LARPFEST

[Kayerts]

Completing the Transcendence Protocol for anyone means Mankind dies, methinks, so this is right out.

Oh, interesting idea; where are you getting that, though?

 

[Storyfag]

The Dragon's discussion with the Machine, methinks.

 

[Hoodoo]

Fanboy in me wants God-Fight
staying with my everything choice.


but if it comes down to it A

 

[Kayerts]

4. Is pretty retarded, because its nearly impossible. To do so, we would need to take the Imperial Palace, STOP the Dragon from going to Mars, quickly understand the Dragon's machinery, then go to Mars and jump on the right place before we get killed by the Grim Reaper.

Nah, we have the benefit of coordinated actions here. Malygris uses Warp engineering to jam the Machine; Doombreed tells Jeremiah to push VD into Mars as per the Nightbringer's plan; VD engages Transcendence in his laboratory before his escape, but the only thing awaiting him on the other side is the Grim Reaper; we follow after, undo Malygris's work, and transcend.

So, we don't have to stop the Dragon from getting to Mars, we don't have to rev-eng his machinery (only Malygris's jamming mechanism), and hopefully VD and NB will keep each other busy long enough to complete transcendence. It's still a risky plan, and there are a lot of ways it can go wrong, but it does have the advantage that mankind might survive if it succeeds. Among our options, that appears to be a unique benefit.

Although if Storyfag's right, maybe not even then.

I have been thinking those days, and I'm getting worried about C. I don't like the idea of opening another warp rift so near Earth. I think we will make a new eye of terror, and possibly get everyone near Mars soul-sucked. That seems like a pretty cool option at first sight, but I think it might be actually a game-over option for Jeremiah and company.

[..]

I'm beginning to get more sympathethic to B and D. B might destroy the Nightbringer along with the machine, and I think he can't get out of Mars due to the forcefield without going straight to Terra. That means Nightbringer ends up either dead, trapped or forced to go to Terra, where he may fight the Dragon. I still think we should leave Terminus for the last choice.

I agree about worrying about C and getting sympathetic toward D. The original Eye of Terror was created by the birth of a god, and I get the impression that Slaanesh was a gadfly compared to what's brewing in the depths of Mars. But the bigger issue with C is that the Machine God hasn't given any evidence of caring about humanity, only of disliking VD. The enemy of our enemy isn't our friend; we might be his cannon fodder.

D is looking better due to how awful all our other options look upon analysis, but I'm not sold yet. If my proposed bid for godhood turns sideways, I'd be happy with it, though.

Root, at this point I'd actually be happy to have Ahriman take a look at the future, to see if he can pick out a Golden Path. I have great faith in our ability to misunderstand it and to pick the wrong choice despite all contrary evidence, so I don't think it'll hurt either the story or our prospects.

 

[Baltika]

I still vote for the original B. Screw all those divine bastards, none of 'em can be trusted for anything. Starting with the Deciever, onto the Chaos Gods, through the VD and finishing with the Great God of Chaos, these fuckers could only fuck shit up. Literally. So I say, fuck 'em. If this meanss we die, so be it, we'll do it as we always did: pants on, upright and flipping off the whole Galaxy.




P.S.: And, yes, Doombreed should go out with a bang. Have him do something awesome, or at least attempt it.

 

[Baltika]

Maybe, but those two were dicks, big ones, too.

 

[Baltika]

And where did you get the whole "I destroyed hell" bit.

 

[Baltika]

And you're saying that a bro as awesome as Doombreed deserves something less then a badass way to die?

 

[DwarvenFood]

Flip-flop to ORIGINAL B

 

[Azira]

freeze the Nexus in Mars without Nightbringer noticing or caring (by this point it should be obvious he isn't a total dumbfuck) and destroy VD who is still quite formidable on his own without him noticing what Malygris is doing and reaching the override on Terra (of course there is an override); or destroy VD without allowing him to reach the Teleportarium while still on earth. Then reach the Mind beneath the Golden Throne (The Original Mind, the one on Mars is the operative, this seems to be a misconception: The one that talked to the Hivemind and talked to the Dragon isn't the same AI that is on Mars.) while 10 thousand grey knights try to kill. Then you'd have to decode the protocols, make the original transcend you instead of VD and hope you don't go mad with having your consciouness becoming expanded to infinity, and then you'd still have to deal with the original mind, nightbringer and whatever it is you left behind.

I vote we do this!

 

[Kayerts]

I mean put that way, that's clearly the smartest thing to do.

Root's clarification about the distinction between the Machine Mind and the Machine God is concerning for choice C, since even the tenuous evidence we had regarding the machine's reluctance to murder mankind applies only to the Mind, not to the God. We basically have no information about the God; indeed, the offer he's making to Malygris could be a failsafe mechanism VD himself implanted, in case hostile forces ever breached the Noctis Labyrinth. "Don't shut me down, press this helpful 'destroy VD' button and something awesome will happen."

It's looking increasingly like all the choices just offer different ways for humanity to be exterminated, which makes choosing between them hard.

 

[DwarvenFood]

It's looking increasingly like all the choices just offer different ways for humanity to be exterminated

 

[Hoodoo]

Have we got any bombs/weapons that we can exterminatus with?

 

[Hoodoo]

RAMMING SPEED

 

[Ulminati]

Can we asplode mars with it if VD goes there?

I see no reason not to Asplode mars. It is a ghetto planet. Truly, it is the armpit of our solar system.

 

[Hoodoo]

B) Ram Mars with the phallic exterminatus weapon, taking the Nightbringer, the Machine God, and Jeremiah into oblivion


my vote

and then Ahriman can go to Terra and fsu

 

[Storyfag]

Mars is still protected by that fucking refractor shield, remember? We didn't overload it permanently. Or at least that's how I understood root.

Also, our ability to kill the VD and the Reaper is disputable. The latter survived fucking reformed Khaine AND a gazillion of Lords of Change. The former is of the same species, and therefore reasonably can be expected to be as resilient.

Finally, leaving us against "only" the Swarmlord and the Tyranids is simply lulzworthy.

 

[skuphundaku]

Mars is still protected by that fucking refractor shield, remember? We didn't overload it permanently. Or at least that's how I understood root.

Also, our ability to kill the VD and the Reaper is disputable. The latter survived fucking reformed Khaine AND a gazillion of Lords of Change. The former is of the same species, and therefore reasonably can be expected to be as resilient.

Finally, leaving us against "only" the Swarmlord and the Tyranids is simply lulzworthy.

We could overload it again and shoot with the rest of our fleet's firepower, though I'm not sure how much of the huge necron fleet we just wrecked remains. Does Chaos possess Cyclonic Torpedoes? A two-stage cyclonic torpedo would do a number on Mars, enough to destroy whatever sustains the forcefield, then mop up the rest with the good ol' Armageddon Cannon.

Yeah, C'tan are sturdy like hell, but they're material Gods. I don't think even they can survive a focused-planet shattering energy beam of death. If Ahriman and Swarmlord fail, shooting them with the Armageddon Cannon is the best plan. The bad thing is that if they're in Mars, then Terminus is useless against them.

Well, Tyranids are GOING to devour the galaxy. Void Dragon will DEVOUR SOULs here and now, and Nightbringer will reap a harvest of human souls as soon as the Dragon dies.

Swarmlord is a interesting case. He is sentient enough to recognize us as co-belligerants, but if he can be reasoned with, that is another question. From the short spell of time we played with him, he seemed pretty sane compared to the Hivemind's unending in(s)ane screeching. We have no idea if he eventually became more of a individual or went closer to the Hive Mind. He saluted Jeremiah shortly before his assault on Terra, and Ahriman was capable of hearing the Hivemind talk with The Mind, so communication is possible. That depends on the next update, because so far we're in Mars and have no idea what the hell is happening. He may be the key to stopping the Tyranids or maybe at least weakening them by killing it near the Grey Knights, destroying the Swarmlord forever once and for all.

I flip-flop from D to supporting this plan.

 

[Ulminati]

Yeah, if we can jizz all over mars with our giant armageddon penis gun, I'll flip-flop from D too.

 

[Baltika]

Two questions: how high from Mars' surface is the refractor shield and what is the cannon's blast radius upon contact?

I guess what I'm asking is, won't trying to penetrate Mars' protective hymen with Jeremiah's uber-manly flying phallus with the object of dropping off his load cause it to contact an extremely potent and fast-, practically immediate, acting form of AIDS?

I.E.: Won't it just fuck everything up?

 

[Kayerts]

BTW, anybody knows any source material that can find me what kind of weaponry Chaos uses in their ships? I tried W40K wikia and Lexicanum, nothing big so far.

Here you go.

Well, Tyranids are GOING to devour the galaxy. Void Dragon will DEVOUR SOULs here and now, and Nightbringer will reap a harvest of human souls as soon as the Dragon dies.

Swarmlord is a interesting case. He is sentient enough to recognize us as co-belligerants, but if he can be reasoned with, that is another question. From the short spell of time we played with him, he seemed pretty sane compared to the Hivemind's unending in(s)ane screeching. We have no idea if he eventually became more of a individual or went closer to the Hive Mind. He saluted Jeremiah shortly before his assault on Terra, and Ahriman was capable of hearing the Hivemind talk with The Mind, so communication is possible. That depends on the next update, because so far we're in Mars and have no idea what the hell is happening. He may be the key to stopping the Tyranids or maybe at least weakening them by killing it near the Grey Knights, destroying the Swarmlord forever once and for all.

Yeah, I was thinking about scenarios where humanity doesn't get screwed. The most obvious one is that we unbind the Machine God and, despite our total lack of leverage over him, he turns out to be a galactic cuddlemonster who helps us out, purely out of the goodness of his little robot heart. I find this unlikely, and not really in keeping with our established policy on gods. (Our policy: "Death to them.")

So the question remains: assuming we somehow win in System Sol, do we still get screwed by the Tyranids if we don't have a tame god with us when we face them? And my guess is that the Swarmlord represents a potential threat to the Hivemind. Look:

When your Swarmlord faces the Empty Knights, he'll be cut off from you. I'll make sure he knows the truth. I'll tell him personally. Surrender, retreat, flee somewhere else, and I'll spare you.

That conversation was all over the place, so it's hard to be certain about any part of it, but the Machine Mind isn't threatening the Hivemind with the destruction of the Swarmlord; it sounds a lot more like a threat of subverting the Swarmlord. If Iblis and the Swarmlord's entire value to the Hivemind was 1/36th of its deployable forces and its single most powerful soldier, then losing them doesn't seem like sufficient threat to scare off the entire Swarm. But if the Swarmbro's connection with the Hivemind could be used to fracture the Mind's control over the hive fleets, that'd be much scarier, from the Hivemind's perspective. I have no idea how to well and truly turn the Swarmlord against the Hivemind, but it sounds like the Machine Mind has that taken care of.

Operationally, I think this suggests a flip flop to support the Nightbringer's plan--so basically A, with the slight modification that Doombreed warns Jeremiah of the particulars of it. (I.e., the Nightbringer will be waiting in the depths of Mars; if you follow after VD, hoping that the Nightbringer will be weakened by his battle with his brother, maybe bring a melta bomb or two.)

 

[Hoodoo]

Lets make a choice ffs

We are fucked more or less I think, I dunno how humanity (Chaos descendants lol) is gonna come out of this without being fairly fucked up. To get a even slightly good outcome we probably are going to -at least momentarily - side with a God.

so les do that; while enacting/releasing/starting/attacking/ramming as much stuff as we can, so when its all said and done, and the ages have gone by and history has judged us - at least they will say we fucked up good

Z) Invite the Void Dragon to Mars, release the Machine God, ramming speed Jeremiahs flagship into Mars, send Ahriman to the Golden Throne.

With a clusterfuck like that going on there should still be some room for some more maneovering anyways, whether it be siding with a God, or Terminus Decreeing everybody. At least well know which God is the strongest.

 

[Storyfag]

when its all said and done, and the ages have gone by and history has judged us - at least they will say we fucked up good

Z) Invite the Void Dragon to Mars, release the Machine God, ramming speed Jeremiahs flagship into Mars, send Ahriman to the Golden Throne.

With a clusterfuck like that going on there should still be some room for some more maneovering anyways, whether it be siding with a God, or Terminus Decreeing everybody. At least well know which God is the strongest.

I'll second that!

 

[Kayerts]

Problems:

1. If you unleash the Machine God, my understanding is that he'll enact the Transcendence Protocol on himself and become a thousand times more powerful than any of the other assholes. Also, Root told us he'd be immune to effects of the Terminus Decree. So this choice basically overrides any of the others. We throw ourselves on the mercy of the robot. (And we probably will miss. I mean, would YOU have mercy on us?)

2. We don't control Ahriman.

3. We also don't control VD. The only way to "invite" him to Mars is by attacking Earth with enough pressure to force him into a retreat, and depending on manpower issues, this may require the use of the fleet, which means we probably shouldn't use our flagship as an improvised missile carrying a payload of weapons-grade stupidity.

 

[Kz3r0]

I stand by my previous choice, unleash the Reaper, no strings attached.