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[dgr11897]

Strategy:
(5) Plan A: eS, DGR, NUKE9.13, Strider03, joha470
Black Market Research:
(2) 4th Dimensional Parasites (evictedSaint): eS, joha4270
(3) Ichor (DGR (and Nuke)): NUKE9.13, Strider03, DGR
(0) Condensed Algorithmic Neo-Translation (Talion):
(0) Ice-13 (Nuke):
( ) 4d Spiral Equations (DGR):

[Madman198237]

Strategy:
(6) Plan A: eS, DGR, NUKE9.13, Strider03, joha470, Madman
Black Market Research:
(2) 4th Dimensional Parasites (evictedSaint): eS, joha4270
(4) Ichor (DGR (and Nuke)): NUKE9.13, Strider03, DGR, Madman
(0) Condensed Algorithmic Neo-Translation (Talion):
(0) Ice-13 (Nuke):
( ) 4d Spiral Equations (DGR):

I like the fourth-dimensional option...but I think that the nanotech may have more uses for us and also is also a little more directly synergetic with our present tech. The only problem I have with Ichor is that it seems a little too close to a full-blown technology.

[evictedSaint]

Not that I have anything against the Ichor (fine proposal), but yes, the 4D Parasites is closer to a full-blown technology because that was the point of the event.

[Draignean]

Strategy and black market votes locked.

[evictedSaint]

[OUR] (QSD) <Attainers> Gen A.1.0

“[They] are rage, brutal, without mercy. But [We]. [We] will be worse. Rip and tear, until it is done.”

-Recorded Prophecy,  Unknown.

There exists numerous lineages of Hivers on Regalis.  Some are large and well-known, such as the [Deep Ones], the [Sun Drinkers], and the [Overgrown].  These divergent branches are all of the same family tree, and though all Hivers trace their lineage back to the [First Queen], the distinctions can be...remarkable.

In particular, there is one lineage that has caused quite the headache for the Hiver species, both before and after the advent of the [Council].  A particularly violent and brutal lineage.  A lineage that other colonies would unite against, simply to keep their aggressive expansion contained.  Although they are now curtailed to a smaller, more manageable subsect of the Hiver population, they are well-known for their repeated - and often nearly successful - attempts to gain supremacy.

These are, of course, the [Queen Slayers].

Prior to the advent of the [Council], wars between colonies would end in a sort of "checkmate" of the enemy Queen.  Unless the nature of the conflict was more extreme than a simple territory grab, the enemy Queen would be left alive with her reduced colony.  The [Queen Slayer] lineage, however, held no reservations about completely exterminating an enemy colony.  In a way, this would serve as a sort of natural 'balance' - the canyons would be crowded with Queens, the [Queen Slayers] would expand and kill off colonies, the other lineages would band together to drive them back, and there would now be room for new Queens to colonize.

Now that colony management is primarily handled through the collective will of the [Council], there is no place for these ultra-violent [Queen Slayer] colonies.  However, with the recent war with the [Silent Ones] and the [Screaming Beasts], we have found a use.

Our Queen Slayer Deployment "Attainers", Generation A, Version 1.0, are the utilization of the more combat-oriented Hiver colonies against our enemies from beyond the stars.  Standard Takers are pulled from numerous other lineages, but the Attainers all come from [Queen Slayer] lines.  They are promised colonies on the worlds they take, equipped with the best we can give them, and turned loose.

Standard equipment includes everything in the Takers arsenal, plus Alate-style armor, Alpha-mounted laser artillery cannons, and mining equipment.  The mining equipment is primarily large boring drills, which can be used to hollow out tunnels and form extensive networks for colonies.  In combat, they are ideal for providing defensive emplacements and aggressive forward tunneling, allowing incursions to pop up from under ground.  The mining equipment should help harden troops from bombardment, and any attempt to dig them out would force the enemy to come into our deadly underground fortresses.

Beta drones from the [Queen Slayer] lineage are hardier, able to withstand more debilitating injuries and make smale-scale decisions without direct control from a Prince.

Alphas are...Alphas.  It's hard to improve upon perfection.

War Princes are larger than standard Princes, and their detachments often act as the spearhead for combat operations.

A single Invasion Queen commands the Attainers regiment, and will coordinate the assault for the entire planet as well as provide some limited troop resupply.

Battle Princesses are particularly brutal.  Large, violent, and eager for [Ascension], a single well-armed and armored Battle Princess can cleave through entire battalions single-handedly.  Quick, nimble, and deadly clever, they are hard to take down and harder to keep down.

Attainers are the best [We] have.  Though quite skilled on their own, they work best when mixed with large numbers of Takers - acting as force multipliers rather than additive firepower.  Highly coordinated and well-equipped, these will be out "expensive" troops.  Due to the amount of equipment and the size of the regiment, we expect a single unit of Attainers to require the same transport space as two units of Takers.

Rip and tear. Until it is done.

[NUKE9.13]

A proposal for a battleship, as discussed in Discord. Just putting this here so we can discuss what elements should be changed, and so I can ask Draig how feasible it sounds.

[OUR] (BB) <Avarice> Gen A.1.0:
It is, of course, a sin for a drone to desire more than it is given. However, morality is a complicated thing. What is true for a single drone may not be true for [We] as a whole. Indeed, would it not be a sin to let an opportunity to expand [Our] reach slip by? Should we not seek to accumulate the wealth of the stars, lest we find ourselves at risk of extinction, with no resources to spare? Hiver philosophers have debated this question for many years, and the recent conflict with the [Mute Bipeds] and [Queenless Singers] has only reignited the debate. The [Mute Bipeds] are, well, mute, but does that mean we can/should take what they consider theirs to enrich ourselves? The [Queenless Singers] may be aggressive, and clearly it is just that we defend ourselves, but can we condone an all-out war against our fellow sapients? The consensus so far has been... yes, yes we can. There are those who disagree, but they are in the minority. The [Council]'s ruling is clear: Avarice is just.

Our (Battleship) <Avarice> is a ship that will solidify our grasp over the stars, seizing our rightful reward from those who would withhold it from us. Cost projections have caused some concerns, but the potential strength cannot be denied. Significantly larger than the Wrath, the Avarice boasts eight large mounts (four of which are dedicated Sunbeam mounts), eight medium mounts, and sixteen small mounts. Two medium hangars are included as well. Like the Wrath, the Avarice is heavily armoured, with a sturdy structure, making for a big, chunky ship.

The Avarice features several unique aspects, but foremost amongst these is the Psionic Redistribution ArraY Extreme Range device. Put simply, it's a greatly upscaled Belief Engine- one that works at extreme range. Specifically, it uses a very powerful psionic redistribution dish to channel spare psionic energy from every ship in the fleet (including itself), which is then run through psimat circuitry many times more powerful than that found in a regular Belief Engine, amplifying it and using it to charge psionic capacitors, building up enough belief to move mountains- or, as the case may be, prevent ships from blowing up. The accumulated belief may be used to enhance the armour of the Avarice itself, or it can be redirected (through the redistribution dish) to a ship in danger, temporarily giving it a massive influx of belief, enabling it to survive lethal damage all-but unscathed. There is, of course, a limit to how much belief can be stockpiled, meaning PRAYER cannot render the entire fleet invulnerable- rather, it can be used once or twice per battle to provide a brief moment of ironclad faith to a ship in terminal danger.
(The PRAYER is intended to be approximately the equivalent of 12 Belief Engines in terms of size/cost)

Also unique to the Avarice are prototypes of the Queen's Glory A.2.0 reactor, which take the self-bottling technology developed for the Watcher 2.0, and combine it with the psionic modulation and power generating ability of the Queen's Glory. A 50% boost in efficiency is the minimum improvement required of these new reactors. The self-bottling feature, in addition to increasing the reaction potency, should also reduce the worst-case scenario from 'total loss of containment' to 'drastically reduced output', as even without modulation the reaction should be somewhat stable. The Avarice will have six, spaced throughout the ship, each one slightly larger than regular Queen's Glory reactors, designed to provide at least 1300 units of power (before consumption by integrated systems).

The Avarice also comes with an integrated battleship-sized Queen's Path bore drive, as well as a Queen's Directive module. The four integrated Sunbeams use Polydimensional Crystals by default, and are hooked in to the ship's own radiators. Notably, there are no integrated Queen's Will drives or other propulsion systems (although the ship is designed to accommodate them). The ship features no escape pods, as with all our other ships, but does not have an integrated self-destruct mechanism.
After all integrated tech has been accounted for, the ship should have a spare capacity balance of at least 400, with a target of 420. (The integrated tech having a size of ~370 before integration efficiency).

SUMMARY:
Class: Battleship
Hardpoints: 4 Large, 4 Integrated Sunbeams (Large), 8 Medium, 16 Small, 2 Medium Hangars
Capacity: Target of 420 after integrated items. 
Armour: Medium, verging on Heavy
Generators: 6 Custom (slightly upsized) Queen's Glory A.2.0 reactors
Engines: None integrated
FTL: 1 Battleship-scale Queen's Path
Other Integrated Tech: 1 Queen's Directive, 1 PRAYER.
Length: ~3km

[evictedSaint]

The homeworld of the [Silent Ones] was visible now on the external hull cams without magnification.  It was barely more than a pale blue pixel on the screen, but at Sixteen’s command it blossomed to full size.  Glowing display lines flickered on screen one by one, outlining areas of note.  The planet was dominated by a single ocean, and what little land was visible was speckled with green and brown.  Wisps of white obscured bits of the planet beneath, and more white capped the poles. 

Sixteen studied the data feed curiously.  There were no protective canyons to shelter the inhabitants from the elements – this far from the sun such a thing wasn’t strictly necessary, but to build their colonies on the open expanses was a mindboggling display of carelessness.  Open to the air, exposed, vulnerable.  No wonder the [Invaders] initial attempts at extermination had been limited to bombardment; they’d assumed the Hiver homeworld didn’t extend past the canyons.  Granted, the canyons were the hub of Hiver industry and hundreds of colonies had been wiped from existence, but the destruction never reached deep enough to hit their proverbial underbelly.

A few more lines blinked into existence.  These were elements of the [Silent] fleet, or at least what remained of it.  The Hivers had destroyed the enemy ships in orbit over Regalis in a surprise anti-orbit barrage during the [Second Invasion].  Silos, built in secret beneath the meteor-blasted vacuum plains, had opened all at once.  Thousands of nuclear torpedoes had climbed to orbit on pillars of exhaust and laid waste to the enemy fleet.  Hundreds of torpedoes had been lost to hasty point-defense countermeasures, but with so many hitting at once the [Invaders] hadn’t stood a chance. 

It was still raining radioactive debris over Regalis, and that had been more than three years ago.

In that time, the homeworld of the [Silent Ones] hadn’t yet completed a single revolution around their shared star.  Apparently they hadn't been idle in that time – a few Destroyer-class ships had since risen from the surface in an attempt to replace what had been lost, as evidenced by the lines crossing the screen.  Of course, the Hivers had already been building their own ships deep underground while destruction had been raining from above.  With the aid of their rail system and underground industries, the Hivers were able to send their own fleet into orbit and cross the interplanetary gulf in the same time it'd taken the [Silent Ones] to raise those few Destroyers.  It was an impressive feat; one that had taxed many colonies to the breaking point.  The fact that the [Silent Ones] had managed so little during this time was a shameful display.  Clearly, these [Soundless Beasts] underestimated the inhabitants of Regalis.

These...[Invaders].  These [Colony Killers], [Queen Slayers], [Wordless Destroyers], [Silent Interlopers].  There were many tags that described them, but they all played on the same theme.  Voiceless and Violent.  Their reckoning had come.  The fruits of their labors were now overripe, and the pit was rotten.  The crew aboard the Wrath renewed their efforts as Sixteen's sense of righteous fury bled through their psionic link. 

Did they think [We] would die without a word?  That [We] would silently accept death?  That [We] could be driven to extinction like those ancient predatory beasts which would prey upon hapless drones? 

Sixteen stewed quietly in her anger, but there wasn't really any way for her to act on it.  There simply wasn’t much to do at this point.  What repairs could be done were already finished, and her Prince was managing what little oversight was needed. The fleet itself was just now decelerating on their terminal approach and vectoring onto a path that would use the planets own moon as a gravity assist for additional braking.  The gravity well would throw them into an unstable orbit, which they could later stabilize, but all those calculations had already been processed.  Although it would take longer than a simple direct injection, relying on the moon for a gravity slingshot was less risky and would consume less fuel.  Considering there were [Silent] fleet elements in low orbit, it was deemed to be the best approach.

Sixteen sucked the last bit of nutrient slurry out of the pouch and tossed it onto the floor.  A drone attendant smoothly scooped it up and disposed of it.  Normally a Queen like Sixteen would have Princes instead of worker drones as attendants, but…well.  She glanced over at her last remaining Prince, who was occupied with the latest batch of engine readings.  It was fine; she had a sizable drone population now, so she could focus on producing Princes once she finished her metamorphosis.  She sent a wordless command for another pouch of nutrient slurry and the drone returned with one clutched in his chitinous manipulators. 

Truth be told, she wasn’t all that hungry.  Regardless, Sixteen accepted the pouch and took a swallow from the nozzle.  Her body would begin metamorphosis any day now, and the more nutrient stores she had built up the quicker she could be done with it. 

Sixteen rolled the distal segment of her right primary manipulator as she contemplated taking another swing from the pouch.  Waxy buildup flaked and drifted free, speckling the cushion of the vast command chair.  Her joints had been extruding the wax ever since she’d increased her calorie intake, and it was getting annoying.  Another drone attendant stepped forward to clean it up, but she dismissed him immediately with a flash of annoyance.  She didn’t need him hovering over her and scraping up wax every ten seconds.  It could wait until she finished eating.  Speaking of eating…she glanced down at the mostly-untouched nutrient pouch held in her waxy manipulators.  A wave of nausea immediately flashed through her at the thought.  Sixteen took a moment to steel herself, then took another sip from her pouch.

By the [First], she was sick of eating.  She wanted to fight.

Even as the leading edge of the Hiver fleet, and even in a battered warship, Sixteen still felt they stood a good chance at survival.  They were close enough now that light delay was just a few light seconds, and the biggest response they’d seen from the [Silent Ones] was to send their precious few Destroyers into a defensive orbit around the planet.  With such a diminutive fleet, it was entirely possible Sixteen’s Wrath could solo the battle – even with its lingering thermal damage.  And with the entire Hiver fleet backing her up, her vulnerable position became an advantage.  As the tip of the spear, Sixteen would get the first shot at whatever Destroyers came to intercept.  Destroying a [Silent] ship would reflect well upon her.  She’d wear that tag proudly.

A soft chime dragged her attention away from both the display and the stomach-turning nutrient pouch.  The psionic communications array was lighting up.  Sixteen effortlessly looped herself into the psi-booster and bridged into the message.  Her mandible clicked with surprise as she read the relevant tags. 

The initiator was the Fleet Commander.  That by itself wasn't a surprise; she'd frequently called in during their voyage for status updates.  No, what was surprising was that despite being a fleet-wide communication, the message was actually directed towards the planet below – to the [Silent Ones].

{[Invaders].  [You] know [We] come.}

Sixteen straightened up, her focus locked entirely on the message resonating within her mind.  All throughout the fleet, other Queens listened in silently.  The universe itself seemed to pause, to make quiet moment for what was to come.

{[We] have been attacked.  [We] have survived.  [We] return now to [You].}

{[You] have exterminated colonies.  [You] have reduced hives to ash.  [You] have murdered Queens.}

{[We] are [Mercy].}

Silence echoed across the psionic network.  It only lasted a moment, long enough for the impact of what was sent to hit home.

{[We] come to return your [Sins] to you.  [You] will stand judgement.  [You] will answer, or [You] will [Perish].}

{Why.}

Once more, silence echoed across the psionic network.  Seconds went by, then minutes, and yet not a single tendril of psionic communication snaked up from the planet.  The world remained as [Silent] as ever, and the inhabitants complacent with their deeds.  The Fleet Commander spoke again, her psionic message practically trembling with barely-contained fury.

{In your [Silence], [You] stand guilty.}

{[We] have been attacked.  [We] have survived.  [We] return now to [You].}

{[We] will kill your colonies.  [We] will burn your hives.  [We] will slaughter your Queens.}

{[We] are [Wrath].}

[evictedSaint]

[We]

The Sixteen Saga

Chapter 10

Music to read to.

The fleet looped around the moon and settled into their terminal approach on the planet, two-hundred thousand kilometers away.  In the time it’d taken to perform the gravity brake, another enemy Destroyer had climbed to the surface of the planet’s atmosphere on a pillar of white exhaust.  And then another.  And another.  And another, and another, and another.

One by one they creeped into orbit and added themselves to the [Silent] fleet.  Though the Hiver fleet dwarfed them in both number and scale, Sixteen found herself growing less optimistic about her own odds.  Presumably these were scrambled ships, rushed out of shipyards and pressed into service to deal with their interplanetary neighbors, but even a half-finished ship could be lethal if underestimated.  Sixteen ran through combat simulations based on known capabilities and applied a spectrum of disability modifiers to the enemy fleet.  She even applied planetary defensive capabilities to the simulation, though those had mostly been discounted.  With their thick blanket atmosphere, kinetic weapons were impractical, beam weapons would be diffracted, and missile weapons (like the Hivers had used) would be so slow-moving and expensive they made no tactical sense at all.  Even if every ship they went up against was fully-functioning and assisted by belabored planetary defenses, the Hivers should be able to win handily.  Sixteen might even survive.

[Crew<All> <Focus>][Contact<Imminent>]

[Faith<.>]

Wave after wave of reassurance flowed out of her, steady and rock-solid.  Drones performed best when organized.  Despite the doubts that plagued her, it wouldn’t do to panic the crew.  She needed them at their best.  Her life may depend on it.

A shudder rippled through the ship as the engines flared.  A number of reports lit up her psionic feed, informing her of the rainbow of minor stress fractures that spiderwebbed her fatigued thrusters.  Ideally, they’d perform another brake at periapsis for orbital insertion for optimal efficiency, but with enemy ships shooting at them it was possible they’d miss the window.  By performing the braking maneuver early, the fleet would at least be able to ensure cohesion.

Twelve Wrath-Class War Cruisers, one suffering extensive engine and moderate hull damage.  Thirty-two Deliverance-Class Carrier Destroyers, fourteen of which were “Pattern B” Troop Transporters.  As one, their engines filled the space ahead of them with a nebula of exhaust.

Opposing them were no fewer than twenty-three [Silent] Destroyers of unknown performance capabilities, at least ten of which were presumably rushed into service.  The ships fluttered into varying orbits in a piece-meal fashion, but orbital analysis revealed they’d meet the Hiver fleet as a single unit by the time they closed within a thousand kilometers.

They out-numbered the [Silent] nearly two to one. 

What would follow should be little more than a formality.

[Second Invasion] had been a long, brutal affair, and many of the early attempts at space combat had been met with failure.  The “Penance” had been the Hiver’s first attempt; a rather disastrous attempt to build a space-worthy combat vessel.  As an affordable torpedo frigate, it had failed to be both affordable and capable of effective torpedo strikes.  Not only were the payloads diminutive, the monopropellant fuel meant they were out-ranged by the railguns the enemy fleet used for both main, secondary, and point-defense mounts.  The [Silent Ones] had shot down every attempt to field a functional fleet of these ships, and it was only when the Deliverance carriers with their Relentless swarms had been mixed in had there been some measure of success.  Heavy Fighters – the “Relentless” – had also been a crash-course in space combat doctrine.  Fragile, underpowered, and prone to failure, they’d been able to do little more than extend the range at which the Hivers could lob their nuclear-tipped torpedoes at the enemy.  Eventually the [Silent Ones] were able to crush any further attempts to field spacecraft with gratuitous orbital bombardment, but the Hivers had learned from their mistakes and begun work on a new class of ships; the Wrath.

These new cruisers led a slanted line towards the enemy fleet, which had now regrouped a mere hundred thousand kilometers ahead of them.  The vulnerable carrier elements sat in the rear, a comfortable distance away from the combat.  The ones holding Relentless fighters held their payload in check; at this distance, the tiny vessels would burn through most of their fuel just to reach combat.  It would be the cruisers which would do most of the fighting; the carriers were just there to mop up.  The troop transports were even further back, loitering nervously near the planets small gray moon.  With no combat capabilities whatsoever, the transporters were content to stay as far away from the conflict as possible.

This would be the first time the Wrath had faced combat.  As far as the [Silent Ones] knew, it was no different from the rest of their fleet and would have to crawl within a thousand kilometers to launch its nuclear payload.  Sixteen allowed herself a moment of smug satisfaction as the distance between the fleets closed to a more sizable hundred thousand kilometers.  These [Colony Killers] were in for a rude surprise.  Indeed, she could feel the same righteous pleasure in the Fleet Commander’s psionic order on the psi-comm.

[Order {Cruisers <All>}]

[Fire]

Twenty-four golden beams of light erupted forth, glowing effervescent in the dark vacuum of space.  In perfect synchronicity, the maser-beams converged on eight different ships.  The soft whine of discharging flash capacitors vibrated the very framework of Sixteen’s ship.  For the brief moment it took them to empty, those eight enemy ships glowed on the scanners with every kind of radiation imaginable.  The beams flickered out in unison a couple seconds later, and four of their eight targets blinked off the display.

These were “Sunbeams” – maser beam cannons.  They were bleeding-edge weapons; large, power-hungry, and cripplingly fragile, but they hit like a sledgehammer backed by disruptive radiation pulse-waves.  It was a safe bet to say it outranged anything the [Silent] fleet had, but it would take the mounts a minute or two to dispense the excess heat.  That meant the entire Hiver cruiser line was on cooldown.

Considering they’d just blown four ships out of the fight before they’d even gotten the chance to square up, it was definitely worth it.

The enemy reacted slowly to the sudden destruction of a sixth of their fleet.  Sluggishly, the ships fired their engines and awkwardly accelerated their approach.  To their credit, they didn’t even both with evasive maneuvers; they wouldn’t be able to dodge something moving the speed of light, anyways.

Sixteen’s weapons were nearly finished ticking through cool-down when something odd lit up her display.  Apparently, the [Silent] hadn’t been idle the past three years, either.

It looked like…a hole, in space. 

The phenomenon glowed with an odd blue light, practically on top of the enemy fleet.  Then another, and another, and still more.  Twelve signatures; each one feeding bizarre and contradicting readings into Sixteen’s sensors.  Twelve more identical signatures lit up on the display, except these…these were…

The ichor in her veins ran cold.  The twelve new signatures were right on top of the troop transports, far in the back.

Ten of these strange…space-holes…were ahead of ten of the newest Destroyers.  Two were projected ahead of two Destroyers which had survived the initial Sunbeam barrage.  The rest – either for tactical reasons or because they were simply unable – didn’t feature these holes.  As she watched, eleven of the enemy Destroyers collided with the holes in space and simply…vanished.  The twelfth, however, only made it part-way before something went wrong.  Whether it was due to damage sustained or just bad luck, the hole seemed to flicker and collapse, bisecting the ship.  Atmosphere vented from the stump, and all power signatures faded away.

More than a hundred thousand kilometers behind her, eleven and a half ships popped into space within a stone’s throw of the defenseless troop transports.

Somehow, the [Silent] had figured out FTL  travel, and they’d used it to sucker-punched the soft underbelly of the Hiver fleet.

One of the Cruisers in the very back had spun completely around, opting to turn the entire ship rather than wait for the Sunbeam mounts to slowly traverse 180°.  That Wrath fired, and both cannons converged on one of the damaged enemy ships now wrecking havoc amongst the transporters.  The lethality of the Sunbeam dropped dramatically beyond max range, and despite landing two direct hits on an already damaged Destroyer, it did little beyond stagger vent some atmosphere.

Another Cruiser fired, struggling to get her guns to do any real damage.  The rest of the fleet followed piece-meal, and Sixteen gave the order the second her Sunbeams came off cool-down, too.  The golden beams crossed a hundred thousand kilometers in the space of an eye, but past that the golden glow began to fade as beam cohesion dissipated.  Still, they managed to connect with the damaged Destroyer, and for a moment nothing seemed to happen.  Then, a small eruption, followed by a larger one, and one final explosion as the ship’s reactor containment failed.  It blossomed into a nuclear fireball, raining radioactive debris throughout the engagement zone.

[Orders]

[Cruisers <1-3>][Carriers <1-4>[Engage <Silent (Ahead)>]

[Cruisers <Remaining>][Carriers <Remaining>][Engage<Silent (Rear)>]

As one, nine Wrath Cruisers turned and fired their engines.  The gap between them and the three leading Wrath’s widened instantly, but at more than 3 km/s they would have to slow down quite a bit before they could start making their way back.  Three transports had already been blown to pieces; the muted psionic screams of their dying Queens preemptively shielded from the rest of the fleet.  The remaining were attempting to scatter and reconvene with the rest of the fleet.  It was a futile effort; they were slow, unwieldy ships.  Railgun slugs ripped through their thin armor, smashing drones and steel alike.  The [Silent] were wolves let loose amongst the unattended flock.

At the moment, they were also none of Sixteen’s concern.  She and the two Wraths behind her looped themselves into a pocket psionic comm network.  The four Deliverance carriers that had been assigned to their task force looped themselves in as well, and as a single force they faced the enemy hovering above the planet below. 

The seven remaining [Silent] Destroyers flickered on-screen as more strange holes tore into the very fabric of space.  There were only five signatures this time, but Sixteen’s task force fired before they could slip through.  The radiation pulses that accompanied the Sunbeam arcs seemed like poison to these strange holes in space.  The beams cut through the holes and dug into the ships behind, causing one to break into a cloud of debris.  Three more holes flickered out before the enemy could teleport away, but the last two ships disappeared and reappeared behind the taskforce successfully.  The Deliverance carriers ejected a cloud of Relentless fighters to deal with the sudden threat, but the [Silent Ones] had the drop on them.  Two carriers winked out of existence in radioactive fireballs, wiping out the fragile fighters with them.  The remaining two strained their engines to build distance while their strike teams converged on the targets.

Thousands of small, yellow stars radiated outward from the enemy Destroyers as their point-defense systems went active.  Fighters were shot down by the hundreds, but hundreds more slipped in close enough to launch their nuclear payloads.  A few dozen Relentless fighters blinked out as their torpedoes clipped their own mountings, and a few dozen more vanished as their crafts were torn apart by high-G maneuvers.  Scores of torpedoes tumbled into dust as the point-defense systems did their job, but there were just so many the [Silent] couldn’t get them all.  Sensors fizzled angrily as radiation blooms erupted all over the enemy Destroyers.  One staggered; its power systems flickered unhappily, but it was still in the fight.  The other seemed less affected – it was one of the newer ships, presumably built with heavier shielding to stand against the Hiver’s nuclear weapons.

Of course, it hadn’t been built to withstand Sunbeams.

Sixteen’s weapons came off cooldown right as she gave the order.  The beams slammed home; one for each target.  Glowing lines gouged canyons into the thick armor.  One ship exploded immediately and wiped out a Relentless squadron.  The other stuttered as its power systems failed, and then it was dead in the water.

There were only four enemy ships left now, and Sixteen was on cooldown.  The distance between them had closed now to fifty thousand kilometers, and the planet below dominated the screen.  Damage reports were rolling in; most were regarding the engines and radiation fractures, but some covered the performance of their Sunbeam cannons.  Her two sister ships were off cooldown already and painting enemy targets with gleeful abandon.  The ravaged carriers were attempting to recycle what fighters they had left into more strike teams, but they wouldn’t attack unless the enemy tried to teleport close again.  They simply weren’t as effective as the Wrath was, and they'd need to conserve what strength they had.

Indeed, the four remaining ships were preparing to teleport in close once more.  More space-hole signatures rolled in on the flanks of their little taskforce, and Sixteen immediately ordered the weapon mounts to rotate and draw targeting solutions.  The [Silent Ones] would be able to get through before they were off cooldown, but it wouldn’t take more than a single barrage to finish them off.  With a single mind, the Hiver taskforce prepared to deal the final blow.

A fifth signature popped up on display, so far away from the combat that Sixteen almost missed it.  It was only up for a split second before a psionic scream ripped across the comms.  It was a horrible, brutal thought, and it drilled straight into her core.  Going from low to high, the shriek lasted for a single instant before it vanished into a horrible, terribly silence that left Sixteen's mind ringing. 

One of the Wrath's vanished from the display.

Sixteen, her mandibles still trembling from the horrible psionic scream, played back the last few seconds on her tactics screen.  A tiny blip – centered in one of those strange above-ground human hives – appeared on the planet far below.  In the same instant, a beam of particles moving an appreciable fraction of the speed of light tore upwards through the atmosphere.  At that distance, and at that speed, there was no way to dodge.  It had slammed into the now-dead Cruiser and punched clean through the other side, leaving a trail of collision-induced fusion explosions behind it.  The ship hadn’t stood a chance.  That scream had been the psionic death rattle of a Hiver Queen, completely unshielded and plugged directly into Sixteen’s brain.

A moment of silence rippled through the comms before Sixteen’s scattered mind thought to scan the planet for more matching hole signatures.  What was that? What just happened?  Even as the remaining [Silent] Destroyers popped into knife-fighting range, Sixteen studied the screen with growing alarm.  A matching signature was lighting up on the other side of the planet, and an identical beam tore into the heavens and through another Cruiser - from the primary fleet, this time.

By the [First], the range on these weapons was massive; more than double the Sunbeam.

The Hiver fleet had walked right into a trap.

The [Silent] had planetary defenses.

[Draignean]

Sierra
The destroyer sent to observe Sierra reports no Gaian contact of any kind in orbit. While they continue fighting on the ground, they have no visible warships in orbit.

Granted, this sensor data was achieved only from extreme range scans and could be misleading.



Tango

The Queen who bores into star system Tango is, for a brief moment, taken in awe at the sheer scale of the central star. Tango's star burns quite cold- a massive red hyper-giant of staggering proportion. Considerably north of a billion miles in diameter, she burns an ancient light on a single, moonless world of considerable size floating far in her outer orbit. Yet that world is not the only orbital body in the system.

Hundreds of deltohedrons, oriented with their poles matching the sun's, orbit silently. They vary in size, but not one is shorter tip to tip than a kilometer, and the largest is nearly thirty. Their material is akin to smoky glass, partially penetrable to sensors, but returning nonsensical readings after an inordinately long delay. They don't seem to have any hostile function, or any function at all that the Hiver fleet's collective sensors are capable of detecting. To the Queen in command, it feels like a return to being within the egg. In that warm, dark time, the thoughts of mature Hivers touch and awaken the mind, filling it with ideas and thoughts and images that have no reference in experience. This place, with its enormous star, singular planet, and hundreds of peculiar artifacts, resonates to a frightening depth with the first images the Queen's unhatched mind had tried to reconcile with the concept of [Space].

Even with the deltohedrons set aside, the Hiver fleet is not alone. Sensors pick up a trace, days old by distance, of a Gaians. As the princes work to resolve the sensor further, the Queen arrays her fleet for an assault. With three [Wrath] class cruisers and half dozen carriers at her disposal, she is prepared to personify [Vengeance] for her lost sister, and to bleed to the humans a dozen fold for the damages they have inflicted.

Which makes it somewhat galling when the princes, after having triple checked their readings, confirm the Gaian signal trace to be a single transport vessel.

Utterly [Disappointed] the Queen orders the Pulsar to move in for the kill. A single transport should be able to be destroyed before it has a chance to do more than relay information on the initial bore signatures. Sending a single vessel means only one aperture will be detected, and, if the Pulsar can make a clean kill, will preserve the secrecy of the Fleet's numbers and disposition.

The jump is clean, with the Pulsar sliding into the middle of engagement range with weapons hot. The enemy transport is clearly on red alert, and likely with a bore hop primed and ready to go to take them the hell out of there. It's an ideal test candidate for the new weapon system, and the Queen orders the retreat cut off by tidepool cannons and the exact effects logged for later transmission to the council. The Pulsar obediently fires, the nigh-invisible beams rippling through space in an instant to make a perfect detonation mere meters away from the Gaian transport's hull.

 The report on the shot's efficacy, however, is a long time coming from the Pulsar. For a long moment, the Queen in the far field is left only with a sense of muddled confusion from her sister aboard the Pulsar. Had something gone wrong? Had the Gaian vessel escaped?

[Ship Destroyed?]

A micro-bore from the Pulsar transmits the full data stream, showing the multi-spectral sensor images of the enemy transport's last moments. The tidepool hits, creating a subspace detonation that barely registers on conventional sensors. Then, curiously, the power appears to surge on board the Gaian vessel, then brownout. A moment later there's an infrared spike, which widens to a rift that intersections the transport's engines - which appear to be nuclear in nature. Scant seconds after that event, the ship appears to lose containment of its reactor. The detonation destroys the back half of the ship and sends the front into an unstable orbit of the single planet.

The Queen in charge of the fleet had been fully informed of the new weapon's capabilities and limitations. It should not be capable of inflicting serious damage. It should absolutely not be capable of destroying a destroyer sized vessel in a single shot - and yet it had. The Queen orders some of the princes to dissect the captured sensor data and send it back to Regalis for further review. It was a mystery, but she had a more pressing mission.

On the Surface
Hiver princes do not like being on Regalis. The entire surface of the great planet is covered in the same glassy material as the deltohedrons. Penetrable to sensors, but completely nonsensical in its readings. Sharp angular sheets of glass meet rolling bubbles, sliced and whorled here and there with a peculiarly dull metallic impurity that creates bizarre glittering half-shadows deep within the translucent glass when Tango's sun is high.

There is no dust on the surface of the planet. There should be - all planets accrete layers of stellar material over time - but there simply isn't. Endless empty vistas of glass, rolling and sweeping, cutting into jagged lines and impossible mountains before leveling just as suddenly into a plain as smooth as a frozen lake. Worse than this, the Hiver princes can almost sense a psychic presence from... somewhere. It's like the subconscious meaning buried under a message sent by a distracted queen from very, very far away.

It's worse, in a way, for the drones. Not a day goes by when a small group of three or four doesn't awake without a signal from a prince, donning their equipment and getting ready to move off without any support from their peers. When queried, they universally reply that they received orders to do so, but cannot identify the source of the orders. It's a distressing situation, and several of the more psionically skilled princes report that they feel as though they're being... inspected while they rest.

Most peculiar of all is that there is clear electromagnetic traffic that indicates the presence of a contingent of Gaian troops, but nothing of them has been encountered. Ships in orbit help attempt to pin them down, but they're unable to discern anything beyond the background confusion of the glass. Likewise, attempts on the surface to triangulate and move toward the Gaian signals is equally fruitless, yielding yet more empty vistas of nothing.

Attempts to map the resources of the planet beneath the glass, if there even is one, are utterly unsuccessful. The Princes report progress, but without a way to identify strategic locations from orbit, or any way to really claim them without flying in prefabricated military bases and then supplying them from orbit long term, it's an incredibly slow process.

Hivers have gained one Dominion at Tango


Your deal WTS: 5000 Organics | 1 Metal per unit has been bought in full. You will receive 4750 additional metal this turn at the cost of 5000 organics.

Event Outcome:

1. You have won the black market bid. You will receive a major design credit for the Ichor project.

2. You have won the contest for most interesting new technology. I should, however, probably clarify that a bit. The Ichor isn't groundbreaking, it's bio nanites, but it is an interesting enough take on the concept with enough structure to it that it fulfills the requirements and guidelines of the contest.

Sometimes you don't need to take a step forward to be recognized, everyone else just has to take a step back.

Design Phase of Year 5
Resources
Dice: 5
T: 14634 + 3416
O: 24913 + 9077
M: 19383 + 14546
E: 11967 + 8463
S: 3171 + 500
You have a Major Design Credit banked

Belief engine has auto-completed!

Spoiler: Projects (click to show/hide)

Queen's Freedom: 7/14 [1] | 30T + 150M + 50E +15S | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Amplified Credulity Lab: 12/16 [2] |  80O +80M + 40 Synthetic | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Queen's Whisper: 8/16 [2] | 50T  + 125O + 60M+ 75E | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Hivemine 2.0: 3/7 [3] | 0T + 175O + 100M + 50E +0S | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested
Watcher Gen 2.0: 12/14 [3] | 120T + 70O + 100M + 150E | Rushed 1 Times | 1 Die + 120T + 70O + 100M + 150E
Cinder Spires: 6/12 [3] |  220O +150M + 25E| Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested

Spoiler: Active Market Deals (click to show/hide)

WTS: 250 Synthetics | 20 Metal per unit

[We] Technology List
[We] Empire Planner

Spoiler: Spare Crap at Regalis (click to show/hide)

Relentless Fighters x22

Spoiler: Current Deployment (click to show/hide)

Echo
Fleets
-Echo Scout
1x Heavy Fighter Destroyer

Ground - 10/10
8x Takers

Infrastructure
Defense Grid x1
-----

Oscar
Fleets

-Oscar Scout
1x Heavy Fighter Destroyer

Ground - 5/10 - 5/10 Gaian Regime
16x Takers
-----
Quebec
Fleets

-Quebec Scout
1x Heavy Fighter Destroyer

Ground - 10/10
8x Takers

Infrastructure
Defense Grid x2
------
Sierra
Fleets

-Sierra Scout
1x Heavy Fighter Destroyer

Ground - 8/10 Gaian Regime 2/10
12x Takers
------
Bravo
Fleets

Ground - 10/10
3x Takers

Infrastructure
Mining x5
LEC Towers x5
------
Charlie
Fleets

Ground - 10/10
3x Takers

Infrastructure
Mining x5
LEC Towers x1

------
Papa
Fleets

Ground - 10/10
3x Takers

Infrastructure
Mining x5
LEC Towers x5
------
Tango
Fleets
- Fleet 3
4x Heavy Fighter Destroyer
2x Boreless Heavy Fighter Destroyer
1x Command Cruiser [+5 Alate Sections, + Belief Engine,  -All Small Tremors]
1x Combat Cruiser ('Pulsar')
1x Command Cruiser 

- Transport Fleet 2 [All Transports]
3 Transport Destroyer - 12x Takers

Ground 1/10  Gaian Regime ?/10
12x Takers

------
Alpha
Fleets
- Home Fleet
6x Heavy Fighter Destroyer
3x Boreless Heavy Fighter Destroyer
1x Command Cruiser ("No Fair Fight") Very Heavily Damaged, 25% of ship cost to repair
1x Boreless Heavy Fighter Destroyer  Heavily Damaged, 20% of ship cost to repair
1x Heavy Fighter Destroyer  Very Heavily Damaged, 25% of ship cost to repair

-Home Transport Fleet
5 Transport Destroyer [+2 Tremor Mount with bombardment caps]
1 Transport Destroyer

Ground - 10/10
------

[NUKE9.13]

Reposting this (with slight changes). Suggestions for changes/additions welcome. For instance, do we want to integrate more stuff? I feel we shouldn't integrate all the things, since we might want Avarices filling different roles. Integrating a Watcher shield system, for instance, sounds sensible, but we might find that the Watcher isn't pulling its weight on a certain front, and we'd rather have more Alate armour instead. Having the freedom to make such changes without spending a revision is worth the slight drop in efficiency, I think. That said, if the consensus is for integrating more stuff, I can go with the flow.

[OUR] (BB) <Avarice> Gen A.1.0:
It is, of course, a [sin] for a drone to desire more than it is given. However, morality is a complicated thing. What is true for a single drone may not be true for [We] as a whole. Indeed, would it not be a sin to let an opportunity to expand [Our] reach slip by? Should we not seek to accumulate the wealth of the stars, lest we find ourselves at risk of extinction, with no resources to spare? Hiver philosophers have debated this question for many years, and the recent conflict with the [Mute Bipeds] and [Queenless Singers] has only reignited the debate. The [Mute Bipeds] are, well, mute, but does that mean we can/should take what they consider theirs to enrich ourselves? The [Queenless Singers] may be aggressive, and clearly it is just that we defend ourselves, but can we condone an all-out war against our fellow sapients? The consensus so far has been... yes, yes we can. There are those who disagree, but they are in the minority. The [Council]'s ruling is clear: Avarice is just.

Our (Battleship) <Avarice> is a ship that will solidify our grasp over the stars, seizing our rightful reward from those who would withhold it from us. Cost projections have caused some concerns, but the potential strength cannot be denied. Significantly larger than the Wrath, the Avarice boasts eight large mounts (four of which are dedicated Sunbeam mounts), eight medium mounts, and sixteen small mounts. A single medium hangar is included as well. Like the Wrath, the Avarice is heavily armoured, with a sturdy structure, making for a big, chunky ship.

The Avarice features several unique aspects, but foremost amongst these is the Psionic Redistribution ArraY Extreme Range device. Put simply, it's a greatly upscaled Belief Engine- one that works at extreme range. Specifically, it uses a very powerful psionic redistribution dish (located within the ship, not externally- psionic energy can travel through the hull easily) to channel spare psionic energy from every ship in the fleet (including itself), which is then run through psimat circuitry many times more powerful than that found in a regular Belief Engine, amplifying it and using it to charge psionic capacitors, building up enough belief to move mountains- or, as the case may be, prevent ships from blowing up. The accumulated belief may be used to enhance the armour of the Avarice itself, or it can be redirected (through the redistribution dish) to a ship in danger, temporarily giving it a massive influx of belief, enabling it to survive lethal damage all-but unscathed. There is, of course, a limit to how much belief can be stockpiled, meaning PRAYER cannot render the entire fleet invulnerable- rather, it can be used once or twice per battle to provide a brief moment of ironclad faith to a ship in terminal danger.
(The PRAYER is intended to be approximately the equivalent of 12 Belief Engines in terms of size/cost)

Also unique to the Avarice are prototypes of the Queen's Glory A.2.0 reactor, which take the self-bottling technology developed for the Watcher 2.0, and combine it with the psionic modulation and power generating ability of the Queen's Glory. A 50% boost in efficiency is the minimum improvement required of these new reactors (eg 210 for a reactor of standard size). The self-bottling feature, in addition to increasing the reaction potency, should also reduce the worst-case scenario from 'total loss of containment' to 'drastically reduced output', as even without modulation the reaction should be somewhat stable. The Avarice will have six, spaced throughout the ship, each one slightly larger than regular Queen's Glory reactors (so as to produce slightly more than 210 power each), designed to provide at least 1300 units of power (before consumption by integrated systems).

The Avarice also comes with an integrated battleship-sized Queen's Path bore drive, as well as a Queen's Directive module. The four integrated Sunbeams use Polydimensional Crystals by default, and are connected to integrated radiators (the equivalent of 3 modular radiators per sunbeam)(connections for additional radiators exist as well). Notably, there are no integrated Queen's Will drives or other propulsion systems (although the ship is designed to accommodate them). The ship features no escape pods, as with all our other ships, but does not have an integrated self-destruct mechanism.
After all integrated tech has been accounted for, the ship should have a spare capacity balance of at least 400, with a target of 420. (The integrated tech having a size of ~400 before integration efficiency).

SUMMARY:
Class: Battleship
Hardpoints: 4 Large, 4 Integrated Sunbeams (Large), 8 Medium, 16 Small, 1 Medium Hangar
Capacity: Target of 420 after integrated items. 
Armour: Medium, verging on Heavy (for a battleship... so thicker than the Wrath)
Generators: 6 Custom (slightly upsized) Queen's Glory A.2.0 reactors, with target production of 1300 power (before consumption by integrated systems).
Engines: None integrated
FTL: 1 Battleship-scale Queen's Path
Other Integrated Tech: 1 Queen's Directive, 1 PRAYER, 4 Sunbeam Polydimensional Crystals, 12 Sunbeam Radiators.
Length: ~3km

[Madman198237]

[OUR] (NAST) <Quake> Gen A.1.0:
I don't know what our present nuclear weapons are. So we're going to make them substantially more awesome. First off, the delivery system. The Tremor is....well, bad. This new torpedo is given a two-stage propulsion assembly. The first stage is nothing more than an extremely large and powerful rocket engine with no maneuvering ability, accelerating the torpedo to intercept velocity quite rapidly, before being ditched. Once the torpedo has attained maximum velocity and the first stage is out of its high-performance Stable Binary Fuel Mixture, the stage is jettisoned.

The second stage is all about maneuvering, instead of adding velocity. High-performance SBFM rocket engines face roughly equally in every direction except forwards, giving it improved ability to try and not get shot down, while retaining some ability to increase its towards-the-target velocity in random bursts to further throw off targeting. During the first stage burn, the second stage's engines are responsible for aiming it at the target. Afterwards, the engines are used to make the projectile follow a random path towards the target. This stage houses the control system, which is itself in constant communication with the launching vessel, which is of course in communication with the rest of the fleet. At the cost of some space in the magazines, a computer system is added to every <Quake>-carrying vessel, to allow it to direct its missiles or aid the fleetwide computer system in directing all the missiles in a coordinated fashion to overwhelm enemy PD with focused attacks.

This new missile system comes with two slightly different warheads. Both are a two-stage thermonuclear weapon, refined from our crude Tremor warheads, contained with a thick reflecting shell of depleted uranium. On one side, there is an opening, with a cone-shaped container of a chemical which converts the reflected and emitted x-rays into a thermal expansion shockwave. On top of this sits the cap, which converts the hot, expanding material into a highly directed weapon, much more efficient than brute-forcing your way through life with absolutely plebian spherical explosion patterns.

The first variant is capped with an incredibly heavy and somewhat thick tungsten plate. When the nuke detonates, the converter chemical is heated by the x-rays and heats and pushes the tungsten plate with immense force, partially melting it and accelerating it, adding multiple kilometers per second to its velocity, like a shaped charge. The difference between this and a shaped charge is that while a shaped charge penetrator is stretched out during the explosion and fragments into uselessness after some distance, this penetrator is entirely ejected by the blast, and thus remains a viable penetrator for an infinite distance...oh, and it's also been accelerated by both its rocket engine and the blast. And may be up to several meters wide. This device can be detonated a large distance from its target, making it nigh impossible to shoot down using short-ranged defenses. And did we mention that it's literally just a solid metal plate? The projectile has no maneuvering capability on its own, of course, but is moving very fast. This version, due to the very heavy tungsten plate, is fired with only one warhead per torpedo, and thus has a single large second stage, and no armor. After all, the entire top of the warhead is literally just a gigantic plate of thick metal. Adding armor to protect your giant metal plate is somewhat...redundant.

The second variant instead has a thick conical cap of extremely light molecules such as pressurized helium, which when heated and pressurized by the rapid expansion of the converter is turned into a cone-shaped jet of particles. A thin cone with additional reflecting material can create a hotter, faster, more focused blast to do serious damage to things in a relatively small area at ranges up to a few thousand kilometers from the weapon (I'm not even kidding, this is possible with modern-day nuclear tech). If the cone is widened, it can be used to cover a larger area with what amounts to a particle-accelerator barrage, vaporing the surfaces of anything caught in the blast, at the cost of less energy per unit area and thus less effective range. This slightly wider cone is our defensive weapon of choice, used to do damage to fightercraft and also eliminate things like enemy missiles and those pesky Gaian wires and shattergun blasts. The much-reduced weight of these projectiles allow many more of them, with correspondingly smaller second stages, to be mounted to a single torpedo first stage in a MIRV configuration. These can be launched one at a time or all at once, depending on the needs of the launching vessel.

The launcher system is completely updated. The particle beam MIRV missiles are mounted directly to the warship's hull, stored until battle is joined. When an enemy closes to short range, the PD Quake missiles are deployed into the launching ship's gravity drive field, to eliminate fuel needed for stationkeeping. The ship's computers direct its cloud of missiles to shoot down whatever needs to be shot down. The NEFP missiles can't really be kept in a cloud around a launching warship since they need all the delta-V they have to increase their projectile's damage and the likelihood that it will hit the target, so instead they are kept ready similarly bracketed all across the hull of the carrying vessel, but launched only when the time comes for them to be fired at the enemy.

This system is technically optimized for a Small hardpoint...though this is only due to the fact that the computer and drone psionic systems needed to control the missiles well enough to protect the vessel and make the perfect shots against enemy vessels are engineered to fit optimally into a Small space. Being a non-shape-specific system that straps missiles to the hull and can even bracket them several missiles deep if necessary to preserve surface space, it is hoped that this system might find itself equally efficient for use on Medium and Large mountings.

Well, I was bored and felt like writing so I redrafted this proposal again. I'm not sure that the battleship is the solution to our problems right now, we are badly lacking in small ship support for Wraths...and the Wrath is, as far as I can tell, still the best large warship in the game.

However, that doesn't change the fact that it will be quite impressive to deploy them against our enemies.

[NUKE9.13]

Not for this turn, but perhaps soonish- depending on what sort of defensive tech we see from our opponents-, I rewrote the GAB from a Leviathan-scale weapon to a more modest Large-mount weapon (mostly by toning down the adjectives used)

[OUR] (GAB) <Holy Commandment> Gen A.1.0:
The word of the Queens is not just [Law], it is [Scripture]. Just as their words can be used to rend minds, the (Gravitational Annihilation Beam) <Holy Commandment> can be used to rend matter.

The <Holy Commandment> is a Large weapon, designed to crack those nuts that are too tough for even the Sunbeam. It does this by sliding right past any defences the target may have- be they geared against electromagnetic or kinetic assault, it matters not, for the GAB operates on the other side of physics: gravity. Yes, the famous science-princess [PS.One-Rock] (a nickname, bestowed in light of her accomplishments), whose theories of gravity have brought us so far, would be rolling in her grave if she had one, because [We] have literally broken her models to pieces, and used the pieces to destroy our enemies.
See, the (Gravitational Annihilation Beam)... annihilates gravity. It abuses gravitons (the fundamental particles responsible for the phenomenon) until they break. This unleashes an incredible amount of energy, as is often the case when physics gets broken, and with proper care this energy can be directed- into enemy ships. Propagated through the gravitational field, the 'beam' cannot be stopped until it runs out of energy of its own accord- which can be 100,000 kilometers later. Meanwhile, anything it passes through gets to experience what it's like to have one's gravitational field disrupted- stretched, squeezed, twisted, all in the blink of an eye-, with predictably devastating effects. It is a rare spaceship that is designed to withstand such intense (and rapidly fluctuating) gravitational forces, and as mentioned, no typical armour or shielding will save you. Indeed, dense armour will only make things worse, increasing the gravitational potential that can be disrupted. Even planets may suffer when the <Holy Commandment> is turned against them- although of considerably more sturdy build than spaceships, a beam passing through a planet may cause localised earthquakes or volcanic eruptions as the planet is squeezed and stretched.

In terms of mechanics, the Divine Word can be thought of as two powerful Queen's Will drives which butt heads. By pushing our gravity-manipulation technology considerably further than normal, they create (in a wide hollow 'gun barrel'), two intensely powerful gravitational fields- artificial ones, considerably limited in scale-, approaching the gravitational pull of a star at their deepest points. Generating these fields takes some windup time- one cannot simply jump from 0 to star in an instant; the fields must start off weak, and gradually be made deeper and deeper, a process which may take some time. Once they have reached full strength, they are- very carefully- brought together, but in opposing configurations. The moment the deepest points of both fields overlap, the conflicting forces are sufficient that the gravitons themselves are torn to pieces, unleashing the aforementioned beam (which must, obviously, be aimed straight down the tube, so as not to intersect with the ship at all- and even then, the weapon mounting has to be designed to flex and compress, lest the stress of firing even once renders it in need of maintenance).

[evictedSaint]

(1) [OUR] (BB) <Avarice> Gen A.1.0: eS
(1) Spend Credit This Turn: eS
(1) Roll Advantage for Time and Progress (5 Dice): eS

[evictedSaint]

A necessary revision to our ground troops, as they're struggling against humans despite overwhelming numbers.

[OUR] (GIB) <Takers> Gen A.2.2

Our Ground Infantry Battalion "Takers", Generation A, Version 2.2.

In typical inter-colony war, drones are not equipped with armor.  When the scale of a single skirmish involves nuclear explosions and close-quarters brawling, it becomes infeasible to provide armor for a short-lived drone.  Drones are cheap and easy to produce, after all.

However, when travelling between stars, this becomes a different matter entirely.  Replacing a fallen drone becomes exponentially more expensive, and without Queens providing constant replenishment the Takers frontline can grow thin.

Version 2.2 provides Alate-style body armor and medical services to our Takers.  The Alate's ERA-like properties makes it well suited against the enemy's kinetic penetrators and warheads.  The armor can cover the vulnerable underbelly of Alpha drones, and be stacked thickly to form living, walking tanks.  For Beta drones, helmets and body armor allows their natural carapace protection to stand up against shrapnel and rail slugs, increasing the longevity and overall usefulness of the lowly creatures.

Medical services amount to field hospitals, allowing a drone to undergo rapid repairs and be sent back to the front lines.  Such medical treatment is typically reserved for Princesses, Princes, and Alpha Drones, but here it will be provided to Beta Drones as well.  Although putting a drone back into service rather than recycling them will diminish into our food stores, this practice should extend a Drones service life well beyond expected parameters.

Some additional equipment will also be provided.  Tactical nuclear mortars, laser target designates to assist in tactical orbital bombardment, hazmat rebreather kits, frequency modulation kits (allowing a laser rifle's output to be tuned to frequencies best suited for that planets specific atmosphere), and scopes for X-Bar rifles to enable sniper tactics.

While future Takers will be provided with this upgrade as part of their standard outfit, these upgrade packages can also be provided to Takers already on the ground on other planets.

[NUKE9.13]

Sure.

(2) [OUR] (BB) <Avarice> Gen A.1.0: eS, NUKE9.13
(2) Spend Credit On Avarice: eS, NUKE9.13
(2) Roll Advantage for Time and Progress (5 Dice): eS, NUKE9.13