Earth In 40k Thread #4, Tempus Fugit

Should still work. As much as we use cybernetics, I expect Vescas guys to have some way to interface with our computers to download data packets and send them through the warp.

Btw, I'm working on a little project that, if it works, may change our capabilities as much as discovering Alexandria did.

Just to get my own little tease out there.

Rawr. Now I must know. PREPARE YOUR ANUS!

I'm quite curious. What is it? I won't be disappointed if it fails. Hell, if you tell us we might even be able to help you somehow.

Eh, why not:

My basic plan is to create Chaos proof psykers and make Psy-War just as much of a part of our AI InfoWar as electronic means.

My current avenue for the first is to create a fork of the humans mind, upload it into a dedicated computer core, link that core to the main brain, and give the computer a psyker soul. As AI (or uploads in this case) can just switch their emotions off, chaos has nothing to latch onto. They will always be at full concentration, no slip up, no opening. Grey Knights and to a lesser extend, many Inquisitors and psykers are the proof that sufficient mental discipline can ward off Chaos and psychic assaults. Nothing has more focus than an AI.

And thanks to being seperate, but networked it can share all data, including the ability to comprehend the warp, with the human, while during emergencies, like possession, the Psy-Core can just self destruct, leaving the personality with the inert soul whole and healthy as it is proof against psychic dickery.

In short, it has all the benefits and hardly any drawbacks that aren't already handled.

Of course, we'll add every protective Ward we can to it.


For AI, the process is basically exactly the same. If it woks, the AI can directly assault the minds of enemy crew, get access to FTL comms and warp processing. If Vesca feels up to it, I also want him to stress test every part of it and help it overcome holes in the defence. The end result should be a psychic firewall and anti-virus software that can not only ward daemons off, but actually purge them from our systems.



If both works, we will effectively have access to battlefield psykers by the metric ton. Psykers that are immune to possession. Psykers that have a superhuman ability to control their powers as they don't have just training, but dedicated Uploaded self that direct the warp with machine precision.

Do I need to describe what thousands of Librarians (or Grey Knights) can do on a battlefield?


For warships, this means that they can effectively shut down enemy crews, use machine curses (or healing), troll daemons that get into range and at an extreme level, hack the Tyranid Hivemind. Or a Chaos God. But that would take a while.

More short term, we can try to have the AI work on Warp technology and create industrial processes for warpstone. They can also act as psychic reactors to feed power to Vesca if he needs it.

*is slack jawed*

Holy shit!

If I were a Demon, and anything is possible, if I couldnt subvert the wetware of a computer system id settle for wrecking its hardware. Our wards only protect against mental subversion. There isnt much stopping a demon from porting in and wrecking the place.

so basically cybran . wireless cybran simbionts

@Vesca - energy is. they need the warp energy to do so, and cannot waste it to port in in hostile, calm warp unfriendly space. not against a entire nation of such devices.
mass produced by iron wombs and assembly lines.

The Simbionts are Rising, now you need to get your ACUs, Quantum Gates and Quantum Telecom.

Eh, there some more, but that was the big part. The other is more abour resource extraction and thinking with portals. Under high pressure. And high temperature.

Let's just say that if it works, it'll give a decent resource yield, and be a spectacle to watch.

I am working on a project of my own to further improve our mobility in the warp. Its a warp artifact that extends out beyond the Gellar Fields (retractable of course). It allows the navigator to sense warp currents and their direction relative to real space and move the ship into a position to take advantage of those currents.

Never more will we face unfavorable currents.

True, but I've got to admit Remulian makes a fair point. Not too many demons would risk the energy to port in to try to smash something they can't subvert/seems to be actually well protected from them.

Obviously, we'd need to test all of this stuff for a while anyway.

And first survive the Imperial assault.

What do you mean? It doesn't really /matter/ in the end what happens at Earth. Our population, and the Earth Coalition's population is safe far away from Earth. If we wanted to, we could have simply powered down at Earth/not engaged there at all. we simply want to inflict casualties really.

Daemons are literally unable to see stuff with a weak warp presence. If they try to wreck the hardware, fine. They were designed to be wreckable without killing the host. Daemons aren't dangerous because they can break stuff. Anyone can do that. They are scary because they can hijack your shit and cause untold havock with it.

Further, psykers can fight back against Daemons. Usually, it's just too hard to manage. AI's with insane reaction times, precision, power, focus and being mostly invisible will likely tear daemons that get too close apart.


Speaking about unable to see, The Exorcists and Illuminati are another fascinating example of extreme mental discipline working. Those guys are pretty much invisible to daemons even when walking right up to them.

Time is different in the warp, the reaction time of an AI is meaningless unless the warp aligns to slow the reaction time of demons who are already in the warp relative to real space. It is entirely possible a demon could end up reacting to the actions of an AI before the AI even thinks to carry out those actions.

You know, in the previous game ACUs were on my long-term to-do list...

How about creating some lighthouses as well? We already proposed it early on, but with multiple markers to triangulate we already get a impressive leg up. If you somehow manage a weather report of warp currents in the area, it would be even better. Maybe measure how the currents influence your link with your mages and then set about analyzing them so you can gve a good estimate of local weather if the signal is influenced in a certain way.

And don't forget the runes. We already have basics to get power from the warp and dump heat there. If you help, we may gain true stealth in space.

(And damn it, I want to one up the Eldar at their own game!)

DakkaMania, don't take this the wrong way, but I'm going to stay a couple of dozen light years away from the initial experiments. Your idea could be awesome if it works, but methinks it's more likely to go horribly, horribly wrong. And just because our most likely enemies do not have countermeasures right now, it's not unthinkable that they might develop them.

Terradyne is not an easy-going GM, and our enemies have been generally portrayed as competent in their own ways.

If we throw rocks into the water, we should not be surprised to see the ripples spreading in ways we did not anticipate and in ways we certainly don't want them to.

Er... Is it not possible that Psykers might detect the heat being dumped into the Warp, or else a ship in the Warp with good enough sensors might detect it?

And yet, psykers aren't auto-possessed. Grey Knights can defend themselves more than adequadely. Powerful psykers can bitchslap daemons in the warp. A Psy-AI can do all that. But that's why I wanted you to do your best to crack it. You are our own warp monstrosity. You know their tricks. You can use every conceivable assault and if one gets trough, you see how we can improve the defences to account for that. Temporal dickery is one of the most obvious facets of that strategy.

Jeez, hearing everyone's behind the scene project makes me feel bad for not having a breakthrough in my backpocket.

@ dakkamania, do you have your own private research department or are you utilizing the joc r&d for your projects?
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Also remind me what precautions we currently take to keep AI from being corrupted (as I wasn't privy to the precautionary planning when they saw widespread use). Are they all warpsafed?

Many psykers are auto-possessed actually. Why do you think the Imperium treats them the way they do? Its just that not all psykers are. I am simply saying that an AI's reaction time may not be as useful against such a reality raping force as the warp.

As for warp lighthouses, the reason I am not employing warp gates en masse is because they would send out a psychic signal that attracts demons.

These lighthouses, would act as demon magnets as well. They would need psykers to power them or a link to me so I could power them. I have neither the power to fuel them and not be strapped to life support equipment (I am NOT your holy Emperor) nor the desire to become demon bait.

I use general resources. Technically, everyone could inquire with Terra about them.


Yes, our AI are generally shielded with vortext shields the Eldar Admiral gave us. Smaller units have blank sould while cybernetics are covered by human souls that are also warp inert.

My plan is merely to give them offensive power while keeping defence at an acceptable level.

The fact that most psykers live long enough to be discovered speaks against this. Daemons aren't unbeatable.

And you forget that the AI gets reality warping power as well. Precocnition is not out of the question.

...I wonder what that will do for processing speed...

its not so much demons arent unbeatable as the psykers learn to hide really quickly, are lynched, or get possessed or otherwise sucked into the warp. The black ships only ever collect psykers they happen to find while on site, or the ones who survived long enough for the ships to show up.

As for the warp lighthouses, no. I am not your holy emperor, and I am not demon fodder. Those things would become demon magnets for lesser, or god forbid, greater demons. Its too soon for me to be fighting off Changers of Ways again.

With the inevitability of an avalanche, your missile salvo arrives. The Imperial Navy, although of somewhat variable quality, has a long tradition and significant experience to draw upon. Shortly before the salvo arrives, the Imperial ships fire off their own torpedo tubes again, apparently reloaded. This time, however, their target was not your ships, but the missiles. Although many were almost unguided, they detonated at well-placed points in the formation. Approximately 70% of the remaining missiles were destroyed by chain-detonations and fragment impact.

The remaining 27% of the salvo surges in, utilising their thrusters to attempt to baffle the Imperial's final point-defences.

The Imperial's weapon batteries open up, their formation holding relatively tightly, presenting a solid wall of defensive fire against the missiles. As many shots go wild as hit, but with their comparatively low armour levels, even a glancing hit is enough to destroy them. In the end, only a few dozen make it through the barrage, impacting on the shields of several of the frigates. One is damaged extensively, three more have their shields knocked down.

Interception of the remaining Imperial torpedoes goes well, with the drones sweeping them with zero losses. Per orders, the Frigate-fired torpedoes are allowed to pass. These are intercepted by the point-defences of your capital ships, although their response is slightly sluggish, and several of them get relatively close, though not enough to do any damage.

Initial drone swarms arrive, launching their (comparatively) small warheads. Enemy fire stabs out, catching hundreds of drones, and detonating a large number of warheads (collateral damage from these is a large problem, as they are fail-deadly). However, many thousands make it through, smashing against the shields of the enemy ships. Seven frigates are destroyed, worn away by the steady rain of antimatter blasts. Shields drop, and hulls are boiled away. A cruiser takes a number of impacts, its core destabilising, the ship evapourating in a massive explosion that damages one of the battleships.

Lastly, the Frigates dispatched towards the enemy fleet decelerate, and reorient their guns towards the enemy fleet, powering their spinal-mount gravity lances. Ten shots ring out, and two frigates are carved in two.

Five frigates, three cruisers and a battleship detach from the main body of the fleet and begin to move towards the frigates, overcharging their drives to intercept.

Current status: Drones ~20,000 remaining. Rearming.
Two incoming missile salvoes.
Ten frigates engaging.