing, molten rock that quickly splits walkways and ruptures pipes, sending steam and melting steel flowing down on fleeing scavengers below.

The blades slowly carve their way upward through the reinforced concrete and stone, trailing molten rock and metal as they slowly burn to the top of the wall. Its carapace is riddled with pockmarks from cannon fire from the pillboxes and trenches set about its feet, and your drone's ingrown turrets find their targets, unleashing a torrent of focused plasma bolts as their plasma cannons open fire. Several scavengers are reduced to burning cinders as they operate a stationary gun, and a looted APC turned anti-armor cannon explodes from within as the plasma bolts plume within its armored shell.

cont.
>>
>>1590026
Agreed they probably didn't dispose of all the artifacts, although they are probably so scared of us at this point that they ones they are keeping are deep in frozen storage and the facility is equipped with multiple redundant nuclear self-destructs for plausible deniability. They won't be putting one inside a black-hole pentagram hell-gate any time soon unless the government completely collapses.
>>
>>1590055
YEEEES GOOD TITAN, WHO'S A GOOD BOOOY YEEES YOU AAARE
>>
>>1590055
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m-rsgHEDLk
>>
>>1590055
Jesus. What the fuck did we make, and how can we upgrade our Queenly self into a similar form?
>>
>>1590055
Fucking hell this is starting to remind me of the cloverfield monster and all other giant monster movies.
>>
>>1590055
It's so beautiful....
I might be crying
>>
File: momshungry.gif (973 KB, 500x281)
973 KB
973 KB GIF
>>1590055
goddamn
>>
>>1590066
sit,good.. now stay... now roll over... oh shit wait... uhh we didn't need that city right?
>>
>>1590026
They haven't gotten rid of any of them yet. They haven't handed over a single goddamn one yet.

Let alone given us an inventory of how many they found and where. And there's a simple way to be sure of their honesty. Meeting in person.
>>
File: awe.gif (467 KB, 500x250)
467 KB
467 KB GIF
>showed up 7 hours late
>still running
>>
>>1590055
Your drone pushes against the melting chunk of carved out stone, sliding it along the groove of melted stone and concrete as the wall begins to collapse, burying several buildings set up against the interior as your titan props itself up against it, standing upright to its full height, its carapace a deep glowing crimson as it reflects the light of the fire beneath it and the sea of molten stone and twisted red hot steel. You detect several aircraft quickly approaching in the darkness of the night, and several missiles impact your drone and send it lurching forward to catch itself. It swings its arm up, bringing it massive blade arcing up and catching one of the pulse jet bombers as it passes, slicing it in two as the halfs careen through the air and into the ground with a small plume of fire and kicked up dirt, while another skims by its head, glancing off its armor and tumbling into the ground. Your drone ducks as another wave of blaster fire and missiles streak by and land into the wall beside it as its particle cannon unfolds into position and opens fire, catching three of the craft in a ball of fire that sends metal chunks scattering across the facility while your own aerial drones dive after the remaining craft as they scatter.

Walker tanks march forth from the rubble, stepping over burning chunks of metal and pools of flaming plasma as they pivot their cannons into position, and your drone swings its bladed arm, carving into their armored formation as it drags the tanks off their feet, sending them tumbling into the air where they detonate against a distant hillside in the darkness. It turns to the others with its mandibles outstretched, and rips into them, hoisting them in its maw and shaking them like a fresh kill in the jaws of a hungry pitbull before it tosses them aside, their dead, twisted frames scattering like dead leaves in a strong wind as they send chunks of shrapnel and armor plating scattering as they spin and roll across the ground.

Cunningham watches with a set of binoculars at the titan, glowing a deep crimson from the reflection of the flames and sea of molten slag at its feet, as it lets out another mighty roar of plasma into the facility, sending plumes of fire jetting up in great pillars of white and blue fire dozens of meters into the air around it. He has a smile stretched across his face.

"That's the ticket. Make them run to hell to escape the heat!" He says, and he hands his binoculars to a nearby staff officer. "It looks like the surface is secure. Have a fireteam clear it out once the fires die down and see what it looks like bellow the blast layer." He turns on the heel of his good leg, and walks back into the building. "We have more work to do now that that little nest of rabble has been burned out."

cont.
>>
>>1590125
What is the full height of the titan?
>>
>>1590129
About 20 meters at its tallest, usually it is hunched over a bit more, so typically something more like 15.
>>
>>1590125
The commonwealth commanders are a fresh change of pace from the Union politicking. I realize we just havent dug as deep into their governments underlying machinations as we have the Union, but still, its refreshing.
>>
>>1590136
Bare in mind the Commonwealth has had the option of only putting its best face forward, and they're so pressed by the invasion they don't really have time for political bullshit. It's probably even more corrupt than the Union since it doesn't even have a pretense of democratic rule of law. We'll likely see more of that once/if the current conflict winds down. However, as a corrupting entity ourselves we can certainly make this work for us.
>>
File: images (10).jpg (28 KB, 512x287)
28 KB
28 KB JPG
>>1590129
Big
>>
>>1590125
>>1590125
The scavenger alphas are surprisingly nimble, swatting one of your ghost beetles away mid lunge, but their armor is weaker than the drop suits of human make. You are unsure if this was deliberate, or the result of cost saving measures. Perhaps both, but the result is the same as your warrior's blades sink deep within the first of them. Flames lick the walls as your colossus crawls up from its hole and into the cramped chambers, sending burning plasma plumbing ahead of it and funneling it down several corridors to the sound of searing flesh and cracking hides as their rattling spines crack open like popcorn kernels and the burning figures of scavengers sprint out from their holds, rolling along the floor as they melt away. Your drone's cannon pivots into position, and fires down another hall, gutting it with the shock wave along as the far wall explodes, sending chunks of stone and scavenger remains scattering in all directions.

Behind the line of alphas, more scavengers dive in from above as plasma plumes down in great flowing arcs like crashing waves on a shoreline. Bodies and simmering remains flie in as the last few seal the doors behind them as their arms melt from the heat and the reinforced doors begin to glow softly and bend inward. The armored alphas continue to open fire into your drones as they pour forth from the sinkhole, but their weapons cannot fire fast enough, and your heavy warriors slam into them as their armor shreds chunks of layered chitin with every absorbed blast. Your drones drag one of them into the swarm, carving open the suit and pulling the scavenger out part by part as they fish for flesh with their blades and mandibles in the slowly widening gaps in the armor.

More drones crawl forth in an endless stream of chitin from the sinkhole, crashing over the scavenger resistance like a wave of flesh, ripping at them as more sinkholes form beneath others, pulling them into the earth suit and all as more of your drones emerge from their tunnels.

Lee plucks the last of the small figures from the table, and places it in a basket set on the side. The triplets squeal as they fall back, rolling on the floor as their tails thrash back and forth.

"Good for another?" Lee says.

"Lee cheats!"
"Dice loaded!"
"Unfair!"

"We're using the same dice." He says. The three chitter their bone plates with agitation as sushi gurgles with amusement, his grip slipping as he flops to the floor with a wet thud and his air sacs deflate with a sharp, long squeal.

"You are so terrible. It is impressive." He says flatly, his mechanical voice masking his alien laughter with its calm, synthetic human voice.

cont.
>>
>>1590177
We should give him a better synthesizer
>>
>>1590185
Heck no, it what makes it so funny
>>
>>1590177
The scavs being orks amuses me to no end
>>
>>1590187
Sushi's deadpan personality is what makes him so hilarious.

I mean, sure, we could fix his colors and synthesizer, but only if he really wants it. Changing such a drastic thing about him could result in a major personality change and he seems happy enough as is.
>>
File: good night.gif (366 KB, 498x344)
366 KB
366 KB GIF
Got to call it early for me cause I got an interview tomorrow, so good night!
>>
>>1590177
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooz2i9fIoko

Time for appropriate victory music?
>>
>>1590193
Sleep tight little anon
Let the bed bugs bite
They're Mother's good night kiss
>>
>>1590195
Damn it feels good to be Zerg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z-D9D_LzwA
>>
>>1590190
Actually the analogy makes me wonder how much of an effect we're having on scav numbers, after all, the orks constantly remain a threat even after they're all dead, what with constantly farting out spores.
>>
>>1590203
The Scav fleet is huge, and they reproduce in large enough numbers iirc. The alphas lay eggs on the grunts and they then hatch into the feral young.

When not at war I bet their feral young numbers get stupid huge.
>>
>>1590177
Can some of the Scavengers be dragged into the sinkhole mostly-intact?

Gotta see what we can learn from their neuro-fluids, if any are the ones who jerry-rigged stuff together.
>>
>>1590205
Probably what lead them to being so consumption happy

Reproducing too fast to sustain themselves, easier to steal from your neighbors

I wonder what their homeworld looks like, if it's still in one piece that is

>>1590208
We still have 1 scav in a medpod on Leeland I believe, but yeah, these battles will give us some good chances at getting some more
>>
>>1590177
If Sushi could change color, he'd be showing purple spots too, right?
>>
>>1590208
Of course no reason to let the humans know we took prisoners, or intact bodies. Just pretend we ate them and get them onto a spare shuttle.
>>
>>1590205
>>1590209
It doesn't seem they have free breeding going on, seems to be completely planned so overpopulation is not a problem for them,

And the have been bio-engineering themselves ever since they fled from there homeworld so they must be drastically different as they engineered themselves to survive on a fleet based society
>>
>>1590214
>"Hey, I was sure there where a few more tanks and pulse jet bombers too."
>"They, huh, melted, human. Completely melted into slag. Now look over here instead of at our shuttles for a minute or two."
>>
Bed time
>>
>>1590177

The hologram projector shows a myriad of data displays in Cunningham's office. Live feeds from a number of officers in the field, satellite images of areas of interest, a high level map of the planet, updated with estimated enemy movement up to the second, and several video feeds from drifting gunships following your titan as it marches into the darkness to its next target, trailing fire in its wake as the ruins of the industrial facility crumble into a sea of molten slag behind it.

"Now that that little nest is out of the way, we can start shipping our gear and manpower to where it's needed most." The general says. You notice the ornate dropsuit is missing from its housing as your drone enters after him.

"The hive is closing on the enemy at your weapon platform." Your drone chirps.

"Indeed it is, and we have troops moving on the rail yard as well. Once we have both, we can use the railway to hit every major point of interest from there to the spaceport, and just as well, we've cut off their supply lines connecting the fortified city centers to the protein farms. On the downside, knowing their barbarity they'll be likely to take to eating civilians before long." He claps his hands, as if marking an obvious solution to a mundane problem. "So you'll just have to eat them first." He adds. "There won't be any time for a protracted siege. We'll be full speed the whole way in." He brings one of the video feeds up with a swipe of his hand.

"Sir Hughes, do you read?" He says.

"I read you, Lord General." He replies with some emphasised formality, quickly saluting nobody in particular as the video feed of his helmet shows his hand quickly touch his forehead.

"Is that the hive speaker?" Cunningham asks as a blur of red and white fur and chitin flashes on the screen as Hughes quickly scans over his men.

"Yes sir. It requested to follow along to maintain contact with commonwealth leadership. It may be unarmed, but I've requested it stay behind cover."

"The speakers are disposable." Your drone says. "Including this speaker. They are for communication. Communication is important." Cunningham nods to you.

"Very well, so long as you know the risks involved." He says.

Hughes nods quickly.

"Yes sir. I'll be sure the speaker stays as safe as can be in a combat zone." He looks to the others in the gunship. "We'll be over the drop zone in five. Check your gear and get ready for ziplines. Once we're on the ground we'll secure the perimeter and mark a landing zone for the gunship to drop off the speaker."

"That is unneeded. This speaker does not require assistance. Disregard this speaker's presence." Your drone chirps over the wailing of the engines.

"Alright then, cancel that. Pilot, no dustoff, stay on overwatch and keep distance." Hughes says. The doors to either side of the gunship slide open, revealing the embattled landscape beyond as cannons flash in the distance and plasma bolts arc through the night air.
cont.
>>
File: Ggi.jpg (7 KB, 225x225)
7 KB
7 KB JPG
>>1590249
>"That is unneeded. This speaker does not require assistance. Disregard this speaker's presence."
"IGNORE ME"
>>
>>1590249
So... the humans are all going in on zip lines, right?

This is a great chance to show off our fancy telekinesis as we stop falling and float right below the ground. Nice.
>>
>>1590254
Could we make a titan speaker?
>>
>>1590257
>below the ground

I thought you were on about telekinesis, not phasing.
>>
>>1590259
YES!
We can have them stand besides the giant doors of our embassy.
>>
>>1590259
because the screeching from regular speakers wasn't loud enough: **FOR MOTHER**
>>
>>1590260
Shows how tired I am. Obviously I meant to say we use telekinesis to stop just above the ground when the speaker falls...

That's about it for me. Goodnight all. Please don't wake the Void God while I'm asleep.
>>
File: 864646668.jpg (88 KB, 1265x529)
88 KB
88 KB JPG
>>1590249
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ce-4UR06Hk
You see additional gunships flanking yours on either side as plasma bolts and missiles streak up from below as the gunships shed glowing flairs and scattering packets of reflective shrapnel from their hulls. One of the gunships takes a hit on its side, its armor falling away in sheets as it rocks to the side from a missile detonation, and its engines along one side fall away, sending it into a tumble as it slams into the ground below, the expanding fireball quickly sweeping back into the distance behind you.

"Ready the tethers!" Hughes shouts, and one of the humans swings themselves over to the side of the gunship, his armor hooked to a short cable linked into a rail on the ceiling. He quickly unfolds some manner of mounted gun, unfolding it from the ceiling. It contains a massive harpoon looking object protruding from the barrel, with a tether running from it to the ceiling of the gunship where a large spool hangs on the side of the craft. The gunship jerks to the side, sending everyone knocking against their own safety tethers as they lean into the maneuver with a practiced motion placing their collective lives in the trust of the gunship's equipment as your drone holds fast with its clawed feet into the surface as the two rows of humans link together to secure your drone in place. As the gunship settles, the tether gun fires, eventually latching onto some distant, unseen object. The spool quickly reels in the slack until the gunship lurches to the side ever so slightly, and a green light flashes along the forward wall with a loud buzzing noise. The human tosses the harpoon gun to the side as it coils back up on its armature out of the way, and he reaches up, testing the wire with a firm tug before leaning to the side. You can see other gunships doing the same as humans figures quickly slide down the ziplines, and the troops with your drone begin to slide their tethers from the safety rail to the wire in a practiced motion, giving it a quick tug before leaping from the platform as the human at the side shoves them along. Hughes is the last to take the leap, followed only by the human checking the tethers as they go, who quickly sets up his own and falls away backwards.

"Gunship clear!" He shouts as he falls away, and entire zipline apparatus falls away, detaching from the gunship with a sudden jerk of movement as a small balloon sudden inflates and sends it drifting further into the air as the squad zips along the growing slack. Your speaker hunches back, and quickly lunges forward into the air, diving through the fields of flack as the gunship flies off, and your drone pushes itself forward, following the zipline as best it can. You can see other squads falling in as they use small metal grips to slow their descent and quickly drop off their lines as they hit the ground, most dropping directly into combat as they rush to cover and open fire on enemy forces spread across the area.
cont.
>>
>>1590293
You see the line for Hughe's squad run into the wall of a large warehouse. The squad itself have already entered combat, taking cover behind a set of metal cargo containers and damaged autoloaders as several scavenger packs pin them down with heavy blaster fire. A hovering scout vehicle drifts into position as a scavenger pivots a gun turret along its back, opening fire on their position as another pack begins to flank them.

Your drone quickly slows its descent, landing with a thud on a nearby rooftop overlooking the battlefield as a human launches a rocket from a shoulder fired recoilless rifle. A small spinning disc set along the roof of the scout craft lets out a momentary burst of energy with a loud buzz and the rocket detonates in the air several meters from contact, only for the gunner to return fire, ripping into the cargo container as the human dives back behind it.

>Have your speaker attempt to disable the vehicle
>Attempt to ambush the flanking pack before they can attack
>Other (write in)
>>
>>1590307
>>Have your speaker attempt to disable the vehicle
>Other (write in)
Have our speaker attempt to seize control of the gun and fire it upon the flanking packs.
>>
>>1590307
>Have your speaker attempt to disable the vehicle
Harass them about their choice of seating, and then punch the driver into an Ottoman.
>>
>>1590307
>Attempt to ambush the flanking pack before they can attack

also, do we still have air support?
>>
>>1590307
>>1590308
Supporting
>>
>>1590307
>Have your speaker attempt to disable the vehicle
Sneaky breaky
>>
>>1590307
>>Attempt to ambush the flanking pack before they can attack

I dunno about using mysterious powers in public yet.
>>
>>1590307
>Have your speaker attempt to disable the vehicle

Please roll 1d100, best of 3.
>>
Rolled 41 (1d100)

>>1590324
It was a malfunction. Such shoddy worksmanship.
>>
Rolled 60 (1d100)

>>1590324
REEEE
>>
Also right, new research subject to capture on the way.

>A small spinning disc set along the roof of the scout craft lets out a momentary burst of energy with a loud buzz and the rocket detonates in the air several meters from contact,
>>
Rolled 26 (1d100)

>>1590324
FOR MOTHER
>>
Rolled 61 (1d100)

>>1590324
FOR MOTHER!
>>
Rolled 59 (1d100)

>>1590324
>>
>>1590327
Hmm, not bad.

>>1590328
Probably just some sort of active Point-Defense system.
>>
>>1590327
Mediocre. This is a D-.
>>
>>1590334
Correction, an entirely novel KIND of point-defense system never before seen.
>>
>>1589974
Here's the podcasts QD was in
Anonkun Community Podcast - Episode 09
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMxjEoxSoJs
then
Questing Community Podcast - Episode 03
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es9NozQOzZE

I find them enjoyable.

And here is the page for info on the Podcast and such if you're interested. If the quest is live so is the podcast. Discord link on the page.
https://fiction.live/stories/questing-community-hub/rqwJ3jp5PErS4QmkQ
>>
File: Lyle.jpg (266 KB, 1592x896)
266 KB
266 KB JPG
I wonder what Lyle and co are up to right now.
>>
>>1590324
Your speaker drops to the ground with a gust of displaced air sending discarded papers and cargo packaging flowing into the air around it as it slows itself before landing, and you quickly examine the surroundings. A scavenger grunt turns with surprise to face your drone, and holds up its blaster to fire when your speaker lets out a chittering squawk as it hunches itself over towards the grunt, and a wave of concussive force sends it flying back into the wall where it impacts with a splatter of blood bursting from its armor, leaving a large dent in the sheet metal wall as it collapses to the ground. Your drone turns to face the others as several look back at the sudden noise. The speaker swings its claw as if swiping at them from a distance, and the grunt furthest to the left jerks into its packmates, scattering them to the ground as they scramble to right themselves.

The gunner on the back of the scout vehicle turns to see you as the air floods with the scent of heightened alert, and the grunt quickly pivots the gun around to face your drone. You quickly turn and pull at a nearby loader, dragging it forward on its flattened wheels as your speaker rushes to the side, ducking behind the automated vehicle as it slides to a stop just in time for a burst of blaster bolts to rip into its chassis. You sense the others quickly approaching from both sides, flanking your position, and you examine the stacks of crates and cargo. There is a large bundle of steel rods held within a nearby container, the doors torn off and the boxes within ripped open and looted, and you focus your mind on the securing straps, enough for several of the bars to slip out. Three fly through the air as the first of the grunts turn the corner and open fire, singing your drone's fur as it ducks out of the way, and the three five meter long steel rods pin the grunt to the back of the loader. You focus your mind again, finding the next grunt as it stumbles back from the flying rods, and you pull it forward, slamming it into the rods with the other grunt.

A third scavenger turns in from the other side of the loader and lunges at your speaker, blades outstretched. You duck, planting your drone on all fours before slamming it into the side of the loader. It bounces off and lands on the ground as your speaker rights itself back onto its hind legs, the grunt looking up at you with a mixture of fear and confusion, and your drone lets out another chittering squawk. The cement cracks, and the grunt snaps in half as it is pressed into a shallow crater in the ground, its bones splitting with a sickening crack as the fresh pothole pools with the grunt's blood.

cont.
>>
>>1590358
All this is from the hive equivalent of door to door salesman.
>>
>>1590367
I forgot we could do that.
>>
>>1590358
Our Speakers are becoming space-wizards.

I wanna see what Elizabeth can do now if her implant is the same as the Speakers medium relay
>>
File: LylesHeavyExosuit.jpg (441 KB, 1280x1425)
441 KB
441 KB JPG
>>1590358
Lyle may want telekinetics once/if he ever sees a demonstration
>>
>>1590358
Ah.
When reports of this get out our speakers are never going to be let into an assembly again.
Its going to be funny because they are fluffy and cute and fairly (for the hive) harmless looking.
>>
File: Oh, Yes. Yes..gif (774 KB, 640x360)
774 KB
774 KB GIF
>>1590358
>>
>>1590358
imagine something better was rolled
Damn
>>
>>1590358
You turn your attention back to the vehicle, the gunner still pelting blaster bolts into the loader, quickly ripping it to pieces and melting its flimsy frame intended for light industrial work, not withstanding mounted weaponry. There is a quick burst of railgun fire, and the gunner pivots again, but not before it snaps back, a trail of blood splattering over the blast shield of its turret as it clings to the controls, swinging the blaster around wildly before another burst of projectiles shred its torso, and it falls back to the ground, thrashing out at the air in pain. You feel a sudden rush of violent thoughts as a human rushes the vehicle, diving into the open roll cage with a combat knife and a sidearm. Several gunshots ring out and a scavenger attempts to drag itself out of the side door, flopping to the ground in a growing pool of blood as the human leans out, placing three more projectiles into its chest before leaning back and doing the same to the gunner. He clicks the side of his helmet to pull back his visor and looks over the controls with frustration.

"How the hell do you run this thing? All the controls are blank." He shouts. One of the other humans runs up to the vehicle, rolling over the hood before ducking behind it on your side for cover. He plunges a finger into the dead grunt's wound, feeling for the neuro-cluster heart to ensure it is dead, and leans over and does the same for the gunner's body.

"They see heat. Check thermals, see if they're heat pads." He says, and he leans up, looking back at the flanking second pack. He fires several sustained bursts with his rifle as the rest of the squad rush to the vehicle under the cover, blaster bolts ripping into the cargo containers and kicking up chunks of cement into the air.

"I see it. Now how the fuck to I read their language?" The human in the seat shouts.

"Fuck if I know. Cover me while I try to get the gun working!" The other shouts back, and the first human rolls out of the seat to the floor and pulls a short submachine gun from his side, sending several quick bursts towards the attacking pack as the other human mounts the vehicle's blaster.

"Alright, these fuckers got one good arm. There's a port for the gun arm and a handle. Come one, please let them believe in the power of analog controls." He mutters as he runs his hand over the console, searching for the controls until a bolt of condensed photons erupts from the barrel into the sky. He shouts a blessing to some mythical being and swings the turret towards the scavengers, opening fire as they scramble for cover. The human guns down several with the turret, blasting a crate into splinters as the others scramble for a nearby cargo container as they attempt to close the distance.

cont.
>>
>>1590375
But speakers ARE harmless. If you compare then with a hive heavy warrior that is. After all speakers are for speaking they aren't designed to fight.
>>
>>1590381
Back at the warehouse, you see Hughes leap from his position wielding a powered sword as he fires a machine pistol into the scavenger pack as he charges towards them. He swings the blade, the first grunt catching it with its own, and he swiftly kicks it in its chest before placing several rounds in its throat and another three in its chest. It falls back, and he leaps over a stack of pallets next to the container, running up them like a ramp as he dives over to the other side just out of view as the human gunner pulls the blaster turret up and away from Hughes's position.

You see a number of blaster bolts fly up from the far side of the container, and several bursts of machine pistol fire as neon blood splatters along the ground. An arm flies out, flopping to the ground as it simmers with heat, and a pack alpha stumbles out as it grips the bloody stump where its blaster arm once was. Hughes is quick behind it, running it through with the sword as he twists the blade and pulls it up with a quick jerking motion, dragging the blade up into its neural cluster before he pushes it off with a kick and places two more rounds in it for good measure as it drops to the ground.

"Good distraction." He says as he makes his way to your speaker. His armor is smeared with alien blood, and singed with the heat of blaster bolts. "It's a good thing you got that gunner off us or we'd still be fighting them off."

"The speaker suspects the human warriors would have been successful regardless." Your drone chirps with a curt nod.

"Either way, the anti-air is nearby. We take that out or capture it and this is as good as done. Everything here is run from the control tower." He points to the large tower near the center of the facility. "All squads regroup and converge on that point."

I think this is a good stopping point. After I get some sleep we shall resume this thread tonight at about 7pm eastern. I'll announce on twitter once we're getting set to run.

Till then, let's get some sleep. I'll stick around for a short bit for any immediate questions, feedback, ect.
>>
Also our speakers can literally kill our enemies just by speaking.Talk about power of the words
>>
>>1590388
Thanks for running QD! Awesome thread! Those action scenes with the Titan were absolutely phenomenal
>>
>>1590388
GG and thanks for running

Have a good rest

Everything is awesome
>>
>>1590388
>we shall resume this thread tonight at about 7pm eastern

A monday starting with a HQQ thread? Is this christmas?
>>
>>1590390
I still like that accidental Valen-type name an anon came up with for the Speakers: Thoughts-Into-Words

Can update that now into Thoughts-Into-Words-and-Force or something appropriately wordy
>>
>>1590388
11hour long run, you madman. Thanks once again, rest well.
>>
>>1590388
Thanks for running, was grand to read.

Note: We should catalouge the combat experiences we perform and witness so that when we can make the implanted memory tech work we can give our warriors unparralelled experience.
>>
>>1590388
Good run thanks qd
>>
>>1590151
>>1590136
We actually did have some of the cool military guys we worked with complain that they're forced to dedicate forces to support some idiots with authority.

Its just that for Union, we poked into the dirty underbelly right away, while in here we jumped dealing with real military in a middle of real war - the guys doing real business.
>>
>>1590414
>>1590414
Believe we already have that, called Kata. Anyone with a parasite can use it as well
>>
>>1590388
Thanks for running!
>>
>>1590388
Thanks for running i am happy that you are healing and Thanks for all this action
>>
>>1590151
>He think Democracy is more fair than the other governments
Democracy is literally impossible on a large scale. What the Union has is a Republic and that's actually less fair than being ruled King because with the King he is is already at the top and has to appease the people to make sure he stays up there or he goes to the chopping block. However Republics are not so clear cut since anybody could be at the top, manipulating your politicians that you voted for to work against against your interests. Not to mention the problem of the Lemming effect on Republics is worse.
>>
>>1590525
Actually, the king doesn't have to appease the people to stay on top, he has to appease the keys to power (generals, clergy, ministers, ect). There's still a lot of political manipulation, but so long as he has the backing of those keys (usually through distribution of taxes), he can do as much damage as he wants.
>>
>>1590575
You know what a great "key to power" is? A massive foreign military superpower that will crush anyone who attempts an uprising against you, or could themselves easily remove you from power if they so choose.
>>
>>1590575
Most of history seems to tell me a different, that king doing damage to his own nation is against his own interests usually because a kingdom was surrounded by other kingdoms that would offer an alternative to the nation they currently lived in and would gladly attack their neighbor if they become to unstable, also how good it is to live in a kingdom depends heavily on the the king in question. A Republic is quite the opposite. Most politicians only pay lip service to the general public, serving their donors first and foremost and who the politician is usually doesn't matter because corruption reigns supreme in a republic. We're even seeing this is true in real life. Then there is the fact that politicians are willing to work with other nation against their own. However I understand there are exceptions but the general problem is that Republics require corruption while in Monarchies it's more or less optional (except in succession wars but that's another story) and a bad Monarchy ends with the leader while a bad Republic end when the nation collapse or a king takes power if you're lucky.
>>
File: 1433085914431.jpg (187 KB, 990x767)
187 KB
187 KB JPG
>>1590597
>He honestly thinks that medieval kingdoms weren't abject shitholes for non-aristocrats
>>
>>1590592
Thought about this a bit, and it actually isn't if someone tells that superpower they can suck up better then you can, or is backed by another superpower that the aforementioned one would hesitate to fight against.

>>1590597
Still unsure if that's completely accurate (except succession wars). I'm thinking about how knowledge of the times affects all that since we don't have a lot of modern absolute monarchies to compare. I might do more research later.
>>
>>1590613
>Thought about this a bit, and it actually isn't if someone tells that superpower they can suck up better then you can, or is backed by another superpower that the aforementioned one would hesitate to fight against.

True. I suppose I should have clarified that the key to power will be keeping the superpower either happy enough with your rule that they don't intervene or worried enough about the consequences of invasion they won't attack.

However, the appearance of backing of a superpower, even if only incidental, can have a profound impact on power structures. For example, the various Oligarchs of the CW don't know how close Magus is to the Hive. Even though neither we nor he have claimed to support each other, anyone planning to supplant Magus will have to account for the possibility he might be able to call the Hive on their asses for the attempted revolt.

>>1590597
You are so wrong on most things I don't even know where to start.
>>
>>1590610
Most of that came from the tech level they were living on and you know it, also aristocracy was not the same as a monarchy. You also have to realize WE'RE A FUCKING MONARCHY better get ready to defend it.
>>1590613
There are exception to every rule but there is a pattern.
>https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyklos
>https://imperium.wordpress.com/2005/10/27/machiavellis-circle-of-governments/
>http://www.humanistictexts.org/polybius.htm
Basically every government will become corrupt eventually.
>>
>>1588574
I like his stuff.
QD thanks for all the reading material, its a blast as always.
>>
>>1590626
Acton did say absolute power corrupts absolutely.
>>
>>1588574
Graves made me not fear dangerous research because even failure could lead to interesting results that opened new research topics.
>>
>>1590643
Yeah but in our case, dangerous research means the Void might show up.
>>
>>1590626
>You also have to realize WE'RE A FUCKING MONARCHY better get ready to defend it.

Ummm, we really aren't. We are a hyper-intelligent alien super organism. We're just one being even though there is a "Queen."

Even the relationships between Queens that we know of sound much more tribal and clannish than Imperial royalty.
>>
God dammit /pol/ leave my quest of alien space bug figthing ancient terrors alone.
>>
>>1590626
Your a tit.
Political structures comprised of individuals do not translate over to hive minds.
>>
>>1590388
>After I get some sleep we shall resume this thread tonight at about 7pm eastern
EXCITE
>>
>>1590525
>>1590597
>>1590626

Among human societies, dictatorships and oligarchies tend to be far more corrupt than more democratic nations. Look at any list of countries ranked by standard of living. You'll notice that democracies tend to occupy most of the top spots.

Even when you compare nations that have a shared history, this still holds true. Consider former eastern block nations like Poland or the Czech Republic versus Russia. One would think that Russia, being the larger, stronger, and more dominant (in many ways outright abusive) member of the Soviet sphere of influence would have emerged as better off. After all, Russia was the one reaping the rewards of the Warsaw Pact, while the other nations of the eastern block were stuck taking Russia's orders. Yet in the decades since the end of the Cold War, nations like Poland and the Czech Republic have consistently stayed ahead of Russia in terms of being a decent place to live. That is because the Polish and Czech governments have at least some incentive to help improve the lives of their people, while the Russian government does not.

The problem is not that the Union is a democracy and the Commonwealth is an oligarchy. Both of them are oligarchies. It's been mentioned previously that the Union uses an extensive system of primaries, parties, and other such rules in order to minimize the actual importance of voters and elections. It's a classic tactic for converting a democratic system into a more dictatorial one by strategically eliminating choices that the electorate could make in order to ensure that they're stuck choosing between a small number of "choices" that all have the same practical outcome. The difference between the two is simply that at the moment the Commonwealth's oligarchs are somewhat less stupid than the Union's oligarchs.

And none of this applies to the Hive, which is a freaking hive mind and thus plays by completely different rules because it doesn't have individuals in the same way that a human society does.
>>
>>1590782
>That is because the Polish and Czech governments have at least some incentive to help improve the lives of their people, while the Russian government does not.

Bullshit. It's because Russia took all the debts of the Soviet Union, while Poland got money from the West and joined NATO and the EU. Also relatively speaking to its geographical area and population, Poland had more industries survive the breakup of the Soviet bloc.
>>
>>1590782
Not arguing or refuting what you said, but could the small number of big parties in the Union be the result of a Winner Take All electoral system instead? I'm not sure is we where told how voting exactly works in the Union, involving multiple planets, space stations, citizens living in Valen space, and so forth. It might require some re-reading.
>>
>>1590789
Russia had the benefit of basically using the rest of the Warsaw Pact as de-facto colonies for decades. Policy for the entire Warsaw Pact was pretty much entirely determined by what benefited Russia the most.

> while Poland got money from the West and joined NATO and the EU.
And why was that? Because the Polish government and other governments in the former Warsaw Pact that turned westward were making decisions with an eye toward improving the lives of their people. They chose to adopt policies that got them money and they chose to join NATO and the EU. And they did that because they had an incentive to do so since their governments were more democratic and thus more responsive to the people. Keeping the people happy was a more important part of staying in power, so they took more steps to try to keep the people happy.

Russia could have pursued a similarly Europe-friendly policy and reaped the rewards in the form of improved standard of living. It simply chose not to because the people who were calling the shots were not making their decisions with an eye toward improving the lot of the common Russian citizen. Instead, the people making the decisions in Russia did so based more upon what would benefit them personally, as they were not as dependent on the average Russian's happiness in the same way that the Polish or Czech governments are dependent on keeping their people happy.
>>
>>1590809
If by "de-facto colonies" you mean "develop actual industry in those regions" like electronics and automobile factories. Russia listened to all the American advisors that came into the country after the USSR was disbanded, and all they got was a fire sale on all government assets. Yeltsin listened to everything the Americans and Europeans told him to do, and he's a fucking traitor for it. You don't know shit about Russia, but I had to live through it, and I had to see my family live through it, and watch everything crumble to dust while people died because there wasn't any funding for hospitals because privatization is the way of the future, just like our new American friends said!

You're right in that there was no democracy, because the one and only referendum that was ever held in the Soviet Union was completely ignored.
>>
/pol/ plz go
>>
>>1590825
>Telling /pol/ to leave a politic heavy quest
>>
>>1590822
> If by "de-facto colonies" you mean "develop actual industry in those regions"
This is what every imperial power always says about its colonies. Russia developed exactly as much of the Warsaw Pact as it needed to in order to get the most benefit out of it for Russia, just as the British or the French developed their colonies as much as they needed to in order to get what they wanted out of them for the benefit of the colonizer.

> Russia listened to all the American advisors
America is one of the least democratic nations in the west. Go down the list of tactics for turning a democracy into an oligarchy and you'll find that America has plenty of them. Voting systems that are designed to limit actual choice as much as possible? Check. Just look at the primary process and the two-party dominance that comes from a first-past-the-post system. Rampant gerrymandering in order to predetermine election results? Check. A system where someone can literally get fewer votes and still win? Check.

> watch everything crumble to dust while people died because there wasn't any funding for hospitals because privatization is the way of the future, just like our new American friends said!
Privatization isn't necessarily the result of democracy. Plenty of democracies nationalize their healthcare systems. Privatizing healthcare can easily be the move of an oligarchy rather than a democracy precisely because in an oligarchy the decisions are being made by a small group of wealthy oligarchs for their own benefit. It sucks for the majority of people, but the oligarchs don't care because they don't need to care. In a more democratic nation, the people in power need to be more sensitive to what will make the people happy because they rely on that to retain power.
>>
>>1590388
Wait, what part of that involved disabling the vehicle, wasn't this more like attacking other scavs and drawing its fire?
>>
>>1590840
Seems like you're including your conclusion in your assumptions. What you're saying is democracies are better for the people because they have to be in order to be democracies. Reminds me of the ideological basis for communism. Democracies certainly can be corrupt, but if you're dismissing corrupt democracies as not actually democracies, there is literally no arguing with you.

But I hope you realize that since you're including "rulers want to stay in power" in there, "therefore they want to keep people happy in order to stay in power" doesn't necessarily follow since the rulers can just as easily do things to stay in power that don't involve making people happy (such as instituting a republic like the America stuff you listed off).

Pure democracies like you say are an ideal state that never works out in practice, and certainly wouldn't work for a population that spans multiple star systems. Furthermore, optimizing for "happy people" doesn't necessarily make a good or efficient government that can keep its population safe from external threats.
>>
>>1590855
>because they have to be in order to be democracies
I did not say this.
Democracies tend to be better for their people because the people in power in a democracy rely on the approval of the people more, and thus have more of an incentive to do things that would benefit the people.

> if you're dismissing corrupt democracies as not actually democracies, there is literally no arguing with you.
Sure, democracies can be corrupt. I never said they were immune to corruption, just less likely to be corrupt. You can get cancer without smoking, but a smoker is more likely to get cancer. A democracy can be corrupt, but an undemocratic nation is more likely to be corrupt.

> "therefore they want to keep people happy in order to stay in power" doesn't necessarily follow since the rulers can just as easily do things to stay in power that don't involve making people happy
In a more democratic state, doing things that please the people is a more reliable way of staying in power. America, as I mentioned, is one of the least democratic nations in the west, and as such those in power have less of an incentive to do things that please the people. The more democratic a nation is, the more reliant its government is on the approval of the people. The less democratic a nation is, the less reliant its government is on the approval of the people.

> Furthermore, optimizing for "happy people" doesn't necessarily make a good or efficient government that can keep its population safe from external threats.
People value safety. People who are in danger tend to not be as happy as those who are safer.
>>
>>1590743
>>1590696
>tfw people don't realize we fit literal definition of Monarchy complete with centralize absolute authority
Hell QD even mention Hive empires are basically a giant space feudal system with one Hive leading the rest
>>1590638
True but a government only has as much power as the people give them or rather let them have. This is one of the reasons the Commonwealth are worried about the losing the faith of the populace.
>>
>>1590871
>>1590855
In a blatant attempt to take this /pol/ discussion in a slightly productive direction...

It seems pretty likely that the Union vote officially giving the Hive the Expanse will be happening very soon. How do we want to govern the existing human colonies? I propose the following:

Benefits:

No centralized taxes,
Free medical care for all,
Free speech protections will remain,
All planets keep existing police and security services,
All planets keep their existing local government and are free to modify it as they see fit,
Local government can petition for Hive assistance (ie. infrastructure projects, etc.)
The Hive will zealously protect residents against any external threat.

Responsibilities:

May not involve themselves with artifacts in any way besides turning them over to the Hive.
No resident may take up arms against the Hive or its agents.
No resident may attack a neutral party (e.g. Theseus, Commonwealth, etc.)
The Hive will have complete freedom in planetary and orbital operations.
The Hive can veto any law unilaterally.

Thoughts?
>>
>No resident may take up arms against the Hive or its agents.
This one is unnecessary, I feel. It is not like any idiot willing to do this will be convinced to stop.

>No resident may attack a neutral party (e.g. Theseus, Commonwealth, etc.)
This, on the other hand, is a good point to make.

>The Hive will have complete freedom in planetary and orbital operations.
>The Hive can veto any law unilaterally.
Ehh... I dunno. Doesn't look like a good idea, but also doesn't look like a (very) bad idea either.
>>
>>1590873
> Hell QD even mention Hive empires are basically a giant space feudal system with one Hive leading the rest

That's an empire of multiple Hives. One Hive alone isn't feudal any more than your own body is feudal. It's once you start creating a society of multiple individuals that you can create something like a feudal system. In the case of the Hive, each Hive is an individual and fits into a place in a feudal hierarchy as a whole unit. Internally, an individual Hive isn't feudal, it's a Hive.

And again, the organization of a Hive empire doesn't really apply in this case because there's basically only one other queen in existence who isn't trying to kill us with the sheer force of her REEEEEEing.
>>
>>1590873
Your a tit. Again. Biology is important you turnip.
>>
>>1590875
>No centralized taxes
Sure, as long as we've got land exploitation rights.

>Free medical care for all
>Local government can petition for Hive assistance (ie. infrastructure projects, etc.)
Roll these together. No need to explicitly say "we'll offer you medical care" if they don't ask for it.

>Free speech protections will remain
>All planets keep their existing local government and are free to modify it as they see fit
Roll these together.

>All planets keep existing police and security services
>The Hive will zealously protect residents against any external threat
Replace with "the local government is permitted to maintain a defensive military. The Hive will provide a defense force which will work with any local military force as requested by the local military force, or as required to maintain sovereignty."

>Responsibilities:
>May not involve themselves with artifacts in any way besides turning them over to the Hive.
Fine. Emphasize: "do not attempt to retrieve any non-human artifacts. Notify the Hive immediately. If any non-human artifact has been retrieved, it must be turned over."

>No resident may take up arms against the Hive or its agents.
>No resident may attack a neutral party (e.g. Theseus, Commonwealth, etc.)
Roll into "any hostile action must be approved by the Hive. Unapproved hostile action voids right to protection."

>The Hive will have complete freedom in planetary and orbital operations.
Add "Joint use will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis" to allow them to have stations and independent mining operations and such.

>The Hive can veto any law unilaterally.
Fine by me.
>>
>>1590887
>This one is unnecessary, I feel. It is not like any idiot willing to do this will be convinced to stop.
True, we won't stop anyone from trying with this law. The point of it is to give us legal cover so that when we squash some backwater obstructionist militia they or their supporters can't come back and say "no one told us that was against the law."


>The Hive will have complete freedom in planetary and orbital operations.
>The Hive can veto any law unilaterally.
>Ehh... I dunno. Doesn't look like a good idea, but also doesn't look like a (very) bad idea either.

I included the veto to preempt any attempt to make anti Hive laws. For example, if a planet tries to make a law limiting Hive flight paths to very limited air corridors we can tell them to get fucked.

I included the freedom of operations section so that we can develop unhindered by anyone else. For example, if we want to turn a mountain range into a mine or turn a forest into a nutrient farm we don't have to worry about environmental regulations or local ordinances. We just act.
This clause can also allow us to go anywhere so we won't have a situation where local police are trying to keep our speaker out of a closed town council meeting or the like.
>>
>>1590887
Well, we don't necessarily have to say that we can veto laws and operate freely, but in practice I think we totally would.
>>
>>1590906
I'm fine with most of this. The specific language doesn't matter that much compared with the main ideas.

That being said
>Unapproved hostile action voids right to protection."
Is kind of weak.

For example, lets say a Commonwealth Prince blows up and loots a Union/Valen trade ship and then fucks off to CW space. We want to do more than just void his right to protection, we will want to seize the CW guy to make an example of what happens to people who break our peace. This is one area, a monopoly on the use of legitimate violence, where as a governing entity we should be clear and forceful.
>>
>>1590921
I meant "voids any right to protection" as in "we'll let the party you offended come in and kill you" but being more proactive about punishing those who break the peace would work, yeah.
>>
>>1590921
>>1590925
Sound like you guys want space bounty hunters.
>>
>>1590949
isn't that why we have replicants and Lyle and crew with us? They can be used to deal with such...touchy political happenings.
>>
>>1590949
Not really what I want at all.

I am concerned that "we'll let the offended party kill you" doesn't work when the offending party is stronger than the offended party. For example, if a Valen megacrop starts blowing up independent traders because the Valen want a monopoly on a resource, we don't want our response to be that the independent traders are free to form a military together and fight the Valen, but we won't intervene. Not only does such an arrangement heavily favor the bully, but if the smaller parties do group together to fight the offender we will have a miniature war in our territory mucking everything up.

It's much easier to just blink in 10x as many ships as the combatants if we detect any violence in our space and demand the belligerents submit to Hive arbitration to find the party at fault.
>>
>>1590958
So your desire is some sort of justice system where the megarich don't have a massive advantage in. Well first off if anybody performs a hostile action with a fucking ship it's safe to assume they're getting shot down. That said QD has outright stated that the Valen are against such acts of violence so it would be more likely for a Human owned megacorps and it would be done through a proxy if at all.
>>
All pirates and mercs of any real competence are getting the adoption treatment.
>>
>>1590967
>So your desire is some sort of justice system where the megarich don't have a massive advantage in.

On the contrary, the mega rich are highly exploitable. They are extremely likely to be self-centered and thus willing to pay through the nose for the privilege of being implanted with a parasite.

However, we do want our space to be a peaceful trade haven, not a lawless realm where we do not intervene on any but the most egregious crimes and where force and bounty hunters hold sway.

Optics are important and we want the Hive controlled areas to look as appealing as possible.
>>
>>1590976
True. And the ones that aren't get killed or get a replicant infultrated in then.
>>
Update when?
>>
>>1591286
10 min according to twitter!
>>
File: 1485392544759.jpg (22 KB, 349x344)
22 KB
22 KB JPG
>>1591009
>still wanting to market parasites despite the critical risk to our espionage and diplomatic ties
>>
>>1591291
i don't understand why people keep insisting to push this subject.
>>
>>1591291
Obviously we don't sell the parasites directly. Instead we let word get out that the Hive has an immortality treatment and make the mega rich come to us. We can describe it as a serum that needs to be individually tailored or something. Once implanted they are rich and powerful enough to refuse any medical scans other factions might offer or request.

Immortality is one of the most valuable assets we can "sell" to get people on our side. It needs to be done carefully, but that's better than doing nothing at all.
>>
>>1590976
Adoption is only for those who are either of unique use,have unique skills,or are highly skilled. These people would have to be more deeply involved in Hive affairs in order to use their full potential. Anyone else can just be bought of via resources or credits from selling said resources. Im against reckless adoption.
>>
>>1591313
how is it reckless?
>>
File: ahhhhhhh.jpg (22 KB, 1040x150)
22 KB
22 KB JPG
>>
>>1591318
Soon
>>
>>1591317
Why adopt individuals that will likely get killed(some of them) or could be captured. If we need mercs we can bribe them,or better yet,just make some friggen clones like we have before.
>>
File: r-ha-o.gif (1.28 MB, 320x180)
1.28 MB
1.28 MB GIF
>>1590388
A sea of drones swarm over the landscape, ripping through barricades and abandoned, dismembered vehicles as they charge the layered walls of the anti-orbital battery and its myriad of artillery and gun emplacements set along the hillside. Blaster bolts and projectiles rip into the sea of chitin as rockets arc overhead, detonating into the diffuse chaos of the incoming wall of flesh. Wasps buzz overhead as a torrent of anti-air fire brings down a heavy hail of carapace chunks and powdered flesh.

Ahead of the walls, you see scavenger walker tanks, large, heavily armored craft with an uncharacteristically low maneuverability for the typical scavenger military doctrine. They plant their feet into the ground as their weapons pivot into position, their function little more than massive redeployable gun emplacements, like large, walking bunkers. Scavengers fire from narrow portholes within, and turrets pivot along its sides to thin out the numbers in your swarm. The first of their number is soon overtaken by the sea of drones, most of them sprinting past, their weapons largely meaningless to the thick armor of the tank, while your marching colosi ready their own cannons, concentrating their fire on the front line of the enemy heavy vehicles.

The first tank takes several shots, most of them glancing off or detonating against a projected shield. The field begins to flicker over it in layers as more shells impact it, ripping into the armor and sending plumes of fire into the air. The large drones charge up to it, bashing it with its mandibles as it tackles the behemoth and pushes it over, tipping it to its side as drones swarm up its frame and tear into its interior like ants devouring a tortoise. Other tanks begin to fall, their shields failing as a heavy barrage of weapons fire from your large drones rip their armor apart.

Behind your wave of drones, a line of vehicles breaks the horizon. Dozens of commonwealth armored vehicles from tanks to mobile artillery. Rockets and heavy shells thunder out from the line of vehicles, streaking over your drones and into the scavenger defensive line as commonwealth gunships began circling overhead, spiraling into range as they lay down a barrage of fire from their large, side mounted gun turrets. Several larger craft can be seen further above, leaving contrails in the air as they pass, and small dots drop from their hulls. The streaking dots burst open as they near the ground, braking thrusters firing in short bursts as their frames fall apart into disposable landing gear, and heavy dropsuits land on the ground with a rumbling of thunder.
cont
>>
>>1591336
THERE IT IS.
>>
>>1591333
except you still didn't explain why you think this is reckless? so what if they get killed or captured? in the first case it's literally irrelevant, and in the second the parasite can disintegrate at the appropriate time anyway
>>
>>1591346
Then they know something is up when they see a pocket of dissolved flesh inside some random dude
>>
>>1591346
Let me rephrase myself:Im against pointless adoption.
>>
>>1591346
There's an element of risk of discovery with any given parasite that's impossible to completely rub out. The more of them there are out there, the harder it will be to conceal their existence.

That's why we should only parasite sparingly unless there's both a major reason to parasite a specific person (such as Lyle's competence or Gilliam's access) and opportunity that allows us to do so with little risk.
>>
>>1591351
it's never pointless as adoption both gives us a direct view of their senses, greatly improves their abilities via thinker access, and in general gives us instant communication with them

those are pretty huge boosts

>>1591359
i feel the risk is very minimal given all the factors surrounding it

if you go with "risk impossible to completely rub out" you can use that as an argument against absolutely anything, as such it isn't much of an argument
>>
>>1591359
While there is a risk of discovery, the lower down on the food chain you get the less chance there is of discovery. For example, it is extremely likely that if we return Gilliam to the Union with a parasite implanted the parasite will be detected. Meanwhile, we have parasites virtually the entire Sewer Taidarens on Gemini and there is almost no risk of detection because of their low status.

Personally, I favor expanding parasite efforts reasonably and in particular targeting doctors and others that could be involved in uncovering a parasite infestation. If parasites are difficult to detect anyway and we are controlling many of the the detectors it will not be too difficult to keep our parasites from being detected as long as we don't immediately rush for the most important people.
>>
>>1591363
As I said before,we could make more clones of Lyles former team, or try to get different samples. The mental link isnt as strong,but its strong enough to control them and sense their surroundings.
>>
>>1591363
>you can use that as an argument against anything
Nope.

This concerns the risk of discovery for one of our major sources of espionage. Unlike other sources of risk this is an all or nothing deal; if they figure it out not only are we likely to lose this advantage, but shit is also going to hit the fan.
>>
>>1591363
Except the risk of discovery with the numbers of parasites you're handing out is all but guaranteed.

And as >>1591372 points out, it only takes the once to remove one of our greatest espionage and covert operation advantages.

I'm not going to call you stupid or retarded, but the idea is a product of ignorance at best, and deliberate sabotage at worst.
>>
>>1591372
Realistically we are much, much, more likely to have our parasites detected when Devon and Co return to the Union than any of the other options posed. We need to weigh the risks with rewards. Sending Devon back to the Union is a huge risk. Compared to that our other plans to slowly expand influence are far, far, less likely to be detected.
>>
>>1591372
they can't directly figure it out instantly because of all the factors surrounding the problem (parasites can disintegrate, hosts can be directed to defend the secret, etc.)

as such it isn't an all or nothing deal at all, at first we're risking the suspicions of an odd disease that makes a bunch of goo in the chest cavity

ill also remind you that we have taken risks many times greater than this in the past
>>
>as drones swarm up its frame and tear into its interior like ants devouring a tortoise.

This is beautifull.
>>
>>1591382
They aren't going to heavily research something that makes a really weird goo inside people?
>>
>>1591369
>there is almost no risk of detection due to [taidarens'] low status
There's almost no risk of detection because Taidaren are as scientifically curious as a sack of bricks, and about as scientifically competent.

If it starts becoming widespread among humans, sooner or later somebody we don't control is going to notice, and they're going to start digging.

>>1591382
Humans aren't as stupid as you think. They realized that we weren't primitives, they realized we were fucking with them when they studied us, and Killinger in particular came very close to baiting us into disrupting one of his ceremonies.

If we leave a paper trail, they're going to sniff it out.
>>
>>1591384
sure? but how are they going to make the connection? the people researching it wouldn't have anything to do with hive studies in the first place, they'd just be regular doctors

unless they already suspect such things are being done by the hive, in which case this discussion is completely out of context and we may as well say that if they'll suspect us doing so anyway, we may as well do it
>>
>>1591389
one piece of paper doesn't make a trail
>>
>>1591384
Well now that I think about it if we blow them early enough the goo should be absorbed by the body even if they do detect it for the most part it will be written off unless there is something else to draw their attention to it..
>>
>>1591396
No, but what about two, three, five, ten examples? All of whom were subject to hive therapy?

What about 100? 1000?

How many do you want to gamble the Union needs to suss us out?
>>
I swear we can't unlock the skill to alter memories in a depperway, soon enough, so we can give a rest to this parasite talk..
>>
>>1591396
Humanity, both sides, knows the hive is A++ biotech'd up.
Union knows about form-snatching horrors that are linked to the hive. Oh, that can steal memory and knowledge.
Union knows that the hive somehow recruited a bunch of humans.

That's easily two and a half BEFORE they know about parasites.
>>
>>1591405
copies of the same piece of paper don't make a trail
>>
>>1591405
Here’s the problem.
For a parasite to be discovered in a “regular” person requires a gigantic chain of failures.

First the adoptee needs to be extremely badly injured. I say this because an adoptee would never need to go in for an in-depth medical scan under normal circumstances. The scanners that can possibly detect parasites are extremely rare.

Second, the injured person needs to be far enough away from our other adoptees that they cannot recover him/her before we can or our flies can create a diversion.

Third, the horribly injured person needs to be in a stable enough condition so that the cavity created by our dissolved parasite is detected in a way that cannot be explained by their other injuries.

Fourth, the strange goo cavity needs to be identified not as a one-off phenomenon, but as evidence of systematic infiltration of a human population by aliens.

Fifth, proof needs to be discovered beyond what the Hive can claim as plausible deniability.

Do you understand just how difficult it is for parasites to be discovered in a regular person going about their life? It’s almost impossible. And we have already made way riskier decisions regarding parasites in this Quest (such as sending back a parasited Devon and Co to what should be an extremely suspicious Union).
>>
>>1591409
see the second part of >>1591393
>>
>>1591419
>Second, the injured person needs to be far enough away from our other adoptees that they cannot recover him/her before we can or our flies can create a diversion.
>Third, the horribly injured person needs to be in a stable enough condition so that the cavity created by our dissolved parasite is detected in a way that cannot be explained by their other injuries.
A breakout of somebody who was just going to undertake routine medical care is suspicious as FUCK. A horrible acid-cavity is obvious as fuck.

And again, the Union KNOWS the hive is A++ biotech and KNOWS about horrible formstealing horrors.
Hell, they might even put in full scans on important checkpoints just to keep the Thing out.

The risk of a parasite detection is low, but it's way higher than non-issue you people are assuming.

Our adversaries may not be 100% in the "don't fucking touch the murdercrystal" common sense department, but they're far from as retarded as you lot imply.


Oh, and they don't need proof to run a fear campaign when people are already terrified of the hive.
>>
>>1591431
>A breakout of somebody who was just going to undertake routine medical care is suspicious as FUCK.
it is? i'd say it's highly suspicious only as a result of another chain of highly unlikely events
>>
>>1591409
Remember that Lee confirmed to Morgan that he had a hive parasite in him

So the union knows that we do put things in our agents but don't know the full extent of what they can do yet
>>
>>1591431
>Oh, and they don't need proof to run a fear campaign when people are already terrified of the hive.
this is pretty laughable by the way, since it also means they can already run fear campaigns in whatever way they want

no, the issue here is the government, civilians panicking is irrelevant
>>
File: 4196461.png (1.36 MB, 1902x1079)
1.36 MB
1.36 MB PNG
>>1591336
The walls of the main facility is alight with gunfire. Stacks of charred and dismembered drones pile high against the stone defences as your drones climb over the bodies of their brethren, clawing for the scavengers on the other side. The first drone to reach the top is a simple warrior, leaping much of the distance with a buzz of its wings before it is pelted with blaster bolts, falling back into the sea of drones. The next are another pair of warriors, the first leaping up as the second rushes for the scavenger as it aims its weapon. Several other grunts focus their fire, and the lapse in blaster coverage creates an opening as more drones rush up the makeshift ramp of charred flesh and fractured chitin. A formation of wasps dive down with their blades outstretched, quickly and cleanly removing the head and arm of one of the grunts and plucking another into the air as they rip at it mid air, eventually separating it into three pieces and flying off with their small mid-combat snacks.

A heavy warrior clamors up into the fray, plucking a grunt as it shoots at the warriors already over the wall. Its tail latches onto its head and catapults it over the wall where several outstretched mandibles catch it expertly in their grips, and the alien vanishes under a tide of dark crimson chitin. The heavy warrior opens fire with a torrent of plasma bolts from both arms, eviscerating a quickly fleeing line of defenders as more nimble drones run them down. A pup lunges at the drone, and it swats the creature to the side, gripping it in its claws as it fires its sledgehammer, sending it shattering like a shredded piece of corkboard.

You see human drop pods continue to land, impacting near the anti-orbital battery as they quickly take flight with their jets. They seem preoccupied with some minute objective as your drones flood into the facility, likely searching either for the control center or possibly human survivors. Regardless, nothing important enough for them to request direct hive attention, but perhaps it is more a matter of human pride. They leap from rooftop to rooftop, taking potshots at the scavengers below as they search for their objective, eventually landing on a building set within the anti-orbital battery's foundations, and begin placing breaching charges along its entrance. With a quick flash of white hot light, the door falls from its frame and they charge in.

"AO targeting station has been reached. Looks like they still haven't managed to repair the power relays, and the main generator is still offline. This thing won't be firing for days yet." You hear a human say over radio.

"Good. We still need to worry about the rest of the network, but most of them can be taken by bombardment or siege later. Get to the command station and make sure the firing codes are still encrypted."

cont.
>>
>>1591437
Your argument was "they won't have good proof". My rebuttal was "they won't need good proof". You have now changed your stance to "proof doesn't matter".
While the Valen surely appreciate your patronage, please return the goalposts to their original orbit.
>>
>>1591415
It's not copies, it's a pattern.

You're grasping at straws.

>>1591419
>First
People get badly injured all the time, and having more out there just makes it more likely.

>Second
You think people won't notice a nonmedical group hauling a person from the scene of an accident? That'll raise red flags without a doubt.

>Third
Dissolution isn't nearly as subtle as you think. Even with the generous assumption that it doesn't fuck up surrounding tissue, it'd still be easy as fuck to distinguish as different during a scan or autopsy.

>Fourth
>Fifth
These are irrelevant.

Once they notice the pattern, they're going to start digging for why this pattern suddenly emerged. If any of them at all can be traced to the hive (like say, due to the Hive doing stupid shit like marketing conveniently similar parasites) then it wouldn't take much effort at all for them to draw the right conclusion. And even if they don't have anything obvious, they already know that we employ parasites to some degree, so that's not something that they'll have to pull out of the aether.
>>
>>1591431
>A breakout of somebody who was just going to undertake routine medical care is suspicious as FUCK.
But it wouldn't be routine medical care. No one who is adopted will ever need or go in for a "routine" medical examination.

I never argued for a break out in the event our parasite actually ends up in a hospital, although that is a possibility. I would argue for having the exam be delayed for as long as possible through misdirection by other agents and possibly hacking the medical software with Theseus. We can also make efforts to adopt the docs who would usually be running the tests before they have a chance of happening.
>>
>>1591448
uh, no, what you just described has nothing to do from either my end or yours

unless you're mislinking
>>
>>1591451
>You're grasping at straws.

>It's not copies, it's a pattern.
kek, glass houses my man
>>
File: crow of judgement.jpg (15 KB, 540x540)
15 KB
15 KB JPG
>this fucking argument again
>nobody cares about us finally entering into the anti-orbital battery facilities
>>
>>1591462
I do, anon, I do...
>>
>>1591462
Anons like to argue
>>
>>1591462
i personally don't find fight scenes very exciting, at least in the written medium
>>
>>1591435
And union intelligence are now looking into the new type of fly that pop up when we broke Lee out and probably heard rumors of the new para that have be become the rage among the tal, as Lee friend admitted telling lee
>>
File: 35676.jpg (41 KB, 400x349)
41 KB
41 KB JPG
>>1591462
Was just about to say the same thing
>>
>>1591462
Thank you, anon, for unifying us against the demons of pointless argument.
>>
>>1591476
So um, we already left a bunch of clues to the union about our activities that they will eventually connect the dots
>>
>>1591435
He didn't.
>>
>>1591492
He said he had a biological implant that could filter alcohol. Could be interpreted by humans as doing more
>>
>>1591492
Yes he did,
Morgan told nonchalant about having a implant against poisons and asked lee if he had something like that and lee admitted to having something similar that does that,

And the union is not gullible enough at this point to think it can only do that
>>
>>1591503
And that's proof of nothing.
>>
>>1591511
I am just saying what was actually said and what the anon was probably thinking
>>
>>1591492
It's irrelevant; remember when we released the prisoners back to the Union?

I guarantee they've been analyzed in every conceivable way since then, meaning that they already have a comparison if people with jelly on their spine start randomly.
>>
>>1591507
>>1591507
and given that the union now know that it possible for bio tech to do things like shapeshifting from seeing the cluster

And that it now spread we can do telepathy after we admitted it to the whales minion and that tidbit spread to everyone else with spooks

I dont think anyone underestimates the capability of hive biotech anymore
>>
>>1591519
Yes they came to the right conclusion for the wrong reasons.
>>
>>1591507
>>1591526
Can't REALLY fault Lee, since he hasn't been trained to not blabber. But seriously, what the literal fuck was with the decision to just let every fucking body in that room know the hive was high-functioning telepathic?
The hive gained nothing and blew a giant secret.
>>
>>1591539
Let's be blunt here, we just really, really wanted to make them jump.
>>
>>1591539
Because why not
>>
>>1591443
Your forces slowly chew their way through bulkhead after bulkhead as the scavengers abandon their lines and flee deeper into the facility, huddling around their pack alphas as your heavy drones take point in the cramped corridors of the labyrinth of bunkers and reinforced bomb shelters, leaving only smears of neon blood and twisted bodies in their wake. The air is thick with the scent of fear in the cramped space, and the radio is a thick static of encoded panic layered over each other as they forgo any pretense of radio discipline, even after the human drop troopers shut down the local comms relay the panic continues, screaming over every frequency used by the alien forces until your drones breach into the last chamber left uncleared.

It is an exceptionally large chamber, a munitions storage area for the local missile launch platforms. The missiles themselves have been removed, either long since fired by the humans, or disposed of by the invaders, or some combination. In their place are racks upon racks of swollen bone chimes, their interiors filled with some fluid that pulses in the light of the many distributed heat lamps scattered throughout the chamber. There is almost no moisture in the room, and the temperature has been drastically increased to nearly forty degrees as your drones scatter out in the open chambers and simmer in their carapaces, their moist breath quickly drying in the heat as the filter in their respiratory system becomes uncomfortably dry. It is not enough to cause a medical issue, although you suspect a human could quickly succumb to heat stroke, and it is clear the scavenger environment is not suitable for either human nor hive.

Your drones examine one of the swollen bone chimes. At one end, normally connecting to the back of a scavenger, is a layer of dried cuticle flesh, shriveled like the stale stem of an old fruit fallen from its tree. The chime itself has distended out almost like a balloon, its thick keratin-like substance growing thin enough to see its contents through the glow of the heat lamps on the other side, revealing a bluish colored fluid within where a small, translucent, half formed figure twitches with a faint heartbeat within. You see other racks of smaller, softer looking oblong balls of flesh you immediately recognize as eggs, regardless of how different they are to your own. They are placed with care on shelves, organized to some unknown alien cataloging system assorted by genetic quality and level of abnormality. Several small bins are filled with layers of smeared blood and various fluids where eggs that have failed their apparent testing have been discarded.

A number of scavengers, brightly colored with thermal absorbent pigments and armor of an almost sleek obsidian color tense in their stances as they hold up their weapons. Most are missing their bone chimes, while others hold freshly grown or still growing chimes sprouting from their backs like thin, leathery branches.
cont.
>>
>>1591526
I think the most obvious weakness right now in our covert operations is the giving of parasites to the pedes, they are now spreading the existence of the new gosh darned wonder paras among there community at large and those stories will reach union intelligence if it hasn't already

I mean dill admitted that he spied on everyone as part of his duties in the agency so they do collect intel on what the pedes do, but they probably ignored as just idle gossip before we showed up, but now anything that smells of biotech probably became number 1 issue
>>
Something much more immediate than long term parasite strategy is what to do with Devon.

After the Cluster lab the Union now knows there is biotech the Hive is familiar with that can perfectly replicate a human in minutes and learn their memories.
Devon was alone in the custody of Hive Agents for hours before effecting a "miracle" escape.

Once they start connecting the dots it won't be difficult for them to connect when Devon learned of things and when the Hive chose to act. The Mirage incident is especially suspicious.

If I were in the Union I would suspect there is a good chance "Devon" isn't even human and if he did return I would subject him to every possible test I had access to before shipping him off to an unimportant facility where he can no longer compromise critical projects.
>>
File: 1441568723183.jpg (346 KB, 1170x1000)
346 KB
346 KB JPG
>>1591554
>all this Scav stuff
Do I smell new research options?
>>
>Regardless, nothing important enough for them to request direct hive attention, but perhaps it is more a matter of human pride

Oh you silly humans, does seeing your highest defense point, being overwelmed and taken by a alien force, while a more technological specie protects it, is that humilating?
>>
>>1591554
There may be a scav of higher rank than alpha around, send in the speaker? or terms of surrender ?
>>
>>1591563
i want to dig on all sweet carbage and grab some scav and human tech.
>>
File: secret beekeeper.jpg (667 KB, 1456x1869)
667 KB
667 KB JPG
>>1591554
I hope we can capture the ones responsible for breeding. We need more knowledge than just the one alpha we captured. Maybe these guys know something.
>>
File: disgusting.jpg (206 KB, 553x526)
206 KB
206 KB JPG
>>1591570
>needing human tech
>>
>>1591574
Just because they have shitty tech doesn't mean they don't have good ideas.
>>
>>1591574
>not wanting human tech
Idiot who has no idea how we got so powerful detected.
>>
>>1591574
M8, where do you think we got shit like nukes from?
>>
>>1591588
>>1591582
Nukes, shield domes, miniaturized shields, lightning gun, powe armor and other stuff i forget too.
>>
>>1591574
>species created for scientific innovation and psionic resistance
>one of the few races that managed to design its own non-tachyon warp drive
>first species to have fired the psionic canon
>one of the few known species that has created an entirely unique form of intelligence that other species wouldn't even consider as being alive
>only species to have created ubiquitous non-tachyonic FTL comms

Humans were not a mistake. White Queen did well.
>>
>>1591616
They still manage to do the stupiest thing in the easiest way, but then again nobody is perfect.
>>
>>1591622
Not necessarily their fault. They were engineered to be overly aggressive with scary tech they should leave well enough alone. Otherwise they never would have touched the psi cannon design.
>>
>>1591554
Oh look we found the scav daycare.NEW SCAVS ADOPTEES!!!
>>
>>1591648
Yay! What cute babies to adopt! Let's take them all!
>>
>>1591622
Disregarding the humans out of hand is a bad idea. It sounds like Void, Hive, and Cluster have all declined so far from where they were that they've fallen behind even the newest races.
>>
>>1591507
It's a fact that Lee has a perfectly non-psionic implant that filters toxins, entirely separate from the spine-buddy. The two functions are in no way related, and there is no possible reason to infer one from the other.

You might as well say "the hive installed cybernetics in one person" implies "...and mind control!"
>>
>>1591554
They are clearly not grunts, but not quite alphas. A mixture of augmentation and invasive medical procedure has rendered them somewhere between, almost akin to a kind of eunuch. Not quite a caste itself, they are both untouchable and respected in scavenger society, the only individuals ever permitted to handle the fertilized bone chime of another pack alpha, and the only kind outside of the brood mother herself ever allowed to touch an unprotected egg without facing immediate execution, usually by the brood mother herself. Their plucked and barren nature has rendered them mute, and their proximity to the mother has inhibited the growth of any proper pheromone production.

Further into the chamber, past the mute attendants, you see a large glass sphere hanging in the air by columns of metal and wires. A large field of burning plasma twists within it, arcing bolts of energy along the sides of the glass as it twists into an ever changing form. It is virtually incomprehensible, but in the thermal spectrum, it creates a rather distinct and crisp image of a large figure, like a face. It flickers into a field of diffuse heat, crackling over the glass. There is a large figure hunched in front of it as it tears at a large console of control devices, jabbing it with its massive claws.

The matriarch itself is perhaps a fresh convert, her height a meager three meters, a far cry from the colossal form of a proper brood mother, and her rushed scraping at the controls of the communications terminal displays a hint of some immaturity. You recall from the memories of your captive alpha that it is not entirely uncommon for new matriarchs to form splinter clans when raiding alien worlds in order to better cover the hostile landscapes which they strip barren of resources. Such matriarchs are placed in an incredibly dangerous position of power, knowing full well that they cannot shift back from their new form, but that once the world they help to govern is rendered a barren husk their position will inevitably become nullified, and if such new mothers do not quickly prove themselves worthy of replacing a higher ranking broodmother within the short time given, they will likely be left to starve on the world as the armada abandons the would-be upstart or worse, killed by her own attendants and mated alphas as they seek to earn their own places in the broods of the departing armada matriarchs, sometimes holding the last shipments of materials as ransom. Despite such a position of authority, you suspect this matriarch is held with some level of apathy at best, wary contempt at worst by the other leaders of the scavenger society, and you doubt they would be willing to send assistance even if the humans had not disabled the comm array.

cont.
>>
>>1591691
>matriarch
Target acquired. Commence capture mission.
>>
>>1591691
What the frack was in that glass?
Please let it not be another eldritch abomination
>>
>>1591705
Scavenger hologram tech.
>>
>>1591703
>capture

i think you meant adoption mission anon.
>>
>>1591691

>low status matriarch

Should her name be Baroness, Countess, or Duchess?
>>
>>1591691
>The matriarch itself is perhaps a fresh convert, her height a meager three meters, a far cry from the colossal form of a proper brood mother, and her rushed scraping at the controls of the communications terminal displays a hint of some immaturity. You recall from the memories of your captive alpha that it is not entirely uncommon for new matriarchs to form splinter clans when raiding alien worlds in order to better cover the hostile landscapes which they strip barren of resources. Such matriarchs are placed in an incredibly dangerous position of power, knowing full well that they cannot shift back from their new form, but that once the world they help to govern is rendered a barren husk their position will inevitably become nullified, and if such new mothers do not quickly prove themselves worthy of replacing a higher ranking broodmother within the short time given, they will likely be left to starve on the world as the armada abandons the would-be upstart or worse, killed by her own attendants and mated alphas as they seek to earn their own places in the broods of the departing armada matriarchs, sometimes holding the last shipments of materials as ransom. Despite such a position of authority, you suspect this matriarch is held with some level of apathy at best, wary contempt at worst by the other leaders of the scavenger society, and you doubt they would be willing to send assistance even if the humans had not disabled the comm array.
Tl;dr Diplomacy is viable here.
>>
>>1591691
So what you're saying is that she's stuck here and has probably been left to her fate by the other scavs?

Sounds like a prime opportunity to diplomance, and perhaps even parasitize. Let's capture all of them alive and see where this takes us.
>>
>>1591762
>Sounds like a prime opportunity to diplomance
No, fuck you.

Go hard and forcefully take her. No fucking diplomacy.
>>
>>1591765
This. Just grab 'em all and stuff a parasite in each one. That'll sort them all out.
>>
>>1591765
Seduction is typically more successful than rape, buddy.
>>
>>1591765
Taking her alive by force is unlikely to happen.
>>
>>1591765
>>1591771
Or, since this is the commonwealth's planet, we can report this to them and mention that its a decent chance to reduce casualties.
>>
>>1591762
>Opportunity to diplomance, and perhaps even parasitize

Oh my god, why would you even bother with the first when the 2nd is so much better and available?
>>
>>1591775
I'm fairly certain that the rate of successful rapes is far higher than the rate of successful seductions, though I have no clue where the fuck you'd get hard numbers on attempted seductions per year.
>>
I know i advocated to wipe the scavs unless they started to talk to us...but...this is a way to important chance of diplomacy to pass out.
>>
>>1591783
She's not physically on the here. It's a fucking hologram from what I can tell.
>>
>>1591765
Diplomancy here in this situation in which we have the better hand will give us experience in latter situations in which we dont have such an absolute advantage.
>>
>>1591783
Willing conversion is generally better, yes?

Though really, while parasitism is the best course of option here I just don't want to encourage the adoptionfags.

>>1591791
No, she's in front of the hologram.
>>
>>1591791
She's inside the bubble, the thermal hologram is outside it
>>
>>1591788
oh and by diplomacy i mean parasite that bitch.
>>
>>1591765
Damn straight. Any information she has can be ripped out of her mind with a parasite, including the location of any and all Scav couches.
>>
>>1591801
>>1591797
What about having her order a ceasefire using diplomacy first?
>>
>>1591811
>parasite her
>order ceasefire
There, same effect, no talky.
>>
>>1591811
I'm pretty sure this would be negotiation for surrender, not ceasefire.
>>
>>1591797
I like the way you work diplomacy.
>>
>>1591814
Not really. You need a medtank to parasite a Scavenger because you have to place it insiade it's brain. A lot people will die before we manage it.
>>
>>1591811
What this anon said: >>1591817
>>
>>1591818
Thank you. I like to call it agressive diplomacy.
>>
Huh, so do the rest of them now have combat data on our titan?
>>
>>1591797
Diplomacy always works better when they have no choice but to agree with you.
>>
>>1591829
We can ask her. Once we have finished parasiting her of course.
>>
All these people suddenly acting like "adopt everyone" hasn't always been primary objective. I mean we aren't going to be watching every second of the hundreds of Tiderans we have recently adopted so why Not adopt units that can be adopted.

In this instance if we plan on building the space illuminati we want a scav representative. Plus this is the best chance to get a couch from them. The going rate for survival of a scav matriarch is super cheep right now.
>>
>>1591834
I 100% agreed.
>>
>>1591840
Don't worry anon. The anti-adoption anons are just a bunch of greedy thinkers that don't want to share mother's love with other species.
>>
>>1591811
How are you even going to communicate with them?

Pick up a Scavenger corpse and start rattling their bones in the appropriate rhythms?

Anyway, we certainly shouldn't do anything like cause a ceasefire, because then the humans would ask how we did that. We should just parasite the bitch, extract from her mind any information about technological experts among her underlings, and order those guys into convenient locations where they can be captured too.
>>
>>1591844
I just want that couch.... They promised mother. it gives me a grumpy.
>>
>>1591835
Do you have no interest in the lives of the Commonwealth soldiers? Diplomacy leads to the fewest lives lost since Parasiting Scavengers is a complicated process.
>>
>>1591850
We have a telepathic speaker on site and we can use the radio transmissions.
>>
>>1591840
Our primary objective is to kill the Void with the Psionic Cannon. It has been since for fucking ever.

The parasites have only ever been a convenient tool to that end. And do remember that we need non-parasited human researchers to research the cannon, otherwise we gather void corruption.
>>
>>1591856
There aren't even any commonwealth soldiers in the room, bud.
>>
>>1591863
Or...
We could just ask Theseus to research it since is is virtually immune to corruption.
>>
>>1591850
We could scan our Scavs mind to see if they have an alphabet that we can use. If not,then a few hundred thinkers can probably coordinate some drones movements so they make similer enough sounds so that we just sound like a hillbilly.
>>
>>1591866
unless he's not somehow

then Theseus is dead
>>
>>1591866
Yeah honestly at this point I think having Theseus and Heretic develop/build the cannon would be the best option
>>
>>1591863
We actually don't. We have several option like having Theseus research it or getting a copy from the Commonwealth.
>>
>>1591873
We could ask him to create a specialized, mortal instance of himself to research the cannon. Once completed, that instance can communicate only the most essential data of the test before self terminating.
>>
One issue with the agressive diplomicy (forced paracite, literal gun point, etc.) is that Scavs have shown a willingness to be self destructive when pushed. This is the first time we have a faction leader that is aware of its disposability and its eroding position in arms reach. before now everything alpha and under has destroyed itself trying to run away. this one has no place to run to so may be open to negotiations. on the other hand if it feels like its up against the wall to much it might admiral akbar itself.
>>
>>1591865
Are you pretending to be retarded? She's incharge of the whole operation and parasiting her will take a while.
>>
>>1591856
Hive drones are the first at it mate. The commonwealth is far behind us.
>>
>>1591866
He is not immune to being devoured by a 4-dimensional warping of space, which is what attacked the White Queen and the Skyl homeworld after they damaged some crystals.
>>
>>1591866
>it's virtually immune to corruption
We have no way of telling that. That's entirely speculation based on the fact that no recognizable symptoms have emerged from what little exposure he's had.
>>
>>1591892
is she i thpught she would be only the responsible for the ones at the AO facility.
>>
>>1591898
Actually he is according to all research we've done and everything we've been told. Humans are actually more vulnerable.
>>
>>1591856
>Do you have no interest in the lives

Individual units aren't really important compared to a) keeping parasites' existence secret, b) the benefits of extracting knowledge from enemy brains, so relatively speaking...
>>
>>1591863
thats our mothers goal and it failed. Ours was to survive and grow strong. Void god is our enemy, but as I see the expanse of the war of attrition that has torn both sides to shreds it is always going to be a secondary objective to me.
>>
>>1591911
Then diplomacy is the best route.
>>
>>1591909
>Actually he is
Are you dense? You're talking about something completely fucking different. You don't need to be tachyon-sensitive or organic life to be physically devoured.

I mean, you think the inanimate rock of the crust of the Skyl's planet was able to be psionically sensitive? it got aten just the same.
>>
>>1591901
He definitely is, he's a non organic life form. The enemy doesn't even recognize him as existing, just like our barren queen
>>
>>1591901
>>1591909

I believe only carbon based life has shown the ability to be corrupted. Theseus, as silicon based life and therefore with NO Tachyonic/life signature is extremely unlikely to be corrupted - at least not immediately.

With time I am sure the Void can develop the means to corrupt him, just like it did with the humans. But this corruption will take a very long time given how his form of "life" is completely different from anything ever encountered and his complete lack of tachyonic signatures.

Sure we will need to be very careful - have the theseus instance research it isolated and disconnected from the rest of Unity and in an anti-psi containment facility - but he is a far better research prospect than any of the humans with the possible exception of Elizabeth.
>>
>>1591913
Your constant goalpost moving fails to convince me of the merits of your argument.
>>
>>1591913
That conclusion doesn't follow from literally anything, you're just saying things.
>>
>>1591918
corruption/=/destroyed by a fold in space.

To corrupt the enemy needs to be able to perceive the target and speak with them, presumably.
>>
>>1591911
then we need to use diplomacy its parasite lite.

>>1591903
we don't know what she is in charge of since we haven't asked and if she self destructs while we try to stuff a grub in her by force then we wont know.
>>
>>1591913
Correct. If we succed,no need to use a parasite,we learn more about how Scav psychology works,we save more lives,and we get more street cred. If diplomacy doesnt work,then we could fall back on the good 'ol spine pals.
>>
>>1591918
What? That literally only happens to psionic races that do the research.
>>
>>1591927
>corruption/=/destroyed by a fold in space.
No fucking shit. That was the entire point of this conversation.

It is irrelevant whether he's immune to the OQ's fate if he can be genocided out of existence anyway. It's still insanely dangerous.
>>
>>1591919
>>1591920
From where are you drawing this conclusion that any of that is necessarily a protection from corruption? We don't fully understand how the corruption even works, so how can we claim that any of that even affects the process?
>>
>>1591939
>It's still insanely dangerous.
No duh. But he is less likely to be corrupted or even detected by the Void, which makes it much safer (comparatively) for him than for literally any other faction.
>>
SPEAKER CAN MAKE OF SPEAKING
BEFORE KILLING FOR MOTHER!
>>
>>1591920
psychic beings have been directly corruptible.

Humans which are psychically insulated can be corrupted by crystals forming inside their brains.

There is the possibility that a computer could be similarly infiltrated in a manner like the way it infiltrates the human brain.
>>
Due to our bad start at diplomacing the scav i'm unhappy in starting any kind of talk with then. But if this bitch try to fuck with us i ain't giving those stinky scavs no third chances.
>>
>>1591939
Literally this >>1591943
>>1591940
Because a silicon based lifeform has no tachyonic signature, he's un perceivable by the enemy.

Even more so than humans, who were made the way they are by mom
>>
>>1591949
And you think that when fucking nothing starts poking the void with a stick they'll assume it's fucking nothing instead of trying to figure out what's poking them with a stick?
>>
>>1591945
>There is the possibility that a computer could be similarly infiltrated in a manner like the way it infiltrates the human brain.

I already agreed to that, just read my post. Given infinite time it is almost certain Theseus would fall.

However, any corruption of Theseus will take far longer and be less likely to succeed than it would for any other party. If he researches in an extremely isolated instance he is probably safer than any other group would be.
>>
>>1591953
What if he pokes the void with a invisible stick?
>>
>>1591691
The matriarch turns to the newly intruding drones. Her body is far too large to stand in human suitable gravity on only her hind legs, which have already been augmented to some degree with cybernetic reinforcements. To better stabilize herself she digs her claws into the ground in front of her, leaning on the comm station's control terminal with one arm and the other gripping the floor. Near her chest, clutched close, is a smaller set of arms freshly grown from a pair of distended ribs typically seen as a kind of second collar bone beneath the neck in most alphas, and entirely absent in the typical grunt. They hold a number of control devices strapped to them to allow the manipulation of the communication device, as well as a set of radio transmitters for short range communications. Her larger arms are equipped with a set of large weapons typically reserved for vehicle mounts or stationary positions, while a pair of more standard sized blasters can be seen mounted on her shoulders, with wires running deep inter her armored hide where they link with implanted cybernetics for targeting and fire control. At first you wonder why a caste not intended to see any form of combat would need such an array of firepower, until you remember that this matriarch likely anticipates the odds favor her own brood betraying her for a stronger, more well established clan in the armada.

Her body is a hulking mass of armor and thick keratin hide, reinforced with cybernetic implants holding on overlapping plates of bolted on armor. Her back is covered in large, swollen pipe like growths where the bone chimes once were, now serving as a series of egg sacs and slots with which to fertilize the plucked chimes of select pack alphas. Growing along the back of her head is a thick mane of slender tubes and hairs beaded with thick bone-like nodules held taught like harp strings over a small indentation in the back of her neck where the slender spines strike and pluck at the nodules like a musician's fingers plucking at her instrument. The slender spines run along the strings in a quick, aggressive riff that sends the attendants into a fury of rage as she floods the room with her commanding scent of battle pheromones as she unfolds her blades, massive polymer weapons that begin to glow with thermal enhancement and flair with the faint vibration that makes them dig into the reinforced cement under their own weight.

cont.
>>
>>1591949
But does it have to be able to perceive you to corrupt you?

Or is the knowledge inherently corrupting?

>>1591955
Why are you certain it will take "far longer"?

For all we know after a week he'll start having a civil war with his corrupted aspects.
>>
>>1591955
That is true since the void already discovered how to corrupt humans. And the humans were supossed to be blind to the void.
>>
>>1591930
>If we succed,no need to use a parasite

No, there's no way we'll get the same thoroughness of information via primitive non-neurological communication methods as we would with a parasite for her and all her technologically-adept underlings.

She'd definitely hold back anything she thought she could get away with holding back.

And besides, her days are almost certainly numbered. Between humans and other Scav matriarchs all of which want her dead. There's no appealing way out of this situation we can really offer, since she'd certainly want to have her own army and her own fleet to ravage the galaxy once more.
>>
>>1591962
DRONES, SECURE THE QUEEN AND EGGS.
>>
>>1591962
BOSS FIGHT
>>
>>1591962
OI YOU WANNA RUMBLE? SQUARE GO LIKE YA WANKSTAIN
>>
>>1591949
>he's un perceivable by the enemy.
You know they can see inanimate objects too, right? It would be a pretty difficult existence if they could see things via mind-sense and literally nothing else.

A void shard alone showed us a server ship the very first and only time it was ever used.
>>
File: 14240543195921.jpg (136 KB, 599x620)
136 KB
136 KB JPG
>>1591962
>she floods the room with her commanding scent of battle pheromones as she unfolds her blades

Well, so much for diplomacy.

Go drones capture at all costs.

Pic related.
>>
>>1591966
That's the point of having him make an isolated disposable instance, probably observed by us (at least to push the kill-switch on it), or with a line of code that automatically terminates the instant if it's being corrupted.
>>
>>1591988
I love British slang. I rarely understand it, but it somehow sounds both brutal and refined to me.
>>
>until you remember that this matriarch likely anticipates the odds favor her own brood betraying her for a stronger, more well established clan in the armada.

Dam this bitch is fucking paranoid. But i guess we won't be sucessfull in adopting her.
>>
>>1591971
The humans are blind to the void, but the void is not blind to them. (And the 'blinding' of the humans is imperfect, unlike the Cluster's)
>>
>>1592005
I rather like the sotish approach. Very loud and flanboiant.
>>
>>1591962
Just fucking bumrush her and hack off her arms; our choice to zerg rush the place means we have quite enough resources to literally remove any means of resisting capture.
>>
>>1591982
Scav eggs are disposeable. We can clone them at any time, we didn't need to study human fetuses to grow them.
>>
Also; Uhull agressive diplomacy is a go!!
>>
>>1591962
emergency adoption procedure go!
>>
>>1591962
A small part of you feels some tiny amount of sympathy for such a caste, for what little of a queen it may resemble, and the thought brings your thinkers to quickly theorycraft possible outcomes of an attempt at dialog. You wonder how to request its surrender. Is that a concept in their language? As the thinkers churn the idea you find the best concept would be a mixture of the the scent of fear and the radio command to withdraw, but that is a temporary order. Perhaps the verbal command of submission with a mixture of the scents of calming and fear, but that, almost literally translated as surrender, but more accurately as a proposition for mating.

You can find no memory or thought process within your captured alpha's mind that could actually convey the idea of surrendering to a non-scavenger force. The mixture of words and pheromones cannot seem to be made to form together in an order as to convey such a concept. Perhaps your captive is unlearned in communication, or perhaps this species is too far gone down their path of endless pillaging to actually have a concept of peace with an alien species. Their term for alien is, after all, synonymous with prey.

>Attempt to capture the matriarch alive, for interrogation and implantation
>Attack with your drones and overwhelm her position
>Send a speaker to attempt to glean information from her mind with psionics
>Other (write in)
>>
>>1592013
I know anon what i meant to say is: Since the void already know how to pass throught the humans blinding exposing Theseus, a entity that the void hasn't interected with and is a new kind of life form, still makes Theseus more resistent then the humans.
>>
>>1591962
Holy shit she's a Preadator mixed with a Xenomorph queen, sweet.
>>
>>1592034
>>Attempt to capture the matriarch alive, for interrogation and implantation
>>Attack with your drones and overwhelm her position
Diplomacy was never an option.
>>
>>1592034
send in a speaker first and when that inevitably fails go for the capture
>>
>>1592034
>Send a speaker to attempt to glean information from her mind with psionics
If that doesn't work, then
>Attempt to capture the matriarch alive, for interrogation and implantation
>>
>>1592034
>Attempt to capture the matriarch alive, for interrogation and implantation

agressive adoption is a go!
>>
>>1592034
>Capture the matriarch alive, for interrogation and implantation.

There is no attempt, Only do or do not.
>>
>>1592034
>Attempt to capture the matriarch alive, for interrogation and implantation
>Send a speaker to attempt to glean information from her mind with psionics
Back up plan
>>
>>1592050
Sure.
>>
>>1592034
>Send a speaker to attempt to glean information from her mind with psionics
Try scents for "wait" or some other scent that could get it to calm its tits for a moment.
If she charges then pull the speaker back and subdue.
>>
>>1592034
>Attack with your drones and overwhelm her position

BANELING RUSH
>>
>>1592034
>Send a speaker to attempt to glean information from her mind with psionics
Have our drones test her defenses and abilities while the speaker moves closer. Ware her down and tire her out. Probe the defenses and have our thinkers devise a capture plan. Then, when our speaker arrives and can incapacitate her with overwhelming mental probing...
>Attempt to capture the matriarch alive, for interrogation and implantation
>>
>>1592034
Wait QD can mindreading be used to anticipate what an enemy will do in combat?
>>
>>1592050
Speakers are for reading their mind, so that at least cannot fail and will assist strategically.
>>
>Perhaps the verbal command of submission with a mixture of the scents of calming and fear, but that, almost literally translated as surrender, but more accurately as a proposition for mating.
>but more accurately as a proposition for mating.
>a proposition for mating.

That's...er...good to know?
>>
>>1592034
>>Attempt to capture the matriarch alive, for interrogation and implantation

If we send a colorful speaker here hopefully humans won't notice it going somewhere there are no humans to speak to. So maybe we should avoid sending one.
>>
You know what we'd probably ask it is if it will become a conponent of our fleet or something like that.
>>
>>1592050
Sounds like my plan

>>1592071
>>
>>1592034
What's the scav word for predator?
>>
>>1592100
Why would that be a bad thing?
>>
>>1592117
Hive
>>
>>1592071
>incapacitate her with overwhelming mental probing...

Advanced Psionic Reading's side effect you mean? I mean technically we haven't unlocked Empathetic Paralysis yet, but I guess that would work in a two birds one stone way.
>>
>>1592128
You. I like you.
>>
>>1592073
Slightly, yes, but by the time you interpret the signal into proper thought they will have already begun the action, so it while it can predict carefully plotted actions, it can't predict an instinctive action or an act of passion.

Think of it like the rules for Minority Report, but on a timescale of seconds.
>>
>>1592135
That's way to lewd...
>>
>>1592034
>Send a speaker to attempt to glean information from her mind with psionics

Or try to catch her alive I guess.
>>
>>1592034
>Send a speaker to attempt to glean information from her mind with psionics
>Attempt to capture the matriarch alive, for interrogation and implantation

>In both cases also demand comfortable seating options!
>>
>>1592144
So basically all planning is impossible if we have a Speaker in the room.
>>
>>1592034
>>Send a speaker to attempt to glean information from her mind with psionics
>>
>>1592144
But in Minority Report you can predict crimes of passion before the perpetrator even realizes he has a motive.
>>
>>1592153
Depends on what your plan is. Something like a person pondering if he can overpower a drone if he takes it by surprise in an elevator, for example, would be easily detected. What chess piece you plan on moving and where would be as well. Something more complex, like a person pondering a component to some larger, multi layered strategy would be more difficult to parse out beyond the part being thought of at the moment, and something like where to swing a punch would simply not register at all, and would need to be predicted with your combat algorithms.
>>
File: 1467416333303.jpg (119 KB, 400x511)
119 KB
119 KB JPG
oh boy time to dive into a completely new tactic and hope for the best.
>>
>>1592034
>Attempt to capture the matriarch alive, for interrogation and implantation

Please roll 1d100, best of 3 to attempt to disable and capture the matriarch alive.
>>
Rolled 92 (1d100)

>>1592209
For Mother!
>>
>>1592209
Couches for mother
>>
Rolled 98 (1d100)

>>1592209
Would failure mean she dies, or just remains at large?
>>
Rolled 73 (1d100)

>>1592209
>>
Rolled 93 (1d100)

>>1592209
>>
Rolled 17 (1d100)

>>1592209
FOR MOTHER!
>>
>>1592217
Hahahahahaha
>>
>>1592214
>>1592217
>>1592219
The Scav matriarch is not having a good day.
>>
Rolled 45 (1d100)

>>1592209
time to roll a 1
>>
>>1592217
And there's victory.
>>
>>1592214
>>1592217
I swear that the dice have a thing for bugs overrunning the scavs
>>
>>1592217
>>
File: OH.gif (1.92 MB, 400x229)
1.92 MB
1.92 MB GIF
>>1592214
>>1592217
and>>1592222
doesnt count but....jesus fuck man.
>>
>>1592214
>>1592217
>>1592222
ho-lee-shit
>>
>>1592214
>>1592217
All the couches!!
>>
File: qpt71Hv.jpg (128 KB, 998x664)
128 KB
128 KB JPG
>>1592217
Damn does it feel good to be gangsta.
>>
File: 1430132207838.png (602 KB, 1000x1154)
602 KB
602 KB PNG
>>1592214
Well that's...>>1592217
Goddamn.

Okay, writing.
>>
All sucessfull diplomacy is good. But a sucessfull agressive diplomacy is even better.
>>
>>1592231
I think the dice hate space Huns.
>>
So, obviously once we assume direct control, we have to send out orders to withdraw critical personnel with technical expertise or great age and experience as alphas in the fleet to 'evacuation tunnels' (which the hive dug) to send them right into our claws.
>>
>>1592257
almost as much as they hate the Ahkam in Dats
>>
>>1592260
Its gonna take time to implant her,so we might as well try to talk to her while we wait.
>>
>>1592252
The dice gods clearly want us to adopt everyone.
>>
>>1592284
Nice try, adoptionfag. They just hate the scavs.
>>
>>1592275
You can't talk to someone writhing on the ground as their nervous system lights up in agony.
>>
File: Spoiler Image (166 KB, 577x480)
166 KB
166 KB JPG
time for some

diplomacy
>>
>>1592294
Can't both things be true?
>>
>>1592298
The scavs don't have vocal cords right? Because i wonder what the humans will think if they start to hear a scav screen fill the facility.
>>
>>1592294
If I remember correctly we had a similar run of good luck on the adoption emotional rewrite of Lyle. pretty sure the dice gods are pro adoption.
>>
>>1592294
don't be greedy anon. Everyone deserves to feel mother's embrance in their spine or similar nervous control system.
>>
>>1592310
I think it just works with badasses, this brood queen is fighting a last stand with pride after-all
>>
>>1592310
The dice gods just didn't like Lyle before he was parasitized.

We tore his shit apart back when he was fighting us on Leeland.
>>
>>1592302
Agressive diplomacy anon.
>>
>>1592217
>>1592252
>>1592329
Well, if the humans have gunboat diplomacy, perhaps we have parasite diplomacy.
>>
>>1592333
i guess i must agree with you and you trips half-satan.
>>
>>1592217
YES
ADOPTION, FOR EVERYONE!
>>
>>1592405
Welcome to the thread IG
>>
>>1592405
Wow...were you lurking this whole time indonesian?
>>
>>1592415
I think he just woke up actually.
>>
>>1592419
Kinda, been setting up things for work
Also here in this thread yesterday, nice seeing my art gets passed around :B
>>
I just love this quest and iam going to bed now its fucking 06:06 and i can not sleep
>>
File: aint no brakes.jpg (85 KB, 501x343)
85 KB
85 KB JPG
>>1592468
There are no brakes on the hive train
>>
File: 1494622914865.jpg (367 KB, 800x715)
367 KB
367 KB JPG
>>1592437
it's a good art you should be proud of it.

also:
> :B
>in a image board
>come on IG
>>
>>1592468
Good luck bro.

It's only 9:30 for me here on the West Coast, so I'm in for the long haul
>>
File: worried-laughter.png (513 KB, 600x782)
513 KB
513 KB PNG
>>1592209
>nearly two hours later

That poor matriarch's neurofluid.
>>
File: 249px-Firebugs.jpg (30 KB, 249x256)
30 KB
30 KB JPG
>>1592209
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23iVTpWcKOw

The attendants open fire on your drones, the first line shielding their brethren from fire as wasps pour out into the air of the open chamber as they quickly begin lancing out with their particle beams at the scavengers below. They spread their fire as the attendants shoot down several of your wasps and turn to fire at the swarm of drones surrounding them as they close into melee. The scavengers ready their blades, swinging madly at the charging warriors until they are quickly overwhelmed by simple numbers. More of the attendants quickly appear from balconies above, where yet more racks of eggs and medical devices are held along the walls. They open fire on the drones below as wasps claw at them, pulling them over the ledge as they crash into the cement floor below. You feel a wasp struggle to keep upright as a pup leaps from the ledge and lands on the drone's back, ripping into its carapace as they both crash to their deaths on the bloodstained ground. More pups soon follow, leaping from shelf to shelf as they pounce on the drones below. Most are tossed aside or gunned down, while others make it to their targets, clawing into the warriors as best they can while the attendants continue their barrage of fire, mowing down drone and fellow scavenger with equal vigor.

The matriarch flairs her mane as she hunches forward, leveling her weapons at your drones as the blaster turrets on her shoulders come to life, letting loose a torrent of photonic bolts into the swarm of drones, shredding shelves of eggs and chimes in the process. The massive weapons on her arms hum to life as an unrelenting wall of condensed plasma is unleashed from the ventilated barrel as it spews plumes of flames over her armored arm. The chamber is quickly engulfed in flaming plasma as you feel several drones pop open from the heat, but your drones continue through it, flooding in from the entrance through a hail of photonic bolts and pools of dissipating plasma. The matriarch takes several steps back as your swarm of drones part the flames with their rushing forms, and it levels its other arm as a massive bolt of hardlight fires from its weapon, exploding as it impacts the ground at your drones feet and sending chunks of them arcing high through the air. Another bolt follows, and another as she lays down a gradual but sustained fire, attempting to thin the swarm enough for the attendants to force them back into the chokepoint of the entryway. It is not working, your drones replace the dead faster than they can kill them.

cont.
>>
File: ww3.png (208 KB, 814x294)
208 KB
208 KB PNG
>>1592562
You are worried for the wrong reasons my friend
>>
File: excuse me.gif (1.29 MB, 195x229)
1.29 MB
1.29 MB GIF
>>1592572
I have never been wrong in such a good way but at the worst time
>>
File: COVET.jpg (38 KB, 169x209)
38 KB
38 KB JPG
>>1592570
>levels its other arm as a massive bolt of hardlight fires from its weapon
>>
>>1592570
>It is not working, your drones replace the dead faster than they can kill them.

MuwahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHhHahHa!!!!
>>
>>1592570
>and it levels its other arm as a massive bolt of hardlight fires from its weapon, exploding as it impacts the ground at your drones feet and sending chunks of them arcing high through the air.
New research motherfuckers!
>>
>>1592570
>THEY ARE COMING OUT OF THE GOD DAMN WALLS.
>>
>>1592585
And since we will get her alive we will get acess to all these delicious tech. Definetly helping the Commonwealth against the scavs was a excellent idea.
>>
>>1592585
Actually that sounds an awful lot like your standard blaster weapon.
>>
>>1592594
Even better, we'll get access to all the scav pheramones. The hive will definitely be able to fabricate ones more effectively than the existing scavs, so I wonder if just by spraying it we can convert others to our control. At a bare minimum flooding a battlefield with overwhelming martiarch fear pheramones will have a powerful effect on any battles we fight moving forward.
>>
File: 1452730354943.png (85 KB, 226x232)
85 KB
85 KB PNG
>>1592570
>It is not working, your drones replace the dead faster than they can kill them.
>>
>>1592585
It's just an oversized photon blaster
>>
>>1592598
Wouldn't it be more like a blaster fire condenced in a hard light containment field? Like some kind of mega buster of metroids concetrated plasma bolts?
>>
>>1592598
>>1592607

I don't think blasters are hardlight. They're powerful energy weapons, but I believe this is the first time they have been described as actually having physical properties beyond just melting whatever they are fired at en masse.
>>
>>1592612
>>1592612
They've always been hardlight creations. Unstable and explosive but still hardlight
>>
>>1592612
Blasters and hardlight both operate by utilizing the same basic principles; namely generating and maintaining massively inflated photons.
>>
>>1592625
But that still semmed more powerfull then a simple blaster bolt. Valid it can be just a higher "caliber" of blaster.
>>
> it levels its other arm as a massive bolt of hardlight fires from its weapon,

That bitch has a plasma flamer in one hand and a plasma cannon on the other. Girl is pretty well equiped alright.
>>
>>1592641
Isn't cause she using vehicle weapons? shes pretty much got hardware on the level of a drop suit on her right now
>>
>>1592661
Well valid she also seems to be attached to a main heat source, her very own size must help in this escalation since she is three meters tall i din't think we can compare it to a smaller sized scav.
>>
>>1592668
We cannot allow some alien Matriarch to be a bigger mother than we are. All must know ware are the largest and most fertile. Our hand is forced; the Queen must evolve into a Titan.
>>
>>1592679
Well i didn't want to say anything...but since you talk about it i think the matriarch egg sack might be bigger then the one the Queen has.
And apperantly this is a young matriach at that .
>>
>>1592570
You feel a sense of unease in the air, quite literally, as the scent wavers in its resolve, and the matriarch hoists its plasma cannon up as it begins venting more and more heat, flames licking at her arm as plasma drips from the weapon and ionized particles leap out at the walls like miniature lightning bolts. She levels it with the center of your spreading swarm, and a massive bolt of plasma plumes out from the weapon, spinning through the air as it sends arcing bolts of energy rippling in its wake. It bursts open as it impacts the wall, its magnetic field rupturing from the impact as it detonates like a bomb, sending plasma pouring over the chamber as the flash blinds your drones with the white hot flash of a miniature star. You feel nearly a hundred of your children wink out from your mind as the chamber is engulfed in unimaginable heat and a wall of plasma and concussive force drives through the bunker's hallway, gutting it of its contents. What remains is rubble, burning fires in pools of plasma, and mounds of still boiling flesh. The armored doorway has been annihilated, leaving a massive caved in hole where it once was as the chittering war cries of your drones echo back down at the chamber from their approach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mry2fsA1TEw

Wasps dart through the air as they dodge blaster fire while the matriarch paces in a frantic panic, overturning shelves of machinery and medical devices as it sifts through inventories of unknown junk with growing frustration. Eventually it finds some small device, quickly plugging it into a cybernetic port along the forearm of its smaller left secondary arm, tossing some other simple device aside as she rips it out to make room. It seems to flicker, shooting out a spark as the scavenger struggles to insert it properly until it clicks with a sudden burst of light from its console that burns with heat, showing several large symbols on its surface. She flicks her small clawed hand, forming several odd but clearly deliberate signals, possibly some method of utilizing redundant neural link controls, allowing the arm to double as a control system for some other device. In response there is a sudden rumble of heavy machinery above. Your wasps look up above the matriarch's chamber, finding a large metallic circle slowly sliding to one side as yellow lights flash along the walls. She quickly turns to her attendants, her mane letting out another riff of heavy tones.

Hold this point. Do not withdraw.

With that, she leaps into the air, her massive form carrying trailing streams of plasma in its wake as she plants her blades into the wall, the massive, curling claws on her feet digging into the cement and tearing apart a set of human sized balconies as she climbs the metal scaffolding as it twists and snaps under her weight.

>Have your wasps swarm over her and bring her down
>Have your drones scout the tunnels above and follow her
>Swarm them, do not let her escape
>Other
>>
>>1592679
That's thinking too small anon

Mother Queen must become Hiveship Queen
>>
File: why not both.gif (976 KB, 350x263)
976 KB
976 KB GIF
>>1592687
>>Have your wasps swarm over her and bring her down
>>Have your drones scout the tunnels above and follow her
>>
>>1592687
>Swarm them, do not let her escape
Did she just set a self destruct?
And didn't this place house a nuke?
>>
>>1592687
>Swarm them, do not let her escape
>>
>>1592695
Well if this is a repeat of nowhere at least we dont have to worry about the void showing up,

Failure to turn off whatever she just did will just blow up this site and kill everyone here
>>
>>1592687
>Swarm them, do not let her escape

She managed to set a self destruct against a 98? Wow, that's impressive.

No need to be so suicidal Ms. Matriarch. With time you will come to realize this is the happiest day of your life. It is the day you became one with the Hive and started along the path of having the largest scavenger swarm of all time.
>>
>>1592687
>Have your drones scout the tunnels above and follow her
We're not trapped on this planet with her, she's trapped on this planet with us.
>>
>>1592687
>>Have your drones scout the tunnels above and follow her
For some reason I feel swarming right now is a bad idea. Besides, following her would get our drones out of that egg furnace and more on even ground and where she's isolated from others.

That and I'm curious as to where she thinks shes going.
>>
>>1592687
>>Have your drones scout the tunnels above and follow her

This minimizes the chance of the matriarch dying before capture.
>>
>>1592687
>Have your drones scout the tunnels above and follow her.
>>
>>1592687
>>Have your wasps swarm over her and bring her down
>>Swarm them, do not let her escape
Mess with the hive, you don't make it out alive.
>>
>>1592727
Ummm, we very much want to capture her alive.
>>
We should have some drones disable the bomb.
>>
>>1592687
And wait, our wasps can easily fly up into the hole she's obviously heading towards and head her off, right?

We can cut her off ahead and behind.

>>1592727
That's the opposite of what we want!
>>
Go bed QD
>>
>>1592728
Well yeah, I said you don't make it out alive, as in there is no freely escaping the hive once you've managed to annoy it.

Aw, forget it.
>>
>>1592687
And wait, the alpha we captured didn't understand the symbols on the console interface?

Damn having a mind-reading drone here would've been useful.
>>
>>1592687
>Have your drones scout the tunnels above and follow her

There's less chance of her dying this way... unless she's running towards the bomb for some reason. There's no way off planet, though. We have the whole thing surrounded.
>>
>>1592695
Maybe the yellow lights the humans put in are the harmless kind of 'evacuate' signal!
>>
>>1592687
>Have your drones scout the tunnels above and follow her
>>
we should offer her a choice, we don't wanna go all void and bring slave races into this. Follow us and build a great scav army in our service or death.
>>
>>1592687
>>Other
Could we ask a hummie friend what the yellow lights in the building mean?

This is in addition to my vote here >>1592717
>>
>>1592737
No shit.
>>
>>1592695
No self destruct she just opend a missile silo and is trying to escape...to somewhere.
>>
>>1592687
I guess now is the time to prepare the nonlethal ammo and paralysis venom.
>>
>>1592744
well if you consider there might be a nuke in the site a possible meltdown is a pretty good reason to evacuate a place.
>>
>>1592767
Well, we have advanced sensors, superiority in orbiting ships, and can always blink in reinforcements capable of boarding. One way or another, she's going down. The important thing is she be taken alive (obviously).
>>
>>1592777
Indeed. She will either join us...or die.
>>
>>1592687
>Have your drones scout the tunnels above and follow her

This is scav modus operandi. we need to cut her off chasing or dog piling will only drive he to commit sudoku. we need to get a speeker out in front of her.
>>
>>1592687
>>Have your drones scout the tunnels above and follow her

Ambush her before she can escape.
>>
>>1592687
>Scout the tunnels and follow her

You doubt your warriors can make it past the attendants before the matriarch can reach the tunnels, and your wasps have been thinned out and are too few in number. You have them swarm through the tunnels above as she unleashes a torrent of blaster fire from her shoulder turrets, cutting down several more drones as they swarm past.

The tunnels are poorly lit, large cavernous structures stretching off in either direction. Large tram rails run along the side of the opening door, and a number of large cargo cranes and service lifts quickly begin connecting together as they hoist themselves over the opening. It seems to be some manner of tram station, with a wide range of cargo handling equipment scattered about, mixed with the scattered remains of butchered human workers and scavenger bodies. The smell is rather potent, but otherwise it seems abandoned. Several large trams sit nearby. On the side of either wall of the tunnels is a small single rail passenger tram, while between are a number of much larger lines, with several waiting at the station with their cargo long since looted, but their torn open trailers are uniform, each being an open bed with a number of pylons clearly intended for munitions transport. The missiles have been looted some time ago, but you can still see some parts disassembled for repair.

Your wasps are quick to dive down either end in search of some relevant destination. At one end, it seems to curve around on itself in a large U-turn, passing through a maintenance bay and an evacuation tunnel leading to a mixture of bomb shelters and bunker complexes some ways away, while the other direction continues straight for some time, passing through several missile silo centers nearby and continuing beyond your wasps' senses. You compare the tunnels to the satellite data offered to you by the Commonwealth, and you see only one obvious destination. The railway junction nearly fifty kilometers south, where your speaker accompanies Sir Hughes and his team in their charge against the scavengers holding the facility. You doubt, judging by what you have seen, that they hold anything capable of standing against the matriarch's arsenal, especially in such an open area.

>Have your drones charge in after her and follow the matriarch
>Redeploy your drones to set an ambush at the railyard
>Attempt to have your flies disable the trams and slow her down
>Other (write in)
>>
>>1592802

>Have your drones charge in after her and follow the matriarch

>Attempt to have your flies disable the trams and slow her down
>>
>>1592802
By 'the railyard', you mean find a different tunnel entrance to use and attack her when she comes out into the tram station?
>>
>>1592802
>Redeploy your drones to set an ambush at the railyard

She is coming straight to our speaker. How courteous.
An ambush will give us a better chance to capture without her being able to self-destruct or the like. And we luckily already have a speaker in place to read her mind.
>>
>>1592802
>Redeploy your drones to set an ambush at the railyard
>>
>>1592802
>>Redeploy your drones to set an ambush at the railyard
>>
>>1592811
If she set a self-destruct at the hatchery that could go poorly. We're better off taking the initiative by setting an ambush. Especially since she's already headed towards a speaker.
>>
>>1592802
Could the titan meet her at the train station?

"Appoligies but due to emergency track maintenance your escape route is out of service"

>titan sized ticket inspector is putting up with non of your shit lady
>>
>>1592802
>>Attempt to have your flies disable the trams and slow her down
Let's turn this is a railroad robbery.
>>
>>1592802
If that's the case it's likely the whole damn place will explode. We need to shutdown that bomb.
>>
>>1592813
isn't the tram station a sensitive place for the commonwealth? Can't remember why they want to take that place.
>>
>>1592802
>>Have your drones charge in after her and follow the matriarch

If the ambush idea is to ambush at her destination, let's not do that. Better not to capture her in front of the humans and have them realize we have ways of making zem talk/obey.
>>
>>1592802
>Redeploy your drones to set an ambush at the railyard

She might still have enough firepower to take out chasing wasps, and flies slowing her down might make her change course.
>>
>>1592823
I'm not sure what methods you think would be exposed.
>>
>>1592821
Uh guys..i just realized something...what if she rigged that explosive in her hand using the nukes core or even rigged a place using the part of those empty missiles we saw back then? WE REALLY need to stop her.
>>
>>1592802
>Redeploy your drones to set an ambush at the railyard

are there spot lights? This looks like a moment for spotlights and slogans being shouted.
>>
>>1592802
>Attempt to have your flies disable the trams and slow her down
>Redeploy your drones to set an ambush at the railyard

Have the flies slow her down to give us more time to plan the ambush and get drones in position.
>>
>>1592826
If we didn't have something, why would we be bothering to capture them alive?
>>
>>1592802
>Redeploy your drones to set an ambush at the railyard

Now i really want to see a speaker vs matriarch duel.
>>
>>1592802
>Redeploy your drones to set an ambush at the railyard

Please roll 1d100, best of 3 for the ambush.
>>
Rolled 74 (1d100)

>>1592840
f
>>
>>1592802
>Redeploy your drones to set an ambush at the railyard
>Attempt to have your flies disable the trams and slow her down

do you guys think we should warm the humans about this?
>>
Rolled 8 (1d100)

>>1592840
Derp
>>
File: For Mother Overlord.png (4.12 MB, 1200x1200)
4.12 MB
4.12 MB PNG
Rolled 86 (1d100)

>>1592840

DO THING FOR QUEEN!
>>
Rolled 11 (1d100)

>>1592840
Boss battle.
>>
Rolled 97 (1d100)

>>1592840
Mother help us all
>>
>>1592851
Darn.
>>
>>1592847
YOU DO GOOD THING FOR MOTHER
>>
>>1592847
That's good 80+ is awesome.
>>
>>1592847
Pretty good my man.

>>1592851
TOO SLOW.
>>
>>1592853
My bad to slow to roll.
>>
So is everyone else ready for all the civilians to die and the Commonwealth to lose trust in us?
>>
>>1592891
wot
>>
>>1592891
Im sorry what? Why should we be doing all of the commonwealth work for them?

We already lost more drones than they had causalities so fuck them
>>
>>1592892
We're at the civilian center the one where the Commonwealth specifically ask for us to save also where the bomb the Matriarch activated is.
>>1592894
Because this is our fault. We're suppose to be the Scavenger experts here and this is a very basic mistake to make.
>>
>>1592901
What? We've had one run in with them about couches, we are no experts and they know this.
>>
>>1592901
Bullshit
>>
>>1592901
Nah.
>>
>>1592901
Really doubtful it was a bomb.

She was likely looking for the garage opener to escape
>>
I think QD is kill so I'm going to bed.

Thanks for running again, famalam.
>>
>>1592901
I'm hoping our swarm was able to overwhelm the matriarch's attendants in time to shut down any kill switches she activated on her way out. It's not like that was a vote on stopping our warriors from taking the chamber and everyone in it, just on whether to ambush the queen bitch right there or tail her somewhere else.

I'm more concerned right now with how many human casualties we might cause by dragging them into a battle with her at the trainyard.
>>
>>1592840
You watch as Hughes shouts over his radio to various unseen squads spread out across the railyard. Blaster bolts fly overhead as a human patches up the wounds of another propped up against the cargo container they are using for cover. Your speaker hunches over on all fours as the container vibrates with the incoming fire as you examine the area for where you suspect the matriarch will arrive.

Meanwhile, deep beneath the surface, your drones continue to swarm forth as the scavengers open fire into the smoking hole blasted into the wall. The echoing chitter of your warriors permeates the darkness as blaster bolts flash into the shadows of the simmering tunnels, illuminating the carapaces of your drones in brief flashes as they grow closer with each moment.

The walls burst forth as drones smash through piles of debris as the scavengers continue to lay down a stream of fire, and the sea of warriors quickly close the distance, enveloping them in a wave of flesh and gnashing mandibles. Blood and sinew fly in wide arcs over the burnt out rubble as your warriors tear the attendants to shreds in their maws.

Several of the last are caught in your warriors' maws, their limbs twisted and snapped like dry twigs as they are pinned to the floor, their heads snapping back and forth in a wild panic as a speaker drone walks out from the darkness amid the ebbing flood of warriors. You impart a thought, a simple question, just to be sure of the location you need for your ambush.

Where do these tunnels lead? Where does your mother flee?

The attendants thrash in a mixture of agony and fright as you reach through their minds, plucking them apart from the inside thought by thought. They have had boring lives, cloistered away with their matriarch for the short time they have been sentient. You find the thought, the small, mostly vague memory of following a tram into the tunnel, the matriarch being far too large herself to enter through the human made bunkers. You follow the memory in reverse, routing the tunnel as they board the tram and you compare the vaguely memorized details of the surroundings, matching them between the few minds you pick at until you can gather some vague estimation of location with some level of confidence. The scavengers scrape at the floor with their twisted limbs, twitching madly as you pull their minds apart for anything of greater use.

You find them wanting, their minds devoid of attention or meaning beyond the menial care of the matriarch. Their memories are as mundane as a humble worker drone. Your speaker turns back to return to its shuttle, and the warriors devour what is left, scrounging for remains, both biological and technological that have yet to be scorched into oblivion.

Please roll 1d100, best of 3 for loot

Sorry, had some momentary connection issues.

Either way this will be the last roll for tonight. We'll have to pick it up from here this coming Sunday.
>>
Rolled 71 (1d100)

>>1592966
Thanks for the run QD. Hope ya keep getting better.
>>
Rolled 17 (1d100)

>>1592966
Loot for Mother!
>>
Rolled 44 (1d100)

>>1592966
let's see if the Hive loots better than the Armada
>>
>>1592966
GG and thanks for running

Awesome boss fight
>>
>>1592968
Meh loot.
Probably eggs, eunuchs, pups, and what's left of their genetic tempering stuff.
>>
>>1592968
Thanks. Hopefully this coming friday's appointment will be among the last.

Also nice loot roll, I'll have to get that sorted for the next thread. As for the talk about nukes... Yea, >>1592921
guessed right. The control was just to open the silo doors. Though the silo itself seems armored enough to survive both being bombed, and any bombs within going off without the total loss of the facility, as the area was previously used for missile storage and the assembly of warheads for distribution to nearby launch silos.
>>
>>1592966
Thanks for running QD. It was great


Is it just me or have our drones just been running forward mindlessly? I know that's how we voted to things, with huge numbers, but we're just kind of abandoning the use of fire arms here at the end. Even our wasps which have been given amazing ranged fire power with the blasters we stole, not to mention our standard rifles.
>>
>>1592977
They tend to harry the enemy from above with their ranged weapons between swooping melee attacks, but yea, I tend to focus more on the melee combat when writing it for some reason.

Your drones do tend to charge into melee, but they are constantly shooting their guns as they close in. It's just that their mixture of hive behavior, a total lack of self preservation, and their incredible strength makes them more suited to melee than just about any other species you've met so far, so your drones never really have a reason to avoid closing into melee.

Just like the other side never have any good reason to not run away as quick as they can.
>>
>>1592990
Thanks for the read
>>
>>1592990
Fair enough, our melee is pretty powerful. I just like seeing some of the tech toys
>>
>>1592994
I'll keep that in mind. I didn't really notice until you mentioned it but I'll try to be more conscious of that in the future.
>>
>>1592990
So, the thing is that there's basically no mention of any drone smaller than fuckhuge actually, you know, firing. At all.
Which doesn't so much imply "run forwards shooting and then eat face" as it does " dumb starship troopers movie bugs".
>>
>>1593000
this basically
>>
>>1592966
i kinda get the vibe that QD is an established author and this is his little fun/side project.

>dat style
>dat pacing
>dat spontaneity
>dat storytelling
brilliant
>>
>>1592966
Thanks for the run QD!
>>
>>1592990
Great job QD! Thanks!

That being said, >>1593000
Has a point that we never hear of our drones firing besides a brief mention of our warriors wildly shooting as they die in the last thread. Our thinkers can coordinate amazingly accurate and predictive fire and we don't see any of that between regular warriors.

Also, in the vein of constructive criticism, that final fight seemed a bit drawn out. We had a 97 for "Capture the matriarch alive, for interrogation and implantation."
She was neither captured, interrogated, nor implanted. I assume that roll will give us a big bonus to our attempted ambush, but even so...

These are just personal suggestions though. Overall the writing and content of the Quest is consistently excellent.
>>
>>1593272
To be fair, this was obviously supposed to be a major boss fight. The sort where getting a 100 just lends you a major advantage instead of ending it outright.

Maybe if we had diplomanced instead this would already be over.
>>
>>1588663
Don't be shitty anon.
>>
>>1593282
>thinking diplomancy is the best idea in a war of annihilation.

Anon, we won't stop until every scav is dead, and every one of their couches are ours.
>>
>>1593282
To be fair she didn't gave us much choice. i know that drones are easily replaced, but her brood started to shoot at is first and we didn't have a good way to communicate, if we capture her alive we will solve such comunication problem and so turning diplomacy easier in the future. Besides during the time between sropping the fire fight she might have time to rig the silo and blow all of our drones and cause a bigger damage to the human's facility.
>>
>>1593282
Literally said they have no signals for surrender.
>>
Also guys i had just the craziest and proplably the most stupid idea ever...what you guys thing of Titan swarms?
>>
File: mind blown.gif (494 KB, 200x200)
494 KB
494 KB GIF
>>1593378
stupidly expensive, but G L O R I O U S!
>>
>>1593377
That we know of orthat the pack alpha we have with us know of. Still the better picture would be to capture the matriach and study her memories os scav pheromone...alphabet? So we can learn if they really don't have a word for it.
>>
>>1593378
>>1593383

Actually... we could totally do that and have it be cost effective. I looked up the stats for the Titan (see below)


Sight: Basic 0
Olfactory: Basic 0
Acoustic: Moderate 2N
Psionic: Basic 0
Radio: Basic 0
Mandibles: Combat 1N
Blade: Combat 1N
Arms: Strength 1N
Legs: Large Bipedal 4N 5M
Carapace: Heavy 5N 20M
Carapace: Conductive 4N 15M
Utility: Radiator Tubes 4N
Utility: Tail (Sledgehammer) 6N 10M
Forward Hardpoint: Plasma Spray 30M
Dorsal Hardpoint: Particle Cannon 30M
Arm-Slot: Heavy Thumper (L) 30m
Gun Ports:(4x) Plasma Cannon(60M)
Size: Large (X2)
Cost: 56N 400M
Upkeep: 28N

Compare to the ubiquitous Heavy Warrior:

Heavy Warrior
Olfactory: Moderate 1N
Radio: Moderate 2N
Acoustic: Moderate 1N
Electrical: Moderate 2N
Psionic: Basic
Mandibles: Combat 1N
Blade: Sledgehammer 6N 10M
Arms: Strength 1N
Legs: Sprint 1N
Carapace: Conductive 4N 15M
Carapace: Heavy 5N 20M
Utility: Oxygen Recycler 8N
Utility: Tail (Combat) 6N
Size: Medium
Total Cost: 38N 45M
Upkeep: 19N

So the Titan only costs 50% more in upkeep than a single heavy warrior. The only real issue is metal cost, which isn't a limitation right now.
>>
>>1593406
So, what you're saying is that we could substitute ~25% of ALL our heavy warriors with Titans, at next to no change in our upkeep?
>>
>>1593406
You know, the way it was described made it seem like it was WAY larger than just "Large x2." This thing is building-size. No way it costs 56N to hatch.
>>
>>1593406
Where are the titan stats? I couldn't find them earlier.


What we need to make is a titan drop pod. Orbital Shock Drop Titans.
>>
>>1593424
They do cost almost 10x the amount of metal that Heavy Warriors cost
>>
>>1593425
>the enemy thinks they can barricade and hold off the drone tide
>dozens of Titans are orbitally dropped behind their lines.
Yes.
>>
>>1593425
Original titan discussion is here:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/48440181/

And the final design (I think) is here:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/48446300/
>>
>>1593435
>dozens of Titans are orbitally dropped behind their lines.
You're thinking too small. We can make 1000 titans using only 2.5% of our metal
>>
>>1593365
>>1593384
This makes me feel like talking about potential (and future) gains from this engagement.

Yeah, her worth in capturing her is her knowledge. If there was something we could get from her biology, we could have just cloned the alpha and let it turn into a broodmother.

On the outside there are probably several tanks that aren't half-melted. Even if they don't yield research, we could analyze them for a bonus in destroying and disabling them. The bombers may be more interesting, but since any lying around will have fallen out of the sky, I think we'll have trouble finding any in suitable condition to study. The novel point defense could yield research (simply because it's novel and could be applied to something else) but it might have been destroyed. Maybe some variations of their blasters are lying around too, but it's doubtful it nets us new weapons. Maybe an upgrade to our blasters, optimistically.

On the inside there are caste stuff. Eunuchs seemed to have been engineered so we wouldn't have gotten them from the Alpha's genes. However, we'll probably only gain the ability to clone them. Pups probably don't get us anything, unless we couldn't access them from the Alpha's DNA. The eggs probably have nothing for us except for their tampering, but I don't have a good guess as to what we could gain if anything at all. Passive cloning bonus? It's terribly unlikely that it'll give us any adaption upgrades.
>>
>>1593425
Check the wiki

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Quest_talk:Hive_Queen_Quest

Go to the drone design part.
>>1593406
Son of a whore I thought I added missile pods
>>
>>1593498
>>1593406

I DID ADD MISSILE PODS

Sight: Basic 0
Olfactory: Basic 0
Acoustic: Moderate 2N
Psionic: Basic 0
Radio: Basic 0
Mandibles: Combat 1N
Blade: Combat 1N
Arms: Strength 1N
Legs: Large Bipedal 4N 5M
Carapace: Heavy 5N 20M
Carapace: Conductive 4N 15M
Utility: Radiator Tubes 4N
Utility: Tail (Sledgehammer) 6N 10M
Launcher Pods: Stinger Missile 20N 50M
Launcher Pods: Stinger Missile 20N 50M
Forward Hardpoint: Plasma Spray 30M
Dorsal Hardpoint: Particle Cannon 30M
Arm-Slot: Heavy Thumper (L) 30m
Gun Ports:(4x) Plasma Cannon(60M)
Size: Large (X2)
Cost: 96N 500M
Upkeep: 28N

Damnit anon
>>
>>1593504
Hang on, how are you getting 28N upkeep with a base cost of 96? Each missile pod upgrade costs 20N, which if included in the design should increase upkeep to 48N.
>>
>>1593504
Were missile pods ever added in a thread people voted on? The only ones there are discussion of in the threads (that I can see/remember) have no pods. Did we discuss this or did you just edit the design on the wiki without confirming the change? Please let me know if I'm wrong and missile pods were added to the design in a thread.
>>
File: going mad.jpg (42 KB, 600x450)
42 KB
42 KB JPG
>>1592966
>The attendants thrash in a mixture of agony and fright as you reach through their minds, plucking them apart from the inside thought by thought. ... The scavengers scrape at the floor with their twisted limbs, twitching madly as you pull their minds apart for anything of greater use.

>the red text

We void now?
>>
>>1593517
ah Piss I forgot to edit that
>>1593539
I don't think it matters what people vote on necessarily, I updated the design on the wiki and I assumed that's where QD got the info from. I feel like I should be able to update my own designs.
>>
>>1593576
>Editing a design after it was picked.
>Doesn't think it matters.

Bruh, it stops being 'your' design once it goes up for vote. Further tweaks have to be approved by the quest as a whole.
>>
>>1593576
See >>1593592
Part of the reason design crunch in this quest has become so confused is that people will vote on one design, and then people will post a different design with the same name to the Wiki. After a design is voted on it can't be "passively" upgraded by its creator, we need to decide that together.

People are voting for a design, not for "you."

In the case of the Titan, for example, the addition of the missile pods nearly doubles its upkeep. Even if you think they're a good idea that's not really a change that can be made without a group decision.
>>
>>1593560
No we are just at war with then. But soon we forcely adopt the matriarch we might be able to form a better knowledge of their language and so avoid such awfull happenings.

Unfortunantly anon war is terrible and don't forget the matriach and her brood know the risk os setting up in the middle of invading the world.

If the scavs found one of our egg layers i doubt they would be mercifull to then.
>>
>>1593619
Adding to this note. Titan-kun semmed to fair very well without using missile against the scavs.
>>
>>1593619
I mean sure? whatever I guess, ain't a huge deal as we saw.

I'm just glad we used them for once
>>
>>1593492
The most valueble or usable thing i saw in the scav was the miniaturized shield tech, that might make developing such tech faster and easier. Also since our drones like a good old melee this could improve their survivability if we continue to employ swarm tactics.
>>
So, part of the reason we wanted to do this ground combat (even though we had no obligation to do so) was to get some combat testing in, as this was the first major ground combat we've had.

In light of this combat, it seems that we should re-think some of our drone designs. If we're going to be using swarm tactics (as we have been), we should look into designing non-elite swarm drones for swarm tactics. Like, the Heavy Warrior designs we're using have Conductive carapace, which are used for energy damage mitigation, which does nothing for against the shelling, so it might as well have not been there. They also have oxygen recyclers for some reason, which doesn't help either.

I'm not saying get rid of the elite units because those definitely have their worth, but we should explore the possibility of having large swarms of simpler units rather than our current philosophy of trying to make every unit elite. Quantity has a quality of its own, and we shouldn't ignore it.

>>1593627
No, I get that, I'm just saying this kind of mind-reading is something that older Hives probably did not make use of at all, and that it's something usually reserved for the Void, who use psionics almost exclusively. It's probably the biggest divergence we've had from our ancestors, and I wonder if its a dangerous precedent. I certainly enjoy having our speakers basically be psykers, but how long until we're corrupted by the warp? Like, metaphorically.
>>
>>1593576
>>1593633
Fuck you and your bait and switch, memory holing bullshit. It's hard enough keeping everyone on the same page without you rearranging shit behind the scenes without telling anyone, much less asking them.
>>
>>1593683
chill out dude it's not a big deal.
>>
>>1593708
No, he's right, fuck the hell off.
Editing these things behind the scenes basically amounts to lying.
>>
>>1593708
You are the reason I don't even try to get into making drones
>>
>>1593708
It's a pretty big deal. You proposed one design which people debated, modified, and then eventually voted to improve.

You then modified the design behind the scenes in a way that would drastically increase upkeep, but conveniently forgot to include that cost increase in the overview. It appears to me that you tried to pull a fast one by adding an expensive upgrade without telling anyone and hoping QD wouldn't notice the change. This is the height of faggotry
>>
Does anyone else want to revisit our decision to send Devon and friends back to the Union with Spine-Pals?

The Union knows (thanks to the Cluster), that biotech exists that allows humans and their knowledge/memories to be duplicated in just minutes. They also know the Hive are masters of biotechnology and appear familiar with these abilities.

Devon was captured by Hive agents and was in their custody for hours before his "escape." For all the Union knows this is more than enough time for us to grow an entirely new Devon.

Once they start down that line of thinking, lots of things start to fall into place:

Certain classified information Devon had access to was almost instantly acted upon by the Hive as soon as Devon became aware of the knowledge (the OQ "stealth" ship fight and Mirage).
Devon's team was ambushed by current or former Hive agents who knew they were coming.
Devon escaped from Valen custody in an extremely unusual, but dramatic, fashion.

The Union have proven time and again to be complete idiots, but even they will find it hard to ignore the mountain of evidence that Devon could be compromised. I think there are very high odds he will be detained, scanned, and his parasite detected. What do you all think?

I posted about this earlier, but it got buried.
>>
>>1593708
It's a very big deal; it's literally discarding the voted-upon outcome for what one person thinks will be better.
>>
>>1593814
I'm all for giving them all the choice to stay forever or go back memory-less and pal-less.
As in an actual choice, not "the parasite says you say yes".

But I don't think that sending anybody even remotely suspected to have been involved with the Hive back with a parasite is a good idea unless they're openly ours.
Ditch the spine-hugger.
>>
>>1593827
I could support that.

Maybe we could embed some hidden commands to be activated with a specific mental signal or phrase? Say an implanted compulsion to follow whoever says a specific unusual combination of words? We could possibly re-parasite some of them after they are medically cleared upon return.
>>
>>1593861
The second the parasite is out all bets are off.
>>
>>1593861
You think they won't be watched like fucking hawks after they get back? There's not going to be any sort of opportunity to reparasite them that doesn't get them in boiling hot water.
>>
>>1593827
I'd be fine with that.

Devon gets to go home like a good agent and get his headpats though I'll bet this would end badly for him if they learn he was with the Hive the whole time. Still, if he really wants to despite knowing the risks we might as well let him.

>>1593861
There's way too many things that could go wrong with that; let's not bother with trying to have our cake and eat it too.
>>
>>1593876
>>1593889

Fair enough. It's a risky option, but I had included it so the pro-parasite people didn't get too ticked off at us un-adopting (disowning?) a valuable contact in the highest levels of government. I'm fine just doing a memory wipe and writing Devon off as an asset if it means we keep parasites secret.
>>
>>1593463
YES
>>
>>1593674
>shielded swarm
>mfw I have no face
>>
>>1594303
>>1594328

Imagine the future: Millions of drones charging forward at highway speeds while under the cover of heavy shields from thousands of advancing Titans...

I'm pretty sure even the "nuke it from orbit" approach would have a hard time dealing with that.
>>
>>1593632
Except it literally used missiles against the scavs to great effect.
>>
>>1593682

>Oxygen Recyclers
Boarders get excellent use out of oxygen recyclers.
>>
>>1588663
Why are you such an ass?
>>
>>1594443
Nuclear landmines would make a comeback, I think.
>>
>>1594568
Yep. And Heavies are designed primarily as boarders or clearing enclosed structures (like bunkers). They are almost indestructible to most light weapons commonly used on ships and can fuck shit up at close range. They are not designed for or will be nearly as effective in an open field battle.
>>
>>1594613
Fun fact: Sledgehammers are useless in a vacuum so the Heavy design is has major vulnerabilities in boarding combat.
>>
>>1591443
We should really look into some kind of grappling augment.

Being able to zip line and climb without needing a literal mountain of corpses would be useful.
>>
>>1594443
No nukes for the most part would still work just fine.
>>
>>1594712
You never checked the pastebin. People like you never check the pastebin.
>>
and people like you seem to be born with a stick up your ass.
>>
>>1594753
At least that anon's condition is treatable.
>>
>>1594758
You dont get the reference nor the metaphore.
>>
>>1594725
It depends on how powerful miniaturized shields are and how effective the Titans armor is at absorbing a the heat and explosive wave from the hit.

>>1594712
We have more effective ways of breaching a hard point than we exhibited. Our drones are (or should have been) capable of climbing of jumping over the wall. Even as it stands, all the dead drones are easily recyclable. Infact we probably have net nutrient/metal gain from all the dead Scavs. If we really wanted that facility dead we would have just hit it with a molecular disintegrator from orbit.
The point being we don't need an entirely new design for a grapple/zip line since it is useful only in extremely limited circumstances when we should have other abilities available that have more utility and can overcome the obstacle.
>>
>>1594753
Have actually check the pastebin? Serious question because we have what are essential drone jump packs, grapples, and the ability to quickly climb sheer cliff without either. Also you should note the problem we had this fight was survivability not climbing.
>>
>>1594790
The performance change would most like be it's non-starship grade shields which would tear through like it's tissue paper. Remember nukes can one shot heavy armored shielded ships.
>>
>>1594701
I don't really think I'd say "vulnerabilities" seeing as they still have a combat mandible and combat tail+guns, just the possibility to lose a certain amount of combat effectiveness.
>>
>>1594908
Mandibles are garbage in the environment we're talking about so the leaves them with the tail weapon which is their only saving grace melee wise in a microgravity vacuum environment. That might sound like a niche situation but melee is the hive's biggest advantage over the other races.
>>
>>1595003
First of all, how are the mandibles garbage in the environment we're talking about?

Secondly...no, it still sounds like a niche situation, and the hive has plenty of other advantages over the other races.
>>
We really should see about the larger shield tech, being able to make a shield with a larger spread area for lower strength, minaturize it into a specalized shield drone type, use it as mobile light to medium cover for our swarms.

Unless we could replicate the multi layor starship sheilding to some degree by putting a minaturized version of the shield generator into a large drone. If possible it would greatly help thin down ranged losses.

Could even see about varients useful vs specific types of fire. Maybe if we combine the philosophy behind the large shield gen and the personal shield generator.
>>
>>1595003
Heavies have a diverse array of weaponry depending on the situation, though. For example, the heavy here: >>1591443
has dual plasma throwers for arms.
>>
>>1595026
Mandibles are a grappling weapon. Grappling in general is worthless in a zero gravity because you can't use gravity to your advantage.
>it still sounds like a niche situation
Venting the air out of a room and air leaking out of a room on a spaceship/space station are more common then you think.
>>
File: 1497988464113.jpg (35 KB, 567x437)
35 KB
35 KB JPG
>>1594443
i think at that point the enemy troops just give up
tfw
>>
>>1593000
I think QD has a thing for scenes from starship troopers

I mean wouldn't swarms of tripods and other larger drones be put to better use during that frontal assault instead of of just of just our warriors and other infantry ?

And didn't we design that nuke artillery drone?

And we need a air superiority fighter instead of our wasps, those seem to be just ground support aircraft
>>
>>1595206
Razor sharp jaws that can cut limbs off with ease are a grappling weapon? How?
>>
I wonder if we could combine gravity foils with a gigantic upscale mandibles to make a kind of molecular shredder maw. Combine it with scav ship ramming tech and you have some pretty scary stealth boarding ships, or maybe just a new burrowing torpedo design.
>>
>>1595250
eh doesn't matter in the long run the scene was described perfectly, and the fact that it was made up of lesser units probably saved us from loosing stronger units
>>
>>1594701
>Sledgehammers are useless in a vacuum
What do you think they use to go through ship bulkheads? You don't need a gaseous medium to sustain shock waves when you have a solid object to shatter.
>>
>>1595311
Excellent point, they're melee weapons anyway. I knew something sounded funny about them being useless in a vacuum.
>>
>>1593729
>>1593819
Jesus, I'll change it back. I think you guys are way too suspicious of foul play here. I didn't even think anyone would care. I didn't do it to bamboozle anyway, I was just making improvements to the design that I felt was lackluster.
>>
File: index.jpg (11 KB, 251x200)
11 KB
11 KB JPG
>>1595253
QD in the past has described them as being like mandibles you see on really big beetles on Earth; long, sharp, and menaced with big piercing spikes. So they can be used for cutting through things, but they're even better and piercing armor and flesh and pinning whatever is caught in them.
>>
>>1595311
Good luck getting a proper hit to do the damage. Most of the damage is done through the ultrasonic shockwaves which is suppose to be shit for dealing damage (must be some wonky physics thing QD hasn't explained yet) but since it somehow is effective it must reliant on how wide a spread it can get to truly be damaging.
>>
>>1595267
This sound strangely similar with the Ceph's void cutters.
>>
>>1595568
Naw, it's a shockwave. It works best when there's matter to conduct through, regardless as to whether it's solid or gaseous.

It's no different than an explosion, but I expect it to do more spalling than blasting through a bulkhead.
>>
>>1589372
The Hive should totally cosplay as tyranids at the next space-gaming convention with fully functional life size units (including a Titan). The reactions alone will be worth it.
>>
>>1596274
We should grow Lee some living Tyranid models, sized for tournament play, and completely obedient to him.
>>
>>1596316
Oh we definitely should.

Part of me thinks future GW would try to shut him down if he ever tried to play in a tournament due to non-approved model manufacturer, but another part of me suspects they might make an exception due to the owner effectively controlling an actual Tyranid swarm.
>>
>>1596316
And they actually eat the enemy pieces
>>
>>1596365
taking microwave matches to a whole new level
>>
File: datmovie.jpg (169 KB, 1047x1600)
169 KB
169 KB JPG
I DO THING FOR MOTHER!
>>
>>1597166
!?
>>
>>1597166
Beautiful
>>
File: Spoiler Image (191 KB, 1200x800)
191 KB
191 KB JPG
>>1595003
>melee is the hive's biggest advantage over the other races.

Our chief advantage is melee, melee and instant communications
Instant communications and melee, our two advantages are melee and instant communications, and production efficiency.
Our three - three advantages are melee and communications and production efficiency and an utterly fanatical devotion to the Queen - our four, amongst our advantages are...
No, no,
I'll come in again

...

Amongst our advantages are such diverse elements as melee, communications, production efficiency, an utterly fanatical devotion to the Queen, and nice red carapace oh damn!
>>
File: 1328563582817.gif (1.99 MB, 446x252)
1.99 MB
1.99 MB GIF
>>1597166
Freaking beautiful
>>
>>1597166
You did good Drone. Done good thing for Queen.

>>1593827
Sounds like a good plan. Although I suspect Devon is so mind-broken at this point that even without the direct influence of the parasite he will decide to stay with us.

The others are quite likely to want to go back to the Union, though. They seem loyal enough they won't turn on their people to support a mind-raping alien monster when given a choice. Although they could surprise us - especially if we dangle the prospect of immortality if they choose to stay with the Hive.
>>
>>1597928
Honestly, I'd expect the hacker to jump ship more than Devon.
>>
>>1597944
I wasn't counting the hacker or the social guy as being given a choice since I assume we're keeping them for their skills regardless of what they may initially want (just like Lyle). I suppose we could extend a "choice" to them too, though.
>>
File: 5PU1wLi[1].gif (1.78 MB, 240x192)
1.78 MB
1.78 MB GIF
>>1597511
>>
Okey dokey, separated the two designs and added a approval clause.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Quest_talk:Hive_Queen_Quest#Titan

sorry for causing any drama
>>
>>1598976
Thank you for making the distinction clear.

To be clear, I don't think people were angry because adding the missiles made the Titan a bad design. Frankly, I think adding the missiles improved it (given that we aren't counting the cost of ground drones anymore).

What people most people were angry about is that design we voted on and discussed is not the one in the wiki. There is already a lot of confusion in this quest about what designs do certain things and variations between similar types (such as speakers). Changing the wiki without even notifying people of the design change makes all that confusion much worse, and can lead to designs being built people might not have ordinarily approved because they were changed behind the scenes. In the future please at least let people know when a design will be changed/improved so that if there is opposition it can be voted upon.
>>
>>1599160
I coulda sworn I did when I was first making it, but I'll do that in the future
>>
I've been working on a ship/fleet design to fill what I see as a gap in our armada. Since we're low on funds we shouldn't build these ships now, but I'm hoping for feedback before I propose construction when our finances are more stable.

After the present ship building batch is finished our fleet composition will be as follows:
>1 Hive ship
>56 Battleships/Carriers
>590 Battlecruisers
>3,200 Cruisers
>9,737 Frigates
>6,671 Corvettes

This composition is very heavy on the mid-range ships and lacks the swarms of corvettes that usually make up the majority of Hive fleets. This makes us vulnerable to missile swarms and similar attacks where point defense is critical - and the lack of fast interceptors could harm our ability to take advantage of opportunities on the battlefield.

The solution: large numbers of cheap, disposable corvettes specializing in interdiction and hitting above their weight.

Proposed ship design:

Immolator Corvette
Capacity: 200/20
Cost: 400N 800M
Size: 100 Meters
Spinal Mounts: 1 (Thermal Lance: 100M)
Turret: 2 (Cyclotron Particle Beam: 50M)
Fixed: 2 (Thermal Lance: 40M)
Auxiliary: 8 (Auto-cannon: 80M)
Armor: Standard (Free)
Shields: Multi-Layer (10N 30M per 10 meters)(100N, 300M)
Utility: Rapid Damage Control((15N 20M per 100 meters)
Utility: Fusion Core (10N 50M per used weapon mount.)(130N, 650M)

Total Cost: 645 N, 2040 M
Upkeep: 322.5

Designed for close range combat, these corvettes are designed to swarm enemy formations and cut deep into their capital ships with thermal lances - ignoring enemy armor and shields while burning them to a crisp. The thermal lance's ability to ignore most enemy defensive capabilities allow these small ships to cripple heavier vessels that might otherwise be immune to their bite. The cyclotron particle beam turrets meanwhile, with their targeting disruption effect, should further help keep enemy vessels from being able to focus them down.

At long range these ships are almost entirely dependent on the fleet they are escorting to actually deal damage to the enemy. Before they can close their purpose is to escort larger vessels and provide critical point-defense through a hail of chitin from their auto-cannons. If operating without the support fleet, these ships should be blinked into combat as close to the enemy as possible to minimize their weaknesses.

Proposed Fleet Design: Incineration Swarm
Ships: 1000x Immolator Corvette
Cost: 645,000 N; 2,040,000 M
Upkeep: 322,500 N

Reminder: I do not propose actually building this fleet until our finances are more stable.

Thoughts? Suggestions?
>>
>>1599433
Remove the fusion core and damage control and down grade the shields.
>>
>>1599433
I like it, but it seems kind of expensive for a corvette that's for point defense.

I'd honestly just split it into two designs. A dedicated interdiction/anti-fighter corvette, and only have a few Immolator designs.

I mean, we can get our railguns up to ludicrous damage just by accelerating our ships prior to firing, so this would really be a niche design that's a glorified boarding pod.
>>
>>1599453
Why? I assume it is for cost concerns?

Rapid damage control is extremely cheap (only 15N and 20M for the whole ship). However, I can understand removing shields and the core.

That would bring the cost down to 415N and 1090M at the cost of durability, speed, and firepower.

However, most of the savings from this exchange would be in the metal cost (we have lots of metal), rather than in nutrients.

>>1599479
It's main function is to be a corvette that can actually fight with the big boys. I suspect the reason we don't use corvettes much is because they don't really have weapons as powerful as our bigger ships and do less damage. The thermal lances help to mitigate that greatly. The interdiction is a secondary, but still highly important, role.
>>
>>1599479
The expensiveness comes from the fact he put on a bunch of defense modules and a fusion core. By removing the fusion core we're able to recycle ships that get destroyed rending the defense modules kind of pointless.
>>
>>1599498
The defense modules are NOT for protecting the corvette. They're for protecting the fleet the corvette is with because our fleets, overall, are highly lacking in point defense.
>>
>>1599492
I think you have no understanding of my methods see here >>1599498
Also I've never liked how people dump so many defensive shit on ship that are suppose to be disposable.
>It's main function is to be a corvette that can actually fight with the big boys.
It never actually will be able to because Corvettes are designed not to be good attacking only support as a matter of fact fighters are better for that expressed purpose, cheaper, and are woefully underused and the times we have used them we didn't even draw out their full potential.
>>
>>1599504
Them looking fragile draws attention and fire to them and we could easily recycle the remains.
>>
>>1599479
>>1599498
Also, with regards to expensiveness, even fully kitted out it only has 2/3 the upkeep cost of the light frigate (our most common ship type).

Without the fusion core and by replacing the multi-layer shields with regular defensive shields, the upkeep drops to 232. That gives it approximately half the upkeep of the light frigate while allowing the corvette to (in large quantities) go toe to toe with heavy warships and come out on top.
>>
>>1599559
Okay, let's drop the fusion core. After consideration it's probably too expensive and you guys are all correct about recycling.

>>1599543
Corvettes with plasma lances can do major damage to even the largest enemy warships. A plasma lance fixed mount on a corvette will be as effective as a fixed mount on a cruiser.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

How's this new proposal?

Immolator Corvette
Capacity: 200/20
Cost: 400N 800M
Size: 100 Meters
Spinal Mounts: 1 (Thermal Lance: 100M)
Turret: 2 (Cyclotron Particle Beam: 50M)
Fixed: 2 (Thermal Lance: 40M)
Auxiliary: 8 (Auto-cannon: 80M)
Armor: Standard (Free)
Shields: Defensive (5N 15M per 10 meters)(50N, 150M)
Utility: Rapid Damage Control((15N 20M per 100 meters)

Total Cost: 465 N, 1240 M
Upkeep: 232.5

It costs about half the upkeep of our most common ship: the light frigate.
>>
>>1599492
Wrong.
Corvettes can do just as much damage as any battleship with their railguns.

As stated, they just have to accelerate a bit first. Like to a fraction of lightspeed.

We've done this before. Questdrone has spelled it out in a post.
>>
>>1599590
>Corvettes can do just as much damage as any battleship with their railguns.

That's correct, BUT our ships are just as vulnerable when they're accelerating to enemy fire due to the relative velocities. With thermal lance corvettes we can blink directly inside enemy formations and start taking them to pieces immediately.

Railguns still scale with ship size too. A railgun round fired by a battleship moving at a fraction of light speed will be far more effective than a railgun round fired by a corvette moving at that same fraction of lightspeed. So while a corvette's railgun CAN do the same damage as a battleship's, it depends on the battleship moving much much slower than the corvette.

I'm worried that our focus on big guns has left us vulnerable.

For example, what if the OQ blinks a large attack fleet directly on one of our own attack/raiding fleets? We won't have time to carefully plan the engagement from long range and blinking our ships out takes time and could leave them vulnerable. In such a situation we would need small fast ships capable of dealing major damage at close range to the enemy.
>>
>>1599610
Which is where railgusn come into play.

You can accelerate and fire from standoff ranges. I get what you're trying to say, but your grasp on fleet battles isn't as strong as you think it is. In a surprise attack, your corvettes would be next to useless because they'd still have to close with the enemy dictating the terms of the engagement.
>>
>>1599632
>In a surprise attack, your corvettes would be next to useless because they'd still have to close with the enemy dictating the terms of the engagement.

I'm doubtful. Close range (where the lances would be effective) is defined in the patebin as less than 1 light second. A light second is 300,000 km.

When we blinked our fleet in over Gemini we were directly above the city in atmosphere, let's say 100 km away from the target. Our accuracy on that jump would also have been adversely effected by the gravity of the planet

The weapons are effective within 1 light second range and we can blink on targets with 0.00003 light seconds accuracy. In other words, we can blink next to a fleet way, way, within the effective range of the plasma lances.

The OQ has this tech too. It is not only possible, but probable that the OQ is willing and able to jump a massive fleet filled swarm drones directly into one of our formations should we raid her space, and right now we don't have anything that can counter that.

Our extreme accuracy with blinking is also a massive military advantage, and is something that we are not fully exploiting by building our fleet around long range engagements.
>>
>>1599660
To clarify, when I said "The OQ has this tech too" I was referring to the highly accurate blink drive, not to thermal lances which I hope to hell she has not somehow manged to reverse engineer.

Just trying to make sure I'm not misinterpreted.
>>
>>1599660
We can blink in on predictable targets like planets, yes. I don't recall us using it in combat though as blink drives tend to emit radiation rather noticeably.

Your argument for this vessel revolves around making the corvette into a direct combatant when it's a small ambush, interdiction, and support unit.

You're trying to make them into pocket cruisers which is a waste of nutrients and metal on a fleet scale.

As a purpose-built boarding craft, they have utility, but we're better off remembering that corvettes are meant to be expended and keep them as cheap as possible to have as many autocannon platforms to swat down missiles and fighters as we can.
>>
>>1599701
Cruisers are better at long range. I'm trying to build something that can swarm and burn through enemy fleets while still serving a purpose of interdiction and being cheap, expendable, and having (as you said) lots of auto-cannons.

Corvettes will not be as good at long range dombq5 as bigger ships. As I said before their purpose there is interdiction and support.

At close range their job is to be expendable and survive long enough to deal critical damage to enemy vessels and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves. So in that situation they are less direct combatants and more opportunistic ambushers and swarmers to take advantage of a chaotic situation. At least that's the philosophy behind the design. They're not a discount cruiser so much as a recyclable glass-cannon that can still play a valuable role even at range (with the autocannons defense walls).

Did you see the updated design? It's significantly cheaper and is recyclable (removing the fusion core was a very good idea).

I still think corvettes are better off with weapons that ignore shields and armor (since their main weakness, besides fragility, are poor weapons), than with weapons that heavy enemy ships can easily ignore.


Immolator Corvette
Capacity: 200/20
Cost: 400N 800M
Size: 100 Meters
Spinal Mounts: 1 (Thermal Lance: 100M)
Turret: 2 (Cyclotron Particle Beam: 50M)
Fixed: 2 (Thermal Lance: 40M)
Auxiliary: 8 (Auto-cannon: 80M)
Armor: Standard (Free)
Shields: Defensive (5N 15M per 10 meters)(50N, 150M)
Utility: Rapid Damage Control((15N 20M per 100 meters)

Total Cost: 465 N, 1240 M
Upkeep: 232.5
>>
>>1599731

Getting in close and mixing up are what our fighters and drone-missiles are for. Using a corvette for that job is a waste of resources as they're a larger target and not significantly tougher on the basis of expense.


And yes, I saw the update. As I said its not a bad design, it just doesn't need to be a fleet-wide upgrade. It'll be useful for boarding but we're not going to be boarding every single ship we fight.
>>
>>1599731
Seems reasonable to me; we are somewhat overspecialized. If we don't get to choose the engagement range, we could easily run into trouble; This seems to mitigate the issue, though 1000/fleet seems a little high to me.
>>
>>1599747
>>1599745

I could tone down the fleet size. Originally I had envisioned it as a swarm, but I suppose it could fill a solid role in more of a specialist capacity.
>>
>>1599751
That's all I was saying Anon. It's a solid vessel, we just don't need enough of them to blot out the stars.
>>
>>1599776
Sounds good. Thanks for the feedback.
>>
>>1599675
Plasma lances are a traditional hive weapon. She's guaranteed to have it.
>>
>>1599561
Expensiveness can be migrated via recycling destroyed also armor and shield defenses are going to massively drop in value as the Void becomes increasingly involved.
>>
>>1600067
Just one more reason I'm leery of close combat with the OQ. If I remember right, plasma lances kind of ignore shields?
>>
>>1600073
Yes. They're so good the Void fully upgraded their's and shamelessly abuse the hell out of it.
>>
>>1600067
>Plasma lances are a traditional hive weapon.

What the absolute fuck are you going on about? We had to research magnetic confinement to make plasma lances viable at ship ranges, and that confinement tech was based on non-hive tech we reverse engineered. The OQ definitely does NOT have good plasma lances.

You know what the OQ does have shit tons of? Railguns. Almost all the OQ's ship's we've seen so far have railguns, a weapon that is most effective at RANGE.

Our Hive's own insta-kill bullshit tier weapons that ignore shields and armor (lances and singularity projectors) are dependent on close range and we need to build fleets that capitalize on their incredible strength.

>>1600078
Pretty sure the Void just has bullshit eldritch tech. It almost certainly does NOT ignore armor/shields only due to extreme heat. Please don't talk out of your ass any further.

>>1599751
Honestly, I think your original fleet size was better. We need thousands more corvettes not just a few hundred. It's still retarded corvettes were never added to the "filler" light-fleets.
>>
>>1596316
Support
>>
>>1599731
Support
>>
>>1600817
>>1600855
Support
>>
File: aww yea.jpg (23 KB, 466x246)
23 KB
23 KB JPG
>>1598976
thanks, I appreciate it m8
>>
>>1600817
>>1600855
>>1601053

Also supporting
>>
>>1600542
Actually our plasma lances don't instant kill. Our first engagement with the Union proved that and the QD even explained they are far from instant kill weapon. And no the range bonus doesn't make it more viable what made it viable was cloaking and nothing else.
>>
>>1600542
Also the Void Cutter clearly use something similar to the plamsa lances possibly a more advanced version.
>Pretty sure the Void just has bullshit eldritch tech.
No? You do realize they evolved from the same race as the Hive is decended from as according to Clusters and according to QD him every race operates on the same basic rules we do just with different tech. Nothing is truly otherworldly about them since we will be capable of almost anything they are even the weapons they and their servants use are basically palatte swaps of weapons we already use.
>>
>>1601799
The Ceph use neutrino beams, which might be similar to the void
>>
>>1601806
>neutrino weaponry
Jesus fuck they must have completely fucking solved power generation and heat dissipation.
Capture raids when?
>>
>>1601830
Pretty sure it's because their ships have those fucky 4 dimensional crystal 'wings'.
>>
>>1601830
They're powered by void shards. Formerly we thought of it as more akin to "hell energy" since we didn't know much about the Void "Gods" but now it seems to be simply advanced psionics. The void shards themselves are likely some kind of dimensional anchors or concentrated psionic object. Our current knowledge of telekinesis is basically this, but on a much smaller scale. If we continue to go down the path of dangerous psionic research, I'm sure we could figure out how the void shards work and do the same stuff the Void is doing. This is probably why the Void races are all prohibited from scientific research, and why in both Ceph and Valen language "research" is the same word as "heresy:" the Void know full well that their power is not supernatural or godly, just very advanced.

The Void simply have the advantage of a few millennia of research and knowledge, but we've got the advantage of having a physical form and not needing to manifest into reality in order to actually do stuff. Plus we've got Humanity around, who were created basically as a research farm.
>>
>>1601830
Also, neutrino weaponry is probably related to advanced tachyonic manipulation, and "advanced tachyonic manipulation" is commonly known as "psionics." Basically, the Void Cutter neutrino weapons are psy-beams.

See their description here:
http://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/36064826/#36072901

>From collected battle data, it has shown to never exceed a firing rate of one three second beam being fired every ten seconds, and an effective range of fifty thousand kilometers. It is unknown if the beam itself is capable of harming a target beyond this range, but it has never been observed as being fired past it.

50,000 km is 0.17 light seconds, which makes it a very close-range weapon in terms of our other weaponry. Geosynchronous satellites orbit Earth at a height of 42,000 km, and the distance from Earth to the Moon is 384,000 km. So, the effective range of the Void Cutter neutrino beam (psy beam) is roughly the same range as a moderate relay (which covers a planet and extends into orbit), or thereabouts. Not sure if this is a significant note, but might as well bring it up while we're discussing it.
>>
>>1601806
>Neutrino weaponry
how the fuck does that even work

You fire a neutrino directly at a block of lead, chances are it's going to miss all the lead particles because neutrinos are so damn small, and if it did hit anything you wouldn't see anything but a miniscule amount of radiation.

Shit, nuclear plants produce shittons of antineutrinos, and nobody ever dies from annihilation radiation (just the conventional kind).
>>
>>1602007
>>1602007
You use a lot of them
>>
>>1602007
>>1601991
>>1601806
Actually the Neutrinos might just be a byproduct of firing the weapon.
>>
>>1602007
My guess is the weapons aren't based on neutrinos, but that neutrinos are a biproduct of firing a tachyon based weapon.

When we saw the Void fight our mother and again on Nowhere all shots stopped right before hitting it. That sounds similar to our telekinesis (which can stop thrown objects, etc) but on a much more powerful scale. Since Tachyons are instant in nature, sufficiently advanced psi manipulation should allow any damage to be blocked including attacks that move at light speed (which is slow by comparison). The Void's method of attack also sounds like extending its body and creating matter and energy where there previously wasn't any. This could be similar to our pyro-psi research where we are essentially creating energy from "nothing."

>>1601991
Good call on the moderate relay range. That might be significant.
>>
>>1602041
My problem with this is the colossal amount of energy you'd need to turn neutrino collision into an effective weapon could instead give you a god-tier laser that dusts everything in its path if you just switched neutrino generation for photon generation.

>>1602042
>>1602059
>might be a byproduct
Okay, that could make sense (or rather, it doesn't produce absurd implications). Apologies for the autism.
>>
>>1602059
Or it could be a Fusion reaction and they are just thermal weapons. Also if you remember they made a drill with negative matter to kill Theseus's droids.
>>
>>1602007
>its observed effects are consistent with a concentrated neutrino beam

I'm calling it a "neutrino weapon" but that's probably just the only way Theseus could describe it with the limits of their science at the time. The neutrinos may be a side effect of the actual weapon. Since it's pretty obvious that the Void are psionic-heavy, it stands to reason that their weapons are psionic as well. Their method of attack against the White Queen ( http://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/36074456/#36076047 ) seems like pyrokinesis and like >>1602059 said, their ability to block matter and energy attacks is likely psionic in nature as well.

>>1602084
I don't think "energy generation" is a concern for these types of weapons, just like we're not concerned with how much kinetic force out Speaker drones can generate when they are snapping the spines of scavengers, or how much thermal energy was generated when our thinker immolated itself in the lab while researching pyrokinesis.

As another side note, I'm wondering if our psionic abilities will be able to harm the Void. Mundane (kinetic/energy/explosive) weapons don't affect it, but psionics don't play by the same rules. Basically, I'm wondering if we can have pyrokinesis on a large enough scale that we can use it in fleet combat instead of the Psionic canon.
>>
>>1602112
Remember the ancient hives had similar Psionic abilities, vastly larger numbers, and still lost. The psionic cannon seems to be the only way.
>>
>>1602122
I'm not so sure about the psionic abilities of the ancient hives. Also the Void has been weakened too. It was just a thought, we should still eventually research the psionic cannon.
>>
>>1602169
Continuing to research pyrokinesis and telekinesis will definitely be worth it and could give us valuable insight in how to avoid being insta-killed by the Void's weapons while we fire the psionic cannon. Hopefully our tachyon research won't attract the attention of Them if it is not directly related to crystals...

All this talk of tech similarities between us and the Void caused me to realize how close we came to complete disaster at Nowhere. If our parasites are anything like the Void's psionic mind-control, if we had tried to mentally probe that corrupted scientist it would have ended like when the Cluster tried to probe Gilliam. In other words, it would have given the Void a direct line into our (or Elizabeth's) mind through which it could mentally crush us with overwhelming force. Thank Mother Anons came to their senses and recognized that trap for what it was before we voted for it.
>>
>>1602264
Yeah but we didn't disconnect from the local area and now it watches us. Dodged a bullet only to hit another.
>>
>>1602303
You're right we should have shut down the relays altogether and just relied on Elizabeth for coordination.

Still, while we definitely caught a bullet at Nowhere, at least we dodged a bomb.
>>
I have a idea the void cutters move by something like telekinesis
>>
>>1602500
Vacuum energy
>>
>>1602536
>>1602500
I actually thing the Shards are multidimensional in nature. They may actually be able to generate energy out of nothing and act as reactionless drives.
>>
>>1602536
>>1602671
Well there is a thing called something similar to that, not sure if that's the proper name.

You can use the virtual particle pairs produced by quantum foam as thrust, this effect is how black holes have Hawking radiation. A virtual pair of anti-/non-anti particles appear on opposite sides of the event horizon, one is ejected into space, the other isn't. Theoretically if you had some sort of singularity drive with the right equipment you could generate thrust in this fashion, it's just not gonna be that much.

Hmmmm..... this quest has me thinking of quantum mechanics and rockets again. I need to do more research.
>>
File: tegaki.png (7 KB, 400x400)
7 KB
7 KB PNG
>>1602694
I think you are thinking of positive and negative matter
>>
>>1603293
ehhhh, not quite. It's probably not clear but I am referring to particle anti-particle annihilation, which creates enormous energy if the two particles aren't "borrowing" energy from the quantum foam stuff.

See at the quantum level empty space isn't. It's filled with pairs of particles/anti-particles that constantly appear and annihilate each other, but if these pairs appear at the edge of a black hole you get Hawking radiation.

Negative matter on the other hand has little to do with anti-matter, being a strange form of matter required to produce exotic effects like stabilizing worm-holes. Because as it turns out, wormholes, while possibly naturally occurring in Einstein-Rosen bridges, aren't that stable and require a negative amount of mass inside to be stable AND usable. Take what I say and link with a bit of salt. I'm not a physicist of any type.

>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVbxoEb9WFQ
>>
>>1603469
Negative matter has negative mass. If you put a negative baseball and a positive baseball next to each other in space, the negative ball would accelerate towards the positive one, but the positive one will also accelerate away at the same rate. Thus providing free thrust.
>>
>>1603484
Not really, once the negative baseball hits the positive one, their velocities cancel out. This is a nice idea, but doesn't work in practice. Take two magnet, put the "south" end of one near the "north" end of the other, they will move toward each other, as you example says, but once they collide their velocities are negated, unless they are spinning. They won't be providing any "free" thrust anytime soon.
>>
>>1603527
That's why you have a negative mass equal to the rocket on the other side. Or just get rid of the baseball's. It is free thrust because the net equivalent movement is 0. 10 kg accelerating at 10m/s and -10 accelerating at the same speed means a net 0 on the eergy in the universe
>>
>>1603550
Okay, that would work, but how the hell are you gonna get the negative baseball, or whatever, on the other side? These masses/negative masses MUST be formed in the same area per quantum physics. The energy you use to get the negative mass to the other place would be better spent actually moving the object you want to move in the first place.

The idea is theoretically sound, but there's no way it could be practical. "Free" energy isn't, that's just the way the universe is.

On the other hand, the original comment was about the Void bringing in energy/mass from somewhere else, which is perfectly possible, after all 3-dimensional objects still exist in 2-D space so there's no reason the Whatever-D Void can't bring in mass/energy into 3-D (Technically 4-D with Time) space.
>>
>>1603592
>"Free" energy isn't, that's just the way the universe is.

Well... In the real world maybe.

In Hive Universe orbiting black-holes are the standard power generation method for your average human starship. There are multiple species with independently developed FTL methods (all of which are inconsistent with most established modern physics models). And finally, we're playing an immortal mind controlling alien bug queen that can literally fly around and cast fireballs just by thinking about it.

Especially when it comes to the Void, there will always be something unknowable about how they truly operate. The answer to where they (or we for that matter) draw much of our power can simply be summed up as "tachyons." As a pseudo-magical force emitted by all "living" creatures that can be used to manipulate the world around us, it's hard to fit that into established scientific literature.

My personal pet theory is that the Void was so weakened in combat with the Hive that it draws its current power through the tachyonic emissions caused by worship and sacrifice by the Ceph. There's something involved in an intelligent species (perhaps a "soul-ish" equivalent), that can be drawn upon for raw (essentially magic) power through tachyonic manipulation. Without worshipers the Void may lose much of its power (although it could still have some stockpiled).
>>
>>1603808
>orbiting black-holes are the standard power generation method for your average human starship.

This is perfectly valid in our model of how physics works, it's kinda screwy keeping the singularities away from each other but it works.

>independently developed FTL methods (all of which are inconsistent with most established modern physics models)

I'd be surprised if they weren't inconsistent with physics models, the only "FTL" drive I've found in our universe requires somewhere around a Jupiter's worth of negative matter to work. The Alcubierre drive is certainly theoretically possible, and I see no reason future people can't make it real. The other FTL drives I can't figure out because I don't have the math on them, or an accurate description of how exactly they make physics cry.

>immortal mind controlling alien bug queen that can literally fly around and cast fireballs just by thinking about it.

Genetic immortality is possible, just a bit weird to comprehend, telomeres that repair themselves isn't outside the realm of biology. Alien hive-mind bug queen, not impossible, just improbable as most hive-minds don't work this way but whatever, biology is weird.

>literally fly around and cast fireballs just by thinking about it.

Not quite, flying requires using proper propulsion methods which are details in the drone index.
We're still working on the fireball bit.

>Especially when it comes to the Void, there will always be something unknowable about how they truly operate. The answer to where they (or we for that matter) draw much of our power can simply be summed up as "tachyons." As a pseudo-magical force emitted by all "living" creatures that can be used to manipulate the world around us, it's hard to fit that into established scientific literature.

Not sure what to say about this, other than basic particle and quantum physics are partially unknowable as science just can't always find the answers. Heisenberg uncertainty principle is the least of our problems folks.
I can say however that not all "living" creatures emit tachyons as both the humans were engineered to not do so (not that that stopped the Void from fucking them into doing so), but those lithovores didn't either. And while basic particle physics may say you can replace Carbon with Silicon in most organic proteins, you generally get rocks in reality.

>Last paragraph (too lazy to copypasta)
That's not an impossible theory, but I don't think it would properly explain the whole "tearing the fabric of spacetime a new asshole to manifest" thing that we dealt with at Nowhere. The amount of energy/mass required to bend reality to that degree is generally on the order of causing a singularity, or in other words, the moment the Void tried to manifest it should've been instantly consumed by a black hole as the very fabric of the universe rebels against it.
>Continued....
>>
>>1604469
THEN AGAIN, naked singularities are also, theoretically, possible but make standard models of physics cry and then shatter so maybe the Void is using one of those to manifest?
>>
>>1604469
Mostly accurate, however you got one thing slightly wrong.

Humans do produce a (pitiful) tachyon signature. However, they are incapable of perceiving it themselves. That's why the Valen can read human emotions so well - if humans sent no signatures the Valen would have nothing to read. We do know that the Cluster is living and emits no tachyons, although that is a result of deliberate self mutilation. Every other example of intelligent carbon based life we know of sends out mental signals whether consciously or unconsciously.
>>
>>1604646
Yeah, Cluster stands out as an anomaly here. They are "alive" in terms of being carbon-based DNA life, but they produce no psionic signature. Scarred Queen told us that no true life is invisible to the Void, so either Cluster isn't "true life" because they mutilated themselves to be such or Void has the ability to interact with them somehow anyway. Maybe it would require a Void Shard, just like they can still talk to us through the parasite's nerve connections. The former implies that the definition of "alive" reduces to "has a psionic signature" and the latter implies that nobody, not even Theseus, is safe.
>>
>>1604733
Wouldn't that also mean that the lithovores also don't count as "true life"? Seeing as how they technically qualify under most definitions but don't have a psionic signature?
Our (human) definitions of life tend to include chemical processes to sustain themselves, independent reproduction, and the ability to react to stimuli. The lithovores, though really odd, do actually conform to this and thus would count as alive, but aren't "alive" because they don't produce a psionic signature? Would the Void even be able to do anything with those weird ass worms?
>>
>>1605038
Yeah, the lithovores are also strange in the same way for the reasons you said. We've got a couple definitions of "living" and no single definition seems to cover all cases. Also, I haven't included them in the lists below, but what about the Canian star-creatures?

Old Hive definition: "Carbon life, made from genetic material." Excludes non-carbon life.

Alternative definition: "Psionically sensitive, have 'thoughts' to hear." Excludes Cluster, Lithovores, Theseus, Heretic.

Human definition: "Capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change." Excludes Heretic, maybe Theseus, Void, but might also consider nanomachines as "alive."

I have no idea if Void can do anything with the lithovores. I don't think Scarred Queen would know, and I don't think Heretic would know either. Theseus doesn't care, and I don't know if we should care either.
>>
>>1605124
For that human definition, Theseus actually counts in a roundabout way but yes I get what you mean.

>Capacity for growth
That's just memory usage for him
>Reproduction
Theseus instances replicate all over the place
>Functional activity
Not sure how this one work, but information transfer? The direction and usage of robots to gather resources? Could be a bunch of things to count for this.
>Continual change
This one's just obvious, he grows and learns from the experiences of instances which can and will change his opinions on things, or his actions. Take when we met him for example, one time horrible murderous robot, now a valuable ally.

Definitions of "living" are WAY too squishy to be much use here. I'll withhold judgement on the Canians until I can figure out how the hell they manage to exist in temperatures high enough to vaporize tungsten, much less any type of molecule.
>>
So, here's a thought. When we recover the Cluster and the Union scientists, why don't we have Elizabeth meet with them? Personally I'm curious as to how she will interact with other human scientists and whether or not she may even try to recruit some. Plus it'd be a nice opportunity to show off our Kerrigan.

As for letting Elizabeth meet the Cluster, that is a much more iffy proposition. However, it's possible she could be impressive enough that she will help the Cluster understand why we see potential in as young a species as humanity.
>>
>>1605708
Why the literal fuck would we want to show a half-human abomination to the Union and scare the shit out of them at the time when we want the Union to be nice and friendly?
>>
>>1605725
I'm not advocating releasing her to the human public generally. I'm advocating letting her talk to her former colleagues (perhaps offering praise for the Hive and the resources we can provide to skilled scientists) while the Union scientists are in our captivity. We don't let anyone take pictures of her, and if any of the humans she talks to has too adverse a reaction we can just mind wipe/edit them.

As for why we would do this? Human super scientists are valuable even without the implant Elizabeth has. We want to eventually start recruiting more of them. This is just us testing the waters in a controlled environment to gauge reactions.
>>
>>1605826
I'm sorry, you're proposing marching her into a highly secure facility that's sure to be under extremely heavy surveillance, somehow magically deleting the security cameras and other personnel, and putting the psiwhammy on people in such a way that their memories will fail to match up with the memories of anybody who doesn't feel the same way?
Do you see the issue with this plan?
>>
>>1605845
I'm not proposing anything of the sort. Sorry if I was not clear.

We claim that the Union scientists must come aboard our ship to be scanned for potential contamination (true!) and so that we can "interrogate" them on the research they were doing (which only makes sense given our stance on research in the Expanse).

They will meet Elizabeth onboard our ship.
Elizabeth never needs to leave our ship and privacy.
>>
>>1605708
>use Elizabeth to recruit more scientists from Mentan or whatever
Sure, if she wants to. I don't see the point of doing this now, though. Why not recruit from the Commonwealth because we have a better relationship with them and they understand the ability to be discrete.

>introduce Elizabeth to Cluster
For what purpose?
>>
>>1605878
That smells like such contrived bullshit desu. If we're going to recruit any other scientists, they should come willingly. The Union already knows Elizabeth is working with us, because the marines saw her, heard her, and they survived to tell the tale. I'm sure someone will eventually ask about her.

If we want to obtain reasonably good science team of humans, with no frills and no fanfare, we should just ask the Commonwealth. If scientists come from the Union and want to work for us, great, but I anticipate that it won't happen without a whole lot of needless publicity and stupid politics.
>>
>>1605890
Because we're less likely to get viable recruits from the Commonwealth than from Union and we're even more likely to get viable recruits from the Valen.
>>
>>1605916
How do you figure that Commonwealth scientists are not viable recruits?
>>
>>1605708
This reminds me, why are we focusing so much on what our Lee is doing for us, and so little on our best daughteru not!Kerrigan?
>>
>>1605953
Because science is boring and Lee playing not!Warhammer 40k is fun.
>>
>>1605845
>>1605826
Elizabeth is currrently a prime example of why Humans need to not fuck with things they find in the Expanse.

We didn't do anything to her aside from the bionics she requested.
>>
>>1605890
>Sure, if she wants to.
Of course Elizabeth would not be doing this against her will.
While we do have better relationships with the Commonwealth, the Union has more and better scientists from what we've seen. Elizabeth also has much better contacts within the existing Union science community.

>For what purpose?

We have claimed to Cluster that we are protecting the humans because they are stronger than it realizes and that they have provided critical help to us. When we meet the "main" Cluster it will want to know why the humans are so great. If we talk up how powerful and valuable the humans are and the Cluster continues to view humans as pathetic, the Cluster may come to regard us as weak given our "equal" treatment of a far lesser species. If we introduce Elizabeth she is powerful and intelligent enough that the Cluster may believe we weren't completely wrong about human potential. Thus they are less likely to see us as weak.
>>
>>1605922
They aren't going to let us have viable recruits.
>>
>>1605968
>talking about humans being powerful and valuable
Nigga, humans make good thinkers, that's it. That's the full extent of their potential, as the White Queen designed them.
>>
>>1605959
And this here is one of the many Leefags. Because they like stupid boring shit and dislike fun.
>>
>>1605975
Agreed. The Commonwealth likes us, but they aren't stupid. They won't give us their best scientists.

The Union, however, has a wonderful thing called "free market" which means skilled scientists may just come to us because we are offering more and better resources regardless of existing contracts or what the government wants.
>>
>>1605984
Dude, we already said something like "the humans are more resourceful than you think, your escape attempt will fail"
>>
>>1605953
I agree. I like Lee, but we need to give Elizabeth some opportunities for fun and character development too.
>>
>>1605953
The Kerrigan wannabe is not our daughteru anon, that's the Pale Queen.
>>
>>1606389
I thought we were going to call her the "Scarred Queen"?

Regardless, Not!Kerrigan can still be a daughter, she just isn't our only daughter any more. Considering how much worse Nowhere would have been if she had not been present to coordinate our drones we owe her a lot.
>>
>>1602264
I'm pretty sure the way the events at Nowhere WERE the worst possible case scenario. We only needed one single active relay open and as a result, the Void managed to get a foothold in our mind.

Think about the gravity of that. Our mother, the White Queen, spent over 70,000 years doing everything in her power to avoid being directly noticed by the void because she knew what would happen if she did. She modified the evolutionary development of an entire species and spent more than 50,000 years letting them reach the state of advancement high enough to allow them to build and fire a psionic cannon on their own, just to avoid being linked to it by the void gods. She sent us in a cocoon into the abyss with no memories or records of what had happened or how to avoid the void, in the mere hope that would allow us to survive without incurring their notice. All of those precautions and schemes were completely undone by our failure at nowhere.

We couldn't have screwed up harder if we had tried, truly. QD wouldn't have made it an instant kill if we had tried to shut down the hell gate at the last instant, that just wouldn't have been fun way to run the quest. Instead he just had the void begin the process of corrupting the Red Queen by degrees. As we continue to screw up and make terrible decisions, the rate of infection will increase until we start going the way of the Black Queen.
>>
File: tegaki.png (4 KB, 400x400)
4 KB
4 KB PNG
>>1606389

how many queens have their been again?
>>
>>1606525
Probably a few dozen in this sector. Unknown how many lived in our home space, but possibly millions or billions.
>>
>Should have the thread up in about an hour.

[Happy chittering noises]
>>
bump
>>
File: 1464569426123.jpg (38 KB, 400x300)
38 KB
38 KB JPG
>>1613288
New thread's up.
>>
>>1613297
>ATHF crossover pic

Love you, QD
>>
>>1613400
>MFW i started that.
This quest is the greatest.




Delete Post: [File Only] Style:
[Disable Mobile View / Use Desktop Site]

[Enable Mobile View / Use Mobile Site]

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective parties. Images uploaded are the responsibility of the Poster. Comments are owned by the Poster.