A warning from the future

[DakkaMania]

What would happen if an Imperial WH40k ship crashes on modern day earth? Assume the ship was sent to the past because of a warpstorm and was damaged by it, which forced the crew to crashland on a nearby planet: Earth. None of the crew survived the crash and the ship won't be spacecapable again, but many books that the officers, crewmen, soldiers, commissars and priests owned remain intact enough to read. From them earth at large gains a rough outline for the big events of the next 38,000 years, but nothing specific like the cause or reason for an event, which were somehow leaked to the public. (Chaos infection because of the ship is not possible, it's completely about the effects on history)

How will it affect earth?

How will it change the following millenia?

[Drachyench]

38,000 years? We found a ship trying to return with Dark Age texts! Ready the STC's boys!

Seriously? All that really happens is military gets its hands on a lot of dangerous tech, 40Kers go crazy because they realize Chaos & the God Emperor exists, and somewhere in Turkey a man with a penchant for eagles wonders what'll happen if he tries the Primarch project with women this time around...

[DakkaMania]

Originally Posted by Drachyench

38,000 years? We found a ship trying to return with Dark Age texts! Ready the STC's boys!

I never said that they had STC's or any tech data for that matter, the texts that I was refering to were history books(that are likely full of propaganda) and religious texsts, both Ecclesiarchy and AdMech. They just give them the gist of history like Iron Man rebellion, Dark Age of Technology, Age of Strife and the Age of the Imperium. Just things that are likely to lie around in a standard Imperial warship. And the timetravel was an accident (or planned by the Emperor), they weren't planning to travel through time.

Originally Posted by Drachyench

Seriously? All that really happens is military gets its hands on a lot of dangerous tech, 40Kers go crazy because they realize Chaos & the God Emperor exists, and somewhere in Turkey a man with a penchant for eagles wonders what'll happen if he tries the Primarch project with women this time around...

Sorry, I wasn't specific enough, I mean the 40K Earth at our stage of developement, at 009M3. No Tabletop or otherwise.

And I doubt that the military or anyone could reverse engineer the tech that fast, otherwise we would see Tau using some of the more impressive tech like Voidshields. I was more aiming for the reaction to the knowledge what a horrible future lies ahead of them if they don't try to change anything

[Drachyench]

Who said anything about reverse engineering? There's still weapons on the warship, and it doesn't take a scientific genius to realize how a lasgun is a weapon that can be used to equip a force with supreme firepower.

[DakkaMania]

Originally Posted by Drachyench

Who said anything about reverse engineering? There's still weapons on the warship, and it doesn't take a scientific genius to realize how a lasgun is a weapon that can be used to equip a force with supreme firepower.

Enough for an army? I'd think they hoard them and try to figure them out. But what could change in the timeline at large?

Will the 'Iron Men' ever exist?
Will they rebel or are there better counters in place?
If they don't exist will humanities progress change for the better or worse?
Will the Age of Strife be as crippling as in the OTL or can earth and it's colonies ride it out, they managed to survive during the DAoT for a long time without FTL travel and trade.
Will working examples of 'SciFi'-Tech inspire them to greater heights or will they spend too much time and resources on figuring it out and miss other technologies?

[Entilza]

Where on Earth does the ship crash? This is important.

[DakkaMania]

Let's put it on Iceland, having it crash in america would be just cliché.

[Entilza]

I'm with Drachyench. Humanity gains a lot of very dangerous tech and a frantic race begins to reverse engineer it. The ship would have to only be lightly damaged if fragile objects like books survived completely intact.

[Hiver]

Originally Posted by DakkaMania

Let's put it on Iceland, having it crash in america would be just cliché.

Fuck iceland. Lets put it in the middle of the sahara. Let them work for it!


Or the marianertrench!

[DakkaMania]

Originally Posted by Entilza

I'm with Drachyench. Humanity gains a lot of very dangerous tech and a frantic race begins to reverse engineer it. The ship would have to only be lightly damaged if fragile objects like books survived completely intact.

I didn't say completely intact, more like confetti in most cases, but they can be easily put back together. Old Stasi documents that were shredded after the Wall fell are still being put together, and there won't be nearly as many documents on the ship.

But I'm curious what an impact it would have on society, to know for certain that the future is a monstrous hellhole from their darkest nightmares. It would be possible that spaceflight would get a lot more interest because they want an headstart.

[Entilza]

The Emperor may decide to reveal himself early since he now know almost exactly what he needs to do differently to make the Great Crusade a success.

[DakkaMania]

Originally Posted by Entilza

The Emperor may decide to reveal himself early since he now know almsot exactly what he needs to do differently to make the Great Crusade a success.

The Great Crusade was done to reunite Terra with it's colonies, which is a bit pointless if they haven't startet to colonise the galaxy. And with the forewarning humanity shouldn't be hit as hard by the warpstorms during the age of strife, but I'm no expert about it. Maybe they will try to figure out an non-Warp FTL like the Necron or the Tau, although the latter should be easier because it doesn't really goes into the warp but is still based on it. But that would still take millenia.

I doubt they would be receptive to an absolute Leader under those circumstances, and I don't think that he would go around telling them that he's the God-Emperor that the texts refer to.

[Entilza]

Tau do still use the warp, they just skim the surface instead of diving in like the IOM does, and we have no chance in hell of creating Necron FTL. The warpstorms were caused by the birth of Slaanesh and there's no way we can stop that unless we can find the Eldar and convince the most arrogant race in the galaxy they are going to kill themselves.

[hyzmarca]

Originally Posted by Entilza

Tau do still use the warp, they just skim the surface instead of diving in like the IOM does, and we have no chance in hell of creating Necron FTL. The warpstorms were caused by the birth of Slaanesh and there's no way we can stop that unless we can find the Eldar and convince the most arrogant race in the galaxy they are going to kill themselves.

Stopping the Eldar from creating Slaanesh is simple, just systematically glass all of their planets. If that doesn't knock them out of their hedonistic funk long enough to fight back then the only Eldar left alive would be those on the craftworlds.

[DakkaMania]

Originally Posted by Entilza

Tau do still use the warp, they just skim the surface instead of diving in like the IOM does, and we have no chance in hell of creating Necron FTL. The warpstorms were caused by the birth of Slaanesh and there's no way we can stop that unless we can find the Eldar and convince the most arrogant race in the galaxy they are going to kill themselves.

Or we make sure that each colony can supply itself with the basics like food and water, and their tech is damn resilent, so they should be able to turtle up and hope that it works.

Are Tau drives hindered by warpstorms if they don't really enter the warp? Even minimal FTL would help them out, even FTL communication would help them to remain unified. And it doesn't have to be the Necron drive, just any drive that is not influenced by warpstorms, even if it's not fast.

Originally Posted by hyzmarca

Stopping the Eldar from creating Slaanesh is simple, just systematically glass all of their planets. If that doesn't knock them out of their hedonistic funk long enough to fight back then the only Eldar left alive would be those on the craftworlds.

That leaves the problem that if they fight back we have a problem on our hands. Of course we could blow them all up at the same time and tell the Craftworld Eldar that they don't have to thank us, and that we only did it for their own good.

Just. As. Planned.

Or we sic a (dozen) WAAAGH!'s on them.

[Hiver]

Originally Posted by DakkaMania

That leaves the problem that if they fight back we have a problem on our hands. Of course we could blow them all up at the same time and tell the Craftworld Eldar that they don't have to thank us, and that we only did it for their own good.

Just. As. Planned.

Or we sic a (dozen) WAAAGH!'s on them.

oh i like that one...out plan the eldar....thats just win.

xanatos gambit anyone?

[DakkaMania]

Originally Posted by Hiver

oh i like that one...out plan the eldar....thats just win.

xanatos gambit anyone?

And then gloating, it would be oh so sweet...