Daily reminder

>Raid OQ
>Read the locked memories of that thinker.
>Board a scav vessel for their FTL.
>Send a diplomacy team to earth.
>Take Reprive (I think that is the system that our mother made her last stand and it only has mining corvetts, it would be a great test for our raiding fleet.)

>>1837515
I really like Lee.

>>1837548
And I don't.

>>1837586
Well, too bad anon.

Lee, Lyle, and Elizabeth are here to stay no matter what you anti-human weirdos want

GAS THE SQUIDS
NUKE THE WHALES
STAB THE MONKEYS
TRUST NOTHING
THE VOID IS WATCHING

>>1837515
We saw that Lyle's dad got nommed,but is his mother still kicking? Also he had an Uncle who I assume was the one who carried him to safety and we just took his place in is dream.

>>1837604
I have no problem with Lyle or Elizabeth but Lee is getting on my nerves.

>>1837656
This is lee, not lyle

No tragic backstory, just comedic

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>>1837515
“Apparently they've set up the farm as a provincial office for the Richardson campaign. They're running a tele-campaign out of my old room.” He says with some exhaustion. “Honestly it sounds like they're taking the news of my living worse than my death.”

Lee glances up, his mind intruded with the eager nagging of the short speaker stationed at the entrance to your embassy. He lets out a sigh and shoots the taidarens a stern look. “Sushi, you're in charge.” He says as he walks out into the hall.

Secretary Morgan stands at the front desk, looking rather confused at the speaker on the other side as it glares up at him, the desk almost neck height to the drone.

"Lee is busy, very busy. You may speak with this speaker, however. This speaker is very good at speaking, and can speak even after human speakers run out of words to speak! Speaking is very important for greeting guests. Greeting is also speaking, this means this speaker can also be a greeter. Do you enjoy the greeting speaking of this speaker?"

"Look, I just need to speak with someone and Lee is the only human here." Morgan says.

"This speaker is someone!" Your drone chirps happily.

"What? no, I mean, look-" The door flexes open as Lee walks out, your speaker quickly chirping suddenly to interrupt Morgan.

"The Lee will speak with you now! Please move away from the desk so this speaker may speak with more visitors! Thank you." Your drone chitters as it waves its graspers in the air in a mimic of human hand gestures, its claws clacking eagerly on the desk as it focuses its attention on the front door.

"Sorry." Lee says. "That one's just meant to keep reporters busy and talk the crazies in a circle."

"No, it's fine, with how much I deal with politicians I'm more than used to it." Morgan says.

"So what did you want? You could have called, I'm not sure if you want to be seen going in and out of here before the vote." Lee says.

"No, it's fine. The vote actually gives me a good cover for being here publicly anyways, but I don't trust any call made to or from the parliament building not being overheard, and we need to have a quick chat."

"Alright, I think the office is still set up back here, we sorta dressed it up for that interview, maybe it was a bit much." Lee says as he shows Morgan to the room, the holograms have been turned off, leaving the walls barren and unpainted, with veins of hive creep rooted in the polymer like half buried tree roots. "What was it you wanted, exactly?"

"Damage control."

"Bit late, honestly."

"No." Morgan says. "The vote results are going to cause panic, between that, Path, and the Commonwealth war escalating, things are going to be getting rough around here. I've already smoothed things over with the valen, though they still seem rather up tight about their own issues. I wanted to take more time to discuss things with you, since you're involved directly."

cont.

>>1837662
I know its Lee, I was just asking cause I think it would be nice if big,gruff Lyle called his folks

>>1837663
"So, does this mean they've voted yet?" Lee asks.

"No, but we always know the results of these things ahead of time. We need to have a solid plan for evacuations and riot control. Either you allow Union forces to maintain order on the ground, or we organize a hand off in a controlled manner, but if we don't have a plan, the Expanse will descend into anarchy and you'll just end up having wide spread revolts." Morgan says as he places several datapads on the table. "The population may be low across most of it, but these people know the land well enough to make rooting them out real messy if they want it to be. Plus all the major economic hubs are technologically advanced enough to do some major damage. Between lone wolf separatists and the potential of nationalist militias, we could all end up with a lot of egg on our faces. Just one space traffic controller who thinks he's got nothing to loose can do a lot of damage before anyone knows what happened."

"Okay, so what's your plan?" Lee asks simply.

"That's what I was going to ask you, actually. I wanted to know what's going to happen on these worlds once you take over. I can work out how to organize a peaceful transfer of power on the local level from Union to Hive once I know what these people can expect."

>Write in

>>1837705
Just deport them back to the union, we dont got the time to spare dealing with the this while Aunties is preparing to move

>>1837705
Local governance pls

Sort yourselves out and don't fucking make us come down there!

>>1837705
Give us a way to get some of our drones on each of the inhabited planets so that we can keep an eye on the populations and predict how bad it will likely get. The calmer populations will be less of a problem and any individuals with the means to cause large scale trouble will be the told of to the authorities soon before the vote is made public. The ones that are higher risk will be reminded that they can stay on the planet as long as they dont get in our way,which includes fucking with our infrastructure/tech,no attacking incoming ships and other such things. Aside from that they lose little from this except mental security.
Also we still have our "survey ships" in each system so it will be easier to stop any large scale problems,while leaving the salvageable riots and disruption to the Union. Humans would prefer their own kind to neutralize them.

>>1837705
Sorta what >>1837736 and >>1837753 are saying. Let them govern themselves but let them know that the worlds and territory are under Hive management. Try to word it as merely a changing of landlords and that the Hive wishes to keep as many humans possible safe and content.

We don't want too many radicals trying to cause us trouble

>>1837660
like I said, too bad.

A lot of the other players (and QD) seem to enjoy him so you're either stuck with dealing with Lee for the future to come or you can drop the quest

>>1837705
A controlled withdrawal of Union control, but we can set up a reasonable schedule. Any local power structures can remain in place. Any support or financing currently undertaken by the Union will be replaced with Hive equivalents, probably in the same form. The Red Hive will have planet rights.

Hive creatures will not intrude into occupied locations unless requested. Existing corporations or resource extraction operations may remain in place but will require a review just for inventory. Trade regulations will be maintained at current levels but will be managed by the Hive (if the Union was in charge before) and likely scaled back gradually.

Any who wish to leave may do so within a provided timeframe (few weeks).

Should we replace Human industry in the expanse or leave it alone? We certainly have better mining and construction techniques.

>>1837793
No, that'll fuck with their economy. I want to be reasonably hands off, if a little nosy.

>>1837705
Well we need someone in place (preferably chosen by the locals) that serves as a mediator between us and the people. We also need to do sweeps of each individual planet to make sure the there are no harmful artifacts. We can also assist with the deporting anyone who is uncooperative with our Ripper drive.

>>1837705
"Near complete local autonomy. As a Hive Mind, the Red Hive has a lot of trouble understanding human perspective and would be bad at micromanaging a large human population. So they'll provide free utilities and health care, mark some industrial and military sites off limits and leave you alone as long as you don't start riots or break things belonging to her or her allies."

I guess none of the commie anons are in tonight.

Thank fuck.

>>1837816
>I guess none of the commie anons are in tonight.
Who?

>>1837806
well put.

the Hive can also select locals, or have the locals elect them themselves, to be like Lee in being a mediator like >>1837805 suggests

>>1837821
During previous discussions on handling human governance anons have been split between libertarian and communist. The latter seemed intent on creating a dystopian nightmare state.

>>1837705
Along with what others have said I imagine we will be looking to set up a hive presence pretty quickly whether this being the construction of a Station, a Hive Base of Operations on the planet, and whatever we need to expand.

The Locals still governing is good, but the Union will have to pull out its troops sooner or later so having some form of group presence is going to bee essential. I imagine our go to will be with Clones/hybrids integration for population centers to take the place of any Union help.

If people want transportation off planet i'm sure we can manage that.

>>1837851
Im against using clones or hybrids in this situation. Its better for us to more hands of with the planet's populations and in the instances in which they ask for help, drones paired with a human chosen from the population will work just fine.

>>1837705
Local governments will remain intact and can keep local security forces and laws. The Hive has very little interest in governing humans on a day to day basis. However, the Hive will have free reign throughout the territories and their law will supercede local laws if they conflict. The Hive will be willing to provide free food, housing, and medical treatment for anyone currently living in our territory who requests it. There will be no state taxes or limitations on trade, although the Hive will use force if necessary to keep the peace.

Hope I'm not too late

>>1837908
Local workers can't compete with free anon, you'll create too much unemployment!

>>1837908
>The Hive will be willing to provide free food, housing, and medical treatment for anyone currently living in our territory who requests
>offering free shit
>ever

>>1837908
What would be the point of a local government if we basically do everything? how would it fund itself if it couldnt use taxes or tariffs?

>>1837705
Union forces can temporarily work in hive territory to encourage the stupider of the humans to depart in your ships. We can begin introducing drones into population centers to work jointly in the evacuation and allow gradual adjustment to the hive's increasing local presence, since humans appear to be so irrationally skittish.

We will subdue any troublemakers as needed if they attack drones or interfere with local hive construction projects, which may begin at any time.

If subduing troublesome humans and deporting them to human space is found necessary, the Union maintaining a small station for receiving these deportees at would be efficient. The humans can always return once they've learned to improve their attitudes towards the hive.

>>1837929
>>1837925

First of all, most people won't take us up on the offers for "free" things because they're (rightfully) paranoid as fuck about the Hive. Second of all, hive housing and food is shit by human standards. Think of them having some small room in a massive Hive complex and eating out of nutrient vats. That's not exactly living the high life.

Finally, all these things (medicine, housing, food) are extremely easy for us to cheaply provide especially given the small number of humans that live in the Expanse and the vast amount of infrastructure building we will be doing very shortly.

>>1837705
The Union and the Commonwealth stay out of the expanse systems, and the Hive will leave population centers alone to manage and govern themselves unless the local governments ask for aid.
The rest of the planets and star systems are Hive property, and any non-Hive citizens that wish to do anything regarding anything outside the designated non-Hive areas have to ask their local Hive-representative about it, and everything regarding that will be valued on a case-by-case basis.

If they want to leave to a union/Commonwealth controlled system/planet, the Hive can provide free transport if needed.

>>1837941
Perhaps I wasn't being clear. I was proposing that the local government still be free to collect taxes but that we just wouldn't demand anything at the national level.

>>1837953
Dingdingding
Supporting

>>1837705
"Well, what I said in the interview is the truth, the Hive just isn't interested in micromanaging humans. The planets would need to be searched for artifacts or any other potential dangers, but otherwise they should be kept as autonomous as possible." Lee says. "Any organisation that's too complex to just hand off could maybe be maintained for a limited time, but military forces would need to pull back unless they're needed to help with riot control. I don't think it would be a good idea to have drones manage police work, though having the military do it wouldn't be all that good either."

"Agreed. For the most part, local law enforcement is done locally. We're already pulling back our military from most of the Expanse, and we will be using the last wave to evacuate anyone who wants to leave but can't afford to move." Morgan replies. Lee nods.

"Right, well I figure shuttles would be no big deal if it's just to take out civilians. I think it would be best to deport anyone violent back to the Union if they start trying to fight the Hive."

"That may cause issues down the road, but I'd tend to be on the same page on that. "

"Have the colonies set up their own governments yet?" Lee asks.

"No, not really. At least not outside of the commercial hub systems. Everything is still organized under the Interstellar Trade Commission and the Space Forces. Police are mostly just local PDF, and at least half of those are deployed Mobile Infantry divisions, and from the remaining half we can assume at least some will want to evacuate. That won't leave much of a police force but with the decrease in overall population and drones taking over military functions, it may be enough."

"What about utilities? The Hive can provide medical care, food, power, all at virtually no cost, especially for a low population, but any existing infrastructure would need to be reworked." Lee says as he looks at the data pads on the desk.

"Right. Food is organized on a temporary basis. The government set up a contract with several corporations on Mercy for protein processors and a food grade bulk purchase. The stuff never goes bad, which is good, because nobody not starving on a fresh colony wants to eat it. The supply was transported across the Expanse already and should last... well, it the stuff lasts forever, and the moment there's something else to eat nobody will touch the stuff, which is its own motivation for the locals. Along with that, we funded imports of hydroponics on the worlds with no agriculture potential. All the worlds should be good to go. Bedrock and Brandenburg are probably going to be your biggest population centers outside of Koenig, but they're stalked up on enough of that nutri-paste to last for a few weeks without a shipment, and chances are the rest of the worlds will be able to start shipping food, or at least surplus nutri-paste, long before they run out. What about imports from the Union?" Lee shrugs.

"For food? Sure, I guess."

>>1837878
We can play hands off, but that doesn't mean we can't also have Hive Agents inside the population to keep an eye on the situation on the group.

The Territory we are getting is also almost twice the size of what we have currently so along with our planned expansion into our new territory we should have some sort forces in place for groups get revolutionary thoughts.

>>1837947
This has been argued to death. Making offers that are suspicious will nobody involved any favors and free shit should be hive citizen exclusive since that's the main attraction of being a member of the Hive. Also I'd be fine with free shit only if it's during emergency situations since that's the only time I ever consider handing out shit like that.

>>1837953
Of course, the idea that we don't care whether they want to go to the Union or Commonwealth afterwards is basically just "they're out of the Expanse, they're no longer our problem. You humans sort this out however you want, the Hive has done its part" or something like that.

>>1837947
It's not a negligible drain anon, there are decently large population centres. It's not like the expanse is home to like 50 dudes. Also
>they might not take it
Isn't a good enough reason to give away our precious nutrients. Did you forget we're running a deficit?

There's no reason to do this, they'll appreciate being left alone more than us intruding on their agricultural, housing and medical sectors with our free shit. Especially the medical sector, centuries ahead of them and free? Why don't you just ban doctors while you're at it?

>>1837984
I just thought you meant working in our more public facilities. Im fine with a few being used here,and there, just not too concentrated that people will start asking questions.

>>1837994
>It's not a negligible drain anon, there are decently large population centres.

I figured it was a negligible drain under the new crunch. However, I'd be extremely happy if it's *not* a negligible drain since that means the food we can buy from the Union would actually be able to make a sizable dent in the nutrient deficit we're running (that you mentioned). We can afford to buy much, much more food than the Expanse humans currently eat due to our amazing technology and abilities.

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You know what's garunteed to make you Monday amazing? A surprise HQQ run.

Also, jeez Lee is really kind of a bottom bitch isn't he?

>>1838009
That's a good point actually, I hadn't thought about that.

>>1837984
> Old Johnson the baker is actually a Hive agent.
> Amy, the cute, spunky barista is actually eavesdropping for the Hive.
> Ron, the friendly neighbourhood PDF patrol officer is actually keeping his eyes out for dissent against the Hive.
> Geoff, the head of the local church is actually looking for any signs of crystal cults for the Hive.
> etc.

>>1837983
"Alright." Morgan says. "As for other utilities, power is the standard array of solar, geothermal, fusion, a few power taps, but in general it's all very deliberately self sufficient, so you won't need to worry about that either. Other programs would be a bit more of a concern, not now, but maybe in the future. The infrastructure just doesn't exist right now, and the people that live there never really intended on living the high life, they knew they'd be ruffing it, so local data networks are all organized locally, as are power grids, communications, traffic control, honestly medical care is the only real iffy spot. With the rest of the stuff you either have it or you don't, but the Hive has quality medical care and in general the Expanse is limited to basic auto-doctors and Space Forces medical officers if there's any real emergency. I don't think you'd be removing any jobs, although I'm not sure how the populace would respond. There's a lot of paranoia going around."

"I just want to figure out what things are like there." Lee says.

"Right. Either way it's just waiting for a press hit job though. You either have the paranoia issue, or else everyone and anyone with a cold will get plastered on the news as an example of the Hive's oppression by absence. Either way, the medical facilities belong to the Union, but Parliament has already elected to leave it there for the populace that elects to stay."

>Offer free Hive medical care to all of the Expanse
>Let the local facilities continue to function
>Provide limited Hive medical care to individuals at request
>Other

>>1838055
>>Provide limited Hive medical care to individuals at request

>>1838055
>Provide limited Hive medical care to individuals at request
But keep the offer on the down low. The first few requests should be entiraly because members of the population want them. Once its been shown that they are just fine now and more people are willing to trust us,advertise our availability to help.
Even if its some child asking for use to take a look at her puppy,it shows that its their choice if they want our help.

>>1838055
>Let the local facilities continue to function

>>1838055
>Provide limited Hive medical care to individuals at request

>>1838055
>>Let the local facilities continue to function
Provide funding for local doctors and healthcare experts to continue practicing, producing whatever tools or drugs they request.
>>Provide limited Hive medical care to individuals at request

>>1838055
>Offer Hive medical care at the cost of specialised labor that Humans are more suited for. (Entertainment(movies, shows, news, etc.), pleasing architectural design, service industry jobs, etc.)

>>1838055
>Provide limited Hive medical care to individuals at request

They have to ask us for help first, but we need not hesitate to provide it. It costs almost nothing and is more than worth it for the goodwill we should receive.

Oh shit, for some reason I thought you weren't gonna be back for another week.

>>1838118
Im not sure i understand, drones dont need those services so whats the point of it?

Or is this some way to encourage there local economies by making our services reliant on the individual being a contributing member of there society?

>>1838055
>Provide limited Hive medical care to individuals at request
>Offer free Hive medical care to all of the Expanse


Have limited Hive medical care be the standard for now with Full coverage being on offer for any colony that wants it and have the offer remain open so if/when they start to warm up to us its something they can still choose.

>>1838142
It's just healthcare for the low price of having a job and giving back to your community in one form or another.

>>1838156
Ah ok, so its was a employment incentive program k

>>1838055
Backing >>1838145
>Provide limited Hive medical care to individuals at request
>Offer free Hive medical care to all of the Expanse

Full coverage is something that can be voted on locally and is a good ultimate goal for colonies we want to fall under full Hive influence. However, putting the entire pharma industry out of business overnight would be a bit of a shock so let's ease the humans into the transition.

>>1838156
>>1838118

I'm not sure medicine is the best reward for community service, but I agree we definitely need a way to reward loyalty to the hive and to make our new human citizens feel like they are part of the "team."

>>1838169
Did you not pay attention? Morgan just said that the medical industry of the Expanse colonies is near non-existent, and there would be no real loss if we were to take it over.

>>1838175
Well, we could always introduce a "work for your community and the Hive, and you don't have to age" program later down the road.

>>1838175
Well there employment wouldn't be for the hive benefit but for the benefit of there communities and hopefully help there own economy

>>1838182
But it would take longer for them to trust us then if we let them retain their medical service until they have seen what we can offer and ask for it. We want to give them as much freedom as they want(except in regards border stuff),which means they have to ask first.

>>1838188
No open knowledge or giving of immortality serum, that would cause a clusterfuck

Reserve that for loyal agents or as a way to gain political influence over certain powerful individuals

>>1838203
Like I said, later down the line.

>>1838203
Speaking of which, have we given our adopted children biological immortality, or at least offered it to them?

>>1838231
Their implants will keep them healthy for several more decades,not even counting our less invasive health treatments. We can tell them later.

>>1838245
I still at least want to offer our best son Lyle a near-eternity of running around the galaxy, being badass and kicking ass, until such a time as he faces something bigger and more badass than himself.

Of course, we won't tell him about the whole "we can clone you with all your memories and personality intact" thing.

>>1838231
Yeah they got that as standard with the para

And i think we be giving Dil the serum on the side

We need to disable it on the para we been spreading among the pedes on gemini though and maybe tone down the regen so it isn't to obvious that the pedes got hive tech since there supposed to a spy cell

>>1838256
Biological immortality is only an advantage in old age. Before then,all he has to worry about is death via violence. I just dont want to broach the subject yet is all. He'll get it,its just for now he should be focusing on the missions(and giving his uncle a call)

>>1838188
I agree we should introduce anti-ageing treatments down the line and perhaps start making discreet inquiries now to the extremely aged and wealthy about their interest in hive-medical opportunities.

However, we shouldn't do anything overt until we're more established diplomatically.

>>1838231
I think all our adopted children (aka, have parasites) will effectively cease to age unless we want them to.

>>1838055
>Provide limited Hive medical care to individuals at request
Just bite the bullet and openly declare that it's according to the hive's whims, then just let the media talk.

Doing shit on request will just piss people off if we try to codify it, have it be openly arbitrary to throw off criticism. We'll still take a beating from the media, but it will help avoid problems down the road.

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>>1838055
>Provide limited Hive medical care to individuals at request

"Well if anyone asks for medical care, the Hive can offer it, otherwise let's just keep things as is." Lee says.

"You'd be surprised at what the media can spin." Morgan says. "Now, here is a watch list of some individuals and organizations that may be an issue." Morgan pulls one of the datapads out of the pile and hands it to Lee. "Things like planetary nationals, anarchists, human supremacists, we weeded out what we could during the Expanse initiative but once the settling started we didn't have much control over movement, so a lot of crazies went off to make their own little utopias. With the Hive coming in and the Union pulling out, a lot of them may end up lashing out, either thinking they're under attack or in hopes of furthering their cause. Here, these guys can be real nasty. The Gaia Compact, a real dangerous mix of human supremacy and anarcho-primitivism. What's worse, they're hypocrites. They have no problem using all the tech they can find so long as they use to ruin it for everyone else. They have their hands in all kinds of eco-terrorism and anti-aug activity. Bombed three cybernetics labs last year and members are suspected of a wide range of murders of various non-humans across the Union.They set up a compound on Deckard's Claim a few months ago, and odds are they won't go quietly. Over here we have the Returning Church, a bunch of extremist fundamentalists. They're mostly just a doom cult, but ever since the Hive has shown up they keep screaming about the four horsemen on the net. Apparently when their book tells them to move to the mountains, they take that to mean the Expanse, and they did, so now you have a bunch of fundies spread all over waiting for your friends to bring the apocalypse. And it's not just humans you need to worry about. Some group of ceph somehow got it in their shells that there's something called a Singing Stone in the Expanse and your talk of artifacts is just the Hive trying to keep them from their god. They call the Hive demons and are a special kind of crazy."

"How are all these groups already in the Expanse?" Lee asks.

"Freedom of movement and freedom of speech." Morgan replies. "All we can do is make lists of them and arrest the ones that get violent. Sometimes a few have some accidents and I have half a mind to think they've been arranged, but that's neither here nor there. Also there's your more standard group of criminals. Nobody's managed to form a real crime ring yet, but a few taidaren clan matrons have made the trip and that's a guarantee for a crime syndicate. We've got a few people of interest in that regard, and then your typical array of anarchists and anti-sentients."

cont.

>1838055
>>Provide limited Hive medical care to individuals at request

On some level, if we want to make mad dosh in the future, we don't want to encourage medical tourism for free things that would compete against ourselves. So offer healthcare that's more efficient than human doctors but not cures for diseases they haven't cured themselves already, so we can sell those treatments at our own future trade station/medical center, or at least not rule it out as a business option.

>>1838310
>Some group of ceph somehow got it in their shells that there's something called a Singing Stone in the Expanse and your talk of artifacts is just the Hive trying to keep them from their god. They call the Hive demons and are a special kind of crazy."

Ah fuck us

We need to wipe these fuckers out quick

Should we warn morgan that they are actual threat given they are correct?

>>1838310
>The Gaia Compact, a real dangerous mix of human supremacy and anarcho-primitivism
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
They're gonna get squashed so hard if they try to attack the Hive.

>Singing Stone in the Expanse
FIND. ISOLATE. PSIONICALLY QUARANTINE. PREPARE FOR BEING USED AS PSYCHIC CANNON AMMO ONCE WE FIGHT THE VOID.

>>1838318
No, there's hardly any need to warn him, since they won't be a threat for very long once they're all swiftly adopted.

>>1838347
There may be other cells of cultists in the union that need to be wiped,

And they already have that mad doc paperwork and records so explaining to them that the singing stone are void shards and telling them that the shards like to make cults may be needed right now

>>1838318
No, that would possibly get Morgan curious about the whole crystal situation, and the less individuals know about it, the better.

It's much better if we adopt some kind of "any extremist groups that we judge dangerous to the people of the expanse can and will be thrown out" policy or something where we can just arbitrarily throw crystal cults like them out, or dismantle them, without explaining why.
It's literally in everyone's best interest.

>>1838310
"How is anyone against sentience?" Lee asks as he holds his head up by the forehead with his palm, scratching his scalp idly.

"They think disturbing nature is wrong, and that means every species needs to go back to their homeworlds and live like animals."

"Christ."

"You've got the Vanguard, the Windslow Group, the Vengeance for Earth, those guys are real dangerous, I mean throwing people out airlocks dangerous. Heads on spikes dangerous. They set up a few compounds up in the Ygdrassil trees a while back and when the PDF cleared them out they found the remains of at least a dozen local excavator operators."

"Where do these people come from?"

"Welcome to interstellar politics." Morgan says. "You get more than a dozen people in a room together and at least one will be nuts. You have dozens of worlds filled with people, give them instant communication, and now you have enough nuts to fill a star system and they're all buddies. The Expanse just gave them all a place to be crazy together. Now, normal people tend to act nuts when an alien armada shows up and demands an entire sector, how do you think these people are going to act when they're willing to murder someone because god said so or because air conditioning is evil as a baseline behavior?"

"I get the point." Lee says. "If we can get them deported by the military before you pull out that would be great." Morgan lets out a chuckle.

"Yea, I doubt that's going to happen. I'll be totally honest, just about everyone in Parliament considered the Expanse to be a great way to stuff these nuts far away from their voters to never be heard from again. So long as they're in the expanse, nobody with an election cycle has to worry about them, so you can be sure they won't be too keen on bringing them back. I can try and pull strings, but some of these groups are either dug in and violent, or too spread out to weed out easily. Sorry to say, but you're stuck with them."

"Thanks." Lee says flatly.

>Mention the Ceph cult
>Do not
>Other

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>>1838310
>Over here we have the Returning Church, a bunch of extremist fundamentalists. They're mostly just a doom cult, but ever since the Hive has shown up they keep screaming about the four horsemen on the net. Apparently when their book tells them to move to the mountains, they take that to mean the Expanse, and they did, so now you have a bunch of fundies spread all over waiting for your friends to bring the apocalypse. And it's not just humans you need to worry about. Some group of ceph somehow got it in their shells that there's something called a Singing Stone in the Expanse and your talk of artifacts is just the Hive trying to keep them from their god. They call the Hive demons and are a special kind of crazy."
Hahaha, you know things are bad when most of the insane cults have it right.

>>1838364
>Mention the Ceph cult

>>1838364
>Do not

>maybe mention that the Hive might adopt a no-tolerance policy towards death cults and kick them back out for the Union to deal with if they can be brought in 'safely'?

>>1838364
>>Do not
This is our business in our territory, no point on involving the Union in this. If they're a problem we can look into them ourselves.

>>1838310
>The Gaia Compact
Sounds like a potential annoyance that doesn't really pose a direct threat but could probably find a way to complicate any touchy issue we encounter.

>Returning Church
Sounds like they won't be too bad as long as we stay laissez-faire.

>Singing Stone Ceph
Void cult/10

I think given our clear restrictions on artifacts we have casus belli to exterminate the Singing Stone Ceph, but we'll need to wait for the Gaians (and the churchers too, I guess) to either fuck with artifacts or do something terrible in the public eye before we can just root them out.

Remember that these are people who are properly paranoid of the hive and will likely figure out our parasites if they encounter them.

>>1838364
>Mention the Ceph cult
We do not want another Nowhere incident if we can help it.

>>1838364
>>Mention the Ceph cult

>>1838364
>Mention the Ceph cult

>>1838381
>We do not want another Nowhere incident if we can help it.
Just pointing out, they would need an intact void crystal and an entire array of power taps to pull off something like that.

>>1838387
well, if the "Singing Stone" is a bigger-than-normal void crystal, like the one at the Ceph homeworld and the one somewhere in Valen space probably are.... they might need a little less...

>>1838364
>>Mention the Ceph cult

It's gonna get out sooner or later that the Ceph religion thinks we're demons. Best to just face that head on.

>>1838399
nah, let the Ceph look irrational and aggressive towards us first, giving us a proper casus belli to forbid them entry in the Expanse.

>>1838387
A bunch of fanatics could almost certainly contrive a way to get the latter, and the former would likely be helped along by the void itself.

>>1838364
>>Do not
The last thing we want is to draw special attention to the secret things we will be investigating ourselves as soon as possible, secretly, while infiltrating human society.

>>1838365
Where's the insane cult that thinks the Hive created humanity and worships us? We could use a "friendly" cult for a change.

>>1838413
well..... they'd be closer to the truth than most of the accepted cults and religions....

>>1838395
Pretty sure there was only ever one singular 'singing stone' in three dimensional space at any one time, and it always breaks apart into smaller void crystals before it destroys anything. It seems to me like the single colossal void stone that crops up on worlds the Void intends on uplifting/enslaving, are a sort of seed crystal that produces masses of smaller void shards for lesser races to use. Not just a single particularly potent void shard.

Either way, any supposed cult would require vast, and I mean VAST pools of resources to establish device like the one used at Nowhere. From what Morgan is telling us, none of these cults have the level of power or influence needed for that sort of construction.

>>1838413
We'd have to reveal that we (or rather, our mother) created humanity first for it to have any traction, and I imagine that such a revelation wouldn't win us many points with the rest of humanity.

>>1838364
>Mention the Ceph cult
The Union needs to know what to look out for. If we don't warn them now things could get even nastier later.

>>1838420
Are we sure about that with the singing stone?
What evidence of either "one big crystal shedding smaller shards off" or "multiple big crystals" have we gathered so far?
We gotta rule out the possibilities.

>>1838432
We've actually seen a large void shard when we met the Skyl on Aral.

>>1838421
well, we'd also have to answer the long-asked question of "why were we created" that many humans ask themselves... and I don't think most people would appreciate "to construct and test-fire a prototype weapon for our interstellar civil war" being the answer.

>>1838364
>Do not

>>1838364
>Mention the Ceph cult

>>1838439
.....
Now we have to make sure whether that was the crystal that the Ceph are talking about, or whether there's another, perhaps even bigger, shard hidden somewhere in the expanse.

Wait a second. Gaia' Compact is in the same system Cluster is.

>>1838377
It would make more sense to excuse it as a no-tolerance policy about going after artifacts, whatever their strange beliefs and motivations, which they alone seem to be keen on.

>>1838432
I'm talking about the massive monolithic stones that cropped up on both the Skyl and Ceph homeworlds early in their development. Was that not what you referring to? That's the only way of generating new void shards that I know of.

>>1838439
Think that was just a wee one used to manage their implants, the ones I'm thinking of is several miles in height.

>>1838364
>Mention the Ceph cult
Dosnt mean we explain too much,just that its best if Morgan doesnt want a repeat of Nowhere(and he seems like a sane man) he will do his best to keep them away in an unsuspicious manner.

>>1838471
Or a no-tolerance policy towards people not abiding by the few rules we'd have in place. (i.e. respect Hive property. Hive property is everything in these star systems except these spots we're letting you live in since we hadn't gone and introduced ourselves before you started colonising.)

>>1838441
>and I don't think most people would appreciate "to construct and test-fire a prototype weapon for our interstellar civil war" being the answer.
Well if you phrase it that way of course it will sound bad. We can probably do it much more poetically:

"Humans were created as a secret weapon to win the Eternal War - a conflict between the forces of life and death that we have waged for millions of years throughout all regions of the cosmos. Humans were designed to be among the best innovators and thinkers in the galaxy - despite their individual nature - and have unique abilities that help protect them against gaze of the ultimate Void. It was the intention of the ancient Hives that humanity would be the key to completing research the ancient Hives had conducted over millions of years that would save all life from being forced to choose between either enslavement or death."

>>1838474
Pretty sure those are one and the same.

I figure it's the biggest piece of the Void they can shove into the material reality without ripping a hole using massive gravity forces like they did in Nowhere

>>1838364

>Mention the Ceph cult
lets do this! Man it's good to be back

>>1838428
They can't actually do jack shit about the ones in the Expanse since that's now hive responsibility, and all of the ones that buy into it seem to be converging there as the new presumed Mecca.

The Ceph are small in number here and without a large noticeable supply of Canderon, engineering expertise and construction time they can't actually accomplish anything but appear crazy. They might make good sleeper agents to send back to their homeworld though.

>>1838503
The point is that the Union may just see the Ceph as a bunch of crazy fanatics. They need to realize the extreme danger of any such cults and they need to be warned of the danger sooner rather than later.

>>1838503
>They might make good sleeper agents to send back to their homeworld though.
I think all these Ceph would be pale ceph if they aren't on their homeworld.

We do know we can fix that genetic abnormality so it is possible I suppose

>>1838490
That certainly does sound significantly better than just "we made you so that you could finish making a gun capable of harming 4-5 dimensional beings for us."

I propose we prepare some kind of speech like that for when/if we decide to let the humans know that the Hive designed/uplifted them into sentience/sapience.

>>1838508
Telling them about how Mom used them to play Spore should only come if they confront us with some specific questions or,in the case of them being more directly attacked by Void-fuckery,we only tell their leaders.

>>1838508
Why not tell them they were created to assist us with research and reattain the golden age of the ancient hive empire? That might hold some interest with Transhuman groups.

>>1838364
>Do not
There isn't any reason to, the cult can't do anything against us and the union isn't in much a position to do anything about them anyway.

>>1838520
Yeah, it would be one way to draw some humans to us, especially non-xenophobic scientists, which would be one of our favourite groups of humans to adopt....

>>1838364
>Mention the Ceph cult

>>1838508
I can't really see any way the Union at large would respond well to that. Best to keep this a secret until we need to really catch them off guard.

>>1838505
There is no danger in cults unless they have the capability to actually do something truly dangerous, and we're already taking all the steps we can to ensure no one has access to crystals like they're trying to acquire.

All the danger is located in the artifacts we've already established as insanely dangerous. Keeping them out of the hands of crazy people of all species is already well understood. What else would you expect the Union to actually do about them? They can't persecute a religion.

>>1838503
The Union's not concerned with ceph in the Expanse, but alerting them to the connection between the cult and what happened at Nowhere would ready them to look out for any cultists in Union space.

>>1838530
>They can't persecute a religion.
Don't tell that to the majority of human history lol

>>1838530
Well.... we could always tell them "crack down on any cults worshipping us or our relics in the expanse. We do not want worship from supposedly sentient beings." or something.
They don't have to know about the Void being a thing until we need them to know about it.

>>1838530
>They can't persecute a religion.
Why not? Christians are pursecuted all the time in the current year especially in the middle east

>>1838530
>they can't persecute a religion
Hitler never existed in this timeline, apparently.

>>1838536
>>1838553
>>1838564
Right now, in this period of history and political climate, jesus.

The White Covenant was centuries ago, there's no popular sentiment to do it these days, it would be bad optics for the politicians, especially since the motive would be a secret.

>>1838547
>crack down on any cults worshipping us
Oh fuck off. The Ralighan's and Phantom's worship of our race is vital to their stability. Trying to eliminate such cults is stupid since they are to our advantage anyway.

>>1838576
We don't need any human cults.
The phantoms and Ralighans are directly under our protection. We'd be subtly telling the humans to deal with their own faithful and mentally unstable instead of letting them become a problem for us (seeing as we'd also be telling them that the artifacts are ours, and not that there is a 4th/5th dimensional god-monster-thing-group out there that we're fighting.).

>>1838576
I wouldn't be surprised if an espionage tactic would be to either create a Hive dedicated cult or turn the focus from one already established toward Hive worship as damage control

>>1838574
I knew what you meant, it just tickled me lol

>>1838590
>We don't need any human cults.
You think we don't. We in actuality could always use a cult that worships us regardless of what race they are.

>>1838576
They are primitive races who rose to sapience via our species direct interference. Their culture has us as a key component and it is thru their religion that we can currently teach them better ways to live. Over time they can be weaned off of several foolish religious beliefs without losing their respect for us. The humans just met us and the only people who would immediately start worshiping us are idiots who would just use our name as an excuse to commit desires that are already in their hearts.

>>1838605
And what about the human cults that'd worship void artifacts? Do we need those, or should we crack down on those?

We either let both types of cults rise, those focused on us and those focused on void-artifacts, or we crack down on both of them.

>>1838364
>Mention the Ceph cult

"I'd actually like more data on these ceph." Lee says. "To me, these sound like the most likely to start something with the Hive itself, so I'd appreciate if you could get them out before you leave."

"Like I said, I'll try, but I know it won't work already. You're stuck with them, at least until they try something, then we may be able to get a deportation system set up for the guilty involved. This is, of course, assuming you don't just start mass deporting all these nuts on principle, which I suspect would not go over too well in the press."

"I'll have to see if the Hive cares all that much about that in the end." Lee says. "Either way these ceph look the most dangerous. These artifacts are not to be messed with."

"Right, well minus systemic Hive action, they won't be going anywhere soon. Not by Union hands at any rate. If you're concerned about them though I'll be sure to have any pertinent intelligence on their groups within Union space sent to you on a regular basis."

"That's a start." Lee says.

"Now, for other issues. Trade. The opinions are mixed, right down the middle, actually. Most Greens want your medical tech and are hardly even trying to put up a poker face for it. They're already making up numbers for how much it would cost the health service. The Tories are doing nothing but shouting about how many jobs you'd kill overnight. In fact some of them are making a bit of an ass of themselves over it with the way they're touting our first contact policy. 'This is how we got the taidarens, now the Hive wants us to take the bait.' Then suddenly there's a pro-xeno flash mob outside his house and a bunch of confused local matrons asking when the humans will figure out they've been ripping us off since we first met. It's certainly putting a strain on civil discourse. Growing talks of people wanting to deal with the 'uppity' taidaren squatters and the like." Morgan says. "So from the looks of things, there won't be any high level trade agreement for a long time, but unless the tories push for sanctions, which they probably will but it's just a show, given they don't have the votes to actually do it, the Union side of things will allow for more or less free trade. This would mean either you allowing human ships in your space or us allowing Hive ships in our space. Not entirely sure on the second, depends on how Parliament tries to make the vote go down, optics wise, but what could the citizens expect for civilian freighter traffic in Hive space?"

>Allow civilian traffic in Hive space
>Do not
>Give a specific policy (write in)

>>1838607
>foolish religious beliefs
You must be retarded. Religions are the ultimate source of stability for a society, teaches morals, and gives meaning to the meaningless for such lifeforms. It also is vital for unifying groups under a banner. As matter of fact most of your morals are derived from religion rather than being completely independent from religion.

>>1838614
Leave the cults that worship us to worship us and crackdown on the enemy cults.

>>1838623
Free trade, but we absolutely reserve the right to inspect ships going too and from Hive space.

>>1838634
By foolish religious beliefs, I meant that things such as the Ralighan's more "Old Testament,vengeance craving" vision of gods. Im not suggesting its removal.
In response to your second statement,other animals are know to be altruistic to on another and be more cooperative. Several aspects of modern morality are derived from religion,especially culturally independent ones, but the most basic one,such as the Golden Rule,are likely far older than organized religion.

>>1838623
>Allow civilian traffic in Hive space
>Hive holds the supreme right to search any ship or vehicle in Hive space for any reason
Also taxes, but very low taxes since we don't strictly need credits.

>>1838623
>Allow civilian traffic in Hive space on a case-by-case basis. The Hive can afford to slow down the process to evaluate every single captain or civilian that wishes to travel and trade/mine in the Expanse systems.
>Slowly introduce Hive medical advances to those that ask for them at an arbitrary rate to "ensure that they don't overwhelm humanity's/Valen/taidaren capacity for accepting them"
>Militarised vessels from any faction will be boarded and examined for proper seating unless given prior permission from the Hive to travel through Hive space.

>>1838623
>>Give a specific policy (write in)
Registered civilian traffic can be allowed in regions already settled by humans, as long as they comply with our customs system. Systems settled exclusively by us, including Leeland, the hot Jupiter we're building a resort over are banned to travel to by any human made ships until we notify them otherwise.

>>1838623
>>Give a specific policy (write in)
Free to Juric, New Port, Dagmar, Koenig, and Tannhauser if they arrive via the hypergate. Arriving in other star systems could result in fines or other penalties, and in any case a total search.

>>1838665
Right, be sure to note that there will be some restricted planets.

>>1838664
You are getting way ahead of yourself man, we're talking shipping and border enforcement here, not medical sciences. And I would veto to refuse access to ANY militarized vessels into hive space without the most dire possible justifications for it.

>>1838669
Supporting this and >>1838678

>>1838678
You didn't get the couch-related joke I put in the policy regarding militarised vessels entering Hive space?

>>1838623
>>1838669
Backing

>>1838694
That joke is stale now

>>1838669
>>1838678
These are fine, as long as we remember to mention a complete right to searches, even arbitrarily if we wish it.

>>1838653
>other animals are know to be altruistic to on another and be more cooperative
That actually depends. A lot of the interspecies altruistic behaviors between animals is caused by hormonal imbalances. Inspecies altruism is generally caused by genetics and exist only to further the survival of those within the same species.
Though I am okay with with civilizing the uncivilized lesser races.

>>1838623
>>Allow civilian traffic in

>>1838669
No need for hypergate only travel. The Valen will charge a fee, of course, which could discourage trade to our space. I can see the logic behind it, but I think there's already enough to motivate usage of the hypergate without us making it the primary legal way to come in.

I almost forgot. Our capital and the Garden need to be off limits.

>>1838784
We there is the Ripper Drive.

>>1838794
Nobody needs to know about the Rip Drive unless we want them to.

>>1838791
We already talked about this, specifying specific star systems they can't enter tips them off about where the Queen is.
Simply saying "you can be here, here and here, but the rest of ALL of these star systems are off limits" does not.

>>1838623
>Give a specific policy (write in)
Civilian traffic is permitted to and from worlds with non-hive populations. Worlds exclusively inhabited by the Hive will permit only Hive traffic.

>>1838623
Supporting a mix of >>1838664 and >>1838669

>>1838804
>>1838794

Allowing our own service with Rip drives compete with the Valen gates sounds like a fine idea.

We will probably be using the rip drive to help the CW move to attack the Scavs without the Scavs getting warning ahead of time (since the Scavs have developed a way to detect human warp drives that are inbound. We really should make an effort to grab that Scav tech...)

>>1838818
eh, the most likely scenario is that our tachyon-based ftl-detection system will be superior, but it could help with some of our research to analyse everything the scavs have.

>>1838623
"Well, at least for now, any traffic would be restricted to certain systems. Juric, New Port, Dagmar, Koenig, and there's already a special agreement for Tannhauser so any traffic there needs to go through the hypergate."

"Alright, of course I can't guarantee that someone won't just show up where they're not supposed to be, but I'll be sure the rules are made clear on our end. You should expect some smugglers though. Nothing big, just a few brave idiots betting their luck to see what they can get away with. Given the fact your friends are a hivemind, I take it bribes won't work, so any would-be smugglers will likely end up more entertaining than threatening." Lee lets out a chuckle.

"I'd kinda want to see that, actually." He says. "Someone trying to bribe a speaker, can you imagine? Forget the reprisal, just the chewing out the speaker would do would be enough in my opinion." Morgan laughs, and Lee looks through the datapads for information on local trade routes. "No military vessels, obviously. Valen may need to get special permission before they bring their merchant warships anywhere near Hive space, but for the Union, unarmed civilian ships only."

"Of course." Morgan replies. "But you're own ships will fall into the same issue of the Valen. There's no distinction between military and merchant vessels from my understanding."

"There's also no need for the Hive to trade anything with the Union. Any trading that does happen on any large scale will likely just be civilians." Lee says.

"Fair enough." Morgan says as he gives a light shrug.

"Also any ship in hive space should expect to be searched."

"Random searches, alright."

"No, not random, just total. Every ship."

"There's no way-"

"Every ship. When the Hive wants to do something, it gets done. Every ship will be searched. Probably when it docks, that would be the most efficient, but they could be searched at any time for any reason. The answer will almost always be artifacts."

"Right. Dangerous artifact smugglers." Morgan says flatly.

"Exactly." Lee replies. "However, none of this makes much sense to me yet. I don't see what the issue would be of any of this being sent over a landline. You said you didn't want anyone to listen in on what you had to say, so what was the super secret thing you wanted to say?" Lee asks.

cont.

>>1838931
Oh boy here it comes...more trouble. What did you do while we weren't watching?

>>1838955
My guess is this is about the lab breach on Path since the research there was connected to the artifacts. The Union doesn't want to risk pissing off the Hive any more if that information is released, so they're trying to be forthcoming now.

>>1838931
>Someone trying to bribe a speaker, can you imagine?
You know, now that I think about it bribery might not be something the hive would take offense to on general principle. At the end of the day it's an extra payment of goods or services for the right to access territory unmolested, and that's not much different from a tax, except that it's organized by an individual instead of beauracracy. And in the hive there is no distinction between the individual and the committee.

>>1838958
Oh that? Well they will need to be prepared for a something worst if we can't manage to make the cluster to go back to sleep.

>>1838958
The Hive already knows about the lab breach with the Cluster; we literally discussed it with Morgan and the rest of them. Unless you're referring to the black ops raid on the Smith compound, that is.

>>1838979
I was referring to the black ops raid on the Smith Compound since we know there was research data on the Void Shards there but the Union doesn't know we know that yet. However, the Union could be afraid we'd find out since there was a breach at the lab, so they're trying to mitigate that danger by telling us upfront.

>>1838931
Morgan sighs as he adjusts himself in his seat.

"Look, the Union administration isn't exactly the most upfront government there is. You've experienced that first hand. I'm sorry, I've gotten too used to putting on a grin for the camera and pretending any part of this is civilized." He says, his eyes looking over the pile of datapads on the table as he clasps his hands. "I grew up knowing nothing was ever fair, and you only ever get in life what you manage to claw out of someone else's hands. Ironically enough it translated to life in interstellar business surprisingly well, and interstellar politics even more accurately. I'll be entirely honest, I don't like how good I've become at it." He looks back at Lee as he scoots his seat up an inch. "Whatever the media is going to say about the vote results is going to be a lie. I'm sure you know that. The Union will give up the Expanse, that was a given from day one, they've just been stringing everyone along long enough to make it look good, and they've mostly been debating campaign funding the last few days."

"Why are you telling me this?" Lee asks, confused. Flickers of arguments flash through Morgan's mind, shouting in the parliament chambers, late night conference calls, a shame of the secrecy, and the naked thirst for power.

"I just want to give you a quick heads up, it's about to hit the fan hard. There's been a plan years in the making, and at every turn the Hive seems to be poking it in just the right spot to make it fall apart, and now the options are running out. The backroom deals are falling through, and it's about time for the last big push. I think it's going to work, but it's going to get messy. Still, they have enough pieces in position, the Hive is just making the situation happen faster."

"Are you, wait is this about the consolidation bill?" Lee asks. "You mean this whole long line of utter bullshit has all been about some dumb bill?" Morgan shakes his head.

"No, until recently the people in charge have just assumed they've been the top dogs, the masterminds making all the plans. Their world was shattered and their egos got bruised, and they've been on damage control ever since. The bill is just their current project but it's a means to an end."

"And what's the end?"

"Power. They don't know what it is, they don't know what they want to do with it, they just want it." Lee squints his eyes with aggravation as he leans forward.

cont.

>>1839031
>"Power. They don't know what it is, they don't know what they want to do with it, they just want it." Lee squints his eyes with aggravation as he leans forward.
[muffled screaming in the distance]

>>1839031
Eh normal behavior for the ambitious monkeys

>>1839031
And this is the moment we call up Magnus and tell him the Commonwealth has our full support in crushing the Union as long as they keep their grubby little monkey paws off all the Void stuff and leave it for the adults (i.e., us.) to deal with.

>>1839039
Yeah can't we just use the cluster as a proxy to kill all the Union? No? Yeah you are right we shouldn't.

>>1839031
...The other 3 members of the council don't know you're telling Lee this, do they? That's why you don't trust a landline.

>>1839031
...Wait...did Morgan even bring his security detail into the embassy with him?

Is this the one place he's free of those faceless security goons?

>>1839059
Most likely the embassy is the only plave that he knows it isn't completely full of bugs ( no pun intended).

>>1839067
Liar. That pun was completely intended.

It's nice to see that Morgan apparently has more common sense and less ambition and arrogance than the rest of the security council.

A previously unknown precursor alien species shows up out of nowhere with the single largest space armada they have ever seen, and says "no! stop playing with these things! bad monkeys!" and they decide "you know what, we WILL play with them!", while Morgan comes to us to tattle on the other babies.

What I'm getting at is that Morgan should be adopted. He has shown that he has considerably more common sense than any other high-ranking union politician, and yet he has made it up to one of their highest possible ranks.

>>1839059
I mean, if he's got sufficient doubts to break from his fellow Tories, we could use psionic imprinting to make him go just a little bit further and agree to something. Unusual. And implant him. That's a secure line, after all.

>>1839039
Maybe we could convince some of the Power hungry politicians that it'd be for the best if they were to give up some of their power in the short term for immortality...

>>1839059
>>1839087
If Morgan didn't bring any security at all with him I guess it would technically be possible to adopt him here and now. It'd be very, very, risky, though. And it could alienate or render impotent the only sane member of the Council if we screw it up.

>>1839049
>>1839087
Dude, are you deliberately posting the worst possible ideas that come to mind out of irony or are you being serious? I can't tell anymore.

>>1839031
"Alright look. I could have given you that entire speech myself just by reading the stuff I do on the net. Even before I got wrapped up in all this madness I still knew all kinds of things. I've spent most of my school years on the net looking through all the corrupt shit Killinger is involved in. I saw full well the evidence of election tampering, the campaign money laundering running from the Commerce Commission directly into his campaign funds, the 'Theseus attack' that only effected his opposition in the Tory primary election, or how the Talgo attorney general's son was made the chairman of the Justice Commission for the whole planet three weeks before he declared his investigation over and announced no fraud was detected, or how the three people who said they'd testify in the case had their aircar fall out of the sky, a heart attack, and was shot dead in a mugging outside their house. I know all this, so your spooky shadow government bullshit is just patronizing to me at this point. My homeworld has, for my entire life, been represented by hands down the most corrupt individual since Talgo was ruled by Admiral Hadrian of the Confederacy."

"I'm just trying to give you a heads up." Morgan says.

"To what? The king bill passing? We all know it's going to pass. They've been polling it for years, then the moment it hits fifty-one percent approval DuPont starts beating her podium like a broken jukebox yelling about it. I could show you fifteen different fundraising foundations dedicated to just getting that bill passed, three that hire flash mobs, and the others running lobbying rings and media events. Hell, even the foundations against the bill are linked to the people who are in favor of it."

"Alright, you've made your point." Morgan says with an exhale.

"Well... good." Lee says, unsure of what to do with the sudden surrender. "So then give me something that's actually worth avoiding the BFI over. I wouldn't even use a proxy to send around the info you're giving so far."

"How about this." He says as he grabs one of the datapads. "Recordings and transcripts. All top level." He holds the datapad out as Lee looks at it, stunned. He slowly grabs hold if it as Morgan tightens his grip, making the plastic flex slightly between his fingers. "You need to promise me none of this will leak. I'm only giving you what I think is pertinent to you, but it's all traceable back to me. You publish any bit of this, I'll be declared missing by that afternoon."

"W-why?" Lee asks.

"Because I don't like what I'm seeing. It's going places the Union was never meant to go. We rebelled against Earth to overthrow the tyranny of a central anti-democratic government, but I've lived on the inside, and there's nothing democratic about the Union anymore. None of this information would be enough to do anything in court, or even the public eye, especially from you, but it may help you keep us in check and stop us from doing anything else stupid."

cont.

>>1839097
That's why you use psionic imprinting to erase his short term memory of the event if something goes awry. "Nothing eventful happened."

>>1839103
Fascinating. This is a turning point for the Union, let's not mistake this. What we have here is nothing less than one of the highest figures in it's government, the very head of its state department, openly confessing that democracy has failed in this state.

>>1839103
>You publish any bit of this, I'll be declared missing by that afternoon.

Wow man, thanks. Your devotion to your people is much appreciated (assuming we're reading his mind and he's telling the truth). Let us know what we can do to help.
Maybe we should even consider letting Morgan in on a few Hive secrets in a show of trust? Maybe give him a better example of the enemy we're facing...?


>>1839101
Yeah, no parasiting Morgan. Not yet anyway.

>>1839103
The disasters in Windsor's department didn't play a part in this new decision did it.

I really, really love all of this political intrigue. I mean it's even funnier because Lee is a conspiracy theorist who's been proven mostly right, but that's because he's rational and takes information that's right in front of him and allows it to lead him to logical conclusions. It seems that his interests are actually helping him navigate this weird interstellar quagmire.

I feel bad for Morgan, he seems like he sees the writing on the walls and hates the corruption just as much as Lee does.

It's a good thing eventually everyone will have a parasite and live in PERFECT HARMONY.

>>1837660
But why though? He has potential to be molded into something great, I can see him becoming an excellent PR face for the hive.

>>1839160
Eventually Morgan will be brought on side, he's got high visibility and people trust him, eventually we'll make sure they're trusting him for the right reasons.

>>1839166
We could perhaps parasite Killinger too (or instead of) Morgan? Mother knows we all hate him, but he deserves it and getting a look at the other side would be nice. Besides, Killinger is nice and corrupt and may be more tempted by an offer of immortality than the comparatively upstanding Morgan.

>>1839129
The only secret we might find it useful to share with him is that, since we hold his life in our gnarled claws anyway with this datapad of blackmail, that we can install a cybernetic in him that can be a secure communications line.

In case he wants to leak something again in an emergency.

>>1839190
Also protects against poison too and serves as emergency life support in a pinch.

>>1839179
Killinger also isn't walking into an un surveilled, unguarded by humans, embassy any time soon, so there's much less hope of that happening.

He's just plain out of reach. There's no point in debating the merits of the bird in the hand vs the bird in the bush that's also on another planet and under constant guard.

It's sort of depressing that a whistle-blower with such a high position in government only feels like he can leak it to a different interstellar polity that's more mysterious than mysterious, because his government is just that fucking corrupt.

>>1839160
Eh, I kind of hate Lee because of the fact that he has very little personality, and what personality he does show is somewhere between that of a loser who doesn't know what he's doing and smug little shit who tries to troll everyone by acting all smug but not really pulling it off. In other words, he's showing all the traits of the worst kind of character in this quest, a career politician. An archetype he is all to readily being moulded into.

>>1839166
>>1839157
>wanting to adopt Morgan
Nah, he's better suited for human politics and far too suited power hungry to just be adopted into the hive, he's better off where he is. Adopting every character you decide you kind of like is never going to be practical, especially when they're weilding this level of influence.

>>1839103
"You realize you're giving away something that can only hurt you to the representative of an alien superpower?" Lee asks.

"I know, but it can only hurt me. If you sent this to the press, they'd be given a gag order before the upload was done. If you put it on the net, they'd drag your name through the mud and make you look insane. If you were still a citizen, they'd probably get you committed. As it stands now, they'd discredit every bit of this as xeno propaganda and have the polls leaning more heavily in their favor than the first parliament after the Colony Wars. I figure if we really are against this corruption, then at the very least you won't gain anything from using this against me. I'm taking that risk."

"It's a big risk." Lee says.

"It's one worth taking." Morgan replies. "I want to see democracy make a comeback. Maybe your Hive doesn't care about any of that, but maybe we can work together, at least until this is over." He lets go of the datapad, the screen discolored from the force of his grip as it returns to its natural state. Morgan's face goes pale as he lets it go, and his mind flickers with thoughts of politics, his mind a turbulent storm of conflicting emotions and unsure thoughts, as well as fear.

>Ask Morgan questions (write in)
>Attempt to read deeper into his mind
>Other (write in)

>>1839237
>Attempt to read deeper into his mind
>Ask Morgan questions (write in)
What exactly do you think we're supposed to do with this information?

>>1839237
>Ask Morgan questions (write in)
I don't think reading the mind is a good thing here, but at the same time, I'm not so sure.
what if this is another plan that we aren't aware of?

>>1839243
Stop probbing other races mind

>>1839247
With we read everyones mind we will become dependent of it.

>>1839237
>>Ask Morgan questions (write in)
Are you sure you'll be safe as it is?

The hive has a secure means of communication, if there's any chance you'll need it, you should probably have it installed before you go.

>>1839237
>Ask Morgan questions (write in)
"What exactly do you think the top dogs will search for power?"

>>1839237
>>Attempt to read deeper into his mind
What he doesn't know can't hurt him, but what we don't know can hurt us.

>>1839248
>Not wanting to read the mind of one of the heads of a rival government, that he personally informed you was corrupt to the core
Bro, what do you think telepathy is even for?

>>1839237
>>Ask Morgan questions (write in)
I...We... The Hive greatly appreciates this show of trust. You will not be disappointed. Perhaps we can return the favor. You are, of course, doubtless curious about why so many of the artifacts we are concerned about came to reside around Earth and what our interest in them is. If you will swear to secrecy we may be able to perhaps enlighten you as to the true nature of the threat.

>>Attempt to read deeper into his mind
But only if we can do it discreetly. If there is a chance (however small) it will be detected Morgan would see this as a tremendous breach of trust. As such, if there is a measurable risk we should not attempt a deeper reading.

>>1839237

>Ask Morgan questions (write in)
Would you like to drink something? The Hive has being working in the bevarage department.
Also try to assure him the hive doesn't care about human politics but it appreciates Morgan's honesty and his care for it's fellow humans.

>>1839247
oh yeah, about the question:
>what do you expect us to do with this?

>>1839260
>>1839262
You do realuze the humans brain are geneticaly developed to become paste as it's affected by psionics right? Remember what happend with the merchant fellow? I don't want to risk a fail and tgive Morgan's brain damage

>>1839275
This, we can't risk a failure here and now.

>>1839237
...well now. This is quite a big show of trust and i'm sure once we read over it we can find something to do with it. Man, I just want to offer to see if he wants to be apart of the family.

>>1839275
That doesn't happen for ages. One psionic reading is harmless. We'd have to be slamming his brain 24/7 for a long time to do damage.

We did it to the merchant just fine, he wasn't even damaged, what.

I think we can go without an attempt at mindreading for now, yeah.

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>>1839252
>With we read everyones mind we will become dependent of it.
>become dependent on it
>when we are using it constantly to communicate with our drones
>after we equipped all our speakers with relays
>even though the Valen are using it 24/7
>and we can use it even better than they can
I just...what? What?

For what purpose would we not use our most sophisticated outgrowth of our own latent abilities to further our ends without any risk to ourselves? Because we would risk becoming dependent on something we are using constantly anyway?

>>1839237
>Ask Morgan questions (write in)
What do you want us to do with this?
As you have been honest with us the Hive will return the favor. Do you have any questions for us?

>>1839237
>>Attempt to read deeper into his mind
>Other (write in)
Consider psionic imprinting to make him agree to a suggestion that he needs to stay a half hour installing hive augments if he wants to be sure he lives. It's the only way we can keep him safe, losing him would be bad.

>>1839275
>>1839282
There isn't any chance of that happening through one psionic reading attempt. Did you lot even read the pastebins or the tech updates when they were introduced?

>>1839305
>Did you lot even read the pastebins or the tech updates when they were introduced?
Doesn't psyonic reading have a small chance of being detected? I thought there was.

>>1839308
Not in humans there isn't

>>1839308
What does that have to do with "you'll turn his brain into paste" retardedness.

>>1839320
Nothing, i just agreed with >>1839275 for a different reason.

>>1839308
Psionic reading, no, that is entirely and completely passive on the subject's mind. Psionic imprinting is another matter, and depends on the complexity of the idea and the roll, which apparently has to be super low for the subject to become aware of it.

>Psionic Imprinting
Careful and very deliberate pulses of psionic energy can, under the right conditions, slightly alter the properties of real matter on the molecular level. Through this process of slight nudging, and by using Psionic Reading to develop an image of the mind being worked on, you can essentially trigger instinctive mental states or implant simple ideas into the target mind. The more simple the idea, the easier it is to implant, such as the overwhelming notion that something is a bad idea, suppressing a fight or flight response to calm a target down, or confusing the mind's perception of its surroundings to manipulate its perceived navigation of an environment, sending them in circles they could swear is a straight path. Such ideas can be implanted within a range of 5 meters and requires a direct line of sight. More complex ideas require greater effort, requiring some focus or distraction to help nudge the target's thought process, such as a speaker or agent stating the idea verbally in conjunction with the impressed sensation of agreement. Such complex manipulations allow for the adjustment of a target's opinion of a subject or other target, the erasing of a recent memory, or a detailed verbal command instructing the target to perform some non-dangerous action. Failure to imprint on a target may result in the target becoming aware of the attempted influence

>>1839330
>Failure to imprint on a target may result in the target becoming aware of the attempted influence

So let's just read, if we even decide to do that, and not try imprinting a highly intelligent and likely suspicious diplomat.

>>1839330
Oh, then yea i support delving deeper into his mind.
>>1839237
I change to.
>Attempt to read deeper into his mind
>Ask Morgan questions (write in)
"What do you think the Top dogs will do to get power?"

>>1839237
Just to be clear, (since I altered my vote a few times) I'm voting for.


>Ask Morgan questions (write in)
What do you want us to do with this?
As you have been honest with us the Hive will return the favor. Do you have any questions for us?

And
>Attempt to read deeper into his mind (discreetly!)

Why dont we just avoid doing that and leave morgan be?

They probably know morgan came in here since there are eyes watching our compound and there probably heard from the whales by now that we can do some form of telepathy

>>1839348
well... what they know from the whales is that they "read" people, getting glimpses of a person's surface thoughts... and that the whale ambassadors are freaking out over us being able to "speak" in addition to "read"-ing.

>>1839348
I agree we shouldn't risk betraying Morgan's trust by scanning his mind now. If it gets out no one will ever trust or try diplomacy with us again. He has been square with us, we should do the same back.

>>1839237
Voting for:
>what do you want us to do with this?
>do you have questions for us?

>>1839354
It's not going to get out, because he just handed us blackmail material that means he's going to keep our secrets just as long as we keep his.

To the extend that there is a risk of it getting out, the cat is already out of the bag. Everyone who would hear about this incident, which is probably actually no one, would already have heard the Valen incident.

>>1839351
That corp spook debrief blunty told him that it was some form of telepathy, they just figured it was overblown since they reaaallly wanted a deal with us

I dont think the shadow council is going to make that mistake given what we done so far and the experiments they done so far

>>1839348
>Why dont we just avoid doing that and leave morgan be?
How about because he's at the very heart of the union government, and we could learn more by scanning him then through a month of concerted espionage attempts? It's not like he would be aware of it, or could verify what happened if he suspected it. Right now absolutely no one, not even the whales, know about the our mind reading abilities.

>>1839365
They do

We had lee openly admit to telepathy to the whales

The corp just underestimated because they dont know better

The shadow council, they do know better than to underestimate us

>>1839348
>>1839351
What I mean is that they might have all kinds of conspiracy theories going around just what it means to "read" and "speak", as the whales put it.
And besides that, then we add in that we're possibly the single most developed and armed species they've ever come across, and they think they don't even know about our homeworld, while we apparently know enough about them to not only come to their capital world, but we park the largest armada they have ever witnessed in known history, and we basically just did it to tell them to get out of our backyard.

Honestly, who knows what the fuck they're thinking about us?

>>1839365
re-read the thread with our meeting with the whale ambassadors, please.

>>1839365
I agree we should scan Morgan here (the opportunity is just too good to pass up), but we flat up told the whales we can read minds.

The shadow council will get very suspicious of any gaps in Morgan's memory (as will he) or other evidence of Hive tampering. We need to tread extremely cautiously here and if it looks like things are going wrong either go all in (abduct and implant with parasite) or back off completely, abort mission, and hope Morgan doesn't guess what we almost did to him.

>>1839237
>Other
Do not use telepathy or parasite on morgan

>>1839374
You need to reread it anon

QuestDrone !!tu02dh0DlTY (ID: VVcenI3g) 04/05/17(Wed)03:41:08 No.1338792

>>1338706
"Well, I guess it's just one of the downsides of having a boss with telepathy." Lee says. Anton looks over with some confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"Telepathy. You know, like... the reason you count cards and recite nursery rhymes in your head." Anton leans forward against the railing of the balcony.

"How did you-"

"What do you mean how? Why would you be throwing off mental reading of you didn't know they could-" A distant chittering grows quickly in volume as your speaker topples over some prefabricated stock furniture as it erupts out of the door.

"Speaking is very important and very difficult!" It chitters. "Has many uses and humans do it poorly! This speaker speaks well, more than human speakers. It has all the words with which to speak!" Lee leans back as he holds out his hands.

"Alright, alright sorry!" He says, your drone chitters as it crawls back through the door.

"The Lee speaks poorly of speaking. Speaking is important." It grumbles as it moves back down the hall. Lee just looks back to Anton.

"See? Telepathy. It's useful but it can get a bit annoying sometimes" he says, his eyes trailing back to your small hive.

"I mean, that's just reading though. They take a look at you and can get the gist of what you're thinking just at a glance." Anton says. "They can't read minds, they just get a gist of your emotional state and maybe a hint of a concept. They had to make a whole new language when they first invented telecommunications just because so many words needed an emotional context. Now they're freaking out because instead of a general idea, they got 'the screaming voices of the dead at sea' and then, all at once, got hit with a vision of a planet where that asteroid belt used to be. I think Somber Pools had a minor aneurysm, actually."

"Oh jesus, is he... it okay?"

>>1839374
>>1839383

sorry responding to this anon
>>1839365

>>1839374
I did, at no point did we hint at our ability to delve beyond surface thoughts in that entire meeting. Only that we have exceptionally sensitive hearing and occasional difficulty moderating our volume of thoughts.

>>1839237
Man i want to ask him stuff but there is too little to go off for now. I doubt any of this is fabricated, but we could ask him if he thinks it might be.

Maybe "do you think they would sell out the entire population if they could be given the power they seek?"

>>1839387
...They wouldn't have anyone to have power over if they lost the general population, anon.

>>1839387
"They" being the shadow cabal.

Those guys are the nutters that would fall to Void corruption quickly.

>>1839386
We loudly broadcast "Everything related to this dead precursor civilisation belongs to us!" to all the whales present, in a bit more poetic way, into their minds.

That's a bit more than hinting.

>>1839390
I mean like "we will give you power over all of humanity and they will be your slaves but you must all serve us"

>>1839396
Anons would have a riot

Biggest civil war in this quest

>>1839378
This is actually lower risk than reading the Canderon guy's mind was. Unlike him, Morgan is in no position to tell anyone that we tried to read his mind or implant something on his spine. We can have him killed with a few leaked words. He might as well trust us with his brain too.

>>1839397
Do you realize what you're replying to. Or do you just have really poor reading comprehension.

>>1839398
No stupid risk is just stupid risk

Especially in regards of risking fucking up a member of the shadow council and they are sure as hell paranoid enough to watch each other for the slightest sign of betrayal

Any injury, any change of brain patterns or memory lost will cause a shitstorm

>>1839396
That sounds way to much like the void gods.

>>1839406
>risking fucking up

But there's not really a risk of permanent damage to the guy, like, at all. Zero.

And he's already betrayed them anyway, so...not much would change there.

>>1839415
You think there stupid enough to not have a med team waiting to give him a once over once he leaves ?

The slightest sign will set off these paranoid fuckers at this point

He already took a risk in entering, they may not know what he gave but he will need to tell them something and if there is the slightest hint that something off with him then he is dead

>>1839406
Oh please, he'll be fiiiine.

>>1839419
And what evidence would a psionic reading have? They wouldn't even know what to look for.

>>1839237
"What do you even want me to do with this information?" Lee asks. Morgan shakes his head.

"I'm not sure, but so far the Hive has screwed up enough plans to make the current situation way more risky than anyone involved is willing to accept. If you keep this up, you could force them into a position where they have to show their hand. I'm still hopeful enough that I think if enough people really knew what was happening, they wouldn't accept it. Not many people are willing to go through the effort of looking up the details. Most people just take the official's word when he says the vote wasn't rigged, and they won't accept someone else saying that was a lie, but if you can force the people behind it all to come out into the light, maybe it would do the trick." Morgan scratches his chin for a moment in thought. "I don't know. This, everything about this, is well into uncharted territory. There's no precedents set for what either of us are doing right now."

"Well, we can agree on that at least." Lee says. "Well while we're exchanging damaging information, did you have any questions?"

"Plenty. I doubt most even have answers, or at least, I doubt I know enough to ask the right question. There's so much we don't know. At times, with this whole thing with the Hive, that I'm like an ant, looking up in confused awe at the boot of a man."

"A bit of an ironic metaphor, isn't it?" Lee asks. Morgan smiles for a moment before bursting into a quick fit of laughter.

"Yes it is." He says. His face seems to grow stern again. "So how do they work?"

"What do you mean?"

"The Hive? How do they work? We know they have some kind of queen, thanks to you, but we're still not sure on its function. Most of our scientists think the queen functions as a hub for thought processing, that obliterated lab on Path found something they think is like a brain bug, and it's clear the whole hive is some kind of collective. What I don't understand is if the hive is centralized or decentralized."

"They asked that same thing in parliament." Lee says.

"And the answer wasn't very satisfying then either." Morgan says. "Honestly, I'm not kept up at night over it, but after I saw the reaction of the Valen to your meeting, I really started thinking. Especially now that I have access to the files on that blacksite lab."

"The one that almost killed me?"

"Yes." Morgan replies. "That one. At this point, between the valen and the lab, I know that there is some method of telepathic communication going on. We've been trying to figure out the valen 'reading' concept for years, and then they say the drones can 'speak', and it clicks. Mind to mind data transfer, it's just that the valen can only receive. But I've got to know, how does it work? Those artifacts, they're clearly a part of it somehow. Did the Skyl use them to communicate with the Hive?"
cont.

>>1839421
>>1839415
And then we roll a one in the dice.

>inb4 we manage to actually roll a 100

>>1839419
A 'Med team once over' wouldn't even be enough to discover the parasite. Unless they had an extremely invasive medical scan of Neville here immediately BEFORE his entry into the embassy, they wouldn't even have a good baseline to compare against.

That benign sub-4cm tumor on his spine, if they even detect it, could have been there already.

And we can verify if he had an ultra-recent deep-MRI-scan, which is insanely unlikely and time consuming, before he leaves with anything incriminating inside him by reading his memories.

>>1839424
And morgan basically tells us they know about telepathy

Seriously anons there not stupid

>>1839424
>Did the Skyl use them to communicate with the Hive?"

No...they did use to comunicate with something...but not the hive.

>>1839428
We already knew they knew. How do you sound so stupid and recognizable in every thread?

>>1839430
I'm pretty certain those artifacts were built after the skyl were freed, so no, they weren't used to talk to the Void gods.

>>1839437
The white crystal tech is already researched.

>>1839434
Anon dear the artifacts are the void shards...

>>1839424
You know what, maybe we should just straight up telepathically connect to Morgan ourselves, as Queen. It's not like he would be able to take much effective intel from it that could be used against us, but it would certainly answer his question.

>>1839424

"These are some heavy hitting questions here." Lee says. "Not sure I even know enough to answer them properly. You'd have better luck asking the first guy on the street you find how a warp core works."

"Alright. What happened to the Skyl?"

"Didn't you watch the interview?" Lee says.

"Yes, and it only gave me more questions. If the Skyl and the Hive were fighting in a war, and the Skyl are now gone... who were they fighting? You never mentioned that. You just said they died helping in the Hive's war, and then we have the fact that the Hive abandoned a vast swath of space without a trace. You don't just abandon that many worlds for no reason. Your close ally goes extinct, and you just abandoned dozens of light years of territory. I don't know about you, but that sounds like losing the war to me, and with the way the Hive acts around us with the Nowhere incident, I get the feeling the front for this war is closing in on humans space. I want to at least know what this enemy is. No vague dismissals or euphemisms and deliberate mistranslations, I want to know the reality of the situation. We're back to that ant comparison again, I want to know if I need to worry about that man's boot coming down on me."

>Write in

>>1839424
Hey a potential segue to how telepathy is a perfectly secure line, and there's this implant that can be installed in half an hour.

>>1839440
The Skyl artifacts don't include any shards whatsoever. They're talking about the vault of artifacts at the evil science lab. All shards have been obtained from the moon.

>>1839440
If i recall correctly the artifacts also refer to those Skyl statues that are psyonically sensitive.

>>1839440
Which aren't white crystal tech, dear anon. You might want to actually read the past threads before you start quoting them.

>>1839445
We can, but why?

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>>1839446
Psionically communicate with him they barest details of the conflict to him. Just a glimpse of the combatants involved and the scale of the battles fought, with the clarity of a fever dream just after waking up.

>>1839446
I think those datpads we were given had nothing to do with disgust of corruption or to keep the shadow council in check

It was given to butter us up to spill something to Morgan

Tell him simply those artifacts are the ceph singing stones/gods and leave it to that

If he got access to the nowhere files then he has what gillian said, they opened the door to something in another dimension and morgan seems smart enough to connect those dots

>>1839446
The speaker meant what it said when it said that knowing more about certain things make the thing more dangerous. They're cagey for a reason. The most knowledgeable have perished, the Skyl included.

>>1839446
"Before i answer i must mention that those vague dismissals and euphemisms were said for a reason, and the reason is that knowing the enemy causes the enemy to know you, to see you. The hive does not want the enemy to see, are you sure you must know?"

>>1839446
"Its the worst thing imaginable really. The Hive and this other entity have been trapped in a total war spanning a few million years, they have circled the whole galaxy once at this point, and are both beaten to near exhaustion. I cant really give any better details than that because the scope of the war is too great. They fight on a scale and with weapons that damage reality to even use so there is that."

>>1839446
>Write in
The reality is... dangerous. You saw that entity at Nowhere, correct. The one that emerged from your facility - that you said you would have no idea about how to stop. That's the face of the enemy we're fighting. Those artifacts are part of a weapon system that was used to drive it back and wound it at the last instance, but at an incredible cost. They are also extremely dangerous in their own right for it allows the great enemy to exert its influence on those near them.

The crew of your station on Nowhere were long dead before the lab was destroyed - their minds were gone. This same corruption can even effect the Hives - as you saw in that black hive that attacked Path. A great war is coming. The Red Hive will fight for humanity and for all life, but victory is far from certain. Your people will need to be united to weather the coming storm.

>>1839460
Unfortunately Humans are blind. They're the only species we can't psionically communicate with. We could insist that the only way we can explain is if we plug our augments into him and explain it mind to mind, but I strongly doubt he'll agree to that.

>>1839469
>Your people will need to be united to weather the coming storm.
I'd omit this part.

>>1839446
The enemy is at least dependent on...invitation. Attacking it invites counterattack. It cannot take the first move without willing intermediaries or foolhardy enemies. Don't step on the boot and the boot cannot step on you.

>>1839472
I wouldnt mind giving him the option.

>>1839446
Supporting a mix of:
>>1839465
And
>>1839469
Then say we can explain more, but it would require a temporary mind link with the Hive.

>>1839478
I'd at least add >>1839474

>>1839473
>>1839475

I'd be okay with removing the part about the coming storm and instead saying that we can tell him more if he's willing to mentally connect with the Hive. That'd be his choice, of course.

>>1839474
This works too.