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The news stations of Gemini have been in a tight focus since before dawn, all of them intensely concerned with the recent parliament meeting. Lee watches the screen with some concern. The media only focus in on something like this when they've been given a script. They know what is about to happen, and the government wants to give it the proper context.

Ryan? You're alive?"

The voice is faint and weak. Lee almost doesn't hear it, but a flash of movement crosses the corner of his eye and he glances down the hall he is in. There is nothing there, and no drones nearby. His mind feels a faint, quickly abating sensation, a familiar presence.

“Did you hear something?” Lee asks. One of the taidaren triplets slurps from a moldy orange with his proboscis before ducking his head and hiding the fruit.

“Sorry.” They squeak.

“No, not that, like, someone was just saying something.” Lee says. The triplets chirp together.

“No.”
“Lee has human ears. Poor and untrustworthy.”
“We heard nothing, but can hear everything.”

“Never mind, I guess it was nothing.” Lee says. “I just thought I sensed... a presence I haven't felt since-”

“Stop quoting your dumb earth movies, the thing is starting!” Sushi says abruptly, his bland voice is entirely monotone, but his skin ripples with emphasis. Lee looks back to the screen where Morgan has speared behind a podium. Cameras flash from the crowd as he grips the podium and survey's the crowd, presumably while the teleprompter loads within his eye.


Welcome back to Hive Queen Quest!

>Archives http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.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
>>
>>1923321
So time for voting on to research the crystal on P2?
>>
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Ready for Queen!
>>
>>1923321
Oh they aee annoucing the Hive taking the expanse.

Also super glad Sushi ain't afraid to be here anymore.
>>
>>1923341
Nowhere too. At least we know for certain there are silicate life forms there.
>>
How about making a solar foci telescope to spy on Strife without risking ourselves? We could start looking for weaknesses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOCAL_(spacecraft)
>>
Daily reminder

>Raid OQ
>Board a scav vessel for their FTL.
>Send a diplomacy team to earth.
>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.)
>>
>>1923377
Nowhere is bound to spark an international incident unless we get permission first which is why I want to check our territory first.
>>
As soon as they formally announce it, we should send drones to develop the worlds that are not inhabited. The ones that are have to wait till we sort at least a few things out,but we still have a lot more places to work with.
>>
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>>1923321
“After extensive deliberation and negotiation with all parties involved, it has been decided by secret ballot that the Union of Independent Colonies has no choice but to accede to the demands made of it, and cede control of the Expanse, its resources, and all natural assets, to the Hive.” He pauses for breath, almost expectantly, and as if on cue there is a sudden gasp from the audience of reporters and a low murmur. Several questions are quickly shouted out, their voices not picked up by the microphone beyond a faint echoing, and Morgan waves them down. “All military forces shall be evacuating, removing all sensitive state owned equipment and ranking personnel, most of which have already been relocated. After that, military vessels will permit civilian passengers to evacuate any and all who wish to leave the Expanse. To those who wish to remain, the Hive has given assurances that they will be considered citizens, and allowed to remain undisturbed. We will be working with the Hive in the coming days to help facilitate the needs of these individuals, and to that end I have been working closely with Representative Lee and the Ambassador, and will continue to do so. In addition, we will be lifting some components of the recent security lock down and allow limited civilian traffic to the embassies in the capital district.” The voices become a roar of questions being shouted over one another, but Morgan steps away, walking off screen as some low ranking press secretary takes the podium. Lee tosses the remote back to Sushi, who plucks it out of the air with a quick swipe of a tentacle.

"Well it looks like I'm going to have to start working now." Lee says. "Speaking of which, are you two planning on just moving in here?"

"The Matriarch knows we know you." The triplets chirp together. "Wants to have a voice in your poor, hallucinating ear."

"Great." Lee says blandly. "So you're my first lobbyists. What about you, Sushi?" The ceph's eye stalks extend over the seat to look at Lee.

"I was... evicted." He says simply.

"But I thought the restuaraunt you worked at let you live in their fish tank. You were always talking about how big of a tank it was." Lee says.

"Yes. It was damaged in the riots." He replies. "I was told to take a vacation until it was repaired."

"Oh." Lee replies. "Well, sorry to hear that. Wait, so the both of you just showed up here to visit, with the intention of just living here?"

"Now you get it." Sushi says. The triplets bob their heads up and down awkwardly, their bone plates along their faces clapping with the more natural taidaren equivalent to show their affirmation. Lee lets out a long sigh.

"Alright. Just pick one of the empty rooms, it's not like the drones use them. Just stay out of the courtyard, it's being turned into a hive."

cont.
>>
>>1923379
We'd have to jump in extremely far away from the system proper on the scale of a light month to make sure no one detects us and even then the ship would hve to be tachyonically inert.

>>1923391
I highly doubt it. Even if someone asks just answering it's related to the events that unfolded there will make the Union issue gag orders to any official inquiries.
>>
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>>1923401
Dont worry Sushi. The Hive will make you an even bigger tank!
>>
>>1923446
Really it's only common courtesy to build a bigass tank when two species are amphibious.
>>
>>1923441
Then you have tell the revelant authorities in advance otherwise it becomes a clusterfuck.
>>
>>1923474
Sure. It's why we have an embassy right now. Well diplomatic missions and giving Lee his own place.
>>
Actually it's listed under valen jurisdiction and the valen don't even want to be there because their scum flees there. It's probably only technically under the ownership of a civilization.
>>
>>1923401
>Just stay out of the courtyard, it's being turned into a hive."
What? What about the decorative smartmine?
>>
>>1923401

We have squatters.
I love it.
We really should offer Sushi an upgrade in the form of parasite + better flotation device. It does not do to have guests and friends of the hive looking like destitute homeless people.
>>
>>1923511
It might technically belong to nobody but just waltzing in without alerting anyone is going to cause problems. Specifically draw attention to the Nowhere incident.
>>
>>1923401
Lyle leans back in his seat as the speakers fill the cockpit with some Commonwealth shanty. He takes a long drag of his cigar and a puff of smoke billows up, sending Coil into a gurgling coughing fit as he adjusts the ship's orbit.

"We ready?" Lyle says.

"Ready." Jackob says back over the intercom.

"Now wait, are you sure this is safe?" Anderson says. "I mean, what if-"

"Launch!" Lyle shouts, and he brings his heel down hard on a button on the dashboard. The ship rocks slightly as the drop pod is fired from its belly, and Coil quickly accelerates away from Talgo's orbit.

"Okay, up next, Decker's Claim." Lyle says. He points his finger forward casually. "And step on it. I want these shits off my ship."

"We need to reach a minimum distance." Coil says.

"Just blend in with that small hive fleet and leave with them, nobody will notice us." Lyle says back. "And a lot faster then leaving the system at sublight."

You can feel Anderson's mind panicking. He has never used a drop pod, let alone one of alien design. He always assumed you needed a drop suit to use them without grave injury, and he was still unsure if that was not the case, despite his current situation. For most drop pods, it was indeed the case, but yours are more advanced in that regard. Still, he begins screaming the moment he feels the atmosphere buffer against the pod, and continues all the way until he hits the ground.

The pod unfolds, and he claws his way out with shaking hands. As he leaves, the pod begins to crumple itself into a ball, and smoke rises from within as acid glans begin popping and dissolving the evidence.

"Fuck!" Anderson shouts. "You bastard!" He aims various rude hand gestures from every culture he knows of to the sky in the vague direction of where he believes the cloaked Hel's Angel to be. He quickly pats off the dust on his clothes and examines his surroundings as he absentmindedly adjusts his face with the features of a mixed Pathian Talgoan ethnicity. The region is a desert, dark and cold in the middle of the night. Dead, ancient looking pines are either half fallen or mark the ground with their fallen trunks. The first think the colony ships did was seed pine trees across the entire planet, regardless of climate. If they took, all the better, if they didn't, it was cheap to try. Most of these tree corpses likely date back to the arrival of Talgo's founding generation ship. Anderson looks over them with some nervous curiosity. He hopes the fact they are still here doesn't mean this region is entirely uninhabited. Your hidden pod in orbit finds a small town some miles away, and he begins walking.

cont.
>>
>>1923516
When we unlock non-euclidean architecture there's going to be better stuff available.
>>
>>1923564
>>1923446

We should build sushi a tank of infinite size in the hyperdimensional space between realities.
>>
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>>1923583
Then he finds his new neighbors.
>>
>>1923556
I hope there's one fly hidden in Anderson's pocket. We need one to become a small egglayer after all.
>>
>>1923556
You continue to prod at the silicate corpse with some annoyance. You are still disturbed by the fact that a biology has confounded you, and the thought of taking one alive for a more detailed study has not left your mind since.

Such creatures within Nowhere, the strange, starless pocket of space is technically within Valen space, although they do not utilize it and avoid it as a collection of scum and villainy not worth their time. Even still your opinion seems to mean a lot to them, and they may at least appreciate the act of respect by asking them to enter what is still technically their space. On the other hand, the region of space has close ties with the Union ever since the first contact war between human settlers and the Valen. While laws are rare in that space, Union laws are considered at least casually enforceable, with local spacer etiquette being largely lifted from the Union Trade Commission's regulations on space habitation, although they are considered guidelines, not rules. Asking the Union before entering may let them know you are at least willing to show some respect to their sovereignty in the future while reminding them of the incident they created not too long ago.

At the same time, you could just send several ships to scoop up some of the creatures. You go where you please, and neither species has any truly enforced claim there. It may still offend some of the more rule respecting individuals on the region, but there is nothing they can do to you beyond sending a stern letter you may ignore at your leisure.

>Notify the Valen embassy
>Notify Secretary Morgan
>Ignore them both and send a small force to collect samples
>Other
>>
>>1923583
You little fucking shits, this is exactly the reason we went to war. You assholes just see an extra dimension and start shoving the most retarded shit in it with no heed to what else might be there already or who might be using it. Did you ever think that empty space might be useful? That empty space can be necessary? How would you sperglings like it we clogged your squalid shithole hives with walls or fish habitats? If we filled your fucking breath tubing with silicon, huh? HUH? FUCKING TARDLET THINK BEFORE YOU PUT THINGS PLACES! Foursesus Christ your entire fucking species is a trainwreck. Fucking lobotimize your bitch, you'll be doing her a favor.
>>
>>1923605
>>Ignore them both and send a small force to collect samples

>Other
Start immigrating some clones from Gemini to Coral, which also has native silicon life.
>>
>>1923605
>Ignore them both and send a small force to collect samples
>>
>>1923605
>>Notify the Valen embassy
>>
>>1923605

Either notify them both and send a small fleet in, just in case pirates.
Or, send in Lyle & Co in the Hel's Angel... If there would be enough room to bring one back in the Angel
>>
>>1923619
GAS THE SQUIDS
NUKE THE WHALES
STAB THE MONKEYS
TRUST NOTHING
THE VOID IS WATCHING
>>
>>1923605
>>Ignore them both and send a small force to collect samples
Not like the Valen care what happens there
>>
>>1923605
>>Notify the Valen embassy
>>Notify Secretary Morgan
>>
>>1923605
I might be able to just stealth in there for a quick grab, but...

>Notify the Valen embassy
>Notify Secretary Morgan
For diplomacy points.
>>
>>1923605
>>Notify the Valen embassy
>>
>>1923605
>Notify the Valen embassy
>Notify Secretary Morgan
To show we are at least appeased with the offering and get our stories straight.
>Other: Research the crystals on P2.
>>
>>1923605
>Notify the Valen embassy
>Notify Secretary Morgan
Its polite,the Valen seem like they dont want to piss us off and know they have plenty to gain form us, and Morgan will likely have no problem with this.
>>
>>1923605
>Notify the Valen embassy
>Notify Secretary Morgan
Send a small fleet.
>>
>>1923605

Explain to the Union that we're sending a small force to ensure that nothing remains that could be dangerous.

Tell the Valen that we're considering their offer about the Skyl homeworld, and strongly imply that them not causing a fuss about this will make us happier with them.

Also, same person as >>1923625
>>
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>>1923556
>"Now wait, are you sure this is safe?" Anderson says. "I mean, what if-"
>"Launch!" Lyle shouts, and he brings his heel down hard on a button on the dashboard.
God, I love Lyle.
>>
Just a note, we should let Elizabeth do something outside of the hive. I get the feeling that she might be getting a bit of Cabin Fever.
>>
>>1923671
Have her go to the Garden and help with civilizing the Ralighans.
>>
>>1923671
I can't really think of anything we'd need her to do and she's heavily modified herself to the point of looking quite monstrous.
>>
Also I think everybody has forgotten the farms that were being built on the Garden still haven't been built yet even though it has been a month.
>>
>>1923682
Pretty sure we can give her some cosmetic mods and temporarily remove the more "Queen Bitch of the Universe" augments
>>
>>1923654
Agreed. We need to talk with the Valen about trade and stuff too. They probably think (with good reason) that we're going to be taking everything they've invested by force. If we tell them about our plans to build a station and free trade zone near the Skyl Homeworld they'll likely be much more receptive to working with us in the future. And they'll be much less likely to do something rash like destroy the gate near Tannhauser.
>>
>>1923605
>Notify the Valen embassy
>Notify Secretary Morgan
>>
>>1923682
It's not a matter of us necessarily requiring her to do anything, it's more getting our shut-in daughter out of the house for a little while. I'll admit I still want the humans to see her, but that's not necessarily related to getting her out of the house.
>>
>>1923671
>>1923682

We could have Elizabeth meet with her mad-scientist buddies at that super-science institute. Palmer, Seiner, and Elizabeth herself have proved that when Union scientists work for the Hive the results can be incredibly potent. She might know other trans-humanists who would be susceptible to recruitment.
>>
>>1923701
Hell bringing up the existence of the Rip drive will make them desperate for a deal.
>>
>>1923682
She would be pretty popular with the Raligah. Also the greenery will be a good change of sights. But i guess she is to much of a NEET to leave the hive. More so since she doesn't sleep and is sinking herself in more and more work with all the research the Hive is doing.
>>
>>1923711
Oh they're desperate for a deal already, they just might think a deal is impossible given how heavy-handed we've been so far. A lighter touch is necessary in order for the Valen to start thinking there's any chance whatsoever they could profit from agreements with the Hive.

Once them smell money, though, we will be flooded with Valen begging to work with us.
>>
>>1923717
Generally the Hive gives a pretty good deal for humans that join. A loving family, a clear cut Evil enemy, meaningful work and purpose in life.
>>
>>1923717
We need to get her outside more. A static environment is not conducive with dynamic thinking. She joined us because she thought it was the most logical way to help humans, so lets make sure she at least interacts with them.
>>
>>1923710
I have to admit I like the idea of a hive skunkworks made up of select humans. Of course Elizabeth would be in charge as opposed to how things used to be. I can't imagine she wouldn't enjoy a little bit of karmic payback.
>>
>>1923710
>>1923741

Scientists from Mentan have proven extremely helpful when working for the hive and extremely dangerous when working with the Void (as in Nowhere). Sending Elizabeth on a short mission to keep an eye on the place and recruit geniuses to work for us is a good idea. Not only will it improve our assets, it also increases the chance we'll discover any psi/Void research they could be secretly conducting.

If the Seiner approach can be repeated we might even consider uplifting some of these recruits...
>>
>>1923764

Actually I really like this. Maybe not Elizabeth, due to her obvious augmentations, but a small group of clones or a hive to keep tabs on the place. Maybe drop a few instances of Thesus into the network so they can keep tabs of dangerous research.
>>
>>1923764
Huh that could certainly work.
Really even temporarily parasiting them to make research templates we can copy into a clone so the original researcher doesn't go missing could work.
>>
>>1923777
But the entire point of the idea was to give Elizabeth something to do outside...
>>
>>1923777
>>1923764

Lyle should be dropping off Decker at Mentan soon to look through archives, right? Decker could put out some preliminary feelers while he's there
>>
>>1923777
Really, just keeping an eye on Union research in general is a good idea. The only reason that that planet is significant is because it seems like the Ivy League of planets, so of course people from there would be in on Project SATAN GATE.
>>
>>1923764
I didn't even think of that but yeah, we definitely need more researchers (or at least their brain patterns) to take advantage of the new tech we unlocked. Elizabeth's the best person to find intelligent and capable researchers to join the project.

>>1923790
Decker can definitely help scope out the area and provide some tips on how Liz can make her pitch the most effective.
>>
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>>1923605

>Notify both

Lee's mind is quickly filled with your thoughts. He waves off your new squatters and returns to his office and begins making calls.

Elsewhere, in the complex tunnels of Path's sewers, your clones open the doors to the van as others are quickly rushed out by medics. Kent stands nearby with a smile on his face.

"Congratulations!" He says. "The information you got is-" Your clone quickly moves up to him and with a single punch to the jaw sends him to the floor. The guards around him quickly snap up their weapons in response, but Kent waives them away. He laughs, thought it's hard to hear through his coughing as he spits up a small pool of blood. He rolls his tongue around in his mouth as if looking for something, and quickly spits out a tooth.

"I suppose I earned that." He says, his smile returning as the guards help him back up. "Still, for your assistance, and your sacrifice, I'll give you everything we received from the servers. This was only because of you, and now, with all the evidence gone, nobody can pin the blame on us, or you." His grin widens, exposing the bleeding gap where a tooth was a moment ago. "At least, not without making themselves look entirely incompetent and confirming any information we may leak all at the same time. So long as they maintain it was a a reactor accident the both of us can stay in the clear, at least publicly. The down side is the information we got won't be very useful as blackmail so long as they stick to the official story. We'd only be convincing to people as crazy as we are, but I think you'll find other uses for what was on that server." He hands your clone a small data drive, and quickly shakes your clone's hand in the same motion. He holds on, pulling lightly on your agent's arm.

"Don't mistake this as your payment though." He says. "I'm an honorable man. I owe you a favor. I'll have my IT guys get you a Q-channel, you can contact me any time." He lets go, and his stance shifts quickly back to his cane. "I expect you will want to be leaving soon, but sadly, it seems things are only getting more chaotic on the surface. In fact, we may need to be leaving ourselves."

>Have your clones move for extraction and find a way off world
>Have your clones return to your hidden hive to alter their faces and serve as assets for covert activity
>Other

Your clone grips the data drive as he examines it, and tosses it to your tech as a set of taidarens quickly rush over with a small box. They smell of burnt hair and rubber, and clipped wires and salvaged circuits hang from their bodies almost like jewelry. Your tech takes the small Q-channel, now you just need to get it to a Q-comm.

>Have your local hive smuggle it to the Expanse
>Have your local hive steal a Q-comm and set it up locally
>Other

>>1923717
>Greenery
Technically it's blue, but I can never find good scenery pics with blue vegetation so it's sorta just turned green over time.
>>
Okay so we need a cool name for this ultra-secret team. How about:

The ANT Farm. You can even make it an acronym. Advanced Neuroscience & Technology.
>>
>>1923833
Don't we have those quantum teleporter things?
>>
>>1923849
Nice try but you can't do that with Quantum Keys since that would destroy the connection.
>>
>>1923833
>Have your clones return to your hidden hive to alter their faces and serve as assets for covert activity
Ideally they'd be recycled and a new randomized DNA was implanted with the memories.

>Have your local hive smuggle it to the Expanse
>>
>>1923833
>>Have your clones return to your hidden hive to alter their faces and serve as assets for covert activity
OQ creep is still on the planet, we should keep some boots on the ground there.

>Have your local hive smuggle it to the Expanse

>>1923854
Could we use quantum entanglement to configure the thread to connect to a different relay, perhaps?
>>
>>1923833

Have the clones return to the hidden hive.
If we need more we can make more.

Also, offer the hive's assistance in smuggling these people off world, have them owe us a few favours.

Finally, have the local hive purchase a Q-Comm, we should have a nice amount of money still, and not much to do with it.
>>
>>1923833
>>Have your clones return to your hidden hive to alter their faces and serve as assets for covert activity

>>Have your local hive smuggle it to the Expanse

Also, we did have flies tracking that Smith's groundward trajectory right?
>>
>>1923833
>Have your clones return to your hidden hive to alter their faces and serve as assets for covert activity

>Have your local hive steal a Q-comm and set it up locally

>Raligah is actually blue

Oh okay then Still much better then the biring fleshy walls of the hive. Maybe we cab do the hologram thing and cgange the enviroment put a sceanery here and there so she gets more confortable?
>>
>>1923833
>>Other
Shall we have some flies tail Kent and his group?
>>
>>1923833
>Have your local hive smuggle it to the Expanse
Don't we have a corvette on the planet now to extract the Cluster from the lab? How hard would it be to get this drive to the ship? Obviously it's a non-starter if the lab is on the other side of the planet or something.

>Other
Warn Kent that the Union will likely be moving through the underground in force very shortly to deal with a threat unrelated to himself and that he should evacuate to avoid being in the crossfire.
>>
>>1923870
We should.
>>
>>1923869
>using Lyle's account to pay for things on Path
>using Captain Spreckels, known contractor for the hive, to pay for things on Path
>using the tiny amount of credit chips as physical cash, which aren't actually on Path and wouldn't be enough

There is no sane way of legitimate payment, genius.
>>
>>1923869
Backing this. We should offer to get them off world.
We should buy a Q-com or get Theseus to make one for us. Stealing one is completely unnecessary.

>>1923879
Also backing this. We need to warn Kent that the Union is coming. His favor is worthless if he's a dead man.
>>
>>1923833
>Have your clones return to your hidden hive to alter their faces and serve as assets for covert activity
>Have your local hive steal a Q-comm and set it up locally
>>
>>1923893

Why not use Lyle's account? We've done it before to get a Q-Comm delivered to deep space.

Or set up new accounts for each clone, route payments through proxy after proxy...
>>
>>1923833

Forgot to add to: >>1923879
>>Have your clones return to your hidden hive to alter their faces and serve as assets for covert activity
>>
>>1923897

Exactly, which comes into helping them get off world. Doesn't matter if he's infinitely indebted to us if he's dead...
>>
>>1923901
To deep space is the key phrase. The Union's bribes for leads on his location will quite possibly be high enough that any delivery address on Path will be conveniently leaked.

You can't even set up new accounts without being at the actual Valen banks, and if you could you'd again be creating leakable suspicious money trails.
>>
>>1923879
Kent is already evacuating. There's no need to tip that hand.
>>
Also we'll need to get the Suit to the hive for research.
>>
>>1923928
Is the sewer hive advanced enough to reverse engineer it?
>>
>>1923920
He says "we may need to leave"
There's a big difference between that and "The Union will be sending their entire army into the sewers so if you don't get out you're fucked"

Kent seems connected enough that he'll know the reason the Union is going into the sewers is due to hive advice. If we don't warn him it could reflect badly on us if he later finds out we knew.
>>
>>1923833
>I think you'll find other uses for what was on that server."

There better be Star Hound Project data on there.
>>
>>1923952
I don't think so. Though we do have to remove Cluster and the BQ's creep on the planet.
>>
>>1923952
No is going to be my guess simply because dedicated research facilities take up resources and space that wouldn't be necessary for the function of an infiltration nest.
>>
>>1923321
>The media only focus in on something like this when they've been given a script. They know what is about to happen, and the government wants to give it the proper context.

Is this new redpilling gained from reading MorganLeaks offscreen or did we know this already somehow.
>>
>>1924006
Probably not. Apparently Lee already knew quite a bit of the general corrupyion going on simply by browsing the web.
>>
>>1923833
>Have your clones return to your hidden hive to alter their faces and serve as assets for covert activity
>Have your local hive smuggle it to the Expanse

"Now, in the meantime, you may want to find a place to hide with that suit of yours." Kent says. "I know a few ways to get out of the city, but routes off world will be more difficult to come by, at least for something so big. Unless we try something a little risky."

"Like what?" Your clone asks.

"Well, Path is a major shipyard for the military. We have almost a quarter of the active peacetime fleet built and maintained from here. All those ships need supplies, and now that we're at war, a lot of those supply ships are being re-rigged into combat ships."

"And your point is?" Kent gives a sly smile as he continues.

"My point is, a lot of private cargo ships are getting military contracts. They're lowering their hiring standards to make more freighters available to help in the war effort. That means I may be able to get on the line with a trader I know and see if he can give us a lift. The only way to get off world right now would be in a ship with a military designation, and the only way to get that would be to get a shipping contract to deliver military equipment. Like I said, risky, but possible. I may be using this myself to evacuate of things get too hairy, bringing you along with that suit won't be too much trouble, or I can just ship the suit to wherever you want it."

>Agree to have Kent smuggle your clone brawler and suit into the Expanse
>Agree to have Kent smuggle the gravity suit into the Expanse
>Refuse
>Other

>>1923871
Well damn, I found my new Raligha image. Thanks!
>>
>>1924051
QD, how successful would an attempt to reverse engineer the suit in our hidden hive be, or could teleport the vital components to a bigger hive?
>>
>>1924051
>Refuse
We can handle the transportation ourselves.
>>
>>1924051
>Refuse

Thank you for the offer, but, no thank you.
>>
Maybe we could have a large drone with a honeypot adaption swallow it.
>>
>>1924066
Strictly speaking, we can lay a pod in the sewer hive, carry it somewhere and have it blink away into deep space.

Though there's some increased risk of a misaimed blink while inside a gravity well, and I dunno how noticeable the burst of radiation will be.
>>
>>1924077
>I dunno how noticeable the burst of radiation will be.
Very. It'll cause a lot of damage too but we don't need a pod for this. Our ships are going to land soon.
>>
>>1924077
With ion engines Pods and shuttles can leave orbit so it'd just have to stay stealthed

Or at least I think this plan would work. Not sure if our Path Hive is built up enough yet to build small craft like that.

We could also ask Theseus if he has a way to smuggle off-world but it'd might end up being something like Kent's plan
>>
>>1924077
We don't need to spawn the shuttle or pod here. Cloaking and a slow insertion into the atmosphere to not cause a massive fireball from the friction would be enough. Back when we only had ion thrusters it wouldn't have been feasible but thanks to current thruster tech there shouldn't be a problem.
>>
>>1924077
>Strictly speaking, we can lay a pod in the sewer hive
I don't think we can, building FTL capable craft requires a construction pylon. We'd have to drop it in from orbit, which is risky, but arguably not as much as getting Kent to smuggle us on a Union military ship.
>>
>>1924086
Anything going onto our ships is going to receive massive scrutiny. Openly taking a delivery crate from some random Pathians? Are we going to announce we're taking tribute?

>>1924097
You didn't read the early threads then, before the pylon was built.
>>
>>1924097
We can build them, it just takes longer to put together I think
>>
>>1924051

>Agree to have Kent smuggle your clone brawler and suit into the Expanse
>>
>>1924051
>>Agree to have Kent smuggle your clone brawler and suit into the Expanse
We need to get it off-planet ASAP and I don't think handing it off to our corvette will be doable
>>
>>1924103
No that's not what I'm saying. We could strip the suit down to the deflector's bare components and have a drone swallow it.
>>
>>1924051
>>Agree to have Kent smuggle your clone brawler and suit into the Expanse

This is our chance to parasite Kent/offer him new legs. Let's not pass the opportunity to get more than a mere "favor" out of him.
>>
>>1924051
>>Agree to have Kent smuggle your clone brawler and suit into the Expanse
On the plus side this lets us keep an eye on Kent a little longer.

Odds on him evacuating to the Expanse specifically to take us up on getting some hive augs?
>>
>>1924051
>>Agree to have Kent smuggle your clone brawler and suit into the Expanse
>>
>>1924051
>Refuse
>>
>>1924114
That just shifts the problem to somehow making nobody notice a large fat bottomed drone wandering far away from the secret lab we're supposed to go to, into some alleyway or sewer to rendesvous with the clone agents without anyone noticing the meeting.
>>
Hey QD:
Would a stealth pod with grav foils be capable of stealthy atmospheric transit?
>>
>>1924130
We have to deal with the creep you know.
>>
>>1924139
We could do that with a small army of Taidaren clones sweeping the sewers with flamethrowers. It may be better to remove it without the humans ever knowing the infection was there, because if they know then they'll keep this odious military lockdown on much longer and possibly look deep enough to find the sewer hive.
>>
>>1924155
Can you imagine the carnage we could inflict on Gemini if we had every Taidaren with a parasite cocoon themselves into Chimera?

A tide of chirping horror emerging from the sewers
>>
>>1924155
Yeah that totally isn't suspicious.
>>
>>1924171
Oh god that is beautifully amazing...
>>
>>1924155
Um, our Taidaren Sewer army is on Gemini not on Path. A mass exodus of Taidarens from the capital to Path would definitely be noticed.

Besides, the OQ's creep is especially difficult to get out once it takes root and it could be anywhere on the planet. It needs a real military response either from us or the Union. We can't handle this covertly.
>>
>>1924051
>>Refuse
>>
>>1924051
>Agree to have Kent smuggle your clone brawler and suit into the Expanse

"And you think that would work?" Your clone asks.

"As soon as we're out of orbit we can go anywhere we want." Kent says. "No real way to track a warp drive beyond guessing at stars along its trajectory. A quick jump into deep space and we'll be home free."

"But you said it was risky." Your clone says. Kent shrugs.

"Yes, well we are at risk of inspections. Still, I tend to know smugglers, and they are used to those kinds of things. I'm confident enough to risk my own life to the plan, so you know it's at least the best one we have."

"Alright then, let's do it." Your clone says. "But if you try anything funny, I swear I'll use this thing to kill us all." Kent just points at your clone within the suit.

"I like your stuff." He says. "Dedication, professionalism, raw skill. Your boss should be proud to have you." Several clones give a subtle nod of approval.

cont.
>>
>>1924115
I don't even want to give him new legs after the stunt he pulled. He doesn't deserve them.
>>
>>1924194
What I don't get is why aren't we self-destructing the hive on Path yet? It's way too likely to be found.
>>
>>1924177
Compared to openly sending drones down there. No one would be scrutinizing the sewers in the scenario where no one is given a reason to look down there where the low lifes of society dwell.

>>1924194
I said 'clones'. Those trivially mass produced things that can be recycled when no longer needed.

Maybe before we needed a bigger response, but now we just need Seiner to locate all the spots the spores have landed for us and send small stealthy strike teams for the ones outside of New Tokyo.
>>
>>1924200
Agreed. He's on a shitlist now and we hardly need him for our operations.
Really I'm rather opposed to a non-parasited person being this certain of hive influence on an union world.
>>
>>1924200
And Lyle didn't have limbs either but as soon as you read Kent's tragic backstory through his spine he'll be a new favorite uppity son in no time.
>>
>>1924205
You seriously underestimate how difficult it is to get of this shit and it's going to be found soon. It's not like we can't destroy the hive and build a new one after everything blows over.
>>
>>1924200
At the time he pulled his stunt I was all for killing him. Things could have gone much worse than they did and ordinarily he'd be a dead man already. But Kent's too useful to just kill. Besides, wouldn't it be beautifully ironic for Kent to lose his free will to an alien Empire after fighting all his life for human independence?


>>1924204
Agreed. We need to at least get out of the sewers given the Union army will be sweeping it looking for traces of Hive creep.
>>
>>1924226
Lyle never stabbed us in the back like Kent did. He was entirely open and honest in his efforts to blow up our shit.
>>
>>1924198
>Several clones give a subtle nod of approval.

Oh our kids are so cute.
>>
>>1924205
The entire planet is on military lockdown after the OQ attack. A sudden army of Taidarens armed with obviously Hive flamethrowera (because we don't have time to use the slow human process) would be detected almost immediately. They'd also need to cover the entire planet to ensure we found everything.

I'm sorry, but your plan is terrible.
>>
>>1924235
We haven't even gotten to the point where the people in the lab have discovered what the spores do.
>>
>>1924258
That's true, but that's also something that we need to handle today. If we don't warn the Union soon they'll either find the creep and assume it's ours or the OQ will get an even more firmly established base she can use for a later invasion of Path.
>>
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>>1924198
The guards look nervously at your speaker, glancing quickly to its guard of heavy warriors. Your drones pass them by down the hall. The lab is in tatters everywhere you look, either signs of gunfire or blood splatter dripping from the walls. The human guards nervously follow in, placing a quick defensive perimeter at the entrance.

You see Palmer standing near the front of the lab's common area as you enter, and he reaches for your speaker's claw before awkwardly thinking otherwise, then holding his hand out and shaking your speaker's claw anyways.

"Hello! I must say it is a pleasure to meet you, despite the, uh, situation." He says. "In fact this is a little embarrassing but the whole reason we're in this situation is because of you." He says, and then a look of momentary horror flashes across his face. "Oh, I mean, that's not blaming you, I mean... This lab's goal was to study the hive samples we've found. Most of it fell from orbit, but a few were found in the Expanse... those turned out to not actually be Hive, or dead, and thus the problem."

"You meddle in things that are beyond you." Your speaker says. Palmer holds up his hands as he takes a quick step back as your speaker leans in.

"Yes well, meddling is how we learn, isn't it? I'm sure the Hive had to meddle a bit to get where it is today. Maybe if you told us how to meddle more safely we-"

"This speaker is here to recover the being that is attacking you." You say. Palmer nods and is about to say something else when he's knocked aside as Norris shoots him an angry glare.

"I am commander Norris." He says simply. "The sooner you get this thing out of here the sooner I can shut this place down, burn everything here, and we all get home, so, after you." He gestures to the common area. "We've suffered extensive casualties already. I'd appreciate if you could deal with this quickly."

>Speak with Norris
>Speak with Palmer
>Other (Write in)
>>
>>1924293
>Speak with Norris
>Speak with Palmer
Warn them about the danger of the Enemy Hive debris/creep/spores and out (confirmed) suspicions that it's likely infested parts of Path already
>>
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>>1924293
>>1924293
>"Yes well, meddling is how we learn, isn't it? I'm sure the Hive had to meddle a bit to get where it is today.
Not wrong.
>>
>>1924293
>Speak with Norris

Where was the last place that he was seen?

>Speak with Palmer

" You spoke of hive debrids. Did one of those were [describe how a spore pod is]"
then if they say no let our speaker twitch his antennae and make the warrior drones relax their posture a bit. Theb after it let the speaker simply say. "Good if there was one the humans would need to evacuate the planet and do as the Norris human said."
>>
>>1924293
>>Speak with Palmer
You have recovered samples of enemy hive biology?

It must all be incinerated immediately. The Norris is wise. That is not dead which can eternal lie in wait, etc., etc.

...Should we try a subtle job offer saying, if you wish to meddle in things, go seek citizenship in the Hive? If he goes a quick dip in a pod will show all his past projects.
>>
>>1924293
Speak with Palmer.

"We are not against learning. But when the young learn, adult supervision is good yes? This is a human thing? Perhaps you can learn with supervision."

I'd be interested in recruiting Palmer. He must be a damn good scientist to be put on this project, and Elizabeth might not be against getting an assistant.

Also, advise Norris to keep the army out of the sewers so that we can deploy a small task force of drones with supervision to burn out the OQ's creep.
>>
>>1924293
>Other (Write in)
Start scanning for Cluster mimicking humans and pull them out of the group.
>>
>>1924293
>Speak with Norris
Plasma works better than fire.
>Speak with Palmer
Poking a mine while someone has told them they're in a minefield is not conducive to survival.
>>
>>1924325
This too. With a speaker there, we should be pretty easily able to find those that have no psionic presence.
>>
>>1924293
>Speak with Palmer
Ask to see the samples of enemy craft that were recovered. When we see them "gasp" (or insect equivalent) in shock and warn them about the danger of OQ Debris.

>Speak with Norris
Ask for a rundown of what happened. Remember, we technically only know what the council told us. Congratulate him for being the only security chief to have survived attempting to experiment on TWO ancient precursor species (since he was in charge of security at the lab we wrecked to get Seiner way back when).
>>
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>>1924293
>>Speak with Palmer
"Every artifact and example of alien biology you bring from the Expanse is a part or fragment of a greater consciousness. By meddling with those artifacts you draw the ire and attention of beings far beyond your comprehension. Don't do it."
>>
>>1924325
>>1924342
We should include this too. A speaker with a moderate relay should easily be able to detect a lack of psionic presence. Although... we may want to scan each of the scientists individually. If a few Cluster cells are stowed away on/inside some random tech they'd still scan as sending out psionic signals even if the Cluster could take over them later.

We need to be very careful to not insult the Cluster, though.
>>
>>1924342
>Congratulate him for being the only security chief to have survived attempting to experiment on TWO ancient precursor species (since he was in charge of security at the lab we wrecked to get Seiner way back when).
Why the fuck would we publicly acknowledge that we have knowledge of that place?
>>1924345
And that's a horrible idea as well. Yes they know something is up but that's just stupidly confirming something we don't need to confirm.
>>
>>1924354
>>1924339
Don't forget we have to send Cluster home.
>>
>>1924342
>Congratulate him for being the only security chief to have survived attempting to experiment on TWO ancient precursor species
Are you trying to encourage them anon? I thought that was exactly what we were trying to avoid.

And it's not like they were ever actually testing actual hive drones here either. And as everybody knows the hive wasn't involved in this incident in any shape or form until now.
>>
>>1924364
I believe they know it is a being of the Cluster. Although they don't know WHAT the Cluster is, or how it's biology works...

>>1924365
Yes, definitely. But to do that we'll need to find them first :p
>>
>>1924364
>Why the fuck would we publicly acknowledge that we have knowledge of that place?
It's well known that the hive has mysterious ways of gathering highly accurate intelligence. We're just playing into what the Union already knows. Disclosing this would in no way hurt us.

As for why we should say it... Mostly for the cheekiness factor.

>>1924374
>Are you trying to encourage them anon?
Not at all. It was mostly intended to be chastisement/cheekiness as well as implying that we know far more than we let on and to in fact dissuade further research.

If everyone's solidly opposed to the Queen being cheeky again for a change, though, feel free to ignore my suggestion.
>>
>>1924364
We've already announced on prime time television that they've been messing with technology eons ahead of their own, nothing will inspire them to keep messing with the void beyond that.

Telling them that those artifacts they're handling are self aware and more likely than not malevolent would do more to dissuade them. Especially since we're talking to a scientist who actually directly contacted TWO of those entities.
>>
>>1924383
It's not about not being cheeky it's about being a moron that lets slip the level of information we have. Asking Theseus if he's found anything interesting after he's gone full autist describing basic hive biology is one thing while revealing we know about a secret facility that was bombed from orbit and then covered up is another.
>>
>>1924383
Well when you put it like that, I can't really say no to it, we haven't got our cheeky fix in a good long while. I think I'll support this >>1924342
>>
>>1924397
How about no.
Captcha: Biglie portsmouth
I wonder what that means
>>
>>1924393
>It's not about not being cheeky it's about being a moron that lets slip the level of information we have.
What you have to keep in mind is that we've already leaked the biggest bombshell, and that Palmer directly witnessed much of the history of the cluster and hive. He knows both us and cluster are gestalt minds that have existed for eons and had fleets numbering in the billions once, and has informed the security council of this fact.

Telling them why they should stop messing with artifacts isn't actually telling them anything they don't know, and might help actually persuade them to stop. Just telling a human not do something without a reason is often the fastest way to get him to do it.
>>
>>1924293
"The humans have taken samples of hive biology?" Your drone chirps. "The Norris is wise, it must all be burned. It is beyond you and could bring danger. You say these things fell from orbit, was one an oblong structure sprouting tendrils?"

"I...uh, I don't know." Palmer says. "I don't think so. We've just been finding chunks of starship debris."

"That is good." Your drone replies. "Otherwise this would would require cleansing from orbit. The infestation may still have shallow roots and can be removed without damage."

"Infestation? You mean these things are hive tech?" Norris asks.

"No, these are separate risks. The humans found multiple dangerous things. We have warned you of the Expanse. You will show us the debris that was recovered."

"I would prefer if you got rid of these creatures first." Norris says.

"Very well, human. Have all humans brought here." Your drone replies. He taps something into his datapad, and then shouts back at the common area in some military jargon that is almost entirely incomprehensible, and the humans quickly shuffle into the room, looking at your drones nervously. Your speaker makes a show of sniffing the air and shipping its antennae at each of them before returning to Norris and Palmer and doing the same to them.

"All humans here are humans." You say.

"Good to hear, but what about the things still out there." Norris says. Your flies detect several odd sounds emanating from the vents.

>Have your flies move in to attack and have them connect to you for mental communication
>Have your speaker verbally demand they make contact with you
>Other (write in)
>>
>>1924420
>Have your speaker verbally demand they make contact with you

Make it official to the humans while we are here.
>>
>>1924420
>Have your speaker verbally demand they make contact with you
>>
>>1924420
>>Have your flies move in to attack and have them connect to you for mental communication
The preferred form of communication for body warping alien horror.
>>
>>1924420
>Have your flies move in to attack and have them connect to you for mental communication
>Have your speaker verbally demand they make contact with you
Why not both? We need to appear to have complete control over the situation and both will help with that
>>
>>1924420
>Have your flies move in to attack and have them connect to you for mental communication
>>
>>1924420

Verbal demand. In a side room where humans may enter, but they may not bring weapons. Wouldn't do to have the gung-ho commander ruin this with a badly timed attempt at revenge.
>>
>>1924420
>>Have your flies move in to attack and have them connect to you for mental communication
We can pretend to shout afterwards if we want.
>>
>>1924420
>>Have your speaker verbally demand they make contact with you

Just have our speaker start speaking. It's what he was built for. If they for some reason try to attack the speaker use telekinesis to stop them.
We can speak in a non-human language they'd know right?

Also, if we send out flies in a heavily monitored lab we'll be displaying our ability to use flies openly. Let's not reveal that yet.
>>
>>1924441
>>1924451
>>1924457
>>1924473

Why use flies instead of standard warriors to make forced contact? All we'd end up doing differently by using flies is revealing the secret of our flies to the Union
>>
>>1924481
because
1. the flies are already in the vents and
2. the warriors don't fit in the vents the Cluster is hiding in.
>>
>>1924484
>1. the flies are already in the vent
If they were in the vents already, they wouldn't say 'sounds emanating from the vents'.

They are in the lab already anyway though, somehow.
>>
>>1924475
>We can speak in a non-human language they'd know right?

Maybe we use the Bird/snake aliens language? I forget their name.
>>
>>1924481
They don't have to see them. As far as they know we might as well be contacting the cluster through the same means our drones communicate.
>>
>>1924503
They can easily conceal themselves along the carapace of your drones, and they have become quite effective at hiding, so anyplace where your drones are, a fly can usually find its way inside with it.
>>
>>1924503
Huh you're correct. For some reason I was under the impression we had flies come with Gilliam.
>>
>>1924420
>Have your speaker verbally demand they make contact with you
Retracting >>1924457 vote because of retardation.
>>
Question: how simple/small can we make the drives for inter stella travel?

Because if we can make them small enough we could use them as the propulsion system for smart mines. mentally dead and otherwise resembling rocks, plant them out and watch them come alive and nuke obsidian ships.
>>
>>1924540
That's what we're already doing with our Space Pods only they have the benefit of stealth cloaks
>>
>>1924550
Its been a while since ive tried to go into the wiki stuff so i always forget what we have.
>>
>>1924527
That was to a different planet. Of course they didn't come in to the insanely paranoid stringent security scanned lab.
>>
>>1924540
Smart mines means something else.
>>
>>1924420
Your speaker chirps loudly as it examines the area.
"This speaker will inform it we are here." It says, and walks out into the hall. Your warriors keep watch over the humans to make sure they don't become unruly while your speaker follows the strange sounds. You can hear it, ever so slightly, a multitude of heartbeats and a stuttering breath somewhere beyond the ceiling. Your speaker examines the paneling, several bolts quickly rotating out of place with a burst of telekinesis, and the panel drops to the floor. A shape shifts in the shadow, moving deeper into the vent with a soft growl.

"Humans have involved themselves in the events of the Schism. Harming them is a violation of our treaty." Your drone chirps. "Though their involvements are often against our advisement..." You add. "The Humans disturbed the Cluster's location against our warning. We we return all clusters here to that resting place." There is another shifting within, and several legs emerge. One reaches out for your drone, and you stop it before it hit, and your speaker clasps it with its own claw for a moment, long enough for a small spine to puncture through the soft flexible chitin, and it recoils back at the result.

The other legs emerge, and slowly drag a large spider out from within the vents. It drags some manner of organ behind it, almost like an egg sac. You see it is hollow, and as it contracts, a number of chunks of flesh emerge, stringing themselves together as the flesh folds and combines until you see what looks like a human with a nondescript face emerge. The flesh and bone structure of the head shifts into an exact replica of Gilliam, and its spine links to the back of the spider before shifting forward like some manner of centaur.

"You have learned to use sound." It says. "How inconvenient and slow. They make thoughts murky and unclear, but we have no choice but to use it ourselves at times." The spider creature leans back, its mouth opening wide as it lets out an inhuman scream that echos through the halls for far longer than you would expect its lungs to last, if it is using lungs. As it grows silent, you hear it echo back, the bellowing howl permeating every inch of the facility as you hear it in the distance through every vent and maintenance tunnel.

"We are reforming. We accept your claim to these single minds. We shall join with the Cluster and assure our treaty is upheld. Bring us to ourselves, and make us whole."

>Agree
>Speak to the Cluster (write in)
>Other
>>
>>1924614
>Agree

Also damn, that's creepy as fuck.
We should try and keep these out of site of the people. Let the officer and the higher up scientists see, but the rank and file don't need that scary shit tainting their minds.
>>
>>1924614
>Agree
>Ask once outside of the humans hearing range if they have anything to buy from or what the plan is once they return.
>>
I find myself thinking that, if the Cluster needs to get fresh DNA to renew itself, we should point it towards the Scavs.
>>
>>1924614

>Agree
>Let the speaker speak . Maybe give the cluster some tips about using vocals.
>>
>>1924627
I was thinking the same anon. At least the pheromone communication the scav have would make the cluster very interested.
>>
>Bring us to ourselves, and make us whole."


That dead space vibes
>>
>>1924614
>Agree
>>
>>1924614
>Agree

>>1924627
>>1924634
Seconding.

This has the additional benefit of letting us know if the Cluster knows anything about any Scavenger connection to the War.
>>
>>1924627
I think they were just referring to natural degradation of the actual molecules.
>>
I guess once people see the cluster the idea of replicant or that the hive can create human clones isn't that far fetched.
>>
>>1924614
>Speak to the Cluster

"We are aware of another spacefaring species of single minds that we believe to be neutral in the Schism, and which the Cluster may harvest without harm to the treaty. They also have some unique traits you might find valuable."
>>
>>1924614
>Agree

>Speak to the Cluster (write in)
Apologize for the actions of our human "subjects." Had we know the Cluster was present on Djin we never would have permitted the humans to soil the planet with their presence nor allow the indignity you suffered.
>>
>>1924627
We can still sell our current DNA and data on the Scavs to him.

Odds are a cluster created them a million years ago anyway.
>>
>>1924674
Sell implies trade. The Cluster has to remain neutral.

They've scavenged battlefields, but I think trade would cross the line.
>>
>>1924614
"This speaker is very good at speaking. It is used for speaking to species that can only speak. It can help you with speaking!" Your drone chirps. A sudden rumbling of noise can be heard all around, quickly getting closer and much louder.

"The words of the smaller races do not interest us. We will observe humanity with your blessing, but we see no function to communication."

Your warriors watch as several humans begin screaming in sudden panic. Several of them shoot their firearms at something, and some manner of flying creature passes them as they dive away. You catch a closer look. It is a human finger that has sprouted wings like an insect, and it quickly passes your warriors and moves down the hall. With a quick wet slapping sound it impacts the larger creature, and the humanoid figure atop it plucks it off the mass, and sticks it as a sixth finger onto its own hand. It flexes them, testing its new digit as they move with the same function as a human hand.

"We have spoken before." It says. "We remember now. We will send this understanding to the rest of us." One of the panels not far from you drops to the floor, and a large panther like creature trailing blade covered tendrils from its nape rushes forward, diving at the spider. The two merge, and the each open, their organs twisting and connecting to one another as they take on some other shape, its body rotating through organs and folding and unfolding them to the needed surface as muscles detach and reattach, sliding each individual component into place. Another creature emerges from the air vent along the floor, this one like a meter long centipede. It crawls op the creature's back and each segment detaches, sliding into the larger mass as each segment is divided into several organs that vanish within its larger hulk.

cont.
>>
>>1924677
He's certainly been busy.
>>
>>1924677
>"We have spoken before." It says. "We remember now. We will send this understanding to the rest of us."

If it only just received the messenger finger with those memories, what prompted it to pick Gilliam's face just now?
>>
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>>1924677
The organs recombine, and slowly the mound of flesh takes on a new shape. Several dozen human eyes emerge from the mixture of flesh as the humanoid figure disassembles itself, its eyes emerging like insects sprouting from a burrow. They all form along a massive oblong head as the muscle tissue of several human arms connects beneath it, holding the mass aloft from the rest of the body. Leathery skin mixed with what is clearly human tissue with a range of skin tones forms together like a quilt as it stands to its full eight, and a patch of flesh parts as a skeletal jaw made of exposed bone and muscle pushes itself out to the surface, and the flesh contort until they form the same of a set of human lips pulled tightly around the bone of the jaw. The strain lessens as you hear flesh shift and sputter, and tendons anchor themselves into place.

"We may leave." It says. "We of this place are now one."

>Speak with the cluster before leaving
>Bring the cluster to Djin immediately
>Send the cluster home, but have your speaker stay to warn of the creep infestation
>Other
>>
>>1924695


>Send the cluster home, but have your speaker stay to warn of the creep infestation
>>
>>1924695
>Send the cluster home, but have your speaker stay to warn of the creep infestation

Probably say a few more things here too.
>>
>>1924695
>Send the cluster home, but have your speaker stay to warn of the creep infestation
We've got a in now since we "know" they have hive tech.
>>
>>1924695
>Send the cluster home, but have your speaker stay to warn of the creep infestation

Oh god can we just give hima drone so he can have some descent estructure the visage if all this smashed stuff he has...urgh!!
>>
>>1924695
>Send the cluster home, but have your speaker stay to warn of the creep infestation

Also seriously, keep the cluster out of sight as much as possible. Those humans are going to freak the fuck out
>>
>>1924695
>>Send the cluster home, but have your speaker stay to warn of the creep infestation
>>
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>>1924712
That's a feature, not a bug.

Humans always freaking out about things that are clearly not threatening or trying to kill them.
>>
>>1924695
>Send the cluster home, but have your speaker stay to warn of the creep infestation
>Tell the Cluster they are to remain on Djinn and abide the treaty- sleep and wait out the war or trade with us if they wish. However, they are forbidden from infiltrating/infecting humanity.
>>
>>1924715
Kinda mom's fault since her side effect of her tempering to the humans genetic, turned then less empathic.

It's like blaming a retard child for being born retard.
>>
>>1924695
>>Bring the cluster to Djin immediately
We should be thinking how to turn the issue of the creep to our advantage, use it to gain more leverage over the Union government.
>>
>>1924723
When they inevitably fail at containing it (or at least fail at containing it easily) we can offer to come in and clean up the mess. That should be good for a few choice favors.
>>
>>1924695
By sending the Cluster fragment back home are we also empowering the entirety of Djinn by handing over all of the technologies they were able to gleam off the infected humans?
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>>1924737
Yep. Which is why I still think we'd be better off killing and dissecting it now, and telling the ones on Djinn it got eaten by the creep.

>>1924726
Killinger and his pals have never struck me as the type to not be seriously thankful for anything we do. If our showing at parliament was any indication, popular opinion will probably hold us responsible for it coming to Path in the first place.
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>>1924737
Did anyone it consumed here on Path know anything that the scientists it ate on Djin didn't know? It already learned better speaking on that planet than it did as Sanders.
>>
>>1924737
We'll also hopefully be convincing them to not wake up and decide that the two sides are weak enough for it to step in and proactively stop the Schism.
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>>1924748
Let's not betray the amalgamation of genetic data that is the cluster. If someone breaks the treaty let's make it so it's then not us.
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>>1924695
>Send the cluster home, but have your speaker stay to warn of the creep infestation

Your speaker moves back down the hall, and the cluster follows, its steps shaking the floor with each loud thump. Just behind its head, near the nape of its neck, the long tendrils unfold, and seem to sprout like a plant, opening into large frills of hairs and whiskers. Along the sides of the head are rows of teeth, each set chattering madly as the whiskers drift through the air.

"The door is open. We will follow your forms."

Your warriors approach, flanking the creature as your speaker enters back into the common area. You hear short bursts of frightened screams cut short by a lack of breath as several humans stumble back from the defensive perimeter. They move back, keeping their weapons aimed at the shambling mound of flesh until it reaches your ship, the loading ramp creaking and straining under its weight as it ducks to enter.

"You're not leaving?" Palmer asks your speaker as the room full of humans strain their necks to see the cluster pass by, their view blocked by a mixture of your warriors and the narrow doorway.

"This speaker must assist the humans in destroying all remaining hive material." Your drone chirps. "This speaker believes you can do this alone, but this speaker also believes that humans do not do things when asked. In fact, humans have done the opposite of what it has been asked to do consistently, it has caused much pain for the Hive, and for humans."

"You won't have any issue with me." Norris says. "This is nothing but trouble, and it needs to burn before there's another incident. Palmer, I don't care if the Secretary walks through that door and tells you to do otherwise himself with a gun to your head, you will destroy every piece of alien shit you have here! Never in my life have I agreed with a non-human more, and I intend to watch you torch every single thing in this lab's inventory." He turns to the collection of worried lab techs and security guards. "Get the furnace up and running, I said move it!" He shouts and the all begin to scramble.

"Speaking is a difficult way to control your drones. The Norris is impressive despite this." Your drone says.

"They're no drones, they're grunts, and they know if they don't move faster they'll have a boot up their asses." He says, emphasizing several key words so that the entire room can hear. "But I'll take the compliment where I can. Normally my job isn't just to keep the stuff in the lab inside the lab, but to keep others out and away from what we're studying. Seeing as to how it's all yours anyways, I don't see the point in secrecy. You'd know more than us anyways. Maybe you can tell Palmer here what it is we're burning."

cont.
>>
Hey I wonder what loot we'll find in that vault on Djinn we're still cutting through with a photon blade.

Then we just gotta skedaddle with it like the clones were never there. Hard to explain their presence except as more cluster impersonators who just vanished in the night.

Presuming we allow any survivors from the camp there. I somehow doubt we can get a majority to vote to have Cluster eat everyone on the surface.
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>>1924748
Like all the other ancients the Cluster seems to look down on younger species like humans with complete distain. They appear to almost entirely be focused on biological adaptations and would not really want human "tech" at least as they understand it.

Besides, the Cluster already has tons of human tech from the humans they already consumed on Djin so they wouldn't be gaining much here. And if we kill the cluster in the lab it's an extreme risk to us.
>>
>>1924764
"Ah yes, the catalytic cracking unit."
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>>1924768
"Ah yes, the famous [incomprehensible bug screeching]. Very bad. Must burn it. Yes."
>>
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>"Speaking is a difficult way to control your drones. The Norris is impressive despite this."

Drill sergeant speaker when?
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>>1924764
I suppose that would be an acceptable trade.
Just because they know what something does doesnt mean they understand why or how it does it.
>>
Wait, maybe we should consume some material ourselves for 'recycling' instead.

Like, they still have some dead Cluster parts they were dissecting. It would be nice to analyze that ourselves for once without bothering the live one.
>>
>>1924764
We should emphasize that on both planets that we have seen Black Hive debris crash, the resulting infection continues to be difficult to exterminate despite liberal use of bombardment.
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>>1924766
>And if we kill the cluster in the lab it's an extreme risk to us.
How so? If you're concerned about the risk of it escaping to the streets of Path, we could simply do it in on the ship. Shit, we could perfectly vivisect him, and decide what to do with it once we're done. Just tell it to get in the medi tank for the plane ride home and run the tests on it while its in there.

Either way a researching it is bound to produce some insane research options, and I'd give my two front teeth for a chance to see what we could turn up.
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>>1924777
Take out the word both and I'd have no problems with that.
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>>1924778
>How so?

We already told the Cluster we were going to re-unite it with the lost fragment. If we suddenly say that's impossible they'll want to know why. Do you really think it's impossible for the Cluster to figure out that the last time their lost fragment was seen was boarding a Hive corvette?

Besides which, if a cluster fragment is lost because of the actions of hive servants (the humans kidnapping the Cluster in the first place) the Cluster could see that as us violating the treaty. We could make a very powerful third party enemy here. It's not worth the risk when we can just trade for the tech advantages.

>>1924780
How about:
"The methods of the black hive are virulent and insidious. After engagements when their debris falls back to a planet it releases spores which, if left unchecked, will create a creep that can consume the entire biosphere. Heavy infestations are difficult to remove with anything short of sustained orbital bombardment - or another creep to combat the enemy. The best way to burn out this corruption is early on with flamethrowers and plasma."
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>>1924783
>"The methods of the black hive are virulent and insidious. After engagements when their debris falls back to a planet it releases spores which, if left unchecked, will create a creep that can consume the entire biosphere. Heavy infestations are difficult to remove with anything short of sustained orbital bombardment - or another creep to combat the enemy. The best way to burn out this corruption is early on with flamethrowers and plasma."
Works for me
>>
>>1924783
Teah that'll work.
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>>1924764
"Except this! We will return this."

let's drag the fake drone corpse onto a second ship or into a medical pod in a different room of the ship or something.
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>>1924783

Agreement, this works.
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>>1924783
>If we suddenly say that's impossible they'll want to know why.
You literally answered your own question here, we could just blame the creep spreading across Path. Considering that the cluster would be unable to distinguish between our creep and OQ's it would be pretty believable.

>Do you really think it's impossible for the Cluster to figure out that the last time their lost fragment was seen was boarding a Hive corvette?
Considering that A) they have absolutely no capacity for psionic transmission B) are in a coma with no space faring capacity C) are too dismissive of human society to attempt to use it to figure out what happened, yes. Yes I am confident that the cluster is blind and deaf to everything past Djinns orbit.

If we wanted to stop the cluster from developing explosive and plasma weaponry, among other things, once its on our ship would be the time to act.
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>>1924797
It learned how to identify and use human explosives, it didn't necessarily learn how to build them just by reading a soldier's mind.

And anyway it learned far more from the humans on Djinn already so it's a bit too late.

But yeah if we were going to ensure this cluster on Path perished and was never heard from again we probably should have kept it a secret from the rest of them.
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>>1924797
This kind of thinking was what drove the cluster away from the hives. I say we keep our word since he's race just like us and they don't want to mind fuck us or put us into slavery.
>>
>"The methods of the black hive are virulent and insidious. After engagements when their debris falls back to a planet it releases spores which, if left unchecked, will create a creep that can consume the entire biosphere. Heavy infestations are difficult to remove with anything short of sustained orbital bombardment - or another creep to combat the enemy. The best way to burn out this corruption is early on with flamethrowers and plasma."

Maybe replacethe word debris by spore pods?
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>>1924764

"Must we do this?" Palmer says. He is pleading to Norris for the first half of his statement, but switches to your speaker before the end, and then continues on after he stammers for a moment. "Please, your kind is far more advanced than we are, the smallest bit of understanding won't change that, but it could revolutionize our medical industry."

"Future trade of technology is possible, but all here is dangerous. Show this speaker the samples." Your drone says. Palmer stutters as he runs his hands through his unkempt hair. "Please, you could give us something, anything, just the smallest piece of equipment could have us busy for years! I understand that things that fell from a warship are dangerous, but surely there are some more mundane chunks left over we can look through?" He turns, looking at your agent. "Gilliam, help me out here." Your agent looks up at him, then at the drone, and then shrugs at Palmer.

"It's their tech, so it's not exactly ours to keep." He walks forward and places a consolatory hand on Palmer's shoulder. "Maybe some other time we can get a cooperative lab set up. Like the speaker said, trade for technology is possible." Your speaker chiters in affirmation.

"The enemy hive is insidious in its tactics." Your drone says. "Such debris are used to release spores to attack a world after a lost battle. They can consume the planet if left unchecked, and are difficult to remove once rooted. Only extreme heat may work, and it is difficult."

"And you think it may have spread? The samples we collected seem inert." Palmer says. Your drone chirps and bobs its head.

"Yes, it is likely. A contingent of drones may be able to uproot it before it becomes too durable."

"I'll pass this up the line." Norris says, and then points to one of his men. "You! Watch the techs burn every single thing while I'm on the line." And with that he storms off. Palmer quickly leads your drone to the lab as the techs continue to scramble to collect everything together. Palmer opens the door to the control center and directs your drone inside before indicating the various controls and monitors.

"We can observe the entire lab from here." He says. "The surgical area is here, in the containment area."

"That is the place with the large hole in it, yes?" Your drone asks. Palmer adjusts his coat.

"Yes... with the big hole. You can see the burnt remains of the original creature. It seemed to have separated somehow when it was under attack."

>Collect the remains
>Burn it with the rest of it
>Other
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>>1924794
Ooh, good idea. I can't recall if the other corpse was a dead cluster or an ancient drone, but we could learn from it either way. If we're lucky maybe we could unlock the cold temperature survival adaptation the scarred queen was telling us about.

>>1924802
It isn't too late to stop the cluster from learning of the particulars of small arms fire and plasma weaponry here.

Although whether we kill it or not, we should stick it in a medical tank before the corpse. Studying a living subject is bound to give us greater insight into how they function and what we can learn from them.
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>>1924813
>>Collect the remains
Not enemy hive.
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>>1924813
>>Collect the remains
Woohoo, new research time!
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>>1924819
For now, we research the corpse. Living subjects require getting consent or coercion, dead subjects need neither.
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>>1924813
>Collect the remains
Palmer is great. Why don't we ask if he wants to come along and check out some of that amazing "hive biotech" first-hand.

>>1924819
>It isn't too late to stop the cluster from learning of the particulars of small arms fire and plasma weaponry here.
What would it learn here it didn't learn at Djin?

We shouldn't break a millions of years long peace-treaty now and we aren't breaking our word to a fellow ancient power.
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>>1924813
>Collect the remains
>>
>>1924813

>Collect the remains
>>
>>1924813

Collect the remains, invite Palmer to speak with us later.
Then in private, later, offer for him to become a hive citizen.
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>>1924813
"Your enthusiasm is commendable in a Thinker. You should serve a wiser Queen than the Windsor."
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>>1924830
We can just tell it to sit in a medi tank for the ride home. It's our ship, its kind of obligated to sit where we ask it to, and we never implied we wouldn't research it when we got the chance.
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>>1924813
>collect the remains
>tell the humans we intend to give said remains to the greater Cluster, despite their inertness
>tacitly imply we dont understand the Cluster that well, and are trying to keep them from flipping their lid
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>>1924844
I doubt any of our anesthetics would work and poking living things with needles while they're conscious usually ends poorly
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>>1924847
Pain is just information when the body is ultimately expendable and controls its own nerve endings.
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>>1924848
I was more referring to Cluster being against getting studied. Then again maybe he doesn't care that much.
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>>1924847
It's not like the cluster feels pain in any way like individual life forms do. It's our ship, we never said we wouldn't research it, and this wouldn't count as a treaty violation in the first place.

I say we have every right and reason to research the cluster, as long as it's still alive and intact when it arrives on Djinn.
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>>1924813
>collect the remains

>>1924833
>>1924842
>>1924843
Also seconding us asking Palmer privately if he's interested in joining the Hive.
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>>1924851
Allowing itself to be studied could be seen as getting involved in the Schism.
Depends on how you read the spirit of the law.
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>>1924851
I'm not sure if it will accept that as cab fare, or if it expects that abiding by the 'no hurting the humans' terms should be the cab fare.

Maybe it will counter-offer a 'you show me yours and I'll show you mine' mutual dissection.
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>>1924855
We need to know more about the exact details of the treaty to really understand what does and doesn't count as a violation.
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>>1924813
I like the thinker Palmer he would be great in a hive lab. Join research is always possible. Also my mind says to burn

>Burn it.

We did send our ship away didn't we? There is no need to carry this thing.
>>
As it is, anything the Cluster does of import outside that one star system will take thousands of years to have an impact since they gave up their FTL.

So since them having no real impact seems very unlikely, gotta wonder if they're going to restore their sight after all out of impatience and start using a blink drive again, because it seems doubtful they'll be content with trying to acquire warp drives, difficult as they are to get the materials for.
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>>1924813
>Collect the remains

Your speaker looks at the screen, its mandibles clicking softly.

"This should be returned as well. Take this speaker to it." Your drone says suddenly.

"Oh, alright." Palmer says, and he clicks a button on the controls. "Halt the torching for a moment, the hive wants to take the dead one back as well." You watch on the screen as the other humans halt their activity, and you follow Palmer to the lab as if you are unaware of where it is.

"We can get a gurney." One of the techs says as your drone passes him. "The thing is at least-" He cuts himself off as your drone hoists it over its head with relative ease, its legs locking into the quadrupedal stance, and it shuffles back out.

"This speaker will return shortly." Your drone says as it leaves the room, the body smacks against the top of the doorway and your drone stops, backs up, and lowers itself slightly to fit, and continues on its way. A worker quickly rushes down the loading bay of your ship, skittering past the guards and into the lab as humans jump out of the way, eventually intercepting your speaker as the two drones quickly exchange the load, and the worker pivots, spinning the corpse fast enough that a strip of charred flesh slaps the wall with a loud thud, and it rushes back to your ship while your speaker retraces its steps. Palmer is waiting by the entrance to the command center, next to the hallway leading back to the containment area. Your speaker picks at some chunks of flesh left on its claws with its mandibles.

"This speaker has returned and we may resume." It says. Palmer nods silently with a polite but confused smile.

"You're... strong." he says. "That was at least six hundred kilos."

"Explain 'kilo'?" Your drone says. Palmer looks at your drone blankly for a moment.

"It's, uh, never mind. Let's continue."

>Speak with Palmer about a joint venture with the Hive in the Expanse
>Speak with Palmer about something else (Write in)
>Offer some information about the Hive to Palmer (write in)
>Other
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>>1924871
We sent our shuttle away with the cluster on it. However, our corvette has multiple shuttles. We can easily send another one down in minutes.
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>>1924874

>Speak with Palmer about a joint venture with the Hive in the Expanse
>>
>>1924874
I imagine any 'joint venture' would be:

>Any creative research minds with ideas can come up with novel inventions not before seen by mankind and get hive labs working on their theories and prototypes while they live in hive housing


Interviews with a speaker easily weed out charlatans, and we get potential new research unlocked by harnessing human ambition for research grants.
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>>1924874
>Speak with Palmer about a joint venture with the Hive in the Expanse

Dunno if we should or tell him about the casts. A more wise and less sleep deprived anon, should say something
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>>1924874

Offer to assist in the cataloguing of native life on an expanse planet. NOT Leeland or Railegha, but a world that we haven't exploited yet.

We can phrase it as a great opportunity for human scientists to learn from the Hive.
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>>1924874
>Speak with Palmer about a joint venture with the Hive in the Expanse
>>
>>1924874
>Speak with Palmer about a joint venture with the Hive in the Expanse
You are passionate about your science much like the Hives own thinkers. That is good. We would like to offer you the chance to come with us on a joint research venture.
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>>1924804
>I say we keep our word since he's race just like us and they don't want to mind fuck us or put us into slavery.
The cluster was never 'close' to the hives in the first place, and never avoided the hives. It only refused to get involved in their war with the void. It isn't anything like us either, and frankly just because it isn't trying to enslave us means its our friend. The cluster was always a rival power to the hive that hid its finest genes and price gouged the queens it sold to.

Like, come on man, if you want to stick to the deal out of fear of the implications or the hope of a trade deal that;s one thing, but you'd have to be crazy to think of the cluster as a possible ally or friendly power. If they woke up in earnest the consequences would be disastrous for our plans, as they would have to strip a biosphere bare to sustain themselves. And the only biospheres on the map are either held by us or a part of our allies territory.
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>>1924874
I'm not huge on the idea of getting non-hive researchers. A parasite is pretty much a requirement in my opinion.
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>>1924896
Well no one's committing to them NOT getting parasited.
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>>1924874
>Speak with Palmer about a joint venture with the Hive in the Expanse
"The Hive always thirsts for more information and finds your dedication to science commendable. What exactly did you hope to gain? The Hive may be interested in a joint research laboratory."

>Offer some information about the Hive to Palmer (write in)
Tell him that the brain thing is a brain. It completes complex calculations. Equivalent to a computer. Doesn't need a body because it does not need to move.

I don't think that's letting on too much but it's enough of a pro bono "gift" to get them thinking.
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>>1924898
Honestly, I think if we privately told Palmer exactly what parasites and what we intend he would still take us up on the offer. Dude is crazy for science and he'll jump at the chance to work directly with the best bioscientists in the Galaxy.

Obviously we don't mention the parasites until he's already accepted our offer, of course. And he will accept our "offer" as any initial reluctance on his part can be overcome with the speaker's psi influence.
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>>1924901
>>1924874
I'm supporting this, seems like a tantalizing offer without giving too much away.
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>>1924905
All we need to do is tell Palmer that Hive-biotech is so far ahead of humanity the only way he can work with us without needing to relearn everything is if we upload the information directly into his brain. He should agree without too much trouble.

>>1924901
I can get behind this.
>>
>>1924901
>Tell him that the brain thing is a brain. It completes complex calculations. Equivalent to a computer. Doesn't need a body because it does not need to move.
>I don't think that's letting on too much but it's enough of a pro bono "gift" to get them thinking.
Didn't they already figure that out? I could have sword there was a bit where they said it's "like a computer".
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>>1924915
I don't remember, but the idea is to tell them something interesting for them (who have very little knowledge) but something trivial/unimportant to us. If they already had some theories, we could just confirm or deny them. It's not like they've seen any of these things in action.
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>>1924915
No, they said that part of it looked like a wire but never confirmed what the thinker was. Just that it was mostly composed of something akin to brain matter and tendrils that looked like optic wires
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>>1924874
"The Palmer is a very good thinker." Your speaker says. Before you can continue Palmer holds up an image of the crushed Obsidian Queen thinker. It is a photo taken some time ago, the actual operating table it is on now little more than a puddle of ooze and several chewed up bits of chitin with a half eaten noodle-like leg draped over a surgical armature.

"Is that what this is?" He says emphatically. "The legs look like some kind of organic fiber optics, are all of your nerves based on the same general structure, or do the thinkers use a more developed and specialized nervous system? They seem designed to interface with something, can that be another drone, or do you have dedicated technology they use? Oh, what about-" Your speaker chirps suddenly.

"The Palmer is also good at speaking. Speaking and thinking should not be done together."

"Sorry." Palmer says with a chuckle. "Guess I'm just a bit excited."

"It is a thinker." Your drone replies. "They think for the hive, instead of your computers."

"Yes, just as I thought. So something like this, it would be like a ship's computer subroutines, like fire control, FTL calibration, sensors. I suspect they also assist in centralizing hive thought processes, but I'm still not sure how they would communicate. If you could-"

"Thinker is speaking again." Your drone says, and Palmer nods quickly as he shuts his mouth."

"The Hive's thinkers benefit from new ideas. Human thinkers have shown to be good at making new ideas. The Palmer would be welcome in such a place made for different thinkers within the Expanse." Your drone says, and Palmer lets out a soft, high pitched giggle before letting out a fake cough and fighting his smile.

"Really? I mean I'm not sure if, uh, I could get clearance... and I mean I still need to get my funding-"

"Your current research is being burned. The Hive will allow all thinking of all thoughts to be thought of. The hive has no use of money, funding is not an issue to us."

"Well I mean... uh, I have orders, and..." Palmer trails off, trying to think of something to say other than 'yes'.

"This speaker believed humans were individuals." Your speaker says. Palmer laughs as he scratches his head nervously.

"I thought you said it was bad to think and speak?" He says. Your speaker throws its head back, swinging its hips in the motion as it opens its mandibles, and emits a loud chirping noise like a swarm of cicadas for several seconds before sending its gaze back to Palmer.

"Human humor, yes." Your drone says.

"Yea." Palmer says. "Do you have any? Jokes I mean. What is Hive humor like?" Your speaker lets out a quick chirp as its antennae twitch.

"The Obsidian Hive produces a good and reasonable plan, and is successful in its venture." It says. After a short moment of silence it chirps again. "Is it wrong humans consider irony a form of humor?" Palmer seems to realize something, and quickly laughs. It is forced, but the attempt is genuine.

"Irony, right."

cont.
>>
>>1924928
If this is his reaction to Hive humor just wait until we tell him that we think Theseus is absolutely hilarious.
>>
>>1924928
It's fine. Context is an important part of humor.
>>
>>1924928
>"The Obsidian Hive produces a good and reasonable plan, and is successful in its venture." It says. After a short moment of silence it chirps again. "Is it wrong humans consider irony a form of humor?"

Quick what are the levels of cheekiness!!!
>>
>>1924936
Very high
>>
>>1924928
inb4 he shouts 'I quit!' and rushes headlong into the nearest hive shuttle to get asylum in the Expanse.
>>
>>1924928

"You know, a lot of human humor involves elf-deprecating, or the depreciation of something commonly disliked." Palmer says. "Sometimes mixed with exaggeration." Gilliam looks at Palmer in confusion.

"Are you scientifically explaining the concept of a your-mother joke?" He says. Palmer shrugs. Your speaker chirps softly as it clicks its claws together.

"The Obsidian Hive's egg sacs are so small, the queen is capable of independent locomotion." It says. Palmer chuckles as he holds his hand up to Gilliam for a high five.

"First inter-species your-mother joke!" He says with a genuine air of glee about him.

"Taidaren insult each others matriarchs all the time though. They did that before they met humans." Gilliam says.

"But not as jokes. Those were usually the start of wars or part of clan propaganda. Valen don't have mothers, or the concept of motherhood. Ceph... well I don't think they have humor, or at least none from their own culture." Palmer looks around the room, eventually reaching out and pressing his palm against your speaker's claw as it holds it at rest near its chest. "It may seem trivial, but it's still history." He adds.

"Right, but what about the joint research venture?" Gilliam asks. Your drone twitches its antennae as it examines its claw in confusion.

"The Hive would be willing to accept human thinkers into the Expanse to think of whatever they can think of. The Hive would benefit from new perspectives."

"But is this offer like a joint venture between states or..." Palmer seems to look around the room, searching for any military men within earshot. "Or are you talking about... defecting?"

>Cooperation with the Union
>A personal invitation to Palmer
>Other (write in)
>>
>>1924943
>Cooperation with the Union
I wouldn't call it defecting per se, more like loaning of thinkers between queens for a time
>>
>>1924943

Both!
Human thinkers that come to the Expanse to think may do so as a member of the Union and guest of the Hive. However, exceptional thinkers may be offered the chance to join the hive as a citizen. Renouncing their Union citizenship.
>>
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>>1924943
>"The Obsidian Hive's egg sacs are so small, the queen is capable of independent locomotion." It says. Palmer chuckles as he holds his hand up to Gilliam for a high five.
>"First inter-species your-mother joke!" He says with a genuine air of glee about him.
Pfft, nice.

>A personal invitation to Palmer
>>
>>1924943
>>A personal invitation to Palmer
Humans are individuals. It would be silly otherwise.
>>
>>1924943
>Other (write in)

Both. The Hive will not work with just any human. This is a personal invitation to you and will not be extended to just anyone else. However, as you mentioned Human science has a lot to learn from us. If you'd be willing to work with us we believe that the information you gather will be invaluable to human science. We can assure you we are capable of handling all the political ramifications with the Union appropriately regardless of your choice. The decision is yours alone to make. psychic manipulation intensifies
>>
>>1924943
>Other: Both
>>
>>1924943
>>A personal invitation to Palmer
>>
>>1924943
In truth, both.

Cooperation with the Union will be focused on science that is much more mundane.
>>
>>1924952
>>1924959
>wanting to share invaluable research with the Union
But why anon? What do they have that we can't take from them for free espionage? This is the most corrupt state in known space, why should we give them anything without getting anything for it?
>>
>>1924943
"It is an invitation to individual humans who are good at thinking." Your drone says. "This includes the Palmer." Your speaker looks at its claw, flexing it open and closed for a moment. "Is that 'palming'?" Palmer laughs again.

"I think that's just a language barrier." Gilliam says. Palmer shrugs.

"It's still funny." He says. "Anyways, I'd have to discuss it with my boss, and probably the secretary. He'll most likely want be on a new project soon, but I'll see if I can convince him."

>Have Lee contact Morgan and ask to arrange for a scientific exchange program, recommending Palmer by name
>Arrange an exchange program, and include Gilliam in the invitation as well
>Let Palmer discuss the offer with his leaders
>Other
>>
>>1924964
>>Have Lee contact Morgan and ask to arrange for a scientific exchange program, recommending Palmer by name.

Don't mention Gilliam. We need our mole on the inside.
>>
>>1924964
>>Let Palmer discuss the offer with his leaders
This has become a bit of a tangent subquest now hasn't it.
>>
>>1924964
>Let Palmer discuss the offer with his leaders
>>
>>1924964

>Have Lee contact Morgan and ask to arrange for a scientific exchange program, recommending Palmer by name

Then ask for recomendations.
>>
>>1924964
>>Other
Don't involve his leaders at all, if he wants to work with us, he MUST sever his ties to the Union government. For gods sakes those criminals have already tried to rob us and will just use anything we give them against us.
>>
>>1924964
>Let Palmer discuss the offer with his leaders

Would be funny they starting to think Palmer is compromised for being near of a speaker.
>>
So we invite people to this, and maybe we can use this as a screening system for more secretive, Hive only projects down the line? Or nah?

I really want my human skunkworks/blacksite projects.
>>
>>1924970
There is something to be said for full defection.

But if his bosses say no, Palmer will definitely start to consider defecting then out of desperation.
>>
>>1924964

Have Lee contact Morgan

Perhaps look at getting a space megastructure for science operational?
>>
>>1924962
Fuck, hit "post" before finishing.

Cooperation with the Union will likely be negotiated a government level, and will consist of mundane science, general subjects, or civilian technology.

Since the Union and the Hive are not cooperating militarily, and most of the cutting edge technology involves basically military secrets, the real next-level stuff will be happening without Union involvement.

>>1924964
I'm going to echo >>1924970 and suggest that if Palmer wants to work for the government in some laboratory that's more for political show or hive-teach-human education, he can talk to his supervisors. If he wants to work on technology that's from the Golden Age of the Hives and quite literally reality-bending, that's going to involve him severing Union ties.
>>
>>1924976

I'd be cool with this. Prefer to ask the humans beforehand.

We invite the best of the best out to study. Then any that stand above the rest we extend an offer to join the Hive and do non-shared Research with.
>>
>>1924976
I always thought recruiting human scientists would be accomplished through screening indivduals on Path before inviting them personally to the hive. Getting the Union to pick their own lists means that we're going to have spies all over our research stations. We've got to find a way of recruiting on our terms or our intelligence network is never going to be secure.
>>
>>1924984
You do make a very good point.

I guess I was really going for a way that wouldn't require him defecting immediately, but I suppose if he wants the good stuff he'll have to.
>>
Holy shit, my man. I didn't think you would run again so soon.
>>
>>1924984

Shit, good point...

We make a point to only deal with the scientists directly?
We will accept people coming and studying, but only people WE choose.

Should get around them sending spies in specifically...

Also, we only have them working on boring stuff while they're a citizen of the Union. Only Hive Citizens get to look at cutting edge tech
>>
>>1924964
>Offer the possibility of learning ancient hive secrets for only those who are hive citizens
>Offer him something else (write in)
>Let Palmer discuss it with his boss
>Other

>>1924986
Not running feels like skipping out on work at a job I enjoy. Besides, I'm fully recovered. It was just emergency heart surgery, no big deal.
>>
>>1924964
We can also make a mental note to have Seiner eavesdrop on this discussion Palmer and his leaders have, of course, as an initial field test for his targeting skills.
>>
>>1924988
>>Let Palmer discuss it with his boss
We ain't making insane offers out in public.
>>
>>1924988
>>Offer the possibility of learning ancient hive secrets for only those who are hive citizens
I mean, we can teach him how to build a holo suite I guess...
>>
If we wanted to pressure him to defect we could make it a time limited offer. Get on the shuttle before it leaves the station.
>>
>>1924970
>>1924980
If we do that, though, the Union will make it hell for us to ever talk to high-level scientists again. We'll be much better off agreeing to some kind of exchange. and I've been dying to show off our Kerrigan to a bunch of human eggheads

>Offer the possibility of learning ancient hive secrets for only those who are hive citizens
>Offer him something else (write in)
An exchange. We'd like to work with Union scientists and we're willing to have some of our own thinkers, like Elizabeth, talk to the human scientific community.
>>
>>1924988
>Let Palmer discuss it with his boss

After Liz Lee and Lyle defecting to us i think they would be afraid to loose his head scientist. So they will most likely say no and make a offer with their on list which we can eother refuse ir just make small joint research about the fauna in the place and nothing hive or other ancient tech related stuff.
>>
>>1924987
>Also, we only have them working on boring stuff while they're a citizen of the Union. Only Hive Citizens get to look at cutting edge tech
That could work. We'd have to establish what constitutes cutting edge and what is really valuable, but that's a good plan.
>>
>>1924988
>Let Palmer discuss it with his boss
But maybe try to innuendo that join research efforts can only go so far.

Let's take it slow for now. Once we've got them in the research labs, we can start poaching. Playing the long game has typically paid off for us, and going full "YES HELLO WE JUST MET WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN THE HIVEMIND AND LEARN THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE AT THE COST OF YOUR HUMAN CONNECTION?" is a bit much...

I think the difference here is we get a few scientists here and there versus we get a steady flow later on once they know they can work for us.
>>
>>1924988
Fuck, forgot to link >>1924997 to the main post.>>1924997
>>
>>1924988

>Offer the possibility of learning ancient hive secrets for only those who are hive citizens

This dude has the biggest science hard on. Don't let the bigger things slip, just mention this and good medical treatment.
>>
>>1924997
The Union can't stop the scientists from coming to us when they hear about hive research grants. We will be the one-stop shop in the galaxy for 'showing them, showing them all'.
>>
>>1924997
>we're willing to have some of our own thinkers, like Elizabeth, talk to the human scientific community.

Elizabeth doesn't even want to sleep, I think it would be difficult to get her to go out and play politics again.

>>1925003
Yeah, but if we are just so obvious and up-front about it, it sends the message that all we're interested in is poaching scientists. Yes, this is what we are trying to do, but it's best not to come off like that, just because it will make it much more difficult to poach scientists.
>>
>>1924988
If we let Palmer discuss this with his boss can we psionically implant a desire to defect anyway if his bosses say no?

Either way, we can tempt him and the boss with:
>Offer the possibility of learning ancient hive secrets for only those who are hive citizens

Just because the learn the secrets, doesn't mean they'll be in any condition to share them.
>>
>>1925005
I can tell you now that most of the best scientists would jump at the chance.
practically infinate funding, no more ethical commities and your not actually going to do anything bad to other people when you make cool shit.

Only naggling doubt would be the whole potentially enslave human race thing. They'll get over that.
>>
>>1925005
What barriers can the Union possibly put up to our poaching? They're incapable of truly regulating interstellar travel, and we have big sticks to lean on to maintain the whole 'freedom of movement' we established for civilian traffic to and from the Expanse.
>>
>>1924964
>Let Palmer discuss it with his boss

Think I'm formally going to vote this if only to have it so that the Union can think that they're in some control.

We'll make the BIG offer to him later. And we can still look for other scientists in the meantime.
>>
>>1924988
>Let Palmer discuss it with his boss
I'm a lazy bastard, so i'd rather have Palmer deal with it.

I still wanna see Lyle's face when we come home with a canderon-fueled drop suit. Would either nope the fuck out, or never stop wearing it.
>>
>>1925013
>potentially enslave human race thing
I feel like we've been more than accommodating, honestly.

>>1925015
You're right, but I don't want to push the Union more than we've already done. We've given them the stick, now we can dangle some carrots. I don't want to drive the Union into the hands of the Void by being too callous or uncaring.
>>
>>1925013
>Only naggling doubt would be the whole potentially enslave human race thing. They'll get over that.

Human thinkers are bad thinkers. Why would the Hive want weak human slaves? If the Hive wanted pathetic human slaves we would have made you slaves 10,000 years ago. Why would human scientists working for the Hive help us enslave humans? We already can enslave humans.

Human thinkers are weird.
>>
>>1924999
>>1925002
>>1925008

Why would we make -that- kind of offer in full hearing of other people, to someone who isn't yet committed to even basic hive citizenship?

This is really the kind of offer you make in private afterwards.
>>
>>1925023
Anon, we're in private now. The only human around is Palmer (Gilliam doesn't count)
>>
>>1925023
Well, the knowledge that the hive is offering citizenship to humans living in its borders is common knowledge by now. It shouldn't surprise anyone that we keep the really valuable stuff for ourselves, given the technological gap between us and the Union.
>>
>>1925016
Anon, you linked to the wrong vote prompt.
>>
>>1925023

I mean, we can always phrase it nicer...

Yes we would love to start a joint scientific venture. Those that prove themselves may have the opportunity to work with the Hive on more sensitive topics later.
>>
>>1924988
>>1925016
Whoops.
>>
>>1924988
"The Hive will await for your response." Your speaker says. "Those who join the hive may be granted access to the Hive's many secrets kept from humanity for its protection. The Hive may be able to accommodate others for less critical thinking, however."

"I'll send that along the relay, then." Palmer says. You can sense his excitement, like heat radiating from his mind. "Gilliam, could you oversee the remaining samples are destroyed properly? I need to make a call."

"No problem." Gilliam says.


Now, it's getting a bit late. I almost didn't notice the time, but before we end, we should discuss some of the crunch real quick and get that figured out. In the last midweek session I brought up a potential new research method to help give you more control over what you are researching, and it seemed to be received positively, so I said I'd bring it up here and ask what you thought.

Essentially, instead of me just rolling at all of the research topics once per day and having you chip away at them slowly and randomly, you would be able to select one primary topic and up to two secondary topics to research, with the primary getting more rolls, I was thinking two or three, while secondary get one, maybe two rolls depending on the primary. I would then adjust the general research speed to match the new rate. I'd be open to any feedback on how to change it, and if you like the way it is now I can keep it, but I thought it would be a good way of giving you more control over things while keeping things from getting too complex, since it wouldn't be any issue on my end to track, since I just need to track three research topics instead of having a progress tracker for all of them. What do you think?
>>
>>1925037
Would the other research topics still get some attention devoted to them so they aren't suddenly abandoned completely?
>>
>>1925037

If you're doing primary research gets 3 rolls and secondary gets 2 rolls, would we be able to say all others get one? And then maybe adjust research to be a bit longer.

I like the idea of being able to prioritise, I don't love the idea of everything else stopping due to prioritising.
>>
>>1925037
>What do you think?
Thanks for running! I think this method of research might make it easier to prioritize things, but we'll never be able to reach a good piority agreement.

How many topics do we have going now, anyway?
>>
>>1925037
That's what happens when you start on PalmerQuest for two hours.

I guess that could work but how do we manage the transition with half-done existing research, when we narrow it down to 3 at a time and pick our priorities.
>>
>>1925037
I think it's a good idea, because our love for tech would only be increased by making choices that would provide more direct investment in specific ones.

It does take more time to figure out what the primary and secondaries would be, though, and that risks slowing things down. If your primary time sink is writing, then it's no big deal since there's nothing significant to write. If waiting for feedback is a significant factor in how much gets done in a day however, then this could slow things down.
>>
>>1925027
And Palmer is not under any NDA or anything, he'll mention what the conversation was about to his bosses.
>>
>>1925037
This sounds like a reasonably balanced system, as long as we don't get a pile up of a huge list of research that takes an age.
>>
>>1925037
I don't know.
I worry it would also slow down research. Especially if a research topic never gets a chance because there's always something else that's considered more important, so it just sits around never explored.

Maybe if there were categories of research too, like psionic, alien tech, hive tech, biology, ect.
>>
>>1925048
>Maybe if there were categories of research too, like psionic, alien tech, hive tech, biology, ect.

IIRC in the FAQ it's explained that there *are* categories.They just haven't been explicitly labeled that way in posts.
>>
>>1925047
Oh, we will.

I guess the top 3 these days might be Void Projection, Multidimensional Physics, and the matriarch dissection.

But imagine all the new ones unlocked from the matriarch's cybernetics.
>>
>>1925037
Thanks for running it's been great!

I'm fine with the way research runs now. While dividing research this way is fine, my biggest concern about the potential change is that it's another contentious thing to vote over that can slow down the thread and keep things from moving along at the pace we'd all like.

Is this the end of the "Day" or will there be one more thread to wrap up next week? The only other big "thing" I can think to cover "today" is whatever is in those notes Morgan gave us.

>>1925044
I know what you mean, the side-track with Palmer took a while. That being said, setting up a long-term scientist exchange with the Union could bear a lot of fruit if we do it right both diplomatically and scientifically.
>>
>>1925037
I'm in favour of >>1925041, that way, there is still some progress on the other topics but we can still prioritize.
>>
>>1925041
>>1925055

If we are doing rolls for research they should definitely happen in the post thread discussion. That kind of stuff should not delay the meat of the quest.
>>
>>1925044
>>1925040
They would be held at their current state. As it is currently I roll a d100 with a DC based on its difficulty. A success adds progress, a critical success finishes instantly or adds a lot of progress depending on the difficulty, while a failure adds nothing, and a critical failure removes progress and something bad happens that hampers the research. If the research is dangerous, that bad thing may cause complications that need to be dealt with on their own, or may just cause an increase loss in progress, while the danger itself increase the threshold for a crit fail.

So in this new system, the focus would essentially just represent you allocating your thinkers to priority subjects in order to finish them much more quickly. I could also give your growing number of human researchers their own rolls to add to the pool and have them research things that they find interesting as a kind of skunkworks.

So now instead of just adding new tech to research, you would pick a new focus once one finishes, and you could swap out a focus at any time and I would just save the progress. I try to avoid showing the progress itself since it's hard to find out just how far you are from a solution until you actually have it, but I would keep it saved regardless for when you find a new tech you want to prioritize right away.
>>
>>1925056
What. All those rolls are offscreen.
>>
>>1925058
Feels like it would slow things down too much if things not focused on get ignored completely like that.

I thought it'd be more like >>1925041 says and adds extra rolls to the priorities while keeping them at one roll per day
>>
>>1925059
Oh, I thought QD was mentioning additional rolls during the game. My bad then. It's getting pretty late.

I'd still prefer for discussion of research priorities, etc. to take place after the main run.
>>
>>1925048
I try to keep it more fluff oriented, but there are categories and a bit of a tangled tree. For instance, a lot of the more advanced psionic stuff needed to wait for you to unlock multiple lesser psionic stuff before unlocking. The catagories don't really effect much, but they do influence what Elizabeth, and now Seiner too, will research, since they will focus on things they are well versed in. For Elizabeth, that's biology, computer science, and now, with her augments, psionics, while Seiner has a similar background in biology, as well as psychology, and now with his implants, void tech. Their backgrounds in biology help with your biological implants and researching new tech for that, while their psychology knowledge helps with research designed to influence others like your parasite chemical fabricators or your psionic influencing abilities. Thinkers have no bias for that, however.

>>1925056
I roll with my own dice between threads, actually. I sometimes do the same thing for interactions between NPCs. If anything, this would decrease the total number of rolls I'm doing for prep time, but to offset the lower number of total research rolls I would be adjusting the topics themselves so you'd be unlocking the things you pick at a better pace.

So long as the dice don't roll poorly, of course.
>>
>>1925064

The only problem is that with each tech we unlock, we seem to unlock at least another two. (Which is awesome)
Then add in all the random research we're picking up. I can see us just strictly having to ignore entire trees, because they never become top priority.

i.e. we become way too focused down particular trees, but we can't even do basic shit in others. It'd be like a society that perfected the fission reactor but didn't know agriculture.
>>
>>1925065
Well with your talk of getting human researchers to join you, and the fact that you already have your own mad scientists, with a recent new addition, I can just have them research various other things. You can also ask Theseus for assistance to essentially give you bonus rolls to research.
>>
>>1925067
This is slightly unrelated, but will we get a chance to use the new espionage system soon? We might want to set up a secret hive on Mentan.

I understand that it's probably difficult to incorporate crunch-heavy stuff into the middle of a thread, so maybe we should hold some votes during post-thread discussion?
>>
>>1925070
Sure. I honestly just use what you guys are talking about to keep pace of what to bring up next (thus the sudden Palmer tangent) so just say what you want to do and I'll try and adjust, otherwise I can set up a dedicated time span for that, like at the start of a new day when the espionage and research are listed I can have a prompt for any new espionage missions along with the research one.

We can also make plans now, if you have anything you'd like to vote on in particular.
>>
>>1925067
Yeah that'd be sweet.

I know a lot of anons are worried about adding Theseus to our research. Could we set up a system where we just decide by vote per research really quickly when adding the research.

>>1925071
Secret hive on Mentan gets my vote
>>
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>>1925037
Okay, so the idea is that you will get one primary research subject worth three rolls per day, and two secondary research subjects worth two rolls per day, while your non-drone scientists will research their own subjects outside of the prioritized ones. Anything not being researched has its progress paused, but preserved, and you can swap out research focuses whenever you like.

Let's get a quick vote for that first.

>Yes, switch systems
>No, keep it as is
>Doesn't matter
>Other

And for the espionage, the hive will start at the lowest level, and it will be available for further orders once it is set up.

>Begin espionage on Mentan
>Begin espionage on other (write in)
>Do not
>>
>>1925082

>Yes, switch systems

>Begin espionage on Mentan
>>
>>1925082
>Doesn't matter

>Begin espionage on other (write in)

Update assignments:
>Bedrock: Switch from [maintain concealment] to [passive observation]
>Huron: Switch from [maintain concealment] to [passive observation]

And establish hidden Hives on:

Union:
>Gemini Beta [Union military training planet]
>Mentan [Union science planet]
>Talgo [Killinger's planet - possible Void Cult forming]
>Arnim [Union banking planet]
>Coral [Union planet with lots of Silicon life]

Commonwealth:
>Constantinople [Commonwealth Admin/Capital planet]
>New Sparta [Commonwealth mega-city/industrial planet]
>Iserlohn [CW experimental research planet - we saved the planet from Scavs during first contact]
>>
>>1925086
I think I just messed up Bedrock, but honestly it doesn't really matter at this point. With the Expanse now officially under Hive control, your drones can function openly, and a hive will be assumed to exist on all inhabited worlds and stations set to at least the passive observation level.

As for the others
>>1925082


>Huron: Switch from [maintain concealment] to [passive observation]
>Gemini Beta
>Mentan
>Talgo
>Arnim
>Coral


>Yes
>No
>Other
>>
>>1925092
Yes
>>
>>1925092
>>Yes

Oh, and before we forget QD, scout pod data when?
>>
>>1925092
>>Yes
>Other
Could we add Corbin to this list? If I remember right it's got two insane ecosystems on one planet. That's a lot of crazy adaptations we could pick up.
>>
>>1925092
>Yes

sorry I deleted my old post. It was a duplicate.
>>
>>1925092
>Yes
>>
>>1925092

Guess people are going off to sleep. I probably should be too, but I'll stick around if anyone has any questions, comments, feedback, or things they want to bring up next thread. Should probably hold off on any more votes for tonight at least, but I'll be keeping track of this thread throughout the week so we can do crunch related discussion during the midweek. That should keep it from interfering with the quest itself. I can post on twitter for a date, but in general I try to keep up to date on the thread every day so just link to my post and odds are good I'll see it and respond.

Next week should be a new day, so I'd like to get the ships and nutrient levels hammered out for good before then so you're not in a mad dash to build farms.
>>
>>1925104
>I'd like to get the ships and nutrient levels hammered out for good before then so you're not in a mad dash to build farms.
Too late, I'm already hyped to start building them everywhere we can. Goodnight man, and thanks for the run.
>>
>>1925104
Thanks QD! It's been great.

>>1925106
I too am looking forward to building continent-sized nutrient farms in a matter of days.
>>
>>1925104
Oh I nearly forgot to ask, would vivisecting the cluster from Path be considered a violation of the treaty? Would they care as long as the instance survived to bring back the data it collected?
>>
>>1925116
Most likely. While the Cluster's biology seems to be perfectly capable of surviving most forms of vivisection without much injury, it would still be an overt violation of privacy akin to a deep cavity search.

I added them to the wiki, which I'd like to get more updated, but honestly I'm really shit at using wiki formatting so any major updates to that will be a bit of a lower priority.

>>1925106
Well I'll try and get some time set up in the midweek so I can post on the twitter for a general crunch session then. We can just hammer out where and how many. Till then just post any recommendations or plans here and feel free to discuss your options. I use them to help guide the pace of things in general.
>>
>>1925104
Thanks for the thread once again!
>>
>>1925082
>No, keep it as is
>Begin espionage on Mentan
>>
>>1925092
>Yes
>>
>>1925058
I haven't been following the research thing but i have to mention something.
If you're changing it can you please not put available research in a Pastebin? I've seen a problem in the archived threads where i can't see what was the available research at the time due to the pastebin either not working or displaying research we got in later threads, it would be very helpful for the future if you keep posting the research options in the threads.
>>
>>1925082
>No, keep it as is
I like the way our research is right now.

>>1925092
>Yes
We should be colonizing more worlds too.
>>
>>1925128
Yea, that was the main reason I started dumping the research at the start of a new day, and eventually the pastebin just fell behind anyways.
>>
>>1925123
>but honestly I'm really shit at using wiki formatting so any major updates to that will be a bit of a lower priority.
Just dump it there, and we anons can format it for you.
>>
>>1925132
What about studying the crystals on p2?
>>
>>1925098
Never. Seriously that's something he won't remember or do unless everyone asks for it.
>>
>>1925141
For gods sakes anon, nobody cares about your funny looking mineral formations.
>>
>>1925147
Oh thank god I'm not the only one who thinks that.
They're going to be rock. They were always just going to be improbable rocks.
>>
>>1925147
>>1925154
I agree it's probably not as interesting as they believe but it could be a silicate lifeform similar to the Coral one.

It's worth checking out at least
>>
>>1925147
>>1925154
>>1925165
It's a free action that takes only one post. No point in not doing.
>>
>>1925147
>>1925154
Also
>not researching everything
>>
So what other loose ends do we have to tie up? We've dealt with the research facility,we are almost done with the Cortez bullshittery, etc.
>>
>>1925598
Cluster negotiations are still not done.
Valen guild of transportation business deals are still not done.
Dealing with the Valen at Deepsong still not done.
Just started the investigation of the Priest on Talgo.
Still not done killing the Scavengers.
And then there's all the stuff that we want to do but haven't.
>>
>>1925598
Still need to mount that attack on the Scav main fleet.
A lot of new construction projects both on and off planets.
Sending space pods to more systems to set up a more comprehensive intelligence network.
>>
>>1925616
>Sending space pods to more systems to set up a more comprehensive intelligence network.
We've already sent pods to spy on every single system and if you want to actually infiltrate the the planets then it would be better to use immigration and freedom of movement the Union loves to brag about. We could even get some Valen accomplices to cover for actions.
>>
>>1925627
Shite is that paste dated too?
>>
>>1925642
What am I saying of course the pastes are outdated.
>>
>>1925642
>>1925651
That and QD only really would only really update the pastebins after we checked on the pods in quest which we never have the chance to.
>>
>>1925613
Pretty accurate.

Don't forget we also need to review that secret packet Morgan gave us and start building farms on the planets in the Expanse as soon as possible.
>>
And on the topic on laying queens I think I might be willing to go for it soon but not for any of the previously mentioned reasons. I willing to lay Queens now mostly to establish new Hive norms, helping with research (since young queens are good at thinking creatively), and alleviating risks of certain actions.
>>
>>1925756
The only way I could get behind a new Queen is if we agree to send her ship/pod deep into uncharted space to allow her to develop on her own.

We can't afford to sacrifice any of the planets we own to allowing a daughter to build a fledgling dynasty, and we can't give a daughter vast fleets and resources or we'll be falling into the same trap that doomed the old hives. To establish new norms any of our daughters will have to earn their place they can't just be given it.
>>
>>1925756
>>1925837
I don't think a new Queen would be helpful in our situation. We're not in a safe enough situation to think about rebuilding a Hive empire, and we can't afford to give any kind of resources for a Hive that will basically be doing what we are doing but with a multi-week spin up. More research aid would be extremely helpful, but Humans would be much better for this task because they take very little upkeep and can and will pursue science better than any kind of thinker. (We're not limited to the Union here, either, there's the chance of using Commonwealth scientists as well, which I think would go over much better politically.)

Sending off daughters into uncharted space is also a great way to get a new rival Hive, since there's no reason to expect the daughter to be loyal after being basically cast out. There's probably some kind of middle ground we can reach between "giving a daughter an empire" and "casting a daughter into outer darkness."

>any of our daughters will have to earn their place
I agree in principle but I don't think this has to mean that they would need to start with nothing.

The old style of Hive rulership seems very feudal, and while the race might have appeared unified, it was not unified internally. Palmer's mention of humor is a good example: these kinds of jokes during the Golden Age would have been declarations of war much like they are with Taidaren clans. A Hive is a nation, there's not much room for jokes, and this just means everyone ends up in a perpetual cold war. There's some fundamental problems with how Hives work and interact that aren't very simple to solve.
>>
>>1925837
>we can't give a daughter vast fleets and resources or we'll be falling into the same trap that doomed the old hives
That's were your wrong kiddo. What doomed the ancient Hives and the old Hives is pride and greed. In-fighting was what weakened the ancient hives but what drove that is greed and pride. What killed the old Hives was the lack communication and obliviousness to danger of their actions which was caused by pride. And your desire to hoard resources and try to fight the war with only a single hive is once again driven by greed and pride with the idea that queen with a fresh perspective on the situation couldn't possibly do better. Not only that but we were told that the reason that the Hives before us had this pride and greed is because they never had to work for what they had and were simply given it which means I have no intention of simply giving a planet. Intstead I intend on having only two queens. One at M-323 studying and mining the Skyl tech there and defending the system from Scavengers looking to get at the tech. Another working with Theseus and Heretic to conquer some of the Black Queen's territory to call her own. Of course there's more to it then that (mostly some ground rules) but that's the basics of the idea and it doesn't cost us anything other than the start up cost of a queen and some ships for her.
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>>1926055
We'd have to give them all of our knowledge and resources we can't afford to give just to start the process, wait until they've established themselves, hope they're not influenced by the Void, hope their goals align with ours, hope they actually share everything they learn, hope they don't make political moves, hope they don't have any ambitions...
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>>1925092
The bigger question is how we establish these stealth hives. We should be immigrating clones via civilian traffic to each of these worlds to start a hive as an egg laying chimera, shouldn't we?

It is much less risky than atmospheric entry with a pod.

And we already have landed on Talgo just this thread so that's set. And we sent drones to Gemini Beta ages ago smuggled with the artifacts Gilliam was taking there.

And Lyle is about to send Decker to Mentan, so he can have some flies and parasites start the stealth hive there for us.
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>>1925903
>The old style of Hive rulership seems very feudal, and while the race might have appeared unified, it was not unified internally. Palmer's mention of humor is a good example: these kinds of jokes during the Golden Age would have been declarations of war much like they are with Taidaren clans. A Hive is a nation, there's not much room for jokes, and this just means everyone ends up in a perpetual cold war. There's some fundamental problems with how Hives work and interact that aren't very simple to solve.
The White queen actually figured this out. The reason this shit happened could be summed up as bad parenting or the old adage: Hard times create good men, good men create good times, good times create bad men, bad men create hard times. The past hives had it too good and these hard times are the best time for good queens to be born.
>>1926119
>We'd have to give them all of our knowledge and resources we can't afford to give just to start the process
Incorrect on the knowledge part and the resource (which is completely unknown how expensive it'll be) part I intended on being completely offset by going full Valen and making them pay for the shit we give them to start with and cost of laying them.
>wait until they've established themselves
Who ever said we just wait?
>hope they're not influenced by the Void
We're going to be watching them whole you know and we could give them the basics on what to avoid.
>hope their goals align with ours
That is their default state anon.
>hope they actually share everything they learn
Easy problem to solve.
>hope they don't make political moves
Okay now you are getting ridiculous.
>hope they don't have any ambitions
Having ambitions isn't something horrible.
You are giving a lot of retarded reasons for being against it
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>>1926195
But what do we GAIN with a knew queen? We already have one daughter now, anymore and we would have to give them a system. More queens wouldn't mean more troops since we would have to give them resources. Its a complication with next to no benefit.
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>>1926263
I agree.

Also, from a meta standpoint, the quest has already slowed down quite a bit. We don't need to introduce unnecessary major characters.
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>>1926263
>But what do we GAIN with a knew queen?
Wait, I know. We lay a new queen and give the the egg to Coil to take back to his homeworld. Our daughter will be able to adapt to the environment and with our level of tech should be able to take the planet in days.

Because hers is a new mind, totally seperate from our own, the Void will be totally unable to scry on her at first, and we remove any risk of exposure to ourselves. So with no danger to ourselves, we can expand our dynasty while dealing a brutal blow to our enemy.
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>>1926439
A planet chock full of enemies, covered in ocean with giant monsters, and getting us closer to the enemy then mom sent us even though she had said that she sent us as close as she dared. Making another queen is a bad idea. If we find another survivor, Im all game for bringing her into the fold, but no need to make a new one.
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>>1926456
not yet, anyways
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>>1926263
See
>>1925756
For more research and risk mitigation are the prime reasons I want them with establishing new cultural norms as a side reason. Though there are other potential benefits like testing new tactics, refining our militaries to be more effective, and maybe some others that I haven't thought of but those are aren't what I'm interested in.
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>>1926456
That's actually more reason to lay new queen rather then not. The old queens fell apart because they were retarded and spoiled. If everything come down to the Scarred queen it is the end our race though that's something we'll never have to deal with thus most probably won't care about.
>>
Dam can't believe there is this talk about laying a new queen all over again. We already have two daughters. We don't need more for now.
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>>1926580
and several sons.
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>>1926468
We are still establishing our own cultural norms. We are still growing mentally and emotionally. We are in no fit state to govern another burgoning hive along with that of our new daughter.
>>1926493
The Scarred Queen is useful because of her knowledge of the past and has shown regret anout the past which shows awarness of its faults. We gew up completly wild and were thus able to develop a distinct "culture" as fast as we did. A new Queen would adopt over 90 percent of our culture and sending her egg out to develop on its own woul mean it would no longer answer to us and would cause head aches in the future. A new queen is not even close worth the effort.
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>>1925123
From last thread:
Proposed Purchases:
G-426 (Aka Leeland)
P1, P2 and P3: Anti Orbital battery, Surface to Orbit Missile System, Shield dome Network
Gas Giant: 1 Thousand Orbital Electroponic Stations
Total Cost: 3.302 Million Metal, 5580 N. Gain + 1 million N per day.
This fortifies the hell out of our home system by fortifying every solid body in the system, and adds a mass of N income by sacrificing some of our ludicrous metal reserve. Need to check the other options once I understand the pastebin better.

Next question: Which systems in our new territory are colonizable, how much can we build them up without causing causing trouble for the humans, and how long will it take and how much will it cost to build them up?
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>>1926686
I can get behind that. Lump sum metal for continuous nutrients isn't a bad trade and heavier defences in our home system aren't a bad idea.
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>>1926580
>We already have two daughters.
Only one is a queen which is what actually matters here.
>>1926633
You do realize what constitutes a male in our species right?
>>1926674
>We are still growing mentally and emotionally.
We are fully developed anon. We aren't actually growing like you think.
>We are in no fit state to govern another burgoning hive along with that of our new daughter.
By your standards we'll never be ready so we might as well start now.
>The Scarred Queen is useful because of her knowledge of the past and has shown regret anout the past which shows awarness of its faults.
Yet she never actually aware of the faults only that the White Queen was right the entire time.
>We gew up completly wild and were thus able to develop a distinct "culture" as fast as we did.
We don't even really have a culture. Only a personality.
>A new Queen would adopt over 90 percent of our culture
That's actually good enough to be sufficient and could reach nearly 100% if we expose her to the existence of an external threat.
The rest of your argument holds no interest since not revelant to any of the arguments I've made.
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>>1926844
>By your standards we'll never be ready so we might as well start now.
No that's not what that means. If your assumption that he'll never believe we're ready was true then he'd believe that we should never birth a new queen.
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>>1926580
Thank you Anon. Completely agree with this.
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>>1926686
Did we ever vote on that?

I'd much rather rely on our fleet for defense and invest those resources into farms and infrastructure at least until we're breaking even on nutrients again.
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>>1926686
>P1, P2 and P3: Anti Orbital battery, Surface to Orbit Missile System, Shield dome Network
There are a lot of good ideas here, but my problem with it is the amount spent on static defenses on planetoids that are virtually uninhabitable. A shield dome network is overkill for a world nobody sees any value in, as in any invasion scenario they could just bypass it and head straight for Leeland. The anti-orbital batteries are sort of redundant for the same reason, their range can't cover the entire system so any invader could just stay out of their range and focus on our capital.

The missile systems can actually target ships on the other side of the system, so they do make sense. I'd totally vote for the electroponic stations too, but shields and orbital guns really only make sense on pieces of land our enemies would actually fight us for.
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>>1927739
The madness was a major factor, but the queens were never really united either. The constant infighting and mistrust made them unable to really pool their abilities and knowledge towards a coherent effort.
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>>1926055
>What doomed the ancient Hives and the old Hives is pride and greed. In-fighting was what weakened the ancient hives but what drove that is greed and pride.
No. What doomed the old hives was the mind fucking dark god that could hijack their central nervous systems like an 80's movie hacker. They had quite simply no defense against the corrupting effects of the void, and in a war of attrition they were doomed from the start.

>What killed the old Hives was the lack communication and obliviousness to danger of their actions which was caused by pride.
As our dearly departed mother would tell us, sometimes refraining from communicating with other queens was the only way of avoiding corruption. Once one queen fell she could transmit void corruption to other queens through telepathic communication like a contagion. And it isn't like the old queens were unable to pull together in joint efforts when they knew they had to. The matriarch may not have always been order them around however she pleased, but the fact that they were able to organize and build the Ark shows how effectively they could co operated.

>And your desire to hoard resources and try to fight the war with only a single hive is once again driven by greed and pride with the idea that queen with a fresh perspective on the situation couldn't possibly do better.
Like I said, too many queens created a vulnerability for the old hives, there were many possible targets for the void to influence. Not saying that was the only reason, but it only takes one well timed betrayal by the right queen to destroy an empire. We can't guarantee any potential daughter wouldn't get exposed to the void by accident, and then we've got the OQ all over again.

>Intstead I intend on having only two queens. One at M-323 studying and mining the Skyl tech there and defending the system from Scavengers looking to get at the tech. Another working with Theseus and Heretic to conquer some of the Black Queen's territory to call her own.
....Queens require a planet with a self sustaining ecosystem to start their hive. Part of a queens development is adaptating to the environment they hatched in, which they then pass on to their drones. When we first hatched we developed a semi filtered respiratory system to screen out infectious spores, which was passed onto our drones. Growing a hive isn't just a process of growing resources and building the infrastructure, the drones involved evolve and adapt as they adapt the ecosystem in turn.

And besides, there is nothing of any value whatsoever in the skyl mega project aside from dead metal. The whole thing never held any function beyond inflating the Skyl's collective egos. It certainly isn't fit for a young queen.
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>>1927753
They united when it counted man. The Ark project alone would have required a great deal of cooperation to accomplish.

The old queens deserve a bit of credit, they did somehow manage to win a war with an untouchable enemy. I doubt anyone or anything other than them could have achieved that.
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>>1927067
No. We never vote on anything structural or controversial. Its put off, then put off again.
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>>1926263
Well, one major thing we'd gain is less work for the players to automate. Considering that organizing a vote for improving our infrastructure is like pulling teeth, I think that offloading a bunch of it onto other queens is a good idea.
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>>1928124
Part of the reason we haven't done infrastructure investments is we haven't had planets worth upgrading for a while. The other reason is that there has been some confusion about how much upgrades would cost. As QD said
>>1925104
>Next week should be a new day, so I'd like to get the ships and nutrient levels hammered out for good before then so you're not in a mad dash to build farms.

With any luck we'll refine our understanding of nutrient income next week so we know exactly what we can build and what it will do.

I agree we need to build infrastructure, but I strongly disagree that we should be building static defenses now. We need to get our nutrient income up asap or we will starve. We can muck about investing in defenses once there are things (like farms) that are worth defending.
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>>1923401
I hope the Union remembers that although the Expanse demand got all the press, we also demanded that they turn over any and all Void/Skyl/Hive artifacts. We may need to remind them of this next week.
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>>1927822
>>1927822
>No. What doomed the old hives was the mind fucking dark god that could hijack their central nervous systems like an 80's movie hacker. They had quite simply no defense against the corrupting effects of the void, and in a war of attrition they were doomed from the start.
Last thread it was quite clearly explained why they lost and it wasn't that. The Void was getting their collective asses kicked into oblivion up until the Hive in fighting over petty squabbles started getting really bad. The fact that you don't realize this probably means most of your other arguments are going to be invalid.
>As our dearly departed mother would tell us, sometimes refraining from communicating with other queens was the only way of avoiding corruption.
That's a bullshit argument because even she admitted that her lack communication got them killed. In the end she even thought of herself as a fool.
>Once one queen fell she could transmit void corruption to other queens through telepathic communication like a contagion.
That wasn't even it you dumbass. That's just your conjecture complete based on earlier assumptions. It's clear that though the corruption did kill queens or drive them mad, it was clearly not actually contagious like you think. It was outrighted stated that the selfishness of the ancient hives got them killed with corruption being just a footnote to that
>And it isn't like the old queens were unable to pull together in joint efforts when they knew they had to. The matriarch may not have always been order them around however she pleased, but the fact that they were able to organize and build the Ark shows how effectively they could co operated.
This shows willful ignorance of what was explained. The reason they work was partially that they respected the First Queen (who they would kill at a moment's notice if she showed weakness), partially that the First Queen made it quite clear they were going to lose (due to in fighting over petty squabbles again), the First Queen used the offer of the survival of each of the major Queen's Dynasties to get the Ark built (because selfishness again), and the actual reason the First Queen wanted the Ark built was to undo the mistake she made with her empire and start a new one.
The Ark would have never needed to be built if the everyone in the empire could actually work together for the greater good because they would have crushed the enemy completely if they could.
>Like I said, too many queens created a vulnerability for the old hives, there were many possible targets for the void to influence. Not saying that was the only reason, but it only takes one well timed betrayal by the right queen to destroy an empire. We can't guarantee any potential daughter wouldn't get exposed to the void by accident, and then we've got the OQ all over again.
>If you say it enough times it'll somehow become true.
Wow you really didn't pay attention to the plot dump.
Cont.
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>>1927822
>....Queens require a planet with a self sustaining ecosystem to start their hive. Part of a queens development is adaptating to the environment they hatched in, which they then pass on to their drones. When we first hatched we developed a semi filtered respiratory system to screen out infectious spores, which was passed onto our drones. Growing a hive isn't just a process of growing resources and building the infrastructure, the drones involved evolve and adapt as they adapt the ecosystem in turn.
The Nomad is a good counter example to that since she adapted her entire hive to roaming around through space. And we don't know how important the whole landing on a planet actually is either until QD confirms.
>And besides, there is nothing of any value whatsoever in the skyl mega project aside from dead metal. The whole thing never held any function beyond inflating the Skyl's collective egos. It certainly isn't fit for a young queen.
That's false. QD even admitted that there was plenty of tech to salvage the reason we don't get any tech from it is because we had many of the Skyl's most widely used tech available.
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>>1924943
>You know, a lot of human humor involves elf-deprecating
Yeah, it's funny how much elves suck.
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>>1928287
>I agree we need to build infrastructure, but I strongly disagree that we should be building static defenses now. We need to get our nutrient income up asap or we will starve. We can muck about investing in defenses once there are things (like farms) that are worth defending.
First of, the static defenses are laughably cheap. Second, we have an utterly absurd N and M stockpile. Spending some of it to speed up our growth is a good idea.
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>>1928971
>Second, we have an utterly absurd N and M stockpile
The new ships to be built haven't been even counted yet and if/when they are in a week or two we will starve. Building resource gathering structures is also vital to expanding rapidly.
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>>1928971
>Second, we have an utterly absurd N and M stockpile.
Our N stockpile is 29,347,760 with a positive balance

Once our new fleets finish construction our nutrient balance will be (if I remember correctly) -7,191,865 per day. Our forces will starve in less than five days.

We need to invest ANY nutrients we can afford into boosting our farm growth as quickly as possible so that when our new fleet is completed we won't go negative long enough for our forces to starve. This must be a top priority.

Only after we have a positive balance should we add defenses. The big benefit of defenses is that (if I remember correctly) they don't have the same upkeep cost of ships which makes them far cheaper in the long run.

Agreed that our M stockpile is huge, though. It might be worth trading extra metal for nutrients with the other factions.
>>
We should totally create the titan class equivilent of a station at some point.

>>1927714
When they move to destroy the missile launchers, those shields and guns will still kill things and keep the launchers operational for longer.
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>>1929167
I suggest we try figure out some of the nomad style living and have portable solar farms.

Having space borne infrastructure we can rely on if shit goes sideways would be quite useful.
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>>1929176
If I remember right we had some ship designs submitted that had a negative upkeep or produced more N than they consumed but they were deemed too inefficient compared to investing in static production.
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>>1929190
I suggest we dig those back up.

Having a 1 time investment into a fleet of them, then having them reproduce themselves away from the main hive wouldnt be too bad.

Plus it can act as an extenstive scouting force we can send half way across the galaxy. More species and more tech to study and improve from cant hurt.
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>>1929176
Well in order to go full Nomad you need to get the tech the Humans at Nowhere, Scavengers at the puffy gas giant, Nomad, and possibly Cluster used to strap together their ships. Though if you want to actually just want to survive with solar collectors then all you have to do is just take a bare bones ship and stuff it full of solar collector since it's income will always be positive if you do that. The down side with solar collectors is they'll more a ship vulnerable when deployed.
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>>1929224
Hey im open to exploring ideas.
But we dont need to nowhere anything, a single power tap should suffice instead of the unholy pentangle crap.
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>>1929201
We have solar harvesters for ships is a module. The (old) description is that they cost 1k metal, make a ship immobile, and produce 400 N per day

However, the ship its installed on still has upkeep. Therefore, a naked corvette with 2 solar collectors installed (the max allowed) will cost 400 N and 2,800 M and will produce 600 N per day.

I don't know how this fully holds up with the new fluff (we need to get more clarity on nutrient generation options), but if the conversation is still accurate we could build about 10k nutrient corvettes (completely emptying our metal reserves in the process) and increase our nutrient income by 6M. This will still leave it as negative, but not by that much. It will at least make our existing reserves last longer.

That being said, I really don't want to empty our metal reserves for this.
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>>1929256
We'll probably have to empty our metal reserves for this regardless. The question is how much nutrients per day per metal we can get.
I wonder if fusion or powertap energy to nutrients would be possible.
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>>1929243
I'm talking about the tech used to create structures using ships.
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>>1929284
well considering we grow our structures, i dont really think it matters quite so much, since we just retrofit the tech we already use for stations.
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>>1929312
It's a good tech to have when we have too many ships to support or need to quickly build a space structure.
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>>1929170
>When they move to destroy the missile launchers, those shields and guns will still kill things and keep the launchers operational for longer.
Well yeah, but to what end? While any given fleet is bombarding the surface and trying to crack open the shield dome, the majority of their force will simply go around it and straight to Leeland. The shield dome and anti orbital cannons have little capacity for force projection, and no invasion force would spend much of their time or blood breaching them when our capital is within sight.
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>>1929343
Mate, your going to want to take out the missile silos shooting you in the ass, so making that harder to do means tying up more forces which would otherwise be in the main fleet.

You are suggesting to just put missile silos on rocks and be done with it. They would, without said defences, get wiped out quickly. With said defences there has to be a concerted effort to crack them open.

More effort = more time and require more ships.

Time is the currency we are buying with said defences.
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>>1929358
Not to mention, unlike ships we can easily make these self maintaining and just for a one off cost.
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>>1929167
they won't literally starve, they'll just hibernate
>>
We could also outfit a few places with rapid fire, short ranged varients of the missile silo and use them as ambush points to surprise attack a fleet at via baiting them in with our own fleet. Only ever work once, but in this situation once is probably all we'll need.
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>>1929256
You'll note that my plan costs 3.3M to gain 1N per day. Electroponic Stations are much more efficient at converting M to N.
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>>1929343
We could also add the fighter centers to the rocks to gain a large amount of fighter projection.
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>>1929387
We should turn our income back to positive before beginning additional fortifications.
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>>1929358
Fair point, I've been assuming here that missile silos are by default designed to produce mainly low orbit missiles but I don't quite know how effective they are at spamming long range attacks. If they are capable of seriously depleting an invading forces' ships placing the silos under heavy shields would make sense.
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>>1929416
Consider our stealth tech seems immutable to OQ right now.

Provided we figure out how to hide shit from gravitational scans as well when working with our AI buddy we should be able to deliver surprise packages from all across the system into the invader fleet with minimal predictability.
>>
Didn't we have some tech that turned 2m into 1n with a space gas or something or is that ratio not good I just finished catching up on the archive and kinda skipped over upkeep stuff that would have been out dated by the time I finished
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>>1929464
Yeah, we have that, but why do that when we can just make farms?
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>>1929385
Where are the stats for the electroponic stations again? Can you link?

So if 3.3 metal = +1 N per day then if we spend 21 million metal we'll get + 7 m nutrients per day. That puts us at break even.

I think under the new crunch planet side farms might be cheaper, though. Kind of unclear how that works.
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>>1929616
I suppose that will depend on how long it takes us to catalog Darwin's ecosystem and design a method of agriculture suited to it. Or we could try importing Ralighan crops, by the sound of it the planet's already dealing with a cannibal vine infestation.
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>>1929612
Just throwing it out there if we have a lot of metal producing structures already and what we need is nutrients we can just add an extra step instead of building new structures if we just have a huge surplus from structures that are no longer producing please disregard
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>>1929616

>Orbital electroponic station – An orbital instillation built near a large source of hydrogen used to fuel a large fusion core, which in turn provides electrical power to a contained algae farm facility. Must be built in orbit of a gas giant. Provides +2000N per day and doubles as a gas mining facility, refueling the tritium stores of any ships in the system. The station itself can serve as the hub of a space city with additional investment. (3000M)
I think I might have screwed up the math when I did this. It should have been 2M per day.

>Military Spaceport – Extensive fortified maintenance bays and hangars are built across the surface of the planet, as well as infrastructure and manufacturing centers to support the production and maintenance of a planetary strike craft squadron. Swarmer fighters are produced at a constant rate with suitable range to intercept orbiting vessels or approaching dropships, while more advanced fighters and gunships of the most suitable design are produced and maintained for system wide defense and patrol Aerodynamic drones are also maintained in scattered hangar facilities to provide air support in the event of ground attack, and intercept enemy dropships. All craft are held in hibernation to reduce costs, allowing an entire planet's worth of strike craft to be maintained for a relative low cost. 500N 1000M
This is really cheap. We should place it everywhere
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>>1929645
Well you're right, but the way I see it, we can spend metals to get nutrients immediately one time, or we can spend metals to increase our nutrient outcome in perpetuity.

I guess we can do the metals-->nutrients trade if we're in dire straits, but I'd prefer not to.
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>>1929659
Yeah I see your point as well plus there is something to be said about not having all your eggs in one basket with our insane logistics networks distance isn't really an issue.

Plus it seems the buzz is headed in the direction of defense projects that will require quite a bit of metal anyway

Anyway space gas could always be used to balance the budget as it were where we get overloaded on one side of resorce tree. Although I don't think we would ever really be in a position where we would trade N for M considering M is a one time cost and N is ongoing
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>>1929612
The reason is Ships with solar collectors can be quickly relocated in the case of an attack.
>>
I looked up the economy breakdown QD posted in the last thread. It’s confusing especially since there isn’t really a notation difference between “Mega” nutrients (10,000? N) and regular nutrients. I’ve given up on trying to understand the Leeland numbers given all the specific old projects in the system but the Raligha numbers make some sense.

>[M-662]
>Raligha
>N 90+20
>M 10
>Development 25

>Income:
>2.75MN
>0M

So my reading of the above is that each “N” is actually the potential to create 10,000 nutrients. If Raligha were fully developed it could produce 110 N (11,000,000 nutrients). However, since we’ve capped the dev score at 25 it’s only producing 2.75 MN. It’s not producing metal because we didn’t want to build mines.
I don't know how easy it would be to build massive creep farms on the new planets, but we need to know their potential nutrient score in order to assess how far and how quickly we should develop them.

>>1925132: QD, is this accurate or am I just talking out my ass?
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>>1930945
Mega is suppose to be x1,000,000
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>>1930988
Then why is a nutrient base of 110 with a dev score of 25 produce 2.75 MN?

If the 110 was 110 million wouldn't a dev score of 25 produce 27.5 million nutrients not 2.75?

I did get my math slightly wrong earlier, though. The large nutrient value is probably 100,000 and not 10,000 or 1,000,000
>>
>>1929648
Support
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>>1931020
Why the fuck do people say "support" to a post that isn't even a vote?
>>
>>1930882
They're also juicy, non-hardenable, poorly defended, big obvious stationary targets in the initial phase of any attack. Unlike farms, which are on our typically hardened planets and are essentially passively repaired if damaged.
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>>1931418
Except when the Void is involved all those hardened defenses mean nothing.
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>>1931444
Same could be said about the ships. When they are in their solar collector configuration, they are incapable of movement, much less warp.
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>>1931498
True but ships are more vulnerable to non void attacks.
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>>1931498
However there is a chance of the ships escaping while fully stationary structures can't which is what matters. And little detail most have overlooked is that when those orbital electroponic stations get destroy there is a chance the resources used to build them get lost in the gas giant.
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>>1931549
I think (under the new crunch) the majority of our nutrient become comes from planet side farms. We need to get some clarity on the production ability and cost of standard "farms"
>>
I wonder if we could make our own version of the energy credit using the psionic computers.
>>
So anything else that needs discussing?
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>>1933570
Giving the Union an intelligence briefing about why exactly they should stop their psionic research, what exactly it was that they summoned at Nowhere, and why they are being attacked by the Ceph.
>>
>>1933599
We've already done that. Multiple times.
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>>1933570
Hmm how but what our plan is for when we tell theaseus about stiener or if we should let it lay for a while and also how Liz feels about the subject
>>
>>1933701
We don't have to tell Theseus anything just yet, although I would like to discuss Unity with Elizabeth and Steiner. I'm still not sure if Theseus wanted Steiner dead out of a genuine hatred or if Theseus' dislike of Steiner was rooted in practicality.

Well, if a robot can learn to hate, it must also learn to forgive.
>>
>>1933817
Sounds good to me we could just let him know we needed an expendable human with aspecific skills and just happened to have his brain on file. Last thing I want is to have our best robo buddy sore at us.

Also more Elizabeth screen time is always up my ally. Hm Lee has his friends I wonder if she would like to get in touch with anyone now that we arnt super secret. I just wanna see her call more people prudes
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>>1933683
No we haven't

The only times we told them of the threat we have been incredibly vague about it. We've been much more forthcoming with the CW overall than with the Union.

I think we do need to tell the Union more about the danger and the role of the Ceph. They still see the Ceph Void cults as just a crazy cult rather than the massive threat they are.
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https://www.strawpoll.me/14084753

I figured making this a strawpoll would be a better way of asking the general playerbase over a long period of time. (and a lot easier for me to count up the results later) so I just made a strawpoll for the research system.
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>>1934348
Mate, you do know you can spam the fuck out of those trivially?
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>>1934353
You can spam the fuck out of any poll.
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>>1934353
No more than you can spam the thread itself. I figure it's good enough for House and Dominion it should be good enough for us.

Besides, you guys wouldn't so something like that, right?
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>>1934371
Threadspam is more noticable, since you can look for patterns.
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>>1934348
>>1934371
To be honest I'd be more interested in the Thinker group system you had in the works especially if you mostly automated it and used character interaction in determining what research goes where and such.It would be nice if more of our actions included character interaction especially research.
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>>1934371
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtotechnology
Here's an interesting potential tech for you.
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/dark-matter-bridge
https://phys.org/news/2017-05-magnetic-bridge-nearest-galactic-neighbours.html
Also seems like gravity/magnetic bridges are a thing which you might find interesting, it might even inspire a new FTL for your setting.
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>>1934381
That would still apply for researching characters like Elizabeth and Seiner, since they have their own dice rolls they will apply to your available research options.
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>>1934348
The system feels less interesting and potentially would cause overspecialization since we'd have a tendency to follow a researh branch to its end before jumping to the next.
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>>1934502
Well there's also the fact the thinker group system had more bonuses for research going for it. We could even apply the thinker groups to non research stuff like espionage and warfare.
>>1934552
>The system feels less interesting
The current one is even less interesting from my perspective.
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>>1934579
How so? It's far less predictable in terms of what research finishes when outside of the indicated speed.
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>>1934598
>It's far less predictable in terms of what research finishes when outside of the indicated speed.
What's actually fun about that?
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>>1934579
If I recall, that was back before drone populations were rolled up into planet management, so I don't think that system would be able to function without dramatically inflating the crunch again. Espionage has been given its own mechanics, which hopefully don't slow things down in its own way, and I would always be open for any changes to help make the military aspect of the quest more interesting.

Hopefully with all the other changes your net options will increase while keeping the overall crunch to a minimum.
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>>1934603
Uncertainty is more interesting to me than certainty.
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>>1934621
A certain degree of reliablity to consist results interesting to me do to the fact I'm more familiar with things like game theory and game design and I dislike uncertainty based on randomness. Complete certainty is boring however.
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>>1934619
Also QD you mentioned think groups around the same time as the espionage system and the space cities you had in the work if I remember correctly.
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>>1933683
No?
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You know, once Palmer commits to being a researcher, we have to insist on fixing his fatal evolutionary flaw of only having a single heart. He'll have become a semi-valuable asset then.

I wonder if Palmer is just crazy enough to be interested in staying conscious through his pain-suppressed surgery instead of horrified. How many humans have ever had the chance to hold their own still beating heart in their hands? He can always pass out in shock if it gets to be too much.
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>>1941604
Every human deserves a second heart.

Every single one of them.
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>>1941604
Palmer should definitely get the same augments we give the rest of our researchers, as well as the standard "non-disclosure" package.

I wonder how he'll respond to learning that the Hive created "humanity" and a few of our other secrets...
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https://twitter.com/HiveQueenQuest/status/917074036026413056
Looks like it's canceled.
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>>1944328
"Sad chittering noises"
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>>1944328
FUG
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So anything worth talking about?
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>>1944328
Don't worry, we have a resident lich.
Just pray we don't need to use his necromantic skills.
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>>1946675
There wasn't, but he has altered the espionage crunch to add Agitation and Suspicion stats to planets. https://pastebin.com/kH6fmTV6
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>>1950067
Interesting. Thanks bro.




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