A different Earth in 40k: A Glorious Golden Future? Part 9

IC thread
IC Thread 2

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

Planet info as of 2020:

Code:

PlanetName  "Earth"
Population                        8,010,000,000
IndustrialCapacity                1610
Infrastructure                  0.65
ResearchEfficiency                0.50
PlanetaryGDP                    $117,404,449 millions
PlanetaryGDPGrowthrate  3.00%
EcologicalCapacity                120,000,000 km2
EcologicalImpact                    216,270,000 km2
Happiness                                0.50
LifeExpenctancy                    69 years
TotalArmedForces                15,000,000
MilitaryEffeciency                0.35
OrichalcumProduction      100 tons
MoonsilverProduction        100 tons
StarmetalProduction          100 tons
JadeProduction                    100 tons
SoulSteelProduction            0  tons
AdamantProduction          100 tons
ExoticsProduction                100 tons

Current List of Players.

Rask:
Rolf Schneider, Midnight Caste Abyssal. Politician and de facto leader of the Exalts. Scary as hell. Current XP Balance: 230/230

DakkaMania:
Arndt Hartmut, Twilight Caste Solar. Scientist and Artifacter. May or may not be prone to spontaneous Shark Monster Experimentation. Current XP Balance: 230/230

Robotninja:
Daniel Smith, Defiler Caste Infernal. Scientist and possess most intact First Age Memories. Prone to overstating defenses. Current XP Balance: 216/240

Mandalayain:
Hadrian Eversol, Daybreak Caste Abyssal. Computer developer and business man. Capable of creating sapient AIs and buying and selling countries. Current XP Balance: 230/230

Finbar:
Mikel Andropov, Night Caste Solar. Head of Exalt information control and investigative branch of operations. Is connected to multiple crime syndicates. Yes, including governments. Current XP Balance: 188/230

linkhyrule5:
Link Hailo, Chosen of Secrets Sidereal. Creator of the Shroud and go to guy regarding mystical information gathering along with demnse and manse production. Fate Ninja/Jedi. Current XP Balance: 222/230

Alectai:
Alice Lavern, Scourge Caste Infernal. Only "Non SBer" among the Exalts and high speed death machine. Probably Insane and generally hilarious. Current XP Balance: 209/230

Lord Sia:
Karl Jaeger, Full Moon Caste Lunar. Current team Tank, high power death machine, and partial chimera. Very difficult to kill. Also a Shark Monster. Current XP Balance: 194/230

Hazard:
Johanna Frederika Wilhelmina Elizabeth van Brummen, No Moon Caste Lunar. Biologist. Very long name. Current XP Balance: 195/230

Nervaqus987:
Rebecca Mcdonell, Dawn Caste Solar. General and Newest of Exalts. Has very talkative voices in her head. Current XP Balance: 186/230

Current Status: Assault on Space Hulk underway. Rolf, Alice, and Karl are on board and have seized control of the Engines. Enemy resistance largely dealt with. All Exalts who did not engage in initial assault on Hulk save Hardrian are in en-route via Yellow Path with Tzneetchian Daemonhost.

Additionally, three Dragonblooded Children have stowed away on the Hulk and have Exalted.

Just in case this got missed on the way out.

I am dead serious here. I know there's a couple ways to purify someone if they absolutely want to turn their backs on Chaos and get back in the Emperor's good graces, but it has a tendency to fail. If this can work...........

The problem is that given how Marines are trained, that's pretty damn hard to do.

Well, I have been studying how souls work for a number of years now.(Getting close to working out how to make them.) And my...unique outlook (Hey look! And advantage to being an Abyssal!) has let me work out a few things. Chaos possession is, in many ways, remarkably similar to the Great Curse. I am not positive it will work yet, thus why I offer no promises. But my theory seems to be sound.

If I can make it work, it would not really be applicable to mass use, but it would let me remove Chaos taint from people if they have even the slightest desire. I would be more comfortable testing it on the regular Marine first, as it will be tricky enough the first time.

But, if it works out... Well, a Chaos Sorcerer was my next target anyway.

Not really. All I need is a sliver of regret, a tiny spark of desire to be free, if my theory is right. (Again, no promises.) As powerful as they are, there are certain areas where I can gain a edge, so to speak.

Only problem is that Chaos Bullshit tends to ensure people gleefully jump in, all all sense of regret is surgically removed by the time they become dangerous

There is that. But...Well... *Sighs* I admit, it may be possible to...reset, or restore those parts of the soul. Though that is a damn long shot.

Eversol is starting to gain a understanding of souls. With a bit more work, he may be able to edit them. Which is basically how he plans to turn into a Solar in many ways.

Normally yes. But I would say that a small spark of who they used to be always remains buried under what they've become. And if it doesn't? Social Charms. They aren't just good for mind control. They can also be used to bring to the surface things that normally stay buried or to make someone think enough. Individually, I'd say that it wouldn't be enough, that Chaos would just bury the regret. But together? Maybe.......

In any case, we lose nothing but a bit of time if we try. And if we succeed, we come just a bit closer to expunging the Great Curse.

And this will work VERY well for those that have been forcibly possessed, if I am right. Like say, certain Primarchs?

What's equally likely is that we'll succeed, and the success will be a lie. You need to keep in mind that Chaos is Distressingly Powerful even on the Exalted scale--their elite troops are almost the equal of young Celestials for god's sake X_x

I mean, it goes without saying, but I would be very skeptical of success happening anytime soon. And I wouldn't expect to get one of the possessed Primarchs Ever, considering the Chaos Gods take a personal interest in keeping them under their thumbs.

True. Chaos is very powerful. But they aren't the only ones with power or the only ones who cheat. While we go mucking around in their head we leave a bomb behind, figuratively speaking. Social Charms may not be capable of forcing a person to commit suicide outside of certain, elaborate, circumstances but Celestial Sorcery is very much capable of leaving a spell on them that will activate if they ever go Chaos again. Something suitably lethal and poetically ironic.

Also? Malfeas as a few Charms that accomplish much the same if Sorcery wont work.

Presuming equal Essence ratings and specializations, I'd bet on the Exalt in an Exalt vs Chaos Daemon battle. Unfortunately Chaos holds a major advantage in that there is a damn lot of them and anything that would actually be commanding forces arrayed against us will be of higher Essence.

We'll make our presence known in the rest of the Galaxy over time, but untill we reach Elder status any of the major players that can reach us can keep us pretty well bottled up at minimum. We're simply not powerful enough yet.

Of course. You know how utterly paranoid I am. I do not plan to take any chances.

A mook I think I could get to work soonish. Like a Chaos Marine. A Sorcerer... Not sure about that. I only brought it up, as it may be possible.

A Primarch? Yeah, that 50-100 years down the line unless I get luckier than I think.

Which is why we cheat. In the scale of things, a hundred years isn't much by the standards of 40K. In a hundred years though, we can break the caps on our Essence and start getting into the Elder stuff. Not much of course, but enough. If they bottle us up, eventually we will be able to gather enough power to smash through them. Especially if one of Infernals goes Devil Tiger and goes Aftershock War Primordial on whoever is keeping us in place.

Not to mention that we have the advantage of Sorcery. It may be too slow to use effectively in combat, but it is damn useful in setting things up. And eventually we will be able to affect the Shinma. And then we will really fuck up everyone's day.

Yeah though, for all I'm complaining, I really like how Cerillian's set things up that this isn't going to be a complete sweep in our favor--even when we hit elder levels, we simply won't be able to operate on the scale the rest of our rivals do.

The one big, big weakness we have though is that our Essence is really limited, and they require virtually no resources to be incredibly killy, and their baseline abilities match what we need to exert ourselves to match, I learned this lesson the hard way during my last fight X_x

Seriously, those rays locked me down for about 40 minutes IRL before I decided to alpha strike my way through them in the chat. They're ridiculously tanky.

Yeah it's going to be a long time going before we can even start entertaining the thought of taking on the Imperium, or the Eldar, or the Orks, and expect to come out on top. The Tau will be easier, but they are unlikely to be anywhere near us, while the Necrons and Nids.... yeah.

On a totally unrelated note... Has Lord Sia been posting his own part?

Out of curiosity, do you have any Skin Mount Amulets? Those could help out a lot with the Essence problem. Other than that *shrug* most of the old ways for regaining essence in a fight have been reworked into Offensive and Attunment Motes.

But don't forget. Next turn, Dakka should have Celestial Battle Armor ready. Celestial Battle Armor upgraded with 40K tech. That should do wonders towards tipping the odds in our favor some more.

No more stacking, remember? I imagine that counts for Skin Mounts too.

Yeah though, my hypertech upgraded CBA is going to be a nice help, I didn't pay 45 spacebux for the reference photo to just get some dice adders :3

Um, I thought that part of the problem/danger/risk of curing somebody of Chaos... Was the success itself.


Namely, your fellows aren't worried about you not succeeding, Mandalayain.


They're worried about if you DO succeed. Because it will draw attention to you guys; more so then usual, anyway.


They're not only worried about Chaos leaving nasty surprises and tricking you into believing they're gone when actually they're not... They're worried about the Chaos Gods focusing on anybody who's able to remove Chaos corruption/possession/infection.

We have two main advantages over everyone else. First, we have DBed. This is huge. Second, we have a population of Psykers. This is also huge.

Our moderate tier advantages are metaknowledge, several types of Exalts working together, and our soon to be created Dapper Orks. (Dorks, for short.)

Right, but... As we are demonstrating right now, even now, with only three combat Exalts + 1 weapon/armor crafting Exalt, we can hold off and kill three freaking Chapters of CSM. When all of us get some combat ability, there will be very little that can threaten our actual existence - though they can keep us bottled up until I figure out infinite-range non-Warp teleportation. (I can already almost do that by using Birthing the Maiden of Wisdom + Greater Sign of Journeys, but it costs a permanent dot of Essence and Willpower for a month, so I'd rather find a better way. Probably a Sidereal Martial Art...)

And Alectai: You're forgetting that we have perfect effects. I can't imagine it'd be that hard to invent a perfect Chaos detection Charm - perfect Investigation Charms already exist, I believe. At that point... Chaos, as far as I can tell, doesn't have perfect defenses. :drevil:

Chaos, being related to Raksha, will have pseudo perfect effects. Either by throwing enough dice at something or by saying 'unless opposed by magic/stunt'. Not enough to take on a Celestial level Exalt, but actually moderately dangerous to DBs. And don't forget that those Exalts don't exist in a vacuum. There are several regiments worth of what the Imperium would consider elite and extremely well equipped Sisters of Battle, if not quite the same level of piety.

Plus Chaos attracts both the best and worst of mankind. They could very well wind up being ruled over by some Exalts.

@Hazard: Yes, but that doesn't change the fact that they don't have true "block the unblockable/dodge the undodgeable" (or in this case "hide the unhideable") perfect defenses. A perfect Investigation Charm will still find anything they do.

The Exalts might be harder, though... (I wonder what happened to the Exaltation that was the Green Lady? :drevil: )

Man, we need to get a Warmaster who sticks around

I mean, Alice may be capable of singlehandedly wiping out an arbitrarily high number of unhardened targets, and may be capable of relocating at supersonic speeds, but until I get Essence 5 and invent a "Reflexively shift to the Warp" charm, her strategic speed's going to be limited.